TANBI Florida Tour 2014

It was time for the boy to do a Florida swing. First off he helped us pack - that's usually Freya's job. This also hatched a Shark Tank idea: "Suitcase/Pack & Play."

He did ok on the flight down.  Passed out on the tray tables.  We lucked out and the middle seat between me and Mrs. TANBI was empty, so we had a little more room to operate.

First stop was to see his Great-Grandmother.  I never got to meet a great grandparent, so I though this was really cool.  I'm not sure the boy understood the significance.  Did you know that babies under 3 aren't allowed in public pools in Palm Beach County?  So, no swimming here, just enjoying the atmosphere.

 

Since there was no swimming at the pool we made a side trip to the beach.  Once we got there we decided that there was a lot of potential for swallowing sea water and/or sand, so it was a good time, but we'll have to take him back when he's older to get the whole experience.

Sandwiching the beach trip the boy got to meet his Great Aunt.  Shouldn't that really be "Grand Aunt?"  It's my mother's sister or the boy's grandmother's sister.  That sounds like Grand Aunt to me rather than Great Aunt.  Whatever the true name of the relationship she is both Great and Grand.

The logistics of taking these photos clearly preoccupied my posing for it.  Also, the odds of snapping the shutter when the baby is looking at the camera... unlikely.  Clearly I have quite a bit to work on as family photographer.

And then it was time for the trip home.  We scored an empty middle seat again and the boy was the hit of the plane.

Now he's already looking forward to his next adventure.

Mexico, June 2013

How about some pictures from Mexico?

Mrs. TANBI and I got some time away and actually left the U. S. of A.  We spent a couple of days on the Mayan Riviera.

Here's the view from the lobby...

The resort is actually pretty far from the beach.  It's there, just at the edge of your view.  The bulk of the rooms are actually cottages spread out around this lagoon.  To the far left in the image you can see the hotel proper and a hint of the first of five pools (there was almost never anyone at that pool).  To the left of the small bridge is "the island" which is home to most of the pools and one of the restaurants.  You could even take a boat ride around the lagoon although we passed.

There was a fair amount of nature around.  Lots of different kinds of birds in all the trees and turtles and fish in the lagoon.  Here's a small iguana...

and here's a bigger one...

There was also a kitten that seemed to live on the patio of one of the restaurants, and we also ran into a raccoon one night on one of the bridges.  Also we saw something that we decided in the end was a lemur one day while we were out walking.

Here's the beach...

We went to the beach one day.  It was nice enough, but neither of us remembered to bring our reef shoes and under that beautiful surf are intermittent (and pretty much invisible) stretches of fairly sharp rocks.  Were there no alternatives it would have been ok, but there were a bunch of really nice pools, so most of the time we did that instead.

Here's a water level view of the main pool...

We spent most of our pool time off of one of those little niches on the right...

Lounge chairs, sun umbrellas, many, many towels, and cocktail service.  Very nice.  Mrs. TANBI's feet on the left, my goofy toes on the right.

Here's the bottom of Mrs. TANBI's feet...

Actually, the nicest pool was at the spa, but I didn't bring my camera there and pretty much never brought my phone anywhere.  We pretty fairly had the spa pool to ourselves on two afternoons.

The trip had an unfortunate amount of rain in the second half and that really reigned in any plans to go exploring away from the resort, but we managed to have a great time anyway.

Here's my best sunset photo from the trip...

Maybe next time we'll get better weather.

Camera Fun

Here's a leftover from our trip last summer:


This is from the seafood restaurant at the Fairmont.  We liked it so much we went back a second night.  It wasn't because their menu is cool - although it is.

Out Walking Around

What is Hip?

I had to hook up the computer to do grades, so I thought I might give some respite from the Shotries posts.

Today was like LIVE MUSIC SUNDAY here on the break. We started off going to House of Blues' Gospel Brunch. It was a fairly interesting experience, although in hindsight I am not sure I would go again. The music is good, the food is good, the bar is an open bar, the people have a good time, and yet still the summation of all of those things just didn't make it for me and Mrs. TANBI. Probably the hardest part is that depending on the table you're seated at you could be fairly packed in. If you do decide to take in this experience I would go to the box office and see if there's any way you can get yourself at one of the round tables on the periphery rather than at the long tables in the front. I mean, you really are in the thick of it up front, but that might not be conducive to your being able to finish eating your shrimp, get it? The event is really food, and then a show and you're a little pressed to finish up if you're down front. After further review I think I woul dhave liked to have been further back and at my leisure to finish my meal. But, cool event.

Tonight we went to see Tower of Power. I've been angling to go to one of their shows for a good long time and just never made it work until today. This is a soul band, big horns, James Brown rythms - big sound, and a lot of fun. In some ways they're like the worlds foremost wedding band - they would TEAR UP your wedding. But that's not fair, because they are so much more than that, but when trying to answer the question "what are they like" and not having a real command of music terminology, that's the answer I came up with once. I think I like their sound because I think they're most like the band I would like to be in if I were in a band. It's like they were all in High School Jazz Band and made it stick and made it cool. There's a lot here that sounds like Chicago might have been had they gone a different way - funk instead of pop. At one point in this show tonight one of the horns was playing a trumpet in his right hand and a trombone in his left, alternating from one to the other. I'm not sure I could ever be that good, but if I were to change careers mid-course, and if I were to become a better horn player than I ever was in my life, and if I got together with some kindred spirts to for a soul band, maybe a Tower of Power tribute band; I have the name: Radius of Gyration.

bip bip bip bip bip

SHARKVISION!!!

So here's something cool I didn't know about the Mandalay Bay Hotel: Mandalay Bay has Sharkvision:

The hotel has this Shark Reef attraction. I'd been back in the day when I lived out there. It's a fairly cool aquarium. I'm not sure it's worth the ticket, but there's plenty of stuff out there that isn't. The gimmick here is that you can "pet a shark." Of course by "pet" they mean touch with the very end of your finger and by "shark" they mean tiny tiny variety of shark, so the petting a shark thing might not be all you hope it could be.

But I digress.

So in your room on like channel 87 or something there's a constantly running feed from the shark reef. Should you choose to do so you could lay in your tub in the bathroom while watching the sharks swim on the TV - I chose not to do that, but even just kicking back in bed and watching the sharks swim laps is fairly relaxing.

If you have the opportunity you should definitely partake.

Not Yet up to Speed

Here's some stuff to tide you over...

More From The Newseum

While Mrs. TANBI and I were walking (ok lost) to the Newseum some very nice boys in Newseum t-shirts happened to walk by and straighten us out. They also gave us vouchers for the Be a TV Reporter experience. So we did it.


They put you in front of a blue screen (or a green screen - we did blue so I wouldn't disappear) and give you a story to read off a teleprompter to match the background you choose. You get to do one rehearsal and then you do a real take. After, you get to see your broadcast on the TV there and the next day you can download a photo (above) and your video:



It's ok for what it is, but it could be a lot better. What's missing is the TV part. The woman running the thing didn't do the "5-4-3..." countdown that everyone who's seen Wayne's World knows. They obviously didn't take an audio level. There's this monitor off to your side where you can see what's happening, but you don't have any opportunity to look at it. All of that would be easy.

And then they could kick it up a notch by adding some edumacation. Maybe you could do a guided activity where you write the text that goes on the teleprompter. You could watch a video about chromakey technology. You could watch a video about reading off a teleprompter; there's a great scene in Broadcast News where William Hurt is coaching Albert Brooks that comes to mind. Maybe they could tape the rehearsal and then you could edit the two together.

I understand that they want to keep the thing streamlined for when it is busy - but it isn't always busy. While we were participating it was clear to us that the priorities were to not leave our bags and to not touch the equipment. That shouldn't be the impression the audience gets. If you go to the Newseum, wander around a little bit first to try to get yourself some vouchers, I would have felt ripped off if I had paid.

Oh, about reading of a prompter - it's hard. I kept getting ahead and running out of text. I really did need the rehearsal.

Some DC Pics

Just a few pics to go with the last few posts. Melissa pics (yes - I have pics) will have to wait for... developing (how 1990?). I'll have more to say about all of this, but this should tide you over some.

On Thursday we went to the Newseum. They had a chunk of the Berlin Wall, the largest on display outside of Berlin (or so they say).

The top floor of the Newseum has an outdoor patio with a really nice view of the Capitol building.

One of the Newseum exhibits is a 9/11 tribute. Still a little hard for me.

Friday we started out with a short walk on the surface of the sun - I mean the National Mall.

Then we went to the air-conditioned but over-run by walking birth control Air & Space Museum.

After Air & Space we went to the National Portrait Gallery. They have a really cool atrium.

That's all for now.

Food Adventure

I just got back from a trip to Chicago to see my folks. Probably the high point of the trip was a dining excursion to Moto. It's an ultra modern, molecular gastronomy experience (It also costs a whole bunch - but it's worth it).

The restaurant is on Chicago's West side, tucked into an industrial district right where you wouldn't expect it to be. We tried to get a reservation online but were told that the soonest we could get in would be a month away. My sister called them though and managed to get us in. We were seated in the basement dining room; a room that was decorated in such a way that you really wouldn't realize it was a basement. For most of the meal we had the room and two servers to ourselves. The place is immaculate and the service impeccable.

You find you're in for something interesting right from the start when you get your menu...



The menu is printed on a champagne cracker and is customized, the last line of ours said "Welcome to the Bogart Party." The cracker comes with a lemon jelee, some creme fresh, and a sous vide pear for dipping. When ordering you have a choice between a 5 course, a 10 course, or the "GTM" - the Grand Tour Menu. The whole table has to pick the same service so that the dishes can be properly timed. We were going to do the five, but we managed to fundraise and pressure each other into doing the 10. Ten courses took approximately 3 hours. I cannot imagine how long the GTM takes.

You can see above, we ordered cocktails. Three of us had a Lemondrop Martini. This is a drink we'd had before, the missus and I had them at our wedding reception. Moto does them a little differently...



That lump on the spoon is a gelatin ball filled with a real strong liquid lemon filling. The first of us to get to it, my sister, got a real surprise and puckered up as the liquid rushed out. Cool, and unexpected - which might be a catchphrase for the entire menu.

The first two courses are Greek Salad and Greek Salad, Again...





The first Greek Salad is an Octupus on a puree of parsley and feta cheese accompanied by crackers made from kalamata olives dipped in liquid nitrogen. They bring the crackers out in a bubbling cauldron that looks like something out of a production of MacBeth. The Greek Salad, Again turned out to be a shot of greek salad consomme. A totally clear liquid from which you would taste lettuce, cucumber, olive, feta cheese, everything that would be in a Greek salad, just surreal.

Next came the fish course...



This is a fish called Walu, from Hawaii. It was served with two chunks of spice rubbed Pineapple presented on a cold grill - that little lattice you see is frozen. This doesn't look like a lot of food, and most of the dishes were served this size. By the end of the meal we felt that the portions were perfect - there turns out to be quite a bit to come. This was about half the table's favorite dish.

Next, Pork...



This is Bar-b-que pork shoulder cooked for 12 hours. This photo was actually taken in the kitchen for me by one of the waiters as I was so intrigued by the thing when it came out that I forgot to take a picture. The pork is on a corn bread puree along side a saute of collard greens and masutaki mushrooms. The "noodles" you see are made from baked beans, and were cold. My pork was kinda fatty, but I feel like a jerk criticizing any of the food from this meal.

Next, Quail...



In this glass we found dehydrated elbow macaroni and chunks of fried quail covered with a white truffle powder and smoked Gouda sauce. This was AMAZING. I could just see the kitched staff hanging out eating dehydrated macaroni. It was way cool and I could have eaten four of them, if I didn't have to eat the rest of the meal.

And then Beef...



This is sort of "Steak and Eggs." It was three slices of rib-eye steak with a cube of hash brown potatoes, and another cube of hard boiled egg. The egg had a pablano chili sauce. I think in the entire meal this was the only thing I was afraid of as I thought the green sauce would be on fire. It wasn't.

Moving on, Desert #1...



Mrs. TANBI says the correct proportion of entrees to desserts is 6:4. The first desert features carbonated fruit, grapes and a honey poached apple on a crushed walnut crumble. This stuff was unreal. The waiter told us to get right on the fruit so as to get the most of the bubbles. It was like the grapes had grape soda in them, and the apple, apple soda, as if anyone has ever heard of apple soda. Just upstage of that you see a praline chip and a white chocolate/cheese sauce. My sister thought this was just the best.

But just when you've had one dessert, it's time for another...



This is cotton candy. The first is a piece of paper with a picture of cotton candy, that tastes like cotton candy. The other was a white chocolate truffle with sprinkles and a liquid cotton candy center. In some ways, this was the least significant course, but looked at another way, it did seem to be the most innovative. Also, even though this turned out to be like three bites (and we were warned to take the truffle all at once, lest we decorate our shirts), I don't think we could have handled another full size dessert.

And then, more fruit...



This is a poached persimmon (I incorrectly guessed sorbet), with persimmon sauce, apple foam, hickory nuts and two tiny little brownies. Some of our diners thought this whole thing wound up tasting like hickory as the scent was overpowering. I didn't know what to make of this, but it was pretty good.

Fruit, Candy, Fruit, and then Ice Cream...



You see before you a Chocolate truffle with a liquid graham cracker filling, a toasted marshmallow, chocolate ice cream with miniature marshmallows and graham cracker mixed in, cocoa nibs, and a bed of ground graham cracker. Cracking open the truffle and having the liquid graham cracker ooze out was definitely the highlight of this dish.

So that was 10. I got up to go to the restroom. On the way there they passed me with another dish (they actually asked if I would like them to take it back to the kitchen and serve it when I'd returned - I declined).

The final bite...



This is a caramel corn lollipop and edible packing peanuts with a white frosting. The cool part about this is that the lollipop had some kind of pop-rock action, so when you took a bite it fizzed in your mouth. I actually used the line "It's like a party in my mouth and everyone is invited!"

And then it was over. I can't wait to do it again, but I will have to start saving soon. If you're in Chicago and have a load of cash looking for a home you should definitely try Moto.

Philly Redux

So I promised a little more on the Philly trip. The occasion was I suppose the end of the summer and the coincidental presence of my inlaws at a conference in town. We'd gotten the idea in our heads that we would go there to see them, and then figured we could parlay that into a trip to Morimoto we've been planning for quite some time.

We arrived and checked into our hotel. It was about 400 degrees out Saturday, and we hadn't pre-arranged for tickets to Independence Hall (I swear I did this ages ago and it was a walk in thing - but maybe not), so we struck out to find someplace air-conditioned. We wound up at the Constitution Center. They have a little multimedia show, a fairly large informational (edutainment?) exhibit, and a life size, three dimensional reproduction of the painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Here I am with your buddy and mine Ben Franklin:

The craft of the exhibit is pretty good. Its the kind of project I would have liked to have done when I was in commercial fabrication. They have lots of interactives, a whole lot of images, and a blessed few artifacts. Of particular note is the sound design. The designers did an excellent job of isolating and imaging multiple audio tracks such that they are intelligible and audible but do not compete with each other. If you are into sound, this is worth the price of admission.

After the Constitution Center we went to see the Liberty Bell. It's still there:

Growing up I had somehow managed to miss the Liberty Bell. I think it fell under the heading of "too much hoopla." There's still a fair bit of hoopla now.

Back to the hotel; nap, shower, change, and back down the street to dinner. I've wanted to go to this restaurant for a while. The Iron Chef TV show counts me as a fan, and then on top of that they did a "making of" this particular place for Food Network called "Morimoto RAW" which I have actually considered using for Production planning class.

The interior is very neat and clean, very modern. The seats have color changing lights in them that switch every couple of minutes, enough so it is interesting, not so much that it is annoying.

So speaking of annoying, I tried not to be by not using the flash on my camera. Even though I held real still and opened the aperture up as far as it will let me, my pics from inside the restaurant are a little dark and blurry. So, suffice it to say that everything looks better than my photos.

We did the "omakase," the chef's tasting. We did that even though we'd just been informed that Morimoto was not in the restaurant that night.

First course was a Hamachi Tartare. It was in a broth based on soy sauce that seemed to have bonito flakes in it. The dish also wore a little hat of caviar. Very, very nice. I could have eaten seven.

A have to confess not remembering the name of the second dish, and I can't really even identify it from the menu I can find online. It could be the zensai sakizuke from the dinner menu, but it might also be the warm whitefish carpachio from the lunch menu. I would lean toward the latter, as it was a very thin protien dish, but the name of the former has more traction in my head. The only reason I hesitate is that the menu says "five pieces" and as you can see in the dark, blurry photo below there are only four. But maybe they do four for the tasting.

The zensai sakizuke is listed as anti-pasto. This really fit into that niche. Although it was fish, it had a real ham feel to it. Again, very nice.

Salad. So, one of the most interesting things about this mean for me was that I ate everything. I normally have a fairly narrow protein and starch diet. I'd worried that going to this restaurant and especially doing a tasting menu that I would be faced with many things I wouldn't want to eat. But in this case I ate every single thing that was put in front of me. The salad was sashimi salad: mixed micro greens, tuna tataki, and shoyu dressing. I never eat salad. I ate this. It was great.

I also accidentally used my flash and blinded several people.

Next up: soba carbonara, soba noodles, edamame, bacon, black truffle. This is available as an app or an entree. I could have eaten three of these easily. Just fantastic.

Entree: Black Cod Miso, just like it says. There was a little garnish of red pepper and three (3) beans. This was hard to eat with chopsticks. They gave us a knife and fork but I figured I was up to the challenge. I probably should have caved. This was light and sweet. The fish was flaky and moist and the skin was crispy.

After the main dish we had a sushi tasting. I think maguro, suzuki, kanpachi, hamachi, & kisu; but mostly I am guessing. This was really good sushi, good fish to rice ratio, and good tasting rice as well. Mostly what it did was make me want to come back and just do sushi. In the context of the tasting menu it just became a blur.

The food festival is almost at an end. Now we have desert: a mini apricot cake with vanilla mousse. Just enough to button up the whole thing.

We've talked a lot about this meal since being there. I have been trying to figure out where it goes in the context of the other restaurants I have been to in my life. Certainly it is top five without question. It's right up there with 808 and Eleven. I think 808 might have been better, but Morimoto might edge Eleven. Or for all three it might just come down to what you order on what night. Mrs TANBI was surprised at how meaty it was, even if it was fish. She thought there would have been more of a vegetable focus. Like I said, I ate up and enjoyed every single thing they served. It's great food and a great time, and if you happen to win a cash prize for something and would like to blow it all at once, this would be a great choice.

Off to the hotel to food coma through the night.

The next day we got a comfortable start and went for brunch. My mother-in-law had found a place in Philly's Chinatown that does dim-sum off of carts. This was all new to me, but they said it was authentic and fun. It certainly was authentic.

The food was fine. I didn't care for chicken feet. It was amazing to see how quickly the place filled up. We got there fairly soon after they opened, maybe the third party to be seated. By the time we left there wasn't a single empty table.

We had a few hours to kill before heading back to the airport so we went to the art museum. My favorite part of this excursion had to be the museum exterior. They must be doing a renovation to the masonry, so in the interim that are shrouded with scaffolding. In a real class design decision someone decided that the scaff would be boring and they made themselves a sheath - with a picture of the museum as an architectural blueline.

Nice touch.

These were my favorite pieces form the museum trip:

He Who Tries to Travel Two Roads
Ink on paper - Son Man Jin - 2001

This was part of a calligraphy exhibit. The piece is like seven feet tall. Something about it just seemed very interesting to me.

Young Girl
Oil on Canvas - Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp) - 1912

This piece caught my eye because I think I see two views superimposed on top of one another. One image appears to be a seated figure, and the other appears to be a close up like a head shot. Nothing with the painting references the close up, but I feel fairly certain it is there and intentional. But then, I am not much of an art consumer.

All the eating and exhibits behind us we take the train back to the airport and return to overcast, sticky Pittsburgh. And a fun time was had by all.