Pho c/o Pho Cali, Beer c/o Tria

B. was in town for a few days, so it was clear that a second meeting was in order. It was decided (by me for the most part) that we would have pho at Pho Cali, because I was told by my roommate that Pho Cali was the place for the dish. So we all met up.
I ordered the rare steak with brisket, which came entirely unrare and with far less meat than Pho Ha provides. At $6, it was about $2 cheaper than Pho Ha, so I guess I wasn't paying for a lack of meat, but it was still a disappointment, as was the meat's done-ness. That said, the broth was fine and the company great, but this is not becoming my go-to pho place.
My plan, after lunch, was to immediately go further south to do some grocery shopping, finally buy a USB cord for my new printer, and maybe pick up more paint from Lowe's. But when L. started talking Tria, and B. and Ak quickly jumped on board, well, I hate feeling left out of fun party times, so I had to come along. Had to. It was imperative. I ended up driving us there, since my car was already in the Chinatown vicinity, and managed to parallel park in quite the challenging spot (Philadelphia, if nothing else can be said for it, has really improved my parallel parking skills). Honestly, I forget what this beer was. Some form of espresso porter. I bet L. or Ak would know. B. too, maybe.
The extended hang-time was lovely and I wish B. would give up her vampire poet lifestyle and return to us, but I don't think that's likely to happen. Then Ak decided she would come on the shopping trip, which facilitated my ability to enter and leave stores more quickly - it's much easier to stay on task if you feel like someone else is waiting around for you, I have found.

Dinner c/o Erawan, Beer c/o Black Sheep

Last week, or the week before that, no, last week, B. came into Philly for a visit. So L., Ak, C. and I met up with her at Erawan for dinner. I have a problem with being places on time but, unlike most with this sort of problem, I end up getting places half an hour early instead of half an hour late. Of the two, I think I prefer my particular problem, but it does often lead to me finding myself somewhere with an awkward amount of time to kill. In this instance I just walked a few more blocks east and then south and then headed back up. Even so, I was still the first person of our party to arrive, so I ordered a Shirley Temple because it was on the menu and it sounded lovely. And it was. Do you see the little heart on the straw? Awwww.
For my meal I ordered the Tom Yum soup and the pork salad. The soup was really great, I've had some strange run-ins with Tom Yum over the years, which has caused me to question my understanding of what should, and should not, be included in the dish.
The salad was great too, a nice mix of texture and flavors...though I would have actually preferred the meat to be a little more dry.
After dinner we walked on over to the Black Sheep and got our drink on for a while.
Sigh.
It was lovely to see B. again, her departure from Philadelphia this summer was sad for our office and for many of our social calendars.
It was a good time. Full of C.'s hardcore hand signals and multiple late comers.

I actually ran into F. and T. in the bar's downstairs space and ended up hanging out with them for a while too. An altogether lovely evening. Thanks, also, to F. and T. for the ride home!

Enough Ziti to Sink a Boat

The quantity of food we order sometimes is a little out of control. Or, really, it's not, as we are all adults, working hard and hungering for sustenance. In this case almost everyone ordered baked ziti or some other oooey gooey, melty baked pasta dish of some kind...and salads to balance everything out.
Though I was disappointed by the last baked ziti I ordered from Luigi's, this particular batch was better. Even the dragon agreed.

Paperwhite Progress Part II

These were the first flowers to spring from the Paperwhite stalks. Since then, they have all bloomed, which I will prove to you in a future post...by which time the flowers will be dead. Sigh.

Another Lunch Roundup

The eating at work continues. Another day, another order from Hunan Szechuan. I tried something new, it didn't work out so well, but the soup and dumplings were tasty.
I got this lobster chicken dish. It had that weird thickness to its sauce, except this sauce was clear, which weirded me out more than a thick brown sauce might. Also, let's add water chesnuts to the relatively short list of food-like things I don't particularly care for. I consider them filler and I don't like it. They are crispy, watery discs of awfulness. Or, no, they can't be awful because they are so bland. They are crispy, watery discs of mediocrity. That is a truth. I have shared it with you.

Lamb Passanda c/o King of Tandoor.
This is what a delivery from Primo's looks like.
I think this was the Sicilian.
The stuffed peppers are a bit of a let down. I like the pepper part, but the cheese is quite hard, and do I really need prociutto in a pepper that is a topping of a whole slew of meat? The answer to that question is no, no I do not (nor can I ever spell prosciutto correctly).

Paperwhite Progress

The Paperwhites made quick progress during my holiday absence, and kept on trucking upwards in spite of the relatively little amount of direct sunlight they get on a daily basis. They may have fallen a bit in love with our shadeless lamp, but it could just be a fling. I don't know.
Just wait until you see them become flowers. Or wait. Do what you need to do.

Rusty Nails on Parade

Two Saturdays ago the roommate and I went on a mini-bar crawl in the neighborhood. My signature drink of the late afternoon and early evening was the rusty nail (does one capitalize drink names?). Inspired, in part, from my drinking experience with Mr. Ass last month, the rusty nail seemed like the perfect beverage for a blustery early drinkabout. This is what it looked like at London Grill.
And this is what it looked like at Jack's Firehouse.

Lunches c/o Worky Work

So, the lunches continued. We tried Hunan Schezuan's offerings, and found them to our liking. The thing about Chinese food is that almost every dish has this viscous sauce to it. Generally the sauces are quite tasty in their strange corn syrup thickness, but it doesn't stop me from being weirded out a little. For instance, the hot and sour soup was tasty, I liked it, but its consistency worried me a bit. The dragon had none of this worry. If I had allowed it, it would have jumped right into that soup and enjoyed every slurpy backstroke.
This was the shredded pork in garlic sauce. I envisioned shredded pork, American style, and was a little disappointed by the relatively tough, worm shaped slivers of pork.
Primo's has been on a roll of good sandwiches lately. This was one such good sandwich. Turkey, ham and American cheese? Yes please.
On New Years Day most all of us were in the office relatively early (my NYE was comprised of watching a lot of True Blood and deciding that I don't like their kind of vampires...all that blood is gross). For lunch we ordered pizza from Luigi's. It was great.
They put thicker, juicier mushrooms on the 'ol standby' pepperoni and mushroom pizza. It was a success.
Another day, another cheesesteak with tomatoes and mushrooms from Luigi's. The 7 pounds I lost since April are a thing of the past as a result of this eating lifestyle, I would assume (not having a scale I can only guess...or go to the doctor).

Calzone c/o Luigi's

Another work lunch from Luigi's. This time I thought I would try something new, so I went with a calzone with black olives and pepperoni. The dragon was a bit confused by the calzone and found it necessary to hide its head in the cheese.
This was a decent sized calzone and liberally stuffed with cheese, olives and pepperoni. That said, I thought it was weird that there wasn't any ricotta present. Not something I would order again, but not awful either.

Airplane

I have long been amazed by airplanes and their ability to get up and into the air. What I sometimes forget is how equally awesome the planet is. That sounds cheesy. I don't know what I mean, just that on my flight back from Tennessee I couldn't quite get over the changes in topography and landscape that were unfolding thousands of feet below me. Flat land, devoid of snow, to waves of hilly mountains nicely dusted with the white stuff, back to the winter palette of brown and purple. Now, I did, on occasion, imagine the plane plummeting into said topography and the unimaginable fear that such an event would cause in me. But, of course, you cannot predict how you will act in times of stress. I generally shut down but, perhaps in a flight context I'd take the lead, make sure babies were firmly strapped down into swaddling cloth made from passengers' Christmas scarves and sweaters and generally maintain order as our plane lost altitude and the oh-so-glorious hills came closer and closer. Maybe.
I always hope to meet someone fascinating on an airplane. I have thoughts. Maybe I will get it together and write interesting things about these thoughts. Maybe.
I wish that all houses like this would disappear. Let's all go back to living on large plots of land in one of a kind houses, shall we? No? Maybe? I realize that the world never all lived in such a way...metropolises!
Pretty!


On our final descent into Philly, I could see the Eagles football field. Seemed like they were doing well, or that the use of fireworks was being employed regardless. Didn't quite get a photograph though.

Even Poets Can Become Vampires

Cheese Party

On boxing day my parents invited some friends over for treats, mainly of the cheese variety. I believe about six. Maybe seven. I should have made sure to take photographs of each cheese individually. I made little labels and they could have reminded me what all the cheese was called and allowed me to make pithy remarks about the fact that each and every one of them pleased me, though the Roquefort and Camembert were particularly tasty.



It was a nice evening. Oh, and there was a white wine I liked too. I'll have to insist that my father or mother let me know the names of these things.

The Battle of the Delivery Lunch Meals (Kind of)

Perhaps a little too text-heavy. You win some. You lose some.

Dinosaur Vampires Have Regrets