Salad Is Slaughter

You really don’t want to see an email that reads DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DAUGHTER DID THIS MORNING????? in your mailbox.   Janet has a pretty big yard that’s divided into two areas by a 4-foot high picket fence.  Janet had put the dogs on one side of the yard and closed the gate between the two areas after she went to the other side.  The Devil Dog Lisa™ decided that she wanted to be with her mommy and jumped the fence.  She cleared it easily.  Janet put Lisa back in the house.  Lisa immediately went out the back door and jumped the fence again.  She’d be great at field trials.

Some birds built a next in a hanging container near the garage.  Lisa loves birds.  She’s also noticed that when she goes through the doggy door the birds don’t do anything.  If a human comes through the door the birds fly away.  Now Lisa will watch us through the kitchen window.  If it looks like we’re coming outside she gets into position to chase the birds as they fly away.

We took the Devil Dog™ to the vet last night.  We didn’t like the way her scar from her family planning work was healing — there seemed to be a lump in her belly.  The doctor believes that she’s having a reaction to the sutures and the lump should be gone in about another month.  Lately the lump has been getting a bit smaller so he’s probably right.  He made a note in his records not to use that type of suture on her in the future.

As we were walking out the door of the vet a guy with a black puppy was coming in.  The puppy looked to be a Belgian Shepherd just like Lisa.  The guy wasn’t sure of the pup’s breed because he got it from a German Shepherd rescue group.  Lisa seemed to like the pup so I was pretty happy about that.  She doesn’t usually take to dogs but prefers people.  The guy said he has a German Shepherd female that acts the same way.

Later that evening I took Lisa for a walk in the park.  The puppy class teacher wants us to take our dogs to different places to practice loose lead walking so that the pups have different distractions.  Janet tried this on Tuesday and said Lisa was really skittish.  She really didn’t have a problem when I took her to the park so she was either more used to it or she just likes walking with me better.  We went around the sleeping bum, circled the playground where kids were playing, went to the soccer game, and finally went to watch the family playing kickball with the dog (they kicked a ball, not the dog.)

When I was there the mothers said, “Is that Lisa?”  Lisa and Janet had stopped there on Tuesday and talked with the same people.  It’s amazing what dogs can do.  I talked with two complete strangers for at least 20 minutes each just because we both have dogs.  Why didn’t I know about this when I was looking for dates?

We went to a concert last night at the San Jose Arena and saw Styx, REO, and Journey.  When we got there some nut-job religious fanatics were holding signs and telling everyone that they were going to hell.  I checked out the signs, and since I’ve been known to drink wine and beer on occasion, I fall into two “going to hell” categories — drunkard and fornicator.  There’s nothing wrong with the guys holding the signs except that they need a beer and to get layed.  A qualified mental health professional would also help.

When we got inside the arena I noticed that the crowd consisted of venture capitalists, system administrators, legal secretaries, and accountants.  And their kids.  Not quite the demographics that these bands drew 25 years ago.  During the concert I noticed that not one woman was sitting topless on her boyfriend’s shoulders.  How concerts have changed.  But then again that might be a good thing.  Do you really want to see a 55 year old woman toss her bra and panties to the band?  I didn’t think so.

Overall it was a decent concert, buy Styx really missed on the intro to Sail Away.  They really should have played the South Park Eric Cartman clip about that song.  The one where he says once you hear the start of the song you can’t do anything else until you finish it.  I guess only a handful of people would have known who Eric Cartman is, anyway.  I did hear one South Park reference at a concert a couple of months ago.  We were at the Lynard Skynard concert and the lead singer played a guitar riff, and said “TIMMY!”  That broke me up.

Speaking of Lynard Skynard — at what point do they become a Lynard Skynard tribute band?  There’s only like one original member of the band left.  At some point its just different guys doing the old songs.

Technorati Tags: music

The first time we went to Manresa was last New Year’s Eve. We both enjoyed the dinner immensely, but there was one dish served that we each didn’t like. And it was a different dish. I didn’t care for the squab, and Janet didn’t like one of the appetizers. This intrigued me because it indicated that the chef was willing to experiment with new flavors, textures, serving temperatures, and so on.

When my birthday arrived I decided that I wanted to try Manresa again. Admittedly it was extremely expensive. We broke our previous record for the cost of a meal for two by at least 25 percent, with the previous record holders a tie with our last visit to Manresa and Renoir in Las Vegas (reviewed here last October.)

After looking over the menu I asked our waiter about the Chef’s Tasting Menu – specifically if he they would tell me what we would get, or was it a surprise. He said that they preferred to surprise us. He did list some of the items that they had served the previous night, and they all sounded good to us. The Tasting Menu was our choice (everyone at the table has to get it for it to be served properly), and we decided to go with the wine parings as well.

I’ll only mention the wine parings once because I don’t really remember what wines went with which dish. Suffice to say that the wine selections matched my perceptions of the food from my last visit – select unusual wines that the diner would not normally think to pick. Some of the wines selected include sake, and a chardonnay from Oregon that had a very distinctive vanilla flavor.

We started our meal with champagne. As I’ve said in previous reviews, I used to think that I didn’t like champagne, but then I found out that I didn’t like cheap champagne. As we were sipping our drink the waiter suggested that we might like the Beggar’s Purse consisting of Caspian Osetra Caviar. At Manresa it’s sold by the bite. We decided to get a bite each to go with our champagne and it was delicious.

Before our tasting menu items arrived we were treated to amuse-bouches – little appetizer gifts from the chef. They were fabulous. I’ll describe just some of the dishes we were served but in no particular order. We were at the restaurant for over 3 hours and I didn’t write anything down. In most cases the dishes had something unexpected about them. The waiter explained each wine and dish in detail as they were delivered to the table.

One of the first items we got was a mango ice with (I believe) mint leaves. After the waiter set the cocktail glass before us he poured a carrot juice mixture over it. It was amazing. The tart fruit ice combined with the carrot juice was unexpected but very good.

Throughout the meal we had various fish dishes with a variety of sauces – too many to remember but all were fantastic. One sauce for the fish seemed to be based upon chipotle peppers. There was also a dish with fresh clams, another with tuna, and there may have been one with grouper. All were fabulous

Another unusual dish was an avocado ice topped with salsa and tortilla strips. It was a bit like eating guacamole ice cream. It was really good.

As we were waiting for one of our courses, Janet said “Uh oh.” (She was facing the floor while I was facing the wall.) I wondered what the “Uh oh” was about and I soon found out. The waiter placed eggshells in front of us. Normally I hate eggs, I always have, and Janet knows it. I certainly didn’t hate these eggs. The eggshells were open at the top and inside was a soft-boiled egg, maple syrup, heavy cream, and a bit of salt in layers. I have no idea how they could have layered everything inside the eggshell. It was great, just like everything else.

One surprising dish was the grilled foie-gras covered with a subtle lemon sauce. The grilled foie-gras alone would have been fabulous. The lemon sauce made it out of this world. Highly recommended.

Lamb was the only dish served with a red wine for the evening. I thought that the lamb would be a bit rare for me but like everything else that night it was great. Janet was a bit disappointed that here was only one red wine for the evening, but overall approved of everything.

Near the end of the meal we were served hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. The waiter gave us spoons because he said most people request them. They want to get every bit of the cream. This wasn’t ordinary hot chocolate. The chef had added some spiced to it. I enjoyed it a lot.

At the end of our meal the waiter brought out some candied nuts and several chocolate amuse-bouches desserts. He then brought out our main dessert, which was an Earl Grey tea ice cream cone. Very unusual, and very good.

My only (slight) complaint was that the meal didn’t have a soup course. I really like trying soups because I think it shows the chef’s skills. Still, it was an almost perfect meal.

The entire dinner took over three hours. We didn’t feel full until the end because the pace and portion size were all meticulously planned. The individual dishes at first glance might appear small but I was always satisfied with the amount of food and I was always looking forward to the next creation. I will definitely be going back because Manresa is now my favorite restaurant.
Manresa
320 Village Lane, just off
North Santa Cruz Avenue, in Los Gatos
408-354-4330.

Lawyers for Scott Peterson, accused murder of Laci Peterson, claim that Peterson’s wife was not murdered by her husband but was butchered by a Satanic cult. What the hell kind of bullshit theory is that?

We’ve all heard of Satanic cult ritual killings, animal mutilations, and child day care centers having Satanic rituals. All of these stories are crap. There is not now, nor ever was, any credible evidence of Satanic ritual killings. I defy anyone to point to a legitimate news story in a respected newspaper or magazine that describes any trial of Satanic cult members.

Yes there are whack-jobs who claim to worship the devil. But they don’t belong to an organized “anti-religion” of Satanism. Massive Satanic cults are a myth. Of the hundreds of ritualistic killing stories that have floated around, why have there never been any arrests? Don’t you think that the FBI could have found even one of these cult members? Or do they have magical powers that allow them to elude law enforcement officials?

“My wife was murdered by a Satanic cult.” I expect to see those headlines in a cheap supermarket tabloid, not coming from the mouth of an allegedly educated lawyer. I have a vivid imagination, but there are some things even I couldn’t dream up.

The parents arrived in San Jose on Thursday. We got some sandwiches for lunch and got them unpacked in my house. I then drove them over to Janet’s house so they could meet the granddogs. The Devil Dog Lisa was overly-excited as I expected.

Thursday evening we went to Chef Wangs for dinner. The food was really good, as usual. It’s really too bad that they don’t get a larger crowd, while vastly over-rated places like Chef Chu’s down the street have lines out the door.

We had originally planned to drive up to Yosemite on Thursday, but the bad weather was a concern. I really didn’t want to deal with the possibility of putting tire chains on the truck just to get there and back. Instead we went to Alcatraz and the Headlands. It was pretty windy, but the rain stopped as we pulled into San Francisco and the sky cleared so the views were pretty good. Thursday dinner was just getting some prepared hot food from the grocery store. Yes, we skipped bowling.

Friday we played golf at Pacific Grove. The views were spectacular but it was very windy. It’s a beautiful course along the ocean and only cost $38 for 18 holes. On the way back we stopped at the farm stand to get some deep-fried artichoke hearts but they were closed. I had my heart set on those deep-fried artichoke hearts. For dinner we went to Fiesta del Mar Too. The food was great, as always.

Today, after we take Lisa to puppy school we’re going up to the Livermore wine country. Tomorrow will probably be back to Monterey and 17 mile drive.