Today is a double nerdgasm day. Not only did Naughty Dog announce it’s new game, The Last of Us. But–
the Diablo 3 opening cinematic was released. The game itself should be coming in Q1 2012. Ah, so many games, so little time. I haven’t even had the moment(s) to pop in Skyrim. Been too busy packaging The Darkening Dream and editing Untimed.
Naughty Dog, the company I founded, has just released the trailer for their new game — and new franchise! This is the first new series since Uncharted launched in 2007. I have to say the new one looks totally awesome because it’s well — post apocalyptic zombie (which I love) — and in true Naughty Dog fashion totally gorgeous. Plus I love spunky heroines. This one, seemingly, but not actually voiced by actress Ellen Page of Juno fame* is totally cute, in a kind of jailbait sort of way.
I can totally see how the kind of intimate hand to hand and gunplay mechanics that Naughty Dog has been perfecting with Nathan Drake would adapt perfectly to this sort of The Road meets Juno world.
So I’m even more excited than I was for Uncharted 3, which is saying a lot!
*NOTE: According to this website, the leads are Miss Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, as given by tweet from someone at Naughty Dog. And @Neil_Druckmann, my friend and the lead designer confirmed via twitter too, so it’s accurate.
Restaurant: Mark’s Duck House [1, 2]
Location: 6184 Arlington Blvd # A, Falls Church, VA 22044 703-532-2125
Date: November 30, 2011 & November 25, 2017
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Very very good cantonese.
Mark’s Duck house is an amazing Cantonese place I go to when I’m home in Washington D.C.. There’s nothing fancy about them other than the food but they make a lot of stuff, and they make it all really well.
Below is the menu to end all menus.
Picking from that menu can be a bit of a challenge!
We tried to entice my three year-old with this “pasta.” (pan fried noodles with Buddha’s delight) but he declared “that’s not pasta!”
But he did go for this lo-mein with garlic.
Hot and sour soup. Classic, but delicious.
The hot and sour soup is so good it was almost finished by the time I got the camera pointed at it (in 2011, the above photo is from 2017).
Beer really goes best with Chinese. If you’ve ever had Chinese wine (I have) you know why.
Succulent “Har-gow” (shrimp dumplings).
The whole peking duck and a glimpse of the green onions and hoisin.
The pecking duck here is incredible. They make the pancakes for you if you want, but the whole assembly was brought out to the table. I had photos of it the last time I was here.
Lobster causeway style. Fried with lots and lots of garlic and a little chilies. One of my favorite Chinese lobster preps.
“Lightly” fried shrimp with the heads still on.
Stir-fried chive-blossoms. It sounds weird but they are incredibly good.
Baby bok choy with garlic. I don’t love full sizec bok, but these were quite nice actually.
Sizzling beef short ribs with black pepper sauce. These were tasty, but the hard part was getting the meat off the bone with chopsticks and teeth!
Filet Mignon with black pepper sauce. Very tender and delicious.
Sauteed mixed seafood in a nest.
“Sweet and sour pork.” At the Panda Express and the like they always have those fried pork balls (which I call fried lard balls). This is the ultimate version. Incredibly tasty!
Ma Po Tofu. Non spicy Cantonese version. Nice texture, but lacked the depth, heat, and mala of the real thing.
We had way way too much food as usual here. Seven people and this could have fed twelve. I rolled on out very satisfied, indeed.
The Darkening Dream just received it’s first pro review, from Kirkus Reviews.
Read it here on the new review page. Highlights include:
“A vampire novel with actual bite” and “wonderfully twisted sense of humor”
In other writing news, I’m through all the heavy lifting with regard to the Untimed line edits and hope to be done in a day or two! Woot! The book has shrunk 6,000+ words down to 75,000 without loosing any scenes.
Title: Steve Jobs
Author: Walter Isaacson
Genre: Biography
Length: 656 pages
Read: Nov 23 – Dec 1, 2011
Summary: Character study, not history.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Apple fanboy. I owned an Apple II+ back in January 1981, a first generation Mac, and countless Apple’s since. As of late 2011 there are no less than five Macs, five iPhones, and two iPads in my house. I use no PCs and even my router is an Airport Extreme! I even owned a Newton and, one summer, used a NeXT as my primary computer!
But there was more to the experience of reading this book than pure fanboydom. As a technologist, programmer, and all-around nerd I lived every detail of the personal computer revolution. So except for the very beginning of this book, set in the late sixties and early seventies (before my coherent time) I remember the launches, products and moments first hand.
This biography is primarily a character study. It seeks by detailing the man’s actions to try and quantify and qualify the traits that made him the iconoclast that he was. The hero of this book is not a particularly likable man or even that rational. He was a fierce demon of passionate opinion, amazing taste, and an extraordinary instance of talent at the intersection of technology and art. Steve was willing to look beyond the baggage of how things have been done and see the way in which people actually approach products in their everyday life. His passion lead him to place the fulfillment of his product vision — from top to bottom — above nearly everything else in his (or those around him’s) lives.
This certainly worked out pretty well for the products, although it did take about twenty years for him to really get his groove on and learn from some of his earlier mistakes and excesses. But he never lightened up. Still, since most of us didn’t have to live with him, but do get to live with his products, hundreds of millions came out winners.
There are tremendous lessons in the book about designing great products. About focus, about integration, about simplicity and usability. About not painting your factories funny colors or shipping with far to little memory or a ridiculously slow optical drive. There is what feels like a very detailed portrait of the personality. The prose is top notch and pulls you along effortlessly without getting in your face. Isaacson certainly had extensive personal access to the man (and his colleagues). It’s a good read.
But for me it was a bit lacking in detail. Mostly I think this came down to length and an emphasis on character. The book isn’t short, but the man’s life — despite ending tragically early — was full. Steve did a lot. A lot. So none of it is nearly as specific as I — with my extreme interest in the subject — would like. You can read this book and really have very little idea what the hell NeXT was doing for 10 years. I do. I used several of them. Wrote some code on them. Followed them from founding through launch and beyond. Shook my head at the product (too slow — too expensive — too incompatible!) and read an entire book just on the topic. So if you want to read this book to understand exactly how Jobs got ousted from Apple, or how he wrangled his way back into its boardroom — it’s there — but the details are compressed. Even things as major as the LaserWriter are given about two sentences in passing. I might go find some books that detail the blow by blows of the product decisions because… well… I guess I care.
Still, I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in products, creativity, technology, or even the psychology of forceful individuals. Likable or not, Steve was the defining idea-man of the computer age.
Find out about my own books, here.
Or for my full list of book reviews.
An Icelandic TV station aired this peek at the end of shooting in Iceland for Season 2 of Game of Thrones (the awesome HBO Fantasy series). It even includes a glimpse of Ygritte (one of my favorite characters from the series) around the 6:30 mark.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JkFjvggMouU]Interesting those volcanic and glacier landscapes. Pretty alien looking, and this is only Iceland, I think GreenLand might be even more foreboding. But certainly this makes a great looking “beyond the wall” — which is a major part of books 2 and 3. I don’t envy them shooting on an Icelandic glacier in December! There’s probably two hours of sunlight up there too.
And also today there is another making of video on HBO’s site, this one about one of my favorite topics, medieval hand to hand combat! Nothing like a good war hammer to the head. Shuts ’em up quickly, does it right.
Computer and Video Games recently ran a piece on the Naughty Dog as a company and its pedigree of great games.
Founded by aspiring game developers Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin back in 1986, the pair knocked together a number of little-known titles on the Apple II and Amiga before changing their company’s name to Naughty Dog. …a four-game deal with Universal Interactive Studios, starting with Way of the Warrior – a Mortal Kombat-style fighting game for 3DO created using footage crudely filmed in an apartment [led to] none other than Crash Bandicoot on PSone.
…
The original Crash Bandicoot was one of the most important games on the original PlayStation. Not only did it give the then faceless platform a much-needed mascot – and one with bags of charm – but it also really showed what this powerful new CD-based console from Sony could do.
…
Naughty Dog, it seems, is as good at dreaming up new blockbuster adventure franchises as Sony is at making consoles. Fast forward to the present era, and although both of its founders have moved on to new ventures, Naughty Dog remains the name on the box of one of the PS3’s biggest exclusive franchises. Uncharted’s unrivaled cinematics and truly breathtaking set-pieces demonstrate a fantastic developer working at the absolute peak of its creative ability.
Location: 7271 Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814. 301.913-0003
Date: November 29, 2011
Cuisine: Spanish Tapas
Rating: Fun Tapas Bar
I’ve reviewed a lot of José Andrés restaurants on the blog, seven I think. This is een the second Jaleo. The Bazaar (REVIEW HERE) and his high end Saam, but also brunch at Trés, lunch at Trés, and to é by José Andrés and Jaleo in Vegas and Zaytinya also in Washington. Back to Jaleo, the restaurant at hand. It’s basically a straight up Spanish Tapas place but with a slightly modernized and enlarged menu.
The menu.
One annoyance of this particular branch — and not the restaurant’s fault — is the Maryland law against corkage. They have a fine list, but I had brought an amazing Spanish wine 3,000 miles! Parker gives it 91 points. “The 2008 Termes offers up a sexy perfume of cedar, spice box, violets, incense, espresso, and blackberry. Savory, concentrated, and well-balanced, this flavorful effort will benefit from several years of additional cellaring but can be approached now.”
“Gazpacho de remolacha con queso de cabra y naranjas. Chilled red beet soup with goat cheese and oranges.” I’m a total José Andrés gazpacho whore. I even make it at home home.
This is a different variant, kind of gazpacho meets borsch. It was fantastic. Beety, with that vinegary tang. Delicious.
“Dátiles con tocino ‘como hace todo el mundo. Fried dates wrapped in bacon.” Really how can you beat fried dates wrapped in bacon? Yum yum.
“Ensalada rusa. The ultimate Spanish tapa, a salad of potatoes, imported conserved tuna and mayonnaise.” The Spanish love potato salad.
“Aceitunas rellenas de anchoas y pimientos del piquillo. House-made stuffed olives with anchovies and roasted piquillo peppers.” This is another classic, and these are a really good implementation.
“Jamón Ibérico de bellota Fermin. Cured ham from the legendary, acorn-fed, black-footed Ibérico pigs of Spain and miscellaneous other Spanish meats like chorizo.”
“Pan con tomate. Toasted slices of rustic bread brushed with fresh tomato with Pasamontes farmhouse Manchego.” Basically Spanish bruschetta.
“Salpicón de cangrejo. Jumbo lump crabmeat with cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower and Sherry dressing.” While Spanish in flavors I suspect this a bit of a nod to the Eastern shore. Big lumps of crabmeat too.
“Pan de recapte con anchoa. Traditional Catalan bread with peppers, tomatoes and salt-cured Spanish anchovies.” I really wanted Fresh Spanish anchovies, marinated (Anchovies en Boccerones) but they didn’t have them. These weren’t a bad substitute.
“Espinacas a la catalana. Sautéed spinach, pine nuts, raisins and apples.”
“Vieiras con romesco y mojo verde. Seared scallops with romesco sauce and mojo verde.”
“Lomo de buey. Grilled hanger steak with piquillo peppers.”
“Arroz con costillas de cerdo Ibérico de bellota. Made with the famous Ibérico de bellota pork ribs.”
“Arroz Mediterraneo. Made with porcini mushrooms, mixed vegetables, green and black olives and thyme.”
The dessert menu.
“A classic Spanish custard with creme and oranges.”
“Dark chocolate mousse with sponge cake and hazzelnut ice cream.”
“Various fruit sorbets.”
“Vanilla ice cream and grapefruit sorbet.”
“Chocolate ice cream.”
Jaleo is like a good Tapas place in Spain but a little slicker, with perhaps more consistant quality. And they don’t have fresh anchovies! It is also a little (actually more than a little) more expensive than a typical Spanish tapas place in Spain. But considering the scarcity of good tapas places in America… worth it.
I’m experimenting by allowing a guest post/interview by a fellow author. The novel, The Gaia Wars eBook edition has dropped to just 99 cents this week. So not much to lose by checking it out.
— Andy
About The Gaia Wars: DEADLY SECRETS have been buried in the Cascade mountain wilderness for centuries. Hidden. Out of sight and out of mind. Until today… Warren Wilkes, age 13, doesn’t like what a greedy housing developer has done to his peaceful mountain community, so he vandalizes the developer’s property, flees into the wild, and stumbles upon an ancient human skeleton revealed by torrential rain. More than old bones have been exposed, however, and the curious artifact Warren finds makes him question his own identity, and his connection to an ancient terror. A terror destined to rise again and annihilate all that Warren loves. He must fight or see his whole world destroyed. Get it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
About Battle for Cascadia: When Warren Wilkes, age 13, stumbles upon a mysterious relic deep in the Cascade Mountains, wonder reigns. Brimming with secrets and sentient energy, the relic leads Warren to a fantastic chamber, and to shocking revelations about his identity. Now wonder has turned to dread. A forgotten terror—a demon that knows Warren better than he knows himself—has risen again and is assembling an army; gathering power with a singularly evil goal in mind: to capture and enslave the wild spirit of the Earth itself. As war erupts and the planet slips into chaos, Warren embraces his destiny and finds help where he least expects it. Get it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
About the Author: Kenneth G. Bennett is the author of the Young Adult novels The Gaia Wars and Battle for Cascadia (the second book of The Gaia Wars), as well as the forthcoming Exodus 2018, a paranormal thriller set in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. A wilderness enthusiast who loves backpacking, skiing and kayaking, Ken enjoys novels that explore the relationship between humans and the wild. He lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and son. Visit him on his website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.
Where did you find the inspiration for this novel?
The idea began with an article I read about The Gaia Hypothesis. This hypothesis, proposed by NASA scientist James Lovelock, says, in brief: “all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth make up a single, self-regulating entity.” In other words, the Earth itself is a living thing. A vast, “super-organism.”
I love this idea! And when I first read about it I wondered how it might be woven into a novel. In my imagination, and in conversations with friends, I took the Gaia Hypothesis one step further. “What if Gaia (the Earth) is not simply alive,” I asked, “but also sentient?” It occurred to me that a lot of so-called primitive cultures believed this very thing. Understood it in their bones.
Then I was backpacking with my son Eli (age 9 at the time). After a few days in the wilderness, feeling more connected to the land, perhaps, I started to tell Eli the story of The Gaia Wars. He loved it. It took me about a year to write the book and refine it.
Warren Wilkes is quite the unexpected hero. Tell us about him. Is he someone you’ve met before, or is he completely fictional?
My son and his friends are all pretty outdoorsy kids. They’ve backpacked and skied and kayaked and climbed since they were really little, so Warren (a sort of feral, wilderness boy) is probably a composite of the kids I see every day.
This story’s setting is incredibly vivid. How did the Cascade Mountains influence your writing? Do you believe you could have told the same story in a different setting, or would it have been missing something otherwise?
North Cascades National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet, and I go there often. It’s easy to find inspiration in the ancient forests and high-alpine meadows of that region. I’ve also been heavily influenced by Olympic National Park, and by wild areas in Alaska, where I spent much of my childhood. The landscapes in the book contain elements of all of those places.
The Mendari aliens and their organic droids, the Fabrinels, mix-up the story in a way nothing else could have (not even the irksome Mr. Finley). How did you go about creating these other races and defining their culture and behavior?
The Mendari are fantastically advanced, technologically, but suffer from a civilization-wide melancholy. They have every device and contraption imaginable, but in the process of acquiring all this stuff, they’ve nearly destroyed their lovely planet and suffocated their own wild souls. They venture to Earth out of desperation, and with newfound humility, hoping to regain the wisdom they lost millennia ago. The Mendari race is basically the Human race in a few hundred years—if we don’t get our act together in terms of taking care of our planet.
Gaia, or Onatah, is the living embodiment of the Earth Mother. Without giving anything away, tell the readers how she fits into the story.
Gaia, the Earth Mother, represents the wild soul of the planet. She’s the wellspring of all life; the source of the DNA that animates everything from bacteria to redwood trees to homo sapiens. But we humans have reached the point where we think maybe we don’t need to be connected to this wild soul any longer. We see ourselves as separate from the natural world. I think this kind of hubris is a huge mistake, and that’s reflected in the story.
How much research did you have to do in order to learn about the Denelai people’s folklore and nature rituals? How did you find this information?
I love to learn about Native American culture, modern and ancient, and have read a lot about what North America was like prior to European contact. I’m steeped in that history, but the Denelai culture is entirely a product of my imagination—not based on any one people or tribe.
Your cast of characters has very interesting names—ones I suspect were not chosen arbitrarily. Please tell us how you came up with the names for Ina, Mirra, Uhlgoth, and the others.
I greatly admire the name-inventing abilities of authors such as Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling, Ursula K. LeGuin and (of course) J.R.R. Tolkien. I worked really hard to come up with names that fit the various characters in The Gaia Wars.
You leave The Gaia Wars off on a very big cliff-hanger. What made you decide to take this gutsy literary move—channeling Warren, are you?
The Gaia Wars ends at what felt to me like a natural stopping point (or at least a “pausing” point)–A slight break in the action before all hell breaks loose in Battle for Cascadia.
Battle for Cascadia picks up where the first book leaves off. What can we expect from the sequel? Are there any major ways in which the style or plot line is different than The Gaia Wars?
Battle for Cascadia is a direct and immediate continuation of The Gaia Wars. Many of the storylines begun in Gaia draw to a conclusion in Battle—but not all of them! There are a lot of mysteries left to unravel in those rugged North Cascade canyons.
You’re going to give us more Warren Wilkes, right?! Please tell us you’re planning a third book in the series, and if you can, give us some clues about what happens next.
Absolutely! Warren and company find themselves in a very dangerous place and in very perilous circumstances at the conclusion of Battle. There’s a whole lot of story left to tell.
Title: Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1
Director/Stars: Kristen Stewart (Actor), Robert Pattinson (Actor), Bill Condon (Director)
Genre: Fantasy
Watched: December 3, 2011
Summary: Cringe, Laugh, or Barf
Besides the shameless grab at our wallets (splitting the movie into two parts) BDP1 is certainly the most cringeworthy episode yet. First of all, from a structural point of view, the first half has no conflict. Therefore no plot.
It’s not that nothing happens. We have a lovely wedding video and then a fully censored honeymoon. But plot requires conflict, and the only two bits of that we have here are a brief Jacob/Edward chest thumping and Edward’s steadfast foot dragging at the notion of banging his wife more than once. This section of the film is pure wish fulfillment again. The perfect wedding, the perfect honeymoon. Plus a few bruises and one unwanted demonic pregnancy.
But the second half is perhaps even worse. Here we have manufactured wolf/vamp conflict that really no one cares about and a bit of a minor quandary for Bella and Jacob. Edward (and pretty much everyone else in the film) just does their thing. The inciting incident occurs at the midpoint. And the entire movie, BTW, lacks a villain. Unless you count the very weak antagonism of Jacob’s pack leader Sam. Yeah, no villain.
I’m not sure what the second half is. Special effects allow Bella a credible impersonation of a pregnant concentration camp inmate. Edward frets. Jacob does a lot of running back and forth in the woods listening to the CGI call of the wild. The birth was disturbing, but also felt censored.
Kristen Stewart, however, does a pretty impressive job with this role. Even more than the previous films this one focused on her. We have long, long shots just of her face — like walking up the isle — and she manages to bring Bella’s character to life. I’m not sure I want Bella to be alive, but it’s actually a really solid acting job considering the script. Oh, and she’s looking even better in this film (first half). Bikinis in Brazil are better than jeans and hoodies in Forks. Way better than the Twiggy-supreme look.
Love the claw prints!
Let’s see, can we list some of the more amusing moments: Edward breaking the marriage bed. His cheesy confession to having killed in the “old days” — except wait — it was only molesters, rapists, and murderers. He’s just too pure for any genuine vampire feasting. The way the Brazilian house keeper is magically an expert on vampire babies, even though none of the vampires know anything about them. The wolf voiceover argument and growl fest. That one really takes the cake. The Volturi camp at the end of the movie. And so, so many more.
I was enjoying myself during the film. I laughed a lot. A real lot. But it was “at” not “with.”
And it’s worth checking out this Cracked magazine review of the whole series too.
Read my Twilight review or New Moon or Eclipse or BDP2.
For more Film reviews, click here.
I deployed a new video game topic page yesterday. This was a good chunk of work. I use a modified iThemes Builder child theme and so continued to use their custom layout and variable widget systems to build out a special page to replace the older, uglier, video games page. First though, I had to hack into the code and modify the way in which the sharing icons and related posts were being inserted. WordPress plugins often have automatic insertion into the end of the content, but as soon as you start getting a more sophisticated layout with more than one “content” on the same page that starts to be problematic. I had to turn it off and insert it manually into the right templates.
Then I spent an entire day exploring ways to implement different grids of magazine style excerpts for particular types of posts on particular pages. I ended up writing the code myself, but using Builder’s extension system to inject into the layout’s I wanted. I got it working for this page, but I’m only about 90% satisfied. There are still some mysteries. Like how to convince CSS to extend each entry down to the height of the tallest one on a line. I align them with “vertical-align: top”, but I don’t know how to match up the bottoms. I’d also like to improve the handling of the thumbnail photos and I need to figure out how to generalize my extension so I can use it on different pages. That being said, I still think it’s better looking than the old page.
Check out the new page here and let me know what you think.
With regard to my books, busy busy. I’m waiting on a second sketch for my new, professional cover for The Darkening Dream. That should come any day. I’ve pretty much finished up the interior artwork, but I’m not ready to post it just yet — soon. I’ve been working through proofs of the interior book design as well, which is looking great.
I also got back the full line edit of Untimed yesterday. Two of my editors, Renni Browne and Shannon Roberts did a simultaneous full line edit. This is on top of four drafts of higher level discussions. Getting 320 pages of line edit back is a lot to digest in one sitting! Look at the example page to the right. That’s just one page worth of edits. I have to go over them all and decide what to keep, what not, and how to rework anything suggested by the comments. But it’s worth it. Books need editing. It’s essential to have more than one set of eyes on them. And, ultimately, it’s still my book — I decide what stays and what goes.
This will keep me busy for a week or two. Haha.
I made a bunch of updates to the excellent (but overpriced) Brentwood Italian, Villetta. This includes another meal worth of dishes.
I’m working on a bunch more website upgrades which I should have out in a day or three — plus, producing darkening dream elements — plus the edits for Untimed are supposed to come back today. That will mean an entire novel worth of line edits to process!
Restaurant: 2Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria
Location: 3715 Macomb St NW. Washington, DC 20016. (202) 885-5700
Date: November 29, 2011
Cuisine: Neapolitan Pizzeria
Rating: Really authentic Neapolitan Pizza
My brother spent the whole week talking up this Neapolitan style pizza joint just over the border into DC.
They have a classic big wood fired pizza oven.
A sleek front room.
And a backroom bar.
The menu.
A delicious but simple arugula salad.
Fried salt cod fritters. Vaguely like crab cakes, but fishier. Still, very good examples of these.
The classic cheese pizza. The dough here was really really good. Neapolitan flour and slow fermentation for sure. This was a pizza dough good enough to munch through all the remaining crust.
“Santa Brigida Tomato, fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, arugula.”
“Calabrese Tomato, onions, anchovy, fresh mozzarella, parsley, olives.” A classic anchovy pizza. Strong salty flavors, but still really good.
The margarita plus pepperoni.
“Ripieno Extra Ricotta, grana, salami, prosciutto, pancetta, tomato.” Full of cheesy meaty goodness inside.
In the front is the “Puttanesca Tomato sauce, rapini, fresh mozzarella, garlic, anchovy, hot pepper.” An interesting combination of bitter and salty.
Fresh ground pepper.
Dessert, although we were too stuffed to order any.
For more LA dining reviews click here.
Or to see my own Ultimate Pizzas, click here!
Restaurant: Zaytinya
Location: 701 9th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. 202.638.0800
Date: November 27, 2011
Cuisine: Greek/Turkish/Lebanese
Rating: Great flavors!
Zaytinya, which means “olive oil” in Turkish is part of José Andrés’ little culinary empire — which started first here in Washington D.C. and then spread to various other outpsts in the country including LA and vegas.
I’m a bit of a Jose Andres groupie as not only have I reviewed The Bazaar (REVIEW HERE) and his high end Saam, but also brunch at Trés, lunch at Trés, and to é by José Andrés and Jaleo in Vegas.
For those who don’t know, José Andrés is perhaps America’s leading practitioner of my favorite culinary style: Spanish Molecular Gastronomy. This school of cooking, a radical interpretation of the preparation of food, was begun at El Bulli outside of Barcellona. Andrés cooked and studied there with master chef Ferran Adrià. I first encountered Andrés’s cooking in Washington DC at Cafe Atlantico, and it’s own restaurant within a restaurant, Minibar.
Zaytinya, however, is neither Spanish or particularly molecular. It focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean cuisine of Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon. These are all former Ottoman zones and despite their political animosity toward each other share much in common — foodwise.
The modern frontage on 9th street in Washington.
The space inside is clean and white.
The geometric white shapes are reminiscent of Greek architecture.
The menu.
We ordered this “ASHTA. traditional Lebanese-style French toast, bananas, orange blossom honey” for our son. It was more like Pane Dulce I’ve had at other Andres restaurants crossed with Tres Leches cake. He devoured it.
They have this light poofy bread.
The classic roasted eggplant dish: “BABA GHANNOUGE. fire-roasted eggplant, tahini, lemon, garlic.” This was a very bright tasty variant with pomegranate seeds.
And one of my all time favorites: “TZATZIKI. Greek yogurt with diced cucumbers, dill.” This wasn’t nearly as garlicky as in Greece and Turkey, but was more akin to the Lebanese variant. It did have a nice thick Greek yoghurt consistency and a pleasant crunch from the cucumber.
“BEET SALATA. crimson and yellow beets, shaved fennel, upland cress, spiced walnuts.” I doubt this was exactly a traditional dish (even if the ingredients are) but it’s pretty much obligatory on modern menus.
“BANTIJAN BIL LABAN. crispy eggplant, roasted garlic-yogurt sauce.” This was a nice treatment of eggplant — in no small part because it was seriously fried! This was a very crispy coating with hot eggplant inside.
“SPANAKOPITA. house-made phyllo, spinach, feta cheese.” Not your typical version of this dish which is usually triangular in shape. The insides were similar enough though, so more a cheese and spinach taquito than a puff pastry!
“ROASTED CAULIFLOWER. sultans, caper berries, pine nuts.” This is a brighter less fried version of this traditional Lebanese dish (you can see the original here). Good stuff though.
My son got his second order of “French toast.”
Which he polished off in about two minutes.
“GARIDES ME ANITHO. sautéed shrimp, dill, shallots, mustard, lemon juice.” This was a pretty awesome variant on Andres’ normal “Gambas Pil Pil” (photos here in this Jaleo review).
FRIED SQUID. crispy squid, garlic-yogurt sauce.” Nicely done classic calimari.
And a zesty garlic sauce for dipping.
“STRIPED BASS PLAKI. tomato, fresh chickpeas, onion, mint.” This is a local fish, but the prep is very Eastern med. Strong flavors of tomato.
“AGLAIA KREMEZI STYLE CRAB CAKES. mini jumbo lump crab cakes, roasted garlic yogurt.” They can pretend this is Eastern Med — but no, it’s all Eastern Shore. Still, no one was complaining. These little patties were essentially crab imperial balls lightly fried on the griddle. There was a light taragon flavor too.
“KEFTEDES KAPAMA. beef and lamb meatballs, feta cheese, rustic tomato sauce, cinnamon, allspice.” Tasty meatballs in classic Eastern style. Similar to typical “spicy kefta” preparations.
“ADANA KEBAB. skewered ground lamb, house-made harissa, grilled tomatoes, sumac, onions.” Typical ground lamb kabob. This wasn’t my absolute favorite dish here. It was a bit salty and the grill flavor too strong. Not that it was bad by any means.
“URFA BIFTEK. grilled sirloin, Urfa pepper, cumin, heirloom lettuces, caramelized sesame.” And this was even saltier, although the meat did have a lot of flavor.
“LOUKANIKO ME AGINARES. grilled Greek pork sausage, marinated artichokes.” The sausage was good and I liked the onion and pepper (pimento in Spanish) salad on top.
The dessert menu.
A nice chewy cup of Turkish coffee, semi-sweet.
“Turkish delight. Walnut Ice Cream, yogurt mousse, orange caramel sauce.” This was very yummy, but from the name I hoped for something closer to real Turkish delight — which is a favorite of mine, particularly the rosewater flavor.
A trio of very good homemade ice creams (my three year-old loved them). Walnut, apple, and pear. The fruit flavors were very bright and pure.
“Greek yogurt and apricots.” Very yummy. The thick yogurt paired very nicely with the sweet fruit. In Greece they eat the purest variant of this: very very sour and thick goat yogurt with drizzled honey.
Another fruit and yogurt/ice cream blend. Can’t go wrong with berries and cream.
More of the large and modern space.
Overall, Zaytinya was pretty fantastic. It’s neither totally traditional or ultra modern, but instead what one might call a modernized or modestly updated classic. Most of the dishes have their roots in traditional Eastern Med dishes, and they retain — even emphasize — those bright flavors. The form of them is a lighter and slightly more playful, adapted to American tastes. In any case, highly successful.
For more ThanksGavin meals, click here.
I’ve also reviewed: The Bazaar (REVIEW HERE) and the high end Saam, brunch at Trés, lunch at Trés, and to é by José Andrés and Jaleo in Vegas.
Restaurant: Jackson’s
Location: 11927 Democracy Drive. Reston, VA 20191. (703) 437-0800
Date: November 26, 2011 & 2017 — yes same day, 6 years apart
Cuisine: American
Rating: Solid mid-sized chain offering
Back “home” in DC we wanted a quick and easy meal and so headed out to Reston to this reliable place. I reviewed Coastal Flats last year, another member of the same small chain.
This is one of those well done (but not earth-shattering) mall places. It seems that good malls these days aren’t going with the giant chains or with one-off restaurants. they must feel the need for a little more stability in their business relationships.
This vast interior all decked out for the holidays.
The menu.
They have these donut-like rolls which are pretty delicious.
This was billed as an “perfect margarita” and actually, it was pretty good. Not quite as good as my own, but not bad at all.
A mojito.
“Lobster and ham mac and cheese.” Pretty good too. The ham made it.
A special salad. Fried oysters, blue-cheese, salad.
A simple green salad.
Salad with grilled salmon. Didn’t skimp on the salmon.
Lobster Club salad. Not bad at all.
Grilled cheese for my son.
Simple pasta for my son 6 years later.
Fried grouper, fries, and cole slaw. This was a tasty fried fish, nice and crispy. This chain has an unusual but very good slaw, chopped, with a bit of peppery bite.
Crab cake roll with a side of butternut squash.
And the platter version, two crab cakes with fries and slaw. The cakes a pretty good, with big lumps of crab. It does have a little breading (obviously).
Sautéed spinach.
Lobster roll with corn on the cob. No shortage of lobster here! They claim it’s all the meat from a 1.5 pounder. Looks like it.
Same lobster roll, 6 years later.
This isn’t really chef driven cuisine. It’s basically comfort food. But it is well done.
I’m very busy right now with different stages of both my novels. I’m line editing Untimed and trying to get my first, The Darkening Dream, ready for publication. One of the more fun parts of this is the art design. The book has seven points of view and each chapter is written from one perspectives. To help subliminally differentiate them, I thought it would be cool to commission chapter heading engravings specific to each character.
The book is set in 1913 and packed with occult workings based on extensive research into real religious, pseudo-religious, and just plain magical belief systems. By real, I mean that people before 1913 believed and wrote about them. But in the book, they’re really real. This is a world consistant with ours, but where the creepy sordid and supernatural crawls just beneath the surface. And truth is stranger than fiction.
Given that the images needed to be black and white, I thought a style reminiscent of classical occult engravings of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries would be perfect. Iconography of demons, witches, and magic from creators who actually believed in them!
Below are historical engravings I dug up (google for the win!). I provided them to my artist to illustrate the mood and style I wanted for my original pieces.
The above examples are for STYLE, not for content. I like to think of these as reflecting the “occult engraving” style I want to emulate. They are engraved with a naive sensibility, hatched shading, awkward proportions, and western occult symbolic motifs. As a stickler for detail, I must confess that some of the above images are actually nineteenth century, such as the demon Baphomet (the goat headed one with one arm up and one arm down). Although these are cool I decided to target my style to the older wood block type (these later ones are probably copper plate) as the nineteenth century artist probably crafted the images more out of a sense of exotic and less out of true belief like the earlier more hysterical age that was prone to burning at the stake.
Unless you’re lucky enough to work with an artist who is willing to immerse themselves in your book and related materials, it’s essential to provide a clear direction, usually illustrated with a group images hinting at the style you want. Without reading your book and knowing as much as you do (fat chance) it’s unlikely that they are going to spontaneously generate a style that is consistent with the feel of your work. In future posts, I’ll show the examples I used to art direct my specific character images, and the results these produced.
Find out more about the writing of The Darkening Dream here.
Or specific articles on the look for: al-Nasir or Parris.
Part of the tradition for the ThanksGavin weekend of gluttony is a Saturday deli brunch. As we celebrate in Philadelphia, we have access to all sorts of good deli and the like.
My mom also made an interesting Southern casserole of eggs, cheddar, and challah.
Just blend.
And pack into a casserole dish, then bake.
For the bagel spread we have the onions — crucial for the lingering bad breath.
More veggies.
Cream cheese, normal and with chives.
Swiss and Muenster cheese.
Kippered salmon and chunky whitefish salad.
It’s worth zooming in on the whitefish salad as this stuff is good!
Good nova lox.
Creamed herring — not for everyone’s taste!
And fresh baked bagels from a local bagel specialty bakery.
Here is the finished casserole which had a soufflé-like texture.
And this incredible donuts from a special place that fries them to order. They only make donuts and for an hour a day — fried chicken! These are three different variants of cinnamon. Certainly the best cinnamon donuts I’ve ever had.
Overall, another great brunch! You can check out last year’s here.
Given that we went out to the Zoo all day while my cousin Abbe cooked up this followup to the official Thanksgiving dinner, she insists that it should really be called the ThanksFlitter (her last name). Regardless, the gluttony continued.
The 2006 il Cocco. This guy makes only 3000 bottles a year, and he does ALL the labor (field and cellar) himself.
Parker 93. “The 2006 Brunello di Montalcino is a beguiling wine laced with all sorts of black cherries, minerals, spices, licorice and menthol. All of the aromas and flavors are layered together through to the exquisite, refined finish. The 2006 shows a level of richness and density this bottling has lacked in some previous vintages. Today the tannins remain a touch austere, but another few years in bottle should do the trick. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2026.”
The cheese spread I bought at Di Bruno’s.
A medium aged goat cheese. Chalky goodness.
An American farmhouse buttery cheddar.
Mimmolette.
A stinky washed rind.
And a medium body blue cheese.
And quince paste which always makes cheese better.
Various appetizers, some recycled from the night before.
A little champagne.
Parker 94. “The 2007 Laurel, a blend of 65% Garnacha and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, is deep purple-colored with a bouquet of wet stone, Asian spices, black cherry compote, and incense. Dense and sweet on the palate with tons of spice, it is super-concentrated, rich, and smooth-textured. Give this lengthy effort 2-3 years of additional cellaring and drink it from 2013 to 2027.”
This is an amazing wine, deep grape.
Parker 91. “The 2005 Finca Libertad is a blend of 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 30% Merlot aged for 18 months in new French oak. The Cabernet Franc portion of the blend was sourced from 100+-year-old pre-phyloxera vines. Dark ruby in color, it exhibits a complex aromatic array of toasty oak, cinnamon, earth notes, pencil lead, cassis, and black currant. This is followed by a medium-bodied, elegant wine with savory flavors, considerable complexity, and enough structure to evolve for another 2-3 years. This lengthy effort should be at its best from 2011 to 2020.”
Classic Mexican “gulf coast style” rice pilaf. Chicken stock, garlic and onions in there. These recipes are mostly from Mexican Everyday.
The main dish: Chipotle Shrimp. Tomatos, chipotles, garlic, broth, cilantro. This had a good bit of heat.
Flounder in the same sauce.
Avocado.
Various condiments: lime and fresh tortilla from a Spanish place by the Italian Market.
Chopped onion, queso fresco.
“Classic Mexican pot beans” with Abbe’s special twist of roasted poblanos and Thanksgiving smoked turkey. Very tasty, although they had the usual effect.
Swiss chard sautéed in olive oil and garlic.
And the sherry comes back out for dessert.
The spread.
Vegan brownies. Hmmm.
A chocolate chip cake with chocolate sauce. It isn’t that pretty but it tasted great.
My grandmother’s special brownies.
These were supposed to be Grandmom’s blondie’s, but they were made vegan and so ended up a little weird.
Another plum tart.
Overall, another great feast from Abbe. You can check out her pork spectacular last year too.
It’s Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving and we head down to the Philadelphia Italian market to channel our inner Tony Soprano.
Sarcone’s is home to stunningly good old school Italian-American deli sandwiches. All bread is baked fresh at the adjacent bakery.
Even Danny DiVito gives it the vote of confidence.
The low key (but crowded) interior.
Random stuff inside the display case.
Spicy pickles!
And what we really came for, the “old fashioned Italian” with the works. Notice, NO MAYO. Olive oil and vinegar, roasted hot long peppers, onions, sharp aged provolone, etc. This is a GREAT hoagie.
The “modern Italian American” has slightly more whitebread meats.
Even the tuna is good.
And the sweet and spicy pepper relish is fantastic.
Here’s the birthplace of the bread.
This is the corner two blocks away at the heart of the Italian market.
In case you need some deer brain, fresh rabbit, or wild boar.
Then on to get some cheese at Di Bruno’s.
Cheesy!
And some completely old school sausage at Fiorella’s. They only make 3-4 kinds. Each has only 3-4 ingredients: pork, salt, pepper, and maybe some garlic or red pepper.
And one of my favorites! From Isgro Pasticceria.
Stuffed to order cannoli! Fresh fresh ricotta cheese with chocolate chips in a pastry shell. Almost as good as in Sicily except no candied fruit.
Even my three year-old loves them. I pitched it as a “cheese cookie.” I had him at “cheese.”
Every year my mom and her sister cook up an incredible feast for the family. And every year, incredibly, the food gets slightly better.
We open with the real Chardonnay from my cellars (hauled 3000 miles): “The Domaine Fevre 2006 Chablis (there is a separate cuvee from purchased fruit which I did not taste) displays an uncanny combination of creaminess of texture with firm underlying suggestions of chalk and stone. Mouthwatering honeydew melon and lime run with the mineral suggestions right through to a long luscious back end of exceptional quality for generic Chablis.”
Then back it up with a red burg, cousin to last nights. Parker 93. “Super-ripe aromas of cookie dough, spices, and black cherry syrup can be found in the nose of the medium-bodied 2002 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Pruliers. Its fabulously satiny texture, concentration, and purity are immensely impressive. This medium-bodied wine coats the palate with innumerable black fruits, minerals, and spices. Projected maturity: 2008-2018.”
My mom in the kitchen, hard at work on the turkey.
her cohort and sister, also at work.
Turkey and stuffing.
The appetizer spread. Various breads and crackers (mostly picked over).
Caponata.
bean salad.
Guacamole. I didn’t make it, so it isn’t incredibly spicy. Sometime I’ll have to do a post on mine.
A decent chianti clasico. Parker 90. We had two fabulous meals right in this town in Chianti. “The 2007 Chianti Classico is a pretty red laced with dark cherries, dried flowers and spices. The perfumed bouquet melds seamlessly into a caressing, attractive mid-palate that turns delicate on the finish. The Chianti Classico is 95% Sangioveto and 5% Canaiolo. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2014.”
The main spread.
Bread from a great Philly bakery.
Two types of cranberry, this one is more a jam, with a bit of spicy kick.
And a cranberry relish.
Salad (dessing in the background).
Nuts, separated out for the allergic.
Marinated carrots, sort of Moroccan style.
Brussel sprouts. Don’t knock the veggie until you’ve tasted these.
Roasted beets. Yummy — and pink pee.
Butternut squash puree.
The turkey. We BBQ the big fellows on the charcoal grill.
Stuffing.
Gravy.
A total blockbuster. Parker 96. “The top effort, the 2007 Cotes du Rhone-Villages Rasteau Fleur de Confiance, is awesome. An inky/blue/black color is followed by a stunning bouquet of scorched earth, incense, blackberry jam, coffee, and spice. This full-bodied, massive, stacked and packed Rasteau is destined for two decades of life. Its sweet tannin and textured mouthfeel are compelling. Give it 2-4 years of cellaring and consume it over the following 20 years.”
This year’s plate.
And what little I left of it.
After dinner we move onto this incredibly grapey wine. Parker 01. “The 2007 Shiraz Angel’s Share reveals a Cote-Rotie-like nose with its scents of mineral, meat, game and bacon. On the palate there is plenty of sweet, spicy blueberry fruit, silky tannin, and incipient complexity. Give it 1-2 years of additional cellaring and drink it from 2010 to 2017.”
Me, after more than a little wine and food.
This rare cream sherry was opened to go with dessert.
And for dessert, homemade (like everything else) plum tart.
And pecan pie!
And my grandmother’s special brownies.
Plus Haagen daas vanilla to wash it down with.
This was another spectacular homemade ThanksGavin dinner as usual. It was arguably even better than ever before.
