CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY BEGINS IN PURGATORY

I don't go out at night much anymore, but made an exception this weekend.  My plan was to catch The Bus to Ala Moana Shopping Center to dine at Vintage Cave Cafe (Chef Hide Yamamoto to the left), then, on the way back, stop by to mill around with the crowd for the 34th celebration of Honolulu City Lights.

With the block party beginning at 4PM and parade at 6PM, The Bus had to detour in devious ways.  After some anxiousness, I finally made it for dinner a little late, but the bus rides back were yet another adventure.  Perhaps this most serious challenge would not occur in Heaven, but did you know Purgatory has cockroaches?  While sitting at one of the stops, two large cockroaches began circling me.  

So on to Vintage Cave Club, which I think is the best restaurant in Hawaii.  I was placed in my favorite Ruby Room:

They keep changing the rules here.  For most of this year, members could  bring their own wines with no corkage charge.  Now? $50/bottle.  But others pay $75.  I thought it was a waste to use the wines in my private locker here for drinking a whole bottle was too much, so ordered a red blend and Kohishikari Echigo beer.The meal started with Prosciutto San Daniele:

The first of four Japanese wagyu beef specials from Miyazaki was called Saikyo Cream Cheeese:

Beautiful, but the meat was cut so thin that I couldn't quite draw out the delicately flavorful wagyu taste.

Next, Osetra Caviar with 24K gold leaf:

Note that Osetra has a golden color, and this serving is over akami tartare.  There are three ahi (maguro tuna) cuts:  akami (red flesh), chotoro (fattier) and otoro (fattiest).

Next came  Foie-gras Flan, which, combined with a small glass of Sauternes (reminiscent of Chateau d'Yquem, but ten times cheaper) recommended by Alex, the sommelier, could well have been the best dish combo I've had all year.  I should apologize that the photos I took of him, Sarah, my attendant, and Randy, bar manager, all came out fuzzy, so would not have done them any justice.  However, the service they provided was excellent.

The first Intermezzo was a tablespoon of flavored ice, unto which I poured some Sauternes. 

Next, Shima-Aji Sashimi (a white Jack fish from Okinawa), which you can't see for the foam:

The Wagyu Beef Consomme' was topped with sliced Matsutake Mushrooms, a very expensive delicacy, where the price varies with aroma.  This one came from Oregon, and the only smell I could detect was swampy.  It is the end of the season.

The Broiled Hirame (a flounder) was good.  Those white and green dots had  no character.

The second Intermezzo was Lilikoi Glanite, to which I again added some Sauternes:

The Marinated Amiyaki Wagyu Filet over a piece of Unagi (eel) used a Diable (vinegar/tarragon) Sauce, and was served smoked under glass:

It was fine.

The finale', Charcoal Grilled Wagyu Striploin, was generously topped with Black Truffles:

The wagyu was exceptional, but the truffles had absolutely no famed bouquet.  I made a fuss that a place like this should not bother to use truffles if the quality is that low.  There might have been a  subsequent sense of guilt, for I was then served a special salad covered with truffles:

I mumbled something like it's a bit better, but was still disappointed.  If I heard correctly, these came from Australia at the end of their season. 

The dessert was Mountain Rose Apple Pie with Marsala Anglaze and Shiokoji Gelato topped with a Caramel Chip:

If not for the truffles incident this would have been my best meal of the year.

I then caught The Bus to the Honolulu City Lights block party:

Such was the beginning of Christmas holiday in Purgatory.

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LET US GIVE THANKS

As we continue on into the holiday season, the 15 Craigside Photo Club gave us an assignment to share five photos on the theme, Let Us Give Thanks, for our gathering today.  So what am I thankful for? Good health, family and friends, home, enjoyment of life, peace on Earth (I've been a failure doing much about this), a happy Planet Earth (again, I could have done a lot more) and a joyful Humanity.  So here is my fivesome:

A photo from 70 years ago with my dog Blackie.  Why?  I'm most thankful for the life I've lived.

While hardly a perfect life, I'm healthy with no particular worries, and continue to be in a mild state of euphoria today.  Observing the homeless and immigrants and troubles around the world, I'm certainly thankful for all my homes, with family, stability and never a time when there was uncertainty about the next meal.  For the past 36 years I've enjoyed the sanctity of two Craigsides:

Appropriately enough, the Gold Tree has also been an important part of my life.  From these apartments I've viewed spectacular rainbows and sunsets, and here is just one:



In a way, you would think I should have a grander vision than food, but this blog site seems to feature cuisine a lot--to again be my posting tomorrow--but o-toro (fatty tuna) and Japanese wagyu beef now seem to come with some regularity, and that final photo of Sue (who lives here at 15 Craigside) contemplating her fish dish in one of our outings, is a fitting conclusion:

The following photos made the short list.  While she's been gone for nearly a decade now, here is a Crystal cruise shot taken somewhere between New Zealand to Honolulu, which also shows my favorite tie:

Or what about with my niece Sophia?

I asked her when she was four what she wanted to become, and she said, a rainbow butterfly.  Below I am with John and Judy Collins, founders of the Triathlon, at Michel's.  It was 40 years ago when John was a Navy seal at Pearl Harbor and Judy worked for me at the University of Hawaii when they organized the first Ironman Triathlon.

I tried to talk them out of this crazy race, but failed, so they became famous.

Also 40 years ago, students from my Technology and Society class at the UH published a book which was funded by the National Science Foundation and adopted by the Hawaii Department of Education as an energy textbook:

Forty years later, nothing much has changed, for more than 90% of the energy we use today still comes from fossil fuels.

There is a long, sad story here for the first photo--and if you clicked on that, I should admit that I have yet to learn how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star--with Dom Perignon Champagne and Louis 13 Cognac, plus a second one, as just another representative meal,  on my Craigside lanai:

From this penthouse I took hundreds of other sunsets:

We just about have daily rainbows at 15 Craigside:

I've certainly eaten well:  o-toro, opihi, Japanese wagyu beef, caviar....

If you did the calculation, that comes to $283/pound.  I doubt if you ever paid $28.30/pound for beef.  Not exactly cheap are two fugu testicles, and there is another story here:

At one time a $40 musk melon was the esteemed gift of choice in Japan.  Today, that extravagance has been displaced by one musk melon and two mangoes (these are from Matsuzaki, the home of the best wagyu in the country), for $200 or so:

Japan also has Mount Fuji, Sakura and Whale Sharks:

I place magnificent mountains up there with sunsets and rainbows, and I love flowers.  Why am I thankful for whale sharks? And shouldn't they be left in their natural habitat? Sure.

Here is a turkey on a golf course in California, not a turkey ranch:

At least we don't eat whale sharks, although I have studied these prospects.

What else am I thankful for?  Colors:

The above from Chihuly Glass in Seattle.  I travel a lot and one thing I'm always thankful for when returning to Honolulu is that first sight of Oahu:

After all that, rather anti-climactic, but I'm thankful that at the Ala Wai Golf Course I pay the equivalent of $10 to walk 18 holes.  Not that I love golf that much, but this exercise in agony allows me to eat and drink whatever I want.  Plus, we have more rainbows and a  pond with wildlife and Diamond Head in the background:

I'm thankful for all the above and people who made my life.  But life continues, and I look forward to my upcoming final chapter of gratefulness.

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ORPHAN BLACK

I yesterday closed my blog with a promise to find the site of the TV cloning series Orphan Black.  After some effort I learned that it is on Amazon Prime Video, and if you're a prime member, you can view all 50 programs (five-years at 10 episodes each) for free.  I watched the first one and was impressed enough to go into a binge mode soon.  The complication will mushroom with 49 to go.

In Year One OB got 95%/94% ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, Year Five remained at 95%/89%.  OB is rated MA in the USA, for mature audiences, as you will find gore, nudity, sex, alcohol, etc.  But the rating systems vary, depending on which organization is doing the evaluating, for you will also see NC-17, R and unrated.  The colors purple, red and black also can be meaningful, with black only for older audiences.

Interesting that other countries list by ages (but world-wide, the scene is almost beyond comprehension):

• Singapore:  13, but is re-edited for their country
• South Korea and UK:  15
• Brazil and most countries:  16
• South Korea:  18

OB is a Canadian biopunk science fiction thriller with almost all Canadian actors, many you've seen here and there.  Michael Mando, for example plays  his usual criminal element, as he does in Better Call Saul (which is kind of a nothing show, and now I know why I watch it...because Rotten Tomatoes ratings are 97%/94%). OB, however, is mostly about the clones played by Tatiana Maslany, and the genetic engineering of humans.

I feel especially lazy this Saturday morning, so let me just quote from Wikipedia:

The series begins with Sarah Manning, a con artist, witnessing the suicide of a woman, Beth Childs, who appears to be her doppelgänger. Sarah assumes Beth's identity and occupation (as a police detective) after Beth's death. During the first season, Sarah discovers that she is a clone, that she has many 'sister' clones spread throughout North America and Europe that are all part of an illegal human cloning experiment, and that someone is plotting to kill them and her.

Alongside her foster brother, Felix Dawkins, and two of her fellow clones, Alison Hendrix and Cosima Niehaus, Sarah discovers the origin of the clones: a scientific movement called Neolution. The movement believes that human beings can use scientific knowledge to direct their evolution as a species. 

The movement has an institutional base in the large, influential, and wealthy biotech corporation, the Dyad Institute, which is seemingly headed by Dr. Aldous Leekie. The Dyad Institute conducts basic research, lobbies political institutions, and promotes its eugenics program, aided by the clone Rachel Duncan. It also seeks to profit from the technology the clones embody and has thus placed "monitors" into the clones' personal lives, allegedly to study them scientifically, but actually to keep them under surveillance.

The Orphan Black Family:

In the middle is Kendall Malone, origin of the clones, a chimera (bet you don't know what this means, biologically) and Sarah's mother.

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