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| i know i haven't blogged in a while, so i'll pick-up where i left-off: pizza. as you may remember, i have a thing for chicago deep dish, but i actually like cheap pizza too... specifically totino's. there's just something about the crispy crust and the over-seasoned tomato sauce that just hits the spot.
anyway, michelle and i are not buying totino's anymore. we got some last month that were smaller and didn't taste quite right. being in port lavaca, we suspected that it was some kind of small-market mix-up. but the next batch we had in dallas was no better. i stayed loyal through the phase-out of real cheese and the recall due to e. coli contamination, but this is the last straw.
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| gas prices went upyeah, they go up over here too. gas is now NT$29.1/liter, which is about US$3.34/gal. but that is for 92 octane, which is the lowest grade of gas available here, but roughly equivalent to premium gas in the states. the highest octane grade here is 98, which costs NT$31.3/liter, or about US$3.60/gal. nothing in the states comes close to this.
what does this all mean? my weekly gas expense now about NT$80 (US$2.40/week). ouch. :)
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| i have been diagnosed with....nintendo-itis... which is strange because i don't have a tv right now, let alone a nintendo. it's probably from my years of laptop use during my days as a consultant.
anyway, it's causing me some pain, but anything nintendo-related is all good, right? hope so anyway.
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| new blogmichelle and i have moved to taiwan on missions. we will be here for at least a year, but will be spending the first three weeks on a short-term mission trip with EFC Irvine. we have a new blog to document our experiences. if you would like to support us with prayer, please check our blog frequently. we hope that by reading our blog, you can find opportunities for prayer. thanks guys!
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| when was the last time you were "wowed" by a meal? i'm not talking
about a meal that you simply enjoy. but a meal that is so much
better than anything you had to this point that you can't help but gush
over every bite. it's the difference between "that was good" and
"i can't believe how good that meal was! i can't believe how good
that meal was! i can't believe how good that meal was!" it
had be a long time for me. while i enjoy a lot of my meals, very
few have wowed me... until this dinner i had at volare in chicago.
a couple friends and i were at the drake on michigan ave, and we had no
idea where to eat, so we asked the concierge for some
recommendations. i told her that we'd like to try italian, since
chicago seems to know its italian food. it so happened that she
was italian herself, and she recommended two restraurants. one
was closer to the hotel, but the other, volare, was what she considered
true homestyle italian food. we decided to try volare.
i don't know italian, so i still don't know the name of the dish i
ordered. all i know is that it was a house specialty that they do
not list on the regular menu. the dish is very simple: a veal leg
shank served on a bed of angel hair in marinara sauce. sounds
simple, but i've learned that the very best dishes are usually very
simple. the key is high quality ingredients and expert
preparation.
the angel hair was flat out the best pasta i have ever eaten by
far. the sauce was the perfect temperature and full of very
complex flavors. for me to say this means a lot because i really
don't like thin pasta. but because it was so well prepared and
because the sauce was so tasty, i ate every bite. and i talked
about it during the entire meal.
but the true star of the show was the veal shank. yes, the meat
was falling off the bone, but the interesting thing about this
particular veal shank is that they cut across the bone to expose the
marrow. the dish is actually served with a small spoon poking out
of the bone's cross-section specifically for digging out the
marrow. It was good, but i didn't eat much. i was worried
about disease, but since this was such a quality establishment, i
probably didn't have anything to worry about (knock on wood). how
did it taste? the closest thing i can think of is beef tendon,
except it is creamier.
mmm, i smile just thinking about it.
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