Bevo

      UPDATE: We went back to Bevo's in Mid-December, to celebrate Kris getting hired full-time. we started with the two happy hour appetizers of wings and nachos and all of us decided to go with the special of the night , which was a full prime-rib dinner, including salad, potatoes and vegetables for the incredible price of $15.95. The meat was perfectly done, a huge portion and extremely tender. Combine this with mashed potato's, Au jou and veggies and needless to say we waddled out, stuffed to the gills. Unfortunately, a mere three days later, I read Bevo's has decided to shut down its restaurant side and stick to catering. They will be sadly missed but please everyone try and visit your local establishments. I know the chain restaurants at Tafts corners are convenient but lets try to keep our money local and support local business people. Wooden Spoon comes to mind as do many others. Keep it Local folks and you won't be sorry !! For now R.I.P Bevos.


      Saturday was another scorcher of a day, so a quick, where do you want to eat, I don't care where do you want to eat, etc., took us to Bevo's. Unlike the quick review of Tiny Thai and its great take out food, this will be a full blown review. But first a couple of quick confessions, once again blogger brain freeze caused me to forget my camera (It is NOT old age I tell you , it more getting used to carrying a camera around everywhere you go). This is especially unfortunate here, as food presentation is one of Bevo's strengths. I am going to throw an inexpensive digital camera in the car, so I have one when needed, I promise. I know, I know, I could join the masses and upgrade to a smart phone that actually has a good camera built in, but that would be too easy, and I just do not want to be connected all the time that bad, my old 12 lb. cell works great. Second, this is our 3rd visit to Bevo's since they opened, it is becoming our go to place, when nobody can make a decision on where to eat. Everybody needs a place like this, a spot you can go to at the last minute, when you find the freezer empty or you just don't feel like cooking. We have two, Tiny Thai (see previous review) and now Bevo's. Bevo takes the place of our former favorite restaurant in Vermont, Bistro Sauce, which sadly left us last year.

        Sauce (as we cool kids called it) was known for its incredibly diverse food, a great wine list (Emily the owner, always had new wines for us to try) and most of all for its wonderful employees. By a strange coincidence, one of its best employees, Ryan, our favorite bartender, followed us to Bevos (OK maybe he started working here before our first visit, still a cool coincidence). So for those of you who always turn to the back of the Harry Potter novels to see who dies (Yes there are actually Harry Potter books not just movies), you sort of know the direction this review is going. BUT like the Russian judges at the Olympics I am going to be totally impartial and concentrate on reviewing this particular visit only.

      On the way in, the first sign of a good night, the little specials board by the road listed pork sliders and fish tacos as tonight's specials YUMMY. We arrived about 5:15 (OK what is up with eating so dam early?? I might as well start wearing my Bermuda shorts up around my waist along with knee high black socks and sandals). But in this case I had an ulterior plan. Bevo's is one of the few places that has happy hour EVERY day, so if you eat there on weekends you still get a Happy Hour YEA. Oh and what a Happy Hour it is (actually 3:30 to  6 so a really looonnngggg happy hour). Happy hour specials include Tortilla Flat nachos (more on those later) , chicken wings, which are nicely glazed, sticky and a bit spicy, around 10 to an order, either one for $4.00 and PBR draft for $2.00 (what is it with Pabst Blue Ribbon all of a sudden, this is the beer we drank when we were 17 when we couldn't afford real beer, $3.00 or so a case if I remember right). So as you can see, for a ten spot, you can have a nice feed and go home happy and full. Now for my first quibble, the happy hour specials have not changed since opening, OK I admit, you can't really remove the wings and nachos , their great but maybe add a rotating 3rd special that changes by night? and REALLY, PBR, I know its cheap but can we add another real beer, I would happily pay more, maybe a $3 special and maybe a red wine and white wine special, we went to a great bar in Seattle that had a different wine by the glass every happy hour OH and a drink special wouldn't hurt business, either $4 martini, or mojitos. C'mon guys its great but spice it up a bit , keep us guessing.

        Now lets see somewhere about a few thousand words ago , there was a review going on. So in we walk and order drinks and nachos, (We have priorities of course). Dos Equis on tap for me and a Vodka and Lemonade for the wife. And now my second quibble, Bevo strives to be a neighborhood bar that serves eclectic, fun food, the very definition of a Gastropub, but you can't have the gastro without the pub. And the wine and beer selections are quite thin. Lets start with wine, the actual selections are fun and varied, no grocery store wine here (WHAT No Yellowtail YEA), but with only 5 or 6 offerings in each of red and white and most of these from Europe (Spain is well represented at Bevo's) your choices are limited. My suggestion (for what its worth ) is to at least double up and fill in some categories that are missing, maybe 10-12 white offerings and 12-15 red. Not all wines have to be by the glass either, save some for bottles only. But while the wine offering is small, but unusual and varied, the same can not be said for the beer, sigh, please we live in a state that has some INCREDIBLE micro brews, I know you have a tap for Switchback and that's great, but truly isn't it now a law that if you have a bar in the Burlington area you MUST have a tap of Switchback? And I think I saw Long Trail up there also. How about a tap devoted to an ever changing selection of Hill Farmstead's range of incredible beers, maybe another one that can rotate through a who's who's of Vermont, Trapp Family, Magic Hat, (I know, I know its a NY company still made here though) Otter Creek, Harpoon,Trout River, Rock Art, you get the idea. And maybe a tap for an ever changing regional beer, I vote for Dogfish Head out of Delaware or maybe Brooklyn Brewery or Ommegang out of New York.  I'd love to walk in and ask Ryan, What's new and he could say, we just got this incredible keg from (fill in the blank).
      Oh yea review, ADHD anyone? The drinks came , beer was nice and cold, vodka and lemonade wasn't a personal favorite of the wife, taste was off, too much vodka, not enough lemonade maybe (WHAT too much alcohol, preposterous). And shortly after, our plate of nachos. Now these aren't your ordinary mess of ingredient nachos, nope rather three simple but tasty ingredients, chips (DUH No kidding), cheese (lots and lots) and special sauce.  Not sure how they make the sauce buts its very smooth, no chunks, a little spicy , a little smoky and just plain good. A quick refill of the ole beer glass and a lesson from Ryan on how to make a proper mojitos (NOW this is a drink, served in a pint glass no less ). We are ready for more, a quick reading reveals lots of specials and we choose most of them, the before mentioned pork sliders, no slaw please. I know pulled pork and cole slaw are natural together but I really don't like mayo. For the wife, another special, lemon and thyme marinated lobster over a salad of slivered pea shoots and radishes. Summer on a plate, (really a picture would do a thousand words and I wouldn't have to write so much, again sorry). And for us to share a bowl of the special cucumber and yogurt soup. For those of you that know me, you all know i am not big on vegetables, but this was delicious. Served chilled and loaded with slivers of candied almonds, it was refreshing and tasty all at the same time. A perfect soup for a 90 degree day. Both of the entrees arrive, a bit on the small side but they were starters after all. Karen and I will do this often, make a whole meal of starters. The salad as you already know was incredible, visually and tastily (is that a word, it is now), a perfect summer salad. My sliders (two in a serving) ,were great. The bread (a homemade roll) was  a bit dry (would of been better with the added slaw I'm sure) but the barbecued pork and the extra sauce, OH the extra sauce, a chipotle and cream concoction that added layers and layers of flavor, were incredible.

      Satisfied with an incredible meal, we decided to share a simple dessert. And what could be more simple than vanilla ice cream with fresh Mazza berries, (Mazza's is our local super big farm stand) . Just picked raspberries and blueberries with ice cream and a bit of whipped cream, a perfect ending.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,                 And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4  Slider rolls were dry but the rest of the meal was excellent

Beer and Wine,    3.5 What is there, is great but we need more choices
Service,                 5 The staff here is great, period.

Ambiance,             4 Confession, we have only ever ate at the bar, its a small space overall but a very nice vibe. Lots of unused space upstairs right now but as Bevo's gets more popular things could get hopping.

Price,                     3.5 This is not a "cheap" place to eat, sliders were $8.95, salad I believe was about the same price and these are small plates. But combine one or two menu items with the happy hour menu and you can go home very happy and some green still in your wallet.

Overall;                4 One of our new favorite restaurants in Vermont. Great staff, imaginative food and a great atmosphere. Will we be back, HELL YES, Should you visit, HELL YES. Do yourself a favor and stop in, you won't be sorry.

Photo Paintings

        I recently started playing with a new software program which allows you to manipulate your digital photos. The software uses an extreme version of HDR ( High Dynamic Range Imaging and NO I do not know why it isn't called HDRI), to change your pictures into what look like paintings. I, then send the image file to a company that transfers it to canvas and the results, to me anyways, look like a nice piece of art. I'd like to make up a few of these and try selling them at local farmers markets and craft fairs. What do you think?

Before My Photo titled Lone Oak;

And after running through my software program;

One more, this one titled Lobos Ravine before;

And After

Bored yet? Last one , this one called Lighthouse, (Yeah I know , I have to work on titles, OK new title Mans' Resistance to submit to nature results in despair); Before

 And final after Image;

And here is one that I did a bit ago, hanging on the walls of my house;

      This is an old ranger station in Seattle. So what do you all think, is this a money making opportunity? I was thinking of making a few up to sell at craft shows and then offering to turn customers photos into their very own art work. Pricing for a small canvas, 13 x 13 or 12 x 16 would have to be between $60-$75 and a large poster size , (Like the ranger station) between $125-$150, reasonable? outrageous? are you CRAZY? I'd love to hear from you . Oh and if anyone wants to get my business started, send me a photo and let me know what size !!

Tiny Thai Essex Location

      As we are in the midst of our annual triple H heat wave (hot, hazy, humid for those of you not from the South, or June, July and August for you Southerners),cooking on Friday night was the furthest thing from our minds. After a brief, what do you want, I don't care what do you want, I don't care what do you want, (if your married, you know exactly what I mean).  It was decided Thai food would be perfect, and if its going to be Thai, we only visit one place Tiny Thai in Essex.

      A quick phone call, revealed some intriguing specials, Skewered meatballs, and dim sum (OK really not a special, as its ALWAYS a special) for appetizers, Volcano shrimp for an entree. Yes, we will take all three and for wifey her one and only meal ever, Masaman with chicken and shrimp. I swear, if she could only eat one thing for the rest of her life, this would be it. I took a bit of a chance,with volcano shrimp as A)Deep fried doesn't usually travel well, but as we live pretty close and we would be eating as soon as I got home I thought I'd be fine and B) Ordering something called "volcano" at a Thai restaurant can be living on the edge. The nice person on the phone informed me it was two flames which is right at my threshold for pain. Sometimes 2 flames is OK, sometimes its ear ringing , throat burning hot. BUT he also said he could put the sauce on the side so I said go for it. Phew, disaster averted as the sauce was quite hot and a little went a long way.

      I got home in record time and as we were both hungry, hungry, we unpacked and started eating. Unfortunately, this would of been a good time for picture taking but was the furthest thing from my mind. It won't happen again, (well until the next day,as you will see later in the week, that's called suspense, kids).The Dim Sum proved once again why its our favorite appetizer, fluffy clouds of steamed dough filled to bursting with minced chicken, pork and spices, served with a side of soy based sauce. YUMMY. The other appetizer though didn't cut it for us. 3 skewers with three tiny meatballs, each looked great but the taste and texture left alot to be desired. the taste was very bland and the texture quite rubbery, as meatballs should be neither bland nor rubbery, we pass on this one.

      The entrees on the other hand were great. You really can't go wrong with the masaman curry, a nice blend of spice and coconut milk, with potatoes, carrots and your choice of meats, this never fails to satisfy. Ask my wife, its her go to meal every time.  My shrimp was great, a light crispy batter, (still crispy even after traveling, with beans, carrots and broccoli) and the before mentioned spicy volcano sauce, which tasted of chille's and tamarind. I was glad the masaman comes with alot of sauce as it was perfect on my rice.

      And what to drink with Thai food. Well, my suggestion would be a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The perfect combination of fruit and crispness to cut through the spicy and sweet food. So which of the many incredible New Zealand wines did we choose...ummm oops the pantry is currently empty so we had to make do. We had opened a California Chardonnay, one of my least favorite wines actually, as they usually are too oaky, too much alcohol, too buttery, too hard to match with food but, I say BUT, on our recent trip to Paso Robles we happened too stumble upon (we had visited ALOT of wineries that day) a really cool, small family winery called Oso Libre, and lo and behold a shining golden moment. a chardonnay made from the grape and not the barrel.(really people, some Chards, you should just dump in the sink and suck on an oak branch same flavor profiles). Now this is wine to have with food, the bright flavors and crisp acidity complemented the flavors of the food perfectly. Alas ( does anyone say Alas anymore) we only had a half bottle, so into the wine fridge to find something else cold and out came a California Sauvignon Blanc, should be perfect right?  Not so much, one of hundreds if not thousands of generic California wines , this particular brand while not offensive was bland, I would say its flavor profile was..........cold. Pull off the label and this could of been any white wine you find in your local grocery store, not bad but certainly not good. So if you can find Oso Libre, buy it , Groth not so much. As Oso Libre is such a small winery, you may be better ordering online at;

http://www.osolibre.com/



                                                          Good, Yummy Wine

No so good but cold wine

In Conclusion;

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,                 And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4 One appetizer wasn't ...well appetizing, but the rest Excellent !.

Beer and Wine,    No rating Tiny Thai is strictly BYOB.

Service,                 5 The staff here is great whether you eat in or take out.
Ambiance,             4 I know this was a take out order, but if you eat here it's a nice relaxed space.

Price,                     5 Two appetizers and two entrees for less than $35.00 DEAL !!.

Overall;                4.5 One of our favorite restaurants in Vermont, Always consistent, Always good.

Cooking 101 : Cheese Souffle

        Since we are not related to Donald Trump, eating out every night of the week is not an option. AND since we love the Travel Channel and Food Network, trying new and exotic food are high on our list of things we love to do. So every now and then we put our heads together and come up with a recipe that tests are abilities (homemade chicken mole anyone, yummy but LOTS of ingredients). This portion of the blog will be called Cooking 101 and no I will not be explaining how to take Banquet chicken from the box , put it on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Oops I just  did , OK there's your first recipe !!

       For this adventure we decided Souffles were in order, Why? Who knows it sounded good at the time and was exotic and hard enough to make us see if we could master it. Why a savory souffle? Again I can not remember the exact thinking other than maybe we wanted a healthy version ( RIGHT) or more likely it is impossible to keep chocolate in our house (you know who you are). But first a drink was in order, as a very wise woman once said " I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even put some in the food". So today's concoction a Ras-Mintini.

For the soon to be world famous Ras-Mintini;

In a cocktail shaker, Muddle a small handful of fresh mint and fresh raspberries together.
Add 3 ounces of your favorite rum (we used Mango Rum for an extra tropical kick).
Top with Fresh lemonade, add ice, shake, strain and Voila a perfect summer cooler.

           With Mintini in hand, we were ready to tackle the mysterious souffle. And since this isn't a detective novel let me fast forward to the end, Souffles are EASY,  the absolute hardest part is separating six eggs. But I am getting ahead of myself. What to serve with the soon to be spectacular souffles? A beautiful side of wild sockeye salmon, cooked simply on the grill with an Indian spice dry rub.

          Allow me a quick rant, (like you could stop me, I am writing this after all). Our local Costco store had some gorgeous wild sockeye salmon fillets and right around the corner, in the same case, farm raised salmon for a dollar a pound MORE !!   And people were buying them !!! PEOPLE, PEOPLE farm raised salmon is tasteless and REALLY, REALLY bad for the environment. Gigantic pens in the ocean, leeching chemicals, food and waste into formerly pristine waters. PLEASE, always buy wild salmon , and if its not available look for Steelhead fillets, these are pond raised in the USA with very strict controls. Nothing leeches out, it all stays in the ponds, which are closely regulated by our government. And now back to our regularly scheduled recipe.

          First step , always mis en place (French for everything in its place or in English don't forget the most important ingredient dummy). You will need;

4 tablespoons Butter
1/4 cup All purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups Milk warmed but not boiling
6 Eggs (at room temperature) separated
1/4 cup Fresh Herbs (whatever you have growing , you do grow fresh herbs right?) We used a combo of Basil, Rosemary and Thyme YUMMY
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup grated your choice Cheese (we used smoked Gouda but next time may switch to a hard goat cheese for a more robust cheese flavor).

Pre-Heat oven to 375 one hour before you want to start cooking. Yea, this isn't a recipe to try when its 100 outside, it will heat up your kitchen to hellish levels.

Prepare souffle ramekins or 2 quart souffle pan (we used six, cup size ramekins that I had gotten with a creme brulee set and these worked great though we did have left over souffle so 8 would of been perfect), by thoroughly buttering the insides (don't skimp its important) and dusting the inside with grated Parmesan, it will stick to the butter and you can dump the excess out into the next ramekin.

        Now lets start assembly. But first a Food Network hint, when separating eggs use three clean bowls, separate over the middle one, add yolks to one bowl and pour out the white into a separate bowl, that way you always only have one egg white in the bowl in front of you. Absolutely sucks to get to the 6th egg and drop yolk into the other five whites, ruining it all. We went through ALOT of eggs but only ruined one at a time, (to be fair the dozen eggs we bought had 4 cracked ones GRRRR). Back to assembly, melt the butter at med-low heat until it stops foaming, stir in the flour and whisk for around three minutes until well incorporated and starting to color a very little bit.  Now whisk in the milk a little bit at a time, allow to cool slightly and whisk in the egg yolks and the cheese. Once the cheese melts, remove from heat and set aside.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, (we used a stand mixer MUCH easier but keep your eyes on the whites as it takes very little time once they start forming to get to stiff peak, ours may have been a touch too stiff but they worked, phew).

          Hang in there gang, we are on the home stretch. And I apologize for not having photos as we assembled, I blame the Mintinis.  Now add the herbs to the yolk mixture and mix 1/3 of the egg whites in, don't worry about being gentle at this point you need to loosen up the yolk mixture. Add the rest of the egg whites and now you need to be gentle, fold with a wide spatula from bottom to top until all incorporated, its OK if there is still some white showing you need to keep the air in the mixture so it will rise. Pour into each ramekin (or one big one) until almost full, we put the ramekins on a cookie sheet just in case and plus its easier to handle on a cookie sheet than 6 individual ramekins. Put into the oven for 30 minutes or until a skinny skewer comes out moist but clean (what the heck does that mean, we left them in until they were really nicely browned on top and a toothpick came out clean, about 26 minutes).

           And to deflate (hee hee) a misconception, you do not have to tiptoe around the kitchen just to make sure the souffles actually rise. We went about our normal business and even (gently) peaked in the oven (maybe not the best idea) and we had no problems. OK, stop drinking mintinis and go put the salmon on the grill, flesh side first for a few minutes to get some nice grill marks and then flip until cooked , probably 10-15 minutes for a good size fillet, stop when the thickest part still shows a little raw as it will continue to cook off the grill,  DON"T OVERCOOK YUCK !!  And for the grand unveiling;

   So as you can see, souffles are not made of gold and us ordinary mortals can make them just like the pros, except we don't have someone to do the cleaning for us, DARN. Just a couple last observations, Souffles do deflate, so plan on serving them as soon as the get out of the oven, this means have everything else ready and serve HOT. But cold souffles are darn tasty (Who Knew),if just a little flatter, though to me they taste like quiches, not necessarily a bad thing.

   On the Andy scale of cooking from 1(EZ Mac) to 10 (Molecular Gastronomy) I rate this recipe a 4. Really people, the hardest part is the prep work, so have fun and play with the flavors, this recipe just calls for improv, different cheeses, different herbs. Wifey says next time we are to add cooked bacon bits to the batter YUMMY !!  And I have a recipe for a chocolate souffle with a white bourbon sauce added to the center. Until next time Happy Cooking !!

Summer Blooms

            My last gardening post included pictures of Spring blooms (once the rains stopped). This past Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, so I took the trusty Nikon and snapped away.  all pictures were taken with the Nikon D5000 with my new Tamron 18-270 mm lens. Its been a bit of a learning curve getting bright clear pics but I seem to be getting there. What do you think?

Coming soon, We attempt to make a Souffle, watch to see if we succeed.

Pizza and Game Night

         Saturday was an absolute beautiful day. A prefect day to have a nice cold beer, eat some yummy pizza and demolish the women on game night . Oh Well ,as Meatloaf once said, two out of three ain't bad. First the beer, Mike and I love flavorful beers, no watery, tasteless stuff for us. So we take turns buying new beers to try. As it was the in-laws (brother and sister) turn to host game night , this was Mike's choice;

And what a great choice it was. Flavorful but not heavy.  For the women a summer tini was in order. So on to my world famous blue tini (OK maybe not World famous but it should be)

For those so inclined the recipe is;

2 Parts Malibu Coconut Rum
1 Part Blue Curacao
2 Parts Pineapple Juice

       Supper was a pizza from;

Ramunto's Brick Oven Pizza

        First the name , its a bit deceiving as I do not believe the have an actual brick oven , but rather a conventional pizza oven.  But the location in convenient to game night and the pizza is good. We decided on a meat lovers and a large house salad.

Pizza was great, lots of toppings, not greasy and the salad was good, but a bit small. All in all an easy Saturday night meal that went great with the beer. My ratings for;


Ramunto's Brick Oven Pizza
On a scale of 1 to 5;

Food,       4.5 great pizza but skimpy on the salad.

Wine,        No rating we had beer at home

Service,     5 They told us 15 minutes it was 15 minutes
Ambiance  No rating we ate at home but quarters here are tight if you want to eat in

Price,        3 Expensive for pizza and salad but quality was very good.(Plus we has a coupon)

Total Score 4.16, Probably our favorite pizza place.

Gardening in Vermont

         Todays post will be about our gardens. As many of you know,  Vermont had the wettest Spring in our history. And while it made for a VERY soggy April and May, it certainly helped the gardens. We had more blooms this year than ever. So as this blog is Food and PHOTOS, here are my favorites of the spring;

San Sai Japanese Restaurant

      On Friday night Karen and I visited the newest restaurant to open in Burlington, San Sai.. Promising big city dining (The chef owned a successful Japanese restaurant in NYC), we were very excited to try something brand new to us, Omakase, or chefs choice. This is a brand new concept here in Burlington. You, the diner, sets the price, ($30.00 each in our case) and the chef provides the courses (6 in total for us).

     The building is a beautiful brick warehouse down on the waterfront. Old brick walls, warm wood beams and floors, contrast nicely with the stainless steel table tops and flowing Japanese banners.

     

       We were seated promptly (we did have very early reservations of 6;15) and quickly decided on a Sauvignon Blanc from France. This was a BARGAIN at $18.00 and went very well with almost all the courses, (OK nothing goes well with Miso Soup, please correct me if I am wrong). After a short wait our first course came out, WOW crispy salmon skin salad and was it GOOD. We were amazed at the flavors , textures, taste , it was perfect. Was this a glimpse of what was to come, would every course be better and better,  would we eventually fall in a comatose food coma..........Umm no, but things certainly didn't fall downhill, just that this first course was the best of the night.

                                        

        The first course was followed QUICKLY  (this would be a theme for the night, course spacing was a major problem), by our 2nd course. This was the most unique offering of the evening, thinly slices soba noodles wrapped in nori and served as a sushi roll, each section topped with a tempura vegetable (2nd theme of the evening , our server not knowing what exactly was on the plate), and all this topped by another mass of tempura noodles? leeks? onions?. So as you can see we were not entirely sure what we were eating, even as we spent minutes contemplating the dish as our server had forgotten share plates and then disappeared (theme three for the night, for those of you counting). Eventually the smells got to us and we said heck with share plates and just dug in, Delicious, this is what Japanese food should be all about, multiple textures, multiple flavors, in every bite. so two course in we were smiling  very huge smiles, (The bottle of wine didn't hurt either).

                          

      Our server finally showed up with our share plates, we were done by this time, and proceeded to ask if we wanted soup or salad. UMM we already had a salad so soup please. Our 3rd course was a cup of Miso Soup. It was OK Miso not great , not bad , just normal. Not enough tofu for my taste and too salty for Karen's but all in all not bad, (no picture c'mon its soup).
        After quite a long wait, our 4th course came out and this was the low point of the evening for both of us.  A large round of daikon was topped with a thick layer of sesame paste.For me the problem was the texture. the daikon was baby food soft and the sesame paste only served to emphasize the texture. Karen's problem with this dish was the taste, she said the daikon reminded her of turnip (which she hates, but as I have never eaten a turnip I can't comment on that). Later, I saw other tables were being served the daikon along with a skewer of grilled, marinated, chicken, (Yakitori), that is exactly what this course needed. A different texture, and flavor to offset the bland daikon. Not sure where ours went but we never got it.
             
       

         Now the waiting really began, (OK at this point I need to say our server was the sweetest, friendliest server but had obviously been thrown into the pressure cooker of a holiday weekend, July 4th, unprepared.) We found out on our way out that a server had decided at the last minute to head to Vegas (hope he gets canned) and left the restaurant short staffed, on a holiday Friday night at that. BUT that is no excuse, a high end place like this needs to have reserves in the wings who can come in a rescue them , we saw a table sit for over 30 minutes before being ACKNOWLEDGED, that is unacceptable at this price point (or any price point really). OK back to supper, the 5th course arrived and was a serving of picked squid, this was new to both of us and REALLY yummy.

            Again a HUGE wait for our last course, which was a beautifully composed platter of 6 sushi offerings. Not really sure what they all were as our server couldn't tell us all of them, but we had yellowtail, o-toro, salmon, snapper, maybe white tuna and no idea on the last one eel maybe?? All really good but not great sushi. I've had better and I've had worse. Finally since we had never had it before we asked for an order of sea urchin, again we waited (but we were not charged so its OK). After waiting, neither of us are sure if we like sea urchin or not. maybe it wasn't totally fresh, maybe there was too much of it, or maybe we just aren't used to such a strong flavor. No pictures of the last two courses (OK it was a WHOLE bottle of wine), but here is a great shot of Karen with the sunset spilling through the windows.
             



        To conclude and rate San Sai, I am going to totally rip-off one of my favorite food blogs, What Mickey eats, ratings will be based on four factors, all rated from 1 EWWWWW to 5 YUMMY.

 Food,       Quality means much more to us than quantity.

Wine,        Since we are such wine geeks I have to have a rating based on value and selection

Service,     Speaks for itself
Ambiance  Does the look fit the food and pricing 

Price,        And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

       So after spending a bit more than $100 (with tax and tip) what did we think;

Food        4  Some was incredible , some ordinary, (no points off for the daikon it just wasn't our thing)

Wine        3  Great bargains, very limited choices

Service    3 This was tough, should of been 2 but she really was trying hard and it wasn't totally her fault

Ambiance 5 Beautiful building in a beautiful location

Price         4 A bit expensive overall, small portions but well prepared

Overall  3.8, We will be back big Yes. I can't wait to see how the chef keeps us from getting bored with his chefs choice meals, I would hope our next time brings 6 new courses, I will keep you all informed.

       And finally, we visited Breakwaters after supper and were treated to a gorgeous sunset       

My Very First Post.

       So I have finally decided to put words to our travels. This post will serve to introduce us to the blogging world. My wife and I love to travel and in the past couple of years I have been bitten by the photography bug big time. I currently own a Nikon D5000 with several lenses including a Sigma 10-20mm, Sigma 70-300, Sigma 150-500 (do you see a trend here)?, Tamron 18-270 (newest addition to the family) and the original Nikon 18-55.

        We have done a bit of traveling this year, Washington DC over the Xmas holidays, Boston for a weekend  and California for a week (Sunnyvale to visit relatives, Monterey for the ocean and Paso Robles for the WINE, oh yeah another of our passions).  I may post some of my favorite pictures but rather than go back and post on older trips , I will go forward on our new adventures.

         So to sum up this blog, food, wine, travel, photos Oh and birds (Karen loves birding). I hope you all enjoy reading this blog as much as we enjoy writing it. Our first official post will appear soon featuring our review of the newly opened San Sai Japanese restaurant.