Gala

Our first evening in Santa Barbara, we headed downtown for dinner, to a newer restaurant that Van's friend Jennifer had suggested.  It was a rare break in the June Gloom that day, so we sat outside and felt comfortable in the cool evening.

I liked Gala.  It had an interesting menu that genuinely felt seasonal.  It also had a good bar program, from what I could tell - and goodness knows we like our cocktails.  I started with the Clover Club, which I haven't made in ages, and it was a nice choice.

Van and I shared two starters.  One was a salad that featured morels (see?  seasonal!) and an asparagus puree. 

It was modest in size, but beautifully plated and tasty.  Van was a little surprised that I asked to have the mushroom dish, but come on.  Morels are a far cry from the satanic turds that are button mushrooms!  We also shared the cornbread, and that was delicious.

I didn't get photos after that.  The light was getting low, and I decided to just eat and enjoy what we were having.  Duck confit for my dinner.  The mashed potatoes were glorious, the pile of salad on the plate was fine but maybe a bit much.  The dessert was a slice of cheesecake.  I appreciate all the fresh berries on the plate, but the cheesecake itself didn't need them.  It was smooth and rich and tangy, and the berry sauce it came with was enough for it.

But please.  These are not bad things, not missteps.  It was a fine choice for our first dinner, and I would be keen to go back to see what seasonal items they were working with at another time.

And, as a nice bonus, we encountered the owner - she had been at the host stand at dinner - after brunch at our hotel the next day.  She remembered us, and we had a nice chat about our dinner and the hotel.  It was really sweet to be remembered.

Thursday night sushi night

More to come from the past weekend in Santa Barbara, to be sure, but for now, some photos from a very delicious dinner at Mama M tonight.  Conrad and I wandered over, thinking to do takeaway for dinner.  But Chef Jack was back from a month-long vacation in Thailand, so we enjoyed dinner there.  Happily!

So then, sushi photos!

(But first, agedashi tofu)

Snapper and salmon sashimi.

Kurodai and kampachi.

Giant scallop with uni.

Baby yellowtail and albacore.

Amaebi.

Oh, so good.  Our Thursday night, with some Pinot as well.  A lovely time of it!

we headed a little ways up the coast last weekend

A couple of Christmases ago, Van gave me the gift of a getaway somewhere, to be determined.  It was a wonderful gift - I need fewer tangible things (though I still enjoy tangible things) and appreciate experiences all the more.  A getaway?  Yes, please!

It took us some time, however, to get to a point of scheduling it.  There was always a commitment, or it was too close to a commitment.  Another Christmas passed, and then early this year, Van kind of put his foot down and said that I needed to pick a date.  So I did.  And I left it to him to decide on where.  Moreover, I asked him to surprise me.  So he did.

We set out from Pasadena for points north - that was the only clue he gave me and the only one I asked for.  In truth, I was more than happy to be surprised.  It's been months in the making, but I could wait.  Still, I turned over possibilities in my head as we drove.  On the 210 and then the 5?  I had an inkling it would be Tahoe or Yosemite.  And then on the other side of Santa Clarita, he veered off the 5 to head toward Fillmore.  OK, so maybe we're going up the coast somewhere.  I knew we were headed to someplace I hadn't really spent time in before, so it wasn't Paso or SLO.  Hmmm.

A quick stop in Fillmore at the awesome Roan Mills Bakery,

and then we were on the road again.  I knew it couldn't be Ojai.  We then stopped for some browsing at some stores in a plaza in Montecito.  Once done, we headed along some back roads into Santa Barbara, or so it seemed, likely intending to take the 154.

Wrong.  As we rounded one corner, I saw a hotel sign, and then the hotel drive came into view.  Our destination?  A few days staying in a gorgeous hotel in the hills above downtown Santa Barbara.  Wow!

Here's the thing:  yes, I have been to Santa Barbara previously.  I can recall all three times I have stopped for lunch there, en route north once and south twice.  And that's all I know of the city.  I had no other experience of it.  And I had wanted to see it some more.  A fine choice by Van.

We checked in to the hotel.  Van had stayed at the El Encanto a number of years ago, and he wanted to bring me there.  I am glad he did.  The room was fantastic,

and on a glorious break from the June Gloom, the hotel and grounds looked so beautiful in the sunshine.

Once settled, we took ourselves to the hotel bar for a light cocktail each before heading out to dinner,

and with that, thanks to this wonderful man,

our long weekend was underway.  

halibut/rice

Welcome back, Peter!

I've been away for a nice relaxing weekend, and yes, I will blog about it in times ahead.  But as part of that weekend, I did not bring a laptop or iPad.  What?  Madness!  Ah yes, I actually went and enjoyed myself.  Now to catch up.

The night before Van and I headed out of town, I made dinner for Conrad, Van, Natasha, and me.  Unlike the pathetic pizza and mango tart effort of a weekend earlier, this time things turned out.

Sometimes a meal comes together in my head when I'm shopping, and that was the case last Friday.  I knew some of what I had in the fridge and pantry at home, and I knew I didn't want to have to buy too many things.  I got to Whole Foods and headed to the seafood counter.  There I found some nice looking halibut.  The meal came together from there.  I knew I had wanted to do a risotto, and I had a recipe for a pumpkin risotto that I thought I could adapt with carrots I had on hand.  Carrot risotto and a good piece of fish.  And?  Something green, not too bulky - red chard!  Then some dill and capers for a garnish.  Some chocolate and eggs to make an easy dessert, and I was headed home.

The risotto came together nicely.  The carrots didn't break down as squash would, but the chunks were tender.  I was pleased.  I seasoned the fish, including some saffron to play off the carrot in colour and flavour, then put it in a pan.  The chard received a coarse chiffonade (there is probably a better term for that).  I fried the capers to crispness.  And that made for a filling, tasty dinner. 

A rare time that I was happy with what I cooked.

Dessert was simply chocolate budini.  I've had them puff more than that in the past, but ah well.  Still tasty!

 All in all, a very nice evening together.  Enjoyable, indeed!

drag show

For years now I've been a fan of RuPaul's Drag Race (though I'm not all that enamored of the current all stars season, I confess).  I've made Conrad watch it plenty, and we've taken advantage of opportunities here in Pasadena and in the desert to go to a few drag shows as well as drag queen bingo.  It's fun to see the creativity of the various queens, and while I have seen some Drag Race alums in the past, I don't care whether the queens are famous or not.  Just put on a show, please.  That's what I want.

Conrad had a condo board meeting to chair yesterday, so Van and I decided on a date night in North Hollywood,

attending the Drag Yourself to the Valley 2023 show at The Garland Hotel.  Two Ru girls were headlining, but there were several queens listed in all, and it seemed like it would be fun.

Spoiler alert:  meh.

Sorry, I wish I could report better.  I do have some decent photos thanks to the brand new phone, but honestly?  We left at the "5 minute intermission" and didn't regret doing so.

Van and I got there just before the doors were supposed to open at 7.  We checked in, got our wristbands and fans,

and used our drink ticket each to get a vaguely watermelon-y cocktail that was so unpleasantly bland that I stopped after a few sips.  We found the hotel bar and had a drink

and some nachos there.  The hotel seems lovely, the bar looked nice, the drinks were alright, the nachos were a little sad.  Sorry to say that as well.  Ah well.  A few minutes before 8, when the show was supposed to start, we headed to the ballroom for the show.  We hadn't bought VIP tickets (thank goodness!), so we were relegated to conference room chairs at the back.  Fine enough.  It was a big space but only about 200 people in there at most.  Easy enough to see.

And then we waited.  Over a half hour.

The hostess, Billy Francesca, came out to start the show. 

Before the performers came on, he had two men, husbands it seems, come up to thank us all for being there. 

One of them, kind of tipsy from what we could tell, was part of the family that owns the hotel (or maybe he now owns it?).  His husband said some words to the effect of f**k his home state of Florida.  Billy spoke a bit more, then one of his entourage came out.  The first of two (not back to back) very fit men doing essentially a strip tease.  Fine, sure.  Objectively handsome, fit, moved well, but I wasn't interested in watching men dancing nearly naked.  I came for a drag show.  Bad gay, Peter!

The first queen out was Miami Knight.  She was fine.  She had an obvious reveal for us. 

She worked the VIP tables around the stage, then came through the crowd.  We offered up a few dollars.  Next up, before the second dancer/stripper, was Lolita Colby. 

Another reveal, another number where she played to the VIP tables and then came through the rest of the crowd.  Both queens were fine.  I can't recall what they lip synced.  Fine.

After the second dance/strip routine, it was time for a Ru girl, Detox, to come out. 

Detox was a strong competitor on Drag Race, and on both of her appearances, she placed well.  A sharp tongue, an interesting story, some sweetness inside - that was how I viewed her on television.  But as a viewer of the show, while I appreciated Detox and respected her art, I never found her especially engaging.  She didn't invite everyone in, I felt, and I felt that again last night.  Oh, she performed fine - you can tell the difference in her level from the two queens before her.  When she came through the crowd, she was bending forward and essentially daring us to place our dollars in her cleavage.  I obliged.  After her number, she bantered a bit with Billy and a few people in the crowd - apparently some friend of hers up at the front was having a birthday?  Fine, I guess.  Not really making the whole crowd feel part of it all, and that just didn't surprise me.  She was professional, and then she was done with us all.

And then we were promised Alyssa Edwards.  Another Ru girl, and someone who oozed all kinds of charisma on television.  I was tickled to get to see her.  There was a gap of time, and then Billy came out to kind of awkwardly get the crowd to demand he do a spoken word lip sync.  It was fine.  Van was in the washroom when it happened.  And then we were promised Alyssa again.

I'd say it was ten or more minutes later that she came out.  I am guessing because I didn't time it, but the DJ played three songs in that time, I could swear.  Alyssa did something a little different when she came out.  We were watching the stage, but she appeared over on the one side of the audience, moving through them a bit before taking the stage.  Unlike the other queens, she didn't cover the whole room (including coming by us).  She did her number, then bantered from the stage.  I think Alyssa is better than all of them at pulling in the audience, bringing them on side.  She has that charisma in person as well.

And then she was gone, and it was time for a "5 minute intermission".  Friends, it was a few minutes before ten at this point.  The show was scheduled to start at 8, started around 8:40 or so, and after an hour and a quarter, we'd seen four queens lip sync, the host also lip sync, and two men dance/strip.  Seven numbers in 75 minutes.

At this point, Van turned to me and said he was fine if I wanted to go.  We negotiated briefly, then caught an Uber home.  En route, Van expressed how very disappointed he was, especially for the price of the ticket ($100+ each).  I couldn't disagree.

What went wrong?  This account spells out the delays and gaps.  It felt like there was something going on backstage and that Billy, the host, was trying to manage it or cover for it.  From the opening with the married couple kind of muttering and hollering (depending who was talking), everything felt sloppy and unpolished, not professional.  The other big problem was that the sound was awful.  Loud, but muddy and indistinct.  Maybe a hotel ballroom/conference room is not the best venue for a show?  Maybe the people speaking needed audio support to render them intelligible?  Van had the same problem as I did, and we suspect others did as well, judging by how Billy didn't seem able to hold the room and get his jokes across.  Maybe Detox was a hoot.  Maybe what the married couple was saying was heartfelt.  Maybe Billy was sharp as a tack.  We will never know.

And I guess this is my own issue:  we weren't willing to pay (I think ) another $80 each for VIP tickets, but wow, did it feel like the queens were pandering to that part of the audience and barely giving the rest of the audience attention.  I get it - the VIPs paid more, simple as that.  But I'd really rather go to drag queens at Maestro (and I will miss them there later this month) or Toucan's in the desert or something where it's a little more democratized.

So, a drag show, and a long account of one.  Not the most fun I've had watching drag queens by a long shot.  A real shame - I wish it had been so much more.

Wednesday night sushi outing

Yes, Wednesday, not our usual Thursday sushi night.  In our defense, usual has been anything but lately.  Maestro on a Sunday?  Why not sushi on a Wednesday.  Conrad plans to go again tonight after his condo board meeting, enjoying a bite with our neighbour, Erik.  Me, I'll be at a drag show in North Hollywood with Van.  

I started the drive home yesterday thinking that gee, wouldn't it be nice to go have a casual meal out?  And then as I got close to Pasadena, the May Grey turned to rain, and I thought to myself how nice it would be to stay in.  I did put together something of a chilaquiles when I got home, but I still wanted to go out (the chilaquiles is fine for lunches).  So, we headed on down to Mama M and sat at the (sushi) bar.  We started with agedashi tofu,

which is never as good when it's takeout, then ate our way through some red snapper and yellowfin sashimi,

some halibut sushi,

an eel and garlic roll

and more.  The guys behind the counter recognized us as regulars and passed us a couple of extra treats, like some salmon belly. 

We ended up chatting a bunch and sharing some food with the guy who came in and sat next to us as well.  Some wine, and then it was home to unwind.

Not an inexpensive little meal in the end, but we did enjoy ourselves.  As we so often do when we dine out!