Text 22594, 138 rader
Skriven 2007-11-11 12:06:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 415
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I don't know how hippie-heaven unworldly Boulder has since
my youth (40 years or so past) become shopping heaven, but
that's where and why Carol and Joell wanted to go, the draw
for me being that I could look at the mountains and perhaps
go on the citywide free wireless while they went charging it
through the western hemisphere. We will draw a discreet veil
over this episode in our lives, fast forwarding to a
satisfying little lunch at the West End Tavern, where we
basked in the sun and dined on:

chicken salad, a not-too-mayonnaisey, middle-of-the-road
salad with avocado and some kind of deli cheese, on a
tree-hugger brown coarse-grain bread; a cream of tomato soup
(pretty good I'm told) with a grilled Gouda quesadilla on
the side. I had a bbq pork sandwich, which I imagined would
be pulled leg meat drowned in something sickly sweet; I was
pleasantly surprised that it was sliced thin (but rewarmed,
with that funny rewarmed texture) with a herb-spice rub that
was better than usual though a bit enthusiastic with the
allspice and fennel and tossed very lightly in a smoky thin
sauce that was made with roast dripping and a minimum of
tomato and vinegar.

An appetizing-sounding side of crunchy fennel slaw was
really a fairly ordinary cabbage slaw with a few fennel
seeds thrown in.

The dissipated tourists had an Urquell and a Fat Tire; Joell
had Henry Weinhard's root beer, which she liked.

The interesting taste of the day was Stranahan's Colorado
whiskey, a real flame-thrower - all fire, no smoke (or
virtually any other kind of taste). If you closed your
eyes and thought a while, you might detect a little
fruitiness, a little graininess; otherwise nada.

A stroll through the center of town yielded me my wireless
(very weak) and them some modest shopping parcels.

On our way back we stopped at La Fromagerie in Longmont, a
famous grommet shop that still has a nice selection of
cheesy comestibles, though it strikes me it's become a bit
affected and fancified. Joell tells me it no longer allows
customers to sneak into the back room to check out the
private stock, although there is still the walk-in cheese
locker for which jackets embroidered with the company logo
are loaned out. Joell picked up some cheeses of which I
remember nowt, and some pate. I got some fancy chocolate.

Back to Westminster - I noted that the corridor between
Denver and Longmont (and probably up to Ft. Collins, though
we didn't go up there) has become urban sprawlish just like
the east coast, and this is kind of sad.

Back home to deal with dinner, whose ingredients had come
from Whole Foods: I made very standard versions of herb-
roasted Alaskan cod with mushrooms and pico de gallo,
mustard-garlic rack of lamb, green beans amandine, and
scallopped potatoes (not so standard as made with Silk
coffee creamer as the liquid).

We started with made stuff from La Fromagerie: various
cheeses about which I can say nothing, plus Trois Petits
Cochons pate, a slightly gummy liver substance covered in
a nice aspic; here and there little rubbery things that
were probably meant to be truffles but that seemed to me
to be more like abused porcini.

Dessert also from there:

Vosges chocolate "the fire bar" 55% - sugary sweet, decent
but not stellar chocolate flavored with cinnamon and ancho
and chilpotle chiles. Fairly pleasant flavor, the chile
burn sneaking up and kicking you suavely in the butt.

Bernard Castelain chocolates were more to my taste, though
still a little sweet.

Macaibo 70 was a bit smoky, floral, very enjoyable;

Traditional 72 somewhat sweeter, which surprised me
modestly, also more traditional, with coffee and fruit notes.

With the cod, Vieille Ferme 03 (Ventoux), a wine I hadn't
drunk since the '70s, went pretty well - not much character,
but decent acid and fruit.

Chapellet 04 Cabernet (Napa) was a plum bomb, rich and warm
on the palate, more akin to a South Australian Shiraz than
your oaky tannic California blockbuster. Enjoyed moderately.
This had been a gift to Larry from someone named Marilyn Coors.

Day dawned gorgeous and warm, so instead of being slugabeds
then going out for lunch we decided to pack a picnic and go
to Barr State Park, which is only 2 or 3 miles as the 757
flies from the airport (but 16.5 miles via auto), for a
little walk and some waterfowl watching. Saw lots of geese,
some ducks and loons, a hawk or two, and incidentally a
couple of mulies (Joell had provided some binocs, and at
some of the park-constructed blinds and shelters there were
those built-in viewer things, only mildly vandalized). A
nice picnic of leftovers from the night before, and then
off to the airport, where the restricted line was empty
and the regular line almost empty. Plenty of time to
relax before the flight, so Carol went shopping, and I
hightailed it to Lefty's Mile High, where a Sundance Amber
Ale and a Pass Time Pale made the sun dance and passed the
time nicely.

UA 208 DEN BWI 1650 2200 752 2AB

Businesslike crew. The meals offered were the famed pasta
trio (cheese tortellini, cheese manicotti, and cheese
ravioli I think) in tomato basil sauce or chicken in
tomato basil sauce. Neither of these particularly appealed
to me, so I asked for the Mini-Meal, an assortment of
reasonably tasty but probably not very nutritionally
sensible snacks. Hormel hard salami, some kind of kettle
cooked potato chips, Rondele spread with crackers (given
to Carol for snacking later), Milanos, and Mott's Granny
Smith flavored applesauce. The lowlight of this meal was
the applesauce, which owed its Granny Smithness to extract
of Granny and, as it tasted like a Jolly Rancher, was
worse than ordinary applesauce.

Carol thought her pasta thing was okay, but she really
loves cheese, no matter how mediocre.

The wines were respectable; Astica Malbec was pretty decent,
though erring on the bright red fruit flavor side; after a
couple glasses I switched to the nicer Guenoc Chardonnay,
with its nice tones of citrus and stone fruits and rather
scanty oaking.

The flight was unremarkable, and we landed on time.
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