My 2010 in a Nutshell

This video manages to combine my two great obsessions of 2010, Lost and the Texas Rangers.

Carlton Cuse and C.J. Wilson Get Ready for Opening Day from Carlton Cuse

OK, it’s not highlarryass, but it means something to me.

Thanks to Frontburner for alerting me to this.

2010 Rewind: Texas Rangers in the World Series

Blog block prevented me from sharing these pictures in a timely manner.  Please to enjoy them now.

		Game 4 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And in a related picture:

Although I was pounding Johnny Walker like there was no tomorrow in Vermont during Game 6 of the ALCS, my fatter younger sign toting doppleganger was in at the game.

2010 In Review: Bottom 5 Restaurants

It was not all sun and roses in 2010.  There were some terrible and/or disappointing meals consumed.  Here are the perpetrators.

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5) Craft – This is what passes for fine dining to Dallas’ cocaine and boobjob set before heading up to the Ghost Bar.  While nothing was bad, there was nothing that would compel me to return.  And I got to try a lot of dishes since everything is served “family style”.  But at these ridiculous prices, I’m going to need more than “not bad”.

4) State & Allen – I had heard nothing but great things about this new “gastro-pub” in Uptown, and could not wait to try it.  Well, I haven’t been back.  When two recommended items (fish tacos, “gourmet” mac&cheese) are virtually uneatable, you have to label that restaurant with a giant Fail.

3) Blue Fin Sushi – Not everything in Portland is epically delicious.  Blue Fin is one of those sushi places where the plates ride around on a conveyor belt and you grab what looks tasty as it chugs past you.  It’s also one of those sushi places where the tuna looks like it’s been dyed an unnatural shade of pink.  To be fair, it is across the street from Portland State University.  So I’m guessing their main clientele is poor, hungry students.

2) Sushi Awaji – This is one of those places where the tuna looks like it’s been dyed an unnatural shade of pink and causes you to feel like you just read this same sentence mere seconds ago.  In researching this blog (yeah, I sometimes look shit up) this disaster has been mercifully put out of our misery.   America, please just say no to sushi buffets!

1) The Crab Pot – Sometimes when you’re stuck in traffic and your travel companion needs to eat, NOW! you make poor decisions and choose a place you saw the Man Vs Food guy eat at on the Travel Channel.  What this craphole lacks in flavorful seafood it more than makes up for in yellow jackets buzzing around your discard buckets.  So don’t forget to ask for a side of epinephrine with your fried Dungeness crab basket.  Eating at The Crab Pot in Seattle is like eating at a Dickie’s BBQ in Lockhart.

2010 In Review: 4 New Beers (and 1 wine)

5) King Wally’s Belgian Quad  --  A self-serving promotion of my barely competent brewing skeellz.  It’s light taste belies the powerful 12% abv it packs.  Certainly not as complex as most Belgian style ales, but it cost less than $3 a 22oz bottle. 
4) Pike Brewery Monk’s Uncle – To be fair, this beer probably doesn’t make the list except for the circumstances.  Time after time, no matter what was going on, the Pike Brewery was our #1 meet up place.  And why not – you can have a pretty decent Belgian Tripel for just $5.  In these hard economic times, a dollar saved on one beer can then later be applied to the next beer.
3) Jester King’s Wytchmaker Rye IPA – If you like hops and then more hops with an additional helping of hops on top of more hops, this is your beer.
2) Avery’s Depuceleus --  Apparently the name refers to  a woman that deflowers men.  I have no response to that, but to say this is the tastiest beer I may have ever had.  When the cicerone at The Meddlesome Moth described it as a Lambic aged in zinfandel casks with cherries, I was expecting something sickeningly sweet like a Framboise.  This was a delicately balance sour beer with just the right amount of cheery.  Avery made a painfully limited supply of this beer.  So if you didn’t get to try it, well, maybe in another life.
1) Love & Squalor Pinot Noir – I’ll just plagiarize my review of the Farm Café – “Although a bit on the sweet side, it was full of great noiry flavor and the aroma was amazing.  It may be the one wine I would rather smell than drink but not because it tastes bad.  It just smells that good.”

2010 In Review: Top 5 New Restaurants

Most of these restaurants are not new, only new to me in 2010.

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5) Oceanaire – This is a late entry.  Great service, great food, sustainable sea bass – what more do you need?  How about a flight of oysters.  Yeah, it’s a chain, but so is Morton’s.  If a chain can maintain a high level of food quality and service it’s going to get much love from me.

4) Pink Door – I know the food was good here and there was a chick on a trapeze.  But dinner here will always be remembered for meeting the boisterous Claire and her stories of getting high and stealing a pizza oven. 

3) The Farm Café – The restaurant that provided the finest dessert (Blackberry bread pudding) and the finest wine (Love & Squalor Pinot Noir) of 2010.  The rest of the food was top notch and their Veggie hamburger was on The Best Thing I’ve Ever Eaten as that pie faced cake maker’s favorite burger.

2) Elliot’s Oyster House – Quite simply the tastiest oysters ever along with other treats from the sea.  Almost as impressive as the food is the knowledge of the waitstaff.

1) Uchi/Uchiko –  Although overall I prefer Uchi to Uchiko, I lumped them together.  Once I win the lottery, I’ll be going a lot more.  Three of my top 10 dishes are from the geniuses behind these restaurants.

2010 In Review: Top 10 Dishes

Since all I really know about is stuffing my face, my 2010 in Review posts will be largely food-centric.  Please to enjoy.

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10) Wok Fried Sea Bass @ 560 – A whole fucking sea bass is fried and then brought to your table to be meticulously torn apart.  Be sure they let you have the extra crispy edges.

9) Smoked Salmon @ TJ’s Seafood Market – So delicious we’ve dubbed it candy. 

8) The Usual @ Cuquita’s – Consists of Queso Flameado, Super Nachos and Chilaquiles.  It’s really three dishes, but you really have to have them all together to satisfy the Cuquita’s craving that reaches to to the depths of your soul.  It’s an orgy of cheese and chorizo, but in a good way.

7) Gyutan (Grilled Beef Tongue) @ Uchiko – I’m not sure I had anything with a beefier flavor in 2010 and that includes a porterhouse at Morton’s.

6) Blueberry Bread Pudding @ The Farm Café – I’ve had a lot of bread pudding pass through my pudding hole.  But none has ever been as good as this.  So fresh blueberryy and puddingy.

5) Parrot Fish @ Dallas Fish Market – The best piece of fish I had all year.  It was early in 2010, so I’m not sure how it was prepared.  But the experience stayed with me, and deserves a high ranking.

4) Mac & Cheese @ Breecher’s Handmade Cheese – So good it’s one of Oprah’s favorite things.  So if you don’t believe me, believe her. 

3) Effingham Inlet Oysters @ Elliot’s Oyster House – I had a lot of oysters in Seattle from all over the Pacific Northwest.  But it’s the Effingham Inlet oysters that I crave to this day.  Nothing has ever tasted so deliciously of the sea as these gems.

2) Bacon Sen @ Uchi – This is so good I had it twice and both times they were for dessert.  Not because it’s sweet, but because it’s a satisfying end of a meal.

1) Foie Gras Nigiri @ Uchi  -- You know you’re in for something special when the waiter advises to take several bites of the “sushi” because it’s so rich.  If only I had known of it’s greatness so that I could take even smaller bites to make the experience last longer.

2010 Resolutions: How It Went

Meh

Some of my resolutions I knocked out of the park and others I took a huge O-fer.

• Read 10 Books – Well I probably started at least 10 books, I just didn’t finish many.  I used to read dozens of books a year.  Now I’m not sure I read that many in a decade.  Books I did read, In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks: . . . And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy , The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine and The Sommelier Prep Course: An Introduction to the Wines, Beers, and Spirits of the World
• Attend 10 Shows – I’m pretty sure I achieved this one, or at least came close with the highlights including Roger Waters and Avenue Q.
• 10 Movies – I’m proud to say I have not seen one movie in a theater in 2010.  I think that makes it official, I don’t like movies.  The time commitment is to large and they seldom deliver anything close to entertainment.
• 10 New Restaurants – I probably did this in the Pac Northwest alone.  Notable new restaurants include Elliot’s Oyster House in Seattle, Oceaniare  and 560 in Dallas and Pok Pok and Farm Café in Portland.
• 10 New Dishes – this one was easy.  Not only did I make at least 10 new dishes from recipes, I also started making things up I thought should work and also started smoking large hunks of meats thus requiring a 2011 purchase of a Big Green Egg.
• 10 Days Outside the US – nope.  Didn’t make it to Vancouver or Montrael.  I didn’t even make it to Paris Las Vegas.  Fail!
• 10 Things Outside my Comfort Zone – semifail.  I’m pretty sure I did a couple of things outside my comfort zone.  Just nothing worth blogging about. 
• 10 lbs per Quarter – probably a bit of an overreach.  Probably lost 10 lbs for the year.  So not a complete fail.

I think this is a good set of resolutions.  So let’s try it again.  But this year they go to 11.  Except for movies.  I’m going to try to go the entire decade without seeing a movie.

Winter League 2010 Finals Pictures

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Top 10 of 2010: The Resolutions

I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions.  I didn’t resolve last year to go to Europe.  I didn’t resolve last year to bike over 2000 miles.  Those things just happened.  I prefer to let the game come to me.

But I do like finding ways to bring content to the blog and teach myself a new programming skill.  And in honor of 2010, all of these resolutions will have 10 as their goal.

Therefore I will resolving to do the following in 2010:

• Read Ten Books – In my decade end review noticeably absent was a Top 10 Books list.  I used to be a voracious reader.  But these days I do much of my reading on the interwebs.  I’m not entirely sure I read ten books in the Oughts.  I started dozens.  Finished but a handful.
• Attend Ten Shows – Another regret from my list was the low number of shows I saw.  This should resolve that problem, at least for the first year.
• See Ten Movies in a Theatre – I’m not a huge moviegoer.  But I do love writing scathing movie reviews.
• Go to Ten New Restaurants – This may be harder than it sounds since I do so love the restaurants I love.  And the “new” Green Room isn’t technically new.
• Cook Ten New Dishes – This is probably the easiest of the list.  Between Alton Brown, Mark Bittman and my journey through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I have more than enough material.
• Spend Ten Days Outside the US – This may be more difficult this year with my limited number of vacation days at my new job.  So I may have to supplement it with a few days in Canada or Mexico.
• Do Ten Things Outside My Comfort Zone – The most subjective item on my list.  This will force me to try new things and relate them back to you, my loyal and extremely good looking readers.  Have I mentioned the Bloggie Awards are coming up?  TheSummerOfSteve has been nominated for Least Read Blog by a Narcissistic  Snarkmeister.  It’s touch competition since it includes virtually every blog out there.
• Lose Ten Pounds every Quarter – also a huge challenge.  But one of my leaders, Alton Brown, has recently dropped a huge amount of weight.  So why not me?  And 10lbs/quarter seems attainable.  Of course, if I’m short at the end of a quarter, I can always do a detox and shed a quick 15.

The other part of the resolution, the programming skill to learn, will be added to the blog soon.  I’ll be writing a little Silverlight widget for the right side of the blog keeping track of all my goals.  If you don’t know what any of that means, I’ll explain some of it when I deploy the widget in the next few weeks – hopefully sooner.