This is a RSS file. Copy the URL into your aggregator of choice. If you don't know what this means and want to learn more, please see: http://platial.typepad.com/news/2006/04/really_simple_t.html for more info. http://platial.comhttp://platial.com/map/The-Hopeful-Connoisseur/14285 Jim Benson Moves Around The Planet and, More Often Than Not, Eats. http://platial.com/post/1116276 2007-03-26 22:09:04.703248+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1119616
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]]> 2007-05-25 09:21:46.973426+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1114735
Big Welcome back to Vancouver from May, Albert, Judy and Celina. Vivian and I had been away from Vancouver for too long. Our friends welcomed us back with a big meal at Kirin.

- Silky chicken soup - Peking Duck (skin) - Peking Duck (lettuce wrap) - Spicy Beef Hot Pot - Pea Shoots - Pickled Vegetables Kau Yoch (Pork Belly)

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]]> 2007-03-26 12:23:00.57121+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1121255 2007-03-28 15:34:01.424834+00:00 http://platial.com/post/938200 Vivian made Chambord (the brown ones) and Kahula (the white ones) truffles for a party today. She made about 50 of them. The women at Caitlin's Venus Tea Party went through all but the ones here which ... now we get to eat at home! I'm really liking this ramping up to the chocolate business.

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]]> 2007-01-27 21:52:54.497845+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1329900
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]]> 2007-06-03 01:23:21.117209+00:00 http://platial.com/post/939112
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]]> 2007-01-28 21:12:34.599149+00:00 http://platial.com/post/904021
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]]> 2007-01-12 08:01:30.857354+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929445 Bay Area 511 Site. I've owned this company with my business partner William since 2000.

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]]> 2007-01-19 21:26:45.856359+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929450 Here are some deer outside the back door in the morning. (It was raining and there had been high winds the night before, so the windows had sea salt all over them).

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]]> 2007-01-20 17:56:54.719265+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929747
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]]> 2007-01-20 10:36:24.110438+00:00 http://platial.com/post/930029 Moving In Here we see the house when we first received our occupancy permit. Vivian and I came down and slept on the floor and tried to figure out how, exactly, we'd furnish the place. Here we see the walk-in shower, the soaker tub, and the empty living room (except for the dryer). Here we are building the hutch, putting up blinds, and building a bed. We drove these down in a huge van that we packed from floor to ceiling. We unloaded in a torrential downpour. Getting There Here we see the Sai Oak starting to really shape up. Looking better and better, and more furnished. It was nice being able to sit down. There! And soon enough we were fully moved in and doing things like .... Eating and drinking Entertaining friends and enjoying the beaches Greeting the Deer And watching the sunsets. And that, is the pocket picture history of The Sai Oak.

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]]> 2007-01-20 22:27:33.524957+00:00 http://platial.com/post/930992
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]]> 2007-01-21 21:54:52.356322+00:00 http://platial.com/post/937806
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]]> 2007-01-27 12:07:23.728783+00:00 http://platial.com/post/937822 Interra Project. This is a very complex system with financial transactions, integration of nonprofits, community involvement, credit cards, identity, social software and about a million other factors all coming together for positive change and business growth. It's ambitious and compelling and astounding that it's actually launched successfully.

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]]> 2007-01-27 12:16:58.972109+00:00 http://platial.com/post/939810
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]]> 2007-02-03 23:35:43.11943+00:00 http://platial.com/post/944711
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]]> 2007-02-04 09:05:39.609528+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945917 I have eaten all over the world and there are three restaurants that stand head and shoulders above everything else for outright technique. I have been to many other restaurants that had vibrant flavors that blew me away, but this is my top three technique list: These were: 1. Cafe Nora in Washington DC 2. Le Crocodile in Vancouver BC and now Lucques. We went on Sunday, so we had the Sunday dinner (see the web site). I had the mussels. They were delicious, the sauce and the white beans went perfectly with the mussels. But the real technique was shown in the rillettes. The duck in the rillettes was perfectly fibrous, the accompanying greens balanced it nicely and were sparse enough not to overwhelm it. It was excellently balanced. For us this meant: sunday, february 4, 2007 duck rillettes with savoy cabbage, mizuna salad and cornichon *** mussels and clams paysanne with jamon, green garlic, stinging nettles and white beans or roast leg of lamb with warm spinach salad, olives, anchovy and fried pumpkin persillade *** warm crepes with apple confit, crushed almonds and crème fraîche 40 dollars per person ------------------------------------------------- So, I was successfully food-wooed by Susan Mainzer.

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]]> 2007-02-07 12:10:43.324818+00:00 http://platial.com/post/950539 EasySignals we had pretty acceptable sandwiches ordered in. Mine was an italian salami, not huge, not Brooklyn ... but pretty good.

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]]> 2007-02-07 12:17:31.572197+00:00 http://platial.com/post/951377
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]]> 2007-02-21 08:59:53.14861+00:00 http://platial.com/post/975364 Julie Charles just bought a houseboat down the street from our offices. To celebrate she came to see our offices, then we at at Mc&Schmk, then went to see the new houseboat. Julie's new place is really nice. Her only issue seems to be the big crappy Chinese restaurant nearby - they have dances that are really loud, it seems. Her dog is also terrified of the spiral staircase and won't descend. So he's an upstairs dog now. Yes, there are logical issues with having an upstairs dog. Let's not go there right now though.

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]]> 2007-02-21 08:57:47.74059+00:00 http://platial.com/post/975686 on Flickr. Here are some teasers to get you to click on the link:

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]]> 2007-02-21 10:40:12.340276+00:00 http://platial.com/post/987535
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]]> 2007-02-25 08:47:45.029648+00:00 http://platial.com/post/988320
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]]> 2007-02-27 16:09:25.778089+00:00 http://platial.com/post/995839 here. Our take from it was the stuff squid, the spare ribs, the cognac filet mignon, a special crepe made with coconut milk, and the mustard greens with abalone mushrooms. Monsoon is always phenomenal. Oh, I should note since I said I took Mr. Mudge here that he was quick to pick up the check.

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]]> 2007-03-01 13:22:11.379274+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1058154
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]]> 2007-03-26 22:04:07.94745+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1116280 2007-03-26 22:13:18.065164+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1119582 the Blue Star on the recommendation of our colleague, Greg Mizell. It was really very good. Set in an unassuming part of Colorado Springs (not much of Colorado Springs would be anything else, but this is very unassuming), the interior was surprisingly fashionable. The staff was very friendly and were honestly engaging. We truly felt they would have been nice to us, even if we weren't paying customers. I asked for a Smokey Martini, as I couldn't get one in the airport yesterday. They weren't sure what that was, so I told them. They made a very nice one. The used good scotch because of the novelty of being stumped. My first course was the Baked Brie, black mission fig Wooton chutney and micro greens. This came with a very large chunk of Brie. William can't eat cheese, but it was phenomenal. My second course was even better. The Tejon Tender. Char grilled, garlic leek mashers, haricot verts, blue cheese wontons and kecap demi glace. The steak was perfectly seasoned and cooked. The leek potatoes were also really good. And Blue Cheese wontons .... how can you go wrong? For dessert I had an amusing event. Their Tequila Sunrise dessert was a tequila lime mousse in fillo dough and a white chocolate topping and a lime coulis. So I get it and it was really good - but weird. So I asked the waitress what the minty taste was in my dessert. She looked horrified. The new pastry chef had apparently put the wrong coulis on. She must have asked if I was sure it was okay about 50 times. The funny thing was, it was pretty good that way.

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]]> 2007-03-27 20:16:04.64787+00:00 http://platial.com/post/1127334
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]]> 2007-02-05 22:38:37.148492+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929465 Attendees:

David Chinn Anne Chinn Allan Cady Sarah Ryan Keawakane William Rowden Vivian Lam Jim Benson

Menu

Smoked Salmon Beef Marrow Bones Charcuterie Plate (Rillettes, blood sausage, pate, assorted meats) Duck Confit Cassoulet Braised Veal Blanquette Roast Chicken Cote d' Boeuf Brussel Sprouts Chocolate Pot de Creme Cognac au Chocolat

Why we were there This was a subset of the programming team and guests celebrating the completion of a fantastic project at Gray Hill Solutions. The team finished on time, under budget and with no major mishaps along the way. All in all it was a terrific and smooth operation. I wish every project would go that way.

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]]> 2007-01-20 11:25:39.899785+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929470
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]]> 2007-01-20 18:31:07.192984+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929913 Blog Entries Flickr Streams

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]]> 2007-01-20 18:50:55.796553+00:00 http://platial.com/post/929954 Step 1 Season steak with spanish sea salt w. two peppers (a slightly hot spicy salt you can pick up at whole foods) and a little bit of olive oil. Season and let sit for 20 minutes Step 2 Heat up the pan first Step 3 Then pan sear the steak. I pan seared it and (forgot to photograph) let sit in the warming drawer while I was making the scallops. The warming drawer sits at about 200 degrees. So I put it in there while the inside of the steak was still quite rare. Step 4 Here are the scallops, purchased at Lytle's Seafoods just outside of Ocean Shores. They have very fresh, very clean (very clean) seafood. Always small selection of just what should be sold on that day. Step 5 Pan fry those buggers by heating the pan, then adding butter, then frying the scallops. I cooked them to 3/4 done, turned the warming drawer down, and put them in with the steak. Step 6 I then deglazed the pan with Chardonnay. There was enough butter in the pan and plenty of delicious carmelization from the scallops. Step 7 Here we put it all together. And voila! You have steak with pan seared scallops and Chardonnay Scallop Sauce.

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]]> 2007-01-20 21:35:09.027622+00:00 http://platial.com/post/937139 menu. Nancy, her husband Larry, my wife Vivian and me all shared several plates. Let's see if I can remember them: Appetizers: - Panko Prawns (okay) - Stuffed Calamari (good) Entrees: - Wild Ginger Fragrant Duck (good) - Mongolian Lamb Chops (very good) - Seven Flavor Beef (good) Dessert: - Lemon Cheesecake (good) The beginning of the actual fundraiser showed a segment from the film Voices in Wartime. It was pretty sobering. It made the initially think of my friend Corey who was killed in a car accident in 1990. Right before he was killed, he told me that his brother Tim had never spoken about his time in Viet Nam, but recently had begun talking to Corey about it. He was very moved by it. It was such a powerful thing after so many years. Shortly thereafter, Corey was killed and at the funeral I was a wreck. But I remember thinking that Tim had waited all this time and was finally able to share that with Corey and now Tim had lost that support. So that was .. sobering. Despite the very strong Pomatini I had. After the film there was music. Good music. Excellent music, in fact. Which cheered me up - but the thoughts above stayed with me until well into the night.

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