Vegas!

In a few hours we'll be taking our final trip of the year - heading to Vegas! We'll be there until Christmas day.

We don't really gamble (other than slots), so the main attractions for us are the shows and food.

Tonight, we're going to watch KÀ. Tomorrow night, I've got reservations at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Sometime during our trip, I want to check out CityCenter - the new megadevelopment.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Vogue Bistro - a flawless dining experience?

For dinner tonight, we tried Vogue Bistro. Vogue opened in 2008 and is located in the far northwest Valley, in Surprise, at the intersection of Waddell Rd. and Reems Rd. The restaurant is a bit hard to spot - it's at the far end of strip mall - look for the Bashas.

Here are a few shots of the interior:

To start things off, we had a special seasonal drink - a "Peppermint Pattie Martini" ($9.90). The drink was excellent - basically a chocolate martini w/ a hint of peppermint. The rim of the glass was dusted w/ cocoa powder, which I thought was a nice touch. One for one.

On to the food. Here's what we ate:

Vogue Onion Soup - "So good! Quite possibly the best onion soup in the Valley" ($8).

Agree! I'm not a huge fan of french onion soup, but this soup was fantastic. It was delivered piping hot (a MUST), topped with a flaky pastry crust and baked parmesan cheese. Quite often, french onion soups are way too salty, but this was just right. Two for two.



Vogue Escargot - "Delicate Burgundian Escargot baked in a puff pastry with herb and garlic infused butter. Escargot has never tasted better!" ($8).

Clean, light, yet full of flavor. Three for three.



Vogue Salad - "Strikingly Original! Frisee, arugula, Gorgonzola blue cheese, dried cranberries, pecans, pumpkin seeds and bits of applewood-smoked bacon tossed in warm Sherry vinaigrette" ($9).

This was a great salad. The combination of ingredients was perfect. Four for four.



Special of the day - Lamb two ways: Roasted rack of lamb and lamb meatball w/ coconut couscous, roasted squash and shitake mushrooms, and baby arugula ($32.95).

The rack of lamb was perfectly cooked. We also both loved the meatball (you can see it peeking out from under the arugula in the second picture). This dish had a bunch of individual components (almost too much), but everything on this plate was excellent. The only downside was the plating - the arugula scattered on top was a bit of a mess. Oh well, minor detail, so still five for five.

We were so stuffed that we didn't have any more room for dessert.

The service throughout the meal was excellent. Six for six!

Total meal cost: $74.30 (excluding tip)

I thought this was a superb value, given the quality of the food. This was definitely one of the best meals we've had in 2009, and maybe one of the best ever. The only downside to Vogue is its location - it's way out there...but definitely worth the drive. We're actually thinking of going back for New Year's Eve (menu). I'll keep you posted.

Mission accomplished: Stomach expansion

Mission accomplished: Stomach expansion in preparation for the next holiday...on hiatus for the next 3 weeks or so.

My stomach is about to explode!

We've eaten so much food over the past few days. Good thing we're heading home today.

The weather has been much better than expected - a bit cold, and a few gray days, but NO RAIN! (for six days)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're trading beautiful weather in Phoenix for the cold, cloudy, and wet Pacific Northwest.

Later this morning, we'll be flying to Seattle to visit my visit my sister and her family. On Saturday, we'll be taking the train to Portland and then flying back to Phoenix from Portland on Tuesday.

Looking forward to spending the holiday weekend with family and friends...and eating lots of great food of course!

Happy Turkey Day!

Fresh from the kitchen

Here's what we made for breakfast this morning:

Pumpkin spice mix pancakes w/ berries and sliced banana

The pumpkin spice mix added a nice flavor to the pancakes. Very "Thanksgiving-y". ;-)

We've got a Meyer Lemon tree in our backyard that we planted when we first moved in a few years ago. Here are a few pictures...

With those lemons, we made Lemon Custard Cakes! We followed a recipe from the book Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.

Here's the result:

Very easy to prepare and very delicious!

Toronto!

I took a morning flight from Vancouver to Toronto this morning.

The flight was very good - it was my first time flying on Air Canada. The plane was relatively new and clean (a 777-200), the flight attendants were all cheerful, and the AVOD system was excellent. During the flight, I watched "The Hurt Locker", a movie that I've been wanting to watch for a long time. It was an awesome movie - it doesn't change my attitude towards the US involvement in Iraq, but it really gives me new respect for the soldiers (who risk their lives each day).

The seats even had USB ports and AC outlets. Very cool!

This is my first time in Toronto. I'm hoping to do a bit of exploring tomorrow morning.

Greetings from Vancouver

Here's the spectacular view from my room:

Stanley Park in the background

Coal Harbour, North Vancouver, Grosse Mountain, and Mount Seymour

In the homestrech

Heading to the airport for my final work related trip of the year!

Here's my schedule for the next few days -

Today: fly from Phoenix to Vancouver
Friday: Vancouver to Toronto
Sunday: Toronto to Montreal
Tuesday: fly back to Phoenix!

While I absolutely love the travel, it is exhausting. I'll post another update once I arrive in Vancouver.

Hello from Sunnyvale

My lunch today:

Torta Milanesa from Bakery Mexico!

It was HUGE!

Nicely toasted bun...

This was an amazing sandwich. I tried the same torta at the Story Rd. location earlier this year and was blown away. The tortas at Bakery Mexico are stellar. Is there anything comparable to this in Phoenix?!?

Places mentioned:
Bakery Mexico
2811 Story Rd
San Jose, CA 95127

Bakery Mexico No. 2
87 E Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95113

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Going to San Jose for a quick overnighter...

Once I arrive, I'm heading straight to Bakery Mexico for lunch. I first tried this place in March and the torta milanesa was one of the best things I have ever eaten.

If everything goes according to plan, I'll post a picture later today.

In LA until Thursday

I'm in LA until Thursday for work. The nice thing is...Patty is here with me

We flew in this afternoon after celebrating a friend's b-day @ La Grande Orange (happy b-day, A.!)

Once we arrived in LA, we metup with my parents for an early dinner. After dinner we were thinking of things to do and decided to stop by Disneyland. One day, one park tickets are a whopping $72 (we both thought that there might be discounted admission after a certain time, like half price tickets after 6pm, but no luck), so we decided to walk around Downtown Disney instead. The place was absolutely packed for a Sunday evening...aren't kids in school right now?!?

BTW, my rental car this time around is the worst car ever - a Dodge Caliber. I thought the Chevy Aveo and HHR were terrible, but this car surpasses them by far. Oh well, it's my ride for the week.

Time for bed!

Back in town for a week

Some random pictures to share...

Complimentary croissants from Vincent's Market Bistro...I love this picture.

Chicken Kabob Wrap from The Greek Wraps (one of my favorite places in the world!)

Witty labels on dual-flush toilet at Luci's Health Marketplace

"Dan bing" that I made this afternoon...another posting about one of my favorite comfort foods here

Happy Diwali! (taken @ Thunderbird on Oct. 17, 2009)

In San Francisco

I'm currently in San Francisco. I'll be heading back home later today.

Patty should be somewhere over the Pacific Ocean right now on her way home...I just realized that we are supposed to land in Phoenix at exactly the same time! I knew the two flights (me from SFO; Patty from TPE via LAX) were coming in around the same time, but I didn't know it was going to be to the minute (if all goes per schedule).

Dinner tonight

Yikes! I haven't cooked for nearly six weeks! Here's what I made for dinner tonight:

Tilapia w/ oven roasted red potatoes w/ rosemary and sauteed bean sprouts

Total time from prep to table: 15 mins
Total cost per serving: ~$3.25 (this is why I rarely order salmon or tilapia @ restaurants...I can make it just as good, or better, and for much less ;-)

Sit Back, Relax

Enjoyed this short article from the October 20009 issue of Hemispheres (United's awesome in-flight magazine). It's such a nice perspective, after reading US Airways CEO, Doug Parker's ridiculous letter that I recently posted about...

------------------------------------------

THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE you’re seated on a United or United Express flight right now. And except for the aroma of freshly brewed Starbucks coffee or the view outside the window, nothing should distract you from this magazine.

Why? Because United has invested significantly in cabin upgrades to ensure that your experience is a comfortable one.

For example, if you fly frequently in North America, you’ll notice new leather seating throughout the cabin on many of our Airbus A320 aircraft. And all United aircraft are getting new, updated upholstery and carpeting.

Notice a brighter, cleaner appearance? We hope so. We’re installing “cool white” lighting on United aircraft and, perhaps most importantly, we’ve doubled the frequency of our most thorough interior aircraft scrubbings. And our cleaning solutions are EPA-rated as environmentally friendly.

We’ve upgraded audio and video systems, and increased the frequency of inspection, maintenance and replacement of seat controls, reading lights and window shades. All of that means that when you want to recline your seat, your seat will recline. When you want to dive into that great new mystery novel, you’ll have a working reading light.

Because when a flight attendant encourages you to “sit back, relax and enjoy your flight,” we want to make sure you can.

------------------------------------------

Love it. While it still has a long way to go, United seems like it's headed in the right direction - focusing on the traveler's comfort and experience. Doug Parker - you should read this letter!

Original article:

http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2009/10/01/sit-back-relax/

Home again

I'm home again...for a week this time.

Questions to Homeland Security:

For air travelers, what does "Threat Level - Orange" really mean?!? We've been at that level for over three years now.

I spent a bunch of time waiting in airports this week and heard the recorded message about the current threat level being at orange, blah blah...endless times.

Will travelers react differently at different threat levels? Will Homeland Security ever lower the threat level back to "Yellow" again?

Will we ever get to travel again without having to put our 3oz or less liquids in a quart size clear zip-top bag and scan that bag separately? Will Homeland Security ever end its "war on water"? Laptops? Shoes?!?

Miscellaneous Ramblings

I'm back home for 35 more hours...

I arrived late yesterday from Williamsburg, Virginia - a total travel time of nearly 12 hrs!

Interesting observation:
I flew on four flights over the last week - all on US Airways, and noticed that none of the flight attendants were under 40 (by my estimates). They also seemed to be hating life (or their jobs) as there were no smiles observed. What a stark contrast to my recent travels in Asia, on a variety of Asian airlines, where none of the FAs were over 35 (again, by my estimates) and they all had permasmiles and really seemed to take pride in what they are doing. No offense GW (I'm sure you are a superstar)!

Another observation:
On one of my flights yesterday, it took the FAs nearly 45 minutes to complete the beverage service in the economy cabin. I think an EVA/ANA/(insert any Asian airline here) crew could serve pre-dinner drinks, meal, and after-dinner drink in the same amount of time.

Does any one actually like US Airways?

I try to avoid US Airways whenever possible, but it's pretty tough as it's the dominant carrier here in Phoenix (along w/ Southwest).

On one of my flights yesterday, I was reading this month's issue of US Airways Magazine. I always find the letter from the CEO segment very entertaining. This month's letter did not disappoint. Here it is (highlights are mine):

------------------------------------------
The Choice Is Yours

Chairman and CEO Doug Parker

The comforts of home may be hard to find at 35,000 feet, but US Airways is working to give you more inflight offerings to make your travels with us more enjoyable.

Over the past few months, we introduced a variety of popular snacks for sale in addition to our fresh meals and snack boxes, and we began offering several new restaurant-quality cocktails and premium beverages. These choices — more than we’ve ever offered — are all part of a new inflight menu called US Airways MarketPlace.

We’ve selected some well-known brands to offer something different from what you might expect while flying. In addition to our assortment of complimentary soda, juice, coffee, tea, and water, you now have the option to purchase three popular “pick-me-ups”: AriZona Arnold Palmer Lite Half & Half, the classic iced tea-lemonade combo; iced Starbucks® Frappuccino® Coffee Drink; and Red Bull, the number one energy drink in the world.

We’re also pleased to offer you three new, award-winning, all-natural cocktail mixers from Stirrings. You’ll have the choice of a Pomegranate Martini, Mai Tai, or Margarita, all made with real fruit juice, triple-filtered water, and cane sugar.

In addition to enhancing your travel experience with more snack and beverage options, US Airways is helping you make the most of your flying time by turning our aircraft into Wi-Fi “hotspots.”

Beginning early next year we’ll install Gogo® Inflight Internet service from Aircell on our fleet of Airbus A321 aircraft. Customers with laptops, smartphones, and other Wi-Fi enabled devices will be able to purchase full Internet access including Web, instant messaging, email, and VPN access on select domestic flights.

Whether you decide to catch up on work or relax and surf the Internet is up to you, but we know that our new Wi-Fi service will make your travels with us more enjoyable. On behalf of our 33,000 employees, we appreciate that you’re flying with us today. We look forward to serving you in the future.

Doug Parker
Chairman and CEO

------------------------------------------

I'm pretty certain that Doug Parker did not write this letter. If so...is it a joke?!? How many times does he mention for sale/purchase above? This is the same airline that recently tried to charge for all non-alcoholic beverages and decided to reinstate complimentary beverage service due to the following reason:

"The beverage program was distracting from the outstanding improvements in on-time performance and baggage handling US Airways` 34,000 employees worked so hard to achieve last year," said Parker.

New (for purchase) drink selections and for purchase internet are going to improve customer satisfaction? By the way, the cocktails are $8!!! I walked through the cabin right after beverage service was completed and did not notice any customers w/ a cocktail. Wonder if they'll last...

Other random things:

I canceled our cable and phone land-line. We don't really watch much TV and rarely use the phone. For TV, we'll rely on any free broadcast HD channels that we get.

Why do car rental companies buy the worst cars (i.e. Chevy Aveo, Chrysler PT Cruiser, etc.)?!? It seems like they could save a bunch of maintenance expenses and improve customer satisfaction by using more reliable cars. I'm thinking Toyotas, Hondas, etc here...

That's all for now!

Off to Virginia

I haven't even fully unpacked from my Asia trip, and I'm leaving again for Virginia in a few hours.

I'll be there for almost a week, back home for two days, then leave again for another trip (to Denver and Minneapolis). My schedule is somewhat crazy until mid-November.

Time to go pack!

Heading home...

My whirlwind trip through Asia is about to come to an end. It's about 2:15am right now, and I will leave my hotel to head to the airport @ 5am.

Over the past three weeks, I've traveled to the following cities:
Tokyo, Japan
Seoul, South Korea
Taipei, Taiwan
Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Bangkok, Thailand

I've had so many awesome adventures in each of the cities.

While here in Bangkok, my coworker B. has been giving me the "insider's" tour of her city. I've been eating a bunch of fantastic food (including street food), seen a ton of attractions, riden the city bus (you will never find tourists on the city buses), and even got an 80 THB (about $2.40 USD) haircut. Thanks for being such a great tour guide B.!

Tonight, I met up w/ a few of my classmates for dinner. It was a great ending to my trip.

BTW, I'm pretty sure I have an iron stomach. I haven't gotten an upset stomach during the entire trip (I didn't get sick in India last year either).

While I've definitely enjoyed the travels, I'm ready to go home. I can't wait to do my laundry and sleep in my own bed...

See you on the other side!

Hello from Beijing!

Greetings from Beijing. Thought I would provide an update from behind the "invisible" curtain here in China. If you weren't aware, many sites are blocked by the government, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Blogger. Luckily, I have a way around that. ;-)

Hoping I don't get thrown out of the country for this posting...hahahaha...

I've been in Asia now since Aug. 30. Since my last posting (from Tokyo), I've made stops in Seoul and Taipei. Tomorrow morning, I'll be leaving for Shanghai and then heading to the last stop, Bangkok, on Sunday morning.

It has been such a fantastic trip. I'm traveling w/ representatives from many other MBA programs, as part of The MBA Tour Asia. In each city, there is a fair type event, where prospective students can go around to the various tables to learn more about the various MBA programs. I've had a great time w/ my travel mates - I already knew a few of the people from past travels, but have met a bunch of new people. I've also been able to meet up with quite a few of my former classmates during my studies at Thunderbird - some whom I haven't seen since we graduated in '05!

That's all for now...our Beijing event is this evening - so after that it will be 4 events down, and 2 to go!

Greetings from Tokyo!

What do you get when you combine the following?

- all female cabin crew, all decent looking, none over 35, w/ permasmiles
- attentive service
- decent (free) food
- personal AVOD systems
- immaculate cabin

An Asian airline!

I had a great flight on ANA from San Francisco to Narita.

Here's part of the crew pre-flight:

Service w/ a smile! Is it that hard?!?
Here's the first meal from on the flight (one of two full meals served):

Braised eel, cold soba noodles, smoked duck, and Haagen-Dazs ice cream (not pictured). Choice of beverages included complimentary beer and wine. Not bad for an economy class meal!

During the flight, I watched Angels & Demons, In America, and part of State of Play.

When booking this trip, I specifically requested an Asian carrier, otherwise, I probably would have been booked on United. The service experience on Asian airlines is generally light years ahead of US airlines.

Fall travel

We're headed to Vermont tomorrow morning.

For the next few months, I'll be a nomad. Here's my fall travel schedule:

8/20-8/23:
Burlington, VT (for a T-Bird wedding celebration!)

8/29-9/19:
Tokyo, Japan
Seoul, South Korea
Taipei, Taiwan
Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Bangkok, Thailand

9/27-10/2:
Blacksburg, VA
Harrisonburg, VA
Charlottesville, VA
Williamsburg, VA

10/5-10/8:
Denver, CO
Minneapolis, MN

10/15-10/16:
San Francisco, CA

10/25-10/29:
Los Angeles, CA

11/4:
Tucson, AZ

11/11-11/17:
Vancouver, Canada
Toronto, Canada
Montreal, Canada

Whew! That's 19 cities (more if you count all of the various cities in L.A.) and 6 countries!

By the end of this fall, my teammates and I will have traveled to over 105 cities and 39 countries!

Dinner tonight - sauteed spinach and eggs w/ pickled radish

Sauteed spinach w/ garlic

Scrambled eggs w/ pickled radish (chai bo) and basil

Dinner tonight - three cup chicken and veggie stir-fy

Here's what we cooked for dinner tonight:

three cup chicken...original posting and recipe here

sugar snap peas and bell pepper stir-fry

Dumplings two ways

Last week we made a bunch of pork and shrimp dumplings.

Here they are as potstickers (pan fried):

and boiled:

Home cooking

Dinner last night:

Salmon w/ cajun spice rub (one of my specialties...)

Dinner tonight:

Tonkatsu w/ hoisin & honey dipping sauce! (another one of my specialties... ;-)

Steamed corn on the cob

2009 Top 25 Most Liveable Cities (from Monocle)

2009 Top 25 Most Liveable Cities (from the July-August 09 issue of Monocle):
25. Lisbon
24. Geneva
23. Hamburg
22. Kyoto
21. Amsterdam
20. Auckland
19. Montreal
18. Singapore
17. Oslo
16. Fukuoka
15. Barcelona
14. Vancouver
13. Sydney
12. Madrid
11. Honolulu
10. Berlin
9. Melbourne
8. Paris
7. Vienna
6. Stockholm
5. Helsinki
4. Munich
3. Tokyo
2. Copenhagen
1. Zurich

Interesting. Honolulu is the only US city on the list...and London isn't even ranked (and Monocle is headquartered there).

Related:
slideshow

Dinner last night - sea bass

Made this for dinner last night:

Sea bass!

We bought the fish at Super L Market for $13.99/lb - this piece ended up being ~$20. Kind of pricey...but well worth it!

The preparation is really simple. It only takes around seventeen minutes (including cooking time) and requires only six ingredients.

Ingredients:

• sea bass
• ginger (julienned)
• green onion
• two tablespoons soy sauce
• two tablespoons chinese rice wine
• black pepper

Directions:

1. Put a first layer of ginger and green onion on a plate (we use an attachment that comes w/ our rice cooker).
   
2. Place the fish on top of the ginger and green onions.
   
3. Sprinkle a bit of black pepper over the fish.
   
4. Put more ginger and green onion on the fish.
   
5. Pour soy sauce and rice wine on fish.
   
6. Steam for approximately twelve minutes.

Random thoughts

I arrived back home on Thursday night.

We hit the mall today - one of the few things to do in Phoenix during the scorching summer.

Here are some random thoughts I had today:

• Do smokers that toss their used cigarette butts on the street do the same thing inside their homes? I'm assuming no...so why do they do it outside?!? (I think about this one a lot. It's one of my pet peeves.)
  
• We stopped in Gap today. After years of dull designs, the clothes seem to be improving! I wonder if this is a result of Patrick Robinson. I haven't bought anything from Gap for a very, very long time, but maybe sometime soon!
  
• Clinique desperately needs to redesign the packaging for the majority of its product line. The packaging for these products looks like it's straight from the '80s. I think about this every time I pass by the Clinique counter @ a department store...I do love their M Protect lotion though.

A peek inside the mind of Andy... ;-)

In DC

Wow - almost a month since my last posting!

I'm currently in Washington D.C. for GMAC's PDP (Professional Development Program). PDP is a conference for business school admissions professionals. The program begins later this afternoon, so I've got a bit of free time until then.

This morning I went to Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market. I had a nice mushroom empanada and white nectarine muffin for breakfast.

That's it for now - I'm off to Eastern Market!

Off to LA

We're headed to LA for the long weekend. We'll spend one night in Palm Springs, one night in Westwood, and the final night at my parent's house.

Here's our tentative "hit-list":
Father's Office
Happy Harbor
Simbala
Din Tai Fung
Josie Restaurant
xooro
Fosselman's

Have a fun and safe Fourth of July!

Top 10 pizza joints in Phoenix

Top 10 pizza joints in Phoenix (from AZCentral.com/Howard Seftel)

I've tried 8 out of the 10!

• Pizzeria Bianco
• Humble Pie
• Patsy Grimaldi's
• Cibo
• La Piazza al Forno
• Grazie
• La Grande Orange
• Pizza a Metro
• Vito's Pizza
  
• Classic Italian Pizza

Fantastic food last Friday

For lunch, I went to A Touch of European Cafe with a few of my co-workers. None of us had been there before. It's a small restaurant in downtown Glendale. I had a tomato, basil, mozzarella, and turkey sandwich on ciabatta bread (served w/ a bag of chips). The sandwich was excellent. We also split a slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Great find B!

Here are a few pictures:

For dinner that night, we went to Tuck Shop with a friend. We've been there twice previously, but I've never written about it before. With this visit, Tuck has solidified itself as one of our favorite places in the Valley.


On this visit, we ordered the following to share:

• Wild mushrooms on short pastry, goat cheese, sherry, thyme ($7)
• Medjool dates stuffed with Schreiners chorizo, melted gruyere ($9)
• Halibut filet, herb garden pesto, lentils, zucchini, heirloom tomatoes ($19)
  

Everything was excellent, as it has been on our previous visits. I think "big, bold flavors" is a good overall description of the food at Tuck Shop. The star of this meal was the halibut entree. The fish was perfectly cooked and the tomato was bursting with juice. It was a fantastic summer dish.


We were too stuffed for dessert, but they do give you complimentary cookie dough balls...

I'm a bit concerned that they weren't busier for a Friday evening. On our previous visits (back in late January and early February), the place was packed and we had to wait for a table.

Here are some pics of things we've had on our previous visits:

Panini bites: grilled pear, taleggio, arugula, honey w/ prosciutto ($7+$2)

Roasted baby beets, spicy mustard cream ($6)

Citrus-brined fried chicken, white cheddar waffles, braised greens ($17)

Pine AZ spiced skirt steak, parmesan lentil mashed yukons, mushrooms ($18)

Blueberry Buckle ($7)

Bananas foster ($7)

If you haven't tried Tuck, I strongly recommend that you give it a try!

After dinner, I suggested going to Lola Coffee - a recently opened coffeehouse. We had a "Matador" (mocha w/ cinnamon) and coconut cupcake (made by Sweet Pea Bakery). Both were excellent. Here are a few pics:

It was a very nice day...we tried two new places which ended up being great, and returned to one of our favorites.

Places mentioned:
A Touch of European Cafe
7146 N 57th Dr #C
Glendale, AZ 85301

Tuck Shop
2245 N 12th St
Phoenix, AZ 85006

Lola Coffee
4700 N Central Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85012