We are half way through our trip. Just about the time when it’s getting old telling everyone the trip story, when the nails are chipping, the cooler is warming, the lotions are spilling, and the dirty laundry bag is filling.
We were hoping Jackson would be the dark horse in our trip. We were originally going to go through Little Rock, but when I realized there was no way to avoid me hitting New Orleans, we decided to break up the drive to Memphis was a stop in Jackson. It was pretty sleepy, but we did stay at a quaint little hotel, Old Capitol Inn, and we did see a charity walk in the morning. Moving on.
We’re done with my left hand of the trip. Now we are outbound!
Dining
The Healthy and Hip X-Country Trip: Day 1 – Phoenix, AZ
I could get down with Arizona. They all do 80 here. Even on side streets.
Also, the first successful Zucker family trip was in this very city. What’s my measure of success? No one cried! I don’t even think any if us fought. Me, Betti and Jim went to the Phoenician in Scottsdale over thanks g my senior year in college. If only spa, hikes, food, and golf could do the trick still….
I met up with a friend from Penn who grew up here and he took me to a Coyotes game and taught me how to drive stick in the parking lot after. (Literally, keep it clean people!)
Thanks Phoenix for the good memories 5 years and counting. *
* 17 years, but who’s counting?
Anyway, Hula and I made it to the hotel in a little over five hours with one gas/pit stop.
The Palomar was lovely, right across the street from Chase Field and US Airways Stadium, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns, respectively. One of my favorite bits in their “welcome greeting” was being informed that the room keys use radio waves, so putting it next to a credit card or cellphone will do nothing to deactivate it. Now what excuse will I have for needing to sleep in someone else’s room?!?!
We made it to our only “post-drive” Pure Barre right on time, which is great because we couldn’t have made it a minute sooner!
Great start to the trip!
1 down. 9 to go!
Hula, Jordan, and Jasmine at Pure Barre Phoenix
Virtu. Menu. Ice Queen. Burratta. Octopus. Scallops. Corvina Blend. Mascarpone Gelato. Hulita.
Sleep No More: Top Ten Things To Know Before You Go!
Not to say that I was ill-advised prior to arrival at Punchdrunk’s production of Sleep No More, but I really didn’t know what to expect despite minor research. The following would have helped:
1) Wear pockets. We all know not to wear heels, but did you know you have to check your purse?
2) HOLD HANDS!
3) If you don’t have a thing for the duckbill platypus before you go, maybe develop one.
4) The “actors” are indeed actors, but more so dancers. i.e. Mama’s not auditioning. And if you’re looking to really get into the Macbeth plot, pick up a copy of Macbeth…
5) They have a bar. Have someone reserve you a table for after the finale. There’s more absinthe and boozy bands to melt to in a rowdy red room.
6) Just as I was taking a mental note of “bad rumor – no one takes you into a closet!!” I watched the guy next to me get dragged into a closet. Good rumor.
7) Arrival time is a rough suggestion. No need to snarf the uni panini down from El Quinto Pino, they’ll still let u in 15 min late.
8) Your “group card” value is cute, I had a jack. It’s supposed to indicate with whom you leave the bar and head into the hotel. Also a suggestion.
9) The McKittrick Hotel is the old Club Twilo space. The set design was super cool. Make sure you hit the candy room, twig labyrinth, ballroom, bathtubs, and closet where my friend Carrie gave a BJ back in the late 90’s.
10) There will be nudity. I’m not saying who. But Gawker is. Here’s their guide to maximizing the skin exposure.
Pre Game at El Quinto Pino
The Band
Masked Cousin Julie!
Jordan’s Travel Bible
I want to see the entire world. But that’s not what this is about. I’m bi-coastal, I know the security lady’s name at AA LAX T4 (granted this could happen after one trip). When I check in and they say, “Where to?” I say, “LA or NY, whichever I’m not in right now.” Even when I’m not coast hopping, I’m off checking something out some place else. I’m a traveler. Along the way I’ve gathered some tips, advice, and mantras.
Here they are:
1) Always pack a bikini. It’s not like it doesn’t fit and you never know when you’ll need one.
2) Scan a picture of your passport and email it to a web ready folder (e.g. archives). If something happens to it, all you need is web access anywhere to prove who you are.
3) Take pit stops when you have to go. No one is awarding you anything for holding it in.
4) Maps generally trump navigation systems.
5) It is worth a 2 hr. drive out of the way just to eat some oysters.
6) I don’t understand everyone’s obsession with applauding themselves for packing light. What prize do I get for bringing a small suitcase? Forgetting something and/or not having options? Bring what you need, you’re not backpacking through Europe junior year abroad anymore.
7) It is perfectly acceptable to have the A/C going with the windows down while on a road trip. For me, just the windows is too hot and just the A/C is too cold. It isn’t wasting anything if it perfectly creates the desired climate.
8) I view speeding tickets as a talent tax. I have to pay the government because I’m more skilled at driving than the average joe.
9) Kelly Nishimoto’s Cute Booty line is the ideal airplane attire.
10) “It’s too far” is rarely a valid excuse (relatively). Once you’re in the car, how hard is it to sit there for an extra 20 minutes?
And this is specifically for people traveling with me:
11) Don’t take anything I say personally during my first hour or two of consciousness. I’m not a morning person, never will be. I make up for it later in the day. Promise.
Wowee Naoe!
Last week in Miami, my mother, father, and I decided to go out to a special dinner to celebrate my little grandma’s long and legendary life. She passed away late in the evening on 2/27 after 90 epic years. The funeral was the next Wednesday and we’d been sitting shiva in Miami at her apartment.
My childhood friend recommended a little Japanese place in Sunny Isles called Naoe (pronounced “Now-We”) for our dinner. They only seat 17 and it’s all omakase. Opentable had them completely booked, so I got us a table at Palme d’Or in Coral Gables and sent an email to Naoe asking to notify us if they get any last minute cancellations. They did! (which my dad was doubly grateful for as then we weren’t going to make him schlep all the way down to Coral Gables).
The meal was really impressive. You start with a bento box. Starting clockwise from bottom left we had baby sardine rice, mushroom custard, oyster/fermented bean/cod belly, and shiso/wakame/wasabi/snapper. All were fantastic.
They serve their own sake made at a microbrewery in chef’s hometown of Nagano. Then the box is followed by the nigiri portion of the evening. We also had frozen sake ices which was fun to eat. And it’s closed out with mystery ice cream dessert (soy sauce!).
Everything was a phenomenally special treat.
Arigato Gozaimas, Naoe, Ja Ma Ta!
Voicemail Station at Bar Boulud Post NYC Ballet
On Wednesday, Betti, Jim, and I went to the ballet at Lincoln Center. Thankfully Carolina Herrera’s seemingly 9 year old granddaughter was with her two rows in front of us, thus preventing me from being the youngest in attendance. It was a great evening at NYC Ballet with four pieces: Plainspoken, Valse-Fantaisie, Square Dance, and Glass Pieces. I enjoyed the whole thing but Benjamin Millepied‘s Plainspoken, and Jerome Robbins’s Glass Pieces were fantastic.
After, we scurried across the street to grab a late-ish bite at Bar Boulud. We were seated at the communal horseshoe table in the back and loved everything we ordered.
My mom and I shared the following:
salade de calamars – poached calamari, pine nuts, radish, baby romaine, gaeta olives, buttermilk dressing
tagine dagneau – terrine of slow cooked spiced leg of lamb, eggplant, and sweet potato
lotte aux choux rouge – montauk monkfish, smoked bacon, lambic braised red cabbage, turnips
spanish makerel – chick pea friters, tomato coulis, eggplant puree
My mother always gets the La Poire cocktail: grey goose pear, pom, lime
My dad got the Figue Old Fashioned: knob creek bourbon, ruby port, fig puree, angostura
I got whatever was tequila based. Turned out to be a good choice.
As I was sucking down my kumquat/basil/tequila/light on the agave concoction, my dad takes a break from “checking his messages” and says that we HAVE to hear this voicemail he got. So I listened to it. A winner! Here’s the transcription:
Hey Aamer, It’s Christy, um.
Listen, I just talked to Jenny and found out what happened…that you’re not at KTR blah blah blah [some radio station] anymore and I’m sorry, but that’s just a bunch of bullshit!
I can’t even believe it, I’m beside myself because, how short sighted and incredibly stupid of them.
Um, I loved the new format, I mean it was different but it was such a breath of fresh air. And, you know, you brought a levity and a fun quality to it. And I thought that it was great. Again, you knew I hated the afternoon show and I so much more enjoyed it listening to you and I didn’t hear you for a couple of days and I thought “Oh, he must have been out of town” and then finally today I’m like, “what the fuck” so.
Anyway, I just wanted to call and if you’d like to call back I’m around. So call me, otherwise I’ll see you soon but I’m SO disappointed. They’re such a great station and they’re just so horribly run and just, I’m really sorry.
Um, so call me if you need anything and I will, I’ll hopefully see you soon.
OK, bye.
After the three of us took turns listening and howling with laughter, I turned to my dad and said, “Dad, you need to tell her that she had the wrong number and that msg never got to him.”
“Yeah, Jim, you have to,” agreed Mom.
“Do you want me to send a text for you?” I offered.
“OK, here’s the phone,” he acquiesced.
So I went to text the number from the voicemail, and the iphone, as we know, brings up the string of text history, and low and behold, up came a text from her from Jan 31st!!!
I squealed, “DAD?!?! She’s tried to contact you before! Did you not get this text a few weeks ago?!?”
My mother and I were cracking up.
“Oh, yeah, I got it but didn’t understand it so I just ignored it.”
It’s all squared away now:
P.S. Who thinks Christy wanted a piece of Aamer?
Annual Goals Dinner with Matthew at Eveleigh
As you know, I have a tradition with my lifelong friend where we go to a nice dinner each year and do goals. We open a sealed envelope from last year’s dinner and mark off what goals we’ve achieved. Then we write new ones for the current year and seal them up for next year’s dinner.
This was our 13th year of maintaining the tradition.
We went to Eveleigh on Sunset in West Hollywood. It’s indisputably a gorgeous space. The lighting is super dim, (I moved a candle a bit to check out what our dishes looked like before diving in.), and the seating is a little annoying as the booths are slightly unsecured so you can feel the guy five tables down shift his leg since it’s technically the same piece of padded wood you’re sitting on. But the cocktails were killer, the decor is beautiful, and the food was not bad.
Here’s what we had (I would have ordered more fish, but Matt was in an anti-seafood mood and mama likes to share):
Cocktails –
Chanel No 5 mezcal, jalapeno, lemon, pom – Dear LORD this is mama’s kind of cocktail. Smoky, spicy, a little tangy. Perfection.
The other mezcal cocktail was OK, but not after this one.
The Good Prick – bourbon based, loved the pine in there – really interesting.
Crispy Season Squid with a lemon mayo – Not bad, small portion.
Rainbow Chard – Good, but I could make it too.
Rib-Eye Cap with beets, chantrelles, and pinot noir sauce – the fresh horseradish was the key to this dish.
Orecchiette with broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and chilies – could barely detect the tomatoes and found no trace of chilies but it was OK.
Mac and Cheese – I liked it; could have used a few less bread crumb cubes but other than that, well done.
Donuts – if you’re into dessert you’ll be happy.
We always talk to the table next to us as they’re usually intrigued by all of our envelopes, rituals, etc. (This is kind of a load of shit, I always talk to my neighbors even without the goals excuse…) This time, right before we ripped open our envelopes, neighbor Pamela asked if we were in relationships. Matt obviously said “yes.” They looked at me. “Nope, I’m single… Well that’s ONE I won’t be checking off again this year! Starting off strong. Thanks, Pamela!”
I actually fared better than I had thought, I got 9 out of 20. Sometimes I give myself freebies like “Scan goals into computer in case of flood.” Crap, I better do that now. Don’t want to miss the freebie next year…
Hat-Cat-moe.-B.lou-Ween Bday!
Every year, I try to put together fun events around my birthday to distract myself from paying attention to how old I am.
The run for this year was as follows:
Thursday “day of” girls dinner at Hatfield’s.
Friday dinner at Hungry Cat, then stumble over to Henry Fonda Music Box for the moe. show.
Saturday dinner at Bottega Louie, then cruise over to Ween at the Wiltern.
Dinner at Hatfield’s was great. The space has been occupied by a number of restaurants since I’ve lived in L.A. and I’ve tried them all. It was Citrus (1986-2001), Alex (2001-2004), Meson G (2004-2006), Red Pearl Kitchen (2006-2009), and how Hatfield’s. I had been to Hatfield’s a few times at its original location on Beverly (where Eva is now) but hadn’t been since it moved.
We had a round table for 6 out on the patio. I liked the feel of the main room better, but we were going to squeeze a 7th in for drinks later so the round table was the way to go. Beansie scored a cocktail at the bar while we were waiting to be seated. To me, it was too mild, sweet, and weak. But I’m very much an “in your face” cocktail girl. Less sugar, more ginger, less watery, more booze, please! I decided to stick to the wine list.
I capped our selection at $60 which was pretty limiting, but gave us a few options.
We went with a Malbec first. Home Fry had never met a Malbec she didn’t like. I didn’t like this one. It was sour, high acid, pretty foul. The sommelier insisted on taking it back and we went with a Pinot Noir. It was drinkable. We tried a Syrah for the second bottle and that one was fine too, but neither one had me running to purchase for my house.
Here’s what we ate, ordered from favorite to least favorite:
“Croque Madame” Yellowtail sashimi, prosciutto, sunny side up quail egg, grilled brioche – My favorite dish. Never disappoints.
Chilled Poached Main Scallop with bulgur salad, horseradish creme fraiche, muddled citrus – Small portion but great flavors.
Slow Cooked Beef Short Rib with blue lake beans, braised radish, horseradish potato puree – The short ribs were in slices instead of the usual braised and falling off the bone, but still delicious.
Date & Mint Crusted Lamb with roasted heirloom root vegetables, fresh chick peas, potato chive puree – All great flavors.
Warm Creamy Crab Buckwheat Crepe with pickled beets, marinated radish, fine herbs – A little too creamy, but still done well.
Charred Octopus with caramelized fennel, saffron vanilla braised hearts of palm, red wine olive puree – I wanted to love this dish, like as much as Laney did, but I thought it was a little bland. I tasted none of the saffron or vanilla on the hearts of palm (I barely tasted any hearts of palm in the hearts of palm…)
Potato & Egg Yolk Filled Raviolo with creamy goat cheese, roasted baby beets, sherry vinegar emulsion – One big raviolo in a beet heavy sauce. Pretty good.
Brown Butter Roasted Cauliflower with sauteed plantains, roasted almonds, golden raisins, parsley root puree – Not bad if you’re a raisin person.
Kabocha Squash Agnolotti with roasted chiodini mushrooms, pork confit, maple brown butter broth – This was the least memorable to me.
Our lactard was told to pick a protein and they’d make it for her with no dairy. She got salmon and it was fantastic.
Sugar & Spice Beignets with chocolate fondue and a Mexican chocolate milkshake shot – Their signature dessert. The milkshake rocked.
Chocolate Caramel Semifreddo with salted peanut crunch and bitter chocolate sorbet – Didn’t suck.
Great meal, great friends. Good attention to detail, though I wasn’t WOW’ed by as many dishes as I’d expected.
Team Hatfield's Valet
The Hungry Cat was the second set of the run.
I picked it because a) it’s rad and b) it’s super close to the Fonda. But they wouldn’t take a table bigger than 8 ppl for a reservation. So I took matters into my own hands and had three friends each get a table for 4 ppl on Open Table and then put in the notes that we wanted to sit together. Worked like a charm!
We arrive at The Hungry Cat!
Here’s what we had:
Cocktails –
The Sleepy Jean (cue The Monkees) – chamomile-infused reposado tequila, honey water, dash of dolin dry vermouth – awesome!
Luke’s Lemonade – blue ice vodka & mint, house-made lemonade *for every Luke’s Lemonade sold a donation is made to Alex’s Lemonade Stand- love the charity portion, but it was a little sugary for me.
The Michelada – Tecate, lime, hot sauce (w/ or w/o grapefruit) Nirvana! I will dream about this cocktail
The Michelada
OYSTERS! – the cherry on top to any bday
Just stick a candle in the ice bed, please!
Crab Salad – would have loved it if it actually didn’t have cilantro in it.
Octopus – Yum
Salmon Beignets – Delish
Crab Legs – Super sweet (this was the right place for sweetness!) and meaty!
Scallops – One of my faves
Striped Bass – the picture didn’t come out, but this was the best dish.
The pouty face I made when I was told we couldn’t get the Pumpkin Beignets with bacon maple sauce for dessert (because it was only on the DineLA week menu) worked as we were presented with a plate of it with a big candle shortly after. Totally worth whatever dignity I lost in the process. They were unbelievable.
The Meyer Lemon Parfait was bad-ass too.
Team Hungry Cat
On to moe. at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda, next on the agenda. Thankfully I had my pregnant friend Amy with me. We were able to cut the line that wrapped around the corner and enter through the handicapped entrance! The show was a slight bust. I love the fonda and I love moe. but this show wasn’t my fave. It was a little sleepy and spacey. The downstairs was a mess. I didn’t meet up with half of my friends. BUT, I worked us getting two tickets for the upstairs balcony (Baby Stouffer – whom I affectionately call Efferifus – gets MVP of the evening) and was able to stub my six ppl up there with us. So we had a nice seated row of the “adult section” and were able to chill. Not a rager, but it all worked out in the end.
Here’s the setlist:
Set 1: Jazzwank > Plane Crash, Where Does The Time Go? > Yodelittle > Skrunk > Yodelittle, Seat Of My Pants
Set 2: Opium > Downward Facing Dog, Chromatic Nightmare, Y.O.Y. > Puebla > Tubing The River Styx > The Pit > Moth, E: New York City, Crab Eyes
Amy, Jord, and Efferifus in the "adult section" upstairs
Bottega Louie was insanity. Happy, stimulating, insanity. Not only was there a line for a table, there was a line to put your name down for the list for a table. The waiters were super sweet, the food was great, they were hassle free for a large party, and downtown is really convenient for a Wiltern show.
Team Bottega Louie
Here’s what we got:
Caprese Salad – good, the tomatoes were peeled, I liked it.
Burrata Pizza – how could that be bad?
Clam Pizza – not bad, but wasn’t expecting sweet roasted peppers in the mix.
Pappardelle – with mushroom and fois gras duxelle- best dish by far
Fettuccini Belmundo – with cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and Parmesan – good
Trenne – with braised rib eye and kale – wanted to like it better.
Brussles Sprouts – I love them always, but these were a little salty.
Meatballs Marinara – Mmmmmm.
Portobello Fries – Good, but would have liked a lighter batter.
Grilled Squid and Chorizo Ravioli – the ravioli was good but could have had a richer sauce.
Diver Scallops – wrapped the Prosciutto with lentils and salsa verde – awesome.
Dessert: Le Grand Macaron – I was stuffed, I didn’t try it, but everyone else was happy with it.
Wine:
Nebbiolo Malvira Langhe Piemonte 2006 – was a little light and boring, but drinkable.
The Prisoner – Orin Swift Napa 2008 – makes me cry with every sip. I want a case every time.
Ween at the Wiltern was killer. Shamefully, I can’t quite remember if I’ve been to a Ween show before. I think I have. But this is the one I’ll remember. My friends had a pit wristband waiting for me when I got there and the crowd was rocking.
When I said I wouldn’t be upset if dinner ran into overtime and we were late for the show, it never occurred to me that they’d play Spirit of ’76 in the lost beginning. But the entire show kicked ass so I almost didn’t notice I had missed it. We apparently arrived while it was playing but someone had to chat in the lobby for a few minutes and take a picture…
Here’s the setlist for Ween at the Wiltern Saturday January 29, 2011:
1. “Exactly Where I’m At”
2. “Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy”)
3. “Touch My Tooter”
4. “Even If You Don’t”
5. “Freedom of ’76”
6. “Spring Theme” (“Transdermal Celebration”)
7. “Bananas and Blow”
8. “Spinal Meningitis”
9. “Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?” “Learnin’ to Love”
10. “With My Own Bare Hands”
11. “The Argus”
12. “Gabrielle”
13. “Puerto Rican Power”
14. “I’ll Be Your Johnny On the Spot”
15. “Object”
16. “Did You See Me?”
17. “Buckingham Green”
18. “Your Party”
19. “Let’s Dance” (David Bowie cover)
20. “Slow Down Boy”
21. “Ace of Spades” (Motörhead cover)
22. “Push th’ Little Daisies”
23. “What Deaner Was Takin’ About
24. “Roses Are Free”
25. “Put the Coke On My Dick”
26. “Ocean Man”
27. “The Mollusk”
Encore:
28. “Fiesta”
29. “Take Me Away”
30. “Mr. Richard Smoker”
31. “Lucky Man” (Emerson, Lake and Palmer cover)
Boogie in the Back!
Thanks so much to all of my awesome friends who helped me celebrate in such style this weekend! Your turns are next!
oxoxo
Part of Team Ween
The true closer of the weekend was TV recovery day Sunday. The ProBowl -> SAG awards on delay. Ryan made us dinner and I swooned over my latest Spanish wine discovery, Juan Gil 2008. It’s 100% Monastrell and there’s a little recovery packed in every sip.
Red Medicine – No Codeine Required
My girlfriend Haryn and I decided to go out for an impromptu dinner out.
Sometimes we like to wait for new openings to get a chance to “grow their legs” before checking them out.
We didn’t feel like granting this place the leeway. They didn’t really need it, despite the scalding yelp reviews I discovered after the fact.
After almost needing a nap because clearly there was some indica that snuck in to my “try to be strictly sativa” nug jar, and Haryn needing me to get the jaws of life out because her necklace got caught on the seatbelt and she was stuck behind the wheel in the drivers seat for a good five minutes before I figured out to stop standing on the sidewalk and just go rescue her, we made it to the Wilshire hot spot.
Forget about the fact that not one thing at the Vietnamese inspired place couldn’t be made with out cilantro, not one thing was less than awesome.
Here are my favorite dishes in order:
Chicken Dumplings – self assembly with a lettuce wrap.
Brussles Sprouts – fried with shrimp rice crisps and purple basil.
Crab Spring Roll – with chervil and yuzu.
Scallops – tiny little guys wading in a bath of light almost Bernaise-esque sauce with a quince/apricot like “sea-buckthorn” paste.
Amberjack – my least exciting dish but it was light and not overly pickled.
The Cocktails – #18 was the one to go for but we’re glad we tried #38 just to know it’s tartness beneath coconut frothiness exists.
The Desserts were even better and I’m not a dessert girl (literally, we almost got an egg dish and a sweet potato dish instead, but the waiter made us get these two desserts…)
The lime was rad.
But the coconut made me cry. That take a minute, eyes closed, head posed, sit in silence type of moments.
I don’t normally dream of desserts and I’d go back for this shit.
Red Medicine: NOT the Robitussin (i.e. Blech!) kind!
Pasa on Bar Masa – Amateur Hour
The Masa bar meal we ventured out to for my mother’s bday last night had such a shamefully laughable incident, it’s just too good to keep to ourselves.
Our meal started out nicely. We were paying through the nose for deliciously concocted cocktails and well executed sushi, as expected. The sweet shrimp with uni sotomaki was my personal fave. My $25 cocktails were fantastic. I had been toying with the idea of concocting a shiso mojito and they had one here which validated my bar mixing instincts. But their Mikan Agave – don julio 1942 tequila, sudachi (a Japanese lime relative), and fresh Japanese tangerine juice took the prize. My dad and I could have thrown back six of them each.
Incidentally, we ordered one dish that was tricky. The seared kobe – medium rare. It came out well done on the ends and medium in the middle. At $70 for the appetizer, we assumed the kitchen would want it to come out as we’d like. The waiter asked how it looked, we said it was a little overdone, he said, “I’ll send it back.” Not a problem.
Two minutes later, this frazzled pipsqueak of a man who called himself a manger said he just wanted to “sort out what the problem was, because the ends are always more done than the middle.” We said, make the ends less done and the middle less done than this. (and thanks for the lesson and attitude?) He kept making it a problem. My mother was already fully annoyed that we were bothered and argued with, and with no apology. Most restaurants of that caliber would have been embarrassed that the well done meat was sent out to begin with. Plus the manager was agitated, rude, and condescending. Not good to expose to the customers.
Then it got even better. The manager returns about five minutes later and says, “Chef says you should order something else. He doesn’t think he can cook it to your liking.”
I said, “If this is medium rare, just make us one, rare please.”
He argued. He mocked my shocked face. I just repeatedly suggested to bring us one that was rare.
Ten minutes later it came out perfectly. Hassle unnecessary?
How shameful and embarrassing on Masa’s part. (though my mother will add “no candle in the dessert we paid $30 for” to the chiding list.)
Oxtails, Cocktails, and Rock Tales 