Cinco De Mayo Into De Sandwich

During mostly-normal years Cinco de Mayo would find me at an Irish bar drinking instead of mingling with the masses at Mexican establishments. In years past I’ve gone to Limerick Junction and I would have had designs on hanging at The Grange (no, what the hell is it called now) The Marlay House in Decatur. My plans changed last night when eating pre-Top Chef Masters dinner at SoBa (hot pho on a unusually-cold night) with ITP-Reader Betsy. I will describe the events of tomorrow night in tomorrow’s blog, but suffice to say that Miss Betsy has chosen to prepare a labor-intensive dish for a group dinner gathering and, instead of preparing my own meal because of my time constraints, I have chosen to be her sous chef and help her with her mis en place tonight. I figure, what the hell, if the food doesn’t turn out great she’ll be the one being asked to pack her knives and go. 😉

Beer Fail
I could have had a beer at SoBa, but I chose to have a glass of wine instead knowing that there would be more wine consumption while watching Top Chef Masters. So there you have it, my “Drink a different beer each day in May” ended on the 4th. I’m saddened at my inability to stick to my goals. Along those lines I plan to start reading “The Laws Of Simplicity” tonight so that I can guarantee having it done by month’s end.

ITP Flickr Pic
Thursday seems to be the breaking point. Stinko de Mayo.

I don’t normally link to others’ images, but this made me laugh


Source: The Dallas Observer’s blog

RealiTV Update: Top Chef Masters — Would You Like Fries With That?
Its disturbing and amusing all at once listening to Betsy and me try to piece together what happened in the previous week’s Top Chef Masters as we watch the replay prior to the new episode.

Me: “Oh this was the one where they had to do the bugs.”
Betsy: “No that was two weeks ago. Don’t you remember, we were watching the replay last week and turned it off when the did the bugs.”
Me: “Two weeks ago? Really? Huh, wait I think you are right. What was the QuickFire challenge last week then?”
Betsy: “I have no idea.”
Me: “I can’t remember either.”

And the wine flows on…

In this week’s episode we see the cheftestants prepare an appetizer which costs less than $1 to prepare using the ingredients available to them in the Top Chef kitchen. Most of the offerings looked great and had everyone questioning why eating out is so expensive. These are the sorts of challenges that I want cheftestants to have to perform because it allows them to be creative chefs without some nonsensical cooking constraint.

For the elimination challenge the cheftestants are told that they must prepare an appetizer and an entree at an undisclosed location and that there will be no utensils (assumably for the customers only). We see the cheftestants load into the Lexus SUVs and head to some chain restaurant known as “Farmer Jacks” — which may be fictional since I can’t seem to find it on the internet. Slam the cheftestants for fast food lunch preparation, this is the sort of challenge I dislike. Most of the entrees prepared were wraps or burritos so it was hard to tell what the food was like. What wasn’t hard to notice was the rampant sexual innuendo which littered this portion of the show.

In reading some blogs about Top Chef Masters recently I’ve been reminded that the format of Top Chef Masters changed with this season. In seasons past the were rounds of a handful of chefs from which the winner progressed to the “final” round. This season’s Top Chef Masters is just like Top Chef. Honestly, I’m not sure which I prefer.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, but I see a future of many hours of working ahead of me and oddly that pleases me
Current Music – listening to this week’s “AbOriginals” podcast, which is a podcast which highlights Canadian aboriginal music. Yes it does.
Website Of The Day – You say “Certainly no one has registered the domain Atlanta Cinco de Mayo.” I say “I can’t believe it, but you are incorrect friend.”
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – damn, I forgot to check again

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 4

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

May Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose three pounds
Go out on a date with someone else
– Read an entire book, specifically The Laws Of Simplicity

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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2 Responses to Cinco De Mayo Into De Sandwich

  1. Barb says:

    a girl here said Moe’s is having some sort of super discount deal today, but I’m not sure if I can go eat Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo – It has been so many years that I’ve avoided it. Not sure if I want to go find an Irish bar either……. I have no idea what I’m in the mood to eat today.

    Do any of you readers watch Justified? Damn, that is a good show and a great season 2 finale last night.

  2. Martha says:

    I feel so out of touch, two whole days away from the blog. There really isn’t a reason, I haven’t been up to much…just really, really tired. I had a headache (either the weather or something I’m allergic to bloomed) for 36 hours and I wasn’t sleeping well. Finally, got more than a few hours last night.

    I really considered grabbing SoBa for dinner last night, I mean WTF 40 degrees in May?? We won’t be heading to any Mexican place tonight, I think we will make some fajitas and stay in…

    Not much on the job front, I got an offer Tuesday. But it’s only the offer of a job, when they get a job?? I have an interview, well sort of just a meeting this morning, I think it’s the same deal, they don’t have any positions open, just hoping and waiting for some contracts to come through. My current company is in the same boat.

    I’ve never seen Justified…but I think I’ve heard of it. Wednesday is one of my few ‘must see tv’ nights, Criminal Minds (my other would be Big Bang).

    Paulie if you’re (or anyone else) interested my gym is doing body fat testing on Saturday, only $25. You can get a baseline to work from to help meet goals.

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