The Cured Ham

Freaky Peruvian Bread

If someone can explain this, I would appreciate it. I found these breads being sold at the Arequipa Terminal Terreste before dawn. Why would I want to eat bread with the faces of a Ken Doll and Speed Racer on it? Why?

Rustic at the Coppola Winery

With low expectations and honestly my second choice that night (I really wanted pasta at Diavola, but there were no seats at the bar and a wait that included people outside) how bad could Rustic be with all the money that’s being thrown at this project? The place was packed, with up to 45 minute wait for a table and first come first serve at the bar. The bar itself is somewhat cold, feeling more like a waiting area than a warm bar.

I started with my staple evaluation salad, the Caesar. The Caesar was cold, served in a cold plate and a salad that was well tossed. A wet dressing and flavorful. Two little anchovies were placed on top. Croutons were crunchy. I’d say average or slightly above average salad with extra points going to cold salad bowl and cold crisp greens.

Spaghetti Carbonara is a favorite of mine. As I may have mentioned before, Tarry Lodge in New York is my standard bearer of high quality carbonara preparation. Rustic’s preparation was once again above average. A generous (perhaps too generous) and not quite crispy enough portion of cubed pancetta was the most noticeable item besides the pasta in the bowl. The pasta was cooked an Italian al dente and the egg mixture sauce was well incorporated and without any visible scrambled egg. I’m sure there’s a kitchen technique for making carbonara effortlessly for average kitchen cooks that doesn’t involve cracking and tempering eggs and then tossing the pasta over and over again in the egg and pasta water mixture.

Well, whatever Rustic is doing, they’re doing it well enough for me not to complain. The pasta and salad were both slightly better than average but not brilliant. I could easy bring people from out of town here for both the Coppola excellence in film legacy and a better than average meal for a reasonable price.

The Tides Wharf, Bodega Bay

An afternoon hiking and exploring the Sonoma Coast brought me to Bodega Bay and The Inn at the Tides. The same hotel in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Tippy Hedren still signs autographs here, for a small fee of course. I think she shows up on major holiday weekends if anyone is interested. 

I was more interested in a clam chowder, a half-dozen Tomales Bay oysters, and a Damnation Ale. For all know, it may cost less than an autograph from Tippy. As is my normal custom, I sat at the bar. As a note, the bar has a limited menu which includes chowder.

I started with the fresh oysters. A food that, in my opinion, needs no garnish, no condiment, no cooking, no nothing except freshness. These oysters were slightly briny, cold, and delicious. Some of the simplest and most delicious foods on Planet Earth. All that other stuff on the plate is nonsense. A wonderful half-dozen.

Next up, a steaming bowl of clam chowder. I realize it's not winter (although it feels like it this summer in Sonoma County), but sometimes a warm, mouthfilling bowl of chowder can warm the soul. No silly 'bread bowl' either, just hot soup in a hot bowl. And no, I don't crumble all those crackers in there. A good soup doesn't need water crackers even if they are shaped like little goldfish. The soup was creamy, thick, and well filled with clams and other white fish. I could still taste little pieces of celery as well. I drank a Damnation Ale with my late afternoon meal, of course, a local brew. All quite satisfying.

I'm pleased with my first trip to Bodega Bay and The Tides Wharf. If you're looking for a bowl of chowder and a beer, it's worth a stop. Nothing fancy and there are plenty of people buzzing around. It terms of clientele, lots of families and seniors tend to dominate the area. Sorry, I can't speak to the rest of the food, but at places like this, I tend to keep it simple.

Up in the Air - Movie Review

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen." Benjamin Disraeli.

The entire reason I starting writing this blog was to tell my friends and family about some of my travels in the world of finance. Perpetual road travel in upwards of 200 days a year. Restaurants, hotels, the Denver International Airport, flight delays, the Hertz rental counter, airport screening, no social life outside the fraternity of financial wholesalers, you name it and I've tried to share a story or two of what it's like to run around the several States.

Well, Up in the Air with George Clooney is a not-to-be-missed flick. The first part of the film was laugh-out-loud funny for me. Swiping the frequent flier card through the automated check-in kiosk, the arrangement of clothing into one carry on bag, the acquisition of "Points", and knowing how to get from point A to B to C smoothly is simply a set a skills one needs to survive.

The later half of the movie was little less funny. I'm not in the habit of spoiling anything for anyone, but the film does have a more serious tone.

I do hope that in the last scene (the one pictured above) that he took a trip somewhere in the world that didn't involve work. I know I made that choice several months ago and I would make the same choice again. And again. 

Make it So...Nerd Alert

Congratulations to Sir Patrick Stewart on his Knighthood. Star Trek fans know that Captain James T. Kirk as played by William Shatner is still the greatest Captain (or actor or both??) of the Star Trek Universe, but Picard comes in a very close second. Perhaps if Sir Patrick had played an "evil Picard" at some point in the alternate "Mirror, Mirror" universe, he would have risen to the top as Captain. Even William T. Riker played his double as Tom Riker, although not as evil as the alternate Kirk. However, in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" we witnessed a less diplomatic Picard in a war with the Klingons, as he jumps out of the 'big chair' and takes over the tactical station during the last battle scene, just as the Enterprise-C escapes. Shoot first, negotiate later, just like Kirk.

Yes, The Ham is a bit of a Trekkie. I can be a bit of a food and wine geek too. But food and wine geek is cool, while Trekkie isn't.

A Merry Christmas you will have

and may the force be with you in 2010...

The A Team BBQ

"If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire... T.L.'s A-Team."

Growing up in the 80's offered a wide variety of classic TV melodramas. In short, the good guys always won, well almost, and no one ever got seriously hurt. One show in particular, The A-Team (wiki facts which are funny and yes, there is going to be a movie), always had one scene before the action packed climax when Hannibal, Face, B.A., and Crazy Murdoch were captured and locked away in some barn or industrial warehouse awaiting their untimely demise. But before the bad guys could execute their fiendish plot, The A-Team would emerge from the warehouse with some home-grown, way better than MacGyver device that saved the day.

My father, T.L., has been locked away in the backyard sub-urban barn for a couple weeks to emerge with a home grown invention just in time for the holidays. Using a simple Char-Broil wood BBQ, T.L. has bolted on several components to enhance this BBQs functionality.

The main enhancement, featured here, is the smoker box. That's not flimsy aluminum you see from those store bought models. Oh no, this sweet baby is made from scrap steel found in our most recent garage cleaning, welded together by hand, painted Weber black, and weighs more than the entire original BBQ. Notice the main loading door handle and its customized "heat dispersion technology". You don't get that in stores. Notice the ventilation / ash removal door for easy cleaning.

But wait, there's more. Using heat-sink technology from the semiconductor industry, rising heat from the smoker box is transfered to a formed aluminum shield mounted on top of the smoker box for an instant hot plate to keep foods warm before serving. And that's not all. Remove the heat sink and place your pans directly on the surface for temperatures over 600 degrees! No safety warnings on this BBQ kids, which means it works!

But T.L. didn't stop there. Ever thought about all that empty space underneath your BBQ? Well he did. That's simply lost heat energy that any self-respecting backyard BBQ-er can't live with. So why not encase the entire bottom in aluminum and create a warming oven for bread, towels, plates, you name it (he's creating the design as I write this).

And the results? Well, the BBQ-Smoker-Warming Oven-Hot Plate by T.L. cooks pork spare ribs perfectly every time. These ribs were cooked for about 3 hours using a combination of the pine tree we cut down earlier this year from the front yard, mesquite charcoal, and some Kingsford briquettes. I used a simple K.C. Masterpiece sauce to baste the ribs during cooking. I thought the ribs were tasty.

I would say a job well done. All the components work well in their first trial.  T.L. loves it when a plan comes together....(queue the music)

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Movie Review by The Ham: 2012

Normally, this is RC's territory. But The Ham watches movies too. And today I watched 2012, the latest city destroying film from the makers of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. I can already hear RC in my head, "Shame on you for even thinking about seeing this movie!"

For those that aren't aware, the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world or the beginning of a new cycle, depending on your viewpoint on Dec 21, 2012, or 12/21/12. Spooky. So live it up people, the end is near...again. Break out those Y2K rations, the guns, and sweep out the silo because the crazies are coming. Or zombies. Or not. It could be just another Winter Solstice and 4 more days of shopping till Christmas. (The pic on the left is from Chichen Itza in Mexico, one of the ancient Mayan pyramids I visited a few years ago)

What I do know is that this movie was laughable for the first hour and a half. While the second hour I just wanted to see pictures of Mt. Everest in the background. Roland Emmerich is still reliving the masterful destruction of major cities and landmarks in ID4, a true original destruction of world landmarks and centers of government film. How many times can this guy destroy the White House? Roland also directed Stargate and the Van Damme classic, Universal Soldier, co-staring Dolph Lundgren.

This movie and the thoughts behind it actually had potential. With the budget for special effects alone, they could have taken $1 million dollars and bought a few good writers or just hired one really good one, other than Roland. Similar characters, Randy Quaid equals Woody Harrelson. Buster the Dog equals Hot Russian Chick's Dog (and a whole scene just to save it, just like ID4), Jeff Goldblum = Chiwetel Ejiofor. Boring. The human message, completely void in ID4 is ringing in your ears in 2012 like it did in The Day After Tomorrow, but without the athiest saving a Guttenberg Bible. In this one, it was Chiwetel bringing a no-name author's book (John Cusack) on one of the Arks saying that it's a classic and part of the total human experience. More subtle of a message than the atheist and the bible thing.

Considering the two life-boat Sci-Fi shows that have hit TV in the last couple years, Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Universe, couldn't we have gone with story first, special effects second? Not in big budget Hollywood. Laughable is what this film was and too bad really, it could have been good.

Into the Wild

I read the book by Jon Krakauer many years ago for the first time. I read it again when I was down in Pasadena a couple years ago, but I never watched the movie. This post isn't about whether the book was better than the movie. Some people watch movies others read books, whatever.

Anyway, I watched it tonight and really enjoyed it. Obviously, I still venture out and take a chance or two, no more than driving to work everyday in that metal coffin on an LA freeway (thanks Bodhi, did you know Bodhi means awakening in Sanskrit, a 4000 year old dead language, I love Point Break and PCU!) 

Chris McCandless lasted over 100 days in the Alaskan wilderness, not bad. A few quotes from the movie, some of which can be attributed to him (since my books are sitting in storage):

"Happiness is only real when shared"

"The Core of a man's spirit comes from new experiences"

"Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past."

Chew on these folks...and for some...chew longer...

A Tribute to the Best Damn Cooler in the Business

Swayze. Sure he had Golden Globe Nominations in movies such as Ghost, Dirty Dancing, and Too Wong Fu, but were they memorable? I'll bet no one could quote a single line from any of these movies  Why would you even want to. If you want to remember Swayze, then look no further than the gems below. A tribute to his finest works:

1. Dalton in Road House Road House Trailer . Dalton's Three Rules are a must for anyone. And I mean anyone. And remember for those of you who can't find a job, "There's always barber college."

2. Jed in Red Dawn. Jed and his brother Matt (played by Charlie Sheen) told C. Thomas Howell he had to drink the blood of the deer; "It's the spirit of the deer". Of course, CTH was a crazed psycho after that incident, but it added to the story.

3. Kevin Scott (a man with two first names, strange) in Uncommon Valor which stared Gene Hackman. Randall Tex Cobb beat up Swayze in this one to teach him a lesson about quiting. "You never quit."

4. Bodhi in Point Break, (Point Break Trailer) which James Cameron produced, you know the guy who made Terminator and Titanic. How could it get any better? I know how, Gary Busey and Johnny Utah. Even better? The entire philosophical side of this movie. If you haven't seen this one in a while, watch it. Although some of you may never get the spiritual side, too bad.

5. The Chippendale's scene with Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live. Enough said.

A Golden Globe is simply one event in one year. Road House plays 18 times a year on just TBS! I didn't mention VS, TNT, USA, WGN, Spike, or the global market. I doubt Ghost even gets on 4 times a year on all the cable channels.

Your loyal fans wish you farewell..."Adios Amigo!"