Napa Rose

I guess I could be all snarky and snide about finding fine dining in Anaheim, but why? It's hardly a backwater, and given the tourist traffic flowing into and through the city, it stands to reason that the hotels, at least, would respond with good restaurants. So, take a bow Grand Californian Hotel - Napa Rose is a credit to you, indeed.

Tuesday nights at conference are when RAD and I get together for a good meal outside of Chicago. I didn't bother changing after my last committee meeting - it was an early reservation, and frankly, I looked pretty enough in my shirt and tie. Warm as it was out, I walked the 20 or so minutes from my far more modest hotel to the Grand Californian.

Our reservation, for 5:30, was for two seats at the kitchen counter. Sweet! Better still, the chef offered us the opportunity to have a tasting menu of his devising drawn from all over the regular menu. We each had different dishes and were able to taste what the other was having. And heck, while we're splurging, why not get that wine pairing option, too? Why not indeed. All that and the entertaining bustle of the kitchen to boot.



I don't have a copy of the menu to refer to, and I cannot recall the wines very well at all - we had quite a few, I do know that. So, here's winging it with the photos I do have. Some blurry shots, I apologize.

An amuse-bouche: quennelle of herbed mascarpone with vinegar gelee. Yes, I'm too lazy to use diacritics.

I didn't get a shot of Bob's appetizer of crab, well, not a good photo. This was my appetizer of raw and seared tuna, with an especially nice avocado cream. I liked RAD's appetizer more, however.

This made me giddy when it was set before me: rabbit bratwurst with lentils. I had zeroed in on this on the menu, and I was thrilled to be surprised with it. And yes, it was good. My favourite course of the night.

RAD's sweetbreads.

An interlude, if you will - cups of soup. Mine was the creamy portobello mushroom, RAD's was the shrimp and corn. I liked his more, truthfully, though mine was fine.


A palate cleanser - a small scoop of a citrus sorbet.

Entrees: my filet mignon topped with brie. Walnuts and dried cherries in with that. I seldom have a steak, but this was tender and welcome.

RAD's Colorado lamb.

Dessert was interesting in that the waitstaff brought us menus. We protested - if we're being taken on a journey by the chef, let the chef choose the desserts he )or, in the case of the pastry chef, she) thought best. So, it came to pass...

RAD's dessert, something chocolate with something chocolate. Cut me some slack - it was two weeks or so ago!

My dessert: pineapple upside down cake. it was cool chatting with the pastry chef about her technique for getting those dried pineapple wedge-chips.

A mini cheese course with three different chutneys.

We ate very well, drank happily, and thoroughly enjoy the extra attention from the kitchen. They willingly let me take photos and answered our questions. A great experience, and well worth the price. All in all, another successful cap to a conference.

Hmmmm. I wonder where we should dine in Denver...

Anaheim dinners with roommates

Early Saturday morning. Earlyish - it's gone 7:00. Conrad is still abed, though he'll soon need to get some breakfast before swim practice at 9:00. It's a grey, very wet morning in the aftermath of some mighty storms through the night. I'm one-hand typing mostly thanks to a mishap on Thursday night while chopping basil.

Time, then, to post a few more photos!

This year at Annual, Martin and I took in another roommate, David (shown dancing in the street at the Disney Village to the smooth sounds of one of those Pan Pipes bands). A fellow swimmer (in Houston), another "family" member. Sweet guy. He and I managed to get to an outdoor, long-course practice in Fullerton on the Saturday morning, then had dinner together at Roy's after breezing through the GLBTRT social on Sunday. How funny that I finally made it to a Roy's after a few aborted attempts in Chicago and a few trips to Hawaii. Tasty, though, and it made me yearn a little for joining Conrad on one of his trips there. I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, though, spring rolls (we thought we had ordered pork, but the bill said duck - tasty enough, but so hot from the fryer that we obviously couldn't tell a difference in what the meat was) and a butterfish that was in an intensely flavourful sauce. A rich meal in the end.


The next night David was back in Houston, and Martin and I dined at Catal in the Disney Village.
Our first stop, actually, was a reception, from the balcony of which we could look down on our own, more-modest hotel. We sat out on the balcony in the warm evening. RAD stopped by to chat at some point. Some vendors crowded around our prime location for viewing the fireworks later on. And while the food was fine if not especially memorable (my rabbit was lukewarm and ok though I rather liked the harissa-flavoured couscous), the bottle of Tempranillo was good and reasonably-priced, and the waitress was utterly sweet and the highlight of the meal.

Next conference, though, I will remember to use red-eye reduction...

Disneyland

Deep down, aren't we all children at heart? Ick, cliche alert there. Sorry.

On the other hand, I really am very childish all too often, so I feel no shame in posting photos from the ALA Scholarship Bash evening at Disneyland a week ago Saturday.

Funny thing is, I knew very few people who were going. I don't know why. I wish they had for their sakes. Martin, at least, sprung for a ticket late in the game, and I hooked up with him and some of the other Colorado librarians.

Rochelle and Keith.

Me with Martin, and Zeth behind us.

Our first stop, Tomorrowland!
Space Mountain, of course. Martin and I made it on that ride 3 times that night (and 9 rides in total). Ah, so much fun. A forty minute line, but we amused ourselves:

Colorado librarians acting like they love each other and everyone and everything.

Colorado librarians acting sober and serious.

Colorado librarians.

Night came on (Martin and I outlasted the other three, staying until midnight), and we pressed on to the Matterhorn, a few rides on the Big Thunder Mountain, and then nostalgia time: the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Oh, come on, like you wouldn't want to go on it again? I couldn't quite convince them to do the Dumbo ride, but the pretty tea cups brought back fond memories of (gasp!) 30+ years ago for me. Look, Keith liked it, too.

It got too dark for many more photos, and all that I captured after that was the sign at the ever-cheesy Pirates ride. Gussied up with Johnny Depp-bots, of course. Ugh.

If only I could have got shots of the fireworks - Americans really do know how to do them right!