We drove to Dallas for an art opening and dinner.
The opening was at Marty Walker Gallery:
http://www.martywalkergallery.com/
There was a lot of local buzz about the new gallery in town, so the
crowd was really big -- too big to see the art, in fact. At times it
seemed like D and I mostly looked at the shoes and haircuts, both of
which offered much to study. Imagine a lovely young woman with a
fresh face and a worn band aid poking out of one of her beautiful
black high heels. It was like a visual haiku in its compression of
facts and values.
One of the artists featured in the show is a friend of mine.
Ironically (given the disapproval rating for my recent photo posts)
he's a well respected photographer. Here's his homepage:
http://www.tedkincaid.com/
Dinner was at Nandina: http://tinyurl.com/5hn8d
I liked it a lot. We ordered several small items. Although the menu
is largely Asian (Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese), the dishes are
mostly small, tapas-like tastes. Asian tapas might sound silly, but
last night at least it worked quite well. I had yellowtail nigiri,
which was most excellent. I also ate the lamb chops with wasabi
mashed potatoes and a rocking green papaya salad. D took a brief
vacation from South Beach and ordered a shrimp tempura roll, crispy
pork riblets, and a lovely plate of tiny Vietnamese spring rolls. The
ribs weren't good, unfortunately -- tough and gristly. The other
dishes made us happy, however.
D's martini wasn't all that great, shaken too long and oliveless.
When the two olives she had asked for did arrive, they had pits in
them, which was strange. My wine was good for an ordinary house red,
but I thought it was a bit too warm in the glass.
Extending the vacation from SB by a wide margin, D had fried ice cream
for dessert. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so my dessert was
another round of yellowtail nigiri. That cracked the waitress up, by
the way. She giggled as she delivered the raw fish: "Here's your
dessert."
A final endearing moment came as we pulled out of the tiny parking
lot. I looked over my shoulder to back up and there was the owner,
directing traffic in the rain. Talk about dedication to your job.
--
modom
"My baby's got no clothes
'Cause she's makin' chicken soup."
-- Chuck E. Weiss