Dinner at Tosca, great day, and an interesting link roundup

[skreidle]

Apparently, Thursday night is a good time for y'all to post, since my Friends page picked up almost 90 entries between ~1700 yesterday and 0930 today!

Dinner last night at Tosca was delightful. After waiting behind what was quite possibly the slowest person ever at the SmarTrip machine--slowly extracting one rumpled bill at a time to try to feed to the machine to add fare to his own card, while people stacked up behind me, and at least five people stacked up at the other two machines, all of whom finished before this putz managed to finish, I missed the outbound train and ended up 20min late to meet Christine at Metro Center. Fortunately, this meant that it was just 1850, and we were still the first two to arrive at the restaurant. Aaron showed up next, and we all stood around chatting until Faye arrived; we gave Francesca and Cliff another 5 minutes before we got seated to wait a bit more. I had a tasty Pinot Grigio with the breads and olive oil, and the fresh cherry tomatoes (green, orange, and red), until F&C arrived.

For Restaurant Week, Tosca chose to offer their entire menu for prix fixe--$30.04 for a three course dinner, $20.04 for lunch, plus drinks, and a few surcharged items. Given that many of the main courses were almost $30 themselves, this is quite a bargain. I had :
First course: Polipetti del mediterraneo grigliati con gallinacci e crema di ricci di mare
Grilled Mediterranean octopus with sautéed chantarelle mushrooms and creamy sea urchin sauce
Main course: Controfiletto di manzo biologico dell' Oregon in crosta al pepe nero con pomodoro ripieno al pecorino e olive alla salsa cremosa ai grani di senape
Oregon Ridgefield farm natural beef NY strip steak with a black pepper crust; baked tomato stuffed with pecorino, fresh herbs and olives, whole grain mustard sauce
Dessert: Tosca's traditional Tiramisu
(Also, a glass of a red wine I'd never heard of but the waiter recommended to accompany my steak.)
So good! :)

Certainly not a restaurant I could afford to eat at regularly, especially at regular prices, and it would take something away from the experience if it were a regular occurrence anyhow. (Still, $60/person is still a lot of money for dinner by my current standards. ;)

In the morning, I headed back to my truck via Metro--on one of the spiffy new trains with LED station displays--and got to leave the parking lot without paying, despite it being a few minutes after 09. Gates were still up! :)

And really, between the dinner and hanging out last night, train and parking this morning, sunny weather, and a sweet text message from my fabulous girlfriend, I'm feeling great! I told her so, too. :)

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And now, the link roundup. :)

Hehe..
From yournailbunny: Awesome Flat Screen auction!

From subbes: A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a 1998 Alabama law banning the sale of sex toys in the state, ruling the Constitution doesn't include a right to sexual privacy. Guns are perfectly fine, though.

Via kitiara: Krispy Kreme has introduced a "glazed doughnut frozen beverage"! They currently have no plans to introduce low-carb versions of the new drinks. ;D

Crazy-ass V8 motorcycles, and more!

Comments

[blistex.livejournal.com]

I like when you mention your girlfriend.

No, really, I do. You never have before, with other girlfriends, and it always made me nervous, usually for good reason. :P

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

She's eminently mentionable. =)




(I'm pretty sure I mentioned Katia and Melody on a fairly regular basis, though not always under such auspicious banners.)

[blistex.livejournal.com]

I think you did mention Katia regularly. When you've mentioned other girlfriends, it's been in a much different way. I don't really know how to explain that, but this seems more ... sincere, for some reason.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Interesting.. potentially a herald of good things, I suppose. :)

[comeseptember.livejournal.com]

I was rather frequently mentioned, and very positively at that. At least, in the beginning and then whenever I was physically present with him.

[inkyblue2.livejournal.com]

some of those bikes are real pieces of work. (and at least one is just for show unless it's got solid rubber tires under all that weight!) i tip my hat to the people out there who cram extra cylinders on an existing engine. (along those lines, somewhere in europe a guy welded up a vespa parallel twin: 400cc, 25hp of screaming fury.)

there were a few boss hosses on display at the motorcycle show up here a few months ago, and one of the large block models had a nitrous setup that gave it something like 800 hp. wtf is up with an 800 hp bike? if i had throwaway money like that i'd rent out the vomit comet.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

800hp in a -car- is insane. Hell, the 250 you can get in a stock 'busa is already insane. (My ST2, for comparison, has 83, and the ST4 has about 110.)

Friend from the local riding club got to ride a Boss Hoss. It was an interesting experience, he says. :)