Greg Sanders

Osaka Nightlife Matsuri 2014-05-31

Our dinner of noodle dishes, tempura, and oyakodon refreshed us sufficiently to venture back out onto the streets of Dotonbori. The last post described the center of Dotonbori as resembling New York's Time Square, with a river, although it would be more accurate to say with river traffic instead of automotive traffic. The crowds thinned out due to nightfall and being at a slight remove from the main strip.

We meandered through more pedestrian malls and onto side streets with a variety of interesting traditional and modern architecture, including several pubs, one of which was designed to look like a train car. I doubt that the stone walkways or older buildings matched the age of similar paths in Kyoto, but nonetheless each new block and turn brought distinctive charms, from metallic wall art to sumo wrestler facades to a diorama depicting a drunken cat and two mice awaiting marriage.

As the night fell grew darker, we found ourselves drawn back to the river district, where everything from bridges to boats to billboards was lit with a variety of colors and shapes, creating a festival atmosphere that carried throughout the entire city.

The displays were more ostentatious to be sure, full of bright lights, no small number of mechanical elements, and buildings a few stories taller than those just a block or two away. Looking back, though, the levels don't quite seem to achieve the same heights as the skyscrapers in neighboring districts.

With one last visit to the district's most famous bridge and ad wall, we headed back to the station. The sites were less densely packed, with wide boulevards and highways playing a more prominent role. Even so, there were fascinating mixes of wood and stone-fronted buildings at a larger scale than in the side streets. I also don't think I'll ever forget seeing a sky scraper with a climbing wall part way up. The train station itself was calming by comparison, with classical artwork hung on the walls. A train came quickly to carry us to Shin-Osaka station, so quickly that its rush of wind startled a nearby family. The journey back to Kyoto went by quickly and despite the cramped accommodations we were glad to have a room by the station.

Ponto-cho and dinner over the Kamo River, 2014-05-30

After crossing the Kamo River, Mina-san lead us one one Kyoto’s narrow commercial streets. This one was quite popular; it was the way to get to restaurants with decks over the river. Adding to its character was a plover theme; the birds, called chidori in Japanese, were  found on many of the paper lanterns.

We’re both quite fond of plovers, although for a while I had them mixed up with sandpipers. Chidori are energetic little birds, delightful to watch around the beach. They’ll rush into the receding tide, looking for a snack, only to flee moments later as the waves return.

Mina-san had made reservations for dinner at one of the riverside restaurants, and we were thrilled to be led out onto the dining deck after first removing our shoes.  Seating proved a bit tricky as half of the members of our party haven’t quite figured out how to manage cushions with chair backs (the chair backs make the traditional kneeling hard to do, but the smaller space made lounging difficult as well) but the view and the fresh air made any discomfort far worth dealing with. I’d trained up on that skill back in 2002 in preparation for the chance to attend a tea ceremony, but I’ll confess I still had to shift my weight every so often.

After ordering drinks, primarily be ers and plum wine, Mina-san and Moti navigated the menu, selecting a lovely variety of  dishes.  The style was reminiscent of tapas, and we tried everything from vegetables to tofu to beef to sashimi.  As night fell, we relaxed and watched the people on the decks nearby, those walking along the riverbed, and those strolling along the canal.  We’re both extremely fond of outdoor dining and this was one of the loveliest settings we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.

Following our dinner, we took a stroll through more of the nearby neighborhoods, passing eateries and other shops that had been in business for many years. The night was cool and pleasant, a wonderful contrast to the heat of the day, and the streets of Kyoto are particularly scenic after dark. In a different sort of contrast, we also saw a handful of specially-lit motorcycles traverse the streets in a manner more typical of Neo-Tokyo than the old capital. Incongruous fun aside, we stopped only because all the day’s activities had tired out Kate and my mother, and so we walked back to the Gojo Guest House for our last night there, bidding farewell to Mina-san along the way.

Update: Typo fixed.

2014-05-29 The return to Gion [Completed]

After returning from Daitoku-ji, we decided to grab something to eat.  Francis’ guidebook recommended the Karafuneya Coffee shop, which apparently not only specialized in a wondrous variety of sweets, but had incredibly detailed models of them to look over while waiting to be seated.  If you’ve ever wondered what over two hundred varieties of parfait would look like, look no further.  From individual treats to a 50000-yen variety that would likely feed an entire school class, it was here.  Kate reveled in the sheer concept and ultimately decided on a caramel apple pie parfait.

The shop didn’t just serve dessert, it also had a selection of diner classics including salads and onion rings, but the displays at the front showed you where their heart was. Our visit also showed us how attitudes on smoking were evolving. We were given a choice sitting at two tables or sitting together but within close proximity of the smoking station. We’d later dine at places that did not have a non-smoking section, but the balance did seem to be shifting both in the restaurants and on the streets. In that latter case, smokers were increasingly clustered and carrying a lit cigarette while walking was discouraged, at least in the larger cities.

After we finished we crossed the Kamo river at Sanjo Dori and made our return to Gion. Looking up the Kamo and walking the streets of Gion were disproportionately strong memories from my 2002 trip, and the actual reality did not disappoint. The west bank (the right of the picture) was backed with restaurants often with deck dining and that seemed to be open much later than those we encountered the prior night in the depths of Gion. The east bank had a linear park that helped serve as a transition between the two parts of the city.

Kyoto can be a hot city. It certainly was while we were there, with easily the highest temperatures of the trip, hitting the eighties and nineties. This made the attraction of the Kamo quite obvious and tall buildings with rooftop decks proliferated in a delightful mix of styles. However, there’s nothing new about gathering by the river for entertainment; that’s where Izumo no Okuni founded Kabuki on dry riverbeds. The Kabuki-za theater, shown on the left, and a statue of the lady both owe their proximity to those origins. Famously, though, Kabuki subsequently became entirely the domain of male performers, as a consequence of the social controls of the Tokogawa era, a subject we’ll return to in a future post.

We then proceeded to weave through the streets of Gion. The section by the Kamo seemed densely packed with any number of diversions housed in an eclectic mix of architectural styles and accouterments. Our destination for the night was the Gion-Shimbashi district, a charming historic pair of streets and canal that had quieted down for the night but still was an exciting new atmosphere for most of us. At the end of the strip was a restaurant with its own patron cat, shown at the right. If you look at the slideshow below you’ll see that it even has a shelf at the base of the hostess stand with a pillow for it to rest on. I won’t try to draw any larger observations from that, aside from noting that distinctive character proved easy to find in that part of town.

After completing our circuit, we headed back towards our guest house, along the well lit streets of Shijo Dori. We made it home more easily this time, the twisty avenues at the end of the journey were becoming more familiar. Also welcoming was the sight of the Yasaka shrine at night, which unlike the many other portions of that walk actually shows up nicely in nighttime photography.

 

Itsukushima Shrine and Evening in Miyajima 2014-05-27

After reaching the base of the mountain we bid a fond adieu to Toshi. Our next priority was clear: food. Fortunately, like popular tourist spots everywhere, there was a town happy to ply wares to satiate our hunger. In a precursor for the remainder of the trip, there were also vast crowds of students. This appeared to be field trip season and Moti told us that the volume was far greater than he was really used to. While the picture-taking was sometimes more challenging as a result, sharing the sights with the Japanese students was a consistently enjoyable experience and the times later in the trip where we interacted were all the more so.

My mother then took a break to sit by the coast, write postcards, and be accosted by deer as the rest of us went on to Itsukushima Shrine. I managed to make a cultural faux pas on the way in by sitting at the edge of the stone basin used for washing one’s hands on entry. That said, they still let me in and we were able to wander the orange painted halls of the complex. When the tide is up, the wooden floors would be consistently surrounded by water, but at this hour we could clearly see the flood plains.

In a touch of home, the muddy earth also was home to tiny crabs. Not the sort we normally see (and eat) in Maryland but a smaller type that reminded me of the burrowing crabs of the west coast of Florida. I wasn’t aware of such a phenomenon and may have to check out their place in Japanese myth. The rest of the shrine was a bit more familiar. There was a stage for Noh theater, miko (shrine maidens) selling incense and charms, and places to leave prayers behind or to get your fortune read.

Many of those elements can also be found at Buddhist temples, which made it challenging when I quizzed my mother later on identifying whether a place of worship was a temple or shrine. I primarily learned the difference thanks to my 2002 cultural arts class. The easiest way to tell typically is that the presence of Torii gateway, like the famous one on the left, indicates Shintoism and thus shrines. There’s any number of other signifiers, from the color orange to hanging paper, that also are good clues, but the Torii are the most reliable. That said, there are times when small shrines can be found in temples so sometimes you just have to read shrines and books to be sure.

After touring the Shrine we went on to a tasty meal, primarily consisting of the local specialty: anago (salt-water eel). I enjoyed it, although my favorite is still unagi (fresh-water eel). That said, when I was checking the wikipedia pages to get the words right, I saw that there are apparently real sustainability concerns around unagi, so I should probably make that a rarer treat.

After dinner we road the ferry back to the mainland and then took the train back to Hiroshima for our last night in the city.

Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima-style! 2014-05-26

Hiroshima loves okonomiyaki! How can I make such a bold statement about a city? Well, it has a three-story tall building full of okonomiyaki stands, Okonomimura, in the central business district. I think that qualifies, don’t you? Happily my wife Kate also loves okonomiyaki and the last time she had it was with our friend Coby in L.A. This is in large part my fault, as my diet restrictions on mammals and cephalopods runs right up against some favored ingredients in the cuisine.

The dish is a grilled one, typically prepared in front of the customer either at a common bar like the one in the picture to the right or at grills at the table. The word basically means grill what you like, so this isn’t really a cooking gimmick so much as intrinsic to the style. Ironically, the only available local option we know about in Howard County is premade, so I can’t get it without pork. All of the chosen ingredients are combined to form a pancake-style final product, although the Hiroshima style is a particularly large one, in part due to its inclusion of cabbage and noodles.

We picked a place by going up to the third floor, walking to the pack, and then sniffing. The back right place had a pleasant odor, and though almost all of the menu items contained pork, I was able to request a special order. Our noses served us well; our range of selections were all quite good and our server was quite the charmer. She already had a smattering of relevant English questions and worked with Moti to start to master follow-ups. She’d learn from him to go for “Where in Canada?” or the like after people named their country of origin and then tested it out on the other people at the table.

I don’t have the card handy at the moment, but I intend to specifically list the name and location of the place, as we’d all recommend it to anyone visiting the city. Kate continues to love okonomiyaki in all its forms, and I should perhaps just come up with a written Japanese explanation of my preferences. That said, we consistently had a fun time with later places that served it, and it’s popular throughout Kansai; don’t miss an opportunity even if you aren’t in Hiroshima.

Tsukiji fish market, Hama-Rijyu gardens, and leaving Tokyo for the first time

Our trip was skirting on Japan’s hot and wet summer, so our overall plan involved a journey from South to North with a bit of time in Tokyo at both ends. This ultimately worked out fairly well; we faced some days of persistent rain and all-encompassing fog, but the temperature was only a problem for the Kyoto stretch. However, since we were jetlagged and rising early anyways, we gave ourselves the morning off in Tokyo and went to see the Tsukiji fish market. As during my trip in 2002, we didn’t feel up for doing the 5:30 AM tuna auction. What we hadn’t realized was that under the current rules, if you don’t get one of the small number of slots for the auction then the commercial side of the market is closed to tourists until 9 a.m. No matter, we still got to see tuna being carted around, to dodge the ubiquitous mini-trucks with their conical front steering columns, and to have a lovely sushi breakfast.

The commercial district and small nearby shrine are fun, but it’s the right off the boat fish that’s the most appealing part of a morning market visit. That particular day, the chef was pushing a batch of oysters that was apparently the pick of the market not an hour before. We took that advice and were impressed; I’m not really an oyster person but trying something in top form is a great way to better understand the appeal.

After leaving breakfast (and procuring an octopus tea cup), we visited the fruit and vegetable market. There was a range of fascinating selections and it did help me understand the Japanese side of the constant trade battles regarding their restrictive agricultural  markets. Moti, who had worked with the JET program for a year in cherry-producing Yamagata, told us stories of getting vast numbers of cherries gratis because of small imperfections preventing their sale on the market. I’ve seen impressive fresh produce at U.S. farmers markets and fine grocery stories, and I’m no expert on these issues. However, the food we saw and the ate throughout the trip successfully cultivated a gourmand feel that is markedly different than the industrial agriculture portion of the U.S. market. It was also the first time I recall seeing wasabi in the raw and I was pleased to discover that the spice had a spiky covering to matched its flavor.

Wandering around the market itself was still remarkable if claustrophobic at times. The market itself may be moving before too long, a subject of some controversy, and seems to have a somewhat uneasy relationship with its status as a tourist destination.

We ended our Tokyo visit on a more relaxed and open note and visited nearby Hama-Rikyu gardens. One of many gardens once reserved for the ruling elite and now open to the general public, it has many elements you can find in Japanese gardens in North America but on a far greater scale. What could not have been anticipated by its original designers was the contrast of old and new, nature and city, of wooden plank bridges and skyscrapers. Such contrasts can certainly be found at Chicago’s Skyline Drive or New York’s Central Park, but the sheer density and continuous history of Japan makes such striking combinations the rule rather than the exceptions. After finishing that walk we returned to our hotel and caught our first Shinkansen to Hiroshima.

2013-03-18 Rothschild Boulevard

Guy's family were the consummate hosts. We had the chance to look through old photo albums, to swap stories, and to share a local favorite form of take out. Joachim and Priscilla had ended up staying at a different hotel because Kayak charged European users far more than American users in this instance, so we said our goodbyes. They had an early morning flight and I got to stay another day. Shai's family was so kind as to give them a ride and one of Guy's cousins was extremely gracious and offered a separate trip for me. From the family and friends I got advice for the remainder of my trip: see Jaffa, eat at Old Man and the Sea, check out Rothschild Boulevard and a few happening districts in southern Tel Aviv.

The city in the evening in March is quite inviting. Bicyclists and pedestrians travel the promenades depicted above and the weather lures you outside. The long stretched parks themselves are not the only pedestrian-safe places; sidewalks and crossing lights abound. In addition, every few blocks they offer a fancy like the pond above or art like the incomplete bridge to the left or hot drink stands. The latter was particularly notable to me, as I've always found D.C.'s mall in need of a few more tiny-scale park cafes, although food vendor trucks can help.

My jaunt on Rothschild started around the Habima Square (depicted on the right) and went down to Israel's first skyscraper: Midgal Shalom. According to the Wikipedia entry, it's also the only subway station in Israel. It was built under the tower in hopes of future connections that never came. I found out about this because I did find signs indicating a future light rail line which sounds as if it is still a few years away from completion.

I'd noticed one odd phenomenon on the walk that I'll have to ask some Tel Aviv natives about: eggplant graffiti. Various vegetable themes were actually fairly common in the city, but I think eggplants were the most prominent. Some googling found a blog post and flickr group that were similarly confused about the matter. Frankly, Guy could probably have told me more about the light rail than the graffiti. He's called Washington, D.C. his home for some time and probably would only keep up with such a phenomenon in Tel Aviv if it involved depictions of meat.

2013-03-17 Walk to Dizengoff Fountain

After my airport misadventures, I took the train to Tel Aviv Center Station. I sat with a rather nice couple without much English and near a gentlemen who was fluent and piped in at the end. They ended up spotting me bus fare for fear that I wouldn't be able to change money in the station. There did end up being an ATM and I was able to make change easily enough, but I shall have to endeavor to return the favor for visiting tourists and work to pick up more than a smattering of Hebrew for my next visit. In a pinch, I think my initial instinct was right and I could have walked it, but it would have been a schlep with my luggage in tow. Tel Aviv doesn't have a subway or trolley system, but it's got a fair amount of bus support and is quite walkable and bikeable. I was also able to extend my international smart card collection, as both the rail service and the multiple bus companies do have a common card.

I arrived Sunday evening and after getting cleaned up and checking in with a few of Guy's friends and family, I tried to spend the evening in a manner he approved of. Namely, finding good local food (I also did some wandering around on foot; he may have preferred that I biked, but the local bikeshare didn't seem to cater to tourists). I was staying at the Mercure hotel, and the concierge recommended a lovely Italian restaurant near Dizengoff Fountain. My favorite part of the meal was an appetizer special with sardines and cheese in an oily herb sauce. From what I've heard, Tel Aviv is far too cosmopolitan to have a particular local cuisine, but there often seemed to be a local stamp on whatever I ate. Perhaps more important, outdoor seating was commonplace, taking full advantage of the local climate. I'd done café-style dining with Guy before, mostly at a Starbucks a few blocks away from the office and most recently at a po-boy joint, although on both occasions I remember being afflicted by ridiculous winds. Still worth it, but not nearly as common or appealing as in this coastal city.

The restaurant was near Dizengoff Fountain, which was in a small elevated square populated by a group of local musicians. The modernist appearance is fairly typical. As a city, Tel Aviv is not much over a century old, as compared to the multi-millennia history of Jaffa to the South. The relative newness of the city reminded me a bit of Hong Kong; perhaps the common British colonial heritage played a factor there. The rest of the night involved a leisurely, roundabout return to the hotel, uneventful aside from the surprise of seeing bats flying around a local park. I wasn't particularly bothered by insects this trip, so I may owe those flying mammals a debt of gratitude on that score.

 

2012-06-30 Journey to the Northwest

We were extraordinarily lucky in our vacation timing, as when we left the D.C. area there were temperatures above 100 degrees and thunderstorms causing widespread power outs. During the first few rainy days locals were apologizing for the weather; we gladly informed them that no apology was necessary. Our flight out to Seattle was straightforward; the only point of note is that this was my first flight where Southwest had both the technical capacity and legal authority to offer wifi on the flight. I passed on this revolutionary opportunity as I didn't feel like paying the fee, $5 if memory serves, although some future flight will no doubt dun me for my internet addiction. The airport itself was a bit more exciting as we got our Seattle transit smart cards:  One Regional Card for All (ORCA). That said, we misused our Orca cards on our maiden trip and managed to miss the validation stations. We felt chagrined about that we docked our cards on the way out rather than the way in.

We used a Budget rental car place off 4th Street; it was a great location and we were relieved that they let us immediately leave our car in their garage as parking in Seattle starts at $4 for a half hour. We walked over to the Seattle Public Library on advice of Kate's coworker. The design is quite distinctive and modern with curves on the outside and any number of observation points and views out as well as towards the often open architecture on the inside. My favorite gimmick was the book spiral, depicted on the left. The hallway gently ramps letting bibliophiles walk through the entire Dewey Decimal System without needing to use stairs or elevators.

After seeing the library we walked down to Pike Place Market, known for its fresh fish and produce and thus quite a pleasing olfactory experience. We bought groceries and flowers and walked by the shops on the lower level. Kate was excited to see the original Starbucks, although she put off her pilgrimage through the line until later in the evening when the line was shorter. After seeing the market we enjoyed a late lunch at the nearby Crepe de France, which surprised us by the ampleness of their entrees. Our lodging was a timeshare in Birch Bay, some hundred miles to the North near the border, so we did not stay too late in Seattle. The journey up was  beautifully adorned by fog which clung to the hills in a manner that I found difficult to capture on camera despite reminding me of Kurasawa films.

Review: Founding Farmers in Rockville

My family went to Founding Farmers near Rockville a month or two back for the first time. It's a chic new chain known for its emphasis on organic and local produce. It can be rather busy on a weekend afternoon. We'd made a reservation but despite accidentally arriving rather early we had to wait to be seated until a bit after our reservation time. Similarly, we waited for forty-five minutes for our entrees to arrive; that was partially due to a miscommunication about whether we wanted beignets as an appetizer or dessert but was still a bit frustrating. Our one other problem was the noise level; the place is fairly wide open in a way that makes conversation more difficult without the benefits of live music or the like.

Those complaints aside the food and drink were both quite good and did live up to the promised local and organic appeal. I thought the entrees ranged from good to great. Portion size was variable, my grandmother's macaroni and cheese was overly abundant by my mother's dish was a bit small. Also I did like that that the standalone meals weren't too expensive; the costs come more from the enticing selection of drinks, appetizers, sides, and desserts. I don't think all restaurants need to do that, but I like when the more frugal and the more extravagant can dine together without too much fuss.

All and all, not a bad experience, but I'd recommend sticking to times when they're less busy.

Just had my first experience with Capital Bikeshare

Capital Bikeshare is a subscription system in D.C. which allows you to check out bikes at one location and return them to another. If you check the bike in again fast, in 30 minutes I think, there's no charge. I got a subscription when I saw a discount for them earlier, it took a few days to get my pass so you can't just grab and go when first you feel interested. Anyways, this is the first time I've used them in large part because during my earlier attempts I underestimated the force it took to remove a checked out bike.

There is an app called spotcycle that helps you find stations, although it doesn't seem to be integrated into Google Maps in such a way that helps you pull up directions. I ended up just running spotcycle while walking and then pulling it up again when pulled over at a corner near my destination. To the degree that your cycling between familiar locales this won't be a problem but it can be a bit trickier when first starting out.

On the whole I found biking in D.C. and easier prospect than I expected. There's a reasonable number of bikers about and a fair number of bike lanes if you're willing to adjust your route a bit. Tonight, I'd been making a trip to Adams Morgan, a neighborhood notably without a Metro stop, and bikeshare really does seem like a great way to do it.

I'll keep experimenting with the system. I'm curious whether I can use it to get to my occasional appointments at Georgetown University Hospital or as a means of reasonably reliable conveyance to Union Station when the hour is late and Metro trains are less frequent. Time will tell, but I had a good time riding so I'm happy to experiment. Now I just need to bring my helmet into work.

The destinations themselves, Bourbon and Bier Baron, were quite pleasant. I'm not a huge bar person but they both offered a pretty good experience on a Wednesday night.

Review: Paolo's in Georgetown, D.C.

My mother and I got lunch at Paolo's on my birthday before heading over to Georgetown Hospital. It was a good choice for a nice day as there were a fair number of patio seats available. We shared one higher-end entrée, seared scallops, and one $13 grilled chicken pizza. Both were quite good as were the warm breadsticks and dipping sauce served at the outset.

I don't hit Georgetown often, but I'll definitely keep this place in mind for the future. It was a short hop from the closest Circulator stop and the range of menu items means it could esaily fit different occasions. As is, we took a fair amount of pizza with us as leftovers; we could probably have split just that and a salad and been satisfied.

Source: Mom's treat, thanks Mom! Priscilla's recommendation, thanks for that from both of us; well done!

Review: Azul 17

Last night, Kate treated me to Azul 17, a higher-end Mexican restaurant in Howard County. We had a good time and were particularly impressed by our helpful waiter, who when asked gave advice on a variety of matters and made up the guacamole we ordered as an appetizer. That is actually one of the gimmicks the restaurant is known for; it was indeed fresh and tasty although I think the price is primarily justified by the chance to see it made up. The process didn't seem that hard if you have the right ingredients, so perhaps I'll give it a try someday.

The menu we ordered off is more extensive than the one online, but roughly Kate had a seafood casserole with shrimp, clams, snapper, and scallops in a tomato broth. We both found the red snapper to be particularly exceptional and I loved the rice. I'd ordered an enchilada with mushrooms and huitlacoche. The latter is also known as corn smut, but tastes far better than it sounds. Kate says if you are already eating mushrooms, what's one more fungus? She's right, the disparate elements of the enchilada made a great light vegetarian dish and the leftovers were terrific today.

Finally we had a flight of tequila. That was reasonably fun; the more whiskey-esque variants seem to be our speed. That said, I don't think either of us feel the need to make a habit of it. As Azul 17's tequila specialization suggests, many of the dishes and sauces were quite spicy, including the palette cleanser drink.  We got by all right, so if you're a spice fiend you may wish to check it out and if you are not be sure that you've got some tamer dishes in the mix.

Source: Picked by Kate when she saw a LivingSocial deal.  Thanks, Kate!

Restaurant Review: East Moon in Columbia MD

East Moon Asian Bistro is a local chain serving a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese food. We've been to the Columbia location twice and were pleased with our meals both times, as were family and friends that went separately. I particularly liked the way they handled their modernist décor, a neat mix of art with a colorful theme and only a moderate visual distraction if you're facing in the direction of the bar and thus a few televisions.

The first time we went for entrees, the second sushi. I'd say the entrees seem to be their strong point; I had pad se lew and Kate had the lemon grass chicken. Quite tasty and substantial for prices in the low teens. Tonight, the sushi was reasonable, we both left satisfied and I particularly liked their Tokyo roll. However, if you're dining in Howard county you have a rather wide selection of sushi restaurants and we're likely to stick with Hanamura or Yama Sushi as our default traditional and fancy place respectively. For the record, East Moon is more in the fancy camp and does a good job with the appearance of their platters.

So if you want an affordable restaurant that provides a mix of Asian cuisines, I'd say East Moon fits the bill. I'm not sure how well they handle larger groups, but from a price perspective you really can't go wrong if you bring more people and split a smaller number of their big dishes.

[Updated to add photo.]

Review: Great Sage Restaurant in Clarksville Maryland

Eating twice at the Great Sage restaurant hasn't resulted in any vegan super powers, but it has gotten us two tasty meals. I'm not a vegan and despite a mix of voluntary and digestive tract-driven food restrictions I'd have a hard time seeing myself become one. However, the meals we've had there, particularly the  adult mac & 'cheese' and the zen udon bowl both showcased that gourmet cuisine is quite possible even with restricted ingredients. Unsurprisingly, the dishes can get at the appeal of the non-vegan version of a meal but they seem to prioritize flavor over simulation.

Both the udon, with its homemade pasta, and the macaroni, with its spice and mix of vegetables, were specifically recommended by our servers. So if you aren't really familiar with the details of vegan cooking, it can be quite rewarding to ask. They take pride in their food but were neither preachy nor condescending to non-vegans which helps explain why there seems to consistently be a wait to get a table at peak hours. On the whole I'd say the atmosphere has a pointedly natural vibe combined with elegance via well chosen wall pieces (how well chosen? I'd love to grab them for my house if I thought I could afford them).

Finally, the desserts we tried were quite refreshing and may be a boon for the lactose-averse who still get cravings. The coconut milk-based mint oreo shake was fantastic and I'm really not sure how they pulled it off. It's probably too much to hope that it was any more healthful than a non-vegan shake, but it was good enough that I didn't care either way.

Source: Kate saw their write-up in the Baltimore Sun and/or HowChow.

2011-04-18 Visiting the home continent of rooftop restaurants

Wrapping up our first trip west of Luxor, we had lunch at the El Nakhil hotel and restaurant. I don't know if rooftop restaurants really originate in Africa, but the main one I go to around home is Ethiopian and that's good enough for a humorous assertion. The food in this place was a fairly standard Egyptian buffet style, but the rotisserie chicken was succulent and had a great blend of spices.

Traveling the Egyptian countryside was quite an experience and did feel quite distinct from my time in anywhere in rural America or in the Chinese countryside. I think I'll just need to see more of the developing world to better understand what difference can be attributed to culture distinctions versus climate versus ways things are made attractive for tourists.

Lunch in downtown Cairo [2011-04-17]

Hands down, my favorite part of Egyptian cuisine has the various dips and sauces that accompany the bread. There's both more variety and a mix of stronger and more sophisticated flavors than I've gotten at Middle Eastern restaurants back home. The pepper mixes and garlic dip were particularly tasty, which is good as the chicken I got for the entrée was fairly bland. Subsequent meals have had quite flavorful grilled chicken, so don't take that as a knock against Egyptian meats in general.

Fruit, typically citrus and bananas, are a common Egyptian dessert. The most distinctive other treat are variation on shredded wheat pastries or bars. In this case, they came with cottage cheese so I just sampled but subsequent encounters have been consistently positive. Honey is a major ingredient and I'm sure their loaded with calories, but the taste combines familiar ingredients in unfamiliar but pleasing ways.

Epcot 2011-01-23 Between the Land and the rest of the world

At the completion of our greenhouse tour, we went on to see Soarin' using our earlier acquired fast passes. The approach was a reasonable length walk, which is probably for the best give the popularity of the ride. After a Patrick Warburton-led flight safety video you're guided into a dark room with loose hanging rows of seats. The attraction involves being lifted above a screen in a hang gliding simulation over California. It was a lot of fun, even for Kate who normally isn't one for that sort of ride.

We had an excellent lunch in the food court of the Land pavilion. As you'd expect, many of the ingredients came from the hydroponic gardens and fish farms we visited. The prices were fairly reasonable and the portions ample. Afterwards we went to see the new attraction of the oceans: Crash's Turtle Talk. The attraction seats a small theater in front of a screen with an interactive computer-generated figure and a live human handling the voice. This worked pretty well; Crash had a range of behaviors, took questions from the audience, and whoever was handling the voice did a pretty good impression and did a good job working with kids.

We then proceeded through the classics of the topical Epcot exhibits, starting with the new Figment ride at Imagination! with Eric Idle. They haven't quite worked out how they want to handle that one. I'd recommend greatly increasing the level of surrealism; Idle should be capable of it. Afterwards, we wandered through some of the corporate exhibits in a classic world's fair setup on the way to the Spaceship Earth ride. The history of technology was enjoyable and Kate particularly enjoyed the 70s scientist lady near the end.

Afterwards Kate proceeded on to the World Exhibition and Mom and I went through the Mission to Mars centrifuge. The simulated G-forces were a lot of fun for me and we were amused by the slight interactive element. Each person had a role in the mission, but the role just involved pressing two buttons at an appropriate time.We were actually missing a commander, but through strategic reaching to an adjacent console, we were able to pull  together anyhow.

Increasing productivity in the kitchen

Matt Yglesias made an argument on food that seems to have ticked off many of his commenters (Hat tip, Chicago David Chen)”

If over time people were getting poorer, but the number of hours in the day was getting longer, and gender norms were shifting toward the idea that women should get married young and drop out of the workforce in order to do unpaid domestic work, then obviously people would start cooking more. But that’s not what’s happening. Compared to people in 1959, people in 2009 have more money, less time, and less ability to call on socially sanctioned unpaid domestic labor. So obviously they’re going to cook less. Or to look at it another way, there are lots of things you can do in 2009 that you couldn’t do in 1959—read a blog, download an MP3, get a movie from Netflix on Demand. There are also a lot of things you can do in 2009 that were prohibitively expensively in 1959—fly cross-country, make a long-distance phone call to your sister. But there’s no more time in the day. Which implies that people need to spend less time doing the things that you could do in 1959. Sometimes we can get out of this box by finding technological innovations that let us do things more quickly, but you can’t really speed up cooking from scratch… [emphasis mine]

And maybe someone could do it. The world’s purveyors of processed foods have noted a real market demand for healthier products. Consequently, they’re poured a lot of time and energy into creating things that at least seem healthier. And so we really have a lot of healthy-seeming options. But they’ve never, as best I can tell, poured all that much effort into trying to create things that are actually healthier. But someone could. Jamie Oliver could do it. Mark Bittman could do it. Michael Pollan could do it. And it would be more likely to succeed than an endless procession of NYT Magazine articles hectoring people about how they should cook more.

Apparently Oliver did work to improve school lunches, so good on him for that.  In any event, given some recent disappointing results from NYC food labeling, I’m going to focus more on the home production side.  Yglesias is correct that you can’t really speed up cooking from scratch, but that is quite different than saying you can’t speed up cooking in the home.  There’s a reason microwaves are everywhere, they’re fast, cheap, and make things hot.  There’s downsides to this of course, I think first and foremost the weakness is that they dehydrate the food, but I could be wrong on the cooking science there.

Anyhow, I’ll be doing a home cooked meal for my wife’s birthday today.  Which is cool, I enjoy cooking and since I follow the federal holiday schedule I’ve got the day off.  However, most days if I’m cooking something it has to be within 30 minutes.  Happily, my Mark Bittman cookbook does have a 30 minute index which I find very helpful, although I often don’t have the necessary ingredients on hand.  What I could really use is not a cookbook so much as a home economics book.  Lay out weeks worth of recipes at a time, tell what you need to buy, what you need to cook ahead on the weekend, and estimate the time and price investment.  Also, perhaps put the maximum efficiency recipe in with all the shortcuts and then layout where time can be added and what the benefits are.  E.g. go with fresh veggies rather than canned to improve nutrition and taste; do pure oven baking rather than a mix of oven and microwave for juicier chicken but at the cost of 15 minutes.  That sort of thing.  This does seem like an area where software could help, particularly in combination with grocery delivery services like peapod.  However, the software solution might not be useful for the people who most need to have productive kitchen options.

I think a lot of the trouble here is that the tradeoffs of restaurant cooking are rather different than the tradeoffs of home cooking.  Cooking does scale nicely, but learning to exploit those economics of scale is not an easy task, particularly in a small household.  In any event, how do we get to more home economics books?  Perhaps by marketing it to men.  While I was no Don Juan in my single days, I did find even low level cooking skill consistently drew positive comments from women and similarly enabled parties.  I won’t rehash the whole ‘nice guy’ discussion here, but generally speaking there’s no real reason to believe that being ‘nice’ or even just being genuinely kind is a particularly efficient signaling mechanism for your fitness as a romantic partner.  The ability to cook seems to be, and it also has the advantage of being a skill that raises your general fitness rather than just tries to invest a lot of effort in a single relationship with a person that isn’t interested in you.  I would love to see the foodie coaches capture the marketshare of the pickup lunches coaches.

Tour of the Guinness Store House 2009-07-16

We're down to our last four trip entries!  Two of them will be from Greg, and two are from me (wife of Greg, for those of you just joining in).

For our last full day in Dublin, we started off with a tour of the Guinness Storehouse.  Be warned that there are lots of pictures in the slideshow.  While neither of us is that much of a beer drinker (you can see a picture of me staring rather dubiously at a pint), my dad is quite the connoisseur and I figured he'd really enjoy the tour via photos.

The building was actually used as a storehouse until the late 1980's; after a while (I don't remember exactly when) it was converted over to the tour center.  It's quite nifty inside as you start at the lowest level and work your way up to the seventh floor where there's a bar where you can have a pint and look out over the entire city.

The tour begins with the fact that all Guinness is divided into four ingredients: water, hops, yeast, and barley.  It then takes you through the steps of the brewing process and lets you sample a bit from a fresh batch.  The next parts deal with transportation and advertising; there's lots of cool stuff to see in both.  Greg was particularly enamored of the small trains used to transport things around the brewery complex.  After that is a brief history exhibit, a place to pour your own pint, and a temporary exhibit space that was currently being used to showcase the artwork of the cartoonist who drew the most famous ads, such as the various zoo animals who always manage to steal their keeper's brew.

We had fun at the topmost floor bar.  I love places with excellent panoramic views.  The windows had a few of the more notable locations marked.  After we gazed and sipped and relaxed, we headed back down to the gift shop, and then on to our next stop, the Barracks Museum.