Eat Here, Not There

Interview with the author

Mr. Morrison.  Glad to see you. I had almost given up on you showing up.

I'm here.

I am a little surprised though. I mean, another blog? I would have thought you might have learned something from the previous ones.

I did.

What did you learn?

Narrow the scope of the blog, make it less about me and more about things I enjoy, drop the chip off my shoulder and have more fun.

A blog only about the things you enjoy?  Isn't that a little.....

indulgent?

I wasn't going to say...but yes, if you want to use indulgent, that's a good word.

Sure. It's indulgent.  But I hope it could be useful too. If I persist and lift up some of the people I discover doing good work and help them get the recognition they deserve, where's the harm?

Ok then.  So eat in the title means more than just eating, right?

Sure it does. Consuming but not just buying, reading, getting out to see a something in a theater, visiting an art gallery, broadening one's horizons a little bit. Not being a punk.

Last question. Does Eat Here, Not There have a philosophy or creed?

Nah, unless you can fashion one out of a collection of aphorisms, sort of like building a mansion out of matchsticks.

Like which ones?

So far I have life's too short, gather your rosebuds, youth is wasted on the young, carpe diem, in God we trust - all others pay cash and will the last one to leave the room, please turn out the lights.  That last one is not really an aphorism, more like common courtesy, but I included it because its my mansion and I get to pick the matchsticks I want.

Well, good luck. We might check in with you every once in a while to see how construction is going.

Please do, but remember, its BYOB.

 

Working on an Interview With This Guy

His name is Dan Pink, a former speech writer for Al Gore and now a leading business writer.  He is going to speak at an upcoming conference and the interview opportunity has come as part of that.

 

Using Google to tell story of Exodus

Oh, how great!

 

 

Rich's latest addition

Hey everybody,  I wanted to introduce Rich's latest addition to his menagerie of plants.  This fine speciman takes the place of a tempermental snow bush which, like the girl in the poem, was completely beautiful when in the mood but could be really ugly when fickle.

He bought it and had it put in the pot (since he had little experience with potting caciti [not a bad band name, that, "potting cacti"]) and it really seems to fit the space well.  

He got it at Merrifield Garden Center's latest store - which is really more of a gardening compound out in Manassas, Virginia.  It was really impressive with great big greenhouses filled with beautiful plants that were all wonderfully displayed, even on a day with sheeting down rain.   

Eating Lunch for a buck thanks to Living Social - Maybe

I think this is where I will be able to have lunch today, thanks to Living Social.  The popular marketing discount program has launched an "instant deal" offer, available over mobile phones, that gives purchasers some amount of credit for lunch at local restaurants for $1. I think I have purchased $20 worth of credit at Mad Hatter, right next door to my office building, for $1. 

But Living Social's computer servers have been dicey this morning and you are supposed to be able to show your waiter or bartender the certificate of purchase on your cell phone, so I guess I hope they clear things up by lunch time.

Would You Eat Fake Chicken?

 Not after this video, I don't believe.

 

Bulgogi Lunch

Had to buy lunch today and this little Korean Diner, the 1800 Cafe, nearby.   Actually, I  call it Korean but really its more Korean-Mexican with an American twist. You can have grilled cheese or a BLT or this sort of spicy, pork BBQ dish.

In the picture, the bulgogi is the meat to the immedate right of the rice. 

This was my first time with it and it was just OK.   I wondered how much I lost by having it through take away and not in a restaurant?  Anyway,  I like 1800 Cafe and this is  not a recommendation not to eat there.  I just wanted to report my experience with a totally new food.

Rich to see the Prez in person

OK, neither Rich nor I are necessarily Obama fans, but when the President delivers his address on long-term budget strategy at 1:00 PM today, he will do it from an auditorium in Rich's office building.  Rich is going to be able to go and the venue only holds, at most, about 300 so it will be a fairly up close.

As a life-long Washingtonian, these kinds of things have lost their wow factor for me.  But Rich has never see an American President in person and I am really happy at his opportunity.  

Busboys and Poets: Fiji Apple and Gorgonzola Sandwich

Rich and I have long had a love/hate relationship with one of our local watering holes, Busboys and Poets, located down in Shirlington (they also have restaurants in DC).

Things we love: location, location and location as well as price affordability for ok fare. 

Things we like, the shop that sells fair trade gift item and books, free wi-fi available.   Also, the fact that the place is named after a poet (Langston Hughes) and offers things like open mic poetry nights.

Things we are nuetral about: place's overall lefty bent can feel a little dated and simplistic at times.

Things we dislike.  Atmosphere can be noisy and crowded.  B&P does not use a pager system for handling those waiting for tables and does not accept reservations; so on crowded days like today, unless you regularly remind the front desk that you are there  you can miss out on a seating opportunity.  Back room is louder than others, and feels more crowded and claustrophobic on account of lack of windows.

Also, the menu does not change - ever - at least that we have seen and the restaurant rarely, if ever, offers specials to reflect changing seasons or other factors.  This makes eating there get to feel a bit like a culinary version of the movie 'Groundhog Day' and this drives home the reality that some of the dishes are just not worth repeating.

An example of one of the better ones for a Sunday afternoon is a cup of their well made cappuccino and a half of their peanut butter and banana sandwiches. This has become a  regular thing for Rich and I on Sundays and we do about every other week.  But of course we don't like falling into a rut so we decided to switch out the PB and Banana today for the Fiji Apple and Gorgonzola Sandwich - a mistake we won't make again.

The Fiji Apple and Gorgonzola sandwich appears to offer a nice clash of flavors between two slices of bread.  The sweet crispness of the thinly sliced apple could play off well against the salty bite of the Gorgonzola blue cheese and offer someone a good mix of salty and sweet. But in reality, putting the sandwich between pieces of raisin bread smeared with a fig compote and reducing the Gorganzola to a a mere hint of its needed glory wound up delivering a sandwich that was so sweet it could have effectively stood in for dessert.  The veneer of Gorgonzola on the bottom slice of bread was simply not enough to stand up to the explosions of sweetness from the apples, fig compote and raisin bread.  In order to reach its full potential, this sandwich needs more Gorgonzola and to lose either the fig compote or the raisin bread.  Both Rich and I thought the sandwich could have been pretty good on a nice sourdough or even a soft wheat bread.

So, like I said, a love/hate relationship with the place and I am putting it into the Eat Here and   Don't Eat Here categories. We recommend the restaurant vary its menu more often or start offering daily specials and put a pager system into place for the times when when a lot of people are waiting for tables.

Deep Conversations Can Happen Anywhere

Sometimes the deepest conversations happen in the damnedest places.

So I am sitting at a  round 12 or 14 seat table in a hotel conference room, at breakfast.  All around me, people circulate from their chairs at the round tables to linear tables that hold coffee urns, different hot trays with warm breakfast food and cold trays heaped with sliced fruit, berries and muffins.  The sounds of conversation, clicking cutlery and the occasional flipping newspaper fill the air.

The CEO of a $300 million credit union sits next to me.  I know him somewhat and have interviewed him on different topics several times.  We are friendly, but not friends and certainly haven't talked about anything "deep" in the past.  We haven't even intended to eat at the same table.  Coincidence alone has brought us together.

We started talking about the conference and speakers we have heard  and then just as we had just touched a bit on industry issues he suddenly blurted out: "You know, I always did like CAB, she was a real smart cookie. What happened was such a tragedy."

Thankfully I had just begun to raise my coffee cup to my mouth when he shared this opinion so I could flash him a signal of agreement with my eyes rather than have to respond verbally, at least for a few seconds.  It had been almost a year since I had said a word about CAB so I was a little taken aback.

Morning everybody

Sorry I haven't posted anythng in a few days. I was travelling on business this week.  Some business trips are the sort where you might have only 60% work or 75% work and the rest fun.  But others you might have 90% or 98% work and really not enough time for any fun at all. This was one of those trips.  But I am back and I promise to have more to post later.

BTW, the next cake that seems to have appeared on the horizon, probably for Easter, is a coconut layer cake.  I will keep you posted as that shapes up, or not.

Man, just stepped out on the balcony. Brrrrrrr.   This is April?  That settles it, chicken and dumplings in the pot tonight.