Golden Compass for $12 in NYC

Alana and I spent the last week in NYC. There is so much vegetarian food it's impossible to hit it all. Our favorites were Red Bamboo and Cafe Lan. Red Bamboo has all of your favorites in mock form: cajun shrimp. bbq ribs, roasted chicken, fish sticks, the list goes on and on. The shrimp tasted pretty damn close (well if you've been a vegetarian for 11 years at least) and my ribs were smoky and meaty, if not the "same" as a real rib. Cafe Lan is a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant whose owners are Buddhist. The food here was out of this world. Their BBQ Tempeh was crisp and tender, and the Papaya salad is out of this world - Not to mention the fact that entrees will only run you $8-$10, which isn't too shabby for New York.

We saw the Golden Compass as well. The story was engrossing and it was well made, but the editing and story flow were rushed and choppy. Alas I haven't read the book, and I'm afraid that will increase the disappointment level. All in all it was entertaining, and seeing a giant polar bear mosh some bad guys rates right up there with top bad ass film moments of the year.

It was a Death Metal Coen Brothers Kind of Week

Alana and I went to the Faceless/Arsis/Enslaved show at the Bluebird Theater on Wednesday. All 3 bands were good. Faceless sound was a bit muddy to me, I couldn't make out the high end. They were talented, but it wasn't anything that got me excited. Arsis killed, I hadn't listened to much of them (and by much I mean a cursory glance at their Myspace page, oh I'm so ashamed). Let's just say I picked up "United in Regret" as soon as I could. Very talented musicians, good stage presence, and smoking riffs. Enslaved was dark, and surprisingly catchy but their stage setup was weird, their amps were pointed towards the center of the stage, which made it next to impossible to hear the 2nd guitar. All I could make out was a little bit of drums, lead guitar, and some vocals. That aside, they were really good, the cold weather outside was a perfect backdrop for their Nordic darkness.

Friday we caught No Country for Old Men at the Mayan. What a terrific film. It was exciting, tense, well written, well acted, and a thinker. You can't ask for much more than that. It's definitely one of my top movies this year behind The Santa Clause 3.

Starz Film Fest: Being Michael Madsen & Jump!

In finishing the round of movies we caught at the Starz Denver Film Festival we saw Being Michael Madsen and Jump!. BMM is a mockumentary about a paparazzi photographer who accuses Madsen of murdering an actress and Madsen subsequently hiring a documentary film crew to follow the Paparazzi photographer. The other film was Jump! about competitive jump roping.

BMM was a pretty funny movie, some of the acting was a bit stilted and there were quite a few floating heads, but all in all it was an entertaining watch. Most entertaining was the Q&A where the director talked about how much he hates documentaries. It made the movie all that more enjoyable.

Jump! follows the same formula as Mad Hot Ballroom and Spellbound, but with competitive jump roping. This is a feel good movie that would be fun to watch with the family, and a good way to introduce the kids to documentaries, but it wasn't anything earth shattering.

Thanksgiving was great, I made my Sweet Potato Chipotle Soup, Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/ Caramelized Onions and Alana made smashed red potatoes with chili peppers and dry jack cheese (a recipe from Bon Appetit). We also had a Tofurky. It was all very delicious.

Here's the Brussels Sprouts Recipe, I know Brussels Sprouts are usually nasty, but these are really good, seriously:

~15 Brussels Sprouts sliced in 1/2 lengthwise
1 vidalia onion
2 T olive oil (for roasting brussels sprouts)
1 T butter + 1 T oil (for caramelizing onions)
1 T brown sugar
1 carrot sliced
salt & pepper

Heat an oven to 375 degrees. Toss Brussels Sprouts and Carrots in oil, salt and pepper. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and pour sprouts and carrots onto it. Roast for 30-45 min. (Depending on how brown you want them.)

While Brussels Sprouts are roasting, Melt butter and combine with oil in a pan w/ a decent surface area over medium heat. After the onions start to soften and release their juices stir in the brown sugar. Leave onions in pan stirring occasionally until caramelized. Pull Brussels Sprouts when finished, salt again and combine in pan w/ onions once they are finished.

Starz Film Fest: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead & Forfeit

I saw Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead on Tuesday. For the most part this was a terrific movie - Phillip Seymour Hoffman is one of the great actors of our time. The story is a dark caper gone awry tragedy depress fest that is riveting until it becomes a blunt object beating you over the head with one horrific situation after another. Barring that it is a great work by Lumet.

Tonight we saw Forfeit by Andrew Shea. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this, the ballots I saw coming out yesterday mostly gave it 4's and 5's out of 5, but there were some 2's thrown in there as well. I gave this one a 5. This dark comedic thriller had the perfect blend of clever dialogue, a serpentine story line, good acting, and dark religious psychosis. Yes. Andrew Shea was humble during the Q&A session, and almost seemed in denial and dismissive about the praise he was being given from those in the audience. There is no US distribution yet, but hopefully there will be. Look for this one in a video store near you.

Vintage

Classic Star Wars toy commercial. The best is when the kid yells "RAAAHR!"

Recipe for Pumpkin Ravioli w/ Cremini Mushrooms tomorrow. Also, I'll have a full review of Sydney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Short review - good if you want to: see another fine Philip Seymour Hoffman performance, see Marisa Tomei's boobs, and be depressed.

Starz Film Fest: Juncture

I caught Juncture last night at the Starz/Denver Film Fest. James Seale seemed very proud and confident in his work when introducing the film and when he was doing the Q&A. I guess you have to stand by your product no matter what.

The plot was a simple person taking revenge on society affair, this time it was Anna (Kristine Blackport) an executive director of a children's foundation who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In her final days Anna turns into child victim vigilante and sets out to get rid of child molesters, abusers, drunk drivers, and the like. Had I gone into this thinking of it more as a B movie and if I had the ability to overlook Blackport's shoddy acting this would have been more entertaining. However, it had the feel of a souped up tv production from high school and it never really left that state for me.

I'm curious about the selection of Blackport, especially since 6,000 actresses applied for the role. I guess they can't all be winners. On the plus side, the film was made almost entirely in Denver and featured local actors. Anne's brain freeze scenes where she sees the ghosts of her victims were also well directed, even if they were contrived. I tore the 2 on the ballot for this one - and that was a 2 of 5.

Hopefully I'll get into Sydney Lumet's new movie Before the Devil Knows You're Dead tonight. Also on the docket this week: Being Michael Madsen, Jump!, and Forfeit.

KONE!!!

I was watching Next Iron Chef and this ad came on - Seriously!? Is this actually happening?! This is either the best, or worst thing ever, there's no middle ground on this.

JESU in the mile high

We went and saw Jesu play tonight - Yakuza opened. Yakuza was sweet, they play a hybrid of metal/jazz/rock/experimental. Basically what it comes down to is that they play either really sludgy metal or really fast stuff and the singer plays the saxophone when he's not singing. I liked it. It was interesting how the sax actually fit and lent a melody to a style of music that otherwise tends to lose me in its meandering tendencies.

Jesu played a great set, it's amazing how much sound those guys get out of just a few instruments. They weren't necessarily the most entertaining, and the stage banter literally consisted of 3 thank you's and a "we're Jesu", but I guess that's brooding for you. They were really loud, really tight, and their music really builds. jesu makes me sleepy, but not in a bored way, so I wouldn't recommend seeing them sans caffeine. All in all a good show.

Prior to "showing it" I whipped up some cannelinni beans with our dinner, here's the recipe:

1 can Cannelinni/Great Northern Beans Rinsed and Drained
1 T butter
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 of an onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
1/4 c vegetable stock
Salt & Pepper

Heat oil over medium heat, add butter and melt. Saute onions and garlic until they start getting soft. Stir in beans. Cook for 1-2 min. until they start to heat up. Add stock, salt, pepper, and parsley. Turn heat up slightly to bring stock to a simmer and then let it reduce until the beans are nice and soft and most of the liquid is absorbed. This will also thicken the sauce. Season it if it needs it (this depends on how salty your stock is).

Ketchin Up

So here's a quick rundown of the latest:



We saw Michael Clayton last week. You know the old plodding lawyer/reporter intrigue movies from the 70's (like All the President's Men)? This is a 2007 version of movies like that. I can't help but think that George Clooney is one of the true movie stars of our time.

I also went and saw Dr. Dog play a couple of weeks ago. Between the Rockies game and the band playing it was a pretty exciting evening. People were running back and forth between the show area of Larimer Lounge and the Bar area to check the game out. Dr. Dog was good, not necessarily my cup of tea, I think I sensed a little too much hippy in them.

Food-wise I just have to say that Erawan Thai Cuisine is the best Thai in Denver that I've had. Alana and I went on a weeknight and the place was hopping, which was good to see, since we're usually one of two tables in there when we eat. The hot and sour soup is out of this world, and we haven't gone wrong with an entree yet. The flavors at Erawan are more subtle than some of the big hitters (Thai Basil, Swing Thai) around here, and it makes the food taste much more delicate and homemade.

I also hit up Royal India on Sunday, it was decent Indian fare, not much better or worse than anywhere else. I had the peas paneer, my friend Ben got the eggplant dish, both were decent, I'd say his was better. (My peas were a bit overcooked). Little India still has my vote for best though.

Oh, and here's a recipe for mashed potatoes:

2 spuds (I used Idaho)chopped
1/4 c milk
generous amt. of salt
pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
2 T butter

Cover the potatoes with water and boil until fork tender. Approx. 20 minutes. Pour out most of the water from the pot. (If you put the closest lip of the pot about half way up on the sink edge nearest you and pour the water out that way it will keep the potatoes from coming out and give you a chance to see how much water you have poured). I always leave a little bit of water in the pot. Mash the potatoes a bit in the small amount of water (we're talking 2-3 T here), and then mix in the milk, sour cream, salt, pepper, and butter. Adjust seasonings for your taste. For a variation you can add part of a packet of ranch dressing mix, it's delicious.

Zombie Fried Rice

I went and saw Resident Evil: Extinction this past weekend. It was exactly what you think it would be. The dialog was some of the worst I've heard this side of Uwe Boll, but you dont' go to a zombie movie based on a video game for the dialog. I was disappointed there wasn't more man vs. zombie action, and the whole "evil corporation" subplot was sub-par, even for a by the numbers story like this. A desolate post-apocalyptic desert world was kind of neat and Milla Jovovich kicked some ass. So yeah, exactly what you'd expect.

I made roasted cauliflower with teriyaki bbq sauce (recipe follows post), teriyaki tofu and cashew fried rice stuffed peppers. It was all very good. The key to stuffed peppers of any kind is to blanch/boil the peppers for about 10 or 15 minutes until they have cooked almost all of the way through, then stuff them and bake them. This helps keep the whole dish from drying out.

Roasted Cauliflower:

This is take on a recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine:

1 head of cauliflower cut into florets
1-2 T vegetable oil

Heat an oven to 400 degrees, toss cauliflower in oil, put on a sheet pan and bake approx. 45 minutes turning cauliflower occasionally.

Teriyaki BBQ Sauce (This is from memory, so it might not be completely accurate):

1/4 of an onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 T vegetable oil
1/3 C ketchup
2 T teriyaki sauce
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce

cook onions and garlic over medium heat, when softened add the rest of the ingredients, cook for 5 minutes. Toss with cooked cauliflower and serve.

Pulcinella Denver and some Sweet Potato

Pulcinella Ristorante is a mainstay of the Ft. Collins dining scene and now Denver has its own. I got a gift certificate there from some fine folks I work with and Alana and I took the opportunity to order just about everything we could last night. Pulcinella is damn near the closest thing to the food I had when I was in Italy after I graduated from college.

The antipasti menu reads like a sushi menu. On our last visit we had the wild mushroom ravioli, which is the best ravioli I've ever had. Ever. This time we ordered the Asparagus in lemon sauce and the risotto croquettes (which don't have chicken stock! Score vegetarians). The Asparagus was perfectly cooked and the lemon sauce was light. Although it tasted good I wouldn't say it was worth the $4.95. The Risotto Croquettes, however, were delicious and are worth a trip by themselves. I see a dinner of Mushroom Ravioli and Risotto Croquettes in my future.

We also got the Spinaci salad - delicious with its lemon dressing and gorgonzola cheese - and I got a dish that consisted of penne pasta, eggplant, mozzarella, and tomato sauce. Pulcinella does their eggplant right; it's apparently marinated in olive oil and red pepper flakes, I'm going to have to try that. To finish it off we had their homemade vanilla gelato - can't go wrong with that.

Tonight I made sweet potato chipotle soup. Here's the recipe for any of you wanting to try it:

1/2 onion diced
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 sweet potato cubed
1-2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp chipotle in adobo
2 1/4 C vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 T olive oil

Heat oil over med. heat. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger. When they get soft and fragrant add brown sugar and cook for a few minutes to brown/caramelize. Add 1/4 cup of broth to deglaze along with the sweet potato and chipotle. Cook for 2 min. then add the rest of the stock. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low for 20 minutes. Move to blender and blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. We had this with grilled cheese sandwiches, but you could pair it with a southwestern meal as well.

Be careful with the chipotle - that stuff is hotter than Arizona asphalt in July. Oh and go Rockies.

GI JOE Stop Motion

I went to the GI JOE Stop Motion animation festival at the BUG Theater last Thursday (It's been a hectic week so posts are behind...). This was the inaugural year for this small film festival. There were quite a few entries from around the country and some from around the world. The criteria for the festival was that the movies had to be stop motion and use GI Joe action figures (either the old school 12" kind, or the newer ones blown up in backyards around the country). Awesome.

There were some pretty funny shorts, it's amazing what people did with some GI Joes, a camera, some computer effects, and a little clay. I was surprised how many shorts had military themes. I would have thought an autobiography of Abraham Lincoln with GI Joe action figures would be pretty funny. The short from Taiwan was some mix of monster movie and an apocalyptic Eastern/Western religious hybrid vision. It was as weird and confusing as it sounds. My favorite of the night was "WAR American Style" which was a comedic view of a lineage of men from a family who fought and died (comedically) in every major American Military Encounter. John F. Kennedy cannibalising the rest of his life-boatmates was the most outrageous and funny clip. I'm looking forward to this next year, maybe I'll even have an entry.

Pena, a local indie instrumental group, played the intermission, they were loud and mathy - which i'm into- I'd see them again.

Food wise (last week) I made homemade hot and sour soup which was ok, the spicing and stock need some tweaking and I need to get better at ribboning eggs, but it was pretty decent. I roasted cauliflower (400 degrees for 45 min.) and made a Hoisin barbeque sauce, it was a good combination, I highly recommend it.

Going Going... Kong

We caught King of Kong tonight at the Stars Film Center in the Tivoli. The Tivoli is my favorite movie theater in Denver and it's got a special place now because they let us go in free because they started the movie early. Score. In any case King of Kong was so awesome. It unfortunately solidifies a lot of stereotypes of gamers (which are really entertaining). I had no idea about Twin Galaxies which is the official record keeping body of classic video games. These guys take it seriously. There's one dude who actually sits and watches video game tapes of people getting high scores. Can you imagine watching 3 hours of Asteroids? Ouch.

The film would be more comical if not for the hell that they and Billy Mitchell put Steve Wiebe through. The personalities and story are top notch in King of Kong, and the inclusion of "You're the Best" (from Karate Kid) during the montage really made it for me. The competition was fierce. I need to get a classic video game machine. GO SEE IT.

Sunny Garden and Obtuse Fortunes

We ate at Sunny Garden in the Safeway shopping center on Yale and Monaco. I've been hoping to find a Chinese restaurant in Denver that has fake meat on their menu. I thought all hope was lost, but a friend told me about this place. Their menu is pretty decent, it's not as extensive as Long Life Vegi House in Salt Lake City, or Budda's in Boston, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Alana got the Kung Pao beef, which was really good, and I got the Sesame Chicken (all fake of course). Their meat substitutes have a similar taste to the fake meats you'd find in an Asian market (duh) as opposed to the ones you would find in a Safeway or King Soopers. Mine had the distinctive flavor of the "black mass" found in some Asian meat substitutes. The sesame chicken was a little hard on the jaw because of the friedness of the balls of chicken, but otherwise it was delicious.

While we were eating, the hostess's little boy was playing pokemon with a friend. There's nothing like listening to 8 year old kids discussions. They would flip from Pokemon to divorce, to what grade they were in, to why his grandparents would take care of him - never a dull moment in the mind of a child.

The fortune cookies at Sunny Garden are incredible. Here's the one Alana got: "It's not the end yet. Let's stay with it." What are we supposed to do with that?! and mine was "It's up to you to make the next move." Indeed.

Mustard's Last Stand and a Quiche Were at a Party...

We had a potluck tonight (one of a few this weekend) and we brought my mom's world famous crustless spinach quiche. (I chopped the onions, my lady did the rest this time) I'm still undecided if I'm going to release this recipe to the world. Regardless, it's bitchin'. (I think my mom got it from a snooty Northshore cookbook in Chicago.) We were the talk of the party - that bad boy didn't last 10 minutes on the table. You can always judge how successful your food is at the potluck by how much other stuff gets eaten before/after your dish. We got there late and it was gone before mostly everything else. Sweet. I think potlucks are bringing out my competitive side. Unfortunately, this potluck had a lot of meat in the other dishes so I ended up hungry, which led me to Mustard's.

Mustard's Last Stand on University down by DU is usually the mecca of the veggie dog for me, but tonight they came up short. I rely on Mustard's to take me back to my childhood growing up in Chicago - with the exception that I get the soy dog now instead of the vienna beef. I got my dogs to go thinking that the tight wrapping of the wax paper would further steam the bun and make it the deliciousness of my childhood. Well Mustard's, thanks for the stale bun and the lackluster dog! I'm so disappointed, but I'll give you a second chance, I always do, it may have just been an off night. Steve's Snappin' Dogs on Colfax is quickly pulling up along side you, even though they don't use the right kind of buns for their dogs. Mustard's, if you're going to import the real Vienna Buns you could at least make sure they're fresh!

Hot Dog Idea: Barbeque Sauce and Coleslaw? I'll keep you posted.

TAKI TAKI BO BAKI

Dinner at Taki's was very good. I know from the outside this place looks like a crappy Japanese version of a Burger King. It's actually quite delicious. Two words: Real Plates. No plastic here, it's real plates, real silverware, real bowls, and real spoons for the miso soup. I had the tofu and udon bowl which was terrific. you get a bowl of soup as big as your head with big chunks of tofu, a good amount of udon noodles, vegetables, and tempura vegetables. It's about 6 bucks, which isn't bad. I had a side order of veggie gyoza as well, which are also terrific.

Alana had the tofu steak which we've found is served differently every time. Tonight the sauce was drizzled on the side, which is fine, but I think that when it's actually drizzled on the tofu it looks much better. Anyway, the moral of the story is eat at Taki's, especially if the sassy Japanese (I believe that's her ethnicity) in the beatnik hat is running the register. She's worth the price of admission.

Dinner & a Show Post 1: Delpy and Damascus

Blog post #1, here goes.

I am aware that usually it's dinner and a show, but we mixed things up tonight by hitting the show then dinner. It's a good plan, because then we could talk about the movie at dinner. It's genius I tell you!

The show was 2 Days in Paris - Julie Delpy's new film. You'll probably recognize her from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. The movie played out almost like a Linklater written comedy. Adam Goldberg's character played a great foil to Delpy's neurotic French artist eccentricities. Overall it was enjoyable and quite humorous in parts. In my 10 minute deconstruction following the film I surmised that it was mostly about the truly important things happening in this world (war, racism, Bush's policies, American perceptions abroad) vs. the microcosm of your own life. I'm not sure what the overall thesis was, but this seems to be the ground it was treading. My only complaints are that Delpy didn't interweave some stylistic elements into the film as seamlessly as I'm sure she would have liked and at points her exposition is overdone. Overall it was a good flick , plus Alejandro Jodorowski's son was in it. Can you imagine growing up with Jodorowski as your dad?

Dinner was at Damascus, a Middle Eastern Restaurant which is located just south of 1-25 and Colorado. I hadn't been there before, I've been to a few other Middle Eastern restaurants in the mile high city, but not this one. Damascus was a pleasant surprise. It's located in a pretty beat up strip mall, but getting out of there for $20 after ordering the vegetarian combo platter, a falafel sandwich, and dolmas was a steal. The food is good, I'd say definitely better than Jerusalem, and on par, if not a little bit better, than Shish Kabob Cafe on Colfax. Damascus wins in the baba ghanouj category, but the prize for hummus goes to the reigning champ Shish Kabob Cafe. I'm not sure what they do to their hummus, but it's either a secret you wouldn't want to know or it's illegal. Service -wise Damascus wins, a kind older man that mumbled when he spoke was our wait staff and it was quite endearing.