Bangkok Cafe

Last night some friends and I went to the Bangkok Cafe at 6004 Torrey Rd. and had a fine meal. The restaurant is small, only about 8-10 tables, and it's located in a small strip-mall. It has standard strip-mall decor, simple decorations and tables that vaguely hint at something Eastern. Tolerably comfortable chairs, but really the kind of place that reminds me of a graft, like the movie The Sting, in which an entire place can be transformed into an office in moments with no hint of its past.

My friends and I arrived for an early dinner and the place was empty, but by the time we left there were 3 other tables with people. Oddly, I think there was only one person working in the restaurant, in the front and back. The man was pleasant enough and somewhat attentive. I was never left wanting anything.

I couldn't resist ordering the standard Pad Thai. I know it isn't necessarily the best Thai food, or the most interesting, but I just love it. I can imagine someone opening a Thai restaurant and dedicating an entire kitchen section for the production of Pad Thai because so many patrons order it. I did. And guess what? It was great. In fact it was so good my friends were shocked I ate my entire dinner so fast. (I told them if they spent so much time gossiping that they didn't get a chance to eat.) Another friend ordered the Pad Prik, and that was very good as well. And though he ordered his medium spicy, like I did, his wasn't nearly as hot. Still, it was very good.

I'd go back, but not for the atmosphere. It would just be for the food. I recommend it to you as well.

Mad Cow is Coming, Mad Cow is Coming!

Okay, maybe the sky isn't falling, but I stumbled across this article on the problems with US beef and why we are at risk of an outbreak of mad cow disease. In fact, the blog links to story of someone in Japan who caught it (here). It's only a matter of time until the US has a legitimate outbreak with current beef feeding practices, or the government will continue to hide the beef industry's dirty, repulsive secret of feeding blood and sinew of dead cattle to other cattle.

Now go fire up that grill and plop on some burgers. . . or some portabellas.

Flower

Just a picture I took in the garden yesterday.

John's "Family" Pizzeria

Some friends and I went to a new Italian restaurant last night in search of better pizza. I had stumbled upon John's while driving down Davison Road for an appointment and decided it might be worth a try. It was.

One might question whether the "Family" in quotes in the name was for the mob or more a family-style restaurant. It's definitely the latter. This restaurant is well-lit, has very homey decorations, including lighted plastic grapes (a nice touch) and odd, painted portraits. We were sure it wasn't a mob front when we saw they didn't have a liquor license and they carried chocolate milk. I hoped to see a mob boss or cappo, but all I saw were locals who walked to the restaurant from the neighborhood. I also noticed none of them ordered pizza, what we had gone to the restaurant for, and was a bit disconcerted. But the menu had many items I'd like to try, including "Baked Italian Favorites" like ravioli and vegetable lasagna. I really like baked pasta.

We sat in a large booth and often waited longer than I would have liked for service, but the server was nice. We ordered two large pizza and a appetizer combo plate. It came with the usual assortment of frozen snacks like onion rings, zucchini, mushrooms, and cheese. It was adequate; how can you screw up fried food? The pizzas, one with pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and yellow peppers and the other with pineapple, green peppers, and ham, were decent. Nothing stood out as great except the crust, which was thin and very crisp. We loved that but collectively decided we preferred Luigi's toppings better.

We considered dessert but opted to go back to our friends' house and have ice cream and conversation.

I would be happy to go there again and try some of the other things on the menu, but I don't know if I will seek the place out.

Recommendation: Maybe, but it didn't set my heart aflutter.

World Expo of Beer in Frankenmuth, MI

Okay, first let me state I'm not a big fan of Frankenmuth because it's primarily a tourist destination and home to the largest Christmas complex in the world. Why the Christian god decided to shine down on a small town in mid-Michigan, I don't know, but he did. And now we have Bronner's.

But more to the point of this post. My wife, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law all went to Frankenmuth to partake in the 10th Annual World Expo of Beers. Frankenmuth has large tents set up with 32 different beer booths. Brewers ranged from the juggernauts of Coors and Anhueser Busch to microbrewers like Dragonmead Microbrewery and Frankenmuth Brewery.

I avoided the larger brewers and focused on the small (and German). Overall I was pleased. A $1 ticket bought a 4 oz. sample, and the brewers were generous with the pour (occasionally forgetting to take my ticket). They even had a few booths with food and souvenirs.

We stayed nearly 2 hours at the Expo. We didn't stay for the music, and we sadly missed Beer School. But we had seen what we wanted and tasted what we wanted, so we decided to venture into the main strip of Frankenmuth to act like the tourists we were.

On the strip, we wandered into shops and enjoyed a perfectly warm sunny day. We ate at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant and had their "famous" chicken dinner. It's really good fried chicken and it comes with lots of other goodies, like stuffing (good tasting -- soggy texture), mashed potatoes (good --how can you screw those up?), and three "salads" that included a bean salad, pasta salad, and some kind of cranberry-orange relish-type salad (very good and refreshing). The meal is finished with a small bowl of ice-cream.

As tourists we had a good time sampling candy and cheeses. If you haven't been to Frankenmuth, it's worth a visit just to see what it's like. If you can time it during one of Frankenmuth's festivals it's even better. I don't recommend going any time near Christmas (Nov. 1 - Jan. 15) when things seem a bit crazier there. I still have never been to the enormous Bronner's CHRISTmas complex, so I can't recommend it either. But if you like fried chicken and have some good friends to go with, it's worth a trip every few years.

As a last note, we stopped at my wife's grandmother's house for visit and got a homemade strawberry-rhubarb pie. They are amazing. My favorite pie after having hers. Sorry, you'll have to get your grandmother to make it. I'm not sharing.

Frist Filibuster

Check out Princeton University's Filibuster of Senator Frist. You can watch it live here. It's already been going on for nearly 70 hours. I think it's great, not only because I think changing the senate rules for something I disagree with would be terrible, but I think it's great that students are taking an active, creative role in politics.

If more students and young people became more active in politics, the future of America would be better represented in government. It wouldn't just be rich, special interests (read large corporations) that really should have no say in government that had an influence.

My two cents for the morning.

The Lunch Studio

Despite having a stuffy nose, and thus an inability to taste, I went with friends to The Lunch Studio today for, what else, lunch. I've been skeptical of The Lunch Studio since it took over two hours to get served Sunday brunch. It wasn't so much that it took 2 hours(that just happened to some friends and I at the French Laundry in Fenton, but I'll get over it), it's that the service is so idiosyncratic and prolonged that the experience, well, was not really worth a return visit.

Let me digress. They don't have a coffee pot. When you want a refill, the server, when she materializes from the ether, takes your cup, fills it from an unknown source, and returns it. One cup at a time. I don't think she even took one cup in each hand. I recall she did it one cup at a time. Thank goodness I wasn't fourth or fifth in line for a cup.

The food had a similar pattern. One person at a time, and sometimes it was one plate at a time. So your eggs could be cold, or eaten, before your bagel arrived. The food once it arrived was fairly good, but not nirvana.

But that was brunch. Today we had lunch, and the assurance from my friend the service was better for lunch. And it was. I had a grilled cheese with tomato and a cup of blended roasted pepper and corn soup. Both were good; I would recommend them. The service again was a bit odd. It was prompt (a plus), but we received our soup before our sandwiches. One friend, who was only having soup, had his with ours, so while two of us ate sandwiches, he could only watch (I was never good at sharing). Now most restaurants I've eaten at serve "soup and sandwich" together. It's obviously a service choice, but what I think is an odd one.

The food was good, the service fine (despite the oddities), and the company exquisite. I'm sure I'll return because I believe is supporting businesses in downtown Flint and it has a fairly good menu with healthy and vegetarian options (read -- not Coney).

If your around town and have some time, consider stopping in, but be prepared for quirky service.

Spring Showers?

It's still snowing.

Illegal Executions

As many of my friends know, I am adamantly against the death penalty. Despite research that shows the death penalty does not deter crime and costs more than incarcerating a prisoner for life, and despite the seemingly clear idea that killing someone does not fit into the "culture of life" (read Pope not Prez on this one), states still insist on murdering those who perpetrate heinous crimes (and one former governor mocked those condemned).

I'm still not sure how the state murdering someone does not violate the 8th Amendment, but maybe I'm slow. I know how Texas is trying to get around the "unusual" part of the amendment: kill as many as they can and then it won't be unusual (According to the BBC story Texas and Virginia account for 45% of executions in the US. I don't doubt it.). The cruel part, though, has come into question from a recent BBC report. It seems victims of state-sponsored murder may have been "aware" during their execution. It's a good thing guards use a paralyzing agent so victims can't move, scream, or provide any other clue to their suffering other than some apparent muscle thatches.

It seems that victims may not have gotten enough of the drug sodium thiopental, an anethetic that supposedly numbs them before they are given pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes them before they are given potassium chloride, which kills them. It seems the drugs were administered by untrained staff, and they do not know how much dosage to administer.

Okay, now explain to me how this isn't cruel?

What Would Hemingway Say?

Did you know Wisconsin is considering cat hunting? Yes, those cute little furry creatures who like to snuggle up to you while you're on the couch or trying to work at the computer. They're only following the model set by South Dakota and Minnesota. Oh, hunters would only be allowed to kill feral cats, or any domesticated cat that isn't under the control of its owner. Well, I know all of the cats in my neighborhood are always under the control of their owners when they're outside.

This is important because according to a state [Wisconson I assume] study, feral cats kills 47 million to 139 million song birds a year. With highly accurate and specific studies like these, I can see the immediate need.

I'm interested to think about how cunning a hunter must be to stalk another predator. Would we need to cat-bait with cans of tuna fish? Would we use decoys, like stuffed Tiggers or Hello Kitty? I can see it now. We can have Hello Kitty crying for help from the evil clutches of Scooby Doo! Surely some cat would come to her rescue.

I think Michigan should jump on the bandwagon before it's the last state in the Midwest to allow cat hunting. I can only imagine the tourist revenue that will be lost because we're behind the times. Come on Lansing, get with the program. Hunting Mourning Doves is so last year. Now it's cats!

[Update: Apparently the governor of Wisconsin killed the cat-hunting bill. Read more here.]

Michigan State Women's Basketball

I was sorry to see the Michigan State women lose in the championship game (especially to a team from Texas). They had a great season.

I also didn't hear about any rioting in East Lansing. Hmmm. Interesting.

Go State!

Well it appears Michigan State showed its true colors again. Win or lose, State fans like to cause trouble. I'm not sure why they don't care if they are sprayed with pepper spray or gagged with tear gas. Somehow neither of those options appeals to me. Now, if a cop in full riot gear (this is worthy of analysis, too, but maybe in a different post) reads a message asking me to disperse after a sporting event or risk suffering bodily harm and arrest, I'm going to leave or go back into the bar.

Clearly having half the police force of southern Michigan in riot gear standing in the street lends itself to another potential Kent State, but losing a sports event isn't worth it. If you think it is, get a life. There are far more worthy things for college students to protest. (For example, the Michigan government going back on its promise to not cut higher ed. money if higher ed. doesn't raise tuition beyond the rate of inflation. Granholm looks to be doing it for the second year in a row. Now that is worth protesting.)

I wonder if MSU fans will riot after the MSU women play in the championship game. Then again, I wonder if most fans there even know the women are in the championship game.

Go State! You make us proud.

Eating in Adrian

On Friday I attended a conference in Adrian, and I had to eat breakfast before I arrived. I stopped at the first small restaurant I saw, the Main Stop Restaurant, because it had a sign that it was voted the best restaurant in Adrian. I later learned it won the best breakfast in Adrian four years in a row (1999-2002).

I sat at the counter, something I used to love to do, but seldom do now because I don’t typically eat out alone any more. The place is small, with fewer than a dozen tables and only 6-8 counter seats. It was busy, but not bustling when I arrived around 8. The staff were all middle-aged women or older, except for the young, female dishwasher. I was quickly served my coffee and water, and the server seemed surprised I knew exactly what I wanted. Eggs over hard (The surgeon general has determined that eating raw eggs can make you ill because they carry nasty and disgusting diseases like salmonella. Besides that, eating nearly raw egg yolks is disgusting in itself and just wrong.), home fries, and wheat toast. It’s my favorite breakfast when done well, and it’s a benchmark I use for new restaurants.

The breakfast came quickly was inconsistent. The eggs and toast were quite good (How do you mess up toast?), but the home fries, thinly sliced potatoes, were soft and relatively tasteless. The servers were friendly, and when I asked for more coffee and water, they brought it promptly. The problem was I had to ask. I don’t think a patron should have to ask for more coffee in a breakfast joint. Coffee should flow freely.

I was ultimately pleased with my experience, and I would return, but I think my small complaints could have been the reason the Main Stop hasn’t won best breakfast honors since 2002.

If you’re ever in Adrian and looking for breakfast that doesn't come wrapped in wax paper and the question, “Would you like fries with that,” I would recommend the Main Stop Restaurant. It’s located at 1003 N. Main Street. It may not be the “best” breakfast in town any more, but you won’t leave disappointed.

ECWCA Conference

I’m at the East Central Writing Center Association conference at Siena Heights University in Adrian Michigan. I’ve already seen two interesting presentations, and I’m in a third now (don’t tell the presenter).

The first was on research agendas for writing centers, presented by Kurt Kearcher from California University of Pennsylvania. He talked about his center’s project, Writing Center Artifact Research Project (WCARP) and how centers can develop their own research agendas to help professionalize the work done in the center.

The second was on an online writing center module developed at Michigan State U., presented by David Sheridan and Michael McLeod. It was interesting to see how MSU is pushing the envelope of what writing centers can do with technology, moving beyond a simple electronic, presentational resource or a place for online consultancy. The module hinted at rudimentary computer modules that have been condemned philosophically because they are simply glitzy version of worksheets, but the module is clearly far more sophisticated. And, far more importantly, it enables students to work through their own ideas, working on their own writing – it isn’t disconnected from the student’s own work.

Right now I’m in a session on blogging. There is some kind of irony here. The presenter has spent a lot of time explaining blogs, and now she is interested in our ideas and opinions to help her shape her research.

I better pay attention. More to come.

Heaven and Hell Refuse Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell nearly died from viral pneumonia, an illness resulting from a seemingly potential AIDS complication. He was in critical condition, and I believe very near dead, for the second time this year. Read about it at CNN.com. It appears, though, heaven refused to take him because of his incendiary language that violates the tenets of his own religion and G-d. His intolerance and inability to love his neighbor nearly as much as he loves himself has resulted in him receiving a heavenly Heisman rejection.

An additional twist is the refusal of hell to take Falwell because he is seen as a threat to the current power structure there. The result of the rejections has left Falwell in a state of limbo on earth and a stabilized condition in the hospital.

Developing story . . .

Do We Have a First Amendment?

The Daily Kos has a story, and links to one from the AP, in which American citizens were removed from a town-hall meeting to tout Bush's plan to eliminate Social Security. Many stories about came out about people removed from Bush's campaign stops during the last presidential election, but this is different.

Given that these are taxpayer-funded events, they should be open to all taxpayers who obtain tickets appropriately. (The people removed from this event received tickets from their congressional representative.) The events have become publicly funded private events. By controlling who can participate, the administration silencing those they disagree with, or more likely fear.

Controlling information is a key to controlling people. It's worked through history, and it appears to be working in the US.

Joseph Goebbels would be proud.

Timeless

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." -- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Los Panchos

The wife, some friends, and I ate at a relatively new Mexican restaurant in town last night. Los Panchos is conveniently located across the street from the popular pizza/Italian restaurant, Luigi's, on Davison road near Franklin (Yes, the Davison and Franklin where the shell of a restaurant named Angelo's stands, but that is a story for another entry.)

What I first liked about Los Panchos when I entered was how strikingly similar the atmosphere was to many Mexican restaurants I'd eaten at in Baja. It is relatively sparse, with few decorations. The tables and chairs are similar to Coney fair; they look like they could just be hosed down at the end of the night and left to dry, but they weren't uncomfortable.

The service was friendly and the menu was adequate. They don't have the extensive menu that El Potrero has, but they do serve beer. A full bar will open in a room next door soon, so I imagine they will have a full compliment of liquor. My friends had a combination plate, their son had a taco, and my wife had a tostada place. I had an amazing plate of wet tamales to wash down my Negra Modelo.

The plate had three tamales, all thin, but longer than the mini-tamales one finds at many other Mexican restaurants and Tippy's. They weren't as massive as the tamales I remember eating while growing up, but there was enough to eat. (I still managed to eat part of my wife's dinner.)

What might have pleased all of us most was the beans and rice. They weren't the most amazing I've ever had, but given that I have yet to find good beans and rice in the Midwest, I was ecstatic.

I've learned that this Los Panchos is actually the second one opened by the owner, Frank Molina. The first Los Panchos is located on Fenton Road. The Davison Road Los Panchos will also sport a Mexican Bakery. I assume they won't call it a pandaria because no one would know what it is, but I hope their bread is as good as the bread I ate as a child from local pandarias in Ensenada.

I look forward to the bar and bakery, and I can't wait to go back to Los Panchos. If you're interested in going, they're address is 2209 Davison Road in Flint, and their phone number is 233-8226. If you go, tell me what you ate and what you think.

Sick Food

I was reading the news online and stumbled across the news of an "execution" (or state-sanctioned murder). Coming from a Southern, fairly christian state, the news of an execution didn't suprise me, but what caught my attention was that the news included the victim's last meal.

The news often covers the last meal and it manages to show up in movies in which someone is being put to death, and I wondered why food (and a final visit or not from a padre) was so interesting to our culture. What is so attractive about knowing what a condemned man or woman's last meal is? I thought it could be that it is representative of the person. What they choose to eat could tell us much about the victim. It could be that it represents one of the few choices a death row inmate gets to make in the final 20 years of his/her life. Why are we so interested in what the walking dead want to eat?

A quick and brief Internet search turned up a website that didn't surprise me, but bothers me. It's deadmaneating.com. Just as you might guess, it provides information about the last meals of victims of state-sanctioned murders. You can even buy products from it on cafepress.com. As I'm writing this, I am thinking, "How generous! Those states that kill people are nice enough to feed their victims anything they want just before they die."

Now as someone interested in food, I think it would be interesting to look at the food choices victims make from a sociological view. I can't imagine myself ordering a pizza from Domino's as a last meal (unless I was trying to commit suicide), but I can imagine asking for comfort foods. Maybe Domino's is comfort food for someone. But what if the CEO of corrupt major corporations were on death row (more worth worthy candidates than 15 year old boys and the mentally incapacitated)? I doubt they would order pizza, but how would I know.

It might be an interesting culinary journey to eat the same food as the condemned, but somehow I don't think it would be the same.

Procrastinating

I haven't posted in a while, and I thought I should at least let the larger world know that I haven't fallen off the turnip truck. Yes, I'm still here and busier than ever. Over the break, I (with the help of dear friends) painted our living room. Painting is a task I hate. Now I use the word often, but I really do mean hate here. To be more specific about what I hate about painting, I hate prep work and trim. Rolling is easy. You just dip a roller in a pan of paint, slather it on a bit space, and hope it runs into smooth or interesting patterns. Prep and trim takes attention and detail work. No real slathering is allowed if you want things to come out okay. The paint job came out okay. But there will be no close inspection of the walls or trim allowed!

On a completely different note, we dogsat some friends' dog over the break as well. She is well-behaved and a general pleasure to have around (Except for the occasionally annoying way she wants you to pet her and doesn't want you to pet her at the same time. I saw this in our Boxer, Bailey, and was frustrated when he did it too.). Well, what we most appreciated about having her around was the calming affect she had on our dog Kisha. We didn't really notice it until we were back to one dog and Kisha returned to the habits we had happily forgotten she did since Bailey passed away. She whines more, follows us around the house more closely (which is excessively annoying when you consider how big she is and slowly and poorly she moves). She has a way of blocking a passage that can only be rivaled by a herd of stubborn yaks standing on a mountain pass. Is another dog in the picture? I don't think so at this point, but I told my friends I'd love to dogsit anytime they need a break.

Okay, enough procrastinating. I have work to do and I'm sure you do too. Why else would you be reading this blog?