Friday Five

The Excuse:

Well, I pecked out most of this during the week. And then I had a very short class on Friday so I didn't get a chance to finish it. And then I was busy enjoying my weekend.

The Week:

I was in town this week - and working! Which was rather odd for me, but good. I was back at my old training center, a place that I hadn't taught at for about a year and a half, but worked at for a collective 6 years (or so).

It was strange teaching a class in San Diego. I would start to think about where it was that I wanted to go have dinner during the day, only to realize - "wait! I'm in San Diego! I can just go home!"

It was also nice to be able to spend more time with Karin, see friends, and play with the dog. Sleeping in my own bed was a nice added bonus as well.

The Restaurant:

My friend Ron suggested dinner at Farm House Cafe, a place about 10 blocks from our house for dinner. Farm House Cafe does up rustic French cuisine. So Ron and Brent, Karin and I went over there on Wednesday night for dinner. All I can say is "wow!"

It's a very small (about 15 tables) little restaurant with a nice charm to it. Every single thing we tried (and we're a group that shares food amongst our friends) was fabulous.

We started with the lentil soup (a tad salty but still the best lentil soup I ever had), a take on escargot (I couldn't bring myself to taste it but everyone who did loved it), a caramelized onion flat bread (very tasty) and a mussels and gnocchi dish (which was amazing - the gnocchi absorbed the lemon flavor in the sauce, so having a piece of that and a mussel in your mouth combined the flavors perfectly).

For dinner we did the duck confit (the special - very good), the scallops (I had been craving scallops for quite a while and was not disappointed), the halibut and risotto (yum) and a fettuccini with a lamb bolognese (they added lemon zest to it which while it sounded strange was just amazing - the dish wound up being much lighter than we had all expected, so much so that unfortunately the red we ordered was overpowering for the dish).

Dessert was their lemon tart brulée (very yummy) and the pistachio creme brulée (I love pistachio pudding & ice cream so this was a natural selection for me - and it was out of this world).

We all left commenting about the fact that every dish was fantastic and Ron even went so far as to say that it may be his new favorite restaurant.

The Exercise:

Well - I managed to get down to the gym twice. I find it harder when I'm at home to stay on track.

The Travel Note:

I have been to the best and worst airport bar in the past two weeks.

The best was in Tucson, AZ. I swung in there for a quick beer before my flight after Paul dropped me off. Huge bar with 9 TV's behind it, with a rather cute coed as the bartender pulling beer from about 20 different taps. Airport bar heaven. My flight was delayed 30 minutes (typical Southwest), which strangely I was just fine with.

Airport bar hell is in Newark by the 120-130 gates. Tiny space, 5 taps, and the worlds surliest, slowest, inattentive, worst bartenders I have ever seen "in action" (if you can call what they did action).

The Five:

Miscellaneous facts:

1. Food should be cooked for the shortest period of time possible. Crisp veggies, very rare steaks, etc. It's the only way they maintain flavor. As a result, it's very challenging at times to get food in a restaurant prepared the way I like it.
2. If there's a dark version of a food I will always take that. Dark roasted coffee, dark chocolate, big bold red wines, etc.
3. I hate the taste of buffalo wing sauce. It's not a heat thing - I like a decent amount of spice. It's the flavor.
4. Karin and I voted for both Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger. We voted for Jesse, left the state right afterwards, and then voted for Arnold when he ran.
5. As far as I'm concerned, the greatest cold medication on the market is Mucinex D. Make sure you get the one from behind the pharmacy counter - that's the good stuff.