Bucky can be a little sneaky. Yesterday, while I was at work, he found a way into the closet where we store all his stuff, including treats. He ripped into three bags. He only ate one bag, but that's a lot for a 26-lb dog. They were the wheatgrass treats. Well, let me tell you, little Bucky is thoroughly "cleansed" from all that wheatgrass. So. Gross.
So much for his doggie diet....
With the rest of the treats, he just kind of spread them all over the house. What a goober. Luckily, he didn't get sick or anything.
Here's a dog tip for you -- when you come home and find a disaster like this, you can't discipline the dog; it's already too late. Dogs don't really have a concept of time, so they can only be disciplined at the time they do something bad. So, chalking it up to experience, we moved everything to what is hopefully a Bucky-proof location.
Some great news in the Hapa household... we now have a new member of the family, Buckminster (you can call him Bucky for short).
Since I'm now being super good with my budget, eating out is one of the main areas I had to cut back on. Oh, the humanity! But, I did treat myself to one dinner for restaurant week -- Hexagone, a new French restaurant in Bankers Hill.
Hexagone is on a fairly busy street corner, and has large windows looking out onto the street, which gives it a casual bistro kind of feel. However, I'd say that the food is a bit fancier than the atmosphere feels. Most of the waiters are French, or at least have really good fake accents.
Hexagone was on the $40 menu, and I chose:
- Cappuccino de Homard
- Vegetarian dish - gnocchi and portabella mushrooms with tomato and goat cheese (this description is from memory because it's not on the website)
- Gateau de Fromage Blanc aux Bananes
The vegetarian dish was also quite good. The little gnocchi were in a mustard sauce, perfectly prepared to be like fluffy little pillows. Separately, there was a stack of portabella, tomato, goat cheese in herbs and breadcrumbs, tomato, portabella. I usually don't order the vegetarian dish on a prix fixe menu, but I wasn't in the mood for duck confit or halibut, and I don't usually order steak unless I'm at a place that specializes in steak. So, it may not have been the most expensive dish, but it held up quite well on its own. The portions are typically French, which is perfect for me, but may be a little on the small side for those with a bigger appetite. (The honey would've been waiting for more).
I had a glass of French chardonnay with the meal. Over the past year or two, I've really grown an appreciation for French chardonnays -- unlike their California counterparts, they are not big and buttery (which I also like, depending on the dish). They are subtle, kind of mineral-y. Anywho, I enjoyed it and Hexagone seemed to have a very good wine list.
The cheesecake was delicious. It's hard to get the consistency perfect on a cheesecake -- that point where it's creamy and not underdone, but you don't really have to bite into it. Hexagone did a good job.
Overall, Hexagone was a very good experience. My only criticism is that it's a fairly fancy restaurant in terms of the quality and prices of the food and wine, but the setting feels more casual -- so it isn't a place I'd go to if I was looking for an extra-special date restaurant. I'd love to go back for lunch -- that could be the perfect meal there.
The final word
(1-5 rating: 1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)
Food (Taste, Quality): 4.5
Value: 3.5 - For restaurant week, it's a 4.2, but the regular menu has prices pretty much in line with what you'd expect
Service: 4.8
Ambience: 3.5 - nice but more casual than the food
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $21-28 for dinner entrees
Menu recommendations:
lobster soup, bananas foster cheesecake, French wine
Notes: Try it for lunch sometime.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?: Yes, but maybe for a group dinner - an occasion where I didn't want quietness and low lighting. Would definitely try it for lunch.
What's something you would splurge on this year to improve your future?
Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.I am "splurging" on my dental implants and bone graft. I worked up my budget on Mint.com yesterday, and I realized that I'm using around two years' worth of savings on these damn teeth. I know it's for the best, but it's really depressing. Especially since my car seems to be turning into a tin can these days and I'm really drooling for a new car. But that's probably off for at least another year and a half. :-( Besides having nice teeth, the bright side is that this didn't happen when I was broke, which was basically my life up to a couple years ago... then there's no way I could have gotten the work done then.
Would you rather have more brains, more beauty, or more bravery?
Good question, Vox. I would like to have more bravery. I think I'm brave in some ways -- for example, after having moved cross-country a couple times, I think I could face leaving everyone I know to re-make a life somewhere else if I had to, or if an undeniable job opportunity came my way. However, I'd like to be more brave in a couple areas:
- Physical - Sports like surfing and skiing are tough for me because I'm afraid of falling. If I had started as a kid, I'm sure I'd really enjoy these now. But ever since I was in a bad bike-meets-car accident 15 years ago, I err on the overly cautious side. And it's a purely instinctual fear... so it's really hard to overcome.
- Risk-taking - I'd like to be unafraid of failure. That would come in really handy for owning my own business some day.
I recently got this nifty book from Amazon, The Flavor Bible. It's an excellent reference that lists flavor affinities for just about every kind of food ingredient on the planet. If you're wondering why I'd want to read through this, stick with me. I love to cook, but most of the time I'm following recipes. On the few times when I just make something up based on what I have in the fridge, it's really fun. With this book, I take an ingredient, look it up and find some good matches, and am hoping I can begin to concoct my own recipes based on what tastes good together.
The flavor affinities are also ranked -- all affinities are listed, bolded if they are recommended by many experts, bolded caps if well agreed upon, and bolded caps asterisked (whew!) if an affinity is the "holy grail" of taste combinations. For example, mozzarella and tomatoes (duh), or chocolate and coffee.
Yesterday I looked in my fridge and realized we needed to eat some cucumbers, because we have a lot from the farm box. And we have salmon. Those two are compatible. And coconut works with both of them too. And whaddya' know, I can make that coconut batidinha I posted about a couple days ago. So here's tonights menu:
Baked (poached?) salmon in coconut milk, with sliced cucumbers
Coconut rice
Roasted carrots (another affinity)
Coconut batidinha for a dessert drink
I'll report back on how this works out. In the meantime, I recommend the book! Another complimentary book might be Ruhlman's Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, although I haven't purchased it yet. It gives you the basic ratios of ingredients to everyday recipes.
Even though I'm Asian, I'm not that adventurous with Asian food. My explanation for that is that Vietnam is very rich in natural resources, so my peeps didn't have to come up with as many recipes for offal n' stuff... we'd just pull more shrimp from the sea or something. (I don't know if my interpretation is actually true... but hey, whatever works).
Anyway, to the point, I must be a bad Asian because I've never eaten Peking Duck. My Irish friend from Philly would tell me at length all about his transcendent Peking Duck experiences, which left me feeling like an overly Americanized backwards Asian who doesn't care about her ancestry.
Anyway, ever since reading this foodie blog post about Golden City, my craving for Peking Duck grew. And those that know me know that my cravings have to be satisfied eventually. Ye gads, you'd think I was pregnant or something. (Noooo I'm not).
There's really not much that I can say about Golden City that wasn't already said better in the blog link above, so I'll just say this -- I'll be back. And those little duck skin sammies are so. damn. good. Oh, and the presentation is very nice too. A waiter brings the crisp duck on a cart to your table, then carves the skin off of it ever so delicately and professionally. They give you the duck skin on a plate, and the duck fat is rendered off quite well. You put some skin in a little steamed bun with some hoisin and scallions. The rest of the duck is chopped up with watercress and put into lettuce bowls for your second duck course. 5373 Kearny Villa Rd deserves a visit.
The final word
(1-5 rating: 1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)
Food (Taste, Quality): 4.5 -- for the Peking Duck anyway
Value: 4.7 For $9 each, we got rice, 2 courses of Peking Duck, beef and broccoli and kung pao chicken.
Service: 4
Ambience: 2 (typical Chinese place)
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $9 for lunch
Menu recommendations:
Peking duck!
Notes:
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?: Yes, and all my co-workers will be coming with me as well.
