Yeah, it was good. 

Yesterday was Andrea’s birthday and as is the custom around here, we lunched at Todai, a sushi buffet where the birthday celebrant eats for free. For the money, Todai is a great way to get your sushi grub on. It’s pretty darn tasty. In addition to tons of freshly prepared sushi, there are Japanese salads and sides, a full line of hot foods like meat dishes, soups, tempura, etc., a crepe station and a wide array of desserts. Personally, I avoid everything but the sushi. I make that my goal since I don’t eat the deep fried stuff anyway and can get sweets any time. I’m all about the sushi. We had a very good time, ate ourselves silly, caught up on work and personal gossip, and hung out with the birthday girl. Erin’s birthday is next - June 1. Keep your calendars and your pants open.

Happy Birthday Andrea! 

SUSHI! 

IT'S ONLY TUESDAY

It was a busy, productive, and fun weekend. Friday after work I was joined by Sally, Andrea and Sian for free wine tasting at Tarragona Food and Wine. This was the second installment of tasting wines from the Loire Valley. To accompany the sweet and spicy homemade veggie chili waiting for us at my house, Sian bought a bottle of wine with sweet pear overtones. For dessert, Sally bought some Blanxart dark chocolate. Blanxart is produced in Barcelona, in the Catalonia region of Spain. I was familiar with the chocolate before I visited Barcelona so I was really happy to find it was made there and readily available. To compliment the chocolate, Andrea bought the Vouvray featured in the tasting and some delicious goat cheese. The chili was a hit and we had a really great time. Sian, I have your socks. Uh, that sounds weird.

I was up early Saturday and Sunday morning and set to work running errands before the rest of Seattle rolled out of bed. Each day I made sure to get back home before the weekend warriors hit the stores. Once home, I fired up the weed-whacker and gave everything green within reach a crew cut, including the side of the house and the front slopes. I sowed new batches of seeds like parsnips, carrots, cilantro, nasturtiums, micro greens, sunflowers, spinach, and icicle radishes. Also started some seeds indoors for some herbs and for a couple types of tomatoes. This year we are going to buy the majority of out tomato plants to see how they compare to home grown plants. Picked up some lemon cucumber starts which are relaxing under the grow lights. While I was rolling around in the dirt this weekend I was very please to discover the abundance of vermiculture in our yard. Not sure that we will use straw as mulch again this Fall, but I can't deny that it broke down and brought on the worms! I repotted plants, purchased hummingbird feeders, weeded and weeded and weeded, discovered alien-sized strawberry runners going every which way, and tried hot pepper spray for the first time. The slugs are unphased but it should work for plenty of other pests. Will buy some cheap beer this week.

House projects kept me busy as well. Cleaned out closets, did lots of laundry, reorganized and purged my wardrobe and took stuff to the Lifelong Aids Alliance thrift store, did all the grocery shopping, and managed to prepare myself three squares a day - every day.

This afternoon I pick up J from the airport. It is very good to have her back. I missed her. Then tonight I have Boot Camp from 6:30 to 7:20. Busy, busy, busy. But today is the exception. Tomorrow life returns to normal and I can slow down a little. Phew.

PHO CRYIN' OUT LOUD!

Finally found some pho (pronounced fo by some and fuh by others) in Cleveland. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup that comes with any number of accompanying meats. A bowl of steaming pho is always accompanied by a plate of bean sprouts, fresh Thai basil, and thinly sliced jalapenos. Diane, Concetta and I vetured to Pho Hoa located at 3030 Superior Avenue. The owner personally visits your table to ensure all is well and to encourage you to eat. He must be part Italian. I had chicken pho and it was pretty tasty. Slightly different than what I am used to but I truly enjoyed it. I did miss the small cream puff that comes with the usual condiments at my local pho joint.

Concetta had the lunch special: asparagus soup, mixed green salad with mango, and a pork bahn mi. Pho Hoa boasts the best bahn mi in Cleveland and has the framed proof on the wall (I’m still looking for all the competition but a vote is a vote). Bahn mi is a Vietnamese sandwich on a French baguette stuffed with a wide variety of meats or tofu. Add to this julienned daikon, carrots, cucumber, jalapenos, a light schmear of spicy mayo and fresh sprigs of cilantro and you have a bahn mi. All for around $2 (in Seattle). The Pho Hoa bahn mi was tasty enough but I’m partial to the bahn mi in Seattle. For all I know this is simply a regional issue. Perhaps the owner of Pho Hoa is from a different part of Vietnam than the Vietnamese folks in the Little Saigon part of Seattle’s International District; just like New York style pizza is different than Chicago pizza is different than Cleveland pizza. Pizza didn’t originate in these places but each region has its signature style. The Cleveland bahn mi, more specifically the Pho Hoa bahn mi, came only in pork, is smaller, the baguette shaped more like a wide hot dog bun and is smooth on top. A little softer too. The meat was thinly sliced rather than the thicker, roasted or barbecued version of pork bahn mi in Seattle. A Seattle bahn mi baguette is shaped like a football, a little bigger, scored on top, and crunchier on the outside.

Diane had a cabbage salad with pork that was quite delicious. I’m looking for similar recipes online because I’d really love to make this dish at home. We all finished out the meal with bubble tea. Bubble Tea (also commonly known as 'boba tea', 'pearl tea', or some other words I can’t pronounce) first originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Now it has become an international drink as its popularity continues to grow worldwide. You have to like tapioca, big pearls of it. Bubble tea usually starts with some degree of tea, some element of creaminess (milk, non-dairy creamer), a powdered flavor, chopped up fruit or other tasty bits depending on the flavor you’ve chosen, and something sweet – sugar, syrup, etc. Some places blend up the drink like a smoothie by adding crushed ice, some don’t. Most places offer a few dozen flavors. The tapioca pearls fall to the bottom of the cup and you suck them up through the extra wide straw. You can also get bubble tea from #1 Pho on the next block over from Pho Hoa. So who’s with me next time? We can all head downtown for Vietnamese food!

Thanks to bloggers Jen for her suggestions regarding Vietnamese food and to Mrs. Aitch at Cleveland Love Letter for her help. Visit Mrs. Aitch's blog for informative and informal food reviews of Cleveland grub.

Pho and bahn mi at Pho Hoa. 

CLEVELAND MARCH 2005

FYI, I've added a link to some pictures from the latest trip home over the Easter holiday. Click on this Cleveland March 2005 link here or on the sidebar. Not at all pleased with the edit tools on Photobucket.com. That will teach me to upload uneditted pics. A lesson learned. I don't feel like deleting the whole album and starting over so I'll just apologize for any rotated photos or other mishaps. The stories will follow shortly in the blog and in the newsletter.

IT'S GOOD TO BE THE KING

Fresh, wild King salmon. There's nothing like it. J and I purchased a whole salmon yesterday at Wild Salmon Seafood Company at The Fisherman's Terminal and had it filleted. She took half the fish home with her this morning. Last night we prepared part of our stash.

Citrus Broiled Wild Salmon

4 8 oz. salmon fillets
¼ cup green onions thinly sliced
2 oranges
cracked black pepper
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
dash of salt

Slice oranges crosswise into ¼” rounds. Season salmon fillets with salt. Broil fillets 4-6” from heat, allowing approximately 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Remove fillets just before done and sprinkle with vinegar. Arrange orange slices on top and sprinkle with green onion. Broil one minute longer and serve. Serves 4.

We didn't have green onion so we tossed on some capers and we didn't have red wine vinegar so we used balsamic. So I suggest you do the same. It was amazingly delicious. Add to this some green zuccini that received a quick sautee with oil and garlic and parsely. And we had couscous to which I added a sautee of finely diced mushroom, carrot, onion, kalamata olives and red pepper flakes.

Cook dinner tonight!

Yummy! 

CATCHING UP

Life has been busy. I'm way behind in the garden thanks to the rain, I've been working on a DVD project that proved unsuccessful, I'm working on the April edition of the newsletter, I've got house projects in various stages of completion, and I still have to go to work for several hours each day and waste my precious time. However, this morning I took J to the airport for her visit home so I will have the next whole week to myself in order to reign in the projects and get back on track.

I'd like to welcome Sally to the wonderful world of the Internet. Sally has acquired some DSL and is now surfing the waves with the rest of us. Sally is digging the tunes coming out of KCUV in Denver, her hometown. Since my house will also have DSL in about ten days, I will be listening soon. But I've visited the site and I'm looking forward to listening.

The Regence BlueShield building is extremely quiet at 5:30 a.m. Can't even get into the cafeteria for milk to go with my cereal. After I dropped J at the airport I came straight to work so I've been here since 5. I'll be leaving early today anyway.

More later, I promise.

BUFFALO OR BUST!

Well we sadly bid farewell to Mary at her send-off bash held at our place on March 19th. In attendance were Sian, Sally, Andrea, Barb, Laura and Duane, Christine and Craig, Whitney, Katrina, neighbor G, Kathy and J. We had a really good time and did an enormous amount of laughing. There were even select passages read from old (love?) letters Mary wrote to me. Excerpts are available for a $2 handling fee. Mary moved back to Buffalo on March 24th and was received in her home town by a ticker-tape parade, floats, the Orchard Park Fire Department Calendar Boys and the Silver Eagle Records Jubilee Singers. Good times, good times. Mary can be reached at mimrunfola@yahoo.com.

Mary, the main coquette. What's with the lip? 

Christine, always the coquette. 

Sally displays a unique characteristic of a former paramour. Yikes! 

Well, in my professional opinion, it would take days to catalog all of the sociopathic behavior I'm witnessing this evening. 

It's my cake. It's my party. It's all about me! 

The Partridge Family Reunion album cover. 

The usual suspects. 

SO LONG, FAREWELL...

I know, I know, bodanzarama has been neglected lately. Things at work are a little busier. And life has not been terribly interesting. I still have to post pictures from Mary's going away party. It was a very good time. Perhaps I can try to work on that while I am in Cleveland if I can use someone's computer. I leave later this evening for the Northcoast and arrive around 8 am. I checked WEWS news and was concerned to read that rain and ice are moving into northeast Ohio within the next 24 hours. In fact, the weather looks pretty bleak for the duration of my visit.

Concetta and Iva are picking me up from the airport and we are heading to Wild Oats, the natural food market on Chagrin Blvd. We are then meeting Diane for lunch at Corky & Lenny's. I haven’t been there since I was in college. I’m looking forward to a big bowl of matzo ball soup and a pickle. Speaking of food, if you’ve been reading today’s posts, you know that I am on the hunt for pho and bubble tea in Cleveland. I believe that Pho Hoa is the place for me. They also offer bahn mi. Though the article I read did not call it bahn mi, a Vietnamese sandwhich on a French baguette (fillings vary greatly, this article mentioned pate and roast pork) is bahn mi. Perhaps I can coax Concetta into driving down to 3030 Superior Ave.? I won’t hold my breath. Perhaps some of my more adventurous cohorts will come along. We’ll see.

So I bid farewell for now. If I get my hands on a computer while I’m in Cleveland I will certainly post an update.