Image
  • Writing
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • About my Novels & Writing
    • All Writing Posts
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Scrivener – Writer’s Word Processor
    • iPad for Writers
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Books
    • Book Review Index
    • Favorite Fantasy Novels
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Short Story: Harvard Divinity
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • About the Book
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Games
    • My Video Game Career
    • Post Archive by Series
    • All Games Posts Inline
    • Making Crash Bandicoot
    • Crash 15th Anniversary Memories
    • World of Warcraft Endgames
    • Getting a Job Designing Video Games
    • Getting a Job Programming Video Games
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Movies
    • Movie Review Index
  • Television
    • TV Review Index
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • A Game of Thrones
  • Food
    • Food Review Index
    • Foodie Club
    • Hedonists
    • LA Sushi Index
    • Chinese Food Index
    • LA Peking Duck Guide
    • Eating Italy
    • Eating France
    • Eating Spain
    • Eating Croatia
    • Eating Vietnam
    • Eating Australia
    • Eating Israel
    • Ultimate Pizza
    • ThanksGavin
    • Margarita Mix
    • Foodie Photography
    • Burgundy Vintage Chart
  • Other
    • All Posts, Magazine Style
    • Archive of all Posts
    • Fiction
    • Technology
    • History
    • Anything Else
  • Gallery
  • Bio
  • About
    • About me
    • About my Writing
    • About my Video Games
    • Ask Me Anything
  • Contact

Archive for April 2013

Simon Says Melisse

Apr30

Restaurant: Melisse [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 1104 Wilshire Blvd.Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 395-0881

Date: April 10, 2013

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Awesome in all ways

 

Melisse is a real standout in LA for many reasons. It’s almost the last of the European style haut cuisine restaurants and it maintains an ever evolving cuisine at the highest level. Food, presentation, and service here are all top notch.

Tonight, my third trip to Melisse in 6 weeks, was for founding Foodie Club member Simon’s birthday celebration.

We settled on the “10” a good sized tasting menu, but not quite as crazy as the carte blanche (my usual favorite).


Melisse has one of those corkage setups where they’ll waive corkage on (up to 2) bottles if you order off the list, so we started with this recommend from Master Somm Brian.

2011 Domaine du Gros’ Noré Bandol Rosé. This was a lovely bottle. Nice fruit and acidity and very refined. It doesn’t achieve the ethereal qualities or elegance of Tempier, but it is very good in its own right.


The first amuse is a Melisse staple. Grapes two ways. Out of the spoon are half grapes coated in goat cheese and pistachio. On the spoon sphereized grapes dusted with pistachio. The first has a nice contrast of the sharp cheese and the fruit, the second is an explosion of grapeness.

And the bread arrives. I went for a piece of bacon, and a  basil brioche.


Wild new Zealand Tai Snapper. Chrysanthemum, Radish, and Meyer Lemon.

And this other bottle off the list:

2007 Château d’Orschwihr Gewurztraminer Bollenberg. A very nice dry Gewurtz.


No trip to Melisse would be complete without the classic, “Egg Caviar, Lemon Creme Fraiche, American Osetra Caviar.” It’s a classic for a reason. The Creme Fraiche is so good, and there is raw egg yolk at the bottom. Amazing combo, particularly with the little toast stick.


This is a vegetarian variant with sweet onion “caviar.”


The rest of the wines are mostly from my cellar, the Lagrange and Gevrey being from Erick’s.

2008 Château La Nerthe Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. Parker 92. “With respect to La Nerthe’s white wines, in 2008 none of the special cuvee called Clos de Beauvenir was produced, so the regular bottling of 2008 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc is a beauty (this vintage for white wines is stronger than it was for reds). This blend of 39% Roussanne, 27% Grenache Blanc, and the rest Bourboulenc and Clairette exhibits a delectable bouquet of pears, spring flowers, honeysuckle, and melons. With crisp acids, medium to full body, and terrific aromatics.”


Spring Onion Veloute. Crab Cake.


With the soup itself added. A very nice soft vegetable soup. Delicious.


The vegetarian variant has spring onions themselves.


And the soup.


2001 Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 93. “The 2001 Chateauneuf du Pape La Crau is gorgeous, structured, impressive. Full-bodied and backward, with great depth, purity, and heady aromatics, this 20,000-case blend of 60% Grenache, 15% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, and 15% miscellaneous amounts of the other permitted varietals will easily rival the 1998. A deep ruby/purple-tinged color is accompanied by a sweet perfume of salty sea breezes, seaweed, melted licorice, kirsch liqueur, creme de cassis, and iodine … a classic Vieux-Telegraphe aromatic display. Powerful as well as firmly structured, this is a wine to lay away for 4-5 years. It should prove to be uncommonly long-lived, lasting a minimum of two decades. It gets my nod as the greatest Vieux-Telegraphe since the 1998.”


Zuckerman Farms Green Asparagus. Ocean Vegetables, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Perigord Reduction.

About as good as green asparagus gets!


1996 Domaine des Perdrix Echezeaux. Parker 93-95. “If the wine I tasted out of barrel is bottled without losing its extraordinary fruit and precision (i.e. little fining or filtration), it will be a blockbuster. Dark ruby-colored and exhibiting copious quantities of sweet dark fruits, violets, and traces of minerals, this wine is magnificently defined, elegant, and feminine. An intense, juicy, and fabulously pure core of candied cherries, plums, blueberries, and flowers can be found in this full-bodied, velvety, and admirably long wine. Projected maturity: 2003-2009+. Bravo!”


Scallop Cooked in its Shell. Plantain and Wild Flowers. Very light and “floral.”


The vegetarian variant was marinated daikon radish.


1993 Domaine Tollot-Beaut et Fils Corton Bressandes. Parker 87. “Both offerings from Corton (Corton and Corton Les Bressandes) possess plenty of new oak, medium body, and attractive, ripe, sweet black-cherry fruit flavors. The Corton Les Bressandes begins well, but the finish is hard and tough, with a touch of astringency, which could create serious problems during the wine’s aging.”


Wild Steelhead Salmon. Fava Beans, Stinging Nettle, Crayfish Jus.


With the jus. Extremely soft and fresh salmon.


1993 Domaine Joseph Roty Gevrey Chambertin Champs Chenys. Parker 1993. “I enjoyed all three of Roty’s village Gevrey-Chambertins. The medium ruby-colored Gevrey-Chambertin Champs Chenys reveals more intensity than La Brunelle, nice spice, and moderate tannin in the finish. It should drink well for 5-6 years. Roty has enjoyed modest success in 1993, managing to avoid the harsh tannin and hollow mid-palates exhibited by many wines. Nevertheless, his 1993s are not of the same quality level as his 1990s and 1985s. They possess good concentration, but the colors are less intense than expected, and the extraction and intensity of flavor, while impressive, are not as great as in other top vintages. I recently had the 1985 Mazy-Chambertin and I do not see any of these 1993s approaching the levels of richness and complexity that wine exhibits.”


Beef Cheek Agnolotti. English Peas, Porcini Mushrooms, Red Wine Herb Jus.


Sauced. Yum, yum. This is the kind of pasta I like :-).


A vegetarian variant with vegetables, a kind of pulled fermented tofu, and a fresh egg.


Sauced.


1997 Aldo Conterno Barolo Colonnello. Parker 91. “The full-bodied, dark garnet-colored 1997 Barolo Colonnello displays licorice, spice, box, and kirsch liqueur characteristics as well as noticeable acidity. As the wine sits in the glass, aromas of soy, herbs, and incense emerge. It is a tightly-framed, full-bodied, powerful yet close-to-the-vest offering.”


1986 Lagrange. Parker 92. “Here is a classic example of a wine that is showing significantly more complexity and richness from the bottle than out of cask, although it was certainly a potentially outstanding wine when tasted from the barrel. In a vintage that produced a number of enormously structured, rich, concentrated wines, Lagrange is another of the blockbuster wines that seems capable of lasting 30-35 years. Black/ruby in color, with a closed but burgeoning bouquet of spicy new oak, black fruits, and flowers, this muscular, full-bodied, tannic wine is packed with fruit and is clearly one of the great long-distance runners from this vintage. I admire how the significant investment made by the Japanese owners in this property has paid off with a thrilling, albeit amazingly backward, wine. The finest Lagrange to date!”


Elysian Farms Lamb. Red Dragon Carrots, Green Garlic, Wheat Berries.


Sauced. Not as gamey as the lamb we had here the other week, but very good.


A bit of crispy halibut with a beure blanc sauce and mini gnocchi.


1998 Michel Ogier Cote Rotie. Parker 90. “Ogier’s regular cuvee of Cote Rotie sees about 25-30% new oak. It spends 18 months in barrel, and over 70% of the grapes emerge from their holdings on the Cote Blonde. The 1998 Cote Rotie exhibits scents and flavors of charred earth, smoke, minerals, and cassis. The wine is full-bodied, rich, and dense, with abundant tannin in the finish. The French might call it a true vin de garde. It needs 4-5 years of cellaring, and will keep for 15-18+ years. This wine is bottled with no filtration.”

Fourme d’Ambert. Pear Tart, Wild Watercress, Peppered Honey.

I’m always good with blue.


We also added a round from the cheese cart. Here is some stinky stuff including Époisses de Bourgogne in the upper left.

Molten Chocolate Tart, peppermint Sorbet.

Not your average “molten chocolate cake”!


Coconut Meringue. White Sage Beer and Anise.


A very refreshing dish whose innards were not unlike — dipping dots!


Strawberries, chocolates (with peanut butter inside) and pate de fruits.


Macarons, cookies, and canelles.


The array of red wines.

Melisse has two Michelin stars, and it deserves every ounce of them. The service is amazing too. The setting is not as fully formal as some French three-stars, or the service quite so orchestrated (that level is more amusement than actually pleasant), and there are no zany carts for teas and sugars, but the food and creativity demonstrate Melisse’s deserved position as one of America’s top kitchens. I ‘ve gone several times a year for a decade and it keeps getting better and better!

For another Melisse meal, click here.

Or for other Foodie Club meals, click here.

Birthday boy Simon in blue

Related posts:

  1. More Michelin at Melisse
  2. Melisse – How much would a Woodcock…
  3. Burghounds at Melisse
  4. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
  5. Food as Art: Melisse
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Burgundy, Foodie Club, French Cuisine, Gewürztraminer, Melisse, Wine

Game of Thrones – Episode 25

Apr28

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 25 – April 28, 2013

Title: Kissed by Fire

Summary: Fire and oaths

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The name betrays the theme of the episode well enough: kissed by fire. Most scenes touch on the primary theme of fire and/or that of oaths and loyalty. This later is big in the books and series in general, as, hey: medieval times!

Arya – This is a great week for our favorite little Stark. As promised last time, the Hound faces off against Dondarian for his life, but not first without a little prayer (by Thyros) to the Lord of Light. As a huge proponent of the relationship between religion and magic, I dug this. Then we have a nice fight, reminiscent in many ways of the season 1 duel between Bronn and that dead knight for Tyrion’s life. Despite the fact that he’s terrified of fire, and Thyros’ sword is burning, the Hound does pretty well. I like the way the spectators have to dive out of the way.

Now this is a big spoiler, but Dondarian doesn’t make it — and he does — as Thyros brings him back just as simple as that. I loved this in the books, but it could have used a little more “magic” here on screen. These are hard moments for the show which doesn’t consistently embrace it’s mystical side. But revived Dondarian is true to his word and lets the Hound go.

MKomarck_Beric_v_HoundLater, Gendry tells Arya he’s staying with the Brotherhood. Her journey is one of isolation, and one by one she loses her companions — bits of her burned away (haha). Gendry’s reasoning feels a little forced, but I like his parting line, even if I’m not sure if it means he “likes” Arya or if he knows he can never overcome their class differences — or both.

Even later (I told you we get a lot of good A), in the wake of Gendry’s  withdrawal, Arya recites her list of cursed names. The show periodically include this motif, even if they can’t hammer it home the way Martin does in the books. Thyros plans to sell her to her brother at Riverrun, which while not totally honorable, isn’t exactly bad. We get a bit more detail on Dondarian, and the fact that he’s died and risen six times! Maybe he has lives three left.

Jaime – Jaime and Brienne are dragged into Harrenhall and dumped in the mud, but Martin loves a good  reversal and as crappy as Jaime’s life has been, he’s due a little better. Bolton remains an enigma, but he does allow them to clean up and ships Jaime off to Qyburn, Bolton’s creepy would-be Maester. This is a nice example of squeezing a minor character into the show even when it doesn’t have room for the details. We can tell he’s one twisted creep — and the shots of picking at Jaime’s stump are pretty awful. Then (offscreen) it’s cleansed with a bit of fire (I know, I’m reaching).

Love at last sight

Love at last sight

Later, Brienne is in the bath bathing, and Jaime — surprisingly recovered from a serious bit of surgery — wanders back in. Their chemistry remains fantastic, although it’s the Kingslayer who dominates this scene. First by strolling in the buck, then with his full tale of the death of the mad king. This pretty much puts the detailed spin on his glib comment some episodes before: “So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or another.”

Oh, and let’s not forget this is a story about pyromancers and fire! Burn them all!

Hot or cold?

Hot or cold?

Jon – There is some serious kissing of fire for Jon. After a little foreplay where the wildlings get him to betray details about the Night’s Watch and he thumps his chest with fellow Warg (the eagle guy), Ygritte drags him off into a cave and strips down to her birthday suit — something I and all the fan boys have clearly been waiting for, as Rose is a serious babe. Jon may be (in Ygritte’s words) a “maid”, but evidently Theon gave him some tips, because he handles himself alright. At one level, a girl that’s been marching through the snow in a fur suit without a bath must be ripe, and Jon dives right in — on the other, she’s hot, naked, and kissed by fire! Their pillow talk revives the fun little banter that’s been missing for a couple episodes while Mance and crew took front stage.

And how fitting is it that Jon confronts the mystery in a cave?

go with hot!

go with hot!

Robb – This is also a big week for Robb, but not all is fine and dandy. Karstark, itching for a little “Northern Justice,” breaks in and murders those two young Lannister boys. Now Robb has some hard choices. This is one of his key bannermen, and he just disobeyed his orders. Cat and his wife urge that he throw him in a cell, and that’s what Karstark expects, but Robb is his father’s son. So on the oath front: a traitor is a traitor and off with his head.

and it was such a fuzzy head!

and it was such a fuzzy head!

There is a serious examination here of the nature of severe command. Robb is basically screwed from the outset by Karstark’s actions. On one hand, he needs Karstark and his men, on the other, he can not condone the man’s behavior or be seen as weak or tolerant of such disobedience. Sucks to be the king.

Unfortunately, as predicted, this has drastic consequences, and the Karstark’s leave. Planning with his wife, he does realize that Casterly Rock (the Lannister home) is vulnerable — but also that he needs men from Walder Frey, who he’s already betrayed!

Stannis & Davos – On the thread of boredom, we actually get to see Stannis’ wife up close. She’s a weird one, so obsessed with the Lord of Light that she is all hunky dory with her husband sleeping with the red lady. Not only that, she keeps three stillborn fetuses (her previous efforts at heir generation) in Alien face-hugger style tanks! Creepy!

And it turns out that Stannis actually does have a daughter in this version. Since she was never mentioned season 2, I had assumed not, but he does — and she has grayscale as she should. Cute enough kid otherwise, plus, there is not a word of explanation of what the deal is with grayscale. When she finds out Davos is in the dungeon, she runs down to visit him, bringing him a book on Aegon the conquerer, which brings us to…

poor thing

Dany – After last week’s fest of Dany goodness we don’t get a lot of time. She and her army are marching through Morocco (Papyrus beds choke the winding river). Jorah and Barristan take this time to continue trading war stories and working on their dislike for each other. Dany, meanwhile, is focused on business at hand, meeting the Unsullied officers and their new leader: the rather young Grey Worm.

Cersei – Always working her angle, sets Littlefinger on the task of ferreting out what the Tyrels are up too.

Sansa – is moving quickly into Marg’s camp. As she watches Loras practice, the girl’s chat about their wedding plans. Alas, the show quickly reminds us that Loras likes his buns a little firmer, as he quickly falls for a new (blond) squire.

But he works for Littlefinger — in what amounts to an abrupt bit of storytelling. The whoremonger quickly runs off to chat with Sansa and probe the waters. Babe in the woods, her attempts to put him off over his offer to steal her away are transparent to all. But this throwaway scene, besides showing great scenery, does have one of the show’s startling (for a fantasy) insights into human nature. Littlefinger comments: “it doesn’t matter what we want, when we get it, we always want something more.”

Be a passive tool, get handed the shaft

Be a passive tool, get handed the shaft

Tyrion – meets with lady Olena and finds himself — for pretty much the first time — out maneuvered in matters of the tongue. This scene gives us a few details on the royal finances, and a glimpse of a lovely Dubrovnik courtyard, but seems mostly about getting these two great characters together.

Later, these Kings Landing threads come together in the form of a leonine three way: Papa lion, Ty, and Cersei. Seems the easy solution to this whole “Tyrel plot to steal away Sansa” thing is to just marry her off to Tyrion. To his credit, he protests, but Tywin gets what he wants — and that also includes marrying Cersei off a second time to a guy who couldn’t care less about her: in this case, Loras!

All in all another great episode. We don’t have as many pivots or as much action as last week, but we do have a lot of great scenes. The tlot continues to plinken. Absent this week were Bran, Sam, Theon, Joff, and Varys.

Another interesting review of this episode.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

And below is “inside the episode” for this week:

132C2834

Sansa prayed over there last week, and she and Marg wandered down those stairs. They must have magiced away the motorboat!

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 24
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 2
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Kissed by Fire, Season 3, Season 3 Episode 25, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

PS2 Memory Lane

Apr25

I was recently asked a couple of questions about the early days of Playstation 2 development…

My first dev unit looked more or less like this

My first dev unit looked more or less like this

Can you remember your first reaction when you saw the PS2 for the first time?

My first PS2 glimpse was hardly typical. In the spring of 1999, I had to go down to LAX and claim my prototype unit. It was one of the first to leave Japan (a few weeks earlier we had sent an employee to Tokyo to get one and he’d been turned back at the airport because the customs people thought it might be a weapons computer!). It took several hours of walking paperwork around freight offices behind the airport to claim my prize. When I did, I dug through the giant crate of peanuts to uncover a handmade aluminum cube about 18 inches square, filled with wire wrapped circuit boards. It smelled like ozone. The shell was a bit bent in transit and I was terrified it wouldn’t work. But it did.

What most impressed you technically when you started to work with PS2?

At first, the thing was a beast. Well, later it was still a beast. But what was really impressive once you got into it was how much floating point vector math you could do on the vector units if you took the time to program them. This was HARD. Seriously HARD, but the things worked all from on chip memory and were ridiculously powerful for the time.

Did you notice any wider changes to gaming, culturally for example, as a result of the PS2’s impact?

The PS2 had sufficient horsepower to make games look fairly realistic. You could actually put motion captured human models in a game and have them look okay. On the PS1, this was hopeless. Take a look at how blocky Lara Croft was back in the day and you’ll see what I mean. The ability to have human characters drove the whole style of games in a much more realistic and film-like direction. Before that, games were much more cartoon in style.

The more official dev unit that came many months later

The more official dev unit that came many months later

What one, stand-out factor do you think helped PS2 become so successful?

It was small. It played DVDs. The price was reasonable, and the games rocked.

What do you think was PS2’s most technically accomplished or innovative game and why?

I’d say that the Jak & Daxter games were certainly among the most technically accomplished. Our engine was really customized for the machine, and it was a machine that really rewarded custom design. The architecture wasn’t like anything else. But we were evolutionary in game design and there were certainly games that innovated more in genre. The PS2’s middle and late periods brought some really innovative and creative games like Katamari Damacy, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and Okami.

What do you think will be PS2’s lasting legacy?

I think the Playstation in general, and the PS2 in particular, really brought video games out of the Mario/Zelda kiddie style and into direct parity with the other broad entertainment mediums like film. The stylistic line between an effects laden blockbuster and a big video game is very thin. There’s even been a lot of back-flow as video game sensibilities push into other mediums.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed
or the
video game post depot
or win Crash & Jak giveaways!

Latest hot post: War Stories: Crash Bandicoot

Related posts:

  1. Jak & Daxter Q&A
  2. Crash goes to Japan – part 1
  3. Making Crash Bandicoot – part 1
  4. Making Crash Bandicoot – part 2
  5. Game of Thrones – Season 3 Goodies
By: agavin
Comments (320)
Posted in: Games
Tagged as: Jak & Daxter, Japan, Katamari Damacy, Playstation, PlayStation 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Sony, Video game

Hedonists in Vegas – Lotus of Siam

Apr23

Restaurant: Lotus of Siam

Location: 953 E Sahara Ave A5, Las Vegas, NV 89104. (702) 735-3033

Date: April 16, 2013

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Fantastic

_

Many people consider Lotus of Siam to be the best Thai restaurant in the United States. While I love Thai food, I can’t claim any authoritative sampling, and really, who has dined at every Thai eatery in the country? Regardless, it’s clear that this is some darn fine cooking, with a vast menu full of delights, particularly specialties of Northern Thailand.

To that effect, my Hedonist dining club drove (or flew) from California to Vegas for the express purpose of eating here — for the second time this year! Plus, to spice it up, we brought not only our usual bevy of wines but a bunch of exotic meats as well, shot by our esteemed and well armed leader, Yarom.


The frontage is hardly Vegas glam.


Particularly when you turn around and take in the off strip mall location. A bevy of slimy businesses, like a particularly sleezy-looking strip club, grace the location.


But inside, Lotus features a huge wine cellar, filled with a world class selection of Riesling. Oddly, or perhaps because they offer such great examples, we didn’t bring any.


And a good sized interior. Most Vegas restaurants are style over substance. Lotus is exactly the opposite. The menu contains over a 100 dishes, and from my sampling, I have to imagine almost all of them are awesome. Fortunately for us, the Hedonists are long time regulars and daughter Penny (who’s birthday we recently celebrated) is a member. The owners took care of us and we didn’t really have to choose at all.


1999 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Road Vineyard. Parker 94-97. An awesome effort is the 1999 Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard. There are 2,000 cases produced from this Russian River vineyard surrounding the Kistler winery. It exhibits tell-tale minerality as well as a gorgeous nose of white fruits, citrus oils, nuts, minerals, smoke, and butter. With fabulous intensity, purity, and an expansive, multi-layered mid-palate, this powerful, impeccably-balanced, restrained Chardonnay unfolds on the palate. This wine will have a long and compelling evolution.

Alas, this was heavily oxidized and not terribly pleasant, with strong vanilla and sherry notes.

Nam Kao Tod. Crispy rice mixed with minced sour sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice.


Special spiced elk tartar. The elk was provided by Yarom earlier in the day and Lotus prepped it. This was meat, spicy, with some real kick. Addictive.

Instead of the Rieslings, we brought a series of fantastic white Hermitages.

1994 Chave Hermitage Blanc. Parker 94. The 1994 white Hermitage is one of the most seductive, perfumed, multi-layered, and profoundly textured white Hermitages I have tasted from Chave. The unctuous texture, and superb nose of honeyed white flowers, and minerals are followed by a wine of exceptional depth, richness, and balance. It should drink splendidly well for 4-5 years, then close completely, not to re-emerge for a decade.


Ground antelope larb. The meat is mixed with onion, green chili, and lime juice and served with fresh cabbage. Yarom brought the antelope itself.

FRIED CHICKEN DUMPLINGS. Deep fried wonton skins stuffed with ground chicken and vegetables, served with homemade sweet and sour sauce. Yum! I had about 5 of these, being a dumpling fiend.

Also, I have to comment, that half the restaurants I eat at have this watered-down “shell pattern” restaurant grade flatware. In fact, we have a large set in our garage we use for parties.


From my cellar, 1991 Chapoutier Ermitage Cuvee de l’Oree. Parker 96. This firm makes outstanding white Hermitage. Readers lucky enough to have access to any of the 300-500 cases of the luxury cuvee called Hermitage Cuvee de l’Orvee should use whatever contact they have to latch onto a bottle or two of the 1993, 1992, or 1991. Made from Chapoutier’s oldest vines on the Hermitage Hill (average age of 75 years), these are closed, mineral-dominated, honeyed wines that are completely dry but fabulously rich with an intensity and breadth of flavor that would embarrass many of Burgundy’s Le Montrachets.


SOM THUM (Thai Papaya Salad). This classic dish from Thailand consists of green papaya, chili, tomato, crushed peanuts mixed with lime juice, fish sauce and sugar.


1996 Domaine Christian Clerget Echezeaux. Burghound 89. Slight toast notes frame black fruit aromas followed by delicious, complex, quite fine and delineated flavors plus solid if not spectacular length. This is approachable now though will be better in 3 to 5 years. Quite good and entirely promising.

Not bad, but a little unbalanced with some brett.


STUFFED CHICKEN WINGS. Chicken wings stuffed with ground pork, deep fried, served with homemade sweet and sour sauce. Yummy, if very fried.


From my cellar, 2003 Frédéric Magnien Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 95. A dazzlingly complex nose of intense floral, red cherry liqueur-like notes and strong earth and sauvage aromas slam into rich, full, unbelievably powerful and huge, indeed massive flavors that sacrifice absolutely no precision at all, all wrapped in dense tannins and an explosive finish that goes on and on. I was knocked out by the sheer persistence and I could taste this 3 hours later. As good as the Bonnes Mares is, this is at another level.

Really drinking great for such a young Grand Cru.


Bison larb. The meat is mixed with onion, green chili, and lime juice and served with fresh cabbage. Yarom brought the meat itself.


2003 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 97. The 2003 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape (the # 2 wine in the Wine Spectator’s annual winefest) has long been one of the most profound wines of the vintage. It somehow manages to offer the vintage’s character in power, high glycerin, and huge volume, but retains remarkable elegance and finesse that is so much in keeping with the style of Clos des Papes. The wine has a dense ruby/purple-tinged color and a wonderfully sweet nose of framboise, blackberry, and kirsch liqueur intermixed with Chinese black tea and licorice. The wine is full-bodied and voluptuous, but once past all the glycerin and beautiful, dense fruit of this full-bodied wine, there is striking purity, elegance, finesse, and surprising freshness. Still primary, it looks set to have a long life of 20-25 or more years.

PLAR DOOK SA-MM ROD. Deep fried whole catfish, topped with sweet, sour and spicy sauce.


Yellow curry, vegetable. The mildest among all Thai curries made from curry powder, turmeric and spices with coconut cream, potatoes and carrots.


Garlic Prawn. Deep fried prawn with shell and sautéed with our special garlic sauce, topped with ground black pepper.


2004 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino. Parker 94. The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino is simply beautiful. Now that the wine is in bottle it is even better than when I tasted it from barrel. Firm but silky tannins frame a core of ripe dark fruit as this powerful yet elegant Brunello opens up in the glass. Smoke, cured meats, earthiness and graphite develop in the glass, adding further complexity. Sweet roses and spices linger on the long, refined finish. This is a big, structured Brunello, and like all of Abbruzzese’s wines, it needs at least a few years of bottle age before it offers its finest drinking.


ROASTED DUCK CURRY. The combination of roasted duck, pineapple, bell peppers and tomatoes in red curry base with a touch of coconut.

This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening. Really quite spectacular, particularly over rice.


A meat in dark spicy curry sauce, almost like a vindaloo.


Red curry with tofu. The beautiful red color from both fresh and dried chilis and spice make this curry hotter than yellow curry. Cooked with coconut cream, Thai basil and bamboo shoots.


Lobster (Garlic Pepper Sauce). Deep fried lobster, sautéed with our special garlic sauce.

Very Chinese, and not so different than several versions we’ve had recently. A little dry and hard to extract the meat.


Bison cooked up a different way. Same meat, different chilies, with some real heat.


SOFT SHELL CRAB SALAD. Thai delicious dish consists of deep fried soft shell crab, fresh chili, lime juice, peanuts, vegetable, served on bed of sliced cabbage.


Khao Soi. This typical Burmese influence Northern Thai egg noodle is served in curry sauce and coconut cream, garnished with sliced red onion, lime and pickled vegetables. The meat on top is beef short rib.

Another favorite. I love this red curry sauce.


1994 Chateau la Graviere Tirecul Vendange Tardive. Parker 92. The 1994 Vendange Tardive possesses a fabulous, intense perfume of exotic fruits and honey, as well as amazing richness, purity, and a level of concentration and balance that must be tasted to be believed. Already approachable, it is capable of lasting for 10-20 years. Sadly, only 50 cases were produced for the world. Monbazillac is well-known in French history, but my experience in tasting through the appellation’s wines has unearthed few gems. Leave it to Eric Solomon to discover this remarkable estate. The vineyard is planted with a high percentage of Muscadelle (50%), along with Semillon (45%), and Sauvignon (5%). There are two cuvees produced. The young vine cuvee (the vines are 45-years old) produced only 8.5 hectoliters per hectare in 1994 (less than one-quarter ton of fruit per acre). Additionally, these grapes are picked grape by grape (as they develop the noble rot), not by bunch. The proprietors, Claudia and Bruno Bilarcini, actually pass through the vineyard a minimum of four to five times a day. Given the fact that it is a manual harvest, the 1994 was harvested between October 20 and November 25. Fasten your seat belts, as these wines are remarkable.


Sticky rice and mango. The classic.

This was another fantastic Hedonist blow out, with some real great grub. At our request the kitchen kept the spice to a controllable level so as not to overwhelm the wines, and what we brought paired brilliantly. This was in contrast to at Jitlada (also great) where the ass-blasting heat destroyed anything but the Spatlese and Auslese Rieslings.

All in all, writing this review has me dreaming of more great Thai…

Check out all my Hedonist dinners here, or

For more Vegas dining reviews click here.

Yarom with Chef/Owner Saipin Chutima

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  2. Hedonists at Jitlada
  3. Vegas with a Twist
  4. Hedonists at La Paella
  5. Hedonists at Dahab
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: hedonists, Las Vegas, Lotus of Siam, Thai cuisine, Thai food, Vegas, Wine

Game of Thrones – Episode 24

Apr21

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 24 – April 21, 2013

Title: And Now His Watch Is Ended

Summary: The end brought tears to my eyes

ANY CHARACTER HERE

A lot is moving in this episode, so let’s leap right into it:

Jaime – We open with the hand — around his neck. This was a particularly gruesome detail from the books I doubted the show might cling too, but it did. Pretty realistic looking hand too. Jaime isn’t doing too well, no surprise, but he has a ways yet to fall… into the mud. When he grabs a sword and makes a hopeless gambit, Brienne, tough as ever, tries to protect him,. I really like how their suffering has brought them begrudgingly together. It’s a very deftly handled relationship and both the writing and fine acting brings to life Martin’s vision here.

Poor Jaime

Poor Jaime

In the second segment, they talk and Jaime reminds us that he considers himself to be his sword hand. His ego is invested fully in his fighting skill — and now it’s gone. Martin just loves this kind of thing: killing characters, and killing them without killing them. As Brienne and Jaime continue, and she embarrasses him back from his pity party, the show hits on another Martin signature: deep thoughts. And not by Jack Handy. Brienne reminds him that he’s getting a taste of the real world, where people have important things taken from them.

Sam – Sam and the Black Watch are still lingering at Craster’s — shoveling pig shit. Somewhat out of nowhere, the sullen Rast has suddenly become a master manipulator, brewing discontent with the brothers. Sam visits Gilly, who reminds him that her baby doesn’t have much time — and she has none for him unless he can help her.

In the second segment, Mormont leads the watch in a funeral, and then back in Craster’s hall, several of the men’s discontent boils over into full on mutiny. One kills Craster, and Rast seizes the moment to stab Mormont. The guy is tough, but Valar Morghulis… In the chaos, Sam runs to Gilly and they do what he does best…

I’ll have to assume that the episode title: And Now His Watch Is Ended speaks mostly for the passing of the old bear.

RIP -- we'll miss you, and the raven you should have had

RIP — we’ll miss you, and the raven you should have had

Bran – has a tiny segment, pretty much just a dream. It’s creepy enough as he climbs a tree after the three-eyed crow and gets into a weird shouting match with the ghostly echo of his mother.

Theon – Theon rides with his rescuer to Deepwood Mott (we think?) and the stranger draws out of him a rather pathetic and deep reflection on his predicament, failings, and choices. In the end, it isn’t his sister that waits, but another betrayal and a return to the cross of torture. This segment has me the most perplexed, particularly because it’s so outside of the books. Who is that guy? Why do they have Theon? Why go to such elaborate means to torture him both physically and psychologically? Including killing a bunch of (his own?) men?

Tyrion – For the second week in a row, Tyrion doesn’t have too much to do. He visits Varys, one of my favorite characters, trying to ferret out the truth of his betrayal during Blackwater. He seeks revenge. What he finds from the spider is a creepy little tale about the eunuch’s final days as a man (boy). Varys councils patience, for revenge can be years in the making as he happily illustrates. The contents of the box seem a tad coincidental considering.

GameOfThronesS3-27

Better with her clothes on

Cersei – Looks on nervously as Marg continues to handle Joff with a surprising deftness. She plays into his blood lust and insecurity with equal aplomb and Joff’s taste for the macabre is reminiscent to that of my aged vampire hunter, Constantine in The Darkening Dream. In the foreground, the queen and Lady Olenna chat about life, politics, sons, and woman’s role in medieval noble houses. Marg’s grandmom is such fun to watch and the location chosen for the high Sept is pretty awesome looking too. When the shot pulls outside it looks much better than in season one. Either they’re spending more money now or the cost has come down in just two years — regardless, it really adds to the epic feel.

Later, Cersei visits her father. Seems being Tywin’s child wasn’t easy for anyone. Cersei speaks boldly, perhaps drawing inspiration from Olenna. The relationships in this family are delightfully complex as no one can really please old Ty.

Nice attention to detail too. As a history buff, I happen to know that medieval ink (and the ink Shakespeare wrote in) was made from ox bile. It smelled foul and dried very slowly. People used various drying agents like the (probable) salt Tywin sprinkles on his letter before sealing it. I must admit I own my own custom made seal and a drawer full of sealing wax imported from Florence.

Sexy little minx

Sexy little minx

Varys – This is a great episode for the spider. Not only to we have his “origin story” but next he has a little chat with Ros. This is my favorite Ros scene yet, and she keeps her clothes on. In a nice bit of long term plotting outside the books, Littlefinger’s coldness is coming back to haunt her, as she clearly took up Varys in his offer to spy. This discuss the odd fact that Pod was supernaturally good in bed, and then Littlefinger’s plans to put his moves on Cat’s sister and the Vale. And this seems to include bringing Sansa with him. Things are ordered and arranged differently here than in the books. Spiritually similar, but not exactly the same. Ser Dontos, briefly introduced in the beginning of season 2, seems to have been whittled out of the Sansa plotline.

What happens when a non-existent bumps against the decrepit?

Grandmother Olenna sits in the garden and launches into a little tirade about her house sigil, the golden rose. This is as revealing about her character as it is the houses of Westeros. So when Varys approaches, and given my fondness for both characters, I was doubly pleased. They wander all around the lovely gardens near Trestino (a town just north of Dubrovnik) plotting the fate of Sansa. So delightful, I love plots and schemes. Or, as Tyrion once remarked, aren’t those the same thing?

Sansa – And the result is another deft manipulation by Marg, who visits Sansa on a lovely cliff side. She even handles Sansa’s Lannister guards expertly, then befriends the poor girl. Even as a viewer, it’s hard not to see her as genuine. Sansa is, as by Tyrion and Olenna have suggested, a beautiful girl with a famous name. So Marg dangles her charming — albeit secretly very gay — brother out as bait.

Full of piss and fire

Arya – rides blindfolded behind Thyros to the cave that serves as home base for the Brotherhood without Banners. The Hound has been dragged along too and it is here that we remeet Beric Dondarian, who Ned Stark sent out to kill the mountain toward the end of season one. If this is the same actor, I couldn’t tell, although he looks a little stockier. The guy is, however, convincingly confident as the leader of the gang and as a scion of the Lord of Light (same god that Stannis’ red lady worships). In a nice Martin moment involving the two sides of things, Arya accuses him of the murder of Micah. You almost feel bad for the hound as in the context of things, he’s actually been pretty decent. Next week he’s in for some trial by combat. Good thing he’s pretty good with a sword.

The art designers must also have gotten a Babylonian vibe from old Astapor

A reconstruction of Ancient Babylon

Dany – They do save the best for last, time and time again. The producers spent some bucks (or pounds) on this sequence, including several wide shots of Astapor. Like me, the set designers must have gotten a Babylonian vibe from Martin’s descriptions of Astapoor, because they clearly based their imagined city on depictions of the ancient city (see right).

In any case, Dany, playing strong as ever, and the audience as well, trades Drogon (delightfully tethered on a leash) for her new slave army. But alas, for the slavers, Dragons choose their own masters. This sequence did literally bring tears to my eyes, and it was well done considering, with several wide angle shots of the army and city, a very commanding performance by Dany, and knowing and impressed looks between Barristan and Jorah — but alas the production cheated a little, for budgetary reasons. The actual slaughter of the slavers is a rather brief affair and doesn’t do the sack of a city justice. We don’t get to see the slave pits or anything. Sigh. They tried their best, but there are limits.

I must also note that the show’s choice to leave foreign languages as foreign languages, like Dothraki and Valyrian, is superb. I felt this with LOTR, and it is equally true here. Dany giving orders in Valyrian was so much more effective subtitled.

We come finally to the last shot, as Dany and her army march from the city and we pull back to take it all in: Astapoor, the vast departing legions, and a trio of scouting Dragons. The new martial music really played into it too, taking my breath away. This is what we fantasy geeks live for!

733763_562720630415299_1818079866_n

A queen at last

All in all a fantastic episode, full of great scenes and big movements in the plot. Absent this week were Robb, Cat, Stannis, and Jon.

Another interesting review of this episode.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

132C2883

Here is my dad standing under the arch the Lady Olenna and Varys strolled through

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 20
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 18
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 23
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 19
By: agavin
Comments (9)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Game of Thrones, George R. Martin, George R. R. Martin, HBO, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Shanghai #1 Seafood Village

Apr18

Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3]

Location: 250 W Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-1777

Date: April 13, 2013

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style

_

The San Gabriel Valley is a veritable treasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain specializing in banquet dining.


The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic.


As this is a Hedonist/Foodie Club wine diner, we prearranged a banquet and reserved the usual giant table.


The menu is like a giant full color fashion catalog for food, but I thought I’d show a couple pages by way of example.


2011 Domaine Collotte Bourgogne Rosé Marsannay. This is one of my go-to roses, as it’s all Pinot Noir from Burgundy. A wonderful sunny weather wine, it paired very nicely with the sweet and sour tones of the Chinese. There were a few rose-haters as usual, but this really is a great wine, bright and full of strawberry flavors.


Our “appetizer” spread.


Marinated legumes (lima beans?). A very mellow sophisticated taste, and some of the best lima beans I’ve had.


Squid with a sauce not unlike eel BBQ sauce. Very tender and tasty.


Lotus root stuffed with sweet rice in a tea marinate. Very interesting texture and a lovely tea flavor.


2011 Chateau Ste. Michelle & Dr. Loosen Riesling Eroica. IWC 88. Pale yellow-straw. Sexy aromas of nectarine, ginger and nutmeg. Moderately sweet but not at all cloying, with nectarine, apple, pear and brown spice flavors complicated by a saline quality and perked up by white flowers and CO2. Not particularly gripping and very easy to drink. Finishes just off-dry, with a menthol nuance and a suggestion of crab apple that brought my score down.


Marinated cucumbers (pickles) in a sweet soy vinegar.


Marinated turnips in a tangy chili oil. Really nice crunch.


Some kind of marinated mushrooms. Very earthly and delicate.


Classic smoked Shanghai fish. Smokey and crunchy.


Roast duck in a heavy sweet soy. Bony, but very tasty.


2004 Albert Mann Riesling Schlossberg. IWC 90. Very pale color. Highly aromatic nose offers underripe pineapple, flowers, mint, stone and flint, along with a leesy nuance that reminded me of Champagne. Juicy and moderately sweet (12.5 g/l. r.s.), with pure peach and nectarine flavors firmed by a stony underpinning. This is precise and detailed, and long on the finish-and not nearly as austere as some past vintages of this consistently excellent bottling. But it still calls for at least five years in the cellar.


Shrimp two ways. On the left, salt and pepper fried shrimp (extremely tasty) and on the right, white sauce popcorn shrimp (pleasant but mild).


Chili fried scallops, with a little heat.


2000 Denis Mugneret Père et Fils Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru. BH 88-91. Black fruit and spice just explode from the glass. This is Boudots at its best with abundant Vosne spice and solid Nuits character in a classy, medium weight package that offers good power, density and quality length. While it doesn’t offer the size of the grands crus and it’s not classically structured, it is deliciously complex and fine. I like this a lot.


Special Shanghai BBQ red pork. Oh so fatty and oh so tasty!


Chicken with scallions and soy sauce. It looked a little scary, but it tasted great (except for the requisite bone).


1995 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja. IWC 90. Good full red. Deeply pitched aromas of smoke, minerals, leather and truffle. Supple and silky but nicely penetrating, with ripe, intense flavors of cherry, minerals and oak perfectly framed by harmonious acids. Subtle, textured Rioja finishing with good grip and thrust.


Crab dry cooked with coconut? Hard to say, but it tasted great. A dry, slightly spicy crab that emphasized the flavor of the crab itself.


Chicken soup. Pretty much like moms’.


It came in this pot.


1985 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Dolcetto d’Alba. I’ve never had an old Dolcetto, and wouldn’t have assumed they lasted, but this was brilliant. It tasted very much of Dolcetto, grapey and all, but had a real depth to it.


Shanghai style sweet and sour fried fish. This was one of those goopy straight up orange sweet and sour sauces, but it was awesome. Particularly dripped over rice. And the method of flaying the meat out and frying it created a much crisper effect, even if the appearance is a bit horror movie.


Fried rice. Simply one of the best fried rices I’ve ever had.


2007 Tenute Niccolai Rosso Di San Gimignano Uno di quattro. A very nice Italian Syrah. Yeah, odd, but it is.


Shanghai noodles. These are pan fried rice cake with scallions and sweet soy. Odd soft texture, but delicious.


Crispy meat buns. A really great film skinned take on the soup dumpling.


The inside. These were great with vinegar poured in.


2010 Montirius Gigondas Terres des Aines. IWC 91-93. Bright ruby. Spicy cherry and blueberry aromas lifted by mineral cut and a floral overtone. Nicely focused and pure, with very good energy to its dark berry flavors and seductive lavender and spice accents. Finishes spicy and long, with a late note of anise hanging behind.


Beef ribs (short ribs?), with garlic, green and red peppers, etc. Tasty, but certainly not the best dish of the might.


2003 Maculan Acininobili. Parker 96. The 2003 Acininobili is utterly mind-blowing in its expression of candied apricots, orange peel and cinnamon. Constantly changing in the glass, it reveals superb intensity and a stunningly gorgeous purity, with superb length and phenomenal poise. Acininobili is a selection made from botrytised Torcolato fruit. It is aged for two years in new French oak.


Mango or some other fruit in a coconut yogurt like sauce. Nice and refreshing, and and absolotely brilliant pairing (not by any foresight) with the Passito above. Really first rate combo.


Our menu for the staff!

Overall, this was a really great meal. First rate Chinese and quite authentic and typical of high end banquet meals in China. We didn’t have the totally tricked out menu with all the sea cucumber, shark fin, and the like, but I don’t love that stuff anyway. Nearly every dish was wonderful. Service was fine (for Chinese). They brought things a little rapidly, but it was fine. Great experience.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Din Tai Fung Dumpling House
  2. Hedonists Boil Up Some Crab
  3. Birthday Party, Hedonist Style
  4. Ocean Avenue Seafood
  5. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: China, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Foodie Club, hedonists, Seafood, Shanghai #1 Seafood Village, Wine

Untimed for Cheap!

Apr16

The E-Book versions of Untimed will be only $0.99 cents from Monday, April 15 until Friday the 19th! Take the plunge, it’s certainly a great deal.

Buy it on Amazon!

Tweet, share, like, follow, blog and grab a copy of my book. The trailer can be found here.

About Untimed

Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future. And the baggage: Yvaine’s got a baby boy and more than her share of ex-boyfriends. Still, even if they screw up history — like accidentally let the founding father be killed — they can just time travel and fix it, right? But the future they return to is nothing like Charlie remembers. To set things right, he and his scrappy new girlfriend will have to race across the centuries, battling murderous machines from the future, jealous lovers, reluctant parents, and time itself.

“A masterful storyteller, Gavin builds a solid plot with believable characters.” — Kirkus
_
“Adventure, chemistry… and roller coaster plot are sure to appeal.” — Publishers Weekly
_
“Like science class in Las Vegas!” — FantasyLiterature.com

Buy Sample Characters Reviews Reviewer Info20-Tyburn

Related posts:

  1. Untimed – $1.99 this week!
  2. Untimed for sale at B&N and iTunes
  3. Untimed starred in Publishers Weekly!
  4. Untimed officially for Sale!
  5. Unbendable Untimed
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Untimed
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Sale, bookbub, Untimed

Game of Thrones – Episode 23

Apr14

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 23 – April 14, 2013

Title: Walk of Punishment

Summary: Hands off to Weiss and Benioff!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

There is a lot going on in this episode. Several of the threads are very brief, while others are vital, plus there is a substantial chunk of character development. Like last week, I’ll break stuff down by narrative thread instead of by segment.

Robb/Cat – Uncharacteristically, we don’t begin were we left off (exactly), but with the funeral of Lord Tully, Cat’s father. It’s nice to finally see Riverrun, even if only a dead Lord Fish. The bit of conflict/rivalry between Cat’s brother (the new lord) and uncle (the missing Blackfish, finally making an appearance!) will be pretty opaque to non book readers. It did have me thinking that firing a flaming arrow at a far away boat would be pretty damn hard. Afterward, Robb lets out a little steam on his uncle, the Lord, for botching his plans. At times like this he has a nice commanding presence, and than at other times, he can be a tad sniveling.

Segment two has Cat and the Blackfish reminiscing in a moment that is almost entirely characterization. It’s nice that the pacing this season allows for this. Plus, they picked a lovely spot on some Irish river for Riverrun. Even the river bird sound effects are first rate. The thread winds down with an oddball segment were Robb’s queen teases the two captive Lanister boys. I have to assume they have a relevant role in the future to warrant this, but I can’t remember what it is, even after several reads.

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-ser-brynden-tully

Blackfish at last!

Tyrion – Joins his father at the small council and it seems Littlefinger is off to the Vale to “court” Cat’s crazy sister, so Tyrion is awarded with the position of master of coin. Hard to tell if this is an honor or a burden, but there is this little bit at the start with the chairs that’s pretty amusing. In the second segment, Ty visits Littlefinger  to pick up all the books, and this being HBO, no opportunity is spared with regards to whores. The actual dialog is amusing and Littlefinger and Tyrion both trade off their knowledge of each other’s goings on, which is a common game between any and all of Ty, Littlefinger, Cersei, and Varys. Tyrion “pays” Pod back for saving his life in quite an amusing fashion. Contortionists. Excellent. It’s a two part scene, again, more fun room for characterization. We also have a new threat introduced: the crown’s debt to the Iron Bank of Bravos.

GameOfThronesS3

Pod gets lucky — twice over! And I mean over!

Arya – Arya has only a very small segment this week, at the mill where we’ve twice been before (where Sansa’s wolf died in episode 2 and where Tyrion was arrested). Other than showing that Thyros doesn’t like the Hound, and Arya is still with him, the main point is to wish Hotpie goodbye. His little wolf cake is kinda cute though.

EP301

Hot pie wasn’t the most exciting character, but he does bake a cute wolf

Jon – Very small segment for Jon, but with important ramifications. They reach the Fist of the First Men and those crazy white walkers have been at it again, arranging horse parts in a creative fashion. Mance sends Giantsbane and Jon off to climb the wall and attack castle black — uh, oh! I’m stilling waiting for my Ygritte time!

Sam – Sam and the men in black get all the way back to Craster’s pig sty — which is appropriate as the old man compares Sam and women in general to his porcine charges. It also turns out Gilly’s having her baby, and a boy at that (uh, oh again), but why isn’t anyone bothered when Sam pokes his head in on the affair? Although that’s not the only head poking into the tent!

Theon – Theon gets pulled off his cross by the mysterious rescuer and given a horse. In his second segment he’s riding across the Irish moors when his captors appear. This results in a nice little horse chase, which like this whole Theon bit is totally not in the book. It had me wondering if they were just padding out this part of the storyline, when bam, more reversals.

Stannis – The king of boredom (not my favorite character) is wishing off Mel the red lady — albeit not happily. He’s much more into her here than in the book, but she gets a chance to reveal her fondness for a little princely flambé.

Is it me, or does it feel like some elements of the story are moving pretty rapidly through A Storm of Swords? Or maybe I forgot how huge the book is?

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-mellisandre

I’ve long been lukewarm about Mel

Dany – A very good (and relatively lengthy) Dany segment here. She walks along the shore line past the “walk of punishment” and the line of crucified slaves. For me this added to the Babylonian vibe of Astapor as Nebuchadnezzar, ancient king of Babylon, was famous for lining roads with the impaled. And the view of the harpy castle was awesome. Inside, is more of that fun double talk involving the slaver lord and his translator. The writers must have wracked their brains to come up with so many insults. There is great multi directional interplay between the parties here, with Dany, Jorah, and Selmy all on slightly different pages — not to mention the slavers. At the end, Dany makes another hard bargain…

Brienne and Jaime – Last, but not least. In A Storm of Swords Jaime and Brienne was one of the highlights, and it’s the same here. Even tied to a horse (and doesn’t Brienne look a helluva different without her armor?), their banter is hilarious. The way in which Jaime simultaneously tries to work it and also betrays his increasing respect for her is very deft. Plus, I even like Bolton’s men’s authentic-sounding folk song.

EP302

Great chemistry!

In the second segment, last of the show, things get even better. Not only are both principals excellent, but Bolton’s hunter is surprisingly effective for a minor character. Jaime does Brienne a real solid and saves her from some nasty business, but he really really fails to estimate his captor’s personal daddy issues, loyalties, and dislike for the likes of him. The ending of this episode is one of those Martinesque moments — the man knows how to make his characters suffer — and hands off to Weiss and Benioff for pulling it off so well…

Hehe. I couldn’t resist.

Missing this time around is a lot of the Kings Landing action: notably Marg, Sansa, and Joff, plus Bran. Still, this is a meaty episode, moving forward some disparate story lines and really cutting at least one to the bone.

Oh, and the credits are scored with Hold Steady’s modern folk-rock version of “The Bear And The Maiden Fair”… this is a thorough production indeed and this odd credits musical juxtaposition is very HBO.

Another interesting review of this episode.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Below is a video about making this episode:

img_2239

Just stick a CGI castle on that there hill, will ya?

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 21
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 5
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 7
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 20
By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: a game of thrones, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, Jon Snow, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka

Apr11

Restaurant: Hoy-Ka Thai Noodle

Location: 5401 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027

Date: April 8, 2013

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Really tasty!

_

This Hollywood Thai is in a sketchy neighborhood, but the reasonable price and excellent food more than make up for it. Plus, they have no liquor license and let us bring our own wine with no corkage. Always a plus!

Hedonist regular Penny, who is Thai, did the ordering, which didn’t hurt either.


2009 Jacques Bavard Bourgogne-Aligoté. Chardonnay gets the bulk of the white Burgundy attention. Aligote is a pleasant diversion, a simple wine that nevertheless has multiple layers to savor. The nose is flinty and faintly fruity, with a slight citrus note accented with a bit of peppery spiciness. Noticeably acidic up front, but that sharpness is quickly balanced out with a bit of honeysuckle and just a little bit of creaminess in the finish. Pleasant enough to drink on its own, but this really is at its best as a table wine to complement food. There is a good amount of sapidity (salty flavors).


The Western Sausage served with fresh vegetables: garlic, peanuts, ginger, and cabbage. Very tasty sausage and the garlic was intensely strong.


2011 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett. Aromas of passion fruit and nut oil. The creamy tropical fruits flavors are light, well-balanced and elegant. Certainly fun to drink. IWC 88.


Fried fish balls served with spicy sweet sauce. Interesting chewy texture too.


2011 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. Elegant aromas of Bing cherry, apple blossom and roasted pine nuts. Sweet and delicate but nonetheless creamy on the palate, with sweet herbs and a touch of vanilla. Lemon curd and slate animate a compelling finish. IWC 90.

Very very nice.


Pork jerky. Deep fried sun dried, marinated pork, served with spicy house sauce.


Chicken larb. Ground chicken with lime juice, onion, ground chili & rice powder.


2002 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Central Coast. Sweet herb and forest floor scents jump from the glass of the dark plum/ruby-tinged 2002 Pinot Noir Coastline Vineyard. Broodingly backward, rich, dense, and promising, its masculine, tannic, stacked and packed personality suggests 2-3 years of bottle age will be beneficial. Parker 91.

Not bad for a new world pinot. Still some oak — too much.


Yum Woosen. Silver noodle with ground pork, shrimp and vegetables seasoned with spicy lemon dressing.

A bit sweet and very very tasty.


Papaya salad. Shredded green papaya, green beans, tomatoes, and dried shrimps, crispy pork, seasoned with lime juice and chili.

A great papaya salad.


2008 Terredora di Paolo Aglianico Campania IGT. The estate’s 2008 Aglianico is a gem of a wine. Wild cherries, dark raspberries, spices, leather and licorice come together beautifully in this medium-bodied red. Floral notes waft out from the glass on the finish. There is nothing fussy here, just a flat out delicious bottle of unoaked Aglianico readers are sure to enjoy. Even better, this is a terrific value. Parker 90.

While not a bad Aglianico, the flavor profile was really off for Thai.


Hoy Ka Noodle. A noodle with ground pork, BBQ pork, pork meatballs, pork loaf and liver.

This soup was superb, one of the best I’ve ever had. Just really good and addictive, with a good bit of heat.


Hoy Ka Noodle. A noodle with ground chicken, sliced chicken, and fish balls.


Noodles with pork in a liver and pigs blood broth! Also super tasty, and much heartier, than the above soups. I liked the first a bit more, but you’d never know this was pig’s blood!


Red curry in coconut milk, sweet basil, bamboo shoots and fresh chili. A great version of the classic.


This Pozzan Merlot was a decent wine, but the big bold flavor profile was stunningly wrong for the food.


Pad See Eiw. Stir fried noodle with Chinese broccoli, egg, black soy sauce, and beef. Yum!


2005 Saxum Booker Vineyard. A blend of 92% Syrah and 8% Grenache, the 2005 Booker Vineyard is the debut vintage of this 400-case cuvee produced from a hillside vineyard situated on the west side of Highway 101. It exhibits plenty of crushed rock, sweet black fruit, and underbrush/forest floor characteristics along with sweet tannin and a structured, muscular personality similar to a northern Rhone. Big and powerful yet precise and well-delineated, it should drink nicely for 10-15 years. The bottled 2005s are all performing well. Parker 94.

This wine was SO BIG that it smashed right through the spice and actually worked!


Crispy Pork Ka Prao. Stir friend crispy pork with chili, basil, green beans, and house special sauce. Like bacon Ka Prao!


Ka Prao pork. Stir fried ground pork with basil, chili, and green beans. Also very tasty with some real heat.


Fried rice with pineapple, shrimp, chicken, and curry. The dominant flavor is yellow curry. Nice finishing dish.

Overall, this place has a great kitchen, and almost every dish was really well executed. The first pork soup in particular was amazing and it’s too bad they’re so far (about 45 minutes) from my house, or it would make an awesome lunch by itself.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists at Jitlada
  2. Hawaiian Noodle Bar
  3. Hedonists Cook the Goose
  4. Hedonists at Dahab
  5. Hedonists at La Paella
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Fritz Haag, hedonists, Hoy-Ka, Joh. Jos. Prüm, noodles, Pinot noir, pork, Riesling, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thia food, Williams Selyem Winery, Wine

Birthday Party, Hedonist Style

Apr09

Restaurant: Shin Beijing

Location: 3101 W Olympic Blvd – Los Angeles, CA 90006. 213-381-3003

Date: April 1, 2013

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: very solid electric Chinese

_

Hedonist regular, Penny, wanted to go out for her birthday, so 15-18 of us descended on Korea Town Chinese restaurant Shin Beijing. As far as I can tell, except for the Kimchi, Korean Chinese is pretty much Chinese (food wise).


Birthday girl Penny on the right next to Hedonist leader, Yarom, who’s sporting his best Myspace pout.


In Chinese style, the staff brought us out some of our victims alive before cooking them up.


You can’t really see it, but we had a nice private room, one of several.


From my cellar, Parker 90, “With respect to Saint-Cosme’s white wine offerings, readers should check out the 2007 Cotes du Rhone blanc, a blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, Picpoul, and Viognier. Flamboyant scents of melon, tropical fruit, and honeysuckle jump from the glass of this beauty. It offers amazing richness, a dry, medium-bodied mouthfeel, superb freshness, and far more quality and complexity than one would expect from a white Cotes du Rhone. Luckily, there are over 1,000 cases of this cuvee.”


Kimchi. No self respecting Koreans would do without.


Kimchi spiced daikon?


Parker 91, “The Monchof 2007 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spatlese Mosel Slate is scented with fresh tangerine, heliotrope, wisteria, and mint. Lush and brimming with ripe pineapple, musk melon, and tangerine, it spreads a creamy fruit concentrate over the palate yet remains infectiously refreshing in its long, sappy finish. Once again, this high-volume Eymael calling card represents an exceptional value and should go right on pleasing for a decade or more, provided anyone both thinks to cellar it and can resist temptation in the interim.”


Cold jelly fish (right) with wasabi sauce. Shrimp with mustard sauce (left) and aromatic braised beef (top) in black bean jelly.


In the upper right, Chinese pork sausages.


Some very unusual artisanal “sour” beers. Stawberry flavors and very… unique.


A stir friend chicken dish.


2008 Domaine  Macle Cotes du Jura. This old fashioned wine is made in a manner a little like Sherry where a layer of bacteria is used to prevent oxidation. It was very dry and hot with sherry fino like notes.


Ma po tofu (a.k.a Pockmarked-Face Old Lady’s Tofu).


2003 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. Very nice with strong notes of pear.


Bamboo shoot w/ black mushroom.


1978 Joseph Phelps Zinfandel. Not something you’d expect to still be good, but it was. Tasted like an old Bordeaux, very nice.


Crab w/ ginger and onion sauce. This sauce was delicious. Some wonderful crabs. Almost as good as the ones I had in Singapore.


2010 Domaine Gauby Côtes du Roussillon Villages Les Calcinaires. A little funky, with a distinct barnyard taste that someone described as “dirty piggy.” I liked it quite a bit though, as did many others.


Fried shrimp w/ hot sauce (traditionally twice cooked spicy shrimp). Damn tasty shrimp!


A Turley Howell Mountain Zin.


Lobster hunan style. Good stuff, some really great lobster. Lightly fried with hunan chillies (but actually pretty mild).


w

Fried whole fish w/ chili sauce. Yummy!


It’s not pretty, but great with white rice.


2007 Chin Chin Syrah.


Beef w/ black mushroom, bamboo shoots. Classic Chinese (American) dish.


Noodle with black bean jelly.


The noodles are hiding underneath. Looked cool, but the black bean jelly was a little mild flavored. I would have preferred pork ragu 🙂


Assorted fried rice (shrimp, chicken, pork). Great fried rice.


Parker 95, “Peter Michael’s Bordeaux program is built around their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine, Les Pavots. The 2008 Les Pavots, a blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc and 11% Merlot, offers up notes of roasted coffee, cocoa, chocolate fudge, black currants, licorice and a hint of truffles. This full-bodied, beautifully rich red boasts an opulent texture, impressive purity and a long finish. Impressively made with impeccable attention to detail (it is sorted berry by berry rather than grape bunch by grape bunch), this 3,500-case cuvee should drink well for two decades or more.”


The condiments for Peking duck.


Both pancakes and buns! I’ve never seen both at the same restaurant.


Peking duck. Looking good!


For the uninitiated, you put some duck skin, duck meat, onions, and hoison sauce in the pancake and roll.


1980 Château Nairac. Yarom always manages to find these ancient Sauternes. Tons of buttered popcorn and apricots. Not as syrupy as many desert wines. Still has a bit of acidity.


Apple pie (brought in).


2002 Domaine Weinbach Tokay Pinot Gris Altenbourg Cuvée Laurence. Parker 95, “Among the few slightly older wines from Weinbach that I tasted recently, the 2002 Pinot Gris Altenbourg Selection de Grains Nobles was especially notable. Black tea, citrus zest, musk, white truffle and honey aromas lead intoxicatingly to a plate the combine delicacy with density and richness, Like mandarins marinated in honey, tea, and grapefruit juice on the palate, on which 166 grams of residual sugar are tossed off and practically forgotten. This finishes with unquenchable refreshment rare for an S.G.N., and the sort of complexity and clarity that accrue to the best wines of this under-rated vintage.”


Glazed sweet potato. Basically sweet potato fries coated in sugar. Carby yum.

Overall, this was a great evening. Shin Beijing turned out to be a great find with a nice ambiance (as far as Chinese restaurants go) and terrific food. They really treated us well too. It’s not so easy to handle a boisterous group of this size and they managed perfectly. The price was very reasonable too, $60 a person all inclusive of tip and tax, considering the number of dishes and the fact that we had several lobsters, several crabs, and two peking ducks.

For more LA dining reviews click here.


The crab is making a break for it — unfortunately for him, he didn’t make it.

Related posts:

  1. Food as Art: Chanukah in Style
  2. Ultimate Pizza – The Birthday
  3. Dinner Party – It all starts with Cheese
  4. N/Naka Birthday
  5. Il Grano Birthday
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Beijing, Chinese Food, Côtes du Rhône AOC, crab, duck, hedonists, Kimchi, Korean cuisine, Lobster, Marsanne, Roussanne, Shin Beijing, Viognier, Wine

Game of Thrones – Episode 22

Apr07

game-thrones-dragon-posterTitle: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 22 – April 7, 2013

Title: Dark Wings, Dark Words

Summary: Lots of great scenes

ANY CHARACTER HERE

There is a process of narrative separation happening with GOT, inherited from the novels. The first book of the series begins with two story threads and fractures into four. With the second, and increasingly so as the series progresses, the number of plots grows and grows. They interweave, split and merge. For good reasons of pacing and tension, the editors of the series inter-splice these during an episode, but I’m going to put them back together for the purposes of discussion.

Bran – Opens with a dream (he’s walking after all), that in several ways harkens back to both his previous three-eyed raven dreams and to the beginning of the first episode of the entire series. Two of the magics of Westeros are introduced and explained in this episode, with a clarity not present in the book. Martin is pretty much the ultimate example of “soft magic” in the fantasy genre, and rarely explains his mystical systems. But, for the sake of the TV audience, they’ve made it pretty clear here that Bran is both a “Worg” (able to cast his spirit into an animal — Summer) and has “The Sight” (clairvoyance of a classic sort). The dream here foreshadows the eminent arrival of the Reeds — who I actually thought the writers had compressed out of the story.

748660_GOT_HS_08.17.12_8996-2-1359137474080-AIt’s also worth noting that several of the kids, most notably Bran, look A LOT older this season. It makes sense, he’s hitting puberty, and he’s taller, leaner, and his voice (and presumably balls) have dropped. Rickon looks older too.

In the second Bran vignette the Reeds actually show. Both of them. This show is sometimes willing to cast woman that aren’t always “cute” in the typical fashion of American productions. Anyway, the male half of the Reed duo (Jojen) serves to explain both mystical systems, hinting into actions of book 5. I also like that the wolves get some real presence, and they look good, and big.

Robb/Cat – The Robb portions always feel anemic because they don’t exist in the source material, although technically this merges in chunks of Cat’s narrative. We have a little moment with his wife, then Bolton (the usual go to man here) bringing double bad news. That of Winterfell’s destruction, and of Cat’s father’s death. This is a substantial change from the book where we go to Riverrun on several occasions and Cat hangs out with the dying Holster Tully. No more.

The second vignette has them on the move to the funeral and takes an opportunity to remind the audience that Robb’s new marriage was politically disastrous. Then a moment with the wife and Cat, which given Cat’s hard side in season 2 is uncharacteristic, but perhaps she’s shaken up by the loss of her father. It’s also a change from the books, where she makes up a complex emotional story about her feelings toward Jon Snow, which in season 1 were pretty cruel. The scene shows to return our sympathy toward her, and I have to say, given how hard she felt, it’s probably a welcome change.

It’s also worth noting a favorite stylistic technic of the series, in that the last line/thought of one scene sets up the next. So we transition from thoughts of Jon to:

Jon – Sure has gotten in close with Mance quickly, as their marching together across the countryside. We learn a bit about the composition of the Wildlings and then get a sort of show and tell demo of the Worg powers where a guy is remote controlling his hawk. We hear about dead crows and then again to:

Sam – Our viewpoint back with the crow expedition. Not my favorite scene, as Sam isn’t looking to good. Although I like how the Commander handles the situation.

Theon – We have two Theon scenes! More and more the show is taking on a life of its own. Theon is basically absent from books 3 and 4. But here he’s captive of the Bastard of Bolton (presumably) and subject to some nasty torture. Nail pulling and a some variant of the knee splitter? Yes, I know way too much about medieval torture, as clearly do Martin and the other writers (they did after all, last year, include the Rat Torture, and it’s alluded to in this episode). But then at the end, we have a big change: a guy is there “sent by his sister” to rescue him! Does he evade the long skinny shadow of Reek in the show?

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-joffrey

Joff – He’s such a shit, but such a delicious shit to watch in action. We get a study of contrasts in terms of the relationships with the two major women in his life. First up is mom, and she ain’t doing too well because while this Cersei comes off as considerably smarter and more reasonable (if still a cold bitch) than in the novels, she sure is losing control over her madman of a son.

Second, Marg comes to visit, and even with Joff being not only a shit, but in a shit mood, she manages to wrap him around her little finger. This is one talented handler, as she knows just how to appeal to his vanity and perverse interests. Here we see Joff at his more vulnerable, really a disturbed little boy (and still an unredeemable human being). Also, I have to admit, Marg with the crossbow was kinda hot. There is also, some what oddly, continued and voluminous mention of Renly’s sexual orientation. This was only vaguely hinted (obvious, but subtle) in the novel, but is a subject of continuous over the head beating here. I wonder why?

Sansa – She and Shae are talking and Shae is getting protective. She too has taken on a depth and complexity not present in the novels. Loras visits and brings Sansa to have tea with Marg and her Grandmom, Dame Tyrell. Well, the dame is one funny lady, well played, and disarmingly direct. Good fun. Sansa does a deft job handling the crisis, because she’s under A LOT of emotional pressure with no outlet, and she can’t help but seize one.

Tyrion – Uncharacteristically has only one brief scene in the episode, with Shae, but their back and forth is highly entertaining, and further develops her character — and his.

EP301EP301Arya – Finally we return to beloved Arya (my favorite character along with Tyrion), alas, all too briefly. As she, Hotpie, and Gendry march through the forest, Gendry makes obvious what we all felt last season: that Arya chose rather poorly who to have Jaqen kill. Then  they wander right into Thyros of Myr’s little party. This is an amusing scene and I’m already liking the lush of a priest (although no mention of his relgio-magical side yet).

Arya has also grown over the year and it’s getting harder for her to pass as boyish. Nice longbow also.

In the second segment, Thyros gets into his cups and Arya scenes are great as always. Then some of his men drag in the Hound. I can’t remember if this happened so soon in the books, and I don’t think in the same way. I’m wondering if the undead Lord Beric Dondarrion will make an appearance.

Jaime – I saved Jaime for last because we end with him, even though he shows twice. He and Brienne make for great fun because she’s such a stick in the mud and he’s a riot. I particularly like the way in which he’s so endearingly baiting, only to occasionally soften with a meaningful and honest line (like the “we  don’t choose who we love” from the above clip). Perhaps it’s because his style of banter is actually so honest, if deliberately provocative.

His maneuver to trick the sword away from Brienne and the fight that follows is delicious as well. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau really does have a natural charisma. And we end with the usual uh, oh.

game-0f-thrones-s3-teaser-gallery-brienne

Overall, a fun episode, if not particularly meaty in any one area. Lots of great scenes. Each individual story is but a blip in the bigger picture. When viewed one at a time, they feel a bit fragmented, but from the perspective I’ve gotten watching seasons 1 and 2 all together on Blu-ray (which looks awesome BTW), I think it will feel coherent as part of the continuous whole.

Another interesting review of this episode.

Or see my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

My three year-old at the gardens where Sansa chats with Grandma Tyrell

My three year-old at the gardens where Sansa chats with Grandma Tyrell

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 3
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 13
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 8
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 6
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Television
Tagged as: A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 22, Fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, HBO, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Season 3 Episode 2, World of A Song of Ice and Fire

Burghounds at Melisse

Apr05

Restaurant: Melisse [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 1104 Wilshire Blvd.Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 395-0881

Date: March 21, 2013

Cuisine: California French

Rating: Awesome in all ways

 

Melisse is a real standout in LA for many reasons. It’s almost the last of the European style haut cuisine restaurants and it maintains an ever evolving cuisine at the highest level. Food, presentation, and service here are all top notch. Tonight, I returned (for what must be the 20th time) with a bunch of Burgundy loving friends. Melisse provided the food and we provided the wines. Joining us were two reps from London wine merchant Justerini & Brooks and they brought along a number of excellent bottles.


We settled on the “10” a good sized tasting menu, but not quite as crazy as the carte blanche (my usual favorite).


The first amuse is a Melisse staple. Grapes two ways. Out of the spoon are half grapes coated in goat cheese and pistachio. On the spoon sphereized grapes dusted with pistachio. The first has a nice contrast of the sharp cheese and the fruit, the second is an explosion of grapeness.


And the bread arrives. I went for a piece of bacon, and a  basil brioche.


Domaine Bachelet-Monnot Puligny-Montrachet “Les Refèrts” 1er 1er Cru White.

Burghound 88. Very mild reduction that didn’t blow off even after 24 hours does not completely hide the otherwise fresh and pretty citrus and floral aromas that give way to precise, racy and intense middle weight flavors that possess a very firm, indeed one could safely call this assertive, acid framework on the dry, persistent and solidly complex finish. Like the Folatières, some will find this to be overly austere as the finish is bone dry.

IWC 91+. Bright yellow. Exotic aromas of apricot and grilled nuts. Quite powerful and concentrated, with sweet fruit countered by strong acidity. In a rather muscular style for this cuvee Alexandre told me these vines were picked very slowly and that the 13.4% natural alcohol was high for 2008. The yield here, he says, was just 30 hectoliters per hectare.


Kumanto Oyster, avocado. I don’t remember all the details of this amuse, but it was lovely.


No trip to Melisse would be complete without the classic, “Egg Caviar, Lemon Creme Fraiche, American Osetra Caviar.” It’s a classic for a reason. The Creme Fraiche is so good, and there is raw egg yolk at the bottom. Amazing combo, particularly with the little toast stick.


The aftermath.


2009 Pierre Boisson Meursault

Almond, caramel, Nice long finish. True and excellent meursault.


Poisson Cru. Crysanthemum, Pistachio, Breakfast Radish and Black Mustard.

Very much fusing Japanese influences with the french, this was a nice sashimi meets pesto dish.


Sweet Pea Soup. English Peas and Whipped Porcini.


With the soup itself poured in. A typical lovely vegetable creme soup Melisse style.


1999 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Chaumes des Perrières

Nice mature white burg with plenty of fruit and firm, racy acidity. A very enjoyable wine, and paired excellently (as suggested by master Sommelier Brian Kalliel) with:


White Asparagus Cocotte. Morel Mushrooms, Savagnin Sauce.

It’s white asparagus season, and these were done up to perfection with my favorite mushroom and a nice oxidized butter reduction. All sauce was mopped up afterward.


1978 Robert Ampeau & Fils Blagny 1er Cru La Pièce-sous-le-Bois

From my cellar. Dark red with a brown hue. Scents of prunes and raisins with strong cherry scents underneath. Medium bodied with nice intensity and mouth feel. Interesting, but delicious, taste of brown sugar with a nice consistent aftertaste.

This was slightly cloudy, not bitter at all, but not quite as good as the 1978 Ampeau Volnay I opened a couple weeks before.


Truffle Pasta. Fresh Tagliatelle, Perigord Truffle.


Have a little truffle. Always too small a portion (of the pasta)!


Domaine Henri Jayer Echézeaux Grand Cru Red

Burghound 93. Knock out aromas of kirsch, blackberry extract and ripe earth lead to big, robust, quite structured, deep and sappy flavors of incredible depth and complexity and as grand as those characteristics are, it is the simply mindbending length that really sets this apart from the average Jayer Ech. A wine that should last for 25 years if well stored.

The 1990 Henri Jayer Echezeaux had a lot going on in its nose. It was heavy and thick, beefy, brothy and foresty, with that citrus pitch and spice. It was like a forest sledgehammer, so thick and sweet, displaying that purple signature style. The palate was rich with endless acidity that was still somehow reined in. The palate was so rich, so saucy, so concentrated, so spectacular. It also had that cedary, foresty edge to its flavors. If the 1991 was a girlfriend, the 1990 was a bodyguard.

1990 Louis Jadot Musigny

Parker 93. The Musigny (75 cases produced) is a textbook example of this vineyard. The color is deep ruby. The nose consists primarily of sweet black-cherries and new oak. In the mouth, there is a soft, velvety texture, medium to full body, low acidity, and gentle tannins in the long finish.

My favorite wine of the night.


Dry Aged Sonoma Duck. Forono Beets, Mustard, Orange Scented Duck Jus.

This duck was aged for 28 days (I think) and had a wonderful “aged” complexity.


1988 Domaine Maume Charmes-Chambertin

From my cellar. John Gilman 91 points.

This was drinking nicely, but wasn’t quite as bright and balanced as the other three grand cru reds. If I’d had it without such stellar competition, I’d have thought better of it :-).


Windrose Farms Lamb. Violet Artichoke, Young Garlic, Camelina Seeds.

Aged for 5-6 weeks! Delightfully gamey.


1988 Emmanuel Rouget Echezeaux

Burghound 94. Intense and penetrating nose of spices and high-toned pinot fruit with remarkably youthful, rich flavors that completely buffer the still substantial tannins. The extract is sweet and seamless and renders the tannins almost invisible. This is extremely impressive Echézeaux.

Another knockout.


Fourme d’Ambert. Pear Tart, Wild Watercress, Peppered Honey.

I’m always good with blue.


1995 Weingut Robert Weil Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling Auslese

Wine Spectator 89. One of the sweeter auslese of ’95, its melon, peach and botrytis flavors are wrapped around a core of racy acidity. Concentrated and long. Drink now through 2000. 350 cases made.

Golden color, honeyed fruits with a touch of petrol. great body that expands on the finish. Loads of honey and mango.


Molten Chocolate Tart, peppermint Sorbet.

Not your average “molten chocolate cake”!


Sangria. Moro Blood Orange, Pineapple and Mugwort.

Light and refreshing.

Macarons, cookies, and canelles.


Orange slices and pate de fruits.


The full lineup.

Melisse has two Michelin stars, and it deserves every ounce of them. The service is amazing too. The setting is not as fully formal as some French three-stars, or the service quite so orchestrated (that level is more amusement than actually pleasant), and there are no zany carts for teas and sugars, but the food and creativity demonstrate Melisse’s deserved position as one of America’s top kitchens. I ‘ve gone several times a year for a decade and it keeps getting better and better!

For another Melisse meal, click here.

Or for other Foodie Club meals, click here.


Small table, lots of glasses!

Related posts:

  1. More Michelin at Melisse
  2. Melisse – How much would a Woodcock…
  3. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
  4. Food as Art: Melisse
  5. Peace in the Middle East? – Mezze
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Allen Meadows, Burgundy, Chef Josiah Citrin, Justerini & Brooks, Los Angeles, Melisse, Michelin, Puligny-Montrachet

The Last of Us – Red Band

Apr03

Naughty Dog and Sony released an awesome “red band” (uncensored) trailer for their upcoming post apocalyptic survival game, The Last of Us:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4pYIsaZqE0]

Looking cool! Damn, those people look realistic.

Find the previous batch of teasers here.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed
or the
video game post depot
or win Crash & Jak giveaways!

Latest hot post: War Stories: Crash Bandicoot

the-last-of-us-promo-pic

Related posts:

  1. The Last of Us – Zombie Time
  2. Game of Thrones – Season 2 Episode 1 Clips
  3. Crash Launch Commercials
  4. New Last of Us Trailer
  5. The Last of Us – August Teaser
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Games
Tagged as: Naughty Dog, red band, shooter, Sony, The Last of Us, Trailer, Video game, zombie

Burgundy at Bouchon – Faiveley

Apr02

Restaurant: Bouchon Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3]

Location: 235 NORTH CANON DRIVE | BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210 | 310.271.9910

Date: March 14, 2013

Cuisine: French Bistro

Rating: Good, but expensive

_

Through my recent Burgundy aficionado dinners I was hooked up with a series of winemaker dinners that Wally’s Wine and Spirits throws. These seem to be at Bouchon and feature great wines from a particular winemaker as well as an intimate opportunity to meet the winemaker himself.

This particular dinner features Faiveley, which is a solid traditionalist B+ Burgundy house that I buy very frequently as they offer a wide range of wines from all over Burgundy and very good value.

With regard to Bouchon. In the last three-four years there’s been a bit of a French Food revival in Southern California, but the emphasis has been on Bistro fare. Of course this is consistent with the post-recession trend toward less formal restaurants anyway. Bouchon is the small-chain spawn for Thomas Keller, the highly acclaimed chef of The French Laundry.


The Beverly Hills space is very pretty. Check out the bar (both raw and booze). Lobsters oversee the diners.


The elegant dining room has a very spacious, even Parisian feel.


For the special wine dinner tonight we have the private room.


The NV Brut Rose is a pretty, understated wine graced with notable class and finesse. This is a decidedly feminine, delicate style best suited to drinking as an aperitif. Sweet berries, flowers and spices are layered into the refined, well-articulated finish.


And a special (i.e. limited) menu.

 

Flight 1: 2011 Whites

These 2011 whites are essentially bottle samples, as they haven’t been released. Bernard (the winemaker) brought them straight from the domain, probably labeled for our pleasure.


88 points. 2011 Mercury Clos Rochette. A perfumed and expressive nose features a pretty mix of various red berries, earth and wet stone. This is one of those wines that is defined by its minerality on the racy, intense and pure middle weight flavors that possess a lovely sense of underlying tension while culminating in a firm but refined finish. Good stuff.


89-91 points. 2011 Domaine Faiveley Meursault Blagny. Bright yellow. Precise aromas of spices, bitter almond and minerals. Juicy, spicy and and a bit metallic, more Puligny in style than Meursault. Conveys a low-alcohol impression and will need more elevage to put on weight. Finishes quite dry, with a hint of bitter lemon. This tight wine is almost dangerously refreshing.


93-96 points. 2011 Domaine Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. (made from three kinds of grapes, said Hervet: “yellow like Meursault, classic Puligny-type fruit, and green/yellow grapes with a touch of noble rot, like Montrachet”): Soil-driven aromas of apple, mint, anise and menthol, with complicating notes of fresh herbs and white pepper. Dense, saline and seamless; at once very dry and chewy. Conveys a rare impression of glyceral texture without much alcohol (this was actually 12.5% potential alcohol chaptalized to 12.8%). Wonderfully perfumed on the bracing finish, with is dusty with extract. Not at all a fruity style of white Burgundy. But this should make for an utterly compelling wine.


96-98 points. 2011 Domaine Faiveley Batard-Montrachet. An ultra-elegant perfumed glass of Chardonnay. Lots of floral notes.


Dill creme fraiche tartlet.


Smoked duck cubes with a bit of pickle.


Little puff pastries filled with Gruyère cheese.


Salmon pate.


Goat cheese and beet tartlet.

 

Flight 2: Mature Whites


1999 Faiveley Chablis 1re cru Montmains. So rare I couldn’t even find a review, but drinking very nicely.


Burghound 89-93. 2005 Maison Joseph Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru White. There is more wood here than I’m used to seeing and enough influence where there is both toast and vanilla notes that presently tussle for dominance on the very ripe orchard fruit and floral aromas. The big-bodied flavors offer impressive richness and a real sense of concentration with ample amounts of dry extract present on the powerful and driving finish. The wood is not subtle and it’s enough that it will bother some and even though the track record of this wine is that it will eventually eat the wood, I suspect this will always show vestiges of it.


Burghound 91-94. 2007 Maison Joseph Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru White. Subtle wood sets off more elegant aromas of green apple, floral and wet stone notes that are also reflected by the rich, intense and impressively powerful big-bodied flavors that seem extracted from liquid rock, all wrapped in a palate staining and driving finish. Another aspect worth noting is that this is often a distinctly oaky Corton-Charlemagne but in 2007, thanks to the policy of reducing the wood influence, the oak influence is much more moderate if not invisible.


Burghound 91-93. 2009 Maison Joseph Faiveley Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru White. Moderate wood surrounds the very ripe apricot, peach, spiced pear and mango aromas that are in keeping with the opulent and succulent broad-shouldered flavors that possess imposing size, weight and power while culminating in an extract-rich and palate staining finish. While impressive, I would like to see a bit more depth though there is so much underlying material that it may very well develop once in bottle.

The have good bread here.


Salade de Farro. toasted farro, winter squash, pecans with Treviso & blood orange vinaigrette.

Confit de Canard. Duck leg confit, French green lentils, a matignon of root vegetables & red wine vinegar duck jus.

Very tasty. All that duck fat had saturated into the lentils and made them delicious.

 

Flight 3: 2011 Reds

More early samples of some highlights from the 2011 reds!


Burghound 91-93. 2011 Faiveley Gevrey-Chambertin 1ru cru Les Cazetiers. A background application of wood does not materially diminish the layered and classic Cazetiers nose of humus, earth, animale, stone and cool wild dark berry fruit aromas. I very much like the mouth feel to the tautly muscled, intense and powerful flavors that possess real drive on the very firmly structured but not hard finish that delivers exceptionally good length. This is worth considering.


Burghound 92-95. 2011 Faiveley Corton des Cortons. As is usually the case with this wine when it’s young, the nose is restrained to the point of being almost mute though aggressive swirling liberates aromas of earth, spice, red currant and hints of the sauvage. And instead of the robust and well-muscled mid-palate there is an almost caressing mouth feel to the full-bodied yet refined flavors because while the supporting tannins are definitely firm and dense they are also quite finely-grained. There is excellent length to the moderately austere, tight, focused and linear finish that delivers outstanding persistence.


Burghound 91-94. 2011 Faiveley Echezeaux. An intensely floral nose is notably ripe with notes of plum, spice, black raspberry and cassis in evidence. There is a seductive texture to the solidly well-concentrated medium weight plus flavors that benefit from plenty of structure-buffering dry extract such that this seems more forward than it really is. The tannins are dense but fine and this should significantly reward 12 to 15 years of cellaring.


Burghound 93-95. Faiveley Chambertin Clos de Beze. An exuberantly spicy, cool and airy nose that mixes a variety of wild red berries, humus and earth nuances where the latter component is also well-represented on the solidly well-detailed and powerful medium weight plus flavors that possess superb length. This is a big but not burly Bèze that is actually more a wine of finesse than outsized power and weight.

Truite Grenobloise. pan-roasted Idaho rainbow trout, cauliflower, capers, lemon confit with brioche croutons & beurre noisette.

Poulet Rôti Grand-Mère. roasted chicken with fingerling potatoes, button mushrooms, bacon lardons, pearl onions & chicken jus.

Steak Frites. Herb roasted, caramelized shallots, maître d’hôtel butter or sauce Béarnaise served with French fries.


The table is getting crowded!


Bernard Hervet, managing director of Faiveley.

 

Flight 4: Red Cortons+


Burghound 92. 1999 Domaine Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru Red. This is right behind the superb ’99 Mazis in quality with its closed and reserved black fruit merging seamlessly into full, firm, structured big-boned flavors that offer terrific complexity and outstanding length. This is sneaky in its intensity and possesses brooding power but it clearly offers grand cru quality flavor precision. This will require at least a decade to unwind and offers excellent aging potential.


Tanzer 88-91. 2000 Domaine Faiveley Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley. Ruby-red. Deep but rather austere nose of red berries and rust. Large-scaled, chewy and sweet, with good depth of red fruit flavor. Still rather monolithic and oaky but not heavy. The chewy, granular tannins are slightly dry but hit the palate late. A sizable wine but it won’t be in the same class as the ’99.


Burghound 90. 1999 Domaine Faiveley Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley Grand Cru Red. Big, ripe, intense black fruit aromas followed by rich, relatively dense flavors offering plenty of character and supported by a moderate tannic backbone. The ’99 Clos des Corton is not a bruiser but make no mistake, this is still a big wine. It will clearly require some time to smooth out and resolve the solid tannins but there is good mid-palate density and sève to permit the tannins to soften gracefully.


Burghound 90. 1990 Domaine Faiveley Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley Grand Cru Red. Black fruit nose that is quite rich and complex with slightly rustic tannins and a long, intense, moderately structured finish. This is still going strong and has developed none of the advanced secondary aromatics that more than a few 90s are displaying, which augurs well for its future development. Still a very big, young wine and this needs another 5 years or so of cellar time before it really comes into its own. Note: this bottle was materially better than another bottle tasted in 2000, which merited a score of 87.


Selection de Fromages Artisanaux. Selection of artisanal cheeses with honeycomb, candied nuts, cranberry currant campagne & walnut bread.

The bread part.

Flight 5: Chambertin


Tanzer 89+. 2000 Domaine Faiveley Mazis Chambertin. Medium red with an amber edge. Complex nose combines plum, cherry, currant, game, cinnamon and menthol. Dense and layered, with sappy, slightly austere flavors of black cherry, licorice and minerals. Lovely intensity without any excess weight. Strong spicy oak gives the persistent finish a slight youthful dryness.

95 points. 1990 Faiveley Mazis-Chambertin. Very intense, almost searing, nose of blood, menthol, red fruit, earth, sous bois, tobacco, and some hot iron. Impeccably balanced fruit, tannin and acidity on the palate. Not as elegant or poised as the Latricieres that preceded it but equally good. My notes are regularly punctuated by the word long – long, lingering nose; long, complete palate impression; long finish of iron and fruit. Again, they end with ‘fabulous’. To me this was Mazis at it’s finest and was drinking perfectly.


Burghound 92-95. 2007 Domaine Joseph Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Red. A slightly cooler, distinctly floral and more deeply pitched and much spicier nose offers up reluctant red and black berry fruit aromas as well as game and smoke notes that continue onto the mineral-driven, powerful and well-muscled broad-shouldered flavors that possess another, if small, dimension of depth and length. This is very primary, even backward and will need plenty of cellar time. A most impressive ’07.


Burghound 95-97. 2005 Domaine Joseph Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Red. As aromatically complex as the Clos des Cortons is, the Clos de Bèze goes it one better with a dazzling array of spice, earth, mineral, fruit and subtle floral aromas that change every few seconds but continue onto the elegant, pure, transparent and vibrant flavors that possess superb power and striking depth of material on the unbelievably long finish. This is also quite firmly structured but completely balanced and the flavors are the perfect example of the term power without weight. A monument in the making but a wine for the patient.


Burghound 88. 1998 Domaine Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Red. Barest hint of oak frames slightly underripe but nicely complex fruit leading to medium weight, intense flavors of moderate richness and firm but not hard structure. There is good if not exceptional material here and the character of the wine is presently on the austere and understated side. I suspect this will always retain a certain reserve, given that the Faiveley style is not given to fruity exuberance in the first place. A wine for the patient.

A very fun evening. I was surprised how good the food was. Not modern or innovative per se (haha) but really very tasty. And there were some great wines plus the interesting opportunity to meet the winemaker and hear his perspective. He was very nice and extremely gracious. There was a bit of a mismatch in that there were far too many wines for the number of courses — but it’s rare for an event to plan on 7+ courses — unless it’s one of mine!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Burgundy at Bouchon – Jadot
  2. Bouchon Beverly Hills
  3. Food as Art: Ortolan
  4. Spago – 2005 White Burg part 1!
  5. Mostly Montrachet at Melisse
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bernard Hervet, Bistro, Bouchon, Burgundy, Faiveley, French Cuisine, French Laundry, Southern California, Thomas Keller, Wine
Watch the Trailer or

Buy it Online!

Buy it Online!

96 of 100 tickets!

Find Andy at:

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe by email:

More posts on:



Complete Archives

Categories

  • Contests (7)
  • Fiction (404)
    • Books (113)
    • Movies (77)
    • Television (123)
    • Writing (115)
      • Darkening Dream (62)
      • Untimed (37)
  • Food (1,484)
  • Games (100)
  • History (13)
  • Technology (21)
  • Uncategorized (16)

Recent Posts

  • Mes Ami – C’est Mort
  • Robo Eats – Szechuan Place
  • Providence Chef’s Table 2022
  • OOToro Double
  • Robo Eats – Anarbagh
  • Fred loves N/Naka
  • Major Major Major
  • Far East – Beijing Tasty House
  • Home Sweet Spicy Home
  • Quick Eats – Bafang

Favorite Posts

  • I, Author
  • My Novels
  • The Darkening Dream
  • Sample Chapters
  • Untimed
  • Making Crash Bandicoot
  • My Gaming Career
  • Getting a job designing video games
  • Getting a job programming video games
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • A Game of Thrones
  • 27 Courses of Truffles
  • Ultimate Pizza
  • Eating Italy
  • LA Sushi
  • Foodie Club

Archives

  • March 2023 (12)
  • February 2023 (11)
  • January 2023 (14)
  • December 2022 (11)
  • November 2022 (13)
  • October 2022 (14)
  • September 2022 (14)
  • August 2022 (12)
  • July 2022 (9)
  • June 2022 (6)
  • May 2022 (8)
  • April 2022 (5)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (8)
  • December 2021 (6)
  • November 2021 (6)
  • October 2021 (8)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (11)
  • March 2020 (15)
  • February 2020 (13)
  • January 2020 (14)
  • December 2019 (13)
  • November 2019 (12)
  • October 2019 (14)
  • September 2019 (14)
  • August 2019 (13)
  • July 2019 (13)
  • June 2019 (14)
  • May 2019 (13)
  • April 2019 (10)
  • March 2019 (10)
  • February 2019 (11)
  • January 2019 (13)
  • December 2018 (14)
  • November 2018 (11)
  • October 2018 (15)
  • September 2018 (15)
  • August 2018 (15)
  • July 2018 (11)
  • June 2018 (14)
  • May 2018 (13)
  • April 2018 (13)
  • March 2018 (17)
  • February 2018 (12)
  • January 2018 (15)
  • December 2017 (15)
  • November 2017 (13)
  • October 2017 (16)
  • September 2017 (16)
  • August 2017 (16)
  • July 2017 (11)
  • June 2017 (13)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (3)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (7)
  • December 2016 (14)
  • November 2016 (11)
  • October 2016 (11)
  • September 2016 (12)
  • August 2016 (15)
  • July 2016 (13)
  • June 2016 (13)
  • May 2016 (13)
  • April 2016 (12)
  • March 2016 (13)
  • February 2016 (12)
  • January 2016 (13)
  • December 2015 (14)
  • November 2015 (14)
  • October 2015 (13)
  • September 2015 (13)
  • August 2015 (18)
  • July 2015 (16)
  • June 2015 (13)
  • May 2015 (13)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (15)
  • February 2015 (13)
  • January 2015 (13)
  • December 2014 (14)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (13)
  • September 2014 (12)
  • August 2014 (15)
  • July 2014 (13)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (14)
  • April 2014 (14)
  • March 2014 (10)
  • February 2014 (11)
  • January 2014 (13)
  • December 2013 (14)
  • November 2013 (13)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (12)
  • August 2013 (14)
  • July 2013 (10)
  • June 2013 (14)
  • May 2013 (14)
  • April 2013 (14)
  • March 2013 (15)
  • February 2013 (14)
  • January 2013 (13)
  • December 2012 (14)
  • November 2012 (16)
  • October 2012 (13)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (12)
  • June 2012 (16)
  • May 2012 (21)
  • April 2012 (18)
  • March 2012 (20)
  • February 2012 (23)
  • January 2012 (31)
  • December 2011 (35)
  • November 2011 (33)
  • October 2011 (32)
  • September 2011 (29)
  • August 2011 (35)
  • July 2011 (33)
  • June 2011 (25)
  • May 2011 (31)
  • April 2011 (30)
  • March 2011 (34)
  • February 2011 (31)
  • January 2011 (33)
  • December 2010 (33)
  • November 2010 (39)
  • October 2010 (26)
All Things Andy Gavin
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
Programmed by Andy Gavin