Pictures of uh, my hometown?
Oakland is…?
I have no idea what Oakland is! /scratchscratch
Brunch behind some barbed wire?
A railroad crossing?
Please respect the walls, no painting here over.
Not sure what that says, but it looks cool.
I like the purple dude on the right.
The Mad Society. What’s that?
We went for a hike in the Sunol Regional Wilderness. I took lots of dog pictures.
Here’s a detour off the easy trail to Little Yosemite. Lots of great colorful rocks for Moogle to be bribed onto.
Moogle pondering life at Little Yosemite. Awesome scenery for an easy hike and short drive.
And he’s visiting the Shire…
The view from work. New York Office. Taken on October 24, 2012.
Due to some last minute miscommunications about going to the Madison Park Shake Shack, Shamiq and I got a last minute table at Eleven Madison Park this last Tuesday. And this is what we ate —
Black Truffle And Parmesan: Savory Black and White Cookie
After the cookie, we got a 4 by 4 grid of ingredients to choose from. I chose foie gras, lobster, mushroom and plum. Shamiq chose langoustine, parsnip, squab and fig.
Sea Urchin: Custard with Baby Squid, Manila Clam and Apple
Cranberry: Gelee with Smoked Curds and Agretti
Cucumber: Snow with Lapsang Souchong and Grape
Eel: Roasted with Foie Gras and Swiss Chard
Sturgeon: Sabayon with Chives
They brought this bell jar of smoke out to our table and told us we couldn’t touch it. A few minutes later, they bought out more pieces for this dish —
Sturgeon: Smoked with Everything Bagel Crumble, Pickles and Caviar
The pickles — onion, egg, iceberg & some sort of crumb that was a bit too salty for my tastes.
Foie Gras: Torchon with Maple, Walnuts, and Cremini Mushrooms
Cutting it open revealed…
a pocket of maple syrup! It was so rich I could hardly finish my half.
Langoustine: With Fennel, Sour Cherries, and Clam
Carrot: Tartare with Rye Bread and Condiments
Preparing the carrot at table side.
This was my carrot tartare once I’d added in the fixings. Some of the options were pea puree, sunflower seeds, ginger, cheese, chives, and sea salt. I don’t remember them all.
Lobster: Poached with Escarole and Almond
Parsnip: Roasted with Sesame, Parsley and Dijon
Mushroom: Sauteed with Pine Nut, Quail Egg, and Bulgar Wheat
Squab: Roasted, with Plum, Kale, and Bone Marrow
We got a picnic basket!
Greensward: Pretzel, Mustard and Beer
The contents of our picnic basket — beer, mustard, pretzel stick, Concorde grapes, cheese. Delicious.
Malt: Egg Cream with Vanilla and Seltzer
Plum: Marinated with Jasmine and Cashew
Fig: Glazed with Orange, Sage and Tapioca
Huckleberry: Goat Cheese Cheesecake and Lime
And there was a surprise under my plate!
Pretzel: Chocolate covered with Sea Salt
The meal was book-ended by another black and white cookie, but we took those home to go. They were delicious the next day, but I’ve got no pictures. Oops.
To me, Eleven Madison Park beats out Alinea in terms of the food. It’s not quite as novel, but everything was very solid and many of the flavor combinations were amazing and unexpected (lobster and almond?). Shamiq disagrees, but to each their own!
Total Bill: Menu ($390) + Cocktails (2 x$8) + Beverage (Bottled water, $16) + Tax ($37.45) = $459.45 for two
A wide angle shot of the same Joshua Tree as below. Funky colors in the sky courtesy of Lightroom.
Same Joshua Tree, but with a bit of zoom instead. And different sky colors
Less funky colors and gradiations here since it’s a different part of the horizon and away from city lights.
The same set of rocks, but this time I tried to include a bit of the Milky Way. It’s not quite as vivid as it was at the Big Island, but still quite obvious. (Or I’m really confused)
And lastly, here’s a crop where you can see that the stars are streaking, most of these photos are just too resized to be obvious. Almost all of these are approximately 90 second exposures.
We got Half Dome permits for July… So I’m on a mission to be less out of breath while hiking. The result is semi-regular Sunday morning hikes currently made more interesting by foraging for things I can eat, particularly miner’s lettuce which I happen to really like.
But most interesting is looking for wild mushrooms — but not for eating, that seems like a terrible idea. We found the mushroom above in the shadow of a redwood. It’s by far the most interesting looking mushroom I’ve ever seen in its natural habitat… And maybe one of the most poisonous? Who knows.
I went to Boston last weekend to visit my little brother. There’s a view from the plane, complete with dust-induced flares and artifacts. I swear that’s not Photoshop.
We did the things we usually do… Eat too much (as evidenced by the menu… and his blurry hand that’s scribbling out our oyster order), bicker, play games. But! We also saw the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds orchestra. Of which, I have no pictures.
But most importantly… I ‘ling dropped his apartment. See Mr. Zerguhling (as named by my ultra-creative brother) below. He took me probably about 4-5 hours end to end to sew and I’ll be posting a not-very-detailed tutorial sometime soon. I’m in the process of making another one and I’m trying to document it.
