Air Canada 1, Continental 0

I estimate that I have taken about 20 flights in 2007. Given that it is nearly impossible to not check luggage when you fly out of the UK, I know that I am testing the odds. However, even if one out of every 138 bags was lost in the first nine months of this year(!), it is still pretty remarkable that my bag has been lost twice in the last two months.

Continental lost one between LA and London Gatwick (en route to Dubai) in October. I then spent the next four days (of my vacation) repeatedly calling Continental Baggage Services (to no avail). The events which transpired are behind me now (and by that I mean in a carefully worded 3-page complaint letter, which I'm relatively confident will end up in the circular file). On my way home, I was finally reunited with my bag at the Dubai airport (where I all but found it myself in the fly-infested storage room where lost suitcases are taken to die). Highlight: when "Debbie" offered her personal sentiments saying, "If it were me, I would be calling all over to locate my bag."

The second lost bag was on my return to London Heathrow from Thanksgiving in Houston. Somehow Air Canada managed to separate my bag from Eliot's and it got stuck in Toronto. I was told that it would be arriving later that night and it would be delivered to Cardiff the next day (yesterday). Yesterday morning, I received a text saying the bag had been picked up by the baggage courier, and then I received another text in the afternoon saying it would arrive by 3:30pm. And then...it did! Air Canada not only contacted me once, but twice! *They* contacted *me* and *they* delivered!

From here on out (or until Continental offers me a free round trip ticket), Gilb Thoughts endorses Air Canada and shuns Continental.

What *is* the UAE?

It was 2004 and Chrissy and I were newly minted college grads living in our first apartment in San Francisco's Lower Haight. These were the questions on our minds:

• What is the best flavor of Annie's Mac & Cheese?
  
• Why is J.Crew's website so bad?
  
• Is it worth getting a Fast Pass if I walk home from work some days? (A bus ride was only $1.25 then and the passes were $45.)
• Is it possible to subsist on only pretzels, salsa, pita, and hummus? (And the yellow curry from the cheap Thai place?)
• Should your landlord pay for plumbing?
  
• What is the UAE?

Is it a country? A city? A region? Is it like OPEC? Well, come October 2007, not only do we know what the UAE is, but Chrissy is working in Dubai and Eliot and I have already visited.

© ELA Photography

At least we got one question answered.

St. Mawes and St. Ives

We spent the last weekend in September in Cornwall (the southwest tip of England) with Eliot's parents. We had beautiful weather (well, the last day was a bit windy as you'll see), but beautiful for the UK. Our stay at Hotel Tresanton in St. Mawes (the south side of Cornwall) was heavenly -- the pictures and their website don't nearly do it justice. (Eliot's parents already booked a return trip in April.)

We drove to St. Ives (the north side of Cornwall) on our way back to Cardiff. We only had a few minutes on the beach after our amazing lunch at Porthminster Cafe, but it was gorgeous.

© ELA Photography

The monks had it pretty good...

...well, except for the fact they had to wake up at 2am, there were only two fires in the entire abbey, they had to give up all worldly possessions, etc., etc.

During Eliot's parents' visit, we went to the Tintern Abbey ruins about an hour northeast of us. Founded in 1131, it was the first Cistercian foundation in Wales (and the second in the UK). Tintern surrendered to Henry VIII in 1536 and the buildings eventually fell into disrepair. It was rediscovered in the 18th century, which is when William Wordsworth wrote a poem about the abbey. Blah blah history blah blah poetry blah blah...here are some pretty pictures!

© ELA Photography

(The abbey was as beautiful and serene as it looks. Completely peaceful.)

People don't arrive late to rugby games

WARNING: Belated Post!

On September 15th, Eliot and I leisurely headed into town with the plan of getting haircuts and then watching the Wales/Australia Rugby World Cup game at a pub. France is hosting the Cup, but this game was being held at Millennium Stadium, so the city center was packed. Almost equal numbers of Aussie and Welsh flags were streaming from the backs of excited fans who were clustered around St. Mary's Street's multitude of bars.

Eliot and I stopped for a quick lunch and then about two minutes before game-time, we figured we might as well test the waters with one of the many scalpers. We decided that we would pay £50 for the two of us and, as is often the case with scalping, we eventually found our man.

By the time we got to the gate, we were the only people going in (I'm just so used to arriving in the 3rd and leaving in the 7th!) and by the time we found our (great) seats, Australia had already begun their route of Wales. The thing about Rugby though is everyone seemed in a good mood, which was quite different from the football/soccer game the weekend before when a fight broke out before kickoff (and that was just a qualifying match)! The guy in the next seat was more than happy to explain the intricacies of the game to us newbies, which was fantastic. As the Wallabies extended their lead, you could hear the collective groans of the Welsh, but as the fans poured out into the streets, everyone just seemed pretty jolly.

Word to the wise: Don't think you can go to the bathroom and get beer at halftime. I think I missed at least one try.

[Photos to come.]

Restaurant reviews: It turns out you can eat well here...

...you just have to be prepared to find it/drive to it and then pay (a lot) for it. Eliot's parents' visit gave us the perfect excuse/chance to try the best of the best of Cardiff and Cornwall (southwest England), so here goes...

Sept. 22: Woods Bar & Brasserie (Cardiff Bay): This is generally considered to be one of Cardiff's best restaurants. The restaurant itself is beautiful and in a great location. It differs from the other popular upscale Cardiff joints in that the main courses come with actual garnishes -- like vegetables! and sauces!! -- which was nice. Excluding The Thai House, which I put in a separate "ethnic cuisine" category, this is now my favorite restaurant in Cardiff. Favorite dish: the hake, which Eliot's mom ordered.

Sept. 25: Tides Grill at the St. David's Hotel (Cardiff Bay): Located in the not-so-poor-man's version of Dubai's 7-star Burj Al Arab, Tides turned out to be a tasty little surprise. We had intended on eating in town, but the rain and our somber post-A Mighty Heart mood led us to a restaurant with parking. The fixed price menu looked great and the two lovely bottles of red washed the rain right away. Favorite dish: although the salmon was good, the lamb the Abel men ordered was delicious!

Sept. 27: The Old Post Office (St. Fagans): This restaurant came highly recommended from Eliot's coworkers and it couldn't have been any more adorable. Situated in a tiny "hotel," I felt like we were in a movie (Clue? but in a non-murder-mystery way?), but it might also have been our Cyprus-born server, the only employee we saw, who added to the charm/mystique. Favorite dish: I loved my tagliatelle with ribbons of butternut squash and 'girolle' (yellow chanterelle mushroom).

Sept. 28: St. Petroc's Bistro (Padstow, England): Rick Stein is a big celebrity chef here, so we attempted to make a reservation at The Seafood Restaurant. Well, three months in advance was not enough time apparently, so we 'settled' for the Bistro at 6:30pm (with a warning that we were to finish by 8:15pm). Now, this all seemed a *little* much for me, but it turns out that there was a reason for all that jazz: the restaurant was fantastic! Casual but classy, great food, adorable town. Favorite dishes: all of our main courses were worth getting again (the cod, the lemon sole, the Moroccan fish tagine) and the special cod fritter starter was great too.

Sept. 29: Restaurant at the Tresanton Hotel (St. Mawes, England): First it should be noted that the Tresanton Hotel is completely amazing -- charming and serene and wonderful. So, despite our late arrival (which would have been later had we not coaxed the ferry driver to make one more trip across the river that we were not expecting until the GPS said "in 0.5 miles, board ferry"), we knew the restaurant would be fantastic. We had breakfast on the balcony joining our rooms, followed by lunch on the terrace, then dinner in the restaurant. Favorite dishes and drinks: the Pimm's jug (basically British sangria -- in an awesome way), the salads (with avocado!), the various crab dishes...I can't even really remember because Saturday was such a haze of Dionysian ecstasy/gluttony.

Sept. 30: Porthminster Cafe (St. Ives, England): For our last day in Cornwall, we drove to the Porthminster Cafe in St. Ives at the recommendation of the Tresanton staff. It was the perfect beach cafe on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It was a windy, misty day, so the beach was empty save a lone kite surfer and a bride and groom taking wedding photos, but the cafe was stuffed to the gills (ha! a fish joke!). Eliot loved this restaurant, so I'm sure we will make the 4-hour drive sooner rather than later. Favorite dish: the fish and chips which Eliot and I both ordered. The chips weren't the best, but the fish was.

And now we are fasting.

Lev

If you haven't experienced the adorable (and slightly OCD) wonder that is Tales of Mere Existence, you must dedicate 15 minutes today to watching all of Lev Yilmaz's creations. "Subtext" and "How To Break Up With Your Girlfriend" are two classics, but I stumbled upon this one the other day and it's the perfect thing to watch when you're feeling wistful and/or want to feel wistful:

Schweinsteiger's Seats!

WARNING: Belated post!

Davey was driving around some of the football officials from Germany and, bless his heart, was able to hook us up with some tickets to the Wales vs. Germany Euro 2008 qualifier game at Millennium Stadium two weekends ago. It was my first visit to Millennium Stadium and it's everything that everyone says it is (e.g., the opposite of what Stanford Stadium used to be) -- gorgeous, intimate (the seats start right on the field), and well-designed (every seat is a good one).

The game, however, was less than stellar. Despite Germany having a few major players on the injured list (e.g., Ballack, Frings), they beat Wales easily, 2-0. The stadium was pretty empty -- and there was no beer! -- but we got excited when we figured out that we were in the seats reserved for Bastian Schweinsteiger, the bleached-blond midfielder running a clinic below.

Suffice it to say, rubgy is a much bigger deal here than football/soccer.

© ELA Photography

Pembrokeshire Adventure, Part 3 -- Finally!

We arrived at 9 a.m. for our Coastal Explorer adventure, which was going to be a full day of kayaking, Coasteering© (TYF's signature activity: scrambling, climbing, swimming, and jumping off cliffs), snorkeling, etc. We were fitted with soaking wet wetsuits, life jackets, and wind breakers...and helmets...and shorts to put over everything so the barnacles wouldn't tear the wetsuits. We looked like we were going to a put-on-everything-you-own-in-random-order-and-don't-forget-the- helmets costume party. Eliot was not thrilled about the helmets and kept asking our adventure leader, Emma, if he had to wear it.

Our co-Explorers were two girls about our age from Oxford, a 30-something(?) couple, and a mother and her 9-year-old(?) daughter. The two girls both had kayaking experience, but the others didn't, so I started feeling less nervous (I had only been kayaking once before this endeavor).

Well, it turns out that "nervous" was not what I should have been feeling. The mother/daughter team chose a 2-in-1 kayak and not three minutes later, Emma had to switch with the mom. Not a big deal; it made sense -- the 2-in-1 was a tad unwieldy. However, there were three people that seemed to be having a hard time getting in motion, specifically forward motion, and those three people were not me, Eliot, or the two girls. An hour later, we were only one cliff away from the harbor where we started. At this point it wasn't only the helmet that was bothering Eliot.

We wound through some channels, which was fun, and stopped to Coasteer. It was scary, but I did it! I didn't jump off the highest cliff ledge, which Eliot, one of the girls, and Emma did -- I was just fine with the medium one. Another group of Coasteerers arrived, so we struggled back into our kayaks and headed toward some nearby caves for our lunch break. Somewhere along this stretch, the husband announced that he was having some back problems (or was it a headache?) and Emma had to tie his kayak to the back of hers and pull him. Mind you, she is now paddling for herself, the little girl, and the grown man. Then, to make matters worse, the man capsized in the kayak he wasn't controlling. Instead of getting back in, he asked Emma if it would be okay if he "swam" instead because it was easier for him. She obliged, but later during lunch had to tell him it was very hard for her to pull him [when he was lying like a corpse inducing massive amounts of unneeded drag] in the water.

Suffice it to say, we didn't end up covering a lot of ground/water. We did a bit of snorkeling around the caves. (It turns out the Pembrokeshire Coast is not known for its clear water or it's wide array of wildlife -- we did see lots of kelp though!) We returned to the cliffs to do a few more jumps and, en route, the wife somehow managed to get her kayak stuck on some rocks that were about two meters above the water line. Granted, it was getting a little choppy, but seriously, she couldn't have managed this if she tried. Emma was paddling up ahead and turned around to see what Eliot and I were cracking up about. Eliot yelled, "We've had a beaching!" The woman's husband turned his kayak (which he was back in) around and feebly tried to offer his help. I think she ended up getting out of the kayak and pushing it back into the water. I'm not really sure -- I was trying too hard not to laugh. It was pretty remarkable actually -- the couple and the mom had absolutely no control over their kayaks. Every instinct was wrong and without fail one of them would get stuck completely horizontally in each channel we went through. I had great sympathy for Emma.

Miraculously we all made it back to the harbor.

Rest of the weekend:
We showered at the Eco Hotel (thank you, Andy!) and then learned that the hotel restaurant where we had reservations was closed for the night. This helpful older man (possibly one of the chefs?) called a nearby restaurant and attempted to squeeze us in. By the time we got there, he was actually there as well, and the only option (despite it being 6 p.m. and the restaurant having 50% of its tables open) was to eat with him. So we did. History will remember this meal as being one of the strangest. Ever. About 45 minutes in, he began telling us why global warming might be sham (despite his having just told us his brother was the skipper of a ship that was measuring rising ocean temperatures for the UN...or something). When I got up for a restroom break, he told Eliot, for the third time, how he had been side-swiped by an SUV the day before. And so on. God bless the large (250 ml) glasses of wine in this country.

The next day we went to Whitesands beach until the clouds rolled in. Then we checked out the famous and very beautiful St. David's Cathedral. After one last ice cream, we packed up the Punto and headed home, exhausted and very happy.

My morning coffee

I like to ease into the morning. Before I do any heavy lifting (i.e. work email), I peruse my favorite cele-blogs (a term so aptly coined by Hannah) and then move onto the news. I never did this when in California -- perhaps distance has made the heart grow fonder of the trashy and scantily clad underbelly of Hollywood? If nothing else, it always provides small talk for the metaphorical water cooler.

The writers at Go Fug Yourself never cease to amaze. This gem made my morning. Two of my great loves: Sex and the City AND Sex and the City behind-the-scenes trivia. Oh Chrissy, thank you for having the full DVD set with special features -- as soon as Jessica said "bright pink head," I knew EXACTLY who she was talking about.

Pembrokeshire Adventure, Part 2

After setting up shop next to the tepee, we ventured out for a rambling hike along the ocean with Blue Flag Whitesands Beach as our destination. A narrow coastal path winds its way around the peninsula and we frequently squeezed by fellow hikers and their dogs. Three (and a half?) hours later, and long after the fog had rolled in, we arrived. The walk was gorgeous (see slide show below) and Google Earth suggests we went *at least* 7 miles.

After an ice cream break at Whitesands, we took a (relatively) direct path back to St. David's for dinner. I'm not quite sure if it was really a public path or just some flattened grass between adjacent farms, but we made it. The half dozen or so restaurants in town were not prepared for the deluge of holiday-makers and we had to fight for a table at The Bench only to be told that it would be an hour before our food would arrive. Fortunately, it only took about half that time and it was delicious. Spicy pizza and spicy pasta and a salad that had ingredients rarely found in Cardiff like pine nuts(!), and pesto(!!), and shaved parmesan(!!!).

With ice cream #2 in hand (The Bench had peach sorbet!), we hobbled/shivered back to the campsite bringing our mileage count in at about 10 miles. We were zipped in our sleeping bags before 10pm in preparation for the big kayaking adventure to come.

Pictures from the whole weekend:

© ELA Photography

Tune in for Part 3 coming soon...

Recipe Review: Bean Burgers!

The Minimalist treats me so well. I made the bean burgers (with black beans) from this recipe (NYTimes) and they were amazing and amazingly easy. I just finished the leftover burger for lunch.

I did it in the blender (which worked out just fine -- provided that I chopped up the onions), but added a bit too much water, so I needed to dry out the mixture with some bread crumbs. I let the patties sit in the fridge for about an hour before pan-frying them and they were super! Zesty (thanks to the chili powder) and flavorful (I added some garlic) and perfect with some cheddar on top.

I highly recommend!

Pembrokeshire Adventure, Part 1

At the first forecast of sun for this past 3-day weekend, Eliot began researching campsites near St. David's, which is in the westernmost tip of Wales, surrounded by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Apparently St. David's is the smallest city in the UK with about 2,000 people and it's a very popular town for outdoorsy folks, particularly rock-climbers, surfers, etc. After an easy 2.5-hour drive on Saturday morning, we arrived in this teeny tiny and completely adorable town. The traffic along the one-way main drag crawled along as tourists in their walking hats ambled on and off the sidewalks.

We met up with an acquaintance of Eliot's (who we also saw at the Hay Book Festival) who is the director of TYF, an adventure company (and main attraction) in St. David's. He reserved us two spots for the Coastal Explorer on Sunday and then offered suggestions on what to do with the rest of our weekend. He's one of those immensely likable people -- the kind that appear to be living life to its fullest at every possible moment; the ones that make you think "I'm going to get myself a cup of coffee and then take on the day/week/month/year!" (Which is what we did! Well, for two days at least...)

Armed with our virtually life-sized map of the tiny peninsula (and our trusty GPS) we made our way to the (gasp!) campsite in Porthclais. Now, prior to this weekend, I had done "camping lite" -- one- or two-night stints and always with the certainty of a nice shower on the horizon. Despite what the magazines say about optimal hair washing frequency, I MUST wash my hair on a daily basis if I am to be seen in any sort of public forum. We had been warned by the campsite baroness that there were no toilets -- "only earth closets or the hedge" -- and cold showers for 20p. Upon hearing this earlier in the week, Eliot (bless his heart) arranged for us to shower at the TYF Eco-Hotel, but this only partially assuaged the impending doom I felt as we drove around the campsite searching for a place to pitch the tent.

There were four football-sized fields that were filled to varying degrees with tents of varying sizes. Some tents, and I am not exaggerating, were easily the size of studio apartments. After much ado, we settled at the edge of the least crowded field next to an honest-to-goodness tepee replete with dogs howling at the moon artwork. At this point, I got very quiet, thinking "WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO PEE?!?!" Well, we took a walk and found the facilities. There were in fact four toilets, two showers, and two sinks for the ladies. Granted, I would conservatively estimate that there were 500 people at this campsite, so you do the math, but I began speaking to Eliot again.

© ELA Photography

Part 2 to come...

Recipe Review: Risotto! (And the problem with broad beans.)

The problem with broad beans is I don't know what to do with them. I attempted a broad bean and mint hummus-like spread the first time they arrived in the veggie box, but we don't have a food processor so it wasn't very hummus-like (although still pretty tasty). I found this recipe for "Green Risotto with Fava Beans" (All Recipes), so I decided to sub my broads for the favas. Oh, excuse me Wikipedia, broad beans and fava beans are the SAME thing....NO WONDER they looked so similar in the picture!

I smooshed the beans up with a fork and a potato masher (in place of the food processor), so I didn't really get a puree per se, but it didn't matter much. I added some shiitake mushrooms and some garlic. It was absolutely delicious. I might dilute the chicken stock a bit next time, but this is definitely one to repeat. The constant stirring, was well, constant, but the end result was well worth it.

Pen-y-Fan or bust!

In an effort to impress our first real house guests (Travis, his cousin Carrie, and Carrie's hubby Daniel) this past weekend, we baked up a storm, made a dinner reservation at Happy Gathering (which allegedly serves the best (Chinese) food "ever"), and planned a hike -- basically, we pulled out all the stops.

Well, all was going smoothly -- Mom's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread was a big hit and Happy Gathering proved well worthy of its superfluous reviews, but then came the inclement (and not-so-surprising) Wales weather. Sunday's forecast of "sunny intervals" meant one such interval on the hour drive north to Brecon Beacons National Park and another off in the distance over a lake about three hours later. Our guests were troupers though (quite literally) and we all made the most of what had to be the foggiest and windiest trek up "the highest peak in South Britain" in the history of Augusts in Wales. Carrie and I knew we were in for it when EVERY single person we passed was decked out in full hiking gear and we looked like we were on our way to pilates. We might as well have been holding Starbucks' lattes and walking down Union Street with a puggle. But hey, if the weather had been perfect and we had been prepared, what fun would it have been?

© ELA Photography

Recipe Review: Really Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwiches

This meal was fantastic, the only problem was the quantity. There are only leftovers because I forced myself to stop eating.

Holiday Chicken Salad (All Recipes). I'm not sure what the 'holiday' part is, but never you mind. I made half the recipe due to a chicken shortage. I didn't have pecans. I didn't include bell peppers or celery because I don't like them. I didn't have paprika, so I used the trusty Season-All Seasoning. Oh, and the dried cranberries I had were mixed with golden raisins ('sultanas' on this side of the pond!), so those went in too. I added half an apple, parsley, and a tiny pinch of rosemary. And I wouldn't change a thing!

Here's the kicker: we made homemade "quick bread." This was my second attempt making The Minimalist's Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread (NYTimes, 2/28/07). I have never used the molasses (because it's not exactly something I keep around the house) or the cornmeal (because I can't find any), but the recipe works just fine without. I used a honey-flavored yogurt the first time and buttermilk (+ milk + a little bit of honey) this time. I didn't want it to be super sweet and the result was a dense and delicious bread that was great on its own as well as with the chicken salad. (And then later topped with honey!)

We made open-faced sandwiches because of the bread density, and the chicken salad was more of the eat-with-your-fork variety anyway.

Perfect meal. Now I need to go and finish the rest.

"You take the blue pill, the story ends...

...you wake up and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Article Du Jour: "Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy's Couch" (The New York Times, 8/14/07)

So there really is no spoon.

Well, here's to being interesting and/or "good" enough to make it to the next simulation!

The Ethicist lays the smack down

I always read Randy "The Ethicist" Cohen's column in The New York Times Magazine. But a mere five months ago, I was privileged with the hard copy courtesy of my Manhattan-born roommate Amanda, now, alas, the e-version will have to do. I usually work myself up to it by reading half a dozen other articles before allowing myself this cherry on top.

I must assume that my appreciation of advice columns came from years of reading Dear Abby and Ann Landers in my parents' kitchen before heading off to school in the morning. I like Slate's "Dear Prudence" (this past week's "My Mourning Jacket" was noteworthy actually), but Mr. Cohen is closest to my heart. He answers questions of ethics (so it's not just a clever name!) rather than of manners per se, and his writing style is oh-so-witty and utterly enjoyable. On to the Article Du Jour!

This week's "Visiting Justice" advice seeker was, ironically, from Pleasant Hill, CA (which borders my home town of Concord), and he wanted to know if he was right in refusing his sister-in-law's invitation to come visit because he did want to "give the appearance of approval" of her new boyfriend. The Ethicist lays it down accordingly:

You should accept her invitation. Whom are you giving “the appearance of approval” to? Your wife knows your views. Your sister-in-law is unmoved by them. The American people? This visit is unlikely to get much television coverage. Not even local news is this local.

The Ethicist rocks.

UPDATE: Wikipedia just informed me that The Ethicist was married to Katha Pollitt, a feminist writer and activist, who also totally rocks -- don't be surprised if she has her own Article Du Jour. What a duo.

Question: What is the most popular Bachelorette Party destination in the world?

Las Vegas? Miami? The Velvet Lounge in San Francisco? No, no, and no.

Answer: Cardiff.

By whatever twist of fate, it appears, by my extremely scientific methodology, that Cardiff is the Bachelorette Party -- or Hen Night, as they're called here -- capital of the world. On any given weekend in Cardiff Bay or the City Center, packs (broods?) of "hens" can be seen cheerfully and/or drunkenly wandering the streets with pride. And costumes are big. Nurses, prisoners, devils with sequined horns -- all with the requisite "Katie's Hen Night [or Weekend!] 2007" mini-tees. And the women are of all ages; it seems en vogue to have the bride's mother or aunt attendance -- to rule the roost perhaps? (Ha ha.)

Next up: "What happens in Cardiff stays in Cardiff" commercials.

Restaurant Review: The Thai House

This past Friday marked my third visit to The Thai House and oh how I love it. Indian aside, Thai appears to be the most common foreign cuisine here, but most of the Thai restaurants are of the Thai/Chinese combination variety that put "take away" menus in your mailbox on a weekly basis.

I would categorize The Thai House as "upscale Thai" based on the service, atmosphere, and price$$$. The staff always seem to remember us, but this may be because everyone in the UK thinks Eliot looks like David Schwimmer. (So much so that he has been stopped to take pictures with adoring fans, for example.) The Thai House takes the service-by-the-masses approach and our usual visit brings at least four different individuals -- dressed in blue satin fabrics -- to our table. The restaurant has a colonial-like feeling, which is, I suppose, quite fitting.

We ordered a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (£16.50) and a bottle of water (£2.95!). We started with the Pak Joop Bang Tord, Thai-style vegetable tempura (£4.95), and Kanom Jeep, pork and prawn dumplings (£5.50). Both dishes were excellent. The tempura portion was very generous and consisted of mushrooms, broccoli, snap peas, and baby corn(!). The breading was perhaps a little heavy, but really there are worse problems in the world. The dumplings were very nice and had a lovely little crunch from the water chestnuts.

Then we ordered the dish that "people travel miles for": the Bed Tord Grob, crispy fried duck with tamarind sauce (£11.50). This dish has been ordered all three times that I've been (and all five times Eliot has been). And it is well worth our .75-mile walk. The duck is cut into small slender pieces and crisped just the right amount. The sauce is incredible and it's all garnished with tiny slivers of crunchy seaweed. We never leave anything on the plate. We decided to branch out from our usual green curry with bean curd to try the Gang Makua, spicy aubergine (eggplant) curry (£8.50), and boy was it spicy (which is VERY unusual for the UK) and man was it delicious! I needed all of my bowl of rice (£2.25 per person!) to cool the fire.

We split the mango and coconut ice cream dessert (£4.25), which was tasty and probably unnecessary.

So, we had another wonderful, grade A meal at The Thai House. The only downfall (and it is quite the fall), was the £65 ($130) bill, which included a £5 tip (we still haven't figured out if and how much we are supposed to tip). Perhaps if I think of The Thai House as the Gary Danko of Cardiff it will help...

What kind of man are you?

Take my quiz! (You'll probably get more out of it if you've actually seen Sex and the City and Grey's Anatomy, but it doesn't really matter.)

Quiz me!

(Eliot's cousin Seth made this cool free quiz/poll/survey website. Create your own "quibblet" at www.quibblo.com!)

UPDATE: As of 8/10/07, we've got ONE McSteamy! (And one Big.) If you are so brave, make yourselves known!

Two Fat Ladies

Our "Tennis Pro" canceled on us again this Saturday. We are supposed to get four free lessons with our "Racquets Membership" at the gym, but this has proven to be easier said than done. Actually he didn't even call us to cancel; his girlfriend did! An hour before said lesson!

Thus, we ended up watching Two Fat Ladies on TV. This was a very popular British cooking program in the '90s that featured -- you guessed it! -- two fat ladies! Their shtick is that one of them drives around on an old motorcycle and the other is chauffeured in the attached side car. They putter around the English countryside making extremely unhealthy food. One of the women passed away in 1998, but reruns still air regularly. The Hairy Bikers are the Two Fat Ladies of the '00s.

In this episode, the Ladies made a "Shooter's Sandwich." Now that I know what this is, I can safely say that nothing else more perfectly sums up British food. The fat lady cut off the end of a loaf of white bread (not French bread mind you, imagine a loaf of unsliced IronKids bread) and hollowed out the inside. She grilled a MASSIVE steak and stuffed it in the white bread shell along with a few mushrooms. Then she wrapped up the whole thing, squashed it under something heavy like a cinder block, and let it sit for 5 (8? 12?) hours. After the "marinating," she sliced it up like a meatloaf and served it to a troop of Boy Scouts.

I was just cracking up the entire time, while Eliot sat silently in disbelief.

I found a picture and a recipe, but these actually make it look relatively good/edible.

Recipe Review(s): Roast 'em up!

I threw this meal together last night based on two criteria:

1. Use things from the organic veggie box before they go bad (thus A and B).
2. Find a recipe for easy chicken with ingredients I have, preferably including basil because my basil plant may or may not be on his last legs (thus C).

A. Sweet Potato Oven Fries
I basically followed a recipe from Martha, but I spiced it up with 1/2 tsp. cumin (I finally got some!) AND 1/2 tsp. Spicy Seasonal-All. I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl with the potato slices (instead of doing the tossing on the baking sheet). They needed quite a bit of time in the oven -- maybe 40 minutes? -- but they were DELICIOUS.

B. Roasted Zucchini and Onions with Herbs
I guess I kinda followed this All Recipes recipe, but I didn't have all the other vegetables. Per Reuel's instruction, I made sure to cut larger pieces of zucchini and smaller pieces of onion, then I mixed 'em up with olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and basil. I did these at the same time as the potatoes. They were in for about 30 minutes (stirred a couple of times). SUPER!

C. Honey Orange Basil Chicken
This All Recipes recipe says to marinate overnight, which I did not do. Two or three hours worked just fine. We did it in a pan (well, a wok actually) on the stove and just poured in all of the extra marinade with it. They ended up very moist and flavorful (despite what some of the reviews said). FANTASTIC!

The meal ended up being one of our best and it couldn't have been any easier. SUCCESS!

"Can I get you an energy bar? How 'bout some water?"

I have a little place in my heart for good commercials. In the age of TiVo, DVR, and Sky boxes (which is what we've got, which does NOT include a search function NOR does it allow you to continue watching TV while accessing the menus), I must say that from time to time I miss them. Chrissy and I used to stay up until all hours of the morning in college (or was that in SF?) watching ESPN SportsCenter commercials like this one:



and this Pete Sampras one, and this cheerleader one. Well, I actually just found those two, but they're really funny.

I was re-inspired to find these ads after reading/viewing Article Du Jour, "There Are 12 Kinds of Ads in the World" (Slate, 7/23/07). Slate does these great slide show essay-type things. If you've got 10 minutes to spare, this is well worth it. Even though writer Seth Stevenson finds the sixth format ("benefit causes story") to be a bit annoying, I think the ad he chose as a demonstration is hilarious.

Wednesdays got a little less awesome

Wednesdays are a big day for me. Mark Bittman, a.k.a. The Minimalist, posts his weekly how-to food video (although today's required an ice cream maker, which made it obsolete). The Onion News Network (ONN) airs at least one new clip (and even if the topic isn't that funny, the scrolling banner at the bottom will make up for it: "Ojai, CA: Woman listens to movie scores on her iPod to add some gravitas to her life," "America's best sound: Puget or Albemarle?"). San Francisco food critic extraordinaire, Michael Bauer, writes his make-it-or-break-it restaurant review for the San Francisco Chronicle. (When he slams 'em, he slams 'em! ;-)) And, until today, http://www.clarkandmichael.com/ featured their newest episode. Last week was the finale of the completely enjoyable 10-series "show." If you enjoyed (i.e. watched) Arrested Development, this is a must-see. Wednesdays are just a little less sweet now.

HOWEVER, I just found Sex and the City reruns on TV (and these are NOT of the censored TBS/KRON4 variety...thankfully. Talk about destroying the integrity of the show!). Two per night. Season 1 started this past Monday night. Money can't buy this kind of happiness/relief/elation.

Shades of green

I don't want to be "light green." The fact that being and buying green has become uber-trendy is ultimately a step forward for the environmental movement, but "green consumerism is an oxymoronic phrase" ("Buying Into the Green Movement" The New York Times, 7/1/07). Consuming less, not consuming more (even if it's green), is the real way to help our fine planet on an individual level.

I have a long way to go though. I use too much water and I forget to unplug appliances when they're not in use. I travel a lot by air (without buying offsets) and I have a penchant for Ziploc bags. BUT, I haven't owned a car in 3.5 years, we get a weekly box of local and organic veggies (so organic that I found a slug in the broad beans yesterday :-(), and my consumption -- particularly of clothes -- has decreased drastically since my arrival in Cardiff. (Disclosure: this may have more to do with the bad exchange rate, my part-time income, and the lack of good stores, but there's no need to split hairs...the end justifies the means, right?)

That being said, I covet these bags: http://kimwhitehandbags.com/index.html. My daily tip from Ideal Bite (a sassy and somewhat "light green" environmental website) recommended these eco-bags because they're made from vintage automotive fabrics. Who knew such great things could come from American cars?

So, for the time being, I guess I'm more Kelly. Or Emerald. Or Harlequin?? There are so many shades of green.

Restaurant Review: The Wharf

To celebrate the completion of the big 10k, Eliot said he would take me to any restaurant I wanted. Well, that restaurant (the Thai House) is not open on Sundays...apparently. Because my legs were already aching (and the swans were calling), we settled on The Wharf (warning: neither a good nor easy-to-find website), our local pub/restaurant/event destination. Our area of Cardiff is called Atlantic Wharf because of the 1.2-mile lake that is essentially in our backyard. The Wharf restaurant sits on the lake (alongside a large decorative boat/pirate ship) and is a good-sized, multi-story building/atrium with outdoor seating -- perfect for a sunny day like yesterday. It's very popular for watching football/soccer, which will start again this weekend (really? I swear we *just* cleared our TiVo-like apparatus of La Liga games).

After a failed experiment with the tougher-than-nails chicken burger on our first visit, Eliot and I both ordered The Wharf Club Stack (£6.25). This seems to be very popular here and it is for good reason -- nice pieces of chicken breast (although mine was a little tough this time) and bacon layered between thick "bloomer" bread. The bacon here is different -- people don't eat the thin, crisp strips of fatty bacon ("streaky bacon"); they eat more meaty pieces ("back bacon") and this makes for a better sandwich I think. The sandwiches come with a healthy (well...large) serving of chips (fries) and a small green salad garnish. We both had pints of Carling (£2.50?) to round things out.

Aside from the MAJOR flaw of having tiny, individual serving (for who?) ketchup packets, which forced us to hide some of our 13 packets on the bench next to us so that the server wouldn't judge us when he delivered our food, we had a lovely evening. So, The Wharf, save us from our potential embarrassment (and reduce waste while you're at it): buy ketchup bottles!

Just as we were finishing up, the swan family swam in from the canal. The babies are HUGE. I don't even think you can call them babies anymore; they are larger than the ducks. So, Ma, Pa, and their adolescent offspring preened and shimmied their tails (?) while I forced Eliot to take more soon-to-be posted pictures.

The Wharf: B (the food isn't super awesome, but the location is A+).

00:58:57!

After much ado (on the treadmill and around the lake), the big 10k went off without a hitch (except for the "oh no I may need to walk, I need to walk...NO there's the "9k" sign, I'm NOT going to walk" moment)! The rainclouds parted for the first ever BUPA Great Wales Run and the 3500 of us ran 6.2 miles around Cardiff Bay in perfect weather. So what if the "elite" runners finished in the half the time I did, it was my personal best! Well, I hadn't even run that far before, but if I had, it would have been my personal best! Don't swim teams give out some sort of medal for these things?

With 800 meters to go...

© ELA Photography

(Cymru is Welsh for Wales. "Cymru," "Caerdydd" (Cardiff), and "araf" (slow) pretty much exhaust my Welsh.)

"... having a raging juiced-up misanthrope break the greatest record in sports is a ray of sunshine compared to everything else on the sports page."

Article Du Jour: Barry Bonds Home-Run Scandal Somehow Becomes Feel-Good Sports Story of Summer (The Onion, 7/26/07).

"Bonds is not exactly my hero," said Braves fan Bradley Hanson, who flew to San Francisco for Monday night's Braves game in order to pointedly not boo Bonds. "But he's a reminder that in these troubled times for sports, there are still players whose crimes are simple, pure, and only tarnish our beloved sport and everything it stands for without killing anybody."

Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Peacock, for bringing this to my attention.

Restaurant Review: La Brasserie

As you may know from talking to me (or from just having heard of the UK), that the restaurant scene is...lacking. The ever-weakening dollar does nothing to help the situation, but on the whole the restaurants in Cardiff are mediocre and over-priced. Our bills usually come in around the £40 mark ($82 as of today's exchange rate), which is just not reasonable/practical/sustainable. And I'm not talking about fine dining -- those are our bills for Thai, Indian, and Pizza Express (whose bad name belies it's surprisingly good food). Suffice it to say, we only go out once a week. This is *quite* the change from our previous lives, when at least two of Eliot's five daily meals came from Organic To Go and rare was the evening that the Whole Foods all-but-adjacent to my apartment didn't find me perusing the sushi or salad bars. Those days are gone. Now my mornings (happily) consist of recipe searches, menu planning, and wondering if the Spicy Season-All is an okay substitute for cumin. But I digress...

Eliot's coworker's birthday brought us to La Brasserie, one of Cardiff's more well-reputed restaurants and part of the Le Monde Group, which includes the eponymous Le Monde seafood restaurant. I had looked at the menu several times prior to our visit, so I knew what I was in for: meat.

We met our group at the bar, which was cozy and nicely crowded (although I was a bit worried about the porcelain jugs hanging from the ceiling, but hey, I grew up in earthquake country). I asked the bartender for a cocktail menu, but he said there was only beer and wine. That seemed strange because I was thinking a martini would be nice before my fillet (pronounced fill-ette in the UK...seriously), but no matter. I had a glass (make that two) of white wine (£4) and Eliot had a pint (make that two) of Worthington's (£3).

As is the custom with this group of restaurants, the dining room features a glass display case below a chalkboard menu from which you select your meat, fish, or skewer (which looked mighty tasty). Eliot and I both got the highly-recommended fillet (£17.95) and split the calamari starter (£5.95), garlic mushrooms (£?), and a side salad (£?), for which we received a brown "wooden" bowl to serve ourselves at the adequate (for the UK) salad bar. We were appropriately warned by our friends that the meat doesn't come with ANYTHING that you don't ask for aside from potatoes (jacket/baked, chips, or new!).

The service was very good for our large 14-person party and our starters came out in no time. The calamari was lightly breaded and tasty and the mushrooms were pretty standard -- nice, but nothing fancy. Almost all of our party got steaks of some sort and our fillets were nice plump pieces of meat -- I had no problem finishing mine (so maybe they should have been a little bigger for the price?), but it was delicious. At first I thought it was a bit tough, but then realized it was because we only had butter knives. :-)

Some people ordered desserts from the circulating dessert tray, but Eliot and I refrained and just had cookies (which I had made at the birthday girl's request). Overall, it was a very fun night and definitely a restaurant we would return to. Thank goodness we had the walk home to work off the big feast though.

I would give it a B+, although our bill was generously picked up and I doubt we'll be so lucky next time...

Today is as good of a day as any...

...to start a blog. This is partially to chronicle my 20-something adventures on this side of the pond and partially to stop sending so many "I don't know if you've seen this yet"/"this made me think of you" articles to my friends/family/coworkers. gilb thoughts may be glib (ha! a play on words!) and they may be boring (along the lines of the-public-diary-that-I-swore-I-would-never-do-oh-god-now-I've-done-it), but I hope it brings some enjoyment to some people at some point.

I'm going to do an Article Du Jour feature of sorts, which I hope, but can make no promises, will be spicy mix of politics, health, food, style, gossip, and random bits. Today's feature is Study Says Obesity Can Be Contagious (The New York Times, 7/25/07). This new NEJM study shows that a) when a person gains weight, close friends will too, and b) close friends have a greater effect on weight than family or spouses. No real surprises there. Interestingly, the friends can be hundreds of miles apart and the pattern still holds! The reverse (weight loss instead of gain) was also seen, but since this was a 30-year cohort study, the majority of the population gained weight. No surprises there either I suppose. Bad Article Du Jour. Although the accompanying video was pretty cool/psychedelic.

Article Du Jour, Part Deux: Hillary Clinton's Tentative Dip Into New Neckline Territory (The Washington Post, 7/20/07...so not so 'du jour' but whatever). I get it. Despite the desperate pleas to the media to stop covering the wardrobes/appearances/hairstyles of women politicians, it's not ending anytime soon. But this? I *believe* the point of the piece is to draw a comparison between Clinton's noncommittal politics and her noncommittal wardrobe (which thankfully doesn't include flip-flops), but oh is the article demeaning and, frankly, not particularly well-written. Givhan (who, incidentally, won a 2006 Pulitzer for "criticism" -- thank you Ms. Cortina for alerting me to this!) meanders from proudly listing Clinton's "feminine and stately" couture of years past to likening her (almost non-existent) cleavage to seeing a man with his fly down (which is so unsightly, apparently, that Givhan warns reader to "Just look away!"). Givhan finds Clinton's cleavage "flourish" to be more "unnerving" than the recent full-fledged bosom showing by Jacqui Smith, the new British home secretary. Smith's look was "all part of a bold, confident style package," but Clinton's is "a request to be engaged in a particular way" and "a provocation." I'll give Givhan a provocation. That's right.

Here's a picture of our swans.

© ELA Photography