Thanksgiving in LA

We’re spending Thanksgiving week in Los Angeles with Linda’s mom. It’s given us an opportunity to catch up, since we haven’t seen her in two years. Dani flew in from Chicago on Wednesday, and we met her at LAX, where the theme building has been refurbished and has some really cool lighting.

The week is affording us an opportunity to visit some favorite restaurants: El Cholo, Smoke House (world’s best garlic bread), Stan’s Corner Donuts (world’s best donuts), Tommy’s (world’s best chili burgers) and Duke’s (world’s best, um, nothing).

And to try some new ones: La Cachette Bistro, Geoffrey’s, and Water Grill.

For Thanksgiving we had dinner at Craft with Marjorie, Linda’s cousins, Adele and Vicki, Vicki’s daughter and son Leslie and Matt, and Matt’s wife Lauren. It was really a good place for a holiday dinner, because they had lots of large tables, and the food is always served family style. Everything was delicious, especially the veggies, mushrooms, pureed squash and bread stuffing. Dani’s and my favorite dish was the baby brussels sprouts(!) There were also lots of desserts, interesting ice creams (sour cream, a favorite flavor), and many leftovers to take home. We ordered a wonderfully creamy Delamotte Champagne off the list, and we brought a buttery 2006 Ramey Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay, and a somewhat lightweight 2005 P. Dubreuil-Fontaine Corton Perrieres Burgundy that we’d obtained the day before at Moe’s Fine Wines.

Elton John

Elton John has devoted this year to resurrecting the career of Leon Russell, his early inspiration. At Daytona Beach last night Sir Elton even came out first to introduce Leon’s half hour set. Leon’s long white hair and beard make him look like Santa Clause wearing a white cowboy hat. He’s frail, and shuffles onstage with the help of a cane, but his piano playing is undiminished, and his style is so similar to Elton’s that it’s often hard to tell who is playing.

Leon’s opening set ran 30 minutes, and included only two songs we knew, Tightrope and Song For You. Then he took a break and Elton took the stage, perking things up with Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting, and a half hour of other hits.

The center piece of the concert saw Leon return and the duo plus large backing band played nearly all of their new album, Union. Listening to the album on the way to Dayton, Linda and I found it slow and somber, but at the concert they performed a complex, uptempo version that was better. As Elton noted, “It’s hard to listen to new music,” but the crowd was enthusiastic. Elton was clearly delighted that the two of them had an album at number five, their first top ten “in decades.” The best song is probably Shilo. The final number, a gospel solo by Leon, is a song he wrote to thank Elton for being his “angel.”

The album complete, Leon headed for bed, and Elton played his hits for more than an hour. The audience was on its (overweight, middle aged) feet after every song. For me the highlight is always his improvised introduction to Take Me To The Pilot. If you haven’t experienced his phenomenal piano improvisations, check this out on youtube.

Well past the three hour mark, Elton returned for an encore of signing autographs and finished where he began his career, with a heartfelt Your Song, dedicated to the audience.

As we filtered into the parking lot we reflected on how nice it was to see a concert by someone who clearly wanted to be there, sharing his music with the audience, completely the opposite of our experience with The Eagles.

This concert was extraordinarily loud. Even with earplugs I’m still a bit deaf in one ear. I feel sorry for those who didn’t have them. It’s a shame they insist on cranking the music so loud, because it creates echoes in the arena. The sound was much better on the softer numbers.

Before the show we had dinner at The Cellar, a favorite restaurant in Daytona Beach. It’s in the basement of Warren G. Harding’s home. No kidding.

Victoria and Albert’s Chef’s Table

The Chef's Table

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful evening at Victoria and Albert’s Chef’s Table with Ron and Bev and some new friends, Keith and Parlo Edwards and Adam and Gigi Chilvers.

Chef Scott Hunnell

Chef Scott Hunnel outdid himself with the ten course tasting menu, incorporating our favorite salmon from the Victoria Room menu, and even coming up with some foie gras, which is no longer available at Disney.

Enjoying the Foie Gras

The most spectacular presentation is also my favorite course, the chilled curried lamb, which is served over dry ice that engulfs the table in fog.

Maitre d'Hotel Israel Perez with the lineup

Israel Perez was his usual charming self as our host, and Brian Koziol, a master sommelier, volunteered to open and pour our wines.

Burgundy and Bordeaux from '47, '53 and '55

Ron asked me to bring two old Bordeaux and two old Burgundies, and combined with his and the other guest’s wines, we ended up with twenty rather amazing selections, served—more or less—in pairs to accompany the courses.

The Wines

Champagne Flight

75 Dom Perignon late released Ron 96 points

Vanilla Creme brûlée, caramelized peach compote, limestone, excellent match with the entire amuse bouche

88 Krug 90 points

Green apple, candy, vanilla, seemed very awkward after the Dom

White flight

96 Haut Brion Blanc  Ron 98 points

Chalk, lemon, burnt sugar, candle wax, amazing white, as always; I nursed this for four hours

07 Kistler Vine Hill     Adam 95 points

Toast, smoke, Creme brûlée, considering it was poured next to Haut Brion Blanc, this really showed amazingly well; excellent wine

04 Louis Latour Corton Chalemagne  Keith 90 points

Very pronounced nose like that white powder on “Double Bubble” bubble gum(!),  seyval-like aromas

Burgundy Flight 1

1947 Thorin Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru   Steve 96 points

Big fruit, iron, pine, perfect with curried lamb; one of those magic bottles

1947 Remoissenet Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru    Ron 98 points

Youthful, smoke, milk, drawn butter, minerals, salt, mustard, sweet mint, mushrooms, bacon; initially not as interesting as the Thorin, but incredibly youthful, it evolved for four hours, becoming the red wine of the night

Burgundy Flight 2

1955 Louis Latour Chambertin Grand Cru    Steve 96 points

Very chewy classic chambertin, cherries, menthol, vanilla; a contender for red wine of the night. I got the last pour of every wine, so mine was a bit muddy, since we don’t decant these old wines.

1955 Louis Latour Corton Grancey Grand Cru   Ron 83 points

Bubble gum, wax, bowl of melted butter; this was a really weird wine

Bordeaux Flight 1

1953 Chateau Latour    Ron 93 points

Classic latour, dust, green beans, graphite, walnuts, meat; a great wine, but Burgundy is a tough act to follow

1955 Chateau Latour   Steve no score (defective)

Sweet, fruity, big, cat box, occasionally quite stinky; something wrong with this bottle, for sure

Bordeaux Flight 2

1953 Chateau Margaux RP 98   Ron 92 points

Floral, feminine, fatty, hazlenut; classic Margaux

1962 Chateau Margaux    Steve   no score (corked)

Corky, Minty, feminine, this bottle had a low fill, perhaps the result of the bad cork. I was a bit disgusted that I had two out of four bottles defective, but at least we had lots of other wine, and fortunately the defective ones weren’t the Burgundies!

California Flight

2007 Hundred Acre Ark Vyd    Adam 95 points

Vanilla, mint chocolate, soft, balanced, port like, peppery, syrupy in a good way; may not age but a really pleasant drink right now

2007 Colgin IX Propretary Estate  RP 100 Adam 97 points

Bell pepper, cab franc, merlot, earthy, structured better than the Hundred Acre, so it may age, although I liked the Hundred Acre better

Rhone Flight

1992 Guigal La Landonne   Keith 90 points

Earthy, chalky, tight

1995  Beaucastel Hommage du Jacques Perrin    Keith 94 points

Opulent, chalk, meaty, good acid, classic Rhone

Dessert Flight

2001 Chateau Climens RP 100   Ron 100 points

Vanilla, balanced, Long, peppery, peppermint, clean, refreshing; this wine outshone the 2001 Yquem and Suduiraut we’ve had before, with a bit less botrytis but much more balance. We actually had this with the foie gras, and it was the perfect match.

2001 Rieussec Ron 90 points

Yquem like nose, low acid; Considering how great the other 2001 sauternes have been, this was a disappointment, a bit flabby and uninteresting other than the pronounced botrytis nose

1860 Justino Henriques Madeira Fanal,  Ron  100 points

Wow! There’s nothing better than an ancientMadeira in perfect shape. Alive, great acid balance, citrus, smoke, cherry, bark, vanilla, sea salt, Wine Of The Night. We should have tried this with all the other courses, but it would have blown the other wines (and our palates) away!

Pull

Another of my writing students has been published! Barbara Binns developed her book, Pull, while in my online class. It’s been published by WestSide Books and is available on amazon. Here’s my review:

Becoming A New Person

The greatest books invite us to become their main characters, experiencing their emotional and physical conflicts, suffering their defeats, and cheering for their triumphs. Pull, the brilliant debut novel by B. A. Binns, is just such a book.

Pull is populated with fully-realized inner city characters who are not stereotypes. While acknowledging the milieu of “dead-heads, thugs and wannabe” gangsta clowns, Pull’s characters defy expectation and avoid cliche. These are smart, thinking kids, who are well aware of their limitations as they struggle to make a place for themselves in the high school status quo.

From page one we’re launched into the precarious new life of David Albacore, who is running from a past that haunts him but is inescapable. As David struggles to take care of siblings orphaned by a father he despises, he finds himself unable to overcome the very same passions that drove that man to murder. And Binns perfectly captures the amped-up sexual angst of every teenage boy, as David is smitten by Yolanda, the hottest girl in the “in” crowd — a group he’s sworn to avoid.

When Yolando and David finally come together, sparks fly. But Yolanda means big trouble, because she’s pack leader Malik’s girl, and Malik has it out for David, not only as a romantic rival, but also on the basketball court and — most importantly — as a threat to David’s little sister.

Pull builds to an exciting climax, as David finds all of his problems converging, leaving him wondering what price he is willing to pay, and what it means to let go. Pull is a great read that will appeal to a wide variety of readers, because it’s about real people solving real problems, with love and compassion.

IAAPA 2010

This year’s IAAPA show (and the next ten years!) is back in Orlando. I did a book signing to benefit Give Kids the World. It was nice to see so many old friends who dropped by, but I think I’m going to keep my day job!

I also had a chance to drop by the Alcorn McBride booth, which looks fantastic. Loren really picked out nice furniture, and the show seemed busy.

Today was Ryan’s last day in Orlando, and he made the most of it, working with Adam until it was time to head to the airport. A very productive trip.

Via Napoli Pizza at Epcot

Via Napoli is a new pizzeria constructed at the rear of Italy at Epcot. Their claim to fame is that they import their flour from Naples and carefully match the water used to make the dough. Linda and I tried it when I went to let Ryan into Epcot, and it was pretty authentic. The place is very loud, so I don’t think I’d go out of my way to go there, but that pizza in a different setting would be a favorite.

Festival of the Masters

This weekend is the 35th annual Festival of the Masters at Downtown Disney. Linda and Ryan and I went to Paradiso 37 at Pleasure Island. (Ryan is a programming intern from England, working on iPad apps. He’s here for IAAPA.) As always, the food was really tasty, although we couldn’t get Chaz, our favorite server because they were busy. We tried a couple of new things because Ryan is a vegetarian, and I really liked the corn on the cob appetizer.

Afterwards we walked through the festival, which features 150 artists. There’s a lot of rather crude folk art, but there were also some nice things. The emphasis this year seemed to be on jewelry and art glass. Sue Archer, who painted the picture in our foyer some 25 years ago, had a booth, but I didn’t see the guy who sold us the lenticular photos last year.

They certainly had beautiful weather for the event this year, with 80 degrees and a light breeze all weekend. Of course, as a result, there were lots of people there!

Delish New York Bakery

For dinner I made Bacon Wrapped Scallops and Cilantro Lime Rice. That meant a trip to Whole Foods for wild caught sea scallops and uncured hikory smoked bacon. Whenever I go to Whole Foods I like to stop in at Delish New York Bakery for a cup of coffee. (I do this partly because Barnie’s is next door, and I loathe chain store coffee.) The baker here is a true artisan; she showed me photos of some of the fabulous cakes she’s made, including one that looked just like a Louis Vuitton purse—she had to paint on the frosting. Today she was getting ready for Christmas, making samples including this cute little Christmas tree cake that is $4.99. There’s a little Hanukkah cake behind her, too. It’s really great that there are still a few small businesses like this; I should work harder to patronize them.