The week of Christmas was very busy in Pacifica, CA with lots of cooking, organizing, and family visits.
The fun kicked off on Christmas Eve with the traditional feast of the seven fishes. Never heard of this celebration? I hadn’t either until spending the holiday with the Campagnas. Apparently it’s not well known in Italy either, but is an American tradition popular among Italian Catholics.
Here’s what Eataly’s website has to say about it:
“Every year in the U.S., many people celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. Although it is unclear when the dinner became so popular, this celebration is considered one of the most Italian traditions. Typically, the family gathers around a feast of seven different seafood dishes or one or two different types of fish prepared in seven different ways.
The ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, including Christmas. The number seven is rooted back in ancient times and it can be connected to multiple Catholic symbols: in fact, the seven seems repeated more than 700 times in the Bible. Also, according to the Roman Catholic Church, seven are the sacraments, the days of the Creation, as well as the deadly sins. Hence seven courses!”
Adamo and family as well as Andy and Jude (Clorinda’s neighbours) joined us for the feast, with Adamo doing much of the cooking. The meal was a big success despite not having exactly the fish selection that the matriarch had expected (no cod). Leftover massive crab claws provided excellent ingredients for omelets the rest of our visit.
Christmas Day started with a visit to Amy and Adamo’s home to observe the chaos of the kids opening presents. Amy made a delicious brunch (as usual whipping it up casually amid the chaos) and Andy and Jude joined again.
We were able to exchange a few gifts with Alicia before the madness became unmanageable and we had to beat a retreat. I enjoyed this gift label and always get a chuckle out of her referring to herself as an “Angel”:
Back at Clorinda’s home, it was time to start the preparation for Christmas dinner. Diana had purchased both rack of lamb and honey ham for dinner and we set about preparing those together. The matriarch didn’t like what we did with the lamb but enjoyed how it tasted at the end, so we’ll let that go (kind of). It was a gorgeous day in Pacifica as evidenced by this picture of the view from the prep kitchen.
Marco, his family, and Alicia were our guests for dinner and everyone enjoyed the meal very much. Diana’s Aunt Sarah passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 104 and the family had arranged a memorial service for December 26th, when most of the family would be in town. The after dinner activity was helping Marco finalize the order of service pamphlets and getting Olivia and Alicia ready with their parts of the service (a reading and flute performance).
I had to work on the morning of the 26th and so didn’t attend the service. The videos I’ve seen of both Marco’s eulogy and the reading/performance by Olivia/Alicia were both beautiful. Boxing Day was another gorgeous day and I worked outside on the deck with this view before heading down to the beach coffee shop for lunch.
Travel home on Thursday was relatively smooth – our flight was 2 hours late, but American let us know before we headed to the airport. We arrived home around 10:30pm and enjoyed the quiet of our house.
We used a coupon at the Tommy Bahama restaurant in Legacy West on Friday night and had a very good meal. This is not a restaurant we would have thought of trying without our $50 off card and we were both very impressed with the food, service and ambiance. These ahi tuna tacos were an excellent appetizer. Then I had Thai curry scallops and shrimp and Diana had a rib-eye steak and shrimp – all very fresh and well cooked. We’ll be back for sure.
After dinner we exchanged the Christmas gifts for each other that we had transported to California and back unopened. That’s an indication of how little downtime McD had during the visit.
Saturday was a quiet day at home catching up on things before heading to New Orleans to ring in the New Year with good friends. We did get workouts in on both days in anticipation of all the good food ahead in New Orleans. I’m at the airport as I finish this up and just watched the Cowboys eke out a win over the New York Giants – a game that didn’t mean anything for playoff spots, but one that both teams played hard to win. A 10-6 record is much better than my prediction of 7-9 for the Cowboys this year and a playoff berth quite a surprise. There’s a good chance that they will play the #1 seeded New Orleans Saints if they win against Seattle next week.
I read two of my “suggested Christmas gift” books this week – the first was “Calypso” by David Sedaris. It’s been 20 years or more since I last read one of his books and it was such a welcome treat to revisit this witty, funny, sometimes disturbing, and often sarcastic author. His descriptions of the antics of his family are insightful, humourous, and heartbreaking – often all at the same time. Not a book for the easily offended or shocked, but one that I enjoyed very much.
The second book was “French Exit” by Patrick DeWitt. Apparently a “French Exit” is when guests sneak out of a party without saying goodbye – have you ever heard that term? I know I haven’t – is it supposed to imply the French are lacking in manners? Weird. The book is quite strange also – an upper East Side New York socialite and her son flee to Paris when their money and social status are lost. Their cat which may embody her deceased husband also makes the trip. The exploits in Paris with a gaggle of entertaining characters are intended to be a farce and certainly come off that way. It reads like a cross between a witty Noel Coward play and a quirky Wes Anderson movie. I’m not a big fan of either (can never understand why Denny thinks the Anderson movies are so hilarious), but did enjoy the book overall as a light and entertaining read – just what’s needed during the holidays.
I’ve been working my way through Quincy Jones recordings after watching the biography a few weeks ago. Here’s one of his early big band recording sessions that I enjoy – “Walkin'”, with a classic walking bass line at the core of the recording.
And here’s a beautiful song from the Band of Heathens that reminded me of their excellent concert a few weeks back:
Tuesday was Diana’s birthday (she finally caught up to me) and we celebrated with dinner at Pappa’s Bros steakhouse. The poor thing had a totally full day of work and was still dressed up and ready to go at the prescribed time.
I was sad to hear that Zumie, my dog in California, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 16 (or 112). He lived a very long life for a Westie and, as my Mum said, “was a lovely wee dog”.
Amy and Adamo prepared an excellent feast to celebrate the closing days of D’s birthday week. Some of Adamo’s hand caught lobster and yummy butternut squash risotto. Luciano and Massimo provided assistance in blowing out the candles (which seem to have got switched around at some point).
It was very nice to spend time with the kids and now it’s back to Pacifica to prepare for the Christmas onslaught.
I flew back to New York on Tuesday for the first time in a couple of months. I enjoy the city but don’t miss the hassle associated with flying into La Guardia and getting transportation into the city. The drive was particularly long this trip due to all the traffic coming in to see the Christmas tree and decorations at Rockefeller Center. The hotel is located between the iconic art-deco Chrysler building and Grand Central rail terminal.
All this Christmas excitement reminds me of a sign that I saw at Eddie V’s last week and forgot to share in the post. I’m hoping the Martini fairy might visit me once or twice this holiday season:
Tweedy also released a memoir in the last few weeks that has been garnering positive reviews. Maybe it’ll end up in my Christmas stocking.
Making a dinner reservation on Wednesday night in midtown Manhattan proved challenging. My boss’s nephew is executive chef at a fancy steakhouse but they were fully booked with holiday parties and couldn’t get us in. After many rejections, I found a Northern Italian place on 47th street, Allora, that could get us in. The reviews promised a classic New York Italian restaurant experience and that’s exactly what we got. Good food, waiters trying to rush us along with humor, finally giving up and buying us grappa on the house. I enjoyed a couple of delicious appetizers (the waiter wasn’t listening and got them wrong before bringing us what we really wanted in addition) and then an excellent mushroom risotto – one of the best I’ve tasted. I snapped this picture of the bridge outside the hotel with its holiday outfit on.
On the drive to the concert, Diana asked me what songs I was hoping to hear. My reply was, in this order, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Funeral for a Friend”, “Song for Guy”, “Rocket Man”, and “Daniel”. Five out of six isn’t bad – only “Song for Guy” didn’t make the show. Here are videos of my number one choice from the amazing “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” album.
You can tell that the stage set and the videography were very well done. I particularly enjoyed watching the exemplar percussionist, Ray Cooper, on the top tier of the stage with his five timpani drums, tubular bells, bongas and multiple other percussive accoutrements. He puts more energy into playing the tambourine than anyone that I’ve ever seen.
Bolsa for a delicious brunch – this is such a relaxed and great restaurant that we continue to enjoy year over year. From there we walked back to Wild Detectives (my favourite store of any kind in the Dallas Fort Worth area) and enjoyed a coffee with our crossword on their back patio. I showed D a few books for my Christmas list while we were there.
We enjoyed some ridiculously good tater tots before our friends arrived for dinner. Tater tots are Diana’s favourite comfort food and these were a huge hit with both of us.
The film “Bill Evans, Time Remembered” occupied a good chunk of my bus ride to Austin on Monday morning. I’ve listened to a bit of Bill Evans music but didn’t know much about him or his contributions to jazz music prior to the movie. Evans played a major role in the creation of “Kind of Blue” – the classic Miles Davis recording, and one of my top 5 recordings of all time. This was their first experiment with “modal” music, where long passages are played on a single scale. Critics credit Evans with bringing a new elegance and refinement to Davis’ music. It turns out he lived a very tortured life and finally succumbed to his addictions. I’ve been listening to the albums “Everybody Digs Bill Evans” and “Explorations” this week and enjoying both very much – they feature some impressive bass playing.
to before, and a couple of new folks that joined to work on a project with me for a few months. We had a working lunch at the original Chuy’s on Tuesday – really good and different Mexican food. There are a number of “original” restaurant locations on my commute route from the hotel to the office. Restaurants that have gone on to have many locations across Texas over the years.
A delicious Frontera Fundido Portobello taco with the crossword and it was time to start work. A consultant that I’m working with suggested a kebab for lunch and some quick research showed that the Kebabalicious food truck on 2nd Street downtown was our best option. Turned out to be a great find and one that I look forward to visiting again soon. It’s been a long time (probably 1985 in Edinburgh) since I had a kebab on the street.
Diana arrived for her first of I hope many visits on Wednesday evening. We walked over to Swift’s Attic for dinner and McD had just as positive a first impression as I did. She loved the scallops and we also shared the brussel sprouts, squid fries and a new addition to the rotation, hamachi crudo. After dinner, we peeked into the Elephant Room but they were between music sets. We wandered on to The Townsend and again McD enjoyed it as much as I had on my first visit with Gonzalo. Austin is doing a good job of impressing Diana so far.
On Thursday night we planned to attend a tribute show to Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” album at a great local music venue, the Saxon Pub. Before the show we tried Bartala for what are advertised as Catalan tapas with quite mixed results. The service, drinks and several of the tapas were good. However, the ceviche was really disappointing with very tough and rubbery octopus. So bad that it drove me to write my first Yelp review to warn folks away from this dish. I hope this was just some bad product because the place had some good potential and is nicely located close to two good music venues. After dinner, we were both too tired to wait for the music to start – the previous band was finishing and then we would have had to wait on their equipment being hauled out and the new groups’ set up.
For Friday lunch, I took a few coworkers to lunch at Mandola’s Italian. This was their recommendation and it turned out to be an excellent Italian restaurant and grocery/bakery. I had some left over scampi and augmented that with a fresh cannoli to take to Diana for lunch at the hotel, where she had been camped out working all morning. The conversation over lunch was very enlightening as I heard about one gentleman who had gone to Stanford on a volleyball scholarship and another who had been a minor league catcher for the Dodgers. I enjoyed getting to know some of the folks at work better.
On Friday night we let Diana out of the hotel for dinner at Wink – a restaurant recommended by another coworker who seems to know his food and wine. Wink is tucked away in a very quiet location and not easy to find from the street and has both a restaurant side and a wine bar side. We were nervous on arriving to find about 30 University of Texas fraternity looking folks all dressed up in tuxedos and fancy dresses for dinner before a winter dance. They turned out to be very polite and well behaved – must have been the nerdy fraternity.
The food and wine were very good. The fois gras appetizer being a particularly yummy and decadent stand out. I enjoyed grouper with lattkes and dill sauce while Diana had a venison dish with a little langiappe. A piece of a rubber band had crept into her dish. This was handled very nicely by the staff who brought us a quartet of desserts and extra red wine on the house. Everyone had a good chuckle as the kitchen was just through a small window from our table. A couple of the desserts were amazing and we left completed sated.
this was much more efficient than anticipated as I really liked the first place we toured and, on stopping at the second place, realized I shouldn’t waste any more time on places that I wasn’t going to like nearly as much as the first. We drove down Barton Springs road and had to stop at this airstream food truck to take a picture for Patty (the cupcake queen). Then I showed McD the new office and we drove on to the local mall for her to pick up some things she needed for her Christmas party outfit. The mall was a complete zoo and so I dropped Diana, picked up a couple of Space Cowboy tacos (my favourite lunch taco at TacoDeli) and returned to pick her up.
Sunday began with workouts and then a late brunch at Swift’s Attic. A very enjoyable meal again – I enjoyed a different take on shrimp ‘n grits. Then it was time to find somewhere to watch the Cowboys and Eagles game – a key decider in which team will make it to the playoffs. We started at the Driskill bar and saw the beginning of the game there. The TVs were small and dark and so we walked around downtown for a while. I picked up some useful information on vinyl record stores in Austin during a quick stop into Antone’s record store beside the music club.
It was back down to Austin again early on Monday morning. I found a new podcast, “My Favorite Album” with Jeremy Dylan, that made a good portion of the trip pass quickly. Dylan interviews folks from all walks of life about their most treasured albums. I started with Brian Koppelman, creator of the TV show “Billions”. I’ve commmented a few times to Diana about how impressed I am with the music selections on this show and enjoyed Koppelman talking about how they were selected and why. See the bottom of this posting for several examples. The next episode was the drummer from Australian band Augie March talking about Dire Straits first album (also one of my favourites). I really enjoyed his thoughts on Pick Withers nuanced drumming on this album and his views on Mark Knopfler’s guitar work. The first half of my bus ride finished up with Amanda Shires (wife of Jason Isbell) talking about Leonard Cohen’s “Songs of Love and Hate”. Amanda had quite different views about Cohen’s music than Jeremy (the interviewer) which made for an interesting listen. She’s clearly spent a lot of time thinking about Cohen’s songs.
The “revealer” clue from the New York Times crossword on Tuesday gave me a chuckle. “Parting words” from Fried Egg, Candidate, Computer Program, and Editorial -“Gotta Run”.
Monday and Tuesday were quiet, work from home days. It was nice to be back in the routine of working from home with Diana, if only for a couple of days. Travel to San Francisco on Wednesday was pretty quiet and painless and we arrived in time to meet up with Will and Christine for dinner at Sushi Plus in Redwood City (where Will’s new apartment is located). Will was able to give us a ride in the new BMW M240, but not the full experience since it had rained most of the day. It was entertaining to have the live run down of all the special features that he had customized on his factory order.
On Friday we were lucky to have an early dinner with all three boys at Vino Santo in Redwood City – Will’s favourite Italian restaurant. The food and service were both excellent. We started with an off-the-menu appetizer sampler that Will apparently orders on each visit, then shared lobster ravioli and some delicious scallops. By this time we were starting to get full and hadn’t ordered main courses yet. Diana had a calamari steak and I had a beet salad. Will, on the other hand, had plenty of room for a full size ribeye steak. Clorinda enjoyed left over calamari later in the evening. Dinner was really good and we had a very nice conversation with the boys. Here’s a picture with Finn from the evening and one of all three from Thanksgiving day.
Saturday was an early start to the airport to fly home. The airport was much busier than on Wednesday with lots of families flying. We had a concert at the Kessler on Saturday night and so drove from the airport to a downtown hotel and then headed to the Bishop Arts district in Oak Cliff for a pre-concert ramble. This is a picture of the Mobil pegasus outside the hotel (the pegasus atop the Mobil Oil building was a stalwart of the Dallas skyline for many years).
behind the fabulous Lucia Italian restaurant. We enjoyed an amazing chicken liver mousse and delicious cocktails. After that Diana’s new boots were given a good comfort test as we walked 1.1 miles to Nova for dinner. They passed with flying colours.
On Sunday morning, we took advantage of being downtown to visit Smoke for breakfast. I enjoyed my usual pulled pork benedict and Diana ordered a bacon burger so that we’d have leftovers for dinner. Breakfast reminded me of some pictures Finn sent this week of his latest breakfast creations.
Much smaller than usual since we’ll be gone over the holiday and couldn’t face hauling the regular tree down from the attic. I always get a kick out of how much Diana enjoys unwrapping and placing the ornaments on the tree. That’s the famous angel that Adamo and Amy repaired last year on top.
The experimental Vonlane bus service to Austin early Monday worked out well. I enjoyed avoiding security and all the other airport hassles. It was nice to be able to spread out and relax for the 3 hour trip. I’ve booked my next few trips on the bus. Thanks to Diana for getting up so early to drive me to the bus.
Our friend Gonzalo was scheduled to interview at my office on Wednesday and came in on Tuesday night to be ready for the morning. We enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Second Kitchen and Bar – the truffle grits with G’s short ribs were amazing. I started with smoked salmon rillettes (way better than I anticipated) and then had a delicious beet salad with big chunks of brie – right up my alley.
After dinner we tried a new place that I had read about – The Townsend. This is a speakeasy style bar up front and a small music venue in back. One of the owners is an acoustic engineer and this showed up big time in the quality of the sound systems in the bar and the concert space – amazing sound! The concert in back by Charlie Hunter was sold out and so we enjoyed the music in the bar and then snuck into the music venue for the last few songs.
On Wednesday I took Gonzalo to lunch at the nearby TacoDeli which has a very nice woodsy location near a Zilker Park trail-head. I tried the chile relleno taco special and loved it. It was nice to catch up with G on Tuesday night and Wednesday – we spent a lot of time working on tough issues together at my previous job and I’m hoping that we’ll get an opportunity to work together again.
In the afternoon we had a town hall at work for all the Information Technology employees where I was introduced. I enjoyed the view of my boss with a long horn cow in the background from where I was sitting.
Thursday was the Thanksgiving Potluck at the office – I had meetings all the way through the lunch hour and wasn’t able to participate but it looked like folks were having a great time.
Can you believe my baby turned 30 this week? He does seem to be doing quite well and I’m proud of the man he’s become and all that he’s accomplished in his first 30 years. Will has always been a car nut – BMWs in particular – solidified when he visited the factory in Germany during his internship. He treated himself to an early birthday present which you can see here. I think it looks pretty fierce and here is Will’s update on the engine:
This week was a heavy one of work and travel for both of us. Diana dropped me at the Dallas airport very early on Monday and I had plenty of time to make my flight, which arrived early even though it was foggy in Austin. I enjoyed a breakfast taco at the airport (as promised last week) and then headed to the office. That’s another one of the cards that McD spoils me with on the table – found it as I was getting something out of my briefcase. The Cowboys pretended to play football on Monday night and I watched the game at the hotel until I got disgusted and fell asleep before the game was over. Diana traveled out to St Petersburg, Florida again Tuesday through Thursday for a big client presentation that went well.
around the corner to the Saxon Pub, where Dave Grissom plays a free early show at 6pm most Tuesdays. I didn’t get there until 7pm and so all seats were taken and the place was packed. I stayed for a couple of songs (both excellent) and then left. I wasn’t able to identify the folks who rode their horses to the show – maybe it was the performers? I will be back in a future week to catch a full show. Dave Grissom is an excellent guitar player who started in Joe Ely’s band, played in John Mellencamp’s band, and has gone on to become a much in demand session musician (particularly in Nashville). I suspect that his show covers multiple styles and varieties of music – I’ll let you know when I get there on time in the future.
From the Saxon, I dropped the car at the hotel and wandered over to Antone’s in downtown Austin to see about their free Blues show. In contrast to the Saxon, this was a very quietly attended show. I settled in for 20 minutes or so but wasn’t drawn in by the music – too much old school blues and harmonica. And so it was off to find the next musical opportunity.
Hoping the third venue would be the charm, I walked around the corner to the Elephant Room on Congress Avenue. This is a basement jazz club that turned out to be very pleasant and a highlight of the evening for me. The sound was excellent with plenty of comfortable seating. Sarah Sharp and band were performing – I forgot to note the guitar player’s name but he was outstanding. I enjoyed Sarah’s voice and here are some quick snippets of the performance:
cocktails were both excellent and I look forward to walking back to this place again soon. My cocktail was a “Newgroni” – the normal negroni recipe with rhubarb bitters added – and it’s available on tap. I’m going to have to add some of these bitters to my barrel aging negroni because they really enhance the flavour very nicely. The scallops were fresh, perfectly cooked and paired with delicious sauces and carrots.
Turkish word meaning “olive oil”) at the Star in Frisco. It’s a mezze restaurant specializing in small plates like a Greek tapas place. We had tried Zaytinya once before and enjoyed the small plates and cocktails very much. This visit was equally positive – I had an ultimate G&T (Hendrick’s gin, Fever Tree Indian tonic water, lemon, lime, juniper berries) that took the bar tender some work to assemble, Baba Ghannouge (great presentation with pomegranate seeds), and a falafel wrap. Diana tried the lamb chops – delicious once the bartender supervised them being cooked properly and not overdone.
You might remember me raving about a brunch we had there about a month ago. I opted for the smoky mushroom toast and Diana had the omelette. The first mushroom toast was delicious with a perfectly cooked poached egg. The second toast featured a hard boiled egg trying to masquerade as a poached egg – very disappointing for a restaurant of such repute. Even worse was the attitude when I brought it to the attention of the staff. They did pay for our entire meal – I would have much preferred they just apologized appropriately and brought me another toast.
We made it from Boulevardier over to the Twilite Lounge in Deep Ellum just in time to see the end of the New Orleans Saints game – they beat up on the Cincinnati Bengals 51-14. The Twilite is an “official Saints watching destination” and has a jukebox with lots of great New Orleans music. One of Tim’s favourites, Bonerama, was playing today – it’s a band with 4 trombones that cover rock ‘n roll songs and Tim really doesn’t enjoy them.
This was a big work week for both of us – I started my new job and Diana had her big project in downtown Dallas to spin off a new company go live on Thursday – what we’ve been calling “D Day”. The project went much better than anyone had expected with the CEOs of both companies saying nice words to the team. Diana did a great job of keeping everyone organized and motivated to make this happen so smoothly.
Our hotel was just across the river from downtown Austin and I was happy to see turntable and guitar art above the bed. You can see how high the river is from all the recent torrential rain. My boss and I walked to downtown and had a delicious Italian meal at Red Ash – my welcome aboard dinner.
On Halloween night I was able to catch my first concert. Doyle Bramhall II was playing at Antone’s. Doyle has been a favourite for many years – I saw him with the Arc Angels in San Antonio more than 20 years ago and have seen him a few times in Eric Clapton’s band. He is an amazing guitar player and songwriter. I visited Antone’s from San Antonio in their previous location but hadn’t been to the downtown, 5th street location.
On Friday morning I tried another one of the local coffee shops – this one is close to my hotel and open 24 hours a day -very good coffee and food and lots of seating. I made it back to Dallas around 4pm and met Diana close to her office downtown for a drink and a snack before we headed over to Oak Cliff for dinner and a concert.
As usual, the band was excellent. Here’s a song that showcases Mike Schermer, the guitar player in Marcia’s band for many years.
After workout, coffee and crossword on Saturday morning, we drove by Patty and Brent’s to check on the moving truck progress. Things were moving along quickly with an extra long truck almost fully packed. They leave early Monday for the long drive to Corning, New York.
My first book this week was “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult. The title is from a Martin Luther King quote, “If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way”.
My second book was “Baby, You’re Gonna be Mine” by Kevin Wilson. This is a short story collection that was highly recommended recently by Anne Patchett (one of my favourite authors) and her staff at Parnassus books in Nashville.
I enjoyed the collection and the creativity in each of the stories but wouldn’t rate this book as highly as the Parnassus bookstore staff. I think I’m discovering that I’m not as huge a fan of the short story format as many of the reviewers that I follow. I do, however, still count “Walking Wounded” by William McIlvanney, a Scottish based short story collection, as one of my all time favourites.