Feature - Hiking for Labyrinths
2.27.05
This year was rather crowded. I would say unusually, but as
I review previous year’s reviews, I see it varies. In my head, February
Gaskell’s is always sparse, but I see that some years it is.
Really, I think its mainly that its always been one of my
favorite Gaskells. There’s no big costume exhaustion like in October. It’s not
Christmas rush. It’s just this light thing. You go and you dance.
This year standouts were a very silly Congress of Vienna,
one waltz so slow and a minor key I felt like I should be in 1930s depression
Germany, dissolute with smoke and fractured languor, and a quite pleasant Sir
Roger. Most of my regular chats weren’t there and so it was an evening of
introspection. I realized that I’ve been doing this for about 10 years. There
are dancers there who weren’t even in high school when I first twirled.
It’s been an interesting ten years, here’s to the next.
2.19.05
When did Wondercon grow up? Comicon's baby brother had much to offer this
year with big name visitors, like Joss Whedon (well, he's big name to me), with
an excellent dealer room.
2.14.05
Grand Cafe
Ah, Valentines, an excuse to dress up and have a fabulous meal.
This year for Valentines, Karen and I went to the Grand Café off Union Square.
The ambiance was incredible. Golden pillars and deco French. We wore our corsets
and carried matching purses. This had the added benefit of controlling
consumption.
We started off with some cocktails. Karen has a tart Key Lime, while I had a
soft and sweet Peche.
We started our meal with a piping hot fresh baguette with an olive tampanaide
that was sultry sweet.
With our meal, we had a Languedoc 2000. Spicy almost menthol flavors. Snaps of
pepper throughout. This wide rolled in wide on the tongue and broadens out into
the plains. Really opened up after a few minutes.
We then shared an appetizer of Green Bean Ginger Crab, which was incredibly
clean and clear tasting. The green beans (and I’m no veggie fan) were delicious
with not a hint of bitter.
We then indulged in our love of fatty salt. We had a Pork turriene that tasted
like salty smoke. The foie gras was like eating silk. The house pate, was a bit
strong, really a salty mustard, a bit Dijon, but good with the bread.
I had duck in a chocolate port sauce – incredibly rich, tangy, sweet, lingering
on the palate.
Karen had pork tender rack with prosciutto nicely served with mushroom ragout
and crisp tatter roubnds.
We finished out the meal with a delicious pineapple tarte tartin with a tangy
glaze.
A wonderfully delicious meal.
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