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Touch of Thai in Dixon

dave — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:23:58 +0000

See my Yelp Review of Touch of Thai

Good food and inexpensive. Recommended.

221 W. First St.
Dixon, IL 61021

Saturday – Pigeon Point

dave — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:22:12 +0000

Finally made it to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Sam’s Chowder House

Dinner and Theater in St Charles

dave — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:45:10 +0000

Bette’s friend/colleague Shannon Mayhall was appearing in a small theater, Steel Beam Theater, in St Charles, IL. We invited Karen and Nick and headed down to St Charles to meet them.

The theater area is on a courtyard off of First Street off of North Ave., right along the Fox River, and was already jumping when we got there. We drove about a bit to find street parking, then found the conveniently located garage on the fourth floor. We walked down the steps, turned right, and there was Prasino. We entered, set up our reservation, and found a funky bar, laminate tables, glass on the walls, big windows overlooking the river, wine bottles everywhere, and interesting seats; I felt like one of those science museum exhibits where you sit in huge furniture to feel like a child again.

I had a Goose Island Matilda — bottled, not draft — and Bette had a nice Sauvignon Blanc while we waited for Nick and Karen. They soon walked up along the river and we went to our table in the dining room.

We ordered some drinks. Karen likes a sweeter wine and could not decide between some of the options, so the waitress server brought out small tasters of three different wines – she ended up with a Moscato. Nick got a Flat Tire. As time was fleeting, we soon ordered the meals, Bette and I split a roasted beet salad with walnuts and goat cheese. I ordered the braised beef short ribs, Bette the broiled Tasmanian salmon, Nick the ancho braised lamb shank, and Karen a salmon salad.

The short ribs were excellence, tender, and in a wonderful truffle mushroom cabernet sauce. It was served with a cauliflower cheddar gratin, and greens. Nick’s grass fed lamb shank was huge, with olive oil smashed potatoes, greens, feta, spiced olives, and lamb jus. He thought the greens were a bit spicy, but loved the lamb – I even got to taste it. Karen’s smoked sockeye salmon salad had a nice salmon hunk, with spinach, apples, pecans, red onions, bleu cheese, and a raspberry vinaigrette. Bette’s salmon was served with avocado, mango salsa, and crispy plantains.

All the dishes were well presented, and very tasty. The staff was informative, attentive, but left us alone. We thought the price was a bit high, but since a lot of the food items were grass fed and local sourced perhaps that makes up for the difference. All in all, a nice place.

Then it was off to the Steel Beam Theater, where Shannon was appearing in Edward Albee’s “At Home At The Zoo”. It is a beautiful space, with the typical exposed brick and a large steel beam over the stage.

Shannon loves to sing and perform in musicals, so this part was a bit of a stretch for her. The material is serious adult stuff, small girl in the front row notwithstanding — her father had the sense to realize this is not about zoos before the bad parts really hit. Shannon and her costar were great — we have seen her in her bicycle production in Elgin, but this was even more intense. For the second act, the actor walks out of the stage and heads to the park to read. The audience, gets up and follows him down North Ave. (past a very nice homebrewing store) to the park which is several blocks to the west. Outdoor seating was provided and small portable lights, and Peter started reading his book on the park bench, and the next second half of the play begins with the third actor playing Jerry the “street person” who had been to the zoo. The bugs weren’t too bad, but Shannon called us ahead of time to warn us that we should bring bug spray.

After the play ended, we headed back to the theater area, which was very crowded by now. We ended up in Pizzeria Neo, an Italian restaurant that had some seating room, for a glass of wine.

I recommend this production. It was intense, but the outdoor staging was fun, and this is a great area to hang out in. Very lively, interesting shops and restaurants and lots of parking for free. Too bad it’s so far from home. Unfortunately, its last show is tonite, so see it if you can.

Laura’s 50th at Pinstripes

dave — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:19:48 +0000

Our old neighbor had her 50th birthday party last night at Pinstripes, a trendy bowling alley/restaurant/bocce court in a new mall in South Barrington. We had round banquet tables set up along the bocce courts in a back room with gas heaters overhead. The food was excellent, starting with crostini with mozzarella & tomato appetizers and various wine selections that the host of honor and her husband had picked. Family style dinner started with two salads & bread sticks. Then there was a stuffed chicken dish and then a beef roast dish and all were very good. The meal was finished off with coffee and ice cream cake.

In the meantime, we managed to get a couple of bocce games in. We are used to playing on grass, with a bit of friction to slow down the ball. In these courts, it is a hard surface covered with Astroturf and very fast. The slightest bounce is enough to shoot you well past the pallino. Our old neighbor Geno proved that he was the old Italian guy by stomping us with his short range precision.

They also rented out three bowling lanes and these are very nice bowling lanes with leather couches and TVs and really modern equipment.we do not bowl but it was a nice place. Outside, there were was a fire pit where a group from a different party was keeping warm.

A great evening, good food, and fun to catch up with the kids from the hood. Happy birthday Laura!

Pinstripes, South Barrington, IL

LA Burritos, circa 1985

dave — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:39:37 +0000

Back in the dark ages, circa 1985 or so, I worked for Richard Spielman Precision Electronics, on the north side of Chicago. The owner, Richard Spielman, was a great guy, an atheist, an entrepreneur, and a foodie before his time, as trips to restaurants were part of our all-night construction binges. (He has also disappeared from the face of the earth.) We made light-beam devices for counting linen, and one of our installations was at ALS ? (Associated Laundry Services? Systems?) in Los Angeles.

So when install time came, we shipped 30 boxes via UPS, checked a box of tools and an oscilloscope, and the 386 PC that ran the thing, 100 floppy disks (3 sets of backups because something always went wrong) and flew to Los Angeles.

Commercial laundries are generally very industrial, but this place was forbidding. Even the hotel parking lot was behind barbed wire, and you had to push a button to open the gate. Not a good neighborhood.

But that didn’t stop us from venturing out in search of food. Richie found this burrito place, and I was wondering about it the other day. I can’t remember what happened ten minutes ago, how will I remember this?

So google “Los Angeles Burritos”. They flip up. I find Rick’s, a longtime favorite of Steve Dahl. Ten pages later, click off to Yelp. Same search. On page 11, “El Rey Tacos“. I remember Tacos El Rey. Boy that whacks a brain cell. Read the 2nd review. “I wasn’t brave enough to try the GARBAGE BURRITO.” I think this is it…

King Blvd and Normandie (again with Normandie…) Bad neighborhood. So far everything fits. Check Google Street View. Could be. As the Magic 8-Ball says, “Answer Hazy”.

AFAIK, this is it. One piece of history, complete.

Twins vs Seattle

dave — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:13:51 +0000

On our trip to Minneapolis, Sam got some free (to us – $62 to the season ticket holder) tickets for the Twins vs Seattle at the new Target Field. We were to go Saturday night. Of course, his plant melted down the day before and he needed to go in Saturday to relieve the chief troubleshooter, and Bette bailed, so Lou and I went. Karin dropped us off on the triangle outside the park, and we mooshed in with the herd of humanity.

The park is nice, new. Crowded. We had seats in Section 111, Row 24, on the right side behind home plate up at the top of the lower section. I could sit on the top of the chair to change positions. Nice. 85 degrees, no wind. A bit warm. I got a Summit ale and peanuts – all the food counters were packed. Supposedly the food was good. Maybe later.

The first inning was the game – Twins scored three runs, and that was it. Some nice plays. We got up in the 3rd inning and walked around to see the park from the different vantage points. You could only see the Jumbotron from the side where our seats were. THey have the same electronic displays we saw at United Center displaying ads and scores the whole game. Lots of ads, everywhere. Ick. I took a picture for a guy and his dad. I bought a $1.50 peach from the lonely farm stand.

Twins win in just over 2 hours, coming to within 1/2 game of the White Sox, currently in first place. We pushed our way out, called for a pickup, and the girls were in the car already on the way back from Plymouth. In ten minutes we saw them at the light and hopped in.

A nice afternoon at the park.

On My Boyfriends’ Bicycles

dave — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:50:20 +0000

Our friend Shannon Mayhall appeared in a play reading. What is a play reading? The playwright wants to see it performed, see where we laugh and don’t laugh, before everything is locked in stone. So we trucked down to Elgin to eat our fave Shanghai Restaurant in downtown area a block from Hemmens. Good dinner, nice iced coffee. Mmm.

Then drive two blocks to park and walk to the historical Professional Building and up the elevator to the 8th floor and in a lovely old room with white pillars. The event is free, but first-come and we sit in end seats on the second row. There is free wine and cheese in the back, and water, and the playwright is selling her Whiskey Mattimoe mystery paperbacks in the back. I bought the first, Whiskey on the Rocks.

When the players come out, they are on bikes. Not bikes, but music stands which they carry around and dismount from. The director, Richard Pahl, explains beforehand that this is to simplify the reading, not having to balance, and you can put the script on the music stand. Most of the actors are pros, and don’t really need the script.

The play was a nice one about a wild woman who rides helmetless thru a bunch of boyfriends and steals bicycles from them. She is in an accident. Shannon was the main female, and was magnificent. I talked to Richard at intermission and he said if she was available, she could easily work downtown. I agree. She has presence.

Afterwards, the playwright, Nina Wright, came out and talked, and commented on how different the Saturday and Friday audiences were in their reactions. Richard said the cast knew where the audience would laugh on Saturday, so were able to play up their parts a bit more.

Lots of fun. A neat way to see a play-in-training.

Bangkok House & Shanghai Restaurant 11 Douglas Ave, Elgin, IL
Elgin Art Showcase, 8th floor of the historical Professional Building, 164 Division St., Elgin IL
Newspaper Article

“The Dining Room”

dave — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:05:22 +0000

We saw this play before at the Woodstock Stage Left Cafe, and it was really good. Bette saw that it was here again and she jumped.

It was in the parish hall of the First Congregational Church in Huntley, with an old beat-up dining room table. The players came in and out of the kitchen from doors on either side. Actually, a nice set-up for the play.

We sat in several rows of folding chairs, the single problem of the night – it is hard to sit in folding chairs for 2.5 hours. They served coffee and slices of the birthday cake from the play at intermission. Nice touch.

And they did a great job. I would see something like this again. They announced, thanks for supporting local theater, which is in danger of disappearing. Here is the front line. Support them.

Thursday – Kuya’s, Google and Dessert

dave — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:31:51 +0000

Art came by after a meeting downtown. He is ethnic Chinese, but grew up in the Philippines, so he thinks of Filipino food as home cookin’. So we headed off to Kuya’s, a place he heard about, only a few blocks from the hotel, once we found it. Parking was a little challenging, found out later they have a lot in back.

It is a wonderful Mom and Pop place, but a very long room – hard to look around. Booths down one wall, and long tables down the other, and there were several larger parties using them.

The waitress came out and was very friendly. Art ordered Lumpiang Shanghai (Ground Pork Egg Rolls). They are about the diameter of a Chap-Stik, 2 inches long, fried, and filled with pork. You get a plate of about 20. Yum.

We tried to find something that this Haole could deal with. Art picked Pork Adobo (Marinated Pork chunks in soy sauce, vinegar, & garlic) which sounds a lot like something in Mexican places, and a vegetable plate (Pinakbet, Mixed Vegetables cooked w/ Shrimp paste, Pork, & Shrimp) with Okra and eggplant. This was served with garlic rice.

Art wanted to get the Halo-Halo Special dessert, but we were both full, and Art had some food left over to take home. Maybe next time.

Yes, they have wine – I had a house Cab. Ok. They don’t have beer. Strange. Art said a San Miguel would have been good, but they have it at Trader Joe’s.

As a Yelp reviewer said, interesting restrooms. I’ve seen much worse. Art said he would bring his brother back there, so I guess the food passed inspection, and you don’t eat in the restroom.

Then we drove off to Mountain View and other points to see the high tech sites, the Google campus, a Microsoft building, LinkedIn, and Yahoo.


Microsoft Office	Yahoo Office	LinkedIn Office

Cupertino for One Infinite Loop, the main Apple campus. I always liked that street name.

One Infinite Loop

Of course, the best were the Google buildings “pi” and “e”. Geeks.

Buildings Pi and e

Then it was off to Golden Island Cafe for dessert. I had a Red Bean & Sweet Tofu dessert. The waitress brought the cream on the side, but I used it. It was excellent. I think Art had a Sago of some sort, but I am not sure. Art?

Kuya’s Asian Cuisine
460 San Mateo Avenue, San Bruno, CA 94066
Golden Island Cafe
146 E 3rd Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401

Michael’s Uptown Cafe

dave — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:20:17 +0000

I just found notes on this – must be from 2003 – our Sarah’s friend was finishing college at IU in Bloomington IN, and we went to visit her. She was working on the Little 500 (think the movie) and we managed to drag her for dinner. So I found these notes in an old notebook:

I had salmon – OK, with pilaf. Excellent sweet corn salsa. Bette had pesto ravioli with goat cheese. I got to try one. Yum.
Salads are ala carte for $7.50. Wine was in small glasses for $6. For three people, $110. Nice place, but seems a little much $$$ for what you get. Maybe lunch is better.

Michael’s Uptown Cafe
102 E Kirkwood Ave, Bloomington, IN 47408