Back from the right coast -- that's East coast for those of you not looking at a map. Or just unfamiliar with Meghan speak.
5 Whole days in Baltimore. Well -- not quite. 1 day for travel out and 1 day for travel back.
Some highlights - you mean I did things other than sitting in a conference room for 3 days, with the same 10 people talking about data models, data loads and ETL processes? Riveting as it may seem, yes we did other stuff.
The highlight of course was my dinner at Volt. I know I have mentioned on more than one occasion that we are sorta foodies at our place. Sort par for the course when one of you is a trained chef. This means we watch a lot of food shows. Top Chef having always been a fav. Seems this season of Top Chef has some crazy talent. Like James Beard winners and accolades like crazy. Additionally, this season seems to have culled talent from the Baltimore/DC areas only. I think like 4 or so of the chef-testants are from the area. Including one Bryan Voltaggio . He is one of the brothers that are competing this season. I think it is fair to say he is one of the early front-runners.
Weeeel - with a HUGE thanks to Heather & Sebastian -- we were able to score a reservation for dinner on Wednesday night. In the kitchen. It was a 5 course Prix Fixe Menu with wine pairings.
And it was
Ah-
May-
Zing -
No exaggeration needed, The menu was sublime. We had our choice of two tasting menus'. One "The Kitchen" and the other "The Garden". The differentiation was simple, one was all meat, the other all vegetables. I went with the meat but swapped my 4th course for the vegetable offering -- with the approval of our waiter. So I had --
Tuna Sashimi
Duck Foie Gras
Artic Char
Chickpea Gnocchi - this was my swap course. The others had Pork Belly
Filet Mignon
Dessert - it was this deconstructed Dulce de Leche -- a flan-like custard with a cinnamon tuille and dehydrated caramel. And it was fantastic.
Of course, all of this was started with a three amuse bouche
A Beet/Foie Gras gum-drop (my words, not theirs)
A gaspacho with cumin air
Avocado ice cream with salmon roe and basil
I think it is fair to say that it wasn't your run of the mill meal. Not to mention, we were in the kitchen so we got to see all the action. And I was personally served by the Chef twice
Yep - bragging.
I of course, didn't bring the camera, brought the cell phone and managed to snap a few pics of three of the courses. For whatever reason, cell phone pics can't be manipulated here, so I loaded them to the Flickr account -- check them out here. Keep in mind, cell phone and low light - but you get the idea, the plates were GORGEOUS.
And then we got to watch the weekly episode. That got cut short due to the fact that there were too many people there and we couldn't actually follow anything that was going on. But still, all in all -- an exceptional evening - both the food and the company.
The other highlight of my trip was an evening with Scott and Julie -
The menu that night
Antipasta plate
Peperoni Pizza
And it was lovely
But more importantly, got to just chill with them - catch up and hang with one very precocious 21 month old - Ms. SamKat herself.
She kills me. If she doesn't like something, she says "No Thank You"
At one point, I was sitting in "her" chair. And she comes up to me and says "Excuse Me, No Thank You"
Translation: Listen Lady, get the hell outta my chair.
I cracked up. Suffice it to say, she is polite, cute as hell and a handful. But was just thrilled to just spend a few hours with them. Don't see them nearly enough - so I take what I can get.
Oh, and work -- we got some stuff done.
And my last little update -- I am a reader. I think I have shared that with you in the past. Well, plane trips are just the perfect vehicle for easy reads. And last time I was out East, I was lamenting the fact that I had finished the book that I had brought along. Julie says to me - Have you read any of the "Twilight" series. I of course, say no. I had promised not to get sucked (pun not intended) into another series. I already had Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The whole Anne Rice series -- so No -- didn't need another series, and didn't need MORE vampire lore.
But she persisted. Its an easy read, take it here -- and shoves her copy of Twilight into my hands. And so I read it. In one day one the way back to Des Moines, Yep - easy read. And while I was curious as to how the other stories moved forward, I was able to move on. Until yesterday. Again, I had finished the book I brought with me and was in need of another. And there I was, at the gate at BWI and wandered over to the Hudson News. And wondering, what should I get? The new Ted Kennedy? The new Dan Brown? Nope. Those were all hardback. Too expensive. So I hit the best sellers section in paperback. A Nicholas Sparks chick-book? Not my style. Jodi Picoult? Couldn't handle another mom/family drama that would make me cry. And then my eye fell down a row. There it was - tempting me. New Moon. My immediate thought was no. And then I looked over the rest of the offerings. And came back to it.
Shit.
I was going to have to get it. And as added bonus, I got a poster with a picture from the up-and-coming movie. Which if is anything like the first movie - will be terrible. Or so I am told. So, I have a poster of Bella and Jake with the looming eyes of Edward to put up in my room and crush on. Joe will just have to deal.
So now I am on this crazy pop-culture path. Tween romance between a human and a vampire. Yep -- got sucked in (pun intended) and can't let go. So much so that when I got home and got Finn to bed, did I queue up a weeks worth of season premieres to watch? Nope. Finished the damn book.
Stoopid vampires.
Two more trips out East and I will have the whole series knocked out.
On a high note - after the whole cable saga - we finally got our cable via DirectTV. However, we were still down in the internet category. Which is very trying to me. But this morning, on a whim, kicked on the laptop and VIOLA! Wi-fi.
So thank you neighbor whomever you are that is currently allowing me to surf at will. I know, I know -- shouldn't steal internet. And its not secure -- but I needed a few minutes online to get the fix.
Now Listening: The Loft - the XM station on the DirectTV.
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