March 16 - PUSA, Roast Beef, and Duck Soup

Classy.

Sometimes being a grownup is weird. Like for instance when a band from your youth decides to get back together and you can go see them now because your parents can't tell you that you're not allowed to go. Well, they could, but would you listen?

I went to see the Presidents of the United States of America at The Paramount, this beautiful theatre in downtown Seattle. It's actually far too pretty for rock shows. They should have classier stuff there. Like performance art.

Anyway, it was an alright show - PUSA is great live. They're great performers, and they really make sure the crowd is having fun. And here's where it gets weird - the crowd. I was standing next to 12 year olds and 45 year olds. There was a hipster couple behind us complaining about a fat hippie in a utilikilt blowing up balloons and bouncing them over the crowd. During the show this awkward soccer mom moshed into me. So, so weird.

Smile, you're a winner!

And what's with this? They incorporated a horn section made up of high school kids. What did those kids do to play with PUSA? And why didn't I get to do stuff like that when I was in band? All we ever got to do was play with the orchestra. And there's nothing worse than a high school orchestra. Except maybe a deaf school orchestra. But I bet those don't even exist. Probably.

Luckeeeee. . . .

The next day my grandfather invited me over for lunch. Pretty sweet, because my grandfather is a great cook and I love free lunch. Especially free duck soup lunch.

It was actually a style I'd never had before - really smoky and five-spicy with . . . donuts!

Fixin' for some soup.

Okay, not those kind of donuts. Chinese donuts are basically light dough fried chewy. I've never had them before, so I guess I'm not sure what other applications they have, but they were an interesting addition to the soup. They don't have a super distinct flavor on their own, but they took on the broth enough to soften just a bit and get. . . ducky.

Is there anything better than soup?

Left to my own devices for my next meal, I let that boy pick out ingredients for me to cook up at home. He came home with a beef tri-tip roast. Having never worked with this cut of meat before, I decided to play it safe: I seared it on the stove, deglazed the pan with some brandy, caramelized some shallots and garlic in the pan, and then tossed everything in the oven with a shot of balsamic vinegar.

Cooking like a grownup!

It was a fair success. It's a far more tender cut of beef than I'd thought, and the sweet potatoes I cut up and put in the roasting pan took on a lot of great flavor. I'm getting better at this.

Another thing I'm going to get better at is taking pictures of my food. I'm studying up on techniques to fix. . . I mean, enhance all my crappy. . . er, amateur photos.