Text 11804, 75 rader
Skriven 2014-04-05 01:14:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 448
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After the game we piled into Swisher's car and drove out to
Alex's, way out in the boonies where you have to park when
you arrive way late. Transferred my bags and bade Swisher
safe travels as he drove back westward.

It was an hour back through appalling traffic, and as we
inched along we suggested various reasons, including this
being the result of all the west side ballgames letting out
at once. Presently the reason became clear - we merged left
and saw an upside-down (luckily mostly intact) silver
compact being cleared from one of the center lanes. Yuck.

There had been no stadium booze good enough for Alex, so he
showed me to the Last Drop at the Hermosa Inn in Paradise
Valley, where he's friends with Travis the bartender. I
looked at the draft list - it was happy hour, and local
micros were on special - and chose the Sonoran Smooth Rebel
double IPA. Alex ordered what appeared on the bill as "Trust
Cocktail" - you trust the bartender and get what you get.
Of course, you describe what you want to drink and maybe
suggest a favored ingredient to give him some basis to work
from. The IPA was not really so double, in fact its modest
bitterness was almost undone by a syrupy sweetness. Still
not a bad glass, but I resolved to put Travis in charge of
my second. Which I did, suggesting orange flower water, gin,
and almond: not unsurprisingly he came up with a maitailike
thing but not red and not sweet. It was pretty good. Alex
kept testing Travis. Most of the results were good as well.

There's this happy hour special where if you order 3 snacks
(normally 8-15 each) you get the lot for $15. We did that
plus two pork belly tacos with pickled onions and cilantro
crema at $3 each. The tacos were excellent, as Alex said they
would be. Our snacks:

truffled ricotta croquettes with romesco sauce - I read this
as "risotto" so ordered them happily. They turned out to be
made out of this dry ricotta salata, and I scrambled for the
lactase pills. The coating was impeccable, the filling not
too fake truffley, which made me do a dissection that
revealed some shreds of truffle peel that must have helped
out the truffle oil, the result actually being rather good;

duck empanadas with "mole sauce" and pickled onions I found
pretty average, with duck that could have been guinea pig
meat for all I could tell, the mole a bland chocolate peanut
goo that was less than average;

Berkshire chorizo empanadas and chipotle ketchup were
totally ordinary but good pigs in blankets with a spicy
ketchup that, sadly, wasn't housemade but a commercial brand
with powdered peppers stirred in.

I should have ordered 5 more pork belly tacos instead of all
these frou-frou things. I'd have gotten at least 2 more, but
Alex had a plane to catch but had lost track of time chatting
with Travis and his wife Cheyenne who showed up at some
point during the proceedings. I had to remind him to get his
butt out of there and on the road.

The original plan was for him to run in and check a bag,
then drive me to my motel, then drop off the car at the
rental car facility, then return to the airport, a plan
that would have been fine but for the last cocktail or two,
so I proposed to call the hotel shuttle and leave him to
his own devices, which is what happened. He must have made
his flight, as I didn't hear otherwise later.

I called the Econo Lodge PHX Airport for a shuttle and was
told that I should wait for a van labeled Sky Harbor Airport
Parking. Apparently they subcontract.

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