(no subject)
i went to the 5th annual voracious tasting & food awards! i'd also gone a couple years ago, & this year was just as awesome. (i took better notes this time.) highlights in a fairly most-delicious order:
beef belly pastrami, pickled cabbage, thousand island, & rye croutons (radiator whiskey)
sweet potato latke, smoked trout, herbed chevre, fig & bacon jam spread, crème fraîche (the skillet group)
yuca empanada with queso fresco & chimichurri (la bodega)
smoked beet & chevre macaroon with alderwood smoke (crush)
smoked trout rillette on crostini with pickled shallot & spring peas (matt's in the market)
carmalized coconut beef, steamed jasmine rice, coconut sambal, sautéed greens, crispy shallot (tanaka san)
chicharrón & beef heart tartar (le petit cochon)
almond joy panna cotta, chocolate crumble, & pirouline cookie (collections café)
curried chicken liver mousse, fruit walnut compote, radish & chive (la bête)
wild alaska king salmon tartare on taro chips, with avocado, cucumber, & cilantro (ponti)
short rib brined in coffee, braised with chocolate, red wine, & veal stock (sky city at the needle)
"foie tofu": foie gras, freshly grated wasabi, bonito dashi (miyabi 45th)
smoked sturgeon & pea purée on crostini (quinn's pub)
grilled short ribs with yuzu & green peppercorn, awarded "best beef bite of the night" (miller's guild)
salt cod brandade on crostini (cafe campagne)
rikikat bi’ lahem: phyllo stuffed with lamb, pine nuts, & spices (cafe munir)
as i know few people who aren't dieting or vegetarian or broke (or some combination thereof), i went with gorthok. seems that was fate: at seattle weekly's swag booth out front, he spun the wheel & won a pair of tickets to see lindsey stirling in concert. this is a sold-out show he desperately wants to see, & thought he'd have to get tickets from a scalper. so the $65 he spent on his voracious ticket turned into $120+ for music. nice!
now on to MY awesome news: i bought in on a 3-week australia & new zealand trip for this year! dear sydney, cairns, melbourne, auckland, waitomo, matamata, rotorua, & queenstown: i will be inside you. i am pretty fucking excited; australia has been in my top five for decades, & it was only half again the cost to do the additional ten days in NZ. here's the basic trip:
fly on my own to LAX (i had enough free airline miles left to cover this :D)
fly to sydney, australia
historic rocks tour (sydney cove, cadman's cottage; harbour views of sydney's opera house & harbour bridge; campbell's cove; the rocks historic precinct)
harbour cruise with seafood lunch
blue mountains canyon & 4WD tour
bridgeclimb (sydney harbour bridge)
fly to cairns, australia
minjin jungle swing
full day outer reef cruise
full day kuranda railway & rainforest tour
fly to melbourne, australia
get tattooed
full day great ocean road tour
phillip island & penguin tour
fly to auckland, new zealand
auckland museum & city highlights tour
skytower orbit restaurant welcome dinner
waitomo glowworm caves
hobbiton movie set tour
te puia rotorua, NZ maori arts & crafts institute
rainbow springs kiwi wildlife park
mitai maori village hangi & concert
wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland
fly to queenstown, new zealand
get tattooed
queenstown sightseeing tour
gibbston valley wine cave (76 meters down)
skyline gondola & famous "taste of new zealand" buffet dinner
abbreviated, it looks like this:
the trip covers swanky hotels & all transport (so much flying) & bunches of meals, & there are about a thousand optional activities including the shotover jet, wilderness/funyak/quad safaris, kawarau river rafting/twin challenge, the milford sound tour, & skydiving/ziplining/things i've already done. i have designs to visit the taronga zoo, which looks amazing, maybe try to hit luna park, & of course i basically want to eat everything adriano zumbo ever conceived of. (v8 cake, helo? & yes, it has been made in chocolate.) & there's one particular kiwi thing i really want to do...
skyjump.
Hurl yourself off the tallest building in New Zealand! You’ll plummet 192 metres off the Sky Tower at 85km an hour!
yes, yes please!
i also want to skywalk, but skyjump's the real attraction. amusingly, i apparently signed up for alerts on both when i learned about those a few years ago, because the only email they've sent me arrived ONE DAY after i signed up for this trip. more amusing still, they're running a 2-for-1 skywalk deal through september 30th... & i'm set to be at the sky tower on the 27th. thanks, universe! for perspective, the sky tower is about twice the height of the space needle. :O :D :O
so in about five months, i'll be off to the land of deadly spiders & deadly snakes & deadly everything else & then on to hobbitworld. (btw, don't miss visualizing the 2.5cm bull ants on that link above, & be sure to read about cone snails: a "venomous, predatory snail" - that's right, a SNAIL - which has, in a single sting, "enough venom to kill 15 healthy adults". yikes, australia!)
oh, & i booked my SEA-LAX flight to arrive a day early so i can hang out with testing4l! speaking of days, there will be no 9-16-14 for lishes but i will get two 10-4-14s, so i hope october is awesome! :D
as i know few people who aren't dieting or vegetarian or broke (or some combination thereof), i went with gorthok. seems that was fate: at seattle weekly's swag booth out front, he spun the wheel & won a pair of tickets to see lindsey stirling in concert. this is a sold-out show he desperately wants to see, & thought he'd have to get tickets from a scalper. so the $65 he spent on his voracious ticket turned into $120+ for music. nice!
now on to MY awesome news: i bought in on a 3-week australia & new zealand trip for this year! dear sydney, cairns, melbourne, auckland, waitomo, matamata, rotorua, & queenstown: i will be inside you. i am pretty fucking excited; australia has been in my top five for decades, & it was only half again the cost to do the additional ten days in NZ. here's the basic trip:
abbreviated, it looks like this:
the trip covers swanky hotels & all transport (so much flying) & bunches of meals, & there are about a thousand optional activities including the shotover jet, wilderness/funyak/quad safaris, kawarau river rafting/twin challenge, the milford sound tour, & skydiving/ziplining/things i've already done. i have designs to visit the taronga zoo, which looks amazing, maybe try to hit luna park, & of course i basically want to eat everything adriano zumbo ever conceived of. (v8 cake, helo? & yes, it has been made in chocolate.) & there's one particular kiwi thing i really want to do...
skyjump.
Hurl yourself off the tallest building in New Zealand! You’ll plummet 192 metres off the Sky Tower at 85km an hour!
yes, yes please!
i also want to skywalk, but skyjump's the real attraction. amusingly, i apparently signed up for alerts on both when i learned about those a few years ago, because the only email they've sent me arrived ONE DAY after i signed up for this trip. more amusing still, they're running a 2-for-1 skywalk deal through september 30th... & i'm set to be at the sky tower on the 27th. thanks, universe! for perspective, the sky tower is about twice the height of the space needle. :O :D :O
so in about five months, i'll be off to the land of deadly spiders & deadly snakes & deadly everything else & then on to hobbitworld. (btw, don't miss visualizing the 2.5cm bull ants on that link above, & be sure to read about cone snails: a "venomous, predatory snail" - that's right, a SNAIL - which has, in a single sting, "enough venom to kill 15 healthy adults". yikes, australia!)
oh, & i booked my SEA-LAX flight to arrive a day early so i can hang out with testing4l! speaking of days, there will be no 9-16-14 for lishes but i will get two 10-4-14s, so i hope october is awesome! :D