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.

[guids]

Cinco de mayo has always been big in stl for as long as I can remember, there arent many mexicans here at all either, its just an excuse to drink, but here, even arbor day is a good excuse to get some lawn chairs, circle them up around a tree and start boozing.


trip report:
my buddy won an auction for 18 holes at one of the areas ritziest country clubs, it is all jews, or at least mainly, I fit in fairly well because of my nose and dark hair, but the member that we were guests of made a hilarious comment about my buddy being the whitest blondest kid ever to get through the gates. It was a beautiful course, tough, but fun. Im not an architect, but there were some huge huge mansions on this course, with whole outside walls there were windows, which seemed like a bad idea. we got through 8 holes than had to quit due to lightening, we get to go back though. Im looking forward to it.

[KJS]

DJing Trip Report:

Last night my best friend/DJ partner and I were invited to spin tunes at The Bus Stop, a small bar on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Our main music interest is death metal. We used to be the house DJs during death metal shows at a different bar. While death metal utterly rules, it is not for everyone, so we toned it down for this night. Mostly old school heavy metal (Maiden, Metallica, Sabbath), rock (AC/DC, Zeppelin, Turbonegro) and punk (Buzzcocks, Screeching Weasel, The Queers). Got about 10 of our friends to come plus whoever was in the bar. The place only holds about 40. It was a great time. Good friends, good tunes, free beer for he and I. Lots of compliments from the customers and the chicks working there. Nothing like turning a bar into your personal sound system for a night and having people groove on that. I hope we get invited back.

KJS

[Howard Treesong]

Paris last week: afternoon of meetings with French counsel, who are far more intellectual and objective than their American counterparts. Seminar on differences between French proceedings and American ones, followed by cocktails and dinner with a crew that included a former justice of the French Supreme Court. Great guy: a little dry and wordy during the seminar, but a wonderful conversationalist and raconteur in person. I will also say that the Arc de Triomphe is rather triumphant, and has a really cool spiral staircase going all the way up. Frenchmen know their wines!

Took the train to the UK the next morning. I had eight separate meetings on separate subjects over two days, followed by two days of meetings on one issue. The first two days were a little stressed, but I did manage an hour's down time at St. Bart's cathedral, parts of which remain extant from 900 years ago. Quite an excellent place to find in the middle of the city. The second two days were much easier, given that I was already deeper into the issues under discussion.

Got upbraided by my outside counsel for complaining too much with the following line: "Don't have a winge about that." Overall sense: the quality of the English bar is quite high.

Went to Harrods and bought an old map of Hawaii for the new Chez Treesong. Watched a heavy German businessman approach the sales matron with the following: "I am sure you not be having the map of 1600s Paris I be needing." Harrods' response, with obvious needling intent: "One doesn't know what one will find at Harrods' unless one asks, does one?" Turns out, of course, that Harrods had the precise map in question.

Played two nights at the Vic. Games were good and I came home 5K pounds heavier. Ordered "Salmon steak with bubble and squeak." Bonus points to any American who has any idea what that is.