bow ties

It's that time of year again when I need to do a whooooole lot of presentations for my professional association, and so the bow ties come out.  I do enjoy wearing them, but in recent times, I find myself wearing them less and less at work.  The effects of the pandemic?  I actually tried to dress for work for the year and a half of working at home, changing into more casual clothing at the end of the work day.

But no, I haven't rolled out the bow ties all that much lately.  In recent days, in the week ahead?  That will change.

It's funny:  go back to all the old blog posts.  You might find a regular old neck tie on me, but no bow ties.  I didn't know how to tie and wear them until October of 2012, after I went on my many-year hiatus.  All credit to Dale, then in Baltimore and now in New Orleans, for showing me how to tie one (in a car after dinner at a conference in Baltimore as Hurricane Sandy was barreling down on us).

I've worn them many times since, and in my presidential campaign, I made them my emblem. 

It was a cute campaign idea, and I thought I executed it well.  I didn't win, but it was fun enough.

On the other hand, it became something I'm now known for, to the point where if I don't have a bow tie on, I get comments.  So, good branding, but branding that I can't quite escape.

Ah well.  I do have a number of bow ties, and there is absolutely no point in letting them go to waste!  So they make a return for January, at least.  Now to get my outfits for New Orleans picked out, and match the bow ties with them!

chin chin!

Although I guess, given that we were drinking Champagne, it should have been à votre santé...

It's off to the desert and more online meetings today and tomorrow.  I'm heading into a busy period of association work, conference, and travel.  Which could make for good blogging!

But for now, cheers.  If you are finding your way to this renewed blogging, thank you.  Cheers!  And more!

S is for sushi

Here's something funny.  Or curious.  Maybe interesting.  No matter - what Conrad and I have long realized is that in Chicago, we ordered Thai food (or went for Thai food with teammates and other friends) almost weekly.  In Pasadena, that's us and sushi.

We live in a part of the city called Old Pasadena.  It's the old downtown, revitalized, though I fear that COVID has taken its toll on businesses.  Still, its a great area with restaurants and stores and a movie theatre.  Come home from work on Friday and park for the weekend!

There are restaurants we like and enjoy and get to once in a while.  Places like Union, Perle, Agnes, and a few others.  There are restaurants where we walk in and know people and feel like cherished guests.  Places like Maestro, Amara, and - tonight's option - Mama M Sushi.

The thing that makes us chuckle is that the Mama M space was previously occupied by something called Best And Delicious Sushi.  Now then, think about an abbreviation. BAD Sushi?  Yep, you got it.  Not the best marketing.  We liked it fine.

And then Chef Jack set up Mama M Sushi in the space.  I don't actually know who Mama M is.  I should ask.  But here is what I do know:

Chef Jack, his wife Joy, and their team make us feel very much a part of the family there.  I love chatting with them.  I love when I get to see Chef Jack on the neighbourhood streets.  I love dining there and taking out.  I love recommending the place to people because Jack and Joy are wonderful.

The food is good.  Can you get much higher end sushi in Pasadena and elsewhere in the LA metro?  Yep.  Who cares?  I have had some pretty interesting, surprising, and kind of high end items at Mama M.  That sea urchin?  Oh yes.  The wagyu nigiri?  You've got my attention.  But more ordinary things are darn good too.  I love love love the amaebi - raw, sweet shrimp, served alongside the deep-fried heads (yep, eat the whole thing!).  The black snapper is so good.  I could go on.  We love them, we are so happy they survived the pandemic.  Long may they stay in the neighbourhood.

After happy hour tonight (I'm writing this Wednesday, posting it after that), we went down to sit at the sushi bar.  We often get takeaway, but as we've brought Van into this weekly tradition, we've had to accommodate him.  We love Van, dearly, but the man is not a fan of sushi.  Or raw oysters.  And similar things.  Happily, other things keep the throuple going.  But enough about Van!  This is about sushi.

We asked what was good.  Kurodai - black snapper.  Halibut.  Blue fin. 

No surprises there.  We have enjoyed them all many times.  The yellowtail sashimi was so tender, so clean tasting. 

And then there was something shared with us with their compliments:  yellowtail ribs.

Oh, yum!  They've given us this treat a couple of times before, and I have wanted it again.  Tonight a dish came out, and oh, was I thrilled.  Fish ribs!  Come on, think about it - there is good flesh on the bone.  Why let it go to waste.  I love that Mama M has thought of this and let us try it.  And again.  And again.

Olive, White Lotus

A post that is just an excuse to post a photo of Olive.

I won't go on and on about the little girl.  I'll post more of her as I continue with this blog.  But yeah, winding down on a Tuesday evening watching the first season of White Lotus (yeah, I know, we're behind) in bed with Olive alert to the television for a dog sighting was kind of pretty much really ideal.

Sigh.

But yes, Olive is a beautiful dog, and while she may be Van's these past few years, I have grown to love her so much.  So maybe I need to change the blog title to Peter.Food.Travel.Musings.Olive?

online happy hours

We realized tonight that it's about two months until all of us kind of shut down because of the pandemic.  March 17 for me - that was the last day I was in my library for about 1.5 years.  Time flies when you are drinking cocktails.

From an early point in the pandemic, Conrad and I set up social activities online.  Brunches with Courtney and Robert, but also with others.  Sushi with Natasha, living on opposite corners of our building but not getting together in person for weeks.  Happy hours on Zoom.  We did many of those, but for three years, the most durable has been with Marie, Allison, Rachel, and Chris.  Core friends (and my sister, but really, my sister is one of my closest and dearest friends).  I love our meet-ups.  Conversation ranges all over, and it feels like a loving, supportive group.  A loving supportive group that makes some kick-ass cocktails.  And, delightfully, meets up as best we can!  Rachel and Chris had 50th birthdays last November, and while Allison and Van couldn't join us, the rest of us met up in Chicago

for evenings of dining out and - surprise! - cocktails.

What's fun about the cocktails is that we choose a theme, and then we spin off from there.  Last December, for example, we did solstice cocktails. 

Van may call my drink Milk of Magnesia, but there was something odd and compelling to me about a mix of tequila, creme de menthe, white chocolate liqueur, lime juice, and heavy cream. 

No, I mean it!

Tonight was the January happy hour.  The upcoming Chinese New Year will be the year of the rabbit, so we started there.  Is it appropriation somehow to spin off from that and interpret the theme as we see fit?  I sometimes fret over that, I do.  And yet, I press on.  We made three drinks centered on rabbits somehow, only one of which I photographed.  The Conejo

was tasty enough, but I agree with Van's assessment, that it tasted like a spa vegetable juice with booze added.  I would actually make it again, though.  I would not make the El Conejo Bueno cocktail again, though Van drank it down.  As for the Follow that Black Rabbit - Allison had made a version but lacked the Fernet Branca and had to substitute Amaro Montenegro - it grew on me.

 Next up, Presidents' Day.  I'll go digging.  That should be an interesting one to interpret!

but what about the food part of this blog, Peter?

The first word in the title of this blog is "food".  Anyone who has looked at it before, stumbles upon it now, or heck, knows me in person will understand that I love food.  Genuinely.  I once had a friend who would not so kindly tease me by calling me a food snob (note the past tense in describing that friendship!), but no, I am not that.  Yes, I eat fast food.  Yes, I eat snacks.  No, I don't need gourmet food, haute cuisine.  All I ask is that food be prepared well, or that it simply hit the sweet tooth (and salty tooth, if that's such a thing) that I have.

So let's bring food (and drink) back to this blog and talk about dining in the desert.

I've commented on this to Conrad and van a few times, and to Courtney and Robert this past weekend:  Palm Springs, for such a tourist destination, strikes me as not living up to its potential in terms of dining.  I'm being unfair - I've hardly tried many restaurants despite having been down that way perhaps 30 times in the past three years.  It's not a large city either - 50,000, perhaps?  String it along with all the other Coachella Valley communities (including Rancho Mirage), and there are multiple hundreds of thousands of residents and thousands more visitors.  And yet, despite that, I've largely only had good food (and some mediocre food) and seldom great or really interesting food.

I have had good drinks, though!

I'm not going to plumb many years of photos from desert dining.  Instead, let me spotlight a few recent forays.

Van's birthday falls close to US Thanksgiving each year, so this year his friends Jennifer and Sanders joined the three of us at Bar Cecil for dinner.  It's a newer restaurant in the city, and wow, has it been popular.  Tough to pin down reservations to the point where it's dropped off our radar (and yes, we tried a walk-in once, to be met with a suggestion that maybe in a couple of hours).  But for Van's birthday, I scored a late table.

I like Bar Cecil.  I like the vibe, I think the bar program is great.  I like the food.  I don't LOVE the food, but I always find things to enjoy.  I mean, come on:  deviled eggs! 

We shared those, but I could have eaten many.  The smoked fish rillettes made for a tasty appetizer as well. 

Choosing an entree left me a little less interested, though.  I ended up with a steak frites plate, and it was fine. 

Will I recommend the restaurant?  Yes!  Will I go back?  Yes!  I simply may choose a different main course.

The three of us were down in the desert a couple of weeks later, getting things ready for Christmas since Conrad and I had plans to see his family briefly before the holiday.  Van had wanted to get us to Truss & Twine, so we arrived at opening and secured some good seats at the bar. 

Ah, I love sitting at bars, watching the bartenders at work, asking them questions when I can.  I recall that the food menu was very simple and tasty enough, but I recall better the Fallen Angel, a cocktail that was so odd sounding (tequila, lime, and... creme de menthe!). 

I followed that with the Brandy Crusta, which was good (and sticky), but made me wish I had had a second Fallen Angel.

Conrad and I flew into Palm Springs on Christmas Eve in time for Van and Marie to pick us up and take us to brunch at Boozehounds.  I love it - a dog-friendly restaurant.  We've dined there once before, and I was happy to go back.  My mood?  The Spam bibimbap breakfast bowl. 

See?  Spam!  Not a food snob at all (bring on Spam musubi any time I go to Hawaii).  That was a welcome meal.

On New Year's Eve, we made sure to avoid an evening dinner out, but we did get out of the house and headed into Palm Springs again (and you know, we do dine in Rancho Mirage regularly, but also sometimes in Palm Desert).  Brunch in the city again, this time at Gigi's.  You know, I know I had something breakfast-y to eat, but what stuck with me was avocado margarita. 

Smooth and richer in taste thanks to the avocado wash.  I need to try fat-washing cocktails at home sometime.

Back into Palm Springs this past Sunday night.  Workshop Kitchen is a restaurant I have visited and recommended many times in the past, but in recent years (and I am sure the pandemic has not helped), I've had varying, inconsistent experiences with the place.  The menu used to be bigger, and I've found the food and presentations have not been quite as refined as in the past.  The last time I had gone there was in December 2021 when we took Marie, and wow, was it a disappointment.  That was due mostly to the service, wherein the server made us feel as though he was doing us a favour by coming by our table from time to time.  It soured us on the place tremendously, so I was a little nervous about going back with Courtney and Robert.

Happily, this time we had a server I not just recognized from before but was happy to see.  She is someone I had known to make great and honest recommendations in the past, and this time was no different.  A sigh of relief that at least that part of the night would go well.  The food was good, too.  We shared some small plates - fried pierogis,

a burrata and persimmon plate,

shaved Brussels sprouts. 

I was sorry that they had run out of the bread service.  I did not get a picture of the duck fried rice.  I would say that the pierogis were my favourite of the batch.  None stood out as especially awesome, but all were quite fine.  I liked my duck breast as well. 

I did sort of think to myself that the plate was meager when it was set down, but then, I finished dinner (we had dessert and a nightcap at home) satisfied and not overstuffed.  Besides which, the purees and sauces on the plate complemented each other nicely, and the meat was cooked properly - I too often have duck breast that is tough and chewy or with the fat not rendered out very well.

A long entry.  And think back on it.  Good, nice, decent.  No raves, except perhaps for cocktails.  Palm Springs and desert dining has a lot to offer (and I sometimes think the best dining is found in hotels).  Heck, some time I need to blog about Wally's and how much I love its old school vibe and absolutely love love love that they have liver (yes, I enjoy liver).  But the city, the area, is not really the culinary destination that I think it should be.  I never hear people in the LA area who visit the desert ever talk about the food, their meals, the restaurants to visit.  I really wish that it were the case that they did.

welcome rain

It's past midnight, so I guess it's Tuesday now.  I've spent the evening (and some of the afternoon) working furiously on preparation for a slew of professional association meetings coming up this week and the next.  So much PowerPoint, so much script writing.  I really should get to bed.  But I need something non-association finance related to help settle my brain, so I'll express some simple appreciation for the wet and wintry (for us!) weather we've had in recent weeks.  Oh yes, I well know that so many parts of California have been inundated.  Lives lost, homes and businesses flooded, roads washed out.  There is no denying how very awful those things are.

We've had it easy where we are.  A good soaking in Pasadena, less so in the desert.  The scenery on recent drives to and from work as well as down to Rancho Mirage and back has been gloriously verdant.  Snow on the mountains!!  We've needed this wet weather so badly.  Give us a little break in it, and then bring on some more, please.

It's always a little thrilling for me when I see water standing or flowing in the desert after a rainfall.  Seeing normally dry riverbeds with something in them is wonderful.  Muddy brown it may be before it sinks into the earth underneath, but it brings a little hope.  Or maybe it's just the west coast Canadian in me who misses being up in the rainy climes of Vancouver and such.

But come on, who doesn't like waking up to find a rainbow outside?

Joshua Tree

Courtney and Robert came to visit us in the desert this past weekend.  A first trip there for her, though not for him, and we hope they enjoyed themselves enough to come back.  Fingers crossed!

Conrad, Van, and I have done Joshua Tree twice now in the past few weeks.  First it was a drive there on Boxing Day with Marie,

and then again this past Saturday.  Funnily enough, it was grey weather, both times, quite unlike my first time up to Joshua Tree in May of this past year when Allan and Paul were visiting the desert.

Ah well.  At least it's an easy drive from Rancho Mirage!

So we set out near lunchtime on Saturday,

knowing we had all afternoon thanks to a late dinner reservation, and time to drive and stop.  Or we might have stopped more but for the weather.  Yes, some rain in parts, and brisk temperatures.  At the overlook where we can take in the Coachella Valley, I think it was 43 degrees.  Brrrr.  The warmth of the car and the comfort of Yacht Rock Radio was welcome!  Still, we did get to show them the namesake plants

as well as the chollas

and rock formations that the park is known for. 

And yes, I dozed off on the drive home.  The nap instinct is still strong with me.

I'd love more time to explore the park rather than drive end to end and stop for occasional photos.  I'm not a vigorous hiker, but I think I could enjoy a proper hike or two in there, given preparation (water, sunscreen, the usual).

On the other hand, that's three trips through Joshua Tree in the past eight or nine months.  In truth, I'd be happy to leave off driving through there again for a little while.  Given how much time we spend down in the desert these days, there's a lot of other hikes and sights to enjoy.

But no, never say never, right?  :-)

Back? Possibly.

Ten and a half years since last I blogged.  Goodness.

Things have changed.  Conrad and I are no longer in Chicago, having moved to Pasadena, CA, ten years ago.

A new job for me, a transfer and then semi-retirement for him.  He is well into his 60s.  I am in the early years of my fifties.  My professional title is now Doctor.  

We have Van (and Olive).  

Roy died in 2013, Mum died in 2019.  There is much more big and small.

Courtney and Robert have been visiting us in the desert this long weekend,

and during our conversations, I shared some old blog links.  Someone - one of them, or maybe Van - asked why I wasn’t blogging any longer.  The main reason?  After Dad died in 2009, I lost steam.  It took a while, but I came to a realization that I had been blogging as a way for him, at a long distance from me, to read about my life.  And that freed me to stop doing that.

But social media also took over.  A Facebook post, a Tweet, and Instagram story - all were so much easier than telling stories here.  Less work involved, immediate gratification.  New communities that blended old and new people in my life.

In recent times, though, I have suspended all of my social media accounts.  Various reasoning.  Twitter, for example, is very much not what it was, and I don’t care to support its new regime.  The suspensions certainly freed up my time during a tremendously hectic December as well.  And then January rolled around, and I found myself not missing all the time I spent on those platforms.

But still, I wanted to share, and somehow tell my stories.  So here I am, so many years later.  Back for good?  Doubtful.  Maybe.  We’ll see.

A hello, then, to anyone still reading this or stumbling upon it.  Food.  Travel.  Musings.  That’s what this will be.  An unambiguous blog, a place to share the things I’d like to share.

M+M

Before I head to bed, and before the clock ticks over to Sunday, I did want to mark an important date. Today marks 5 years since Conrad and I were delighted a privileged to bear witness to Martin and Mark's wedding in Denver.

Martin and I have roomed together at conferences for ten years now. We met Mark in 2006 while I was in the throes of appendicitis. We cannot say enough good about the two of them - as a couple and individually.

No, not a long blog post, but a sincerely heartfelt one: happy anniversary Martin and Mark. We hope we may raise a glass to you both five years from now, and well beyond.