At this point, my dining companion is in such high spirits, I would really rather be dining alone. She is radiating “pissed off” quite visible, although she denied it then and will probably deny it now.

Even after all that, we still went sat down to have dinner, because I was really excited to try Buchon.

The service was mediocre for this kind of establishment.

The wine list was great, with a focus almost exclusively on California wines, with some excellent options by the glass. I had a wonderful Pinot Noir.

The food on the other hand…

I ordered the braised pork cheek and sage ravioli to start. The asparagus was good, but everything else was amazingly disappointing. The heirloom tomato ragout was thin and tasteless, the pork cheek was somehow dry in texture while still having a gelatinous fatty feel.

As the main course I ordered Bourbon & Maple-Glazed California Duck Breast, it was better. It was a decent dish, but there was no contrast to the sweetness. The succotash was sweet, the glaze was kinda non existant, the duck was breast was rare and didn’t contribute much to the dish flavor or texture wise, and their was a duck leg confit, that was easily the most boring duck confit I have experienced. The vegetables were again the best part of the dish, and they were just good.

At this point I asked my wife what her opinion was, and she said everything was ok. I gave Buchon a fair shake, with two dishes that should have been interesting and tasty, but was disappointed in both. I finished my single glass of wine, paid the check and left Buchon disappointed.

I don’t think the circumstances tainted the taste of the food, but it is possible, but highly unlikely. I have tasted good food under worse circumstances.

And it was great.

This place is known for its food, not for its service. The location is a kinda strip mall/shopping center, but really small town. I am pretty sure the building was purpose built as part of the “town center” for Santa Ynez, but since I am unfamiliar with the area, the architecture didn’t look like everything else I am used to in the DFW area. The building was a traditional two story farm house appearance with wrap around porch, dormer windows, standing seam metal roof and pier and beam foundation (or maybe just the porch was pier and beam). The interior of the dining room had the open kitchen in one corner with a bar around it, and then typical restaurant tables and chairs filling a rather small room. The place was packed.

There was a group waiting when I walked up to the hostess to check in. This totally threw her off. Apparently she was getting ready to seat them, and didn’t know how to tell me that it would be just a moment. Quite funny. We were seated immediately after she returned.

The waiter was quite laid back, to the point that I doubted any of the gluten intolerance information was getting through. Everything turned out fine, for the most part.

The food was excellent. We started with 3 appetizers between 4 of us, and should have just done two. The caprese and carpaccio di bue were well prepared. The rollio veneto, a pizza roll made with smoked mozzarella and radicchio, was awesome. We raved about it so much, one of the gluten free girls felt obligated to lick the center of one of the rolls. That was enough to make her sick later, oops.

The only problem with the rollio veneto was that both men ordered large plates of pasta, and both men were already full. A large plate of pennette con funghi e salsciccia left me stuffed. It is a traditional penne with a tomato mushroom sausage sauce, where the bits of sausage and mushroom were small enough enough to stick to the pasta. It was amazing. The girls raved about their gluten free dishes (Fagioli con Salsiccie and Calamari alla Positano) and all the gluten free dishes were shared, thus we know the culprit was a single lick to the pizza roll.

Everything was washed down with a bottle of Brunello. It was my first Brunello, and while I was assured it was a good representation of the wine, it wasn’t my favorite. Of course, having a wine list with almost a dozen Brunello’s to choose from was a treat.

In summary, the food was outstanding, the service is what you would expect from a small local restaurant and the wine list was great if you like Italian wines.

Location: The Shop’s at Legacy is a nice little open air mall that provides plenty of free garage parking if you are willing to walk a block instead of valeting, but there really wasn’t much of casual interest there. The wine bar Cru nearby, and I would like to stop in for wine and a appetizers, but we weren’t that early, and we aren’t really big enough eaters to pull that off. The area is nice, but rather boring.

Atmosphere: The restaurant was nicely decorated, and the patrons well dressed. The lighting was low, steak house style, but the building had floor to ceiling glass windows, and the walls were dark but not wood paneled. Probably a little on the trendy side.

Service: The service was great. Our waiter was not stuffy or pretentious nor overly friendly. He had been with the restaurant for quite a while and had worked previously as a sommelier, so he was very familiar with the menu and the wine list. Since it was our first time, and we passed on appetizers, he brought us a their signature appetizer to try, small order of bleu cheese potato chips, which I devoured. They were very good, and I hate potato chips. His wine recommendations were intelligent. I asked about a glass of interesting wine on the menu (Atlas Peak, non vintage cab blend), and told him I usually drink Pinot Noir, but I had tried everything on their menu except the Pinot they were out of and wanted to try something new (by the glass menu, not their full wine list). He said I might like the Atlas Peak, but it was a very non standard Cab, and also recommended something else Pinot like. I told him I would take the Atlas.

Our server returned with our wine, with two glasses for me. I got to sample both the Atlas and the recommended. He was spot on with his recommendation, on the dry side with lots of mineral which was very similar to a lot of Pinot I have had recently. The Atlas had a very soft mouth feel, with a lot of red fruit flavor without being fruity or sweet. I went with the Atlas.

Food: We shared the small potato chips, which were very good, and might have been the best thing I ate that night. I enjoyed the Jasper’s Greens salad, which was mixed greens, candied pecans and blue cheese. The vinaigrette was a very light lemon, whose tartness just offset the sweetness of the pecans and the tang of the cheese. I enjoy bold flavors, but someone else might have found the bleu cheese dominating in the salad.

For my main course, I asked the server between the Rotisserie Roasted Prime Rib and the Hickory Grilled Flat Iron Steak. He hands down recommended the prime rib, which has won awards. The prime rib was good, but I was not over welled. There was a good 2-3 inches of smoke ring around the prime rib, but that only accounts for about 25% of the meat. After that, it was just plain prime rib. Good, but I have had just as good prime rib that has not won any awards.

Sadly, no dessert for me. This is typical, since the portion size at a restaurant is usually larger than the largest portion I would prepare at home. I am considering resolving this by ordering appetizers, salads and dessert, since so often the creativity of a restaurant lies there. Well, the salads aren’t creative, they just make me feel less gluttonous.

Overall: I enjoyed Jasper’s and would be happy to take people there.

eat
breakfast like a king,
lunch like a prince and
dinner like a pauper

Pretty simple, and you are eating food when you actually need it. How many calories do you think you need to sleep at night?

Last year about this time my schedule allowed for me to lift 3 times a week while still in school. No swimming, just lifting, and my intake seemed to double, and I gained about 15 pounds. After starting on my thesis, I lost both the strength and the weight fairly quickly.

Now everyday is starts with a large breakfast and on swimming days, a scoop of Endurox R4. Lunch is usually fairly light on calories and this is where improvements can be made. On workout days, I swim from 4:50-6am, eat breakfast at 6:30am, eat lunch at 11am, lift at 5pm, have a scoop of Endurox and then eat dinner at 6:30pm. Most days, I am hungry before I start lifting, and I think I would be better off shifting my calories from dinner to lunch.

Lunch is a very healthy meal for me, while dinner includes alcohol and is followed up by dessert. Shifting my calories to lunch would at least make me feel better about my diet. I can handle the calories I am consuming, but I always feel better when the calories I am consuming come from healthier sources.

My diet and exercise journal is coming along very well, so I have the details to back up my beliefs. Once I figure out a good format to put it in, I will post some or all of it online.

First, my wife is more scared of fire then entertained.

Second, an electric stove top can heat a cast iron skillet to the point where pouring corn oil into the pan, the oil will immediately catch fire.

I was making cast iron skillet steak, I had heated the cast iron skillet on high, and then added a little oil to the pan before adding the steaks. This tablespoon or two of oil immediately caught fire with a pop, which drew Brooks attention from the other room. She was not exactly thrilled to see things on fire in the kitchen, but being only a tablespoon of oil, it quickly burnt out on its own. Unlike alcohol, which has a low colorful flame, the oil had a very high bright yellow flame.

As I was finishing up dinner and setting things on the table, I notice the Home Depot list on the table now had a new item, Fire Extinguisher.

Made for an exciting Saturday night. Brook’s steak turned out to be the best she ever had.

Two questions should come to mind. Why do you want to do a trial and what will your trial be?

First, why. I am currently researching building online revenue streams. Two common paths are affiliate marketing, where you advertise someone else’s business and they pay you for the sales you generate, and online advertising, where people pay you for space to advertise on your site.

Now I am approaching both with this trial. What if I can find a product, that the best way to promote the product is to show documented results that the product works? If I document my experience with the product over a trail period, I can kill two birds with one stone. I will be promoting the trialed product, and hopefully create new followers of the site, which will increase potential ad revenue.

This is starting to sound like a get rich quick scheme. It isn’t really, I don’t have any experience with marketing blogs or products, and I will need to learn both to get rich. What I do know, is how to eat and exercise.

And now, what will I trial? I have no idea, but I expect it will fall into the supplement, diet or exercise categories. What I don’t know is if I can actually keep track of everything I need to to make for a good trial.

First things first, to find out if I can keep track of my eating and exercising, I have started a food and exercise journal. This is nothing fancy right now, it is just a spiral notebook left over from school. Once I have proven to myself that I can actually keep track of everything I want to keep track of, and that I want to continue with this nonsense, I might actually buy a Moleskine or some other “nice” notebook.

The format of my notebook is currently free form. I tried to find some templates, but this apparently is not as common as I would have thought. I think I will discover would have been a helpful template to follow.

Drawing the line in the sand, I wrote down my weight, bodyfat percentage and all the common lifting measurement (arm, thigh, waist, chest, hips and neck). No pictures of me in a speedo yet, but proper documentation demands it. Now that I have just finished dinner, it would be a great time to take a belly shot!

My main disappointment is with the service. It is professional and aloof, noticeably aloof. So aloof in fact, that it has stuck out in my mind from each trip. On top of the air of superiority was an extreme sense of detachment. Like everything was scripted and delivered in a dead pan, robotic manner. Spread across four different waitresses, this manner must be something that they must recruit for and I don’t understand why.

Another thing that was mentioned last night was the noise. We had a party of five at a small round table, and your could not hear the person across the table from you with paying attention. It was so loud that when the waitress knelt next to my wife to say something too her, her sister sitting on one side mentioned that the waitress was trying to get her attention, but I had to tap her on the shoulder to actually get her to understand that the waitress was right next to her. Now I like a restaurant to be a little noisy, so you don’t feel the need to talk in hushed tones.

Now for a non-complaint, just an oddity. In three trips to Bob’s, I have never seen the sommelier. During the first trip, the waitress came around for drink orders, asked if we were having wine (it was a large party of maybe 15), and we said yes. She moved on and then came back with everyone’s drinks about 10 minutes later, including a couple glasses of wine. We waited another few minutes, and asked if we could order wine? “The sommelier will be with you in a moment.” Ah, we just wanted glasses of wine, one was ordering a bottle and if we were, there were 3 people at the table who could have ordered without a 15 minute wait for the sommelier. We ordered our glasses and were done.

My next trip, I ordered a bottle of wine that I was very happy with, but I was not offered the services of the sommelier, nor did the man who brought my bottle introduce himself as the sommelier. This was an early dinner mid week for business, so it is very possible that there was no sommelier.

Finally, last night, no one ended up ordering wine, but it was prime time on a Saturday and I was surprised that the services of a sommeler were not offered. I have already complained about the service, and you typically do not tip the server on a bottle of wine, but you do tip the server on other drinks, so maybe…

Now, having never seen the sommelier, he is doing his job. I have not had a glass of wine at Bob’s that we did not go out and buy a bottle of. I have two good Pinot Noirs and Brook has had a good Riesling, so I am happy with the wine list that has been put together.

In the end, the food is good, the wine selection is great, the service could be personable, and I cannot say that Bob’s is “worth” it.

But I called them today to ask about the menu and they one upped themselves.

My wife has celiacs disease which means that she cannot eat anything with wheat gluten in it. So I called Fogo de Chao to ask what meats she can eat. First I find out that almost all the beef she can eat. That is a good start. Next I find out she can eat the cheese rolls. She is going to do cart wheels for that reason alone. Finally, they said they would make a note with my reservation and specially prepare some lamb, pork and chicken gluten free. Really? My wife isn’t going to eat a whole spit by herself! So ++ to Fogo de Chao.

I would except any high end restaurant to make some accommodations, but if you have seen the big spits of meat they prepare, to have some of them specially prepared for one person seems like a big deal.

Chamberlain’s is easy to get to in Addison and does not funnel everyone into valet. I would actually suggest skipping valet, because valet was quite backed up when we left and the rear parking lot is only about 20 feet from the door. This is definitely not one of those places where, if you don’t valet, you have to hike a mile to get a parking spot.

I liked the decor of the restaurant, it is very old school with lots of dark stained wood paneling and exposed brick walls. There are two dining areas, the main floor and the back room which only has four tables. We ate in the back room so that it would be more quiet and we could talk easier. The problem is, it is too quiet and the main floor isn’t some noisy bustling restaurant floor. So if you want to enjoy some anonymous conversation, the main floor is probably a better choice. The back room would be nice for a private party, but with only four tables, there is a good chance that when you are talking, the other tables may be in a period of silence, aka, enjoying your conversation too.

The wait staff was professional, but not smooth. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that, but go to the French Room and go here, and they are different. The French Room also costs twice as much I liked our waitress and she did a good job taking care of us. It could have also been that I was uncomfortable since I think this was the first upscale dining experience I can remember having with my mother. Not to say that I expected her to play football with the bread, but I worry about stupid shit like waiter-diner interaction.

The preview menu was very good. There was a wide selection, so if you didn’t want to eat fish, you could get a steak. Each course had a variety of selection with creative, but safe, preparations. Most of the table had shrimp and sweet corn salad for a starter, and everyone loved it, and wondered why we didn’t make it at home. The preparation seemed simple, but the combination of textures and flavors was wonderful. This was paired with a glass of Chalone Vineyards Chardonnay, Monterey 2006. I am not a big white wine drinker, and this is a perfect example of why. This wine seemed uninteresting to me. It did not enhance or compliment the flavor of the dish, nor did the dish seem to bring out anything extra in the wine. The wine just seemed to not compete with the dish. It was just something cool and refreshing to drink with my starter, like ice water with alcohol and a little flavoring. Of course, WTF do you expect for a $5.50 glass of wine. Jim had the coconut soup, which he liked because he enjoys eating crab, but not all the work that goes into getting crab meat out of the crab. He is a Shiraz drinker, and while I didn’t question him directly about the wine, the impression I got was that he thought his wine pairing was exactly as he expected it would be. White wine

The main course was divided between two halibut orders, one pork loin order and salmon skewer (the full menu is attached at the end). My mother and I each had the halibut, and I have to say, if either Brook or I could prepare fish like this, I would actually eat fish on a regular basis. I rarely get fish. I do not like oily fish like salmon, but I try to order into a restaurant’s strengths.

Side story. I enforced this belief onto Brook when we went to Morton’s a few years back. She was planning on ordering fish, and I gave her the “WTF is wrong with you, we are at a famous STEAK house. Actually, don’t worry about it, I will enjoy making fun of you for the rest of dinner for ordering fish at a steakhouse.” Brook ordered a steak which happened to be the best steak she has ever had, and has since always tries to order from a restaurants strengths. As a reward, I will take her to restaurants that specialize in seafood, so she can get a decent piece of fish. I just suffer.

Back on track. I ordered the halibut this night like I said and I certainly did not suffer this night. It was wonderful. Halibut is a white fish, so it lacks that fishy aftertaste that a fatty fish like salmon leaves you with. It also has little flavor, leaving the chef with just texture to build on. I didn’t lick my plate (and I worry about other people at a nice restaurant?), but I strongly considered it. My mother also enjoyed her fish although she might have actually left something on her plate. Another white wine was paired with this, a Solaris Chardonnay, Monterey 2004 which was a great find, because Brook liked it. Brook is a Riesling drinker, which fine, except there is a rather small selection of Riesling compared to a Chardonnay. There might only be a half a dozen Rieslings to choose from at the local liquor store, but there are probably 5 or 6 dozen Chardonnay’s.

Brook had the salmon skewer, which must have just met expectations because she didn’t comment on it at all. What she did comment on was that it was served with quinoa. Quinoa is an african grain that tastes like broccoli, Brook has made once because it is gluten free, and I have never partaken since. I mean, it is like little granules of broccoli rice. Does that sound appealing? Apparently Chamberlain’s makes good quinoa, but I passed on a taste test. It is tough to trust a celaic, since they can’t eat wheat, what they consider “excellent” to them can be quite horrible to a normal palette.

Jim ordered the crayfish stuffed pork loin. I have a sneaking suspicion that he ordered this because it was paired with a Shiraz. I totally forgot to ask him if he had that Shiraz before and if he enjoyed it. He did say that he enjoyed the pork loin, and it looked great. It looked better than my halibut in fact, but after having the halibut, I certainly would not have traded. Jim is a man of few words unless you get him going on construction, so I don’t have any impressions to share, but he was a member of the clean plate club.

Dessert! No cookies, no chocolate, so as far as dessert goes, I just pick the least bad choice on the menu. I had the tiramisu, which was good, but heavy on the mascarpone. Some of the lady fingers were actually almost dry, which I found a little strange. It was good, I like dairy rich, but I could see how some people would be disappointed. The real find was the wine served with dessert. The Scarpona, Moscato d’ Asti, Italy was just awesome. It was sweet, lighty, did not have a thick mouth feel, nor a cloying after taste that can be common with sweet dessert wines. It was very enjoyable, and Brook probably drank half my glass. The wine is very low alcohol, thus the reason it is so sweet. Wonderful find.

Jim passed on the final wine course that was paired with his cheese cake. He demolished the cheese cake, so it was either very good, or he was still hungry after 3 course and 3 glasses of wine.

Brook had a celiac problem with the desserts, everything had a component including gluten. So she ended up getting just the coconut sorbet, which she said was very good. I don’t like coconut, so I didn’t partake in the huge scoop she had.

I didn’t even review the wine list or the traditional dinner menu. I am sure they are decent and excellent, in that order, but when I arrived I was quite hungry, and didn’t want to delay the arrival of the appetizers too much. Bread preceded the appetizers, and it was good, and the compound butter it was served with, we actually considered taking with us. It was a well salted garlic butter, and it went awesome with the crusty sour dough.

One mistake I think we made was that the preview menu included a cocktail and none of us partook. If I would have been thinking a little more clearly, I would have tried it, since it was included in the price. Oops.

None of us tried the specialty course. I don’t like salmon, but no one was really interested in the combo. If the main component would have been anything but salmon, I would have given it a try. I dislike salmon so much, that the only thing I did not like at the French Room was a intermezzo course that was a salmon confit. If one of the best chefs in Dallas can’t make salmon I like, there is little hope for a salmon deviled egg. Still, I wish someone would have ordered it so I could have seen it.

And now the menu, reproduced without permission, but it is on the web anyway.

R E S T A U R A N T W E E K P R E V I E W M E N U

August 8 – 10, 2008

s t a r t e r s

Texas Shrimp and Sweet Corn Salad with marinated tomatoes
Paired: Chalone Vineyards Chardonnay, Monterey 2006

10 Cane Rum and Citrus Cured Salmon with Chive Crepe and Lola Rosa Salad
Paired: Firesteed Pinot Gris, Oregon, 2006

King Crab and Coconut Soup with Kaffir Lime
Paired: Two Oceans Sauvignon Blanc, South Africa 2007

s p e c i a l t y c o u r s e

Wild Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs with Caviar Crème Fraiche

CHOICE OF ENTREES

Lemon and Pine Nut Crusted Halibut with Tomato Caper Bruschetta
Paired: Solaris Chardonnay, Monterey 2004

Peppered Filet Mignon with Yukon Mashers and Port Wine
Paired: Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel, California 2005

Crawfish Stuffed Pork Loin with Wild Mushroom Rice Pilaf
Paied: McWilliams Shiraz, Australia 2006

Shrimp and Salmon Skewer with Quinoa and Citrus
Paired: Mirassou Pinot Noir, California 2007

DESSERTS

White Chocolate Passion Fruit Cheesecake
Paired: Pacific Rim Riesling, Columbia Valley 2007

Mango Sorbet with Tropical Fruit Compoteand Macadamia Cookie
Paired: Muscat de Saint Jean de Minervois, France 2006

Gran Marnier Tiramisu
Paired: Scarpona, Moscato d’ Asti, Italy

* * * * * * * * * *

three courses food
with 10 Cane Rum
Blue Point Cocktail
$40 per person

three courses wine
add $16.50 per person
any 3 glasses from the restaurant week menu

specialty course
add $5 per person