off to Michigan!

Saturday morning in Chicago we got a good walk in, then showered, dressed, packed, checked out, and headed to O'Hare. 

Next stop, Green Bay.

A short hop from Chicago to Green Bay. 

Take off, and it's almost time to land.  I was on the lake side of the plane,

and I was able to see Milwaukee

as well as enjoy the southeast WI landscape passing by.  Oh, hello there, Milwaukee airport!

Just passing through that fine Wisconsin city.  We stopped near Marinette in a favourite store. 

I was tempted to buy gin and by the time this is posted, I will have returned that way and may have gin in hand. 

But we did buy some 100% cherry wine.  And chilled it.  And had it after dinner.  And friends...

🤮

I exaggerate, but it wasn't any where near as good as hoped.  Darn it.  Ah well.  Lesson learned!

Cherry Circle Room

Yoshi's was a huge part of our life.  Just go to the Yoshi's tag and see.  And even then it will undersell just how much that restaurant meant to me and Conrad.  Weekly and more meals there, sitting at the bar, making friends with other regulars and with Yoshi and Nobuko.  We miss it sorely.

Sigh.

Yoshi passed away in 2015, but Nobuko kept their restaurant and legacy going until 2021.  She has now retired, but their daughter, Mari, a Michelin-starred chef in her own right, has forged a great career.  She is currently at Cherry Circle Room at the Illinois Athletic Association Hotel, and that was where we went on Friday night with Nobuko and Laura.

The awesome thing about having dinner with a dear friend who is also mother of the chef is that the service - surely already quite fine - is exceptional.  Wines at the ready.  Food sent out in anticipation of what we might like.  Knowing her by name.  We had such a leisurely evening at the table, catching up and having so much (SO MUCH) good food.

I didn't photograph everything.  For example, I neglected to get a shot of the beef tartare that came out with a quail egg and a snow drift of grated aged gouda.  And that was one of my favourite things!  Ah well.  But I did get a shot of the whole fried fish, an homage to a dish at Yoshi's (perhaps) and served with a delicious, fragrant rice redolent of star anise. 

I also got a shot of the enormous beef rib. 

The glaze on that plus the rice with the fish were such a good combo.

And I got a few dessert shots.  I loved the flavour and texture of the ring of little mochi doughnuts, served with a strawberry sauce. 

The creme caramel was another success. 

And the seasonal dessert pastry had hints of spring in the rhubarb and strawberries.

We were delighted by the time we had.  First off, Nobuko and Laura were such great company.  Secondly, the setting was remarkable.  A busy recreation and bar room outside, a more serene dining room inside, fantastic detail in the building all around.  And finally, the food.  Very good.  I'm going to see if I can get here again with friends in tow.

We left, contented.  And then it was on to Michigan the next day...

ok, so this is a little behind on things

Five days?  Sorry.  Travel, meetings, blah blah blah.  Whatever, Peter.  Let me catch you up.

Last Wednesday I flew to Chicago. 

A long day of travel - I decided to fly out of Burbank, not LAX, and that meant a connection.  I made it to the hotel, checked in along with two other colleagues/friends who had just arrived, then headed to dinner.  Back at the hotel, I got a photo of my, well, urban view,

and then watched Netflix and chatted with a friend and read until it was bedtime west coast time.  A long day overall, then.

The next day was a full day of meetings, followed by dinner with colleagues at Avli.  Conrad made it in time for dinner, which was great.  I had a tasty dish of lamb shoulder,

so that was welcome.  And then a big group of walked back across and along the river to the hotel. 

Ah, what a lovely night for a stroll in Chicago.

Friday came, and the last of my meetings.  The association offices were quieter, as are so many on Friday these days, but I got a shot of the library. 

And a shot with one of my favourite staff, Cheryl, who had retired but came back on a temporary basis to help bridge the gap in her absence. 

So hooray for seeing her.  I adore her.

The meetings ended by lunch time, and then it was on to personal time for the weekend.  But that will be other blog entries to come.

I swear, they will come.

Monday night dinner

I would have posted this last night, but it was more important to pay tribute to Greg.  Ah, Greg.

The photos of happy us were from before I read the news of his passing.  There we were, enjoying (at last) the finale of this most recent season of Drag Race.  Dinner was ok - I put together a pasta with salmon candy, pancette, caper, and asparagus,

and we had Last Words. 

And all was fine.

Sigh.

I shall improve.  But here you go: dinner.  On with Tuesday.

goodbye, Greg

I learned tonight, while I was surfing Facebook after dinner, that Greg had died.

Fuck.

Sorry.

Greg was a lovely soul.  A truly sweet guy.  He was 55, he had fought cancer for years.  So, fuck you, cancer.

I met Greg in late 2008, I think.  Maybe it was 2009.  I just remember that by the time I went to NZ in 2009, he and I were friends online.  We met on Facebook in its earlier days, back when you might find yourself engaged in comment exchanges on a friend's wall, and then connect from there.  That's what happened to us.  Neither of us was much longer in touch with the then-mutual friend, but we stayed in touch.

In 2010, I did an open water swim in Noblesville, IN, and that was when we first met.  He came up from Indianapolis, and joined me and Conrad for dinner.  And he was real.  A funny and charming.  A delight.

We met up a few times after that, though not many.  I remember hanging out with him a bunch when I was in Indianapolis in 2013 for a conference.  I remember going to visit him and treat him to a nice hotel weekend in town after he had had a leg amputated.  I remember him visiting Pasadena for a weekend when we saw the AbFab movie and a one-man show (that he hated) at the Pasadena Playhouse and a good sushi dinner and a brunch where service was so slow he was getting crabby.  I remember on that trip picking him up late at night at LAX, and his flight was terribly delayed by problems with Southwest system-wide, but also how awful the traffic was late at night.  I remember buying him a one-way ticket - was it to or from the UK? - because he had a friend who could get him a one-way Atlantic crossing and he needed the other direction by plane and I could and he was a lovely man who was an Anglophile.  I remember having sushi here and wanting to have it on the back deck, but there was so much ash falling from a fire that it looked like it was snowing.  I remember buying him some nice wine at least once or twice for Christmas because I wanted him to have a decent tipple.

And I feel shitty that I hadn't seen him post in a while, and it only dimly registered.  And I didn't text or call.

Reach out to people who matter.  Greg is gone, aged only 55.  It's not fair.  And I don't get to appreciate what a lovely soul he was any more.

Friday and Saturday in one fell swoop

Late on Sunday afternoon here, and I'm taking a break in reading lazily.  Is it too late for a nap?  Hmmm...

Let me do a quick check in on the weekend that was.

Friday!  Maestro.  A loud time at the bar thanks to a group of very bro-y guys drinking a goodly amount of expensive tequila.  Conrad and I stuck to one corner of the bar, cocktails in front of us

(and in hand!),

the tetela

and then the cochinita pibil for dinner. 

We came home and had some wine and read out back until it got to be too chilly.  A nice evening.

Saturday!  We walked to Van's, gave the girl some love,

then collected Van for a breakfast at Amara, including my decaf latte! 

That evening?  Burgers on the deck at Van's. 

All three of us enjoying a cocktail or two,

and then the main event. 

I otherwise found myself engrossed in a novel I was re-reading. 

I let them watch television after dinner and retreated to the office to read and listen to music.

I was up before everyone this morning, getting a good walk in. 

And now the weekend is almost done.  Alas.  Ah well.  A short week at work as I head to Chicago on Wednesday...

I swam yesterday

God help us all.

just an easy evening

Not much to report this week.  Easy days, simple days.  I was at Van's

last night to catch up on American Idol, and even then, dinner was something he picked up and reheated for the sake of ease.

But his deck looks terrific with the restoration work done on it!

recent meals at home

I've done a little cooking at home the past couple of days, and I've been decently pleased with what I have made.

On Sunday I swung past Bristol Farms to pick up some nice fish.  Not cheap, but worth it.  That became a nice little dinner of curry salt crusted halibut on a pea puree.  I was pleased with it.  We sat outside, had some white wine, and enjoyed the meal.

Last night I put some lamb blade chops in the oven along with fresh thyme, onions, carrots, and potatoes to slow cook together.  The vegetables became a puree to serve underneath the chops, and I spooned the juices (and stray onion pieces) over top.  A few Brussels sprouts, and that was our dinner along with a modest Pinot Noir.  Not too bad.

Oh!  And we had some apple-cranberry crisp, too!

I work late tonight, so it will be up to Conrad to provide dinner for us.  Takeaway pizza is most likely, I think...

Manuela

Hi!  I'm back.  Not an especially busy few days, but busy enough, and I didn't have the wherewithal to blog.  Shame on me.

So let's dial back a few days to this past weekend and Saturday night.  Van and I were left without Conrad for one more night, so the two of us did our own date night in DTLA. 

Look, as much as we LOVE our local Pasadena places, we like to get out of the city and into other parts of the metro from time to time, go try some other food and settings.  This time we hopped on the train to the Little Tokyo station and strolled the few blocks into the Arts District to Manuela, a restaurant we'd each been to but not together and not recently.

A few thoughts follow:

• The setting is great, an indoor/outdoor feeling. 
  
  
  I appreciated where we sat, sort of on the outer edge of the restaurant near a corner of the bar.  The music was less loud and oppressive there, and Van and I could talk easily.
• The service from the waitstaff was mostly fine.  I was grateful for the menu guidance that our server provided.  But it was kind of pokey service.  There were some big gaps of time in there, especially between the appetizers and main course, and we opted not to get dessert not really because we were full but because we doubted it would come any time soon.  There were at least a few larger (6-10) parties in the restaurant, and that may have affected things, but we did notice the lag.
• The drinks were tasty, and I'm sorry I didn't get a good shot of Van's parsley gimlet, which was the winner.  Mine was fine,
  
  
  and I had a glass of white wine with dinner.
• The food was excellent.  I'll quibble that the biscuits were curiously flat,
  
  
  but they were piping hot and tender.  I loved the salad
  
  
  - I'd have more salads in restaurants if they were like this one.  Van's venison burger was good, and my sea bass was terrific. 
  
  
  The winner, though?  The side dish of charred snap peas with black quinoa.  Superb.
  
  
  

We'll go back, and we need to get Conrad there again.  It was an easy train ride home, and then some American Idol before bed.