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Saturday, 21 June 2008
Das Boot?
Topic: Eats n Drinks
My friend Russ arranged a birthday dinner for his other half Christopher and their friend Jamie for today. A third birthday boy was invited, but cancelled at the last minute. As it happened, the party was about 18 people, a few of whom I knew, a number of whom I didn't, and some I'd just met in passing at Russ & Christopher's annual holiday parties. The venue was Schnitzelhaus (http://www.schnitzel-haus.net), a SoMa (South of Market) restaurant serving German and Austrian food.
I ordered the Knackwürste mit Linsen und Spätzle (German-style knack sausages with lentils and German pasta), along with the potato soup.  Russ's invitation email warned that "the awesome potato soup will have you farting garlic for two days". The soup was indeed awesome, but, as to the latter claim, I'll have to get back to you...  The food was good, and I enjoyed it, managing to almost clean my plate.
Unsurprisingly, the party went crazy with the beer.  After the initial round we ordered, they started ordering pairs of 2-litre "boots"... big beer glasses shaped like a boot. There ensued a rather silly set of drinking games around the boots. The idea is you'd take a drink from the boot and pass it to the person next to you. But if second boot caught up to you while you were still holding the first, you were obligated to drink the entire contents of the boot in your hands. Needless to say, as people got busy chatting they're sort of hold onto one boot, and then react with horror when they realized the other was nearly upon them. Deer in headlights time. You've never seen men drink and pass the buck so fast as when threatened with having to guzzle down a beer that big.
Every time someone would look close to finishing one of the boots, people would start chanting "Das boot! Das Boot!", which, of course, means "the boat". I suspect they should have been shouting "Die Aufladung!" ("the boot"), but that's too much for a bunch of drunk Americans. The fellow to my left ended up polishing off the bottom of two boots, and I ended up finishing off the end of boot #11.
The entire affair was documented by continuously passing Russ's camera up and down the table. I dread seeing some of the photographs...
All in all it was a loud, fun evening. After warning us that breaking a boot would set the breakie back 60 bucks, our waitress joined in drinking from a couple of the boots, and even climbed up on our table at one point. Our party got very silly very quickly, and every time a party would walk into the restaurant we'd cheer and applaud their arrival. That got some fun reactions. The whole table would break out singing to a few of the songs heard on the sound system, and one of these had out waitress prompting us to do Y M C A type arm movements to the lyrics. Surprisingly, given all that flailing, only one glass was a casualty of the evening, and no boots were broken. Oh, and as to the boots: our party went through 14. That's 28 liters of beer... or an average of a half dozen bathroom runs per attendee.
Danke schön? Gute Nacht!

Posted by molyneaux at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 1:47 AM PDT
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Saturday, 28 April 2007
Shaken Not Stirred
Mood:  cool
Topic: Eats n Drinks

Part 1: Dim Sum

Dim Sum's my first meal of the day today, as I join my friend Steve and his two rambunctious sons for lunch. We stroll down Balboa to a local place I've never been before. The food is pretty good, but there's a lot of the dishes that just aren't my bag. Some really yummy buns, though!

We're joined by Steve's brother. I really like Steve, but he's straight married man, so I figured, can it hurt to meet his gay brother? His brother's a nice guy, but we don't get a chance to talk too much. They're off for a hike, but the time they expect to get back is after my presumed dinner engagement with Terry and Carol, so we have to part company early, alas.

Best moment of this part of the day: As we walked from the restaurant I grabbed the shoulders of Steve's oldest son and pushed him around like he was staggering. For the rest of the walk he was excitedly telling me to "Make me drunk again!"

This is how kids end up with Child Services, isn't it?

Part 2: From Agave to Elderflower

Evening rolls around and I pick up Terry and Carol and we head across the Golden Gate to get dinner at Guaymas in Tiberon. The food is very good, but we arrive later than we'd hoped to and the wait to get drinks, seated, and fodd is longer than any of us would like. The only real downside is that they screwed up my first margarita order and then I find it and the subsequent margie kinda bland.  Tommy's, how you're ruined me!

Back at Terry's, the forst order of business is to mooch a glass of the soon-to-be-released St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur from Carol. Not sugary like so many liqueurs, sniffing this you get flowers and fruit. It's got a flavor that hints at lychee. The first time I sipped it a few weeks ago I was surprised how it hot the front of my tongue and spread across the sides. Great stuff, and I need to get a bottle as soon as I can find one.

Armed with  this delight to the palette, I plop down as Terry pops the new Casino Royale film into the DVD player, and, thoughg I'm really tired, I somehow make it through the film without dozing.

I'll admit it: I'm no Bond fan. I don't think I've ever really gone out of my way to see a Bond picture, and I don't think I've sat all the way through any of them since the Roger Moore days. But I liked this film. It's tongue ocassionally touches cheek, put its not planted there. Bond's a serious customer and a misanthrope. I liked that a lot of the film was about the game in the casino, rather than excessive action sequences, albeit there were plenty of the latter for my taste.

If this is the shape of things to come, I'm more likely to see the next one. That's not to say I'll got out of my way to do so.

But what would you expect? I'm a tequila snob, not a martini man.

Maybe if 007 started sipping some Reserva...

 


Posted by molyneaux at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 1:37 AM PDT
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Sunday, 15 April 2007
Tequilapalooza 17, Tommy's 42, Becky 0
Topic: Eats n Drinks

Let's just say someone who shall remain nameless—but whose real name is Becky—got a little overly lit.

Not-Becky and Maurice


 

 


Posted by molyneaux at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 19 May 2009 11:00 PM PDT
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Saturday, 24 March 2007
Must-See-TV...ME!
Topic: Eats n Drinks

Recently I was on TV...for a few moments anyway. Local PBS station KQED's program "Check Please" featured a piece on the restaurant Amber India in Mountain View., and Terry and Carol and I happened to be there for Carol's birthday when they were shooting there last fall.

The show finally aired on the 22nd of March.

If you have iTunes or a Mac... http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/tv/checkplease/cp209iPod_Hi.mp4

If you have Real player: http://www.kqed.org/.stream/real/tv/productions/checkplease/cp209.rm.ram 

We appear three times at least, the first time about two fifths of the way in.

I have to disagree with the people they have reviewing the restaurant, which I've always enjoyed, and which is often picked as the best Indian Restaurant in the Bay Area.

 


Posted by molyneaux at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 19 May 2009 11:02 PM PDT
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