Sizzling Bombay Trial

Last night we decided to try out Sizzling Bombay in Bel Air. Until two days ago I had no idea that we had an Indian restaurant in our neck of the woods.

We got there around 7:15. There was only one other couple in the restaurant. The place was nice--the seats were comfortable, but it was a bit dark inside. We started off with samosa. They offered us a choice between vegetable and lamb keema. I chose lamb keema because I know Ross loves lamb and I love keema. I think the samosas were good.

Ross ordered iced tea. There was something funky about it. He ordered a refill with no lemon. Oh yeah, it was funky. It was spoiled.

For our main courses Ross ordered malai kofta and I ordered lamb vindaloo. I really wanted vindaloo and my only two choices were chicken and lamb. Ross also ordered garlic naan. The malai kofta was really good. It reminded me of the curry and raisin sauce my dad used to make when I was a kid. The vindaloo sauce was good, but the potatoes weren't fully cooked. I also think they were skimpy on the lamb. The naan was tiny. Despite all these complaints, we didn't hate it.

The check came--wow--expensive. The samosas were like eight bucks! That tiny naan was 3 or 4. It was over 50 dollars with tip. Then the waiter asked us if we had cash because his credit card machine wasn't working. Uh, no. He got the credit card machine to work.

I ordered gulab jamun to go. I had it this morning for breakfast (yeah, breakfast of champions.) It was good.

I think despite all the complaints we might try this place again. The best thing really is the location. We don't have to drive into the city. If the tea is bad again though, I'll never go back. I mean, serving spoiled tea? Charging 16 bucks for undercooked potatoes? What's wrong with these people?

Many Random Things

1. Pleaded v Pled

I kept hearing on the radio this morning how "Faisal pleaded guilty." That makes my skin crawl. I prefer pled. I remember the Editor in Chief and the Managing Editor having this argument when I worked at the Texas Law Review (ah, those were the days.) I think the Editor in Chief was arguing the the case for pled. We agreed on that one, but not "an historic". I'll never agree to that one.

2. I'm sad about the Supreme Court's ruling on aid to terrorist groups. Any group that advises a terrorist group, even about nonviolent means of conflict resolution, can be prosecuted for giving "material support" to that group. Sad.

3. Dawn dishwashing liquid is being used to clean the oil-covered animals in the gulf. This was in the news because Dawn apparently contains petroleum. Like dissolves like! That's why the first step in cleaning the animals is to rub cooking oil all over them. Who cares if there's petroleum in Dawn--as long as it gets the animals clean!

4. I went to H Mart today. I go crazy in H Mart. Today I bought these strange drumstick snacks:

The snacks are just drumstick-shaped-fried shells. No real seasoning. Odd. I can't believe how many of them in the box were intact.

5. I saw this sign this weekend when we were at a stoplight. Used Refrigerated Bodies? Really?

7. I went hiking on Sunday. I was hoping for raspberries, but didn't find many. I did find this butterfly wing.

Donkey Diner

We ate at Donkey Diner three times while we were in St. John. We ate there on the first Sunday we were there. I really could have just laid at home and had a sandwich, but I'm so glad I got up and we went out to eat. I wanted pizza, and Donkey Diner was close by, so we headed over there. Well, it turns out that on Sunday nights Donkey Diner only serves barbecue. Ross and I ended up sharing the beef ribs. It's rare to find a place that serves beef ribs, so we had to try them. Let me tell you--Brian makes the best BBQ I've ever had--outside of Texas. His coconut curry rice was also divine. Ross tasted Val's and had to order his own. We ended up going back and buying 3 extra sides of rice and taking them home with us for later. At 2 bucks a side, it was a tasty deal we just couldn't pass up.

On Wednesday and Friday nights Donkey Diner serves up pizza. I wasn't as impressed with the pizza as I was with the BBQ. Maybe it was because Brian didn't make it.

Donkey Diner is reputed to have the best breakfast on the island. We tried it out one morning and it was excellent. Ross had BBQ hash. It was eggs, home fries, and Brian's BBQ brisket. Yummy. Val had the blueberry pancakes and Troy and I had (cream cheese) stuffed French toast with mango-pineapple chutney. I wasn't so hot on the (cooked until mushy) chutney, but the French toast was good.

Speaking of donkeys...there are a lot of donkeys on the Coral Bay side of St. John. Every time we would see one on the road we would shout "DON-KAY!" It never got old.

Leaf Damage

When we came back from vacation we discovered that the leaves of my jalapeno plants had been chewed up. Apparently Bailey has a taste for only the jalapeno leaves. She didn't touch the cayenne or Anaheim pepper leaves. From what I could tell she also didn't eat any of the herbs.

The plants did really well while we were gone (despite Bailey chewing on them.) I brought them inside and Bailey's babysitter watered them for me. Each pepper plant has at least one dozen buds that are going to bloom. The herbs did so well that I made two batches of bread this week. One batch had just rosemary and the other had rosemary, sweet basil, Thai basil, Greek oregano, and mint. I shared with coworkers and everyone seems to think the bread turned out all right.

Well, the photo of the leaf was taken with my new camera! We bought a newer version of the one that we had before. There are some definite improvements. It also came with a photo organizing program. It lets you categorize the photos into events, name the place they were taken, and tag the people in the photos. I'm not sure if I like it yet. I'm going to have to play with it more.

Sun Worship

I'm going to take this opportunity to rant about sun worship. More than one million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year. Over 50,000 of those cases are melanoma. This is a mostly preventable disease. It boggles my mind how people bake out in the sun on purpose. There is no such thing as a safe tan. The sun's rays damage your DNA. The more often or more severe the damage the harder it is to repair.

I'm pretty good about daily sunscreen. I poured the stuff on when we were in St. John and I still got burned. Oh, that's another thing. I was amazed to see people who were beet red still out in the sun. I just don't get it. People seem to love cooking themselves under the sun and in the tanning booths. Tanned skin now equals wrinkles and possibly cancer later.

Vacation Videos

I wanted to share some videos that I took before the camera died. Now you can feel like you were on vacation with me!

Watch the sea anemone dissapear.

I followed a sea turtle and it surfaced a couple of times.

Enjoy the sounds of the beach.

Before and After

When I first picked up the photos from Costco I couldn't see the octopus on the contact sheet and I was really bummed. I was totally relieved to see that there were actually photos of the octopus and they turned out well.
Here is the octopus unfurled.

Believe it or not, that's the same octopus.