Breaking Bad at Aquatennial

To celebrate Aquatennial, we are invited to Mr White's house (his real name).  It is not however Mr White who is cooking, but rather Mrs White.  It appears, Mr White does not have the right lab equipment to prepare his specialty....

There is no loss however, the menu will please just about anyone.  We start with a beet salad, artfully presented in stacked circles with goat cheese (and a touch of mascarpone), pistachios and a tarragon sauce.  Great start.

The soup that follows is just about the perfect way to warm up the stomach for the main entree.  Asparagus soup with some gruyere pastries (with we devour and alarming speed).

The man in entree is a grilled flank steak (I guess Mr White did cook after all) served as a salad with greens and grilled corn and topped with a chimichurri sauce.   The combination is just what the warm summer night is asking for.  The steak is cooked to perfection and the lightness of the salad (as opposed to a heavy starch) results in a great pairing.

Before we get to dessert we are interrupted by a number explosions outside.  Are they gunshots?  Has the DEA finally figure out that Mr White is Heisenberg?  Not at all, the Aquatennial fireworks will postpone our craving for a sweet ending to this meal.  Back from the light and sound show courtesy of Target, we find a berry tiramisu in a jar.  The mascarpone topping is sweet as can be but held at bay by the tartness and acidity of the berries and then rescued again by the sweetness often lady fingers.  The espresso will be served on the side courtesy of Mr White (who clearly remembers the coffee making instructions for chemist colleague Gale Boetticher, because it it heavenly).

The evening is over when Mr White says it's over.  We leave with stomachs full, minds stimulated by the conversation, and the feeling that we somehow dodged a bullet.

Thanks Mr and Mrs White for a great evening.

Les Running Misérables

Following a 16 mile run on June 10, I start having some pain on the bottom of my right foot.  A few days later it has not gone away and I end up at the doctor (I choose a Filipino woman who is specialized in sports medicine and is herself a marathon runner).  A few tests later I am diagnosed with a pre-stress fracture.  That is not quite a stress fracture, but if I keep running it will likely become one.  The treatment is basically the same as a fracture.  4 weeks down :-(

Every time I am off my feet I am miserable.  I feel I will get lazy and never go back to running.  I feel like a sloth, dragging my body through the day.  After four weeks, my doctor allows me to go back to light-duty running.  For the next 14 days I can run for 20 minutes three times per week.

You'd think I'd be static to go back to running, but somehow it is not quite happening.  For sure I do lace up and the first week squeeze every minute out of my 20 prescribed, but I don't seem to get the pleasure I used to.  The second week I do just two our of my three possible runs.  What's happening?  Did I loose my appetite for running?

After two weeks I am supposed to see my doctor again to learn how far I can run, but I've had no pain for over four weeks. I opt to skip the consultation and self prescribe a long run.  This morning I run 11.88 miles in 1:50:32 and just a few miles into my run I feel the love back (the love for the run, that is. It is a tad late for my usual Sunday run (7:00AM) and very hot and humid (80 and 70%) and should be a miserable run.  I think precisely because it is, I love it.

As I do my last few miles I realize I am not a runner as I used to think, I am a long-distance-runner.   Everything starts making sense.  When not injures, I run 5 days a week, but four out of those runs are under 6 miles, often even under 5.  I could not care less about those.  I simply run those in preparation for my long Sunday run.  That is the one that's worth my time.  It is not the endorphins or the running high I seek.  It s the misery of the long run.  The numbness of the mind that only a long, monotonous run can produce.  I realize I have joined the ranks of Les Running Misérables.

Paradoxically, I am miserable in my short runs because they don't do much for me, but it is the long miserable run on Sunday that gives me pleasure.  It is that realization that also give me pleasure.  We live and we learn.  We age and get more complex.  We add layers.  And the process of peeling those layers and discovering who we are makes us more human.  I am eager to keep exploring.  Bring it on!

The Times they Are A Changed

Undoubtedly, the Internet has changed our lives very significantly in the last few years.  Music, individual songs, not albums, are available for purchase instantly after using an app to identify a song that is playing.  A couple of google searches and you a ready like a pro to enter a car dealership.   Wanna know what is that strange rash behind your ear?  Web MD is every  hypochondriac dream website.

With a bit of research and preparation, travel is entirely different today also thanks to the internet.  Having an iPhone and iPad with us (even with limited wifi access in Europe) made a huge difference. Here are some of the highlights:

• Not having decided where to go in Europe, we Google "European marathons" and find a list to choose from.  We select Milan. 
• A few other searches give us advice on how to get the lowest international fares for flights.
• Airbnb.com helped us find apartments to rent that were rated by previous guests.
• iPhone and iPad apps provided us with Italian and French dictionaries and a set of maps for every city visited (available even when offline, this was huge!)
• Courtesy of iTunes, we watched a movie of our choice on the plane and a couple while visiting Europe
• Thanks to a combination of apps, we maintained some contact with our jobs to keep up to date on email (very minimal, really)
• About.com gave us hints of how much to tip, were to take a walking tour and what was a must-see in every visit
• Yelp, Google and a number of other sites recommended restaurants in every visited city
• Wikipedia provided more details than the best trained tour guide for the landmarks we visited (all downloaded and available offline through the off line maps app)
• Also through the off-line map apps we had access to train, metro and bus maps
• Of course, our iPhone and AT&T gave us access to phone and text messages at a surprisingly low rate (as long as we kept them brief and few) to save us in a moment of need

I know I missed a number of things we did, searched and downloaded, but I think you get the point.  The times they are indeed a changin', and this is just the beginning…  Bring it on!

Alma's Soul

Just realized I have never created a post for Restaurant Alma.  A jewel just a few blocks from home and one of my favorite restaurants in the Twin Cities.  Alma has a menu that changes four times a year and never, never disappoints.  The short menu includes five each of appetizers, first course and second course and offers a special to get one of each for $48.  Always a difficult selection.

Last night we headed to Alma, a last minute decision, and enjoyed these delicacies:

• Crispy Soft Cooked Egg with watercress, snap peas, oyster mushrooms & xo sauce
• Parmesan Flan with crispy artichokes, black olives & maple syrup
• Mussel & Squid "Fideos" with tomato, saffron & aioli 
• Crispy Bean Pancake with prawns, sesame & scallion sauce 
• Sauteed Halibut with herb sauce, wine braised artichokes & carrots 

My favorites were the parmesan flan (salty in a very good way and a great combination of flavors), the crispy bean pancake (very inventive and great texture) and the herb sauce that came with the halibut (the fish itself had beautiful color, but could have used a minute less in the oven, as it was a tad dry).

If you've never tried Alma, it is time to go.