Schneier

Excellent. And thanks for the pictures. Bruce

I've had this wine once, and I was not impressed. Not enough depth. Bruce

How many people does that include? More interesting than the raw total is the average total per person. Bruce

Wow. That's a huge step above "simple" architectural desserts. Bruce

It's true that Taco Bell is my fast food of choice, if I'm stuck with fast food. Boston Market is second. Wendy's is third. Bruce

Is this like one of those garden gnome things, where they travel the world with you and you take pictures of them in front of the Eiffel Tower? Yeah. The next person tagged for foodblogging will get them in the mail. Bruce

The apple and banana are in Dallas with us, still uneaten. Bruce

It's hard to post when you're busy doing other things. It's hard to post when you're room doesn't have high-speed Internet access. It's hard to post when you're on an airplane. When we last left our heros, it was Thursday afternoon at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. The MGM is one of those middle-of-the-road hotels, not too good and not too bad. The only reason Karen and I are here is that it's where my meeting was. A hotel/casino isn't going to put high-speed Internet access in the rooms. The last thing they want is people staying in their rooms. Thursday Dinner: Craftsteak Craft is Tom Collocio's New York restaurant. I didn't get a chance to go in the early days, when you basically got a menu of ingredients and could specify how you wanted your food cooked. Most people didn't like having so much control, so the menu become more menu like. It's a restaurant of single-note foods. There are no complicated preparations: you order your meats and your vegetables separately. But it's all expertly prepared, and I like going there. Going in groups is better, since it all comes family style. Craftsteak is Collocio's Las Vegas outpost. It's in the MGM Grand, and it's basically the same menu with some more meat choices. We had our company dinner there. It's interesting to see how this kind of thing is put together. We arranged to have a set menu, chef's choice, at a set price. According to the event order, we would have: "Starters: Two appetizers, two salads. Entrees: One fish, one chicken, one beef, one braised entree. Four-five side dishes. Chef's selection of desserts." Cost was $75 per person plus tax plus a 20% tip plus a $125 set-up fee. The reservation was for 28, and the total cost was $2797.25 plus beverages. I didn't set the dinner up, but I picked the restaurant. When I saw the event order, I took it and went to the manager. I did my best to convince him that I knew the restaurant's menu and that I wanted the more interesting dishes rather than the more boring ones. The biggest danger in a menu like this is that the kitchen will choose lowest-common-denominator dishes rather than the weirder ones. I did convince him to bring mushrooms as a side dish, something he said that they didn't normally do for a group like that. I also chose a red a white wine in the $50-$60 range, which were the price guidelines I was given. There was nothing good in that range, so I chose two wines likely to work for the group. We had a semi-private room. And we were served an amazing amount of food. The two salads were spinach and arugula, both with gentle dressing. The two appetizers were crayfish, scallops, grilled red peppers, and artichoke hearts. (Yes, that's four. No, I didn't ask.) The entrees were porterhouse steak, grilled chicken, broiled halibut, and braised short ribs (I asked for those). The 4-5 side dishes were baby brussel sprouts, string beans, long beans, gratin potatoes, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, chanterelles, and shitakes. I honestly stopped taking notes when the desserts came, but I remember a warm chocolate cake with a liquid center, one of the best bread puddings I have ever tasted, three sorbets including melon and lime, three ice creams, a cinnamon something, and something else. The bill came to $4500. Wow. I have the receipt. There were 29 people, so the basic food was $2175. Some assorted miscellaneous food brought that total to $2488. The bar bill was $960. A $125 setup charge. $690 tip (ahem). $240 tax. Total: $4503. The waiters were good a pushing wine, and managed to go through 14 bottles. Glasses were always kept full, and my estimate is that 4-5 bottles were in glasses on the table at the end of the meal. And there were lots of mixed drinks. And 30 bottles of water at $7 a bottle. And coffee/tea. It adds up. But the company will reimburse me. And that's a whole lot of frequent flyer miles. We did get done in time for the 10:30 Cirque de Soleil show. It was the new one, the adult one: Zumanity. We went to sleep at 1:00 AM and woke up at 5:00 AM. We made a 6:20 flight to Dallas, where I'm now waiting to change planes to Minneapolis. That's 20 hours in Las Vegas total, if you're keeping track. And not a penny spent gambling. Friday breakfast: sleep. Bruce

I am holding a granny smith apple and a banana, but I'm not going to eat them. Bruce

Las Vegas is filled with celebrity-chef restaurants. Basically, a chef lends his name, and his menu expertise, to a casino restaurant. Maybe he lends a sous chef. Maybe he visits a few times a year. The menu is never as interesting as his original restaurant--this is Las Vegas, after all--and it's never as good. But it's way better than the all-you-can-eat buffets. I first experienced Mark Miller's cooking at Red Sage in DC. It's innovative and interesting Southwestern cuisine. He also has a restaurant called Coyote Grill in Santa Fe (never been). And he has a restaurant in the MGM Grand Hotel. The Grill Room is his high-end restaurant, and only open for dinner. Coyote Cafe is his casual restaurant, also open for lunch. And that's where Karen and I ate after we arrived. Thursday Lunch: "Yucatan Port Tamales. Braised pork loin mixed with toasted almonds, raisins and spices in a ginger-roasted chili corn envelope. Served with roasted tamatillo sauce and a crispy tortilla salad." "Cascabel Barbecue Duck Quesadilla. Confit duck, cartabel barbecue sauce, jack cheese, chipolte crema and japapino potato salad." The tamales were yummy, as was the tamatillo sauce. I thought that the almonds and raisins didn't help. The salad was fine. The duck quesadilla was better, although Karen didn't care for the cheese sauce. Oh, and caffeine. I had some of that, too. Miller had his array of celebrety-chef cookbooks lying about, filled with restaurants that looked good to eat but impossible to make. Bruce

We don't. And you're right, it is surprising. Basically, we don't think of it. And we try to travel light, and don't really want another bag of stuff to bring on the plane. I figured I would get into first class, where I could get a bowl of cereal and a banana. (They have a hot egg and meat breakfast, which is slightly worse than terrible.) I have to get back to work now. I'll try to write up lunch later. Bruce

On American Airlines, often if I'm asleep they just leave it for me. I liked that, even if I don't really want it. Bruce

I think the granola bar on AA is terrible. Bruce

Minneapolis to Chicago to Las Vegas: American Airlines. Up at 5:15 AM, out of the house by 5:35, to the airport by 5:50. Boarding passes, security, to the gate, and onto the plane by 6:05 for a 6:15 departure. It's nice not to worry about showing up at the airport early anymore. I fly a lot: somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 miles per year. With those kinds of numbers, I almost always get upgraded to first class. But even in First Class, breakfast on the hour-long flight from Minneapolis to Chicago is a Quaker Granola Bar. And orange juice. Thursday breakfast: granola bar + OJ. Even worse, I didn't get upgraded from Chicago to Las Vegas. Flights to Las Vegas are regularly full, full of amateur airplane flyers. Karen and I were back in coach, where the "bistro meal" is a paper bag you pick up as you board: a granola bar, a package of raisins, and a cub of random-brand yoghurt. Really, it isn't that bad. We could have had a real breakfast meal at O'Hare, but they're all large or greasy. Raisins and a granola bar are just fine, thank you. Bruce

Good night, all. I have a 6:15 AM flight tomorrow. I'll post again when I'm changing planes, unless I'm dashing through the airport trying to make my connection. Bruce

Jacket and collar is fine. At least, no one threw me out. Bruce

We picnic all over Minneapolis. My favorite spots are in the parkland near the Rose Garden in South Minneapolis. Karen prefers spots on the Mississippi. Someimes we'll go to this or that lake, sometimes we'll go along Minnehaha Creek. Most of the time we drive, but sometimes we bike. Bruce

Thanks. I thought it was a good review, too. Oh, you mean the picnic! Bruce

Oh, and we submitted our first review for Mix: La Belle Vie. Bruce

It's not polite to bled wines at the table. Bruce

When it's warm, Karen and I regularly picnic. We have all sorts of equipment: blankets, baskets, tableware, unbreakable wine glasses, a small portable grill, etc, etc, etc. We've had picnics for ourselves. We've had picnics for guests. We've had picnics that we've both planned and executed, and we've had picnics where one of us secretly shops and preps, and surprises the other. Tonight Karen put a surprise picnic together. We walked down Minnehaha Creek to where it flows into the Mississippi River, and set up our blanket there. It was a fairly minimalist picnic. Karen brought a couple of cheeses from Surdyk's: Saint Nectaire and a semi-soft aged goat from Cypress Grove Farms called Midnight Moon. She brought an artichoke and pepper salad from the same place. And she brought a Polish sausage, an andouille sausage, and two hot dogs. Okay, they weren't regular hot dogs, they were handmade traditional-style hot dogs from Kramarczyk's, around the corner from Surdyk's. The sauerkraut came from there, too. She also brought buns, two tiny mustard pots from France, and enough kindling to start a small fire (there's driftwood on the riverbank once it gets going). We had a knife to cut things, two metal cups to heat both the cider and the sauerkraut, a large grill fork to stick in the sand and cook with, and a spoon and a fork. Real minimal: we had to cook the sausages one by one and share. Oh, and a creme brulee for dessert, probably from Surdyk's as well. It was cold. We got to the picnic spot at about 6:30, when the sun was going down. We left at around 8:00, after it was dark. Karen brought a flashlight so we could walk the trail back to the car. The thermometer there said that it was 42 degrees F. My guess is that this was our last picnic of the year, unless we fill a sled with wood and showshoe back there in the winter sometime. For the record, Karen did not know I was foodblogging this week. She did not set this up for your benefit; she was not was not mugging for the camera. If this were a setup there would have been wine. Bruce

Where is this? Bruce

It's never too late to chime in. People will be searching for this thread for years to come. Bruce

Home lunches are my hardest meal. I'm generally working on this and that, and forget to eat. Karen wakes up hours later than I do, and is out of synch with me for the meal. If there are leftovers in the refrigerator, I'll eat them. If there's something easy to make, I'll eat it. Or not. Today the refrigerator was pretty bare. I had some leftover salad from last night, and the one frozen food I eat regularly: Deep Indian Gourmet brand vegetable samosas. They heat up in the toaster oven, and they're really good with the variety of hot sauces that are always lying around. Karen is planning some sort of dinner "adventure." We'll see what happens. Bruce

Yep, that's right. I'm thinking of reviewing them for Mix next. Bruce