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Image from ESPN Page 2

Rick Bayless Truly is a Top Chef

Yesterday was my lovely wife Elizabeth's birthday and to celebrate we went to Topolobampo, which for those who do not know is a local Chicago staple owned by famed chef Rick Bayless.  Lately Chef Bayless is a local facination (we made reservations months in advance) after he was the winner of Season 1 of Bravo's Top Chef Masters (which is one of my new favorite shows).  The thing that sets this chef apart from the crowd was obviously his food... what wasn't so obvious is that most would NEVER guess what style of cuisine for which he is known.   Mexican.  Mexican is a food style that is typically reserved for the likes of On the Boarder, Taco Bell or if your lucky a little family owned Cantina and if you mentioned Mexican food and fine dining in the same sentence then laughter would undoubtedly follow.  After last night I can unequivically tell you that if you are eating this man's food, Mexican food and fine dining belong in the same sentence. 

That's enough background onto the dining experience.  First and foremost do not even look at the any part of the menu that does not say Chef Tasting that is for sure the way to go, 5 courses of heaven is what it should be called.  Scratch that, don't even read the menu at all.  Period.  It won't help, you won't understand it, too many fancy cooking words that probably only 1-2% of people that don't have Chef on their business card even understand.  The only thing you need to understand is one word: delicious.  I'm going to be Frank for a min, during about 50% of the meal I had ZERO clue what I was actually eating, none what-so-ever, all I knew was that I ate and loved every last crumb.  Busselsprouts.  That's right the most hated of all foods, I wanted seconds they were delicious.  I digress... in all seriousness the menu is very complex and extremely fine dining, which as I mentioned, is pretty counterintuitive, given the cuisine.  As someone who is very interested in cooking I read over the menu and was simply in awe over how many different ways there were to do things, I mean I know there are 1,000s of ways to cook, but to see so many complex and different ways written down on a menu was truely an amazing experience.  Throughout the entire meal you know you are eating Mexican food because you can taste the staple flavors and influences, but these are staple flavors on steroids.  Simply amazing.  There was no chicken, beef, cheese and onion enchiladas here.  We had pork belly soup, goat, rabbit leg, walleye, just to name what I can remember, so not only is the food amazing, it's also an adventure in trying new things.  Every course brought out a new surprise and new flavors that were just perfect in your mouth.  Independently each element was good, but when you took a bite of all the components together it was a pretty amazing thing the way all the flavors worked together to form a copmlex and delicious experience.

Now would be I guess as good a point as any to note that the price tag as you likely have guessed is also fine dining, but I will say that if I'm going to drop fine dining money I was so glad it was at this place versus some of the other well know establishments.  Despite my likely obvious man crush on Chef Bayless (see past posting for more on the Man Crush), it was very cool to sample the types of food that we watched Chef Bayless prepare in the weeks of Top Chef Masters.  If you want a truely amazing dining experience I highly highly recommend this place, however if fine dining is a bit steep then he has another restaurant that's a bit more casual Frontera Grill, and while I didn't get to try it this go around (to quote a certain left coast gov. I'll be back) I feel pretty confident that the food there is equally as amazing and experience in it's own way.

Below is a video of and interview with him on Bravo after he won.  PS I did actually catch a glipse of him in the kitchen while we were eating.  Too bad I didn't get to actually meet him because that would have been super.

Picture of the Week

Video of the Week

Once again... Family Guy isn't for everone, but last weeks episode was a riot.

I love you.... Toaster Oven

The toaster oven is the most under-rated of all the kitchen appliances, while eveyone gushes over the microwave and all the perks that it offers with regard to cooking speed I need only point out the speed with which a toaster oven can broil a chicken breast and it is game over for radioactive food.  I was a skeptic and poo pooed the toaster oven for many a year, stating nay why do I need another appliance?  Why do I need a miniature oven when I have a big oven that has many more buttons?  Alas, I will tell you why.  Speed.  Plain and simple it boils down to speed, from raw salmonella infested flesh to deliciously broiled deliciousness is about 20min in the toaster oven, I'm lucky if my oven has gotten up to temperature in half that time.  The speed also helps you to eat "better" because making a healthy chicken breast now takes significantly less time it becomes a viable in a hurry option versus the sodium laced lean cuisines you have stashed in the back.  Even better is that you can make an entire meal in the toaster oven, divide the pan with some foil chicken on one side green beans with some olive oil on the other, 20 min later you got dinner. 

The toaster oven is now a staple and I his it a minimum of once a week.  Don't think I'll ever not own one ever again.

Brrrrrr.... of the Week

Video of the Week

As with most Daily Show clips this one is a bit longer than my traditional viral video variety, about 10 min.  But I love the Daily Show because it puts a spotlight on hypocrites in Washington and the Media.  It also points out a lot of the asinine partisan mindsets (both red and blue, although he does lean slightly more blue team) why nothing will ever get done in Washington. 

This one deals with the "underwear" bomber.  And I agree... the parallels between the underwear bomber and the shoe bomber are pretty striking.  And let's see the fallout from the shoe bomber was that we now have to take our shoes off for security.... uh oh, this could be bad folks.

2010 Motto

So I've gone a Battlestar Galactica bender after borrowing the series from my brother in-law, watching about 45+ hours in 3 days...  The show is amazing, far better than I'd ever imagined, I actually feel very guilty for previously speaking ill of it - and I'll go into my full reactions after I finish the series (hopefully by Saturday).  But in an early episode I came across a quote that I've chosen as my official motto for 2010.

"Break preconceptions, work with what you have."

The quote came after a story of Adama's father who was a judge and he would symbolically break a pencil before entering the courtroom and then borrow one from the clerk.  Hence, breaking his preconceptions... and by borrowing; working with what he had in the room.  I think this has a lot of wide applications for me both personally and professionally.  Not getting hung up on the past opinions or preconcieved notions of things and trying to live in the moment and taking things as they are and as they come.  It will be a real challenge to fully live up to this, especially given my full on "chicken little," "cat in a room full of rocking chairs" mentality, but a motto is suppose to be somewhat of a challenge isn't it?

The Debacle That Was Christmas 2009...

I was a living breathing walking King Midas of Bad Luck this holiday season, at every turn bad luck was waiting to pants me and laugh.  My journey began on the drive to KS with a phone call from my insurance company... now, I won't go into the details here but let's just say that I'm convinced more than ever that insurance is a corupt institution and the companies are in collusion and now I have to pay an extra $100 per year for something that was not my fault and I had zero control over.  Pants-ing #2 came from Ms Mother Nature... strike that the weathermen... with the so called "Christmas Blizzard of 2009... that wasn't"  Yes it snowed a lot but it was by no means the epic snow fall that they were crowing about for DAYS that prompted me to leave my family a day and a half early to ensure we were not snowed in for the duration... #3 - the gift card incident, I lost a Best Buy gift card valued at $26.94, but rest assured I recovered $5 of it that was not spent by the finder.  #4 Brakes on the car decided to implode resulting in a nice year end donation to Sears Auto Center.

If it weren't for the good times spent with family I very well may have locked myself in a room and, after removing all things of value and potentially dangerous objects, curled up in a ball and just hibernated till 2010, so as not to inadvertantly trigger the apocolypse.

So far though 2010 has started off by looking up, so good luck to all and away we go...

Picture of the Week

Prom 2009... er New Year's 2009

Farewell 2009...

Kinda fitting that post 150 will be my farewell to 2009.  150 posts.  Frankly that's about 148 more than I ever thought I would get around to actually following through with.  Won't really dwell too much on 2009, as with most years it had highs and lows but by and large the highs outnumbered the lows so that's a win.

Time to also finalize New Year's Resolution: Phase I and get rolling.  Starting off 2010 in grand fashion  Battlestar Galactica marathon... presently on Disc 3 of Season 2.5 (or 3), the level of worthlessness is at an all time epic high at the McMahan house.