The thing with sandwiches– you either like them or you don’t. For those of you who are just “okay” with sandwiches, you fall into the “I don’t like sandwiches” category, because if you like sandwiches, you’d know it.

I think homemade sandwiches are the best, but for the sake of convenience, I rarely make sandwiches at home these days.

My favorite sandwich for the past year or so is “A Wreck” from Potbelly’s with everything on it. I really could do without the oil dripping out of the sandwich but I get the oil anyway. I think it’s the hot peppers that makes the sandwich so good.

This afternoon, I had the best sandwich of my life thus far from a little place called Tortas El Angel (they have a non-functioning website). It’s located at 1018 N. Shepherd Dr. and W. 11th in a somewhat rundown shopping center. You’d easily drive by it if you weren’t looking for it.

Now giving credit where credit is due, I was first introduced to tortas by El Rey, but El Rey’s got nothing on Tortas El Angel.

Tortas El Angel has a pretty fun menu with simple tortas like the Nortena (pictured above, photo taken from Houston Chronicle Review) which has fajita meat and scrambled eggs and all the usual fixings.

I had the “del maestro” (or “from the master” as it is translated on their English menu) and it was a carnivore’s delight. The sandwich has pork, beef milanesa (amazing), franks (grilled/fried hotdog slices), and chorizo along with the usual fixings of refried beans, lettuce, tomato, onions, jalepenos, avocado, and chipotle mayonnaise. This thing is bursting with flavor. And they also give you this green hot sauce that really pushes your tastebuds to the max. I have to say, the chron.com review was pretty right on when it said that the bread made a huge difference. The bread tasted like it was freshly baked and it held the torta together and resisted being soggy while still being soft inside the flaky crust.

It’s an awesome sandwich. I’ll try to remember to take a photo next time. And I’ll let you know if their weekend specialties are any good.

Note to self: refrain from writing food posts at midnight.

So this is what I made for dinner tonight. And I didn’t have my macro lens handy or else I would have snapped a photo because it came out looking pretty grand. It’s actually a hybrid of this Cauliflower Leek soup recipe and this Roasted Cauliflower recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 head of Cauliflower, cut into small florets
• 1 stalk of Leek, chopped finely
• 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 tablespoons of Butter (or whatever substitute you prefer)
• 4 cans of Vegetable Broth
• 1 cup of Heavy Cream
• 3 strips of Bacon
• 1 cup of shredded Mozzarella
• 1/2 an onion
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• Fresh Thyme
• Garlic Salt
• Garlic Pepper
• Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning (this shows up in 70% of my cooking)

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
• Place the cauliflower and leek in a small roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and season with all spices; toss to coat.
• Roast the cauliflower in the preheated oven stirring every 10 minutes until golden brown and tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook and stir until lightly golden brown, about 10 minutes.
• Stir in the vegetable broth, and bring the mixture to a boil.
• Remove the soup from heat. Blend the soup with an immersion blender or hand mixer. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in the heavy cream, and continue blending until smooth.

OPTIONAL:

• When serving, top the soup with shredded mozzarella and crushed bacon bits

MAKES 5-6 SERVINGS (depending on how big your soup bowls are)
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The last part is pretty flexible. You can blend it as much or as little as you’d like. I like the soup to still have the texture of the cauliflower instead of being a complete puree but some people like their soups thick and well-blended. Just adjust the amount of cream (you could use flour or corn starch here as well) to your liking. I also didn’t add any amounts for the spices because everyone has their own preferences. And to be honest, I don’t measure my spices. Only when baking.

The husband’s reaction when he came home:

“So they do have cauliflower in the U.S.”

Inexplicable, I know.

Apparently, it’s his favorite vegetable.

We went to the Mucky Duck last night and caught The Gougers show. Singer/Songwriter, Matt Skinner, opened for them and gave us quite a show with just his voice and his acoustic guitar. I especially liked his song, “I Don’t Want to Fall in Love.” It was so fun to watch him work the fretboard of his guitar and I especially loved the blues influence on some of his songs.

The Gougers put on a great show as well. I just love uncategorized music that falls in at least four different genres depending on the song. The guy writer made some little comment about how the music industry writes for two groups of people, 14 year old girls and 22 year old frat boys and if you listen for the applause then you’ll end up writing for those two groups. (I think he made some quip about not being able to sleep with anyone in his audience but you get the idea.) You can tell they write because they love to write.

I really like the Mucky Duck, it’s such an unpretentious place and their selection of beers on draught and in bottles is enough to keep you busy the whole night.  I also highly recommend the “steak and mushroom pie” over the “shepherd’s pie.”

I came across the Ghetto Gourmet a few months ago while reading a magazine in the doctor’s office waiting for the husband’s ACL knee to get checked out. I really want to go to one of their dinners.

In their own words:

“We began as a Monday night ‘pirate restaurant’ in a basement apartment in Oakland, CA in early 2004. Today, we’re a wandering supperclub of chefs, performers, hosts and foodies making one-night-only dining events happen for our members and friends.”

Wikipedia calls it the “underground dining experience in the United States.”

Basically you become a member of this supperclub and you sign up for dinner events in different cities across the nation. The morning before the dinner, you’re emailed all of the details of the event. The events are usually held in basements, backyards, lofts and random places like that. You pay somewhere between $40-$100 and you get to eat three to four courses of gourmet food with 35-45 fellow underground foodies like yourself from varying professions and walks of life. So you’ve got amazing food for decent prices with diverse people in interesting spaces in cool cities, accompanied by music and other entertainment and you’ve got a combination I’ve previously only dreamed of.

Guest chefs are invited to cook for the events and the menus are full of delicious gourmet food. Check out these menus for upcoming events in New York:

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Braised chicken pate and slow cooked fennel on brioche
Warm lentil salad with chopped egg, lardon and thyme vinaigrette
Short ribs with saffron, tomatoes and whipped root veggies
Purple carrot cake with orange blossom cream cheese

Mac n Cheese
Late fall salad with roasted squash, pecans, dried cherries and maple vinaigrette
Homemade pork sausage and little neck clam ragout with yummy rustic bread
Poached local pear with east village ice cream

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I don’t know what “lardon” is but everything else sounds delicious!

It’s a little rough around the edges as far as organization goes but that’s sort of charming too. What I would really love to do is start one informally with some friends. But I don’t have any connections with chefs. Anyone know any chefs?

Here’s a TIME article written about The Ghetto Gourmet.  The review isn’t particularly glowing.  There are also a lot of variations on The Ghetto Gourmet, other groups that imitate it.  I think I’m finding out about this too late.  It seems like the whole idea has lost its edge and has gone downhill.

And here’s a WSJ article about this kind of supperclub.

If you’re in a city that has one, go to a dinner and let me know how it is!

We were craving Asian food last night but didn’t feel like fighting traffic over to Chinatown. So we decided to wander around Kirby to look for a new restaurant to try. We ended up at Yum Yum Cha Cafe which is a made-to-order dim sum place.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with dim sum, it’s basically Cantonese tapas. Traditionally, the wait staff rolls around carts carrying these little appetizers and you pick and choose what you want to eat.

At Yum Yum Cha Cafe, you order off of a menu and they bring it out to you like a regular restaurant. Peking Cuisine is like this too. The quality was so-so. The service was slow. Portions were small. Lots of items came in threes instead of the usual four. But it was dirt cheap, easy to get to and there were a handful of good selections on the menu. I enjoyed the beef stomach in black bean sauce, the pork ribs, and the fried taro thing was halfway decent. The dishes are categorized as small, medium and large. They are then priced according to their category. Just to give you an idea we ordered 8 dishes of varying size and the bill was $18 before tip.  Oh, and make sure you order everything you want in the beginning.  It takes forever for the dishes to come out so don’t think that you’ll be able to order later in the meal and get it in a reasonable amount of time.

Why doesn’t Houston have a good dim sum place? The best dim sum in Houston (Kim Son, Golden Palace, Fung’s Kitchen, Ocean Palace) doesn’t even come close to the dim sum in LA. I’m talking carts with built in griddles to fry up the turnip cakes and chinese broccoli right when you order it.

Whoever opens up a good Dim Sum place in Houston will be rich. I’m calling it right now.

The husband and I have both been pretty good about our respective diets so we decided to treat ourselves last night to the $12 Steak Night at The Hideaway on Dunvale. And it’s not a wimpy sirloin steak, mind you. It’s a juicy 16 oz. ribeye steak. And it comes with a baked potato and a side salad. And not to mention $2.50 pints and $6.50 pitchers until 11pm.

The steak was awesome. They give you these slips of paper to customize your order by choosing your salad dressing, how you want your steak cooked, what you want on your baked potato, and whether you want any extras like grilled onions or mushrooms. I was tempted to choose rare instead of my usual medium rare because usually non-steak places get it wrong but my steak was a perfect medium rare. I finished all 16 ounces of my steak. I’ve never done that before.

We watched the Rockets lose to the Grizzlies (Darko was awesome last night!) and at around 9:30, Rick Lee and the Night Owls went on stage. Rick Lee is a middle aged Asian guy on electric guitar and vocals. And he’s backed up by a heavyset white bassist and an old black man on the drums. They’re pretty awesome. Rick Lee looks nothing like how he sounds. He sounds like a old blues singer. If you close your eyes, you’d think you were in New Orleans. The small crowd inside the bar was whooping and hollering at Rick’s guitar solos.

The whole bar scene was really laid back and friendly. Several people who came in the bar were greeted by name and their usual beer of choice was served up without them having to ask for it.

We left with full bellies and even in the parking lot, as we heard Rick belt out another blues song, we both agreed that we would be back. We would definitely be back.

We finally took our long anticipated road trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park this past weekend and it was quite an adventure. The cool thing about taking a road trip is getting to stop at a lot of small towns along the way that you’ve never heard of before. It’s fun to poke around their gas stations and eat at their mom and pop restaurants. Unlike big tourist cities, you get a candid glimpse at how a town lives and breathes. It’s like stopping by a friend’s house unannounced. Small towns are never really prepared for visitors. So they just give you what they give their own. It’s neat.

We left at six o’clock, Thursday night, and drove straight to Ozona, Texas. We stayed at a rundown Travelodge since we would only be there to catch a few winks before heading out early the next morning. We got in at around 11:30 or so and caught the end of the Suns vs. Lakers game. The room was completely renovated with granite bathroom counters and new carpet but the bathroom was comically old. I really got a kick out of the pale blue tile so I took a few pictures:

The next morning we woke up at six-thirty in the morning and with our teeth chattering from the cold, we headed west. We made a pitstop in Pecos, Texas to get gas and get some breakfast.

I took a few spy photos of the husband and caught him flirting with the gas attendant. Haha. He said that they were struggling to communicate.

I was shocked when I glanced at the car thermometer and saw how cold it was!

We stopped at the local Wal-mart to pick up an extra sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. The first thing we saw in the clothing section was an overwhelming amount of high school team clothing. In purple and gold, Pecos Eagles was all over hoodies, sweatshirts, tshirts, you name it. It should also be noted that Pecos cheers for the Dallas Cowboys. You can tell a lot about a town by its Walmart. The husband swears that you can tell the size of the town simply by looking at its Walmart. All this high school gear reminded me of Friday Night Lights.

La Nortena had awesome homemade tamales that we scarfed down. And of course, they proudly flew a Pecos Eagles flag right outside the front door.

This is my favorite picture I took in Pecos, Texas. No trick lens used here– just a very wobbly bench.

I found out about Symbaloo from Ronky on Flickr when he posted this picture.

It’s uses the concept of multiple desktops that you will be able to access from any computer when you create an account. It’s not really a new idea. Google and Yahoo both have fairly decent personalized homepages that you can set up and access from anywhere. What I like about Symbaloo is that it’s visually pleasing and I really like the fact that there’s the middle box that displays a search box for all the different websites so you can skip a website load and search for what you want immediately.

Each box is customizable and you can move around the different blocks to wherever you’d like. I also like that it’s simple enough for all the icons/boxes to fit on one page without scrolling. While it doesn’t have the news feeds and functionality of the widgets that Google and Yahoo provide, I never really use a homepage to read up on things I’m interested in. Symbaloo is purely a launchpad and I think that’s what a homepage is most useful for.

They claim on their website that Symbaloo will stay ad-banner free. How are they going to make money?

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Halloween is a funny occasion. I think it’s the worst for people who don’t have any fashion sense. I saw a person dressed up in a costume yesterday and didn’t realize it was a costume until 30 minutes into the conversation. That’s pretty bad.

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We went to Jenni’s Noodle House on Shepherd and it was surprisingly good. Featuring fresh ingredients, cute menu names, and authentic flavors, the husband and I were both pretty pleased. I had the Ginger Ramen and the husband had the Chili-Oil Beef Ramen. The location is really convenient for us but I don’t know if it’s worth the heftier price tag. We’re used to paying 4-5 dollars for a bowl of noodle soup. It’s a a bit unsettling to fork over 7-9 dollars for a bowl at Jenni’s. It’s in a better neighborhood than the Pho place we like in Midtown so we understand that they have to hike the prices. When I was eating I kept thinking about how easy it would have been to make it in my own kitchen but it was nice to not have to and to still feel that the ingredients were fresh and healthy.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be back.

Here’s another food post for you, Jason.

The Child Protective Services office I’m interning at is near the Reliant Center and I had driven by Mama’s Oven several times with their mini marquee advertising their oxtails and smothered pork chops. I’ve been wanting to go for several weeks now and the husband and I finally went tonight.

Before I go any further, I just find it interesting when certain dishes crossover into different cuisines. I’ve grown up on my mom’s cabbage, tomato and oxtails stew. I’ve always thought it was uniquely Chinese. But apparently oxtails are a pretty regular staple in soul food.

I had the pork chops, green beans, and mashed potatoes. The husband had the oxtails, corn, mustard greens and rice. They had awesome cornbread that we had to resist finishing to save room for our meals. The food was awesome. The gravy smothering the pork chops was awesome. The portions were pretty great for the price. The service was extremely friendly. The lady taking our order was sweet and said baby this and baby that.

We also wanted to try Hank’s Ice Cream next door but we didn’t have any cash on us and so we’ll just have to go back next time.

Still craving ice cream, we decided to head to the Heights to grab some gelato. We ended up at Cricket’s Creamery & Caffe, this cute little place on 19th street. 19th street is pretty cute in general and this place fits right in. They have eclectic stuff all over the place and cozy places to sit and chat or read. I’ll definitely have to bring my camera next time to take some pictures of the place. Parking can be hard to find sometimes but it was a breeze today since it’s a weekday. I had the blackberry gelato and the husband had the mango sorbetto. Both were delicious.

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On a side note– have you ever wanted to write a novel? I have. An old pal of mine, Quinn, brought to my attention that November is National Novel Writing Month (affectionately termed NaNoWriMo). The general idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. The focus is on the quantity and not the quality.

“The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.”

Whenever I have ever tried writing any sort of meaningful prose, my tweaking and editing has paralyzed me, discouraged me and finally stopped me. So this should be fun! I signed up yesterday. Wish me luck!

The husband and I are both on a diet and we occasionally cheat.

Last night we went to West Gray Cafe for late night munchies– which turned out to be complete breakfast plates for the both of us and a Coke float for me.  I’m talking scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, hash browns, biscuits– the works.  It was ridiculous.  But so good!  The place was cool, laid back and low key.  They have several Greek options on the menu which is great.

We opted to sit on the patio because we’re patio kind of people and we shared the patio with a really odd table.  It consisted of a uniformed police officer, an older woman, a well-dressed gentlemen in a gray suit, and a middle aged man wearing a black vest over his hunter-green button up shirt.  My guess was that they were family (even though they didn’t look like it) but the husband was coming up with conspiracy theories.  Unfortunately, they were sitting too far to eavesdrop.

More random tidbits from the social work world (some of these are unverified):

• If you want to keep cookies moist and soft for the next day, place a piece of bread into the box with them overnight so that they don’t get stale.
• If you have a baby and give the unharmed baby to a safe place (such as a hospital or fire department) you can leave the baby with no legal consequences or abandonment charges (in accordance with the Baby Moses Law).
• If you feel yourself tearing up and about to cry, drink a glass of water– apparently your body has a hard time doing both at the same time.
• the word “laconic” means using few words; expressing much in few words

I apologize for the lame post title.

We went to the 41st annual Greek Festival this weekend– skillfully managing to dodge the rain on Saturday.

The husband and I like a wide variety of ethnic food and Greek sits fairly high on the list for their ability to marinate meat and their cheese-filled pastries.

While there was a live band, dance performances, cathedral tours, and a gift shop, we were there purely for gastronomical reasons. This event is best told in photos:

Our first stop was the Souvlaki (soo VLA kee) stand. Souvlaki is seasoned and marinated tenderloin cubes with onions, prepared over burning coals.

As you can see, the cubes of marinated tenderloin were larger than life.

We then stood in a long, sweaty line for a dinner plate which included Tiropita (tee ROH pee tah) which is a cheese-filled puff pastry (on the right tray), Spanakopita (spa nah KOH pee tah) which is a spinach and cheese-filled puff pastry (on the left tray), baked macaroni and beef (no photo), and of course…

… Greek salad! This consisted of Romaine lettuce with Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet onions, Greek olives, pickled peppers and Feta cheese.

Dessert was called Loukoumades (loo koo MAH thez) which were deep fried honey puffs with powdered sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Here are two pictures taken by the husband that night that I really like. I could have never taken them myself because my hands are not nearly as steady as his are:

Stained glass windows on the side of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral

The view from our foggy parking shuttle bus window.

The husband and I went to Osaka Japanese Restaurant last night to celebrate improving our monthly budget in September. They had rave reviews on Citysearch so we couldn’t resist checking it out. We weren’t disappointed. The sashimi pieces were enormous. The super tuna was only $8 for two pieces and it tasted almost as good as Fatty Tuna. The sushi rolls are bigger than the picture above, that was just a random sushi picture to get me in the mood for talking about sushi. The service was really inconsistent because at one point they forgot three of our rolls and was offering us dessert but to make up for it, they brought out extra rolls and a Gyoza appetizer to make up for it. We never stopped eating while we were waiting for the rolls so it really didn’t matter to us. Brilliant businesspeople. They also have delicious on-the-house ice cream at the end of the meal which we indulged in. I got the plum ice cream while the husband got the mango ice cream. Both scoops had bits of real fruit in it. I was more than satisfied. It’s not cheap sushi, but when it comes to sushi, you definitely get what you pay for.

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I met the husband for lunch today near his office and he took me to this hole-in-the-wall Cambodian noodle restaurant. The waitress recognized him and remembered his usual order. And his order wasn’t exactly simple. Half thin egg noodles, half clear noodles, big bowl of soup on the side, with combination meat (duck, pork, liver, and shrimp). I got the small version of his usual. I could have done without the liver. It was delicious otherwise. They had pickled jalepenos, dried spicy garlic seasoning, and other varieties of sauces and condiments to add.

The wall leading to the rest room had a handwritten sign that said, “Lost and Found”. The wall had several hooks on which one was a faded old blue and green baseball cap and on another was a light wind jacket.

Apparently the cap has been there since forever.

For dessert we went to Connie’s Frozen Custard to share a regular cup of Choc-O-Rocko (their version of Rocky Road).

Bliss!

I’ll admit. I’m pretty disappointed that Britney didn’t shock us and make a jaw-dropping comeback at the VMA’s.  You can see her performance here.

The MFAH members’ night was pretty cool.  It’s a really nice perk for becoming a museum member.  Some of the older crowd that was there was getting pretty toasted.  The husband suspects that this is what older people do in lieu of clubbing or bar hopping.  Grapes, cheese, and wine.  It’s free after all!

I really don’t appreciate Impressionist paintings.  For me, the more realistic the painting is, the more impressive it is.  I do realize that it’s a pretty uneducated perspective but I’m certainly not well versed in art museums.  What I really enjoy is the Baroque paintings that show a biblical scene or a mythological scene.  Those are my favorite paintings to look at.  Maybe this will change over time.

The museum currently has a really small wall of WWII photos up and that was probably the highlight of the tour for me.

After the members party, we stopped at Inversion Coffee (mostly out of curiosity) to get a quick sugar/caffeine fix and had a good time there.  Take a break from Starbucks and give it a try!  I think it’s relatively new so it wasn’t too overcrowded yet.  The cranberry scone I had with my coffee was pretty great.

I want to share the secret ingredient of the steak rub recipe I found on All Recipes: maple syrup.  Keep in mind that it has to be 100% maple syrup and not Aunt Jemima’s or whatever you normally use on your pancakes.

I really love the website AllRecipes.com because anything that has been rated over 100 times with four or five stars is pretty much a sure thing as far as trying new recipes go.  You can also sign up for a free online account with them and whenever you come across good recipes you can save it to your “recipe box”.  It’s very handy.

So I tried the maple syrup in the steak rub on our Fourth of July rib-eye steaks with my parents, my in-laws, and brother and sisters coming over and it was a big hit with everyone.  They couldn’t guess the secret ingredient but it definitely brought out the flavors of the steak in such a wonderful, mouth-watering way.

I can’t wait for the day when we have a real yard and a real grill but in the meantime, our George Foreman Indoor/Outdoor Grill has really proven itself.  The fact that we can grill indoors has been a real life-saver when our cookouts are rained out– not that it rains much in Houston or anything like that.  Har har.

The only real downside is that it can’t quite produce the smokey flavor that I love but it’s nothing a little Liquid Smoke can’t fix.

This past weekend was pretty packed.

The husband had a poker night with the fellas on Friday so I was kicked out of the house. No girls allowed. That sort of thing.

Judy and Lawrence were in town so I met up with them and Judy’s mom for dinner. With 2 more hours to kill before the poker night would be over, I drove over to River Oaks Theatre to see what was playing. Luckily, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) was starting in half an hour so I bought tickets and waited in their lounge upstairs. While I was waiting I was studying Ken Rockwell’s D200 User Guide that I had printed out which has a lot of great tips and explanations.

The Lives of Others was one of the most expertly crafted movies I have ever seen. I haven’t seen that many movies so I don’t think it means much coming from me, but even today I get chills thinking about it. The backdrop is East Germany before the Berlin wall came down. The movie depicts the horror of living under the tyranny of the Communist government. The depiction is so profound that you shudder when the actors shudder, you cry when the actors cry, and you hold your breath when the actors hold their breath. The movie has a beautifully written screenplay that explores the dark and fascinating world of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. Despite the heavy historical and social overtones, the movie is really a love story. It’s not your conventional boy meets girl love story. While there is a plotline about the love between a man and a woman, it is also about the love for one’s country, for one’s power, and for one’s livelihood.

Saturday morning we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for the Imperial Rome exhibit. The exhibit was fairly small with a handful of neat artifacts that made the visit worthwhile. In general I think HMNS has a lot of catching up to do to as far as staying on par with the Houston Museum of Fine Art.

After that, we were off to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

The weather was pretty perfect for a day at the Rodeo. It was hot but in a satisfying way. The way that makes an icy lemonade more delicious. Even if it costs $4.50.

I had a fried Twinkie and tried fried Coke. I’ll pass on the fried Coke next time. We also ate brisket and sausage. I later had peach cobbler and ice cream as well as a corn dog. It was kind of a gluttonous day.

We hit the petting zoo and wandered around the booths. We also watched a demonstration where they hooked up a cow to a machine that milked it. It was pretty disgusting. The way the milk was spraying out into the container in steady pulses was pretty graphic. I really could have done without seeing that. One of the best booths was for indoor/outdoor above ground jacuzzis. I’d love to get one if I ever get a backyard.

We left the Rodeo after we watched the actual Rodeo events (I love the Calf Scramble!) and went home to get cleaned up. Next stop was Yellow Magazine’s 2nd Anniversary party. We were there for the free drinks and food but actually had a pretty good time there. I ran into a good buddy of mine from high school that I hadn’t seen in about six years and it was a real trip just to talk to him. There were about three hundred people at the party and the husband was one of three raffle winners!

After we left the party we were still hungry so we went to Magnolia Bar & Grill for some crawfish. The crawfish were really fresh but not the best I’ve had. It might be because the season has just started and the crawfish aren’t as big yet. It was extra spicy though– just the way I like it.

Yesterday we caught the late showing of Frank Miller’s 300. It was visually arresting, as expected. I love how it blurs the lines between reality and and CG graphics. Like Sin City, it’s a movie I can put on mute and still love every second of it. The plot is pretty thin and basic. I don’t think any of the characters were terribly endearing. Admirable, but not endearing. I’d buy the DVD, but I don’t think I’d put it on my short list of favorite movies.

Let’s hope my life stops being so trivial soon.

Here are a few things I’ve really enjoyed these past two weeks:

1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

This was one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen in a long time. Robert Downey, Jr. was everything I’ve always loved him for. He was zany and neurotic and surprisingly handsome, even at the ripe old age of 40. If you haven’t seen this, do yourself a favor and pick it up this weekend at Blockbuster or Netflix it if that is what you like to do.

2. Whataburger

3. 702 Patio Bar

It’s a gorgeous sports bar that’s really too pretty to be a sports bar. Plenty of seating indoor and outdoor and they have eight stalls in the women’s restroom. Finally! Someone has figured out that women need more than two stalls in the bathroom at a bar. Really laid back place to catch a game. Cool bartenders, good food, and foosball in one of the rooms. I’ll definitely be back.

4. iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition

A coworker of mine has one of these babies and it looks amazing. The husband has graciously agreed to take my old iPod nano so that I get to get the remastered, RED nano. I can’t wait.

5. The Fray

I had the pleasure to watch this sold out show at the Verizon Wireless Theater last night. The concert was okay… lots of great moments but also a lot of bleh moments. The opening act “Damnwells” aren’t even worth mentioning and I felt like whoever was manning the sound mixer was doing a pretty lousy job. I’m amazed that The Fray is slotted to open for The Rolling Stones. Talk about a sweet gig.

6. Leftover Halloween Candy

I love trying new kinds of candy. Here’s a recent favorite. Reese’s Pieces with peanuts! It’s a must for peanut lovers.

7. The Blow - True Affection (iTunes Store Free Download of the Week)

Check it out. Download it. It’s free.

I had Otoro at The Fish this past Friday. It’s as awesome as I remembered. The Otoro was awesome. The Fish was pretty cool.