Short trip report thread

[El Diablo]

This is for trip reports that are the opposite of Clarkmeister's epic and awesome trip report thread.

Cinco de Mayo NYC trip:

Friday: Drinks on a Tribeca high-rise rooftop. Highlight of this was the wasted 16yo kids on the other side of the roof with bottles of Jack. Steak at Dylan Prime. Good meal, but the dude tried to (inadvertently?) rip us off on the wine by charging us the wrong price, then correcting it to a different wrong price. I wonder how often this happens. I'm checking my restaurant bills more often now. Then drinks.

Saturday: Awesome Belgian waffle for breakfast at Petite Abeille. Some art, furniture, and shirt shopping in SoHo. Bought some presents (chocolates and hot chocolate) at MarieBelle and Vosges. Friend's Cinco de Mayo party from 3pm-11pm. $5,000 in pitchers of margaritas. Lots of shenanigans. Young Evan joined the festivities. Rockets and De La Hoya lose.

Sunday: Failed attempt to play tennis. Long jog. Burger at Corner Bistro. Recovery.

[gumpzilla]

Perhaps this is a different thread, but when/why did people start giving a [censored] about Cinco de Mayo? Increased Mexican presence in the U.S? Some kind of puritanical attitude that demands reasons to drink (seems less likely to me)? This is something I've wondered about over the past few years.

Bringing it back to the thread topic:

The weekend before last I went to Philadelphia for the day with the fiancee. Walked around south of Market St. for a while, then went to the Franklin Institute for an exhibit of artifacts from King Tut's tomb. Some of it was pretty cool - it made me wonder how highly artisans must have been valued back then, because it seems like it would have been a pretty serious job to crank out all of these religious/magical artifacts. Then we went out to dinner at Tequila's. I had filet in a tamarind and chile sauce with cactus; it came with tortillas and made a pretty bitchin taco. I had a couple of Negra Modelos to drink. She had chiles relleno and sangria. I would endorse this restaurant.

[El Diablo]

gump,

I think mainly just for an excuse to have Mexican-themed parties.

[kylephilly]

And an excuse to drink Mexican beer, which in my opinion, is delicious.

Edit: Just read the rest of the 2nd post, I have been to Tequila's in Philadelphia several times, one of my favorite restaurants in the city although a couple years back it was even better.

If you visit Philadelphia again, try a little BYOB by the name of Chloe in between 2nd and 3rd and Arch. Fantastic place and the pork BBQ ribs are some of the best I have ever had, and I've been to Memphis. This place is romantic but very small and sometimes hard to sit at.

Not to hijack your thread there El D. Just rare to see a Philly comment.

[kipin]

Why not drink Mexican beer whenever you want then?

If it's so delicious why would you need a reminder to drink it!

P.S. I drink Mexican beer on Cinco de Mayo as well. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[kylephilly]

Haha, I drink Mexican beer all the time, I just drink MORE on Cinco de Mayo. My favorite? Dos Equis, then Sol, then Pacifico, I like Modelo, hell I like them all but a few others above them that aren't Mexican but taste similar are Carib (Trinidad) and Presidente (Dominican) which are better than some mexis IMO.

[private joker]

Trip Report from Katana on Sunset last night:

This is among my 2 favorite sushi restaurants in Los Angeles, the other being Sushi Roku on 3rd & La Cienega. There are lots of places with great food, but Katana has the best atmosphere, location, style, and sensibility. Great service, too.

I went with my girlfriend on a Wednesday, tried to get 8:00 reservations but only 7:30 and 9:00 were available, which shows how popular this place is. But once we got there (around 7:25) we were seated immediately.

We started off with a sake sampler (3 great cold & filtered sakes for $16), sparkling water, and miso soup. My date wanted me to order food for both of us, so I obliged. Katana is known for its great grilled food as well as the sushi, so I got a good mixture. The grill has individual skewers, so I got us each a skewer of the Chilean sea bass, which was MAGNIFICENT. One of the best things I've had anywhere. Perfectly seared fish, lightly seasoned, tender, delicious. The second grilled dish was a skewer of chicken with green onion, also very good.

Then we got 3 sushi rolls: the albacore with garlic, which was phenomenal -- the best one on the plate. I love their albacore; the spider roll, which had delicious fresh soft-shell crab and some other surprises. Excellent crunch and flavor; the third was a standard spicy tuna roll, which at Katana is anything but standard. It hardly needed any soy/wasabi. Amazing texture and flavor.

That was pretty much it; we took our time eating and didn't get too full but left with satisfied bellies. The bill came out to about 95 including tip, which isn't cheap by any means, but I think we got our money's worth.

I highly recommend Katana to anyone in L.A. It's a great date place and the food is virtually unbeatable.

[IggyWH]

[ QUOTE ]
If you visit Philadelphia again, try a little BYOB by the name of Chloe in between 2nd and 3rd and Arch. Fantastic place and the pork BBQ ribs are some of the best I have ever had, and I've been to Memphis. This place is romantic but very small and sometimes hard to sit at.

Not to hijack your thread there El D. Just rare to see a Philly comment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Last time I was in Philly, I had a fun time at this little corner bar that was cheap (I can't remember the name) and then went to the Blue Martini just right around the corner. I had so much fun Friday night, I did the same Saturday night.

I need to take another trip to Philly sometime. Of course, when I lived 6 hours away, I was only there once.

[firstyearclay]

I have had about 15 short trips this year. This one I am currently on is definitely something unique. I flew from Maryland to Pensacola, FL to see a concert with a band I have been stalking called "Shiny Toy Guns". I landed, got a car, and drove over to the club to get tickets (see location, etc) and then planned on going to the beach. I wandered up meeting the band and hanging out with them for a couple of hours before going to the beach to enjoy some Corona's and hot girls.

Later on I went back to the club to check and see how everything was going and found out the show was cancelled. BOOOOOO!

I went with one of the promoters over to pick up the drummer and tell him the show was cancelled, so that was kind of cool.

Today (June 1st), I drove to Tallahassee to see them again before heading back to Maryland. I think I will be joining them for soundcheck and pre-game.

These trips are totally awesome and definitely refresh the brain. I do them all the time.

fyc

[StevieG]

Another Philly one:

Fight Night at the Legendary <font color="blue">Blue Horizon</font>

Entertaining night of boxing this past Friday night at the Blue Horizon in North Philly.

There were 9 bouts on the card, most scheduled for four rounds, with a couple scheduled for 6 and the main event at 8 rounds. As the fights got longer, they also got better, and the ring girls wore skimpier outfits.

Best bout of the night was the main event. Light middleweight Harry Joe Yorgey landed plenty of punches against Edson Aguirre, and was in clear control the entire way. But Aguirre withstood the punishment and Yorgey had to settle for a unanimous decision.

Quickest was in the last bout when heavyweight Farug Saleem landed a fierce uppercut early and sent his opponent to the mat. Ref called it a TKO at 1:01.

The $2 hot dogs and $6 16 oz beers worked just fine, but it was too hot in the ballroom to drink more than a couple. So afterward we hit Chinatown for some midnight eats.

Looking forward to going again, or maybe Michaels 8th Avenue closer to Baltimore.