A Journal of My Mid-Life Crisis

14 September 1997 - Restaurant Reviews

So here I spend a whole week on a business trip and instead of writing about work, I feel like writing restaurant reviews. One of the plusses of going so much to Boulder is that it is a good restaurant town. The university makes it a desirable place for the same type of people (not primarily students) who tend to appreciate interesting food. And a week of meetings, plus hours spent looking at engineering drawings, is not nearly as interesting to write about.

Monday night we attempted to go to Chatauqua, but they turned out to be closed. I was mildly embarassed as I was the one who was so sure they were open Mondays (we later found out that they usually are, but this being the last week of the season they were closed Monday and Tuesday). We ended up going to Zolo, which is always safe and familiar and good. There were about eight of us and we shared chips and salsa and guacamole (well, the other seven shared the guacamole, a substance I find generally unappealing). I was smart enough to remember the portions there and wisely skipped the appetizer/soup/salad course. The grilled vegetable plate was very nice and refreshing. But I noticed they seem to have given up on mango-habanero salsa in the plates of accompaniments. So maybe I wasn't the only person who found it too hot.

Tuesday I worked late poring over drawings to verify requirements. I was giving someone else a ride back to Louisville and we decided to have a quick dinner in Boulder before heading back. So it was another trip to The Walnut Cafe. I am convinced that the lime Italian soda I ordered really turned out to be kiwi as it's only resemblance to lime was the color. It was drinkable, but not my favorite. The Taos potatoes were quite good, a spicy blend of potatoes, black beans, corn and chilis, with a bit of cheese and sour cream. The portion was huge, though, and I could only eat about half of it. It always feels so wasteful to me when places give you way too much food - I would prefer that they give you less and charge you less, or offer half portions. If I'm home, it's one thing, but out of town I have no way to keep leftovers. I saved room for dessert which was probably a mistake as the lemon meringue pie was just okay. The worst aspect of it was that the guy I was with, one of our engineering group support people, kept up a stream of conversation that irritated me. In the course of maybe an hour he managed to make a half dozen racist comments and tell me things about his personal life (e.g. his relationship with his wife or lack thereof) that I really didn't want to know about someone who was merely an acquaintance.

Wednesday night there was a reception so we just made dinner of that. It was over in the conference center of the Raintree in Longmont and they put on a surprisingly good spread of all the usual buffet type foods. It was also nice to have a chance to just have a sociable evening - good for teambuilding and all that. I got to hear about Anne's upcoming travel plans and I hope she'll have some good tips for me on Prague and Bratislava. I was surprised how many people have asked me about THE trip, without my having mentioned it at all to them. The general reactions have fallen into a few categories:

1. Sheer jealousy. There are a lot of people out there who would like to take several months out of their lives and do something completely different. Many of them have specifically mentioned not having responsibilities. Mostly I try to tell them that they could do it if they really wanted to. Maybe they have too many responsibilities now, but that won't be true forever, so they might as well plan for when the kids are out of school or whatever the barrier is.

2. Reminiscence. I am surprised how many people I know have done some travels at some time in the past. They're generally glad of having taken six months or so but wouldn't do it again. With this group, I mostly ask for advice!

3. Disbelief. There are those who just can't understand it. How can I take off for so long? Why do I want to go to such odd places? Don't I worry about what this will do to my career? and so on. It's virtually impossible to answer any of this in any way they can understand. I've tried to explain that I think it will take me at least three months just to get myself out of my usual way of thinking, but this group just doesn't understand why I'd even want to do that. Fortunately, they're few and easily ignored.

Thursday night we went up to Chatauqua, after calling first to verify that they were open. Since this weekend is the end of their season, it will be quite some time till I get to eat there again. They reopen in May, but I expect to be in Namibia by then. Of course, the same people do run The Full Moon Grill, but it's a different atmosphere (and a different menu). Anyway, I had a salad of mixed greens, halibut and "red, white and blueberry shortcake", all of which were very good.

I also managed to get out at lunchtime for a change. I had one lunch at Page Two, which makes competent enough sandwiches, though I don't think it's really anything special. And we went to Serrano twice. One time I had their grilled vegetable quesadillas, which were muy delicioso, and the other time I had a mahi mahi sandwich, which was a bit heavier than it should have been. Still, better than cafeteria food. I ended up mostly buying muffins the night before and having them with coffee in my room for breakfast, but I got out to Le Peep one morning, which is always good. I noticed, though, that they took the corn and jalapeno pancakes off the menu, which were always good to really wake me up!

Back at home, it was a pleasure to NOT eat out. Not that I did any real cooking, but at least I could heat things up and sit at the dining room table with a magazine. I did the usual unpack, do laundry, pack routine, plus lots more household paperwork, working on the book database, and so on. I also did lots of reading, with the most interesting thing I read being David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag which is about the history of pirates.