Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Drinking through Phoenix Pt 2
Before we go back to where I left off, I'll give you an update on a couple items that have happened since. I tried to make a Dark & Stormy at home with a Jamaican Ginger Beer and was thoroughly unimpressed. I believe that the combination of a -meh- ginger beer and a spiced rum was probably what set it apart from an actual bartender making the drink. It couldn't be my total lack of formula creation.... also, my wife has started our posts on the food of Phoenix. You can catch that over at Seldom Made. You can also vote for her for her Food Buzz challenge!
So back to the fun! We may only be 30, but I guess we have the schedule of a geriatric couple. I believe we arrived at 5pm to sit at the bar.... alone.... and had to wait for the kitchen to open up. Go figure. After having dinner at Bourbon Steak(the food will be at the other blog) at an incredibly early time, we walked over to La Hacienda. It's the Fairmont Scottsdale's on site mexican restaurant and tequila bar. Being a fan of tequila, we thought that I might be able to grab a drink since it was just late afternoon. =\ They state that they have over 130 tequila's which comes down to about 30+ different brands of tequila. For instance, Don Julio has a Blanco, Reposado, Anejo, Extra Anejo, and the premium Extra Anejo. It's a good selection, but slightly sobering when I hold out hope that I might just find the elusive Los Azulejos(yay, for Oklahoma!) brand. Back to it, they do a specialty margarita that includes a house infused tequila with Serrano's and Pineapple. It had a unique flavor and was worth a try, but not worth ordering again. I heard Serrano and instantly thought HEAT! It gives it a slight pepper taste but didn't impose the heat I was hoping for.
After finishing about half the margarita, Leah talked me into going for a tequila flight. It's a way to test out a few quality tequila's without spending a paycheck's worth of money, or getting tossed. And since it was our anniversary I went with the El Presidente Flight. It's a three tequila fest consisting of some incredibly expensive tequila.
Just a quick flight recap - you first smell the tequila. It's similar to what a wine lover would do when they go to a tasting. Preferably, you'll smell with your nose and mouth. It sounds weird but it does work. Take a small sip of tequila and wait till your tongue tingles, or you can swish it around. After you have a good "coating" or "feeling" take the rest of the tequila. It should give you a good feel all the way around.
Herradura Tequila Seleccion Suprema - First tasting - This was a very smooth tequila with a decent burn after swallowing. With any great Anejo, you should pick up some of the different traits in the soil as well as the agave. This one had a caramel undertone. My favourite of the three.
Partida Elegante Extra Anejo - Second Tasting - Very little afterburn which created a very smooth tequila. If I recall correctly, it also had the least agave flavor out of the three.
Don Julio Real - Third Tasting - for folks that aren't tequila drinkers this would be the last of the three that I would recommend for trying out new tequila's. The afterburn is incredibly strong - it's a little stronger than a tasting of Gran Centenario but the overall taste is better. It's what you'd expect from a 350.00 bottle of tequila versus a 50.00 bottle.
Overall, it was a good experience, and there are still plenty of drinks to come... well, I think there's a couple more margarita's and a couple drinks at the Valley Ho hotel. Go check out Seldom Made for day two of the Restaurant Week.
-D
After finishing about half the margarita, Leah talked me into going for a tequila flight. It's a way to test out a few quality tequila's without spending a paycheck's worth of money, or getting tossed. And since it was our anniversary I went with the El Presidente Flight. It's a three tequila fest consisting of some incredibly expensive tequila.
Just a quick flight recap - you first smell the tequila. It's similar to what a wine lover would do when they go to a tasting. Preferably, you'll smell with your nose and mouth. It sounds weird but it does work. Take a small sip of tequila and wait till your tongue tingles, or you can swish it around. After you have a good "coating" or "feeling" take the rest of the tequila. It should give you a good feel all the way around.
Herradura Tequila Seleccion Suprema - First tasting - This was a very smooth tequila with a decent burn after swallowing. With any great Anejo, you should pick up some of the different traits in the soil as well as the agave. This one had a caramel undertone. My favourite of the three.
Partida Elegante Extra Anejo - Second Tasting - Very little afterburn which created a very smooth tequila. If I recall correctly, it also had the least agave flavor out of the three.
Don Julio Real - Third Tasting - for folks that aren't tequila drinkers this would be the last of the three that I would recommend for trying out new tequila's. The afterburn is incredibly strong - it's a little stronger than a tasting of Gran Centenario but the overall taste is better. It's what you'd expect from a 350.00 bottle of tequila versus a 50.00 bottle.
Overall, it was a good experience, and there are still plenty of drinks to come... well, I think there's a couple more margarita's and a couple drinks at the Valley Ho hotel. Go check out Seldom Made for day two of the Restaurant Week.
-D
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Drinking through Phoenix
From the title, one might think that I am an incredible lush and spend most of my time barely lucid. That couldn't be farther from the truth. What really happens is that I thoroughly enjoy trying new drinks or tequila's but rarely have the same thing twice. Think Seldom Made but smaller portions, higher prices, and without all that crazy food. So why do we get a new post on my seldom used blog? Because we had an anniversary and most anniversaries mean going somewhere out of our tepid town and into an area full of culinary wonders! nay, LIQUORARY wonders! In honor, the name of the blog shall be theliquorarium.
We went out to Phoenix to partake in a little R&R&F(ood). Every stop in Phoenix requires us to eat at least one time at Z'Tejas. It's a Tex-Mex restaurant originating out of Austin, Texas which gives it one point just for being. The food is always delicious, and the margarita's are muy bueno. I always get a 6th Street Margarita. It's their signature house margarita and one of the best frozen margarita's at a food joint. small fact: the 'rita is named after the street the first Z'Tejas is located on. It's also their chili festival menu! The specialty drink was their Southwestern Margarita. It was special, in the sense that it had muddled cilantro(intriguing!) and raspberries. It was an incredibly sweet drink, and L ended up liking it. The cilantro wasn't really present making the drink good but mildly disappointing. =(
The next night we went to one of the local restaurants at the Fairmont Scottsdale. The hotel is nestled off the main street and inside a residential area. I thought that was a little weird, at first, but got used to it and would definitely recommend staying there if passing through Phoenix. We got a great rate through Hotels.com. The rooms are set up weird but very nice. The grounds are quite the sprawl, but it's all very well maintained. But back to the drinks. Right off the lobby, they have a Michael Mina restaurant called Bourbon Steak. Leah request a lemon drop - she's not much of a drinker and is limited to a Midori sour and the occasional lemon drop. I decided to step out a little bit and had a Dark & Stormy made by Kyle, one of our bartenders that night. I guess that it's more of a British drink - it consists of rum, ginger beer, and a lime. I've tried to enjoy basic drinks like this with rum and usually can't get past one sip, but this was a very good drink. It sounds easy so I could make it for parties(yah, like parties would ever happen at our house) as an alternative for tequila.
That takes us through a day and a half of our Phoenix trip and it's already an incredibly long post! I'll let this one marinate out there for a day or so while I write part two! I'm not sure if I'll get done in one more section because we're coming up to a large tequila section and a few drinks that are newish. Enjoy!
-D
The next night we went to one of the local restaurants at the Fairmont Scottsdale. The hotel is nestled off the main street and inside a residential area. I thought that was a little weird, at first, but got used to it and would definitely recommend staying there if passing through Phoenix. We got a great rate through Hotels.com. The rooms are set up weird but very nice. The grounds are quite the sprawl, but it's all very well maintained. But back to the drinks. Right off the lobby, they have a Michael Mina restaurant called Bourbon Steak. Leah request a lemon drop - she's not much of a drinker and is limited to a Midori sour and the occasional lemon drop. I decided to step out a little bit and had a Dark & Stormy made by Kyle, one of our bartenders that night. I guess that it's more of a British drink - it consists of rum, ginger beer, and a lime. I've tried to enjoy basic drinks like this with rum and usually can't get past one sip, but this was a very good drink. It sounds easy so I could make it for parties(yah, like parties would ever happen at our house) as an alternative for tequila.
That takes us through a day and a half of our Phoenix trip and it's already an incredibly long post! I'll let this one marinate out there for a day or so while I write part two! I'm not sure if I'll get done in one more section because we're coming up to a large tequila section and a few drinks that are newish. Enjoy!
-D
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tie In: AYB
One of my favourite internet memes of all time. My last blog post reminded me of the intro to AYB. Metro 2033 was a different book in terms of writing style. Perhaps the translation from Russian to English made reading it that much more difficult. But at least I had some fun with it. Prepare yourself for one of the greatest meme's ever.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Reliques du cinema: Tim Burton
We are fans of Tim Burton around here. However, he is not sacrosanct; so this can be funny:
Sunday, July 4, 2010
reliques pour l'undercroft
I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount of random thoughts. Instead of gushing 4000000000 facebook status updates I thought one underwritten blog post would have the same effect.
Thought Process #1:
A. Listening to "You're the Best Around" doesn't make me feel or want to be the best. And that probably comes back to the fact that Ralph Macchio wasn't the best around. Marlon Brando was the best around. But, you have to give it to Little Mac, hmmm, I mean Daniel. He was the best Karate Kid around... and nothing is going to keep him down.
B. And where would listening to 80's pop songs be without leading into another movie related song from one of my favourite 80's movies of all time? I'll let the video speak for itself!
Thank you, Limahl, for never writing a greater song than the one for The Neverending Story. I know it would be hard to follow up a song that would haunt.... stay with a generation of youngsters like this one has. And be happy that your hairstyle has made comeback. It's a legacy. (note: nice to know that you can now get the movie on Blu-Ray - you have been wish-listed)
C. Oddly enough, it took me years to find out that The Neverending Story is an actual book! I have to assume that it's about four hundred times better than the movie. I have a few other books to finish up, but once I'm done this one is going to be purchased and sitting on my shelves. There is a little fear that it *might* be tainted by the retained images of the actors, but it's worth the risk.
D. Don't see The Neverending Story 2! The actor who played Bastian had the freakiest eyes that I have ever seen! Mind you, I was 10 when that movie came out, but I still find myself just a bit creeped out by Jonathan Brandis' eyeballs. They aren't natural. I will say this though - RIP to an actor that wasn't held back by the creepy eyes he had in one movie.
Thought Process #2:
A. I've been dreaming about my old car a lot lately. It doesn't make any sense because I'll never have it back. Even in dreams, I know I won't have it back. I was in the garage staring at the car and trying to figure out what I was going to do to it. Leah then walks in and says, "You understand that it isn't real." AND I agreed! *sigh* Nor will I have the opportunity to have a similar car for a long while - minus winning a lottery that I don't play. That being said, it still looks pretty good in my dreams.
B. Thinking about the car made me want to drive cars that I will never be able to drive. Enter Forza Motorsport 3. I grew up on Gran Turismo games, but FM3 has done a good job at filling a rather large time gap for Poly-Dig to get their act together and release GT5! It's fun, but I think it might even be a little easier than Gran Turismo. You level up and get a new car regardless of winning or not... even though winning is pretty simple. In GT, you had to finish a set of races to win a car for your collection. Money seemed to be a little tighter as well. That begs the question, is GT5 going to allow you to modify cars? Hmm.....
C. So in FM3, I *won* a Ferrari FXX.... that's when insanity began. The car is amazingly loud and FM did a decent job of replicating the sound. I cannot imagine what it would sound like in real life. I'm sure I'd be deaf, but at least I'd be smiling. It's also pretty darn fast... check it out:
Go Here First to see the car prior to the FXX.... then Go Here <-- wow.. just wow.
D. So there Ferrari is loud.... really loud. My Z32TT was also pretty loud, but not nearly like that. Call me a little odd, but I took an import and added Flowmasters as part of a custom exhaust. I don't have any sound clips of my car, but it definitely fit between what a turbo-6 and a v8 would sound like. It worked out well. It is definitely an attractive car... I'm not even one for red cars,but this just had a nice quality.
E. You also get to drive pretty fast in FM3... word has it that you can get up to about 160mph in the Z32TT. I wouldn't know anything about it, but if I did I don't think I would do it more than once. If I knew what it felt like, I'm assuming it's just a bit of blur and that objects end up being closer than you would assume.
Hmm... ok.... it's a bit of a ramble, but at least I got it out. Off to see what Leah's up to, and to see about reading a little more.
-D
Thought Process #1:
A. Listening to "You're the Best Around" doesn't make me feel or want to be the best. And that probably comes back to the fact that Ralph Macchio wasn't the best around. Marlon Brando was the best around. But, you have to give it to Little Mac, hmmm, I mean Daniel. He was the best Karate Kid around... and nothing is going to keep him down.
B. And where would listening to 80's pop songs be without leading into another movie related song from one of my favourite 80's movies of all time? I'll let the video speak for itself!
Thank you, Limahl, for never writing a greater song than the one for The Neverending Story. I know it would be hard to follow up a song that would haunt.... stay with a generation of youngsters like this one has. And be happy that your hairstyle has made comeback. It's a legacy. (note: nice to know that you can now get the movie on Blu-Ray - you have been wish-listed)
C. Oddly enough, it took me years to find out that The Neverending Story is an actual book! I have to assume that it's about four hundred times better than the movie. I have a few other books to finish up, but once I'm done this one is going to be purchased and sitting on my shelves. There is a little fear that it *might* be tainted by the retained images of the actors, but it's worth the risk.
D. Don't see The Neverending Story 2! The actor who played Bastian had the freakiest eyes that I have ever seen! Mind you, I was 10 when that movie came out, but I still find myself just a bit creeped out by Jonathan Brandis' eyeballs. They aren't natural. I will say this though - RIP to an actor that wasn't held back by the creepy eyes he had in one movie.
Thought Process #2:
B. Thinking about the car made me want to drive cars that I will never be able to drive. Enter Forza Motorsport 3. I grew up on Gran Turismo games, but FM3 has done a good job at filling a rather large time gap for Poly-Dig to get their act together and release GT5! It's fun, but I think it might even be a little easier than Gran Turismo. You level up and get a new car regardless of winning or not... even though winning is pretty simple. In GT, you had to finish a set of races to win a car for your collection. Money seemed to be a little tighter as well. That begs the question, is GT5 going to allow you to modify cars? Hmm.....
C. So in FM3, I *won* a Ferrari FXX.... that's when insanity began. The car is amazingly loud and FM did a decent job of replicating the sound. I cannot imagine what it would sound like in real life. I'm sure I'd be deaf, but at least I'd be smiling. It's also pretty darn fast... check it out:
Go Here First to see the car prior to the FXX.... then Go Here <-- wow.. just wow.
E. You also get to drive pretty fast in FM3... word has it that you can get up to about 160mph in the Z32TT. I wouldn't know anything about it, but if I did I don't think I would do it more than once. If I knew what it felt like, I'm assuming it's just a bit of blur and that objects end up being closer than you would assume.
Hmm... ok.... it's a bit of a ramble, but at least I got it out. Off to see what Leah's up to, and to see about reading a little more.
-D
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Melodie ce soir
Last night, we went to LA for yet another concert at McCabe's - our favorite venue in California for seeing live music. Here are the set list and some thoughts:
Walking Daddy
Rexroth's Daughter
Fat Boy Blues
China
If I Had Known
You Drive Me Crazy
Kokomo
Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues (cover)
One Wrong Turn
Driftless
Broke Showman's Blues (my name for this song, a tribute, in part, to Mose Allison
Let My Freak Flag Fly
Whippoorwill (If you Leave)
Encore:
Way Out in The Country
Folsom Prison Blues
Greg was accompanied by guitarist Bo Ramsey. Bo and he are obviously simpatico through years of playing together. Bo plays second to Greg in such a way that adds to and never subtracts from the groove. That's what the evening could be called: a groove. The kind of groove you get when you travel up the Mississippi, grabbing all the influences you can, and land somewhere in Iowa, in the middle of a mess of acres. The groove that only a bluesman could afford. He lets the audience buy a little off him, and still has plenty for himself.
Greg's most exceptional instrument is his voice and McCabe's is the kind of place where he can show it off. It feels like you are sitting in on a session with Greg and Bo, as he plays with the low and high of his voice, slides a little phrase in, while Bo slides a little guitar. It is perfection. Drew doesn't mind me saying this, it is sexy...purely sensual. Greg could sing to me all night. I'm glad he did.
Walking Daddy
Rexroth's Daughter
Fat Boy Blues
China
If I Had Known
You Drive Me Crazy
Kokomo
Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues (cover)
One Wrong Turn
Driftless
Broke Showman's Blues (my name for this song, a tribute, in part, to Mose Allison
Let My Freak Flag Fly
Whippoorwill (If you Leave)
Encore:
Way Out in The Country
Folsom Prison Blues
Greg was accompanied by guitarist Bo Ramsey. Bo and he are obviously simpatico through years of playing together. Bo plays second to Greg in such a way that adds to and never subtracts from the groove. That's what the evening could be called: a groove. The kind of groove you get when you travel up the Mississippi, grabbing all the influences you can, and land somewhere in Iowa, in the middle of a mess of acres. The groove that only a bluesman could afford. He lets the audience buy a little off him, and still has plenty for himself.
Greg's most exceptional instrument is his voice and McCabe's is the kind of place where he can show it off. It feels like you are sitting in on a session with Greg and Bo, as he plays with the low and high of his voice, slides a little phrase in, while Bo slides a little guitar. It is perfection. Drew doesn't mind me saying this, it is sexy...purely sensual. Greg could sing to me all night. I'm glad he did.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)