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pecuniumI don't quite feel that I am home yet. The mail is being sorted out (the VA will send me some pennies to cover the change in BAH for 2010, Sur la Table will be paying me something to settle a class action lawsuit... that annoys me, becuase the suit is probably paying a LOT less than they owe people. I think the fines on the irregularities in my pay alone; as an individual judgement would be, conservatively, $700, to me alone; that doesn't cover the bite the state ought to be taking. I'm told my projected share of the settlement is $180. The unpleasant thing is that I am never going to be able to get the money I am owed, much less the sort of disuasive fine I'd like to see on that sort of thing, so I can forego my pinch of flesh, or lose by trying to go it alone, but I digress).
I am feeling more at home. I have coffee, in "my" cup. There is yogurt draining for my breakfast. The cats (of which there are more than when I left; though I am assured this will not last) are being snuzzly.
I have had various little comforts. "Mexican" food of the N. California variety. Tj's, Peet's, La Brea Bakery bread, etc. Which brings me to food, both on the road, and in the cities.
On the interstate... the food was sort of hit and miss. This is partly a function of lazy, partly of circumstance, and the worst part of structure. Stopping, on the highway, to eat means one has to take what comes; or push on. In a car I might decide the Apricot Tree (by way of example) didn't look worth the effort. On a motorcycle, not so much. Poor blood sugar changes alertness, decision making, and reaction time. There is a reason I was keeping apple juice and Tiger's Milk bars on the bike (the Tiger's Milk is still there).
So, when I was hungry, I stopped. The one time I put this off was the push to home. On that one I bought a snack every time I stopped for gas, from Reno on; and I had a large breakfast.
Breakfasts weren't too bad. Lunch was variable. I had a pretty good french dip in Kearney, Nebraska, and a really good pasty in some café on US 8 in the UP, but for the most part, the meals on the side of the road were fuel. Nothing horrible, but nothing memorable.
Supper was different. I was stopped. I had, usually, esp. on I-40, a large city to survey. And I was beat. The last thing I wanted, at 9 o'clock, after eight to nine hours of moving (going east was easier to run later... I was losing an hour a day (because I was pretty much clearing a time-zone each day), and the sun set behind me. I was also less familiar with long-distances on the bike, it was hotter and I spent more time off the bike when I got gas. Meal stops, both ways, ran an hour. It didn't seem to matter my mindset, breakfast, and lunch, took a hour). I didn't have the will to get back on the bike and explore.
If I thought I'd want a drink, I also didn't have the luxury of riding, not unless I was going to leave half of it behind, or spend more than an hour; after I finished it, sitting.
So it was walking distance of my motel. That's was, by and large, pretty dismal; esp. in the larger towns (Flagstaff was the notable exception, but it's a college/tourist town, and I was in a hostel. The latter meant the neighborhood was a bit less on the beaten track).
Oak Ridge was what it was. Knoxville has some decent eateries, and Oak Ridge has a couple of places one can winkle out. Being that I have family there, and have spent months in the area, I was able to get to those. The highlight was "Hector's". I don't know what it's properly called. I first went there in 1988, in the previous location, when it was, "El Palenque". Hector and Anna still run the place, and the food is still Yucatan based, and superb.
I forget (thoughjonsinger knows, and is known at) the Burmese place I was at in DC. It was divine. The desert was superb, a cream of wheat custard which defied all expectation. It was just large enough to be not quite enough; but not small enough to be insufficient.
New York was strange. One reads so much about the New York restaurant scene. I wasn't all that impressed. One... drinks were insanely expensive. I know New York is pricey, but oi... a whisky I'd have expected to pay about 16 dollars for was 26. I priced bottles, they weren't that much more expensive retail, so the markup was based on other factors.
But the service in the places we went for dinner was so-so, bordering on awful. The sushi place where I ate withroadnotes, baldanders, pnh, and tnh was good.
Candle 79, a vegan place off Central Park, so-so. The food was decent, the service was crap. We had two waiters paying attention to us, and still didn't get things in anything approaching a timely fashion. The amuse bouche was tasty (a crostini, with a very good, and delicate, pesto), but a mistake. The special, whichladymondegreen ordered, was dressed with that same pesto. It made a fine appetizer, but as a showcase for the talent/whimsy of the chef, it was a bad idea.
My dinner was tasty, and I'd order it again, but it wasn't really enough to make up for being basically ignored while we were there.
Francia, a korean style, "zen cuisine" was much better. It was, of the restaurants we went to the best. Vegetarian (when one is with someone who keeps kosher, one goes to a lot of vegetarian places), and really good. The decor was inviting (three levels, four dining areas, with low walls between them. It reminded me of restaurants in Korea, esp. those in slightly less dense areas that Seoul, like Waegwan), the menu excellent, and the tea superb (a traditional service. I got a small iron pot [warmed] and a dish of leaves. I also got a thermal carafe with water to the right temperature for my chosen tea. I put the leaves I wanted in the strainer, poured the pot full, and then filled my cup. The pot was about two and-a-half cups worth of tea. When I poured my second cup, I added more water. I should very much have liked to have another tea drinker there, to make comparisons) I had a hot rice bowl, and there was nothing wrong with it. Service, again, was spotty. We got about the right level of attention; but the one time we wanted someone, it was slow in coming; despite there being a call-button on the table. But that's the only complaint.
We did go to a kosher (meat) place, Le Marais. Service, again, was poor. The wine list was hard to assess. The by the glass was small (a couple of red, a couple of white, one rose, as I recall). Since I was getting a whisky when we got our table, everyone else who was interested in wine had already ordered glasses, so splitting a bottle wasn't an option. The bottle list had promise.
Style is french bistro, and that was well done. The meat, not so much. I got the flanken, and it was a bit more done than I'd asked for, and the saucing was oversalted. Which was a real disappointment. There was a magret duck breast appetiser, and it was wonderful. The meat was just pink, the saucing didn't drown the flavor, and the meat was rich. The fries were good, the vegetables; and salad, dull.
The dessert menu... scary. Almost everything was some form of faux dairy. One would think, with all the talent available; and the height of summer to hand, there would have been a seasonal list of desserts which wasn't the list of tin fiddles they actually offered us.
Little shops, pretty good. I wandered into a chinese place making stuffed pancakes. Wonderful. A really well seasoned mix of pork and vegetables. The Lychee smoothie was a little too sweet, but the lychee flavor was intense too.
I think I mentioned the diner in Jersey City already.
I didn't get to much of anyplace new in Ottawa. The Arrow and Loon Pub had a good breakfast, the pho place down the block was it's usual self.
The only really poor breakfast I had was in a truck-stop in Laramie. Ugh. The hash was tinny, the eggs overdone, and the cheese atop them two slices of bad american. Which is a pity, because usually breakfast is a safe bet. It's hard to screw up things like that. They managed.
I am feeling more at home. I have coffee, in "my" cup. There is yogurt draining for my breakfast. The cats (of which there are more than when I left; though I am assured this will not last) are being snuzzly.
I have had various little comforts. "Mexican" food of the N. California variety. Tj's, Peet's, La Brea Bakery bread, etc. Which brings me to food, both on the road, and in the cities.
On the interstate... the food was sort of hit and miss. This is partly a function of lazy, partly of circumstance, and the worst part of structure. Stopping, on the highway, to eat means one has to take what comes; or push on. In a car I might decide the Apricot Tree (by way of example) didn't look worth the effort. On a motorcycle, not so much. Poor blood sugar changes alertness, decision making, and reaction time. There is a reason I was keeping apple juice and Tiger's Milk bars on the bike (the Tiger's Milk is still there).
So, when I was hungry, I stopped. The one time I put this off was the push to home. On that one I bought a snack every time I stopped for gas, from Reno on; and I had a large breakfast.
Breakfasts weren't too bad. Lunch was variable. I had a pretty good french dip in Kearney, Nebraska, and a really good pasty in some café on US 8 in the UP, but for the most part, the meals on the side of the road were fuel. Nothing horrible, but nothing memorable.
Supper was different. I was stopped. I had, usually, esp. on I-40, a large city to survey. And I was beat. The last thing I wanted, at 9 o'clock, after eight to nine hours of moving (going east was easier to run later... I was losing an hour a day (because I was pretty much clearing a time-zone each day), and the sun set behind me. I was also less familiar with long-distances on the bike, it was hotter and I spent more time off the bike when I got gas. Meal stops, both ways, ran an hour. It didn't seem to matter my mindset, breakfast, and lunch, took a hour). I didn't have the will to get back on the bike and explore.
If I thought I'd want a drink, I also didn't have the luxury of riding, not unless I was going to leave half of it behind, or spend more than an hour; after I finished it, sitting.
So it was walking distance of my motel. That's was, by and large, pretty dismal; esp. in the larger towns (Flagstaff was the notable exception, but it's a college/tourist town, and I was in a hostel. The latter meant the neighborhood was a bit less on the beaten track).
Oak Ridge was what it was. Knoxville has some decent eateries, and Oak Ridge has a couple of places one can winkle out. Being that I have family there, and have spent months in the area, I was able to get to those. The highlight was "Hector's". I don't know what it's properly called. I first went there in 1988, in the previous location, when it was, "El Palenque". Hector and Anna still run the place, and the food is still Yucatan based, and superb.
I forget (though
jonsinger knows, and is known at) the Burmese place I was at in DC. It was divine. The desert was superb, a cream of wheat custard which defied all expectation. It was just large enough to be not quite enough; but not small enough to be insufficient.New York was strange. One reads so much about the New York restaurant scene. I wasn't all that impressed. One... drinks were insanely expensive. I know New York is pricey, but oi... a whisky I'd have expected to pay about 16 dollars for was 26. I priced bottles, they weren't that much more expensive retail, so the markup was based on other factors.
But the service in the places we went for dinner was so-so, bordering on awful. The sushi place where I ate with
roadnotes, baldanders, pnh, and tnh was good. Candle 79, a vegan place off Central Park, so-so. The food was decent, the service was crap. We had two waiters paying attention to us, and still didn't get things in anything approaching a timely fashion. The amuse bouche was tasty (a crostini, with a very good, and delicate, pesto), but a mistake. The special, which
ladymondegreen ordered, was dressed with that same pesto. It made a fine appetizer, but as a showcase for the talent/whimsy of the chef, it was a bad idea.My dinner was tasty, and I'd order it again, but it wasn't really enough to make up for being basically ignored while we were there.
Francia, a korean style, "zen cuisine" was much better. It was, of the restaurants we went to the best. Vegetarian (when one is with someone who keeps kosher, one goes to a lot of vegetarian places), and really good. The decor was inviting (three levels, four dining areas, with low walls between them. It reminded me of restaurants in Korea, esp. those in slightly less dense areas that Seoul, like Waegwan), the menu excellent, and the tea superb (a traditional service. I got a small iron pot [warmed] and a dish of leaves. I also got a thermal carafe with water to the right temperature for my chosen tea. I put the leaves I wanted in the strainer, poured the pot full, and then filled my cup. The pot was about two and-a-half cups worth of tea. When I poured my second cup, I added more water. I should very much have liked to have another tea drinker there, to make comparisons) I had a hot rice bowl, and there was nothing wrong with it. Service, again, was spotty. We got about the right level of attention; but the one time we wanted someone, it was slow in coming; despite there being a call-button on the table. But that's the only complaint.
We did go to a kosher (meat) place, Le Marais. Service, again, was poor. The wine list was hard to assess. The by the glass was small (a couple of red, a couple of white, one rose, as I recall). Since I was getting a whisky when we got our table, everyone else who was interested in wine had already ordered glasses, so splitting a bottle wasn't an option. The bottle list had promise.
Style is french bistro, and that was well done. The meat, not so much. I got the flanken, and it was a bit more done than I'd asked for, and the saucing was oversalted. Which was a real disappointment. There was a magret duck breast appetiser, and it was wonderful. The meat was just pink, the saucing didn't drown the flavor, and the meat was rich. The fries were good, the vegetables; and salad, dull.
The dessert menu... scary. Almost everything was some form of faux dairy. One would think, with all the talent available; and the height of summer to hand, there would have been a seasonal list of desserts which wasn't the list of tin fiddles they actually offered us.
Little shops, pretty good. I wandered into a chinese place making stuffed pancakes. Wonderful. A really well seasoned mix of pork and vegetables. The Lychee smoothie was a little too sweet, but the lychee flavor was intense too.
I think I mentioned the diner in Jersey City already.
I didn't get to much of anyplace new in Ottawa. The Arrow and Loon Pub had a good breakfast, the pho place down the block was it's usual self.
The only really poor breakfast I had was in a truck-stop in Laramie. Ugh. The hash was tinny, the eggs overdone, and the cheese atop them two slices of bad american. Which is a pity, because usually breakfast is a safe bet. It's hard to screw up things like that. They managed.
