Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Dolphin (NOT!) Cruise and International Plaza

On the last day of these conferences I attend, there is usually some kind of social activity offered after the serious stuff is over. This time it was a dolphin cruise off of Clearwater Beach. Sounded like fun, so we decided to go.

We hopped on a superstretch tourist bus (complete with the bendy thing in the middle) for a ride to Clearwater. The ride was longer than I expected, maybe about one hour -- I thought it would be more like 20 minutes. Sometime toward the end of the bus ride, one of the conference coordinators said that the dolphin tour people canceled at the last minute because of some kind of problem with the boat. Fortunately, the bus driver was able to suggest another boat company that might be able to take us.

We arrive at the harbor, and we're watching the conference coordinator walk over to "The Calypso Queen," which apparently is the replacement boat. I need to add a picture of it later (UPDATED to add photo at left!), but just picture the cheesiest boat you can imagine -- yellow, with a fake coconut tree on top. The logo on the flag consisted of martini glasses, and the interior was even more cheesy, with tropical print plastic seat covers over all the chairs. But, my theory is that at least we have a story to tell, and this boat was definitely more interesting than the one we were supposed to be on (see picture on the right)! While we didn't see any dolphins, the captain pointed out some nice homes that belonged to celebrities such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. The cruise lasted a little over an hour.

The adventure didn't end there. On the bus ride back, I noticed that we had been sitting at a traffic for quite a while. Several minutes went by and I saw cars passing us on the left as we just sat there. The conference coordinator came on the PA system again and said something about a truck hitting the bus. None of us even felt anything! So, we sat there for a while. One person commented that it's too bad this didn't happen near a Starbucks or something. Instead we were stuck in a boring area surrounded by houses on one side and a couple of office buildings on the other. After a while, the bus moved. But we were turning right onto a side street to get out of the way of traffic. Bummer. Stuck there for a while longer. At least we were having a good time on the bus sharing stories and getting to know people better. I think the whole ordeal took about an hour. Again, I just looked at it as another story to share when I get home!

After we got back to the hotel, we decided to hop into our car rental (our friends picked it up at lunch so we'd have it ahead of time for our drive to Orlando) and go to a mall. The hotel gave us directions to two malls on the same street. We ended up at International Plaza. It was a very nice mall, although surprisingly dead. I guess everything in Tampa is dead! We went shopping for a while, then set out to find dinner.

We found an outdoor restaurant and entertainment area. THIS is where everyone was! No wonder the mall was so dead, everyone was out here eating, drinking, and having a good time! There were a number of places to choose from, but we chose a quiet place that had no wait or huge crowd, the Gallery Bistro. Although being that quiet was a little scary...was something wrong with it? The food was terrific. We all started with a cup of blue crab and corn chowder, which was most excellent. We shared an appetizer of bistro chips, which were freshly made potato chips topped with a balsamic syrup and gorgonzola cheese...yum! For my entree, I had a cobb salad. It was good, but too huge after eating the soup, and a bit overdressed. I should have just ordered a small salad (which was still pretty big!) like my friend did.

Once again, our adventure was not over. By the time we finished dinner, the mall was closed, and we couldn't go back to the car the way we we came in. We found an escalator down to the parking garage, but we were parked on the other side of the mall, so we started walking. Then a security truck pulls next to us...uh oh, were we doing something wrong? Were we going to get busted? "Do you guys want a ride?" the friendly female security guard asked. There were five of us, so two walked and three of us hopped in with her. I figured she was probably bored and enjoyed having some company for a little while! We have found the people in Florida to be very friendly overall.

Coming up...driving to Disney World!

Ybor City

When researching what to do in Tampa, you will most likely come across a suggestion to take a streetcar to nearby Ybor City. Sounds like a fun thing to do, so we did. The street car ride was kinda fun, and the stops are pretty convenient.

When we got off in Ybor City, I didn't really know what to make of it at first. It seemed pretty dead. What kind of place is this? We figured we'd be able to cover the whole thing in an hour and go back to the hotel! However, it began to grow on me.

While I've never been to New Orleans, I imagined that Ybor City shares some similarities with the French Quarter in its quirkiness and kind of dark nature. We later learned that we were there on what is typically a quieter night. Apparently things pick up from Wednesday to Saturday, and we were there on a Tuesday night. A lot of stores had "Sorry We're Open" signs in the window. They definitely have a sense of humor here!

There were also a lot of "Guavaween" signs. I wish I'd taken a picture of one. We heard that a long time ago, someone had set out to make Ybor City a kind of guava capital, but it didn't take, and now Ybor City pokes fun at itself by celebrating Guavaween during the Halloween season.

There were a number of interesting places to consider for dinner. Initially I was looking at a place called the Green Iguana, a bar and grill type of place. There was another place that had wood-fired pizzas that sounded interesting. We let one of my coworkers choose, and she felt like eating Greek food, so we headed for Acropolis. It turned out to be an excellent choice! I ordered the mousaka and a glass of wine. They had a pretty extensive selection of Greek wine.

Before we decided on dinner at Acropolis, we walked by a place that served crepes. We decided ahead of time that we would go and have a crepe for dessert, so we made sure not to overstuff ourselves at dinner. The crepe place ended up being a good choice too. So good that I didn't even think of taking a picture of it before we started digging in! (UPDATE! Found a picture taken by my friend...) My friend and I shared one that had Nutella, bananas, and walnuts in it, and was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

While Ybor City appeared to be dead, Acropolis was quite popular, which isn't surprising given the goodness of the food and the funness of the live Greek entertainment, complete with napkins falling from the sky and dishes breaking. There were definitely more people walking around by the time we left, around 9 p.m. The cigar shops were pretty interesting too. We got to see cigars being rolled, and the guy in the window even posed for my friend. I'll have to post that pic later when I get it from her. All in all, a worthwhile adventure.

Cafe Dufrain

Okay, it looks like Blogger is finally letting me do my thing, so I have some major catching up to do! I'm in Disney World right now, and today was a lazy day for me consisting mostly of shopping and taking pictures. Tomorrow is my spa day, so I want to be nice and rested and relaxed for that!

Back to last week...so last Tuesday, lunch was not included in our conference, which kind of sucked given that we only had a little over an hour to walk around and find something. We went on a little bit of an urban trek thinking we could find something over a nearby bridge, but to no avail. So we basically ended up just a short walk away from the hotel at a place called Cafe Dufrain, which I had on my list of possible restaurants to try. It turned out to be a good choice.

It's a cute little place with indoor and outdoor seating. Two of my friends had a pulled pork sandwich, and my other friend and I both had the chicken rigatoni, which was excellent! It was in a creamy sauce which was very tasty. And I still say you can't beat the taste of fruits and vegetables on the mainland. Our produce at home sucks, unless it's locally grown. So all of you who live in Hawaii, SUPPORT LOCAL AGRICULTURE!

Our little adventure ended up making us a half hour late in returning to the conference, but, oh well...at least we returned! A lot of other people didn't!

Coming up...Ybor City.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Splitsville!

I gotta write super-fast since Blospot has not been cooperating with me these past couple of days!

Most of today was spent in a conference, which for the most part was pretty good. Especially the lunch part! The hotel food was surprisingly good, and you really can't beat mainland fruits and vegetables. Most of the stuff you get in Hawaii, especially things like berries, suck.

Anyway, tonight we started out with a conference-related reception. Again, good food: mini beef wellingtons, mini chicken quesadilla rolls, really good cheese, fruit, veggies, and spring r
olls. Then we decided to venture to a place called Channelside. But it was pouring, so we caught a taxi. It only took us about 5 minutes to get there. Channelside is an entertainment complex, pretty similar to Aloha Tower. And just as dead. Which is really sad, because it seems like a really cool place. There are a number of hotels in the area, so I'm not sure why more people don't go there. It appears that some places close pretty early too. I guess that's what happens in downtown locations.

Anyway, so we went to a place called Splitsville. It was a bowling alley, pool hall, and bar, all in one. The layout was quite weird, with the pool tables right BETWEEN the bowling lanes! We
decided to shoot some pool and have a drink while we were there, before they got taken over by a private party. After that, we headed over to Hooters. Believe it or not, I've always wanted to try their buffalo wings. We got the boneless chicken, fried pickles, and a steak quesadilla. It was all pretty tasty, as was the mojito!

Enough for today. Tomorrow is another conference day, and hopefully a trolley and street car ride to Ybor City tomorrow night!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I have arrived!!

Quick post, since I am about to drop dead from tiredness! I did not get a lot of sleep on my flights here -- from Honolulu to Houston, then Houston to Tampa. We had a 4 hour layover in Houston, and we managed to get one hour of sleep there.

We arrived in Tampa at about 5 p.m. and are staying at the Westin Harbour Island. The weather was not good, as it was pouring on the ride over from the
airport, so we decided to stick close to the hotel. Besides, we're all dead tired! We found a very nearby restaurant called Jackson's. At first it looked a little to frou-frou, based on the atmosphere, but it turned out to be a very good choice and not over the top at all.

I started with a wine flight (4 white wines) and had an entree consisting of grouper topped with lump crab meat, served atop a potato cake and some stir fried veggies. It rested on a bed of cream sauce that was wine-based, but I can't remember the name of the wine. Two of my friends had the shrimp & scallop linguine, and another friend had a chicken focaccia sandwich served with french fries.

Tomorrow begins our conference, but hopefully we'll be able to find something equally good to eat for dinner tomorrow!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Leaving for the airport!

Just a quick post to say I'm leaving for the airport soon! I arrive in Tampa late Sunday afternoon, Tampa time, which is 6 hours ahead of Hawaii right now. I got up early and stayed up in the hopes that I'll sleep on the plane and won't have too many problems getting adjusted, but we'll see. I always have a hard time flying directly to the East Coast!

Hope you all keep checking in...I am really going to make an effort to post something at least every couple of days!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Preparing to go on Vacation, and other Random Musings

Once again, I'm a slacker. I should probably stop saying that -- rather, my problem is that I sometimes have too MUCH to share! For example, last weekend I went to see Burn After Reading and a few days ago I went to see a special viewing of Flash of Genius (thanks Vegas Girl for the invite!). As far as food goes, I've been wanting to share a number of places. After Flash of Genius, we needed to find something that was open at 10 p.m., and I remembered some friends telling me about Kanpai, which is in the former Dixie Grill/Tio's location -- I'll post a formal review later, but suffice it to say that the food is good! I've also been wanting to share some of my favorite, somewhat regular places with you such as Kiawe Grill, Diamond Head Market and Grill, 3 Star, and Jus' Tacos. *Sigh* those will come in time, which I'm running out of.

My primary focus now is my upcoming trip to Florida. Part work, part play. I've been a little bit in denial about the trip. I think a lot of people are like me in that they experience different emotional phases prior to going on a trip. At first it's, "yay! I'm going on a trip!" and countless hours are spent trying to figure out where you're going to stay, which flights to book, and what there is to do in the area. Then there's a lull. As the trip approaches, it's kind of like, "yay! I leave in a month!" but I don't do anything else, and I lose sight of it again. Then I hit a point where I felt like I should be excited, but I really wasn't. And about a week ago, I discovered a special event going on in Disney World, but I kind of put off calling because of the time difference. I finally called a couple days ago, only to find out the event is booked. Boo! I tried again this morning, but still booked. Now I've hit an, "oh crap, I leave in a week" point. So right now I'm working on a packing list.

Why am I making a packing list? Part of it is simply because I am anal retentive. It's in my nature. And I once stayed a weekend in Waikiki and forgot to pack underwear, and I had to go to Ala Moana to buy some, so that was an experience that scarred me a little. The other reason is that I am a sucker for gadgets. And I can't leave home without them. And if I can't leave home without the gadgets, I can't leave home without the chargers, extra memory, and accessories that go with them. So this year, for the first time, my packing list has subcategories. So under the "Check in luggage" category, I have an "Electronics" category, which reminds me to bring the chargers for my point-and-shoot camera, my Zen Vision, and my cell phone, as well as a power strip to plug all of these things into. But that's not all...last year I bought an SLR camera, so I have to carry that on with me, along with 4 lenses, extra memory, and the charger. And of course I'm carrying on the devices, so in addition to a bag especially to carry the SLR and accessories, in my carry on bag I will have my cell phone, point-and-shoot camera, and Zen Vision, plus my laptop and laptop charger since it's a long flight and I might have a chance to charge it while I'm sitting in the airport in Houston waiting for my connecting flight. *WHEW!*

I don't own the gadgets, they own me. And typing all this just reminded me that on Monday I should be receiving a tripod I ordered. Should I take that with me too??? Thinking about all of this makes me tired. Which is probably what set me into a lull with regard to thinking about the trip in the first place!

But, I have to get serious. The planning really does help because I won't be wasting my time trying to figure out what to do once I reach my destination. Of course, I'm not so anal and inflexible that things can't be changed, but at least there is some kind of plan in place.

I'll share more details in a future post, but in summary, I'll be flying into Tampa for a conference. Three of my coworkers will also be attending the conference. I refer to them as coworkers here, but they're my friends too. I feel very fortunate to have coworkers that I am close to and that I have fun with. In a way, it's sad too, because the reason we are so close is that we probably spend more time with each other than our own families and non-work friends! But that's okay...we have a good time together and that's what keeps us sane during some pretty stressful situations.

Anyway, so we'll be in Tampa for a few nights attending a conference, then we are all going to Disney World together (plus one coworkers' husband who will be meeting us there) to have some fun! This will also be a picture taking adventure for me. Hopefully my partners in crime will be patient with me if I have the urge to stop and take pictures!! I'll save the details of this for another post.

My plan is to provide quick updates to my blog daily, but we'll see if that happens since I had the same plan last year and I haven't even finished up those blogs!! Slacker...

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Whole Foods

I told myself when I heard that Whole Foods in Kahala Mall was opening on Sept. 10th that I would wait until the crowd died down a bit before I attempted to even go there. But even though I kept telling myself that, especially since in my old age I have grown to dislike crowds, a part of me REALLY wanted to go there. Last year I went to the Whole Foods in Henderson, Nevada and I fell in love with it. We ended up buying just as much omiyage from Whole Foods as we had from the Hawaii-favorite Trader Joes. Also, I just missed having a grocery store there. Although Star Market isn't my favorite grocery store, the convenience of having it in the mall couldn't be beat, and I actually used to enjoy cruising Star Market while waiting for a movie or killing time. They had a fairly decent wine selection there.

As I ranted about on my Facebook page last week, I was planning to see a movie last weekend, not even planning to go near Whole Foods, and I couldn't find a parking stall! It was crazy --- worse than the holidays! Later on I found out that on top of the Whole Foods crowd, there was also some kind of Aloha Festivals activity going on that day. A few days later, on a weekday after work, I went to the mall to go to Barnes and Noble, but I didn't go to Whole Foods since I wanted to get home and go for my afternoon walk.

Third time is a charm...today I decided to go to the earliest showing of "Burn After Reading" (which I'll review sometime soon -- suffice it to say that I didn't think it was all that great), and I had some time to kill before the movie started, so I went into Whole Foods. At about 10:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, there was a pretty big crowd there, but not big enough to detract me.

I thought I had died and gone to grocery store heaven. I walked in and immediately headed for the prepared foods section. The selection was amazing, and very fresh. Almost anything you could think of that you'd want on a salad was there. The baked goods looked amazing too. And the sushi...the sushi was pre-made, and very expensive -- about $10-$13 for a bento container -- but the quality of the fish was excellent. A million times better than the crap I bought from Kozo Sushi a couple weeks ago.

Then I moved on to the butcher counter. YES!!! Finally a store with a real butcher counter. Safeway Kapahulu has one too,
but the selection isn't as extensive. Again, expensive, but the quality can't be beat. And they have unusual items like buffalo. One day I will splurge on an aged rib eye from here. What's amazing about this butcher counter is that they also have fowl available -- I think Safeway only has meat and fish.

I kept moving along the
perimeter, since the fresh items were what I was most interested in. I got to the fish. Again, a nice counter. And the poke had me at hello...if I weren't going to a movie, I would've bought some on the spot. I decided that I'd have to come back after the movie to get some. I could already tell by looking at it that it was going to be delicious. No stringy stuff like at Fresh Catch, nice color, ingredients I liked...I had to have some. But it would have to wait until after the movie.

I went to look at the cheeses. Probably not the biggest selection I've seen, but some unusual items that I hadn't seen in other stores. What I like about their cheeses is that the had reasonably sized wedges for purchase. A lot of stores have ginormous hunks of cheese that is just way too much for most people unless you're serving a big group. I thought for the quality, the price seemed on par with other stores. By the way, in terms of a giant selection, I don't think Kapahulu Safeway can be beat.

The wine selection at Whole Foods was quite nice, although I didn't browse that thoroughly. They did have more regional variety than most other grocery stores. I will have to spend more time there to make a better assessment. Again, prices seemed fair on the wine. I sped through the produce section before heading to the movie.

After the movie, I came back and went straight for the poke. I ordered a half-pound each of the ahi limu and ahi alaea at $13.99/lb. I know, most of you are saying that's expensive. Especially compared to the $7.99/lb. I paid at Fresh Catch. Again folks, this is about quality. One of the best poke I've ever eaten was at Ruger Market, which also charges $13.99/lb. But at Ruger, I can see the body of the fish lying behind the counter. And they don't mix the ingredients until you order it, so it's like custom poke. Whole Foods isn't exactly custom, but lemme tell you, it's fresh. The batches they produce aren't excessive, so it's unlikely that the poke on display has been sitting there all day. And who knows, maybe if you asked them, they would custom make some poke for you?

My next stop was the cheese. I'd been wanting to make a salad with romaine, apples, pine nuts, and blue cheese, so I picked up a wedge of Danish blue cheese. I decided to take a quick peak down some of the aisles. While they had some unusual brands, they also have some of the standard brands you'll see anywhere, like Lee Kum Kee brand sauces, Hinode rice, Coral tuna, etc.

Now I'm going to get on my soap box about prices. People say it's expensive. Of course it is...you're paying for stuff that's organic, free range, GMO-free, etc. You cannot go to Whole Foods and expect to pay Safeway prices. And Whole Foods will probably eventually be one of the biggest supporters of local agriculture (and I'm not only talking about fruits and vegetables, I'm talking about beef and poultry too -- I LOVE local beef!). My hope is that one day our agriculture industry will be able to grow so that we become sustainable and will not depend on beef and produce to be flown in from the mainland -- which, I might add, adds to our carbon footprint because of the fuel used to ship that stuff here. If our local agriculture
grows, hopefully the prices will come down at some point.

That being said, I'm not defending Whole Foods pricing altogether. When I do shop here, I will probably stick to the perimeter and stay away from the aisles. Why? All those name-brand things I mentioned earlier that you can find in "regular" grocery stores ARE expensive, maybe even up to twice the amount you'd pay at Times or Safeway. Of course, you're paying for convenience. Eventually I will familiarize myself with their products and will know what I can find at Times (where I usually do my grocery shopping) at a lower price. For now, my plan is to go to Whole Foods for the perimeter stuff only, an go to Times for non-perishable items.

Ooh, and one more thing about Whole Foods...there is a truffle counter! I didn't get a chance to look closely at it because it generated a huge crowd, but it looked interesting! They also offer quite a bit of seating both inside and outside the store if you want to eat there.

So, for those of you in town, go and check it out sometime. Even if you can't afford it, you will find something there that will amaze you! I can't wait until the Kailua location opens, which will be the largest one in the islands.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Fresh Catch

My computer situation is a little scattered right now, so I'll have to add the pictures later, but I wanted to post about Fresh Catch on Waialae while it's fresh in my mind.

Fresh Catch just opened maybe a month or so ago in the building that used to be Pizza Hut (you can totally tell that it used to be Pizza Hut, except that it's now blue instead of red). Click here to read Nadine Kam's review of Fresh Catch in the Star Bulletin. She gives it four stars, which is really generous for her, so I expected a lot.

One of my friends described it very succinctly as being like a Yama's (on Young Street), and I agree with her assessment. It's like a poke counter/take out restaurant/convenience store. When you walk in, there is a rack of pre-made bento, which wasn't all that appealing to me. I've seen better. There's also some shelves with other food items that I didn't look closely at, and some refrigerators stocked with drinks. There are also tables to sit down to eat your grub.

The main attraction here is the counter. There is a poke counter and a menu behind it if you want to order meals. It looks like they have some items every day, and each day of the week they have an additional "special" item. Be sure to ask if they have any other specials besides what's listed. The Sunday special is clam chowder, but he also rattled off a couple of other specials that weren't listed like a fried ahi belly and a baked salmon. I really want to try the ahi casserole (you can see a picture of it in the Nadine Kam article) because it looks a lot like the crab stuffed ahi I used to get from Masa's on King Street a long time ago. But that's a Thursday special. Today I had my heart set on poke.

The selections they offer are quite interesting and diverse. They had something that looked like a cross between tako poke and lomi salmon, and they also had some poke that were made out of smoked fish. I had my heart on something basic like ahi limu or ahi shoyu poke. I was a little disappointed in the quality of the fish, based on appearances. It wasn't as fresh-looking as I imagined it being, and not as high quality either. I could see the stringy stuff in the ahi limu poke, and it wasn't as red as really fresh fish is. Although, I'm not sure if they can get fresh fish on Sundays, so I will try again on other days to see if the quality differs. Based on appearances, the ahi shoyu looked the freshest, and also closest to being gone, indicating to me that a lot of people ordered it, so I asked for a half-pound (today it was $7.99/lb).

There was a woman in front of me when I arrived, who apparently knew one of the guys behind the counter. She had also ordered the ahi shoyu poke, but she ordered something called ahi dynamite. I looked at it, and it looked like something that would be on sushi -- chunks of ahi mixed with mayonnaise, what I presume is Sriracha sauce, and tobiko, and a few green onion slices. I thought it would be awesome over a bowl of hot rice, and I did need something for dinner tonight. So I got a half-pound of that too ($10.99/lb). They gave me exactly half-pound of the ahi dynamite, and .48 pound of the ahi shoyu poke -- this kind of impressed me because 90% of the time when I order stuff by the pound, they will always try to give me over the half-pound mark.

Service was friendly too. Not the fastest, but the two guys behind the counter were very nice and helpful. The guy who rang up my purchases knew the lady who was behind me, who I started up a conversation with, and we ended up talking to the guy behind the counter who packaged my food when he found out we were both first-timers to the shop.

I didn't really eat lunch since I had a late breakfast, so I snacked on the ahi shoyu poke when I got home. It was pretty good, but a little sweet for my taste, closer to teriyaki sauce than shoyu. For me it was above average, but I've had better at Yama's and Ruger Market (which is probably the best and freshest, but also the most expensive), and even Foodland.

But the ahi dynamite really is dynamite. I made a nice batch of fresh, hot rice (using my microwave rice cooker and my expensive rice that I thought was Japanese but is actually produced in California that I bought before the rice prices skyrocketed) and put a generous serving in a bowl. I sprinkled furikake over the rice, then topped it with not quite all of my ahi dynamite, then I sprinkled some additional green onions on it. It is an awesome meal! By itself, the ahi dynamite is pretty spicy. It's still spicy with the rice, but the rice tames it a bit. But be sure to have a glass of water on hand when you're eating it.

While I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be with Fresh Catch, I haven't tried enough stuff to form a solid opinion of it. And I was impressed enough to want to go back and try other things. My only slight disappointment was the quality of the fish used in the poke. Hopefully I will be able to go back on Thursday for the ahi casserole, and maybe the fish in the poke will be a little fresher.

Their posted hours are 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., except for Sundays when they close at 5:00 p.m., and they are closed all day Wednesday. (I heard that they will instead be closed on Mondays instead of Wednesdays.)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This afternoon I went to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Based on previous reactions, I'm guessing most of you have never heard of it. It's a Woody Allen film that I had seen in some movie trailers, and I think I may have also read about it in a magazine. It seemed interesting, so I selected it as my movie of the week, and it didn't disappoint.

In simplistic terms, this movie is probably best described as a romantic comedy. My take on it is that it's a movie about love, and how everyone has a different interpretation of what "love" is and what they're willing to do to find true love.

The story begins with Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), two friends on their way to Barcelona for the summer. The movie is narrated, which some people may find annoying, but I thought it added to the movie's charm. The narration begins by explaining that Vicky and Cristina have very different views on love, Vicky being very practical and Cristina being more spontaneous and unsure of how she really feels. Vicky is engaged to someone who will provide her security, but is otherwise seemingly boring. They are staying with a relative of Vicky's, Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband Mark (Kevin Dunn), who have what seems to be a perfect life in a beautiful home.

The adventure starts when Vicky and Cristina go to an art exhibit and Cristina is immediately enamoured with a man in a red shirt, who Judy explains is a painter who had a tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife. After the event at the art gallery, Vicky and Cristina are having dinner when they spot the painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), and he approaches them. Basically, he propositions them. He says he is going to another city for the weekend and invites Vicky and Cristina to go with them. Vicky immediately rebuffs his advances and his invitation, while Cristina is intrigued. They end up accompanying Juan Antonio.

It is from this point on that the story takes some twists and turns. Suffice it to say that both Vicky and Cristina have different types of encounters with Juan Antonio. For a while, Cristina and Juan Antonio seem to have a pretty good thing going. Until Juan Antonio's ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), shows up, then all hell breaks loose. Really, it's not an exaggeration. In my opinion, Penelope Cruz stole the show. She was feisty and hilarious, and her exchanges with Juan Antonio were priceless. Those scenes alone were worth going to see the movie.

I'm not sure the movie ended the way I wanted it to, although I really can't imagine any other ending. I think it ended the way it probably should have.

One thing I appreciated about this movie was that it made good use of all of the characters, and I felt satisfied that their stories were told to their fullest. I've seen some movies recently where I felt like some of the characters were underdeveloped, so it was nice to feel "complete" walking out of the theater.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a great way to spend a couple of hours if you want to laugh and have a good time. While this is probably on the "chick flick" side of the movie spectrum, I hope men aren't turned off. The humor should appeal to just about everyone, and the men will probably also enjoy the women in this movie. And again, Penelope Cruz is terrific in her role as the somewhat psychotic ex.

Coming up next weekend (if all goes as planned): Burn After Reading.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Facebook and Finding Long Lost Friends

I think this blog template is a little too pink...I might have to change that after I post this.

Anyway, I was reminded today that I never followed up on my class reunion. It was held at the Koolau Golf Club about a month ago. I went with my gal pals, the ones I met in intermediate school and still hang out with til this day. I should note that one of these gal pals, who I'll call Elastagirl, is actually a year younger than me, but she hung out with us more than she did people in her class, so we invited her as our guest. We met The Stuff Guy (TSG) there and grabbed a table. The atmosphere was casual, which was nice. It was in a place called "Honeys," a place I presume is normally some kind of a restaurant. $25 got us heavy pupus, which was actually a pretty decent meal -- except there was no rice, which was odd considering that mac salad was one of the dishes. No host bar.

The drinks here were kind of pricey, which was probably a good thing since it helped to control how much I drank. I decided to limit myself to two drinks, in part because at some point I would have to drive from my friends house in Kailua to my house in town, and in part because I got plastered at my 10th reunion and had to have a friend drive me home.

Although I always enjoy seeing old friends and finding out what's going on in everyone's lives, this reunion wasn't as much fun as the 10th. I think part of it was that I wasn't involved in any of the planning, which is one of my "things." I'm pretty sure anyone who has known me fairly well at any point in my life, including now, will tell you that I was always involved in organizing or planning something. Nonetheless, it was still a somewhat eventful evening.

People seemed to hang out with their old high school cliques. I didn't socialize nearly as much as I did at the 10th, although I did speak to a couple of people that weren't part of my high school social circle. I was able to socialize with those I was most interested in catching up with, like our class president. At our 10th reunion, she had 3 children and said she and her husband wanted a total of 6...and they obtained their goal!

Ooh, and there were also door prizes, so that was cool. I won a $10 Starbucks gift card and a bag.

There were a few surprises in store for me. The first one was seeing a guy I had a love-hate relationship with in high school. I think the last time I saw him was probably about 18 years ago. He was literally the only person I knew in high school that I did not recognize at the reunion. I only knew it was him by looking at his name tag. So it was nice catching up with him in a civilized manner. The other surprise is one of the long-lost friends I got back in touch with earlier this year. He was supposed to return to the mainland before the reunion, but managed to stick around to attend.

It ended up being a fairly early night since we got kicked out of the place sometime around 10:30. Some people were going to head off to a bar in Kailua to continue the party, but my group chose to go home.

So what do I do when I go home? What I do practically every night...I log on to GMail and do other stuff on the computer. And who do I find also on GMail? TSG. Remember when people used to call each other on the phone? Although I had a number of people in the intermediate, high school, and early college days calling me, usually because they needed someone to talk to and I kind of became the Charlie Brown psychiatrist, I was never really much of a phone-talker. I always liked writing better, so GMail chat is great for me. Plus you can walk away if you need to and come back to the conversation when you're ready. Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked...my point is that TSG and I were chatting, and then I got Elastagirl to sign up for GMail since she and I were e-mailing each other back and forth at the same time. That way we could group chat.

Then Elastagirl sends me a link to the Facebook page she just signed up for. I look at it and immediately dismiss it as a Myspace-kinda-thing that I have no interest in doing. I'm telling TSG about it and commented that I can't even keep up with my own blog, why would I want to do Facebook? But I sign up mainly to look at Elastagirl's page. Then Facebook ends up "finding" people I know! Cool! So I add them as friends too. Now, one month later, I'm up to 45 friends and I spend time on it every day while I'm doing other stuff on the computer.

I've been questioned about "what's so great about Facebook." I have nothing else to compare it to, so I can't tell you whether it's "better" than MySpace, but I can tell you that Facebook can be used for many purposes and those on Facebook have a great deal of control over what they want to share on their pages and who they want to share it with. I've seen people use it primarily as a source of advertising for their business or cause, and some people who just use it for plain ol' fun, which is me.

It's also been a great tool to reconnect with people who seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. For example, I found a couple of high school classmates that I don't think I've seen or heard much of since high school, but I was curious about, especially after the reunion. I was actually amazed that they remembered me...or perhaps they're just not very discerning about who they add as "friends" on Facebook. =) I've also been able to reconnect with people who have moved and I haven't heard from in over 10 years.

Ironically, I don't necessarily chat or otherwise communicate with some of these people, but it's fun to look at their Facebook pages and see how their personalities are reflected through the content of the page. Some pages don't really have much on them, but others have all kinds of stuff like what their favorite tv shows, movies, and music are. I also really enjoy looking at the pictures people have on their pages. I try to find what I enjoy looking at on other people's pages and add those features to my own page.

Facebook has also helped me to develop relationships with people I know through work. There are people in my building who I have as Facebook friends that I have probably chatted with more on Facebook than I have in person! I also get to see a more personal side of these people than I would at work. It's nice to find something in common with people I work with, other than work.

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I ended up liking Facebook so much. Like I said, I was never much of a "talker" (believe it or not...I know some of my friends are laughing at that comment and saying, "yeah, right!"), and as soon as I learned about chat rooms, like Interact way back in the early 90s, as well as other discussion boards, I was in them. Facebook allows you to keep in touch with others as time allows and in the manner you're comfortable with.

So, if you're interested in keeping in touch with your current friends, or maybe finding some long lost friends, check out Facebook. But beware...you could become an addict like I have.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Longhi's

Last Wednesday I had lunch at Longhi's with several of my coworkers. I had been there twice before, once for my birthday a REALLY long time ago shortly after it first opened, and about three years ago for a holiday dinner with a couple of friends. This was my first time having lunch there.If you've never been to Longhi's before, the first thing you should be warned about is that they don't have rice. At all. For me, it's not that big a deal. I'm not the type that needs to have rice with every meal. But if you are that type, you may have some issues with Longhi's. But get over it, because it's worth going there even if they don't have rice.

First of all, the atmosphere is somewhat casual. You don't need to be super-dressed up to eat here. At lunch, a number of people were wearing shorts. Some, like us, appeared to be taking a break from work. I like this because the food is upscale, but the atmosphere and service are down to earth. Also, you can't beat the view. It was a gorgeous day...

On to the food...two of us shared a half-portion Longhi Longhi salad, which is essentially a Caesar salad. The croutons on this salad were amazing! They appeared to have herbs in them and were freshly prepared. They
also served us some very yummy bread, kind of like bread sticks -- one had a marinara-like sauce on it, the other jalapenos, and both were covered with cheese.

Making a decision on an entree was difficult because of the many tempting choices. Our waiter immediately tried to sell us on the fish, a house special. Although his description of the fish was tempting, the veal scallopini caught my eye since I rarely get to eat veal. There are four different preparations available: picatta, marsala, parmesan, and Mediterranean. I immediately had my heart set on the picatta. My other friend also had her eye on the picatta, but she was curious about the Mediterranean preparation. Our other two dining mates both wanted the fish. When our waiter described the fish, he said it was served over a piece of garlic toast. However, it was unclear whether the veal was served with pasta or some other kind of starch. We asked, and he explained that "they" (the powers that be -- he actually seemed quite apologetic and not really understanding of the logic behind this) believe the veal should be served alone, but that he could have some pasta served on the side. He said we could get any type of pasta that they had available, and that one side order should suffice for two people. My fellow veal-eater and I ordered a side of cappelini (angel hair) to share.

We all enjoyed our meals immensely. We each tasted each others dishes and everything was equally delicious. The fish was cooked to perfection, and the garlic toast, seemingly a strange partner for the fish, was quite good -- although it was clearly a heart attack-inducing piece of goodness. Both of the veal dishes were excellent. I loved the picatta, and I piled a mound of the pasta on my dish to absorb the sauce. My friend did the same with her Mediterranean veal. The Mediterranean had a bit of a kick to it, but it was quite tasty and not overpowering.

I feel that the portions served here are "right-sized." I really believe that too
many restaurants serve portions that are way too huge, unless you plan to share one dish between two people. That creates a lot of waste, not to mention obesity, but that's a topic for another soap box. Anyway, for me the portion is just right.

Although the port
ion was "just right" and I was pretty full after the entree, dessert was irresistible. I think any restaurant who wants to sell desserts needs to use a dessert tray, rather than a menu. I can tell you that I am far more likely to order a dessert that's sitting in front of my face, than one that is only described through words on a menu. Longhi's goes one step further by letting you take the dessert that's on the tray, so there's no waiting. We ended up sharing three desserts: a carrot cake, a berry glace, and a banana creme pie. All were extremely yummy! The carrot cake was the largest carrot cake I've ever seen in my life. I selected the berry glace because I remember ordering it on my last visit and I enjoyed it a lot. The banana creme pie was full of banana flavor and was probably the favorite of the table. We must've eaten it very quickly because I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it. We ended up taking most of the carrot cake back to the office to eat the next day. It was terrific, but we decided that was the one that would hold best for one more day.









All in all, an excellent meal. The service was pretty good, although we seemed to have lost the attention of our waiter toward the end of the meal. But when he was there, he was great. Our waiter was very good about bringing us things we asked for and providing descriptions of items we asked about. The next time you're in the mood to splurge on a nice leisurely lunch, consider Longhi's at Ala Moana.



Sunday, August 24, 2008

Bottle Shock

On Thursday I had my mind set on seeing Tropic Thunder this weekend, but then a coworker who knows me all too well said, "I'm surprised you're not going to see Bottle Shock." I had never heard of Bottle Shock before the Hamster mentioned it to me, so she told me that it was about wine. She knows I liked the movie Sideways, so she thought I would like Bottle Shock too. On Friday, I found a review of it in the Advertiser's TGIF section, and my interest was further piqued by seeing that Alan Rickman is the star of the movie. Somehow I developed a little crush on him after seeing him as Snape in the Harry Potter movies, so I find myself interested in other movies he's been in.

Anyway, on to the movie...I was even more pleased to see some of the names listed in the opening credits. For example, Bradley Whitford -- unless you've watched West Wing, or the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, you probably don't know who he is, but suffice it to say that he's a good actor and I would love to see him in more substantial movie roles than he's had so far. I was also surprised to see Dennis Farina listed in the credits!

Apparently Bottle Shock is based on a true story of the up and coming wine of Napa Valley in the mid-1970s. Rickman portrays Steven Spurrier, a Brit who owns a shop in France that specializes in educating people about wine. However, this business doesn't seem very successful, as the only person who ever seems to be in the shop is Maurice (Farina), an American who seems to be trying to get as much free wine as he can get. However, it is Maurice that points out that Spurrier needs to change his marketing technique.

In the mean time, in Napa Valley, we see Bill Pullman's character, Jim Barrett, and his very unmotivated son Bo, struggling to run Chateau Montelena. Spurrier shows up in Napa looking to find some decent California wine. As we see with his exchange with Jim, Spurrier expects California wine to be mediocre at best. The dialogue between the two of them is hilarious and is probably the funniest part of the movie.

After Spurrier selects what he thinks is the best wine in California, he sets out to organize a tasting in France, where everyone thinks that if it isn't French, it isn't real wine. Spurrier wants to show people that there is more to the wine-tasting world than just French wine. Jim thinks the whole thing is rigged and that Spurrier just wants to make a fool out of him and everyone else in Napa, but Bo thinks that Spurrier should be given a chance, leading to some deeper issues where Bo gets to prove that he can be motivated.

The above is probably the strongest part of the story, and what happens during the Paris wine tasting is predictable, but still funny. What I felt was weak, and maybe even unnecessary, was the love story in the movie. There is an intern, Sam, who arrives, and while she kind of adds to the story, the love triangle between her, Bo, and Gustavo (played by Freddy Rodriguez, who has been on Ugly Betty -- he's the one I'm routing for in the Ugly Betty triangle, but I don't think things are going to go my way with that one), is weak. While the storyline about Gustavo is interesting, I don't think they developed it as well as they could have.

Some other underdeveloped and underused characters are Mr. Garcia (played by Miguel Sandoval who is the District Attorney on Medium) and Professor Saunders (Whitford). I was sad that Whitford only appeared for a brief minute or two. I felt that if they were going to do that, they might as well have just got a no-name actor to play that role! What a waste of good talent. At least Sandoval got a little more time and humor made his character stand out more.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie, especially knowing that it is based on fact. Since I went to Napa Valley last year, I have a better appreciation of it. Also, this movie touches upon accepting payment for wine tastings, something that is quite common now, but was almost unheard of in the mid-70s. That part is kind of funny too. While I wished some of the characters were better developed, and I felt like maybe they overedited the movie or something, I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to see something rather light-hearted and who has an appreciation for wine.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

P.F. Changs

A friend gave me a gift card to P.F. Changs a while back and Hedgehog and I never used it (although we greatly appreciate them, we are really horrible about using things like gift cards and always end up using them a really long time after they've been given to us!). I decided to ask a couple of friends, The Stuff Guy (TSG) and Vegas Girl, to join me in using the gift card in Hedgehog's absence. I decided on a week night since I thought the crowds might be kinda crazy on a weekend, so I made a reservation for Thursday at 7:15.

Parking is located behind the restaurant in the Hokua condo. There is a convenient entrance to the restaurant from the parking lot, though you still need to walk to the podium at the front of the restaurant to be seated.


We were seated immediately upon checking in and were given a table. There are a handful of booths, but most of the seating is table seating, and there is also an outdoor seating area. Diners can see into the kitchen, although there is glass separating the dining are from the kitchen, which probably keeps out excess noise. Upon being seated, a server showed up and immediately brought us 3 glasses of water while we decided on what we really wanted to drink. TSG ordered a beer that sounded very exotic and was supposed to have a hint of orange in it. I ordered a glass of Ste. Michelle Riesling, something fairly standard, but very good and always reliable.

Note that this is not my first experience at P.F. Changs, but the last time I ate there was in Vegas several years ago. I remember the decor and some of the food, including some kind of duck with buns and noodles that we had fun adding sauces to. The most memorable part was the Great Wall of Chocolate that we ordered to go. It literally was a wall of chocolate cake, and the to go box for this was a rotisserie chicken container! Back to the experience here in Honolulu...

The menu is pretty extensive, so it took a little while to navigate and narrow our choices down. We started out with five dishes in mind, but decided it was too much and narrowed it down to four, which was still a lot. These were our selections and what we thought of them:

Vegas Girl's only "must" was the lettuce wraps. The filling is made of chicken and the iceburg lettuce was very cool, crisp, and refreshing. The chicken was served on a bed of nice and crispy bean threads (I know, doesn't sound appetizing, but they're really yummy!). P.F. Chang's provides a plate of sauces and condiments which we experimented with when eating the wraps.

After the lettuce wrap, our remaining dishes came out all together, and rather quickly. We were actually quite amazed at how quickly the dishes arrived! However, the eating part took us a while since the portions were huge.

I was intrigued with the description of Tam's Noodles: "a unique gnocchi-like noodle stir-fried with sliced beef, shrimp, and chili peppers in a subtle abalone sauce." The gnocchi-like noodle sounded interesting to me. However, some of our group cannot eat shrimp, so we asked for it to be left out, which was absolutely not a problem. In fact, our waitress offered to substitute pork or chicken for the shrimp, so we chose the chicken. This was a terrific dish with a bit of heat. The "noodle" was nice and chewy. I would definitely order this again.

When we were looking over the menu, we decided we needed something with vegetables, and I suggested a salad. We pondered the Chicken Chopped Salad, but it sounded very ordinary and we ended up selecting the Warm Duck Spinach Salad. It turned out to be a good choice. Once again, the crispy bean threads served as a bed for the salad. The spinach was appropriately wilted, and the duck was really yummy (for a moment I thought I was eating kalua pig, but wrong animal!) There were some mandarin oranges, and my favorite part was the toasted almonds.

The fourth dish was mu shu pork, which I think was tied for a favorite of mine with Tam's Noodles. It's not something I w
ould normally order in a Chinese restaurant, although I would describe P.F. Changs as Chinese fusion. Don't go here expecting something you would get at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Back to the mu shu pork -- the "pancakes" were kind of tortilla-like, and were wrapped for us table side by our server. She made about four of them, and left a dish with the remaining mixture (which was a lot!) and a little bowl of hoisin sauce.

I wasn't going to order dessert, but Vegas Girl mentioned that as we walked in, she noticed a tray with shot glasses on them that were filled with desserts. She asked our server about them, and they're kind of like little sampler desserts, and they're only $2.50 each. Vegas Girl ordered a S'mores and I ordered tiramisu. The size of these were perfect. I would include a picture, but unfortunately the desserts are out of focus, and nothing drives me crazier in a food review than blurry pictures!

With all this food, it's not surprising that we had leftovers. A LOT of leftovers! While the food came out really fast, it took us a long time to eat until we were full. We left the restaurant about 2 hours later. Our bill for all of the food and drink came out to about $70, not including tip. We probably could have done well on three dishes, but it was more fun and allowed for more variety by selecting four.

This probably isn't a place I would frequent, partly because of the prices, and partly because it is a chain. If I were going to select somewhere to have dinner, I would probably choose something more unique. But if you've never tried it and have wanted to, give it a try. Chances are you won't be disappointed. I thought the service was very good too, which always adds to the experience.






Friday, August 22, 2008

Charlie Barlett

"So when you're near me, darlin' can't you hear me, SOS..."

Oh, *ahem*...excuse me...I'm still on my Mamma Mia! kick, which has been renewed upon the arrival of the Soundtrack that I ordered from Amazon this week. I'm playing it for the second time straight and have been singing along for the past two hours.

Anyhoo, so once again, I have way more things to share than I have time to write. I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, so I'm going to stick to a movie review which doesn't involve pictures.

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I love Netflix. Even when they make boo-boos, they make things right. If you've been living under a rock, a couple weeks ago there was some kind of major glitch in the Netflix distribution system which resulted in a LOT of people not receiving their movies for days. I was one of those people. The first movie I received following this glitch which left me movie-less for about five days was Charlie Bartlett. I know what you're thinking..."I've never heard of it." I said the same thing. I read about it in a magazine, either Time or Entertainment Weekly. I read so much crap that I can't remember where I read things anymore. And sometimes I just make stuff up. But Charlie Bartlett is real, very real.

Whatever I read or made up made the movie sound like it was pretty good. Besides, Robert Downey, Jr. (RDJ) is in it, so how bad can it be? When I looked it up on Netflix, it was listed as a comedy, a plus in my book. So I took a chance. I didn't regret my decision.

I watched in on Wednesday night and kept it so I can watch it once more before I return it. That's how much I enjoyed it. RDJ is not the main character in the movie, that would be Anton Yelchin who plays Charlie Bartlett, a teenager. RDJ plays a school principal. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with Yelchin's performance in this movie. I can see great things coming from that young man and I think he's someone to keep an eye on.

So Charlie is a bit of a misfit. He's been expelled from a number of private schools and his main goal in life is to be popular. And he obviously comes from wealth. After getting expelled for the umpteeth time, he and his mother discuss their options and it seems that public school is it. So he goes in looking like the spoiled rich brat that he is and everyone hates him and the school bully immediately selects him as his favorite punching bag. But Charlie finds his niche.

Charlie gets prescribed ritalin and quickly figures out that it makes you high. So what do teenagers like to do? That's right, get high. Charlie ends up selling his ritalin to fellow students, but he also ends up being the school psychiatrist. He actually listens to the students, in addition to "prescribing" them drugs. This of course makes him popular.

However, his new career gets him into a bit of hot water with Principal Gardner, whose daughter also happens to be a student at the school. I don't need to tell you that means that she and Charlie have a thing for each other, further adding fuel to the fire for Principal Gardner. Charlie's popularity comes at a price.

While this movie was very funny, it was also quite touching because of the relationships Charlie ends up forming. He is the only person who listens to everyone, and he offers his advice and tries to help people solve their problems. Charlie also has some of his own personal psychological things to sort out, so there's a lot of irony in this movie as well.

I'll leave my review at that because I think the movie needs to be watched to truly be appreciated. While there are a few heavy moments, for the most part it is very funny and a well-made movie overall. If you're looking for something to put in your Netflix queue, give Charlie Barlett a chance.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Burgers on the Edge

I have a number of things I'd like to share with you that I've been doing over the past couple of weeks, but the first thing I want to talk about is Burgers on the Edge. If you're not familiar with it, it's a relatively new burger joint that opened in what's referred to as "Safeway Center" on Kapahulu Avenue. I read about this place, which is owned by the owners of Formaggio, and a friend of mine recommended it highly. He forewarned me that ordering can be complicated because of the various choices, and he suggested I get the truffled fries. He also forewarned me that it's a little pricey.

This is kind of a quasi-counter service place, similar to the way Kakaako Kitchen is run. You place your order and pay at the counter, they take your name and give you a number, and they'll bring the food out to you. I like this kind of set up. I neglected to take a picture of the outside, but I ordered my food to go, so here's a picture of the bag:

The style of the bag is actually pretty reflective of the decor and ambiance you can expect from BOTE. It's kind of chic and modern, especially when you see the digital menu on the lcd tv screens as you walk in. There are a lot of stainless
steel touches as well. There's limited seating in the building, but quite a number of tables can be found just outside, some lining Kapahulu Avenue, and some on a patio area between Kapahulu and the Safeway parking lot.

As a side note, I don't
care for the parking fronting Safeway. It's always super crowded there, and I just feel it wasn't designed very well. However, I LOVE the rooftop parking. Everyone is so busy trying to get a prime spot downstairs that it's rarely crowded on the roof. And besides, the stalls are much bigger, and there's a nice view from the glass elevator.

Back to BOTE...because my friend warned me about the complicated menu, I did some advance research and found the website (see the link above) and studied the menu. There are 4 steps:

(1) Choose a burger: the "standard" is a 1/2 lb. ground chuck patty, which starts at $8.49, and this is what I got.
(2) Choose one cheese: there are ten to choose from. I selected the gruyere.
(3) Choose a sauce: there are 12 to choose from. These are fancy sauces. If you just want ketchup and mustard, they have that readily available at a condiment station. I chose the roasted garlic aioli.
(4) Choose up to four toppings: there are 16+ toppings! These range from veggies to fruit to more meat. You can even add an egg! I selected only three: apple wood smoked bacon, romaine hearts, and roasted red peppers. The cashier asked if I was sure I didn't want a fourth t
opping, but I was sure -- my mind was made up before I arrived.

So, let's put it all together in one place -- I had an on the edge burger with gruyere cheese, roasted garlic aioli, topped with apple wood smoked bacon, romaine hearts, and roasted red peppers. this turned out to be a great combination! The bread is kind of focaccia-like. Different for a burger, but good. It can be a little hard to eat since it's softer and more crumbly than a traditional hamburger bun, but I still liked it.

The burger itself may not have been the best I have ever eaten, but it really worked together with all of the ingredients. The burger was juicy and had a smoky, charred flavor to it, and it was cooked medium, which I was happy to see. One newspaper food reviewer really enjoyed BOTE, but said that on several occasions, the burger was overdone. One thing about BOTE is that they don't ask you how you want it prepared, so if you want it a certain way, be sure to tell them.

With regard to the toppings, the quality and taste of everything was very good, but I have to say that the bacon was particularly yummy! Gruyere makes a nice cheese for a burger too.

I also ordered the truffled fries for $4.89. A little steep for fries, but it was a HUGE order (two people could easily share), and they were mighty tasty! My only slight disappointment was that I hoped they would be fresher when I got them, especially since I had to wait about 10-15 minutes for my order. But they were still good, and tasted like garlic fries. The poor couple in the elevator with me were jealous!

So I spent a total of $14.01 for these two items, which is kind of a lot for one person (and I didn't even order a drink). But I would say that it is worth an occasional splurge. If someone else were with me, we could have easily split the fries and still had leftovers. You can get "plain" fries for $2.89. they even have sweet potato fries! Even though it was pretty pricey, for me, this was a lot of food, and I ended up only eating half the burger (after all, this burger is half a pound!) and less than half the fries. I took the rest to work the next day for lunch, and shared some of the fries with my coworkers. Fries aren't too bad if you heat them up in a toaster oven.

The combinations are endless. if you don't want to make choices, they have some pre-set burgers, although one of the workers commented that she'd rather build her own. They also have an "Off The Edge" burger made of Wagyu beef for $12.40. You can also get a chicken breast sandwich, portabella mushroom sandwich, or turkey burger. I'm already thinking about future orders: an Italian burger w/ mozzarella, Italian marinara, grilled onions, portabella mushroom, and sundried tomatoes. Or BBQ-style: pepper Jack, Smoked Hickory BBQ sauce, apple wood smoked bacon, grilled onions, and dill pickle chips. You could literally have a completely different tasting burger every time you go there just by making different combinations of toppings.

Besides the food being good, the service was good too, although you should prepare to wait at least 10 minutes for your food. They market themselves as "gourmet burgers at a fast food pace," but if I waited 10 minutes for fast food, I'd be pretty ticked and probably would leave. I would compare this to Kakaako Kitchen, gourmet food in a counter service setting. Slower than fast food, but quicker than fine dining. There are people standing at the door ready to help you understand how the menu works. They even have little slips of paper where you can check off the items you want and hand it to them, although I grabbed a couple as menus to share with friends.

I couldn't afford to do this regularly, especially if it's just me eating, but I would definitely go there with a friend and share an order of fries, or treat myself every pay day. I hope you'll find some time to treat yourself to a Burger on the Edge someday soon.