Sometimes it is all about the food and other times it is all about the atmosphere and destination. Think of the difference between a lobster dinner in your house and a lobster dinner on the beach in Maine. Same food, but the different location makes the experience different.
That was particularly evident in today’s lunch and dinner.
I ate some granola, fruit salad, yogurt and milking then we rode to Rio Bravo and back. Suzette confirmed what I am feeling and thinking; that we are getting into better shape, losing weight and feeling much better on our new regime of increased exercise and low carb and sugar diet.
After showering we drove to the Center for Ageless Living in Los Lunas and arrived at 10:15, just in time for my facial with Amy in the Spa, after which she gave me a hair cut in the salon, after which I walked to the large tent set up in the park where many of the residents were assembled around tables waiting for lunch and the musical performance on the stage in the park. There was a smaller food tent where kitchen staff was grilling hamburgers. So the lunch was planned to get everyone outdoors and have a picnic lunch in the park and enjoy a musical concert. This is a example of how changing the destination and atmosphere changes the dining experience.
I asked Suzette if she needed any help and she said, “Everything is under control.” So I walked to the restaurant to order lunch because Suzette had described some of the new menu offerings and I wanted
to try several. One of my favorite menu items in the past has been Ann Sedler’s cold Cucumber
Soup, which is now back on the menu for Summer.
The bowl of cucumber soup was just as I had hoped; cold, a loose soup of puréed cucumber in a picante sour milk base infused with garlic.
Then I ordered the new salad, a Shrimp Cobb Salad. I am fond of Cobb Salad and the addition of shrimp was enticing. I was very pleased with the Shrimp Cobb Salad that was served on a plate on organic greens with areas filled with different ingredients, such as diced tomatoes, crisp crumbled bacon, chopped hard boiled egg, and bay shrimp sautéed in a Cajun spices. When asked what type of dressing I wanted I said blue cheese and the salad was served with a ramekin of creamy blue cheese dressing and a slice of fresh baked French bread that had been buttered and toasted. I drank lemonade.
The waitress opened the sliding door beside my table so we could hear the music from the stage. I finished my lunch soon after the music started. The concert featured a man plying a guitar and a lady playing an accordion singing Gram Parsons and Amy Lou Harris laconic country folk ballads in lilting voices for which she is so famous. They did a good job of covering the songs. It was a sunny warm day, so I sat in a chair in the shade of a tree behind the tent. Suzette and one of the resident came over and sat beside me. Suzette had a plate with a deconstructed hamburger with a grilled
hamburger patty and slices of lettuce and tomato, but no bun, staying true to her commitment to our
low carb diet.
As soon as she finished she said, “Let’s go.” And we drove home. I rested for thirty minutes until 2:00, when Suzette awakened me with the command, “it it time to go to the Antiques and Art show
The Antiques and Art Show is an annual event located at the Manuel Lujan Building on the State Fair
grounds. Several private dealers who we have bought art from lately, namely, David McCullough and a Steve Saylor had arranged with Suzette to bring Anne Keener paintings for her to look at buying. We drove to the fairgrounds at 2:30 and soon found David McCullough and Steve’s booths and looked at David’s Keener watercolors and a nice Gauche of the Canoncito church of Steve’s but
Suzette and I decided not to buy any of them. Then we decided to walk around and look at all the
other booths. There was an amazing array of highly collectible items, mostly Indian and Western frontier items, like saddle blankets, baby pack boards, turquoise jewelry, and lots of different types of art.
I finally saw a Sheldon Parsons painting in the Manitou Gallery that I was attracted to. We started looking at the other pieces and there was a Nordfeldt pastel for $1,500 and a nice Haddock watercolor for $900.00. The Parsons was priced at $7,500. The dealer, Mr. Nelson knew what the pieces were worth and we negotiated. He candidly told me he had $4,300 in the Parsons and we discussed the wholesale prices of the Nordfeldt and the Haddock. Finally Mr. Nelson told me to pick a price I would pay and I said I would pay $6,000 for all three and he figured in his head for a second and said, “Yes?"
We had to go home for a check and returned to pick up our pieces, which we did at 4:00. The show was due to close at 5:00. When I gave Mr. Nelson my business card and the check, he said, “I am a recovering Attorney.” So, we talked lawyer stories for a few minutes and then I bought a black melon bowl but Angela Baca from Santa Clara Pueblo. After he wrapped and bagged it, we walked out together and he helped me carry the pictures and pot to Suzette’s waiting car curbside in front of the entrance a few minutes before 5:00.
We drove home unloaded our paintings, changed our clothes and dressed for dinner and left for the Botanic Gardens at 5:30.
When we arrived a bit before 6:00 at the front of the Botanic Gardens and Aquarium. After we waited a few minutes we were directed to the overflow parking lot beside the Heritage Garden, so we returned to our car and drove through several parking areas on the BioPark’s elaborate internal drives until we came to the parking lot. The gate was closed so I left Suzette and walked to the Japanese Garden door, which was closed, where a few people were waiting, and told the security guard and a garden employee of the need to open the gate. Then everything seemed to go into slow motion. It seemed as if it took ½ hour for an employee to arrive with a key to open the gate. Then I walked with
Suzette and Dale Alverson and Jennifer Bean back to the Japanese Garden gate and waited with the
crowd a while longer. Finally the gate was opened. As the crowd surged through the gate we were confronted by two large displays of food and beside it a bar serving wine, beer, and mixed drinks. One was a long table with a large wok in the center and four large bowls on either side filled with food on skewers, including chunks of spicy eggplant, a ground chicken kebab, and a beef liver kebab. Then we saw a large three tiered table laden with slices of aji tuna and salmon sashimi and piles of pickled ginger, green, red, and black flying fish eggs and wasabi. The only problem was there were no eating utensils or plates. There were some cocktail sized napkins that everyone used as plates, so soon everyone was holding handfuls of assorted items and eating them with their fingers. We stopped at the bar and bought two Dos Equis and then took skewers of eggplant, beef liver, and chicken and found a rock near the lovely lake to lean on and place our beer while we ate the food with our fingers. We met a pleasant couple who worked for the federal government who were our age and dealing with some of the same health issues. The husband told me about losing 80 lb. on his
triple play diet of no fat, no sugar and no carbs. We shared the same rock that was strategically located beside the large sashimi display and talked and ate for what seemed like ½ hour. Finally a
line formed and seemed to begin moving along the path around the lake toward the dining area set up on a patio on the other side of the lake from the gate and the food tables we were at, so we got in the line. As the line slowly moved forward we saw that its slow movement was due to people filling bowls with something. As we neared the dining area we saw that there was another long table filled with platters and bowls of cubed tofu, raw ribeye steak slices, diced green onion, shredded carrots,
shredded daikon, fresh enoki mushrooms, a nearly empty tray of what may have been roasted burdock or mushrooms, and a large pot of broth at the end of the table. I immediately realized this
was a make it yourself Shabu Shabu table and grabbed two bowls, handed one to Suzette, and started filling my bowl with the ingredients. As I filled the bowl a wait staff person brought a large cauldron of broth, but when we dipped the ladle provided into the broth I found it to be luke warm.
Dale Alverson came to us as we were gathering our soup ingredients to tell us they had reserved two seats for us at a round table beside the stage that was beside the lake on which another bar was
located.
We took our bowls of soup to the table and sat with Dale and Jennifer and met the other table mates, Bob, Jeremy, and Ryan. Soon the empty seat next to me was filled by a Hawaiian young lady named Kanomi, who is an analyst for Isleta Casino. Bob is controller for Lovelace. So our eight table mates included four interesting young people with good jobs. Soon the delay was explained by one of the organizers who made an announcement from the stage, “The delay is due to a breakdown in the oven in the on site kitchen for which we apologize. The Mayor has aided in getting the oven repaired and in light of the delay has made this an open bar event, so enjoy.”
We were next to the stage, so several of us jumped up onto the stage and fetched drinks. Each place was set with a small plate on which was a pile of thin cold wheat noodles studded with flying fish eggs and a small pile of shrimp plus a side bowl of seaweed salad, as our appetizer and salad. There were also two bottles of a sweet peach sake and two bottles of water on the table. We enjoyed talking
and drinking with our new found friends. Soon the M.C. returned to the stage and asked those who had been to prior Destination Dinners to identify themselves. There apparently have been six or seven such dinners and I realized the dinner was organized by the City to introduce folks to different City amenities. The M.C. said the next meal will include petting the baby giraffe, so I assume it will be at the Zoo. We loved the food and the concept of creating a menu of Japanese food served in the Japanese Garden. The only problem with the concept was its lack of organization. For example, about ten or fifteen minutes after the gates opened someone brought more napkins and after another ten minutes someone brought lovely bamboo plates to the sashimi table, after most of the sashimi had been eaten on cocktail napkins. Likewise, several items at the Shabu Shabu table were not
replenished when we arrived, even though fresh broth did arrive. The deficiencies in food service were made up for by free drinks and rather diligent table service after we were seated. For example it appeared that Kanomi did not have a seaweed salad, so we asked and were brought a seaweed salad quickly.
After a few more minutes the wait staff removed the flower centerpiece arrangements and began bringing out wooden platters each of which was filled with two roasted whole sea bass plus a pile of sautéed or grilled shishito peppers. One platter was placed in the middle of each round table. I took the initiative of filleting and serving the fish and peppers. I did one fish and after a few minutes I served the second fish which was better cooked because it was more moist and tender. Everyone had enough fish and there was still about ¼ of the second fish left.
As the sky darkened Jeremy, I believe, turning on the light app on his I Phone and placing one of the green glass water bottles on the light to illuminate the bottle and table. Then he balanced one of the paper fans on two illuminated bottles to make a lamp. Suzette followed suit on our side of the table with the white frosted glass sake bottle and other water bottle. We soon were sitting in the warm glow of light while most other tables were sitting in darkness.
After dinner and another round of drinks, dessert was served. It was a plate with a small bowl filled with cubes of mocha coffee flavored jello garnished with a squirt of whipped cream and three slices of mochi on a bed of lychee compote. Kanomi explained that mochi is any type of baked pounded rice flour cake that in Hawaii it is often filled with a sweet bean paste or fruit stuffing. Here is the Wikipedia definition: Mochi (Japanese: 餅, もち) is Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki.
We lingered over our desert and another round of drinks. Each place was set with a small sake cup. After dinner Kanomi and I poured cups of the sweet peach sake that was the perfect after dinner drink, fruity, slightly sweet, and very refreshing, while the others drank more American drinks. Suzette drank a Jameson Irish whiskey and Jennifer drank a Crown Royal Canadian whiskey, for example. I also drank a gin and tonic to help digest dinner.
Finally, at 9:30 we left the dining area as the tables were beginning to be cleared and were escorted back through the garden to the parking lot.
What a full day of fun and food diversions.
Bon Appetit
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