Coin Flipping

What's right: Cheeseburger day.

What's wrong: Gourmet Burger Grill. Fail.

What's left: What this election will come down to? A coin flip.

Note to Future Self

What's right: I am not a journalist. I am not a writer. But this post inspired me to get back to doing what I like to do: send my future self messages from the past. If you kept a diary as a youngster, you'll understand what I am trying to convey. Conventional wisdom isn't conventional, it is contemporary. We march inexorably to our demise. Shit changes.

What's left: @twitter. Pinterest. Yelp. Flickr.

What's wrong: Just about everything the national GOP machine says. Everything. Yes, normal people lie. But sociopaths and psychopaths don't even recognize it as a problem.

I Drove 2,000 Miles for this???

What's right: I got back from vacay in SoCal and saw a post from @TheMontereySA about an @SAChefcoalition pop-up dinner on Alamo Plaza. Eighty-five bucks. I had been dreaming about this day since the first LuminariaSA in 2008. That very first Luminaria was amazing. Houston Street, Alamo Plaza and the Alamo (and the Hilton Palacio del Rio) were bathed in ever changing light and lasers, replete with approachable contemporary local art. As my brother, my sister-in-law, my young niece, my mother and her husband, my daughter and her friend, Faith walked south along Alamo Street from Houston Street, in front of the Alamo, I said, "Wouldn't it be a great thing to have a pop-up dinner here? You know, like in the spirit of the French plantation scene in Apocalyspe Now Redux, with long tables, candelabra, proper service and great food?"

Last night, that dream came to fruition through no effort of mine. As far as I know, there was no talk of the First Indochina War or even the shitty war we are still waging in Afghanistan (being consumed by green on blue homicide). Aside from the lack of candelabra, proper service and great food were in abundance. The SA Chef Coalition put in tons of hours and sweat to prep the dinner.

Alamo Plaza pop-up dinner prep

What did one get for an $85 entry fee? Plenty. First course was pickles in tens of ways:
giardiniera with pigs' ears, pickled haricots vert, spicy pickled tomatoes and pickled zucchini, 

in the light of the Alamo.

Second course was multiple salads. The salad at my neck on the table was romaine hearts with two types of grapes and almonds. Pedestrian salad to contemplate our pedestrian but elevated seat at the table of the Alamo.

The third course comprised of wood coal fired whole bronzini and red fish served piled high on butcher paper. Super fatty fish, punctuated with clean smoke. As chef Dady implored, "serve with your hands." In the end, that's what we did. We used our hands to serve ourselves incredible, and seemingly endless portions of super fatty specimens. I'm not sure why the fork is in the picture, as I ate with my hands all night long.

The fourth course was a cake-wrapped custard. As I'm not a fan of cake, I fingered the custard out of the cake, leaving a very unhappy cake on the plate.

This benefit is what is completely right in our little city. We are not Manhattan. We are not San Francisco. We are not DC. We will never be a great city in the global world. But we can be an amazing city of Texas, an amazing city of the south, and an amazing city of the new progressive movement.

What's left: City council must obliterate the raspa-only Alamo Plaza licencing. Open up the plaza for @rollinpig, @TheChiliQueens @LagniappeToday and all local food trucks at least once a month and not mid-week. Allow for a pop-up dinners at least once a quarter. Invite food truck and taqueria coalitions to bid based on stakeholder input (i.e. barbacoa dinner, sushi dinner, bbq dinner, box chicken dinner, soup dinner, comfort food diner, etc) 

What's wrong: The DRT, as eloquently posed here. And the fact that Texas is open for business, as long as your business doesn't interfere with established brick and mortar business.

Spinach Gnocchi Recipe

Christmas 2010 Menu, Mrs. Bolner's house

Barack's War on

What's right: We're happy enough to spend half a trillion dollars (off the books) to save a country that didn't need saving'.
What's left: One question for all you frustrated Sean/Rush/Cheney worshipers: "Where were your 'don't tax me bro'' plaints in the last six years? [i give gw/congress a pass for the immediate years following 9/11...spend it like you own the press]
What's wrong: Some of us are reticent when it comes to spending $3-4 trillion to save our own country. I am not one of "us".

mafia wars

what's right: hitchens pisses me off as much as i feel he pisses on me. but he has, consistently, hit bulls eye on this subject.

what's wrong: google "swine flu pandemic 2009" in 2010. although the 24/7 demand for news is insatiable, the coverage on this subject is wrong-headed. i can only imagine the headlines if creation science was the academic fancy of the day: "Jon Stewart Chronicles the Final 100 Days!"

what's left: i'm tired of shit like this. it is safe to assume that he's tired of shit like this.