Steve's Place

An Iron Chef Delivers

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:56:00 -0700

One of the things that the Beloved and I have really gotten hooked on in the past year has been cooking-competition shows – namely Top Chef and Iron Chef America. She insists we’re not “foodies” but I think we’re closer to being them than not.

One of our favorite additions to Iron Chef has been the newest IC – Michael Symon. He’s personable and cooks in a style that we really like – typically taking everyday comfort food and putting a high-end cuisine spin on it.
We had pretty easy travel and arrived in Ohio on Friday night early enough that we were able to enjoy dinner at his restaurant Lola in downtown Cleveland. Lola was hip and urbane with a small, but really interesting menu and wine list.

Michael Symon

We split a couple of appetizers – a shredded beef pierogie that had mushrooms and horseradish (very good) and a slab of bacon (think small bacon-steak) served with pickled tomatoes and toasty cheese that was phenomenal. For entrees, the Beloved had a black bass that was very good and I had a fantastic venison loin that was grilled to perfection and served in a red-wine chile sauce. Yum!

Overall, the food was excellent and the prices reasonable by high-end restaurant standards. The service started out a little aggressive – as if they were trying to turn the table over pretty rapidly (it was busy). But after we made it clear we meant to take our time and linger, they really backed off and let us enjoy ourselves.
A great way to kick off our long weekend.

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What State is High in the Middle and Round…

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:36:06 -0700

Oh, nevermind…

This weekend, the Beloved and I are heading off to Ohio for a wedding in her family. We arrive in Cleveland late on Friday and drive off to umm – errr – some other place in NE Ohio for the wedding Saturday morning.

I was thinking about it this morning. I haven’t been to Ohio for at least 10 years. Should be interesting. I’ll post this song from Over The Rhine (who are from the Cincinnati area), which is truly one of my favorite songs ever.

Ohio

Over The Rhine

It’s pretty much going to be all family time, so I don’t know that there will be much of a sight-seeing report on our return, but we’ll see how it goes. I promise I’ll play my Scrabulous turns when I get back.

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QotD: Today's Musical Horoscope -- Drive to Work Edition

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:05:40 -0800

What's your musical horoscope? (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)

I know...I know...the whole “musical horoscope” idea has been done before (and before that a few more times) and like most QotD’s I was willing to let it go. But I thought that this morning I would track what songs came from my iPod as I drove to work and decide what it meant for me today:

God Has Put A Smile Upon Your Face – Coldplay
Yes, He has. In fact, with Thanksgiving last week, I even posted about it. I’m assuming that this is a gentle reminder to always be thankful, not just during holidays with turkey and football. That’s fairly heavy philosophy for rubbing-sleep-from-my-eyes-pulling-out-of-the-garage time.

The Burnt-Over District – Hem
Given last month’s terrible fires here in San Diego County, this seemed a little mean-spirited of the horoscopic muse. And then I remembered that I have to leave early today to meet some workmen that are going to convert our wood-burning fireplace into a gas-burning one. Hopefully that does not suggest that our family room will qualify as a burnt-over anything.

Wildflower – Sheryl Crow
Apparently, while I’m home with the fireplace people, I’m supposed to cut the grass. I wonder how the HOA got that one in there?

405 (acoustic) – Death Cab For Cutie
Hmm… this one’s tougher. I haven’t been in Orange County or LA for a bit and have no plans on going there anytime soon. But I DO travel CA-56 every morning on my commute (was on it when this song came on, in fact) and I decided that “fif-ty six” has as many syllables as “four-oh-five” and that I could substitute...
“Misguided by the 56 'cause it lead me to an alcoholic summer” – yeah, that still works.

Heels!

Ohio – Over the Rhine
Also a bit of a mystery, since I haven’t been to Ohio in years, but as I was listening to this moving, almost mournful, song I tried to think of why people in the Buckeye State should be so sad today. And then I remembered --- last night UNC beat Ohio State in Columbus, helping the ACC to comfortably win (7-3) the ACC Big-10 Challenge. Again. Go Tar Heels!

Not bad, iPod. Not bad.

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