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I was really stoked to go to the Dallas Chop House this last weekend. Chef Kenny Mills. replete in 10 Gallon hat, was eager to show us his Himalayan salt lined beef aging cellar. That, sadly, was the highlight of the evening. Chicken vegetable soup was very bland and uninteresting. My main course of ribeye, replete with four chili dry-rub was so salty to be almost inedible. The onion rings & steak fries were also buggered because of the insane amount of salt on them. The Maque Choux corn melange was good, as were the pop-overs. But over-all the ridiculous amount of salt made many dishes inedible. The owner (?) came over and worked the crowd, cruising thru asking if everything was OK. My fellow diners, being genteel folk, said it was all good, but I had to let him know that many dishes were ridiculously salty. He didn’t like this and moved on fast- he looked half-baked. The deserts were ok. The carrot cake got the table in a lather, mostly, I feel, because they have not had a steamed pudding before. The creme brulée was fine but nothing to write home about. I am much more discriminating than most in that I eat out more than most. There are at least five steak houses in Dallas that are much better than this. Perry’s is my current favourite – although Patrys, Lawrys & Ocean Prime have to be right up there. For $175 for two including small amounts of wine it was a very expensive night out for very average quality and service. Management’s behavior made me highly unlikely to visit again. Dallas has too many good steak houses to mess with places that do not revere the customer. Here, for what it’s worth, is the beef aging cabinet.
Spent an all too brief visit at The Hager Ranch, San Saba, TX. Flickr link here.
My pal Robert. Fat Tuesday 2010, New Orleans. Wonderful writing by Patrick Smith on Salon.com. Gives us an insight into the emotions & fears of an airline pilot. I love this behind the scenes stuff… Though perhaps that’s a good thing as well. We’re all afraid of flying on some level, and is that not perfectly healthy? And the pilot’s job, in essence, is the management of contingency. Fires, explosions, physics gone bad, all the nasty scenarios the simulator instructors love — they’re all there, coiled behind the instrument panel, waiting to spring in a game of comfortable, though never perfect, odds. And the pilot’s role is to spring right back. Do pilots worry about crashing? Of course. As a matter of practicality, they have to. It’s in their best interest, and yours too. A bunch of Dallas photographers have been taking pictures of all the buildings on Ft. Worth Ave. One day it will all be different and the Association wants a record. I had pretty crap buildings on my stretch so I took some time today to shoot the Mission Motel, which is awesome. I shot it using a pano-rig and made four rows of 19 images totaling 76 images. The file is a TIFF of 1.5GB. If it was printed at 300DPI it would be 12′ x 3′. Here the whole image – shrunk of course and a 100% crop of a detail area just to the right of the cedar.
Former (?) F1 ace Kimi Raikkonen blatting thru some frozen wasteland. Check out about 16 secs in how long does that jump last?! I shall miss his insanely monotonous voice on after podium panels. And his eyes – the eyes of a Husky. Shame they don’t do WRC here, I think I like it more than the current F1. So I’ve wanted to have a radio-controlled helicopter ever since DC Comics’ General Jumbo! He controlled his miniature army/air-force from a controller on his sleeve. This was back in 1965! Alas it was not to be until I was well into middle age. In the last few years there has been a spurt in the popularity of RC Helicopters thanks to new battery & electric motor technology. No longer does cranking nitro motors add another level of difficulty to the dark art. Li-po batteries can keep even large heli’s in the air for over ten minutes. I have a fixed pitch MSR Blade that is an incredible exercise in miniaturization. On one circuit board are solenoids, gyros, electronic speed control and all the other gubbings that keep a 1oz. machine in the air! Downside – repairs. I have yet to go over one hour without ALL of my fleet of four choppers being out of action. I came by a Blade 400 in a sweet deal and am restoring it. However I know that without due care & attention it will be a basket case within seconds. Such is the tragic life of le pilote d’hélicoptère… |
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