Flashback: Rehoboth Beach... in Haiku (originally posted 7/17/10)

Ah, summer is coming to an end.  Why not celebrate it with a trip to the beach?  Too little room in OC? How about a side trip to Reho?  Plus the haiku is a format I haven't had on here in a while.  For those of you not familiar with Rehoboth Beach, please note: the subject of the final photo is still on display the last I checked.

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Rehoboth Beach... in Haiku (originally posted July 17, 2010)


It's been a week since my visit to fabulously hot Rehoboth Beach - and a good long while since I posted anything in poetry format. So to help cope with the heat, a little silliness in haiku format.

My stay started at
The Rehoboth Guest House - a
Charming place to stay.

Dogfish Head Brew Pub

Dinner was Dogfish
Head Brewpub, one of my main
Reasons to go down.

So many beers, all
Mem'rable. But enough to
Cloud my brain a tad.

I must recommend
Their five dollar sampler of
Five beers with your meal.

With that I got the
Fried squid - crunchy, nice, although
Not too flavorful.

Alongside, their In-
dulgence burger (just nine bucks),
Piled with lots of stuff:

Cheddar, bacon, and
A fried onion ring - I asked
For it to be rare.

Flavorful, juicy,
A bit messy (duh) - quite good.
Get it if you can.

Walked to Double L,
One of the rare gay bars that
Has Guinness on tap.

What a cute couple,
Standing on the Boardwalk on
Drizzly Thursday morn.

The Bake Shoppe

Stopped by the Bake Shoppe
On Rehoboth Av for a
Croissant and a chat.

Crusty, happy guy
Who grew up in Baltimore
Told me about two

Women who baked pies
In his 'hood in South B'more
Back when he was young.

Baywatch: Delaware!

Lifeguards training in the sand.
Yum. I stared a bit.

And of course, I get
On the beach and it drizzles.
I still got sunburned :\

In contrast: what the
Trendy woman wore here a
Hundred years ago.

Also checked out an
Exhibit on Rehoboth's
Archaeology.

Leave it to me to
Go to the beach, and end up
In a museum.

Seafood ShackFor a post-beach lunch,
I stopped at the Seafood ShackOn Baltimore Av

With my Dos Equis,
Got a po'boy which was a
Three seafood sampler:

A mini-crabcake,
Three oysters, and two shrimps - for
all of thirteen bucks.

Po'boy did the job,
In a friendly setting not
Far from the Boardwalk.

Visit at night for
Music from lesbian and
Straight female singers!

Dogfish Head Brew Pub Part TwoOn back to Dogfish,
For their down-scale brew pub tour
Free at 4:30

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays. No free samples
Like in Milton though.

Showed me their vodkas,
Including an intriguing
Peanut Butter one.

I had to try this.
A shot for five bucks tastes JUST
like peanut butter.

Finbar's Pub and GrillHowever, dinner
Was at Finbar's - the locals'
Favorite for dinner.

The service, at first,
Was lacking. But I was helped
Eventually.

With a thick Guinness,
I got a big fish and chips
For seventeen bucks:

A humongous piece
Of Irish ale-battered cod
With a rémoulade.

The fish was tender,
And the batter not soggy.
Locals must love it!

While fries are often
A throwaway, these chips were
A nice complement.

Finbar's, by the way,
Is easy to find: Dogfish
Brew Pub is next door.

Blue MoonBookending dinner,
A visit to the Blue Moon,
So close to my room.

Dinner is pricey.
So I only went for their
Happy Hour at first.

After dinner, I
Returned to meet up with friends,
Watch karaoke.

Had yet more Dogfish:
Two (or three) Shelter Pale Ales,
But Happy Hour-priced.

And please check out the
Entertaining Pamala
Stanley at Blue Moon!

Late? Karaoke
With Mona Lotts (just don't sing
Off-key like some guys)

Finally found the
Fabled gay end of the beach
(and much eye candy...)

So nice to see gays
With their kids, even some straights,
Gay couples and groups.

If you're looking, it's
13 minute walk from there
To Rehoboth Av.

Hobo's Restaurant and Bar

For my send-off lunch,
Hobo's offered one very
Eye-popping option:

The place looks like they
Took Artscape and made it in-
to a restaurant.

My lunch: a combo
Quesadilla of blue crab
Mixed with melted brie.

For nine bucks, it is
Melted with arugula
And artichokes, too.

You would not think to
Mix crab and brie, but my God
What a great combo!

Topped with rémoulade
and red bell peppers, which made
The meal quite complete.

Of course, I had to
Stop at Dolle's for car'mel corn -
A six dollar tub.

And Candy Kitchen:
For a pound of fudge to take
Back for family.

Did I mention the
Eye-candy? I did. Just had
To revisit it.

No haiku verse here: this speaks for itself.

Lager Sisters

The Scissor Sisters + Beer = awesome sauce.  Or a trip to Grand Central.

Austin City Unlimited, Part II - Live Music City's other not-so-weird offerings

As I noted in a previous post, I visited Austin recently.  It is a food city with lots of barbecue, lots of Mexican food, and lots of Tex-Mex food.  But please don't assume that's all there is.  Oh no, there is so much more wonderful food.

I've visited a few Whole Foodses before: DC's very large one near Dupont Circle, the West Hollywood one near Fairfax, and both of Baltimore's, plus random ones in Philly and Manhattan.  I did not know this until just before I visited this proudly weird city, but Whole Foods began in Austin.  

As such, its biggest Whole Foods on North Lamar is so massive and so very comprehensive that it puts any other I have ever visited to shame (especially both of Baltimore's, which are peensy boutique markets by comparison).  

Electronic, updatable labels?  What kind of carbon footprint does that make?

This place has a few massive buffets, a barbecue station (natch), a gelato station, a taco station, walls of coffee, chocolates, tea - yes, tea - a large bakery, massive wine section, a walk-in beer freezer, bulk goods (five types of bulk quinoa alone), even a section where they sell environmentally friendly locally sourced clothing.

Just one section of The Wall Of Bulk Foods

I visited twice, once for a large Texas-shaped candy bar that I brought home as a gift for the family, and once for breakfast.

Their breakfast buffet had delicious and hearty offerings and I just took a smattering: everything from cheese grits to bacon to vegan migas and so much more.  And yes, there are recycling stations everywhere.

The same family friend who recommended Ruby's also highly recommended Trudy's, also on the north end of UT Austin, on a very residential street off Guadalupe. I was hoping for lunch, but they didn't open until 2 at all.  I hoofed it the 20 minutes onto campus to see the Texas Natural Science Museum - notable for its paleontology exhibit and native Texas animal dioramas - and came back around 2:30.  I then found out that, though open, they don't serve anything other than appetizers until 4.  Not willing to wait any longer, I hobbled together a meal from a few appetizers - the small bowl of chile con queso with chunks of chicken was doable, and came with plenty of house nachos and crackers.  The tortilla soup I ordered, also a small bowl, was clear and the restaurant kept the tortilla shreds and cheese separate so I could add them myself.  I ordered a margarita on the rocks, though in retrospect I wish I had gotten the frozen one, not because it was hot out (which it was), but because I think I would have liked it better.  It had a mild kick, and was not particularly strong.  The beer I had along with it had the kick, and with the small amount of food I started to feel it.  Not full or terribly satisfied (again, no full menu), I finally got full with a basic (large) burger at the local Whataburger down the street.

A San Antonio based burger chain, by the way, with locations throughout the Southwest.

The Austin and Houston areas have fairly sizable Vietnamese-American population, and phở is easy to find near the UT campus.  I had a good bowl of phở with thinly shaved beef, with a manageable plate of bean sprouts, Thai basil and jalapeño slices, at the Hai Ky Cafe on the 2000 block of Guadalupe street (locally known as the Drag), near the southern end of campus.  

This is a cozy, centrally located restaurant that offers many options for phở fans as well as those seeking noodles and other vegetarian and non-soup options.  The best part: the phở is not pricey at all - all bowls are under $7.  I got spring rolls for just a few dollars more.

I came to Austin for a convention, and had the chance to eat a fancy and above all free meal.  But I didn't know any of these people and didn't feel like forcing myself to make conversation with them, so I headed off on my own for lunch.  

I wound up at Frank, a "hot dogs cold beer" place that serves hot dogs, artisan sausages and so much more.  They have several types of hot dogs overloaded (sometimes to their detriment) with lots of toppings.  

They have so much more, too, including - yes, this is Austin - many vegetarian options.  They have many cocktails, many nods to sauces and even barbecues from other parts of the country (this surprised me a great deal), such as their Texalina, one of many artisan sausages they sell with Western, Southern, Southwestern, Mexican and other stylings (alas, no Old Bay there - hey, you can't have everything - but in retrospect I wouldn't have been surprised to see it).  I ordered the Sonoran dog, topped with so much stuff that I had to eat it with a fork.  A tasty dog, though the toppings almost drowned it out, and weren't as spicy as I might have expected it to be.  Along with it I got waffle fries with Buffalo blue cheese dip (though I think I would've liked the Carolina Dip better)

So satisfying, however, was the Frankencookie dessert concoction.  Get this: two small scoops of coffee ice cream, with a massive and moist chocolate chip-bacon cookie (why is that no longer surprising to see these days?), served warm, and with juicy crumbles of bacon and two pieces of bacon on a stick next to it.

Yes, there really is such a thing as too much bacon.  Seriously I could not finish it.  Anyway, if in Austin go there and order that if that alone.  I must make this some time.

I ended my trip the way any tourist to Austin would: by watching soccer (yes that's snark).  When I found out the US Men's National Team was playing football powerhouse Brazil in my own backyard I was excited!  Then I found out that would be my last night in Austin (that figures), so I sought out a place to watch it.  Fadó is (I now know) a chain of Irish pubs - there are locations in Annapolis and Washington - and one is right in downtown Austin.  

With an adequate order of boxty pancakes topped with sweet Guinness sauce and Tex-Mex ingredients (they also have a boxty quesadilla.  Could this be Celt-Mex?) and a pint of Guinness I got to watch the US team's weak first half and plucky (though still not-enough) second half loss to Brazil 4 to 1 amid other cheering, exasperated fans.  I topped that off with their brown bread ice cream, which really was not all that great: grainy crumbs of brown bread intermixed with an above-average tasting, slightly brown vanilla ice cream.  If going to a Fadó near you for Euro 2012, order something else.

Of course, I capped off dinner at Fadó across the street, at two of the city's downtown gay bars.  Oilcan Harry's is big and flashy, Rain on 4th is cozier (relatively speaking).  Neither was too full - this was midweek after all.  In this quite LGBT-friendly city in Texas, both are worth a look.  The beer is cheaper than at Baltimore's gay bars, even factoring in the increased alcohol tax.  In fact, Austin's sales tax tops ours, at 8.5%, and all the Shiner Bocks I drank (hell, I wasn't driving after all) still came out to less than they would have been here.  Also note: for those visiting my home town from Austin: you can find Shiner Bock on tap at the Hippo.

Mt. Vernon Miscellany: Late April Edition

Just a few things in and around the Mt. Vernon neighborhood that I haven't gotten around to, since life and these dang State-by-State posts have taken up all my time:

1) I love Mughal Garden, and will go back again and again, but you didn't have to get so worried when I ordered my dinner "spicy" last night.  It wasn't very spicy.  Didn't even have to blow my nose more than once with that delicious lamb korma.  Are y'all sure you didn't give me medium-spiced instead?

2) Not sure if Marie Louise Bistro just doesn't want me there anymore, but the last few times I've gone in to wait for a table much of the staff has just stared at me and kept walking - not even a "Someone will be with you in just a moment, sir" (that will keep me patiently waiting for a while).  Note: they won't stop you from going upstairs to seat yourself.

3) What the hell are these things? (Taken not in Mt. Vernon but at the Abingdon Wegman's in Harford County.  Just had to slip this in somewhere.)

I'm scared.

4) Back to Mt. Vernon:: it looks like somebody's doing something with the old Brass Elephant building.  Yay!  (Yes I'm probably the last person to say anything about it, but it's overdue.  The linked article suggests it may be back open by spring, which means soon since it's now spring!)

5) Am going to Kumari again.  Last August I got a nasty bout of something after eating there (avoid the chow chow if at all possible).  But they won me back with their Nepali Bhohan!

6) I really should save up for this sometime: Sotto Sopra's next Opera Night ($58) is Sunday, May 20th.  (Yes, just south of Mt. Vernon but hell it's my blog.)

That's all for now.  Back tonight for some half-priced maki rolls at Minato before the alleged finale of RuPaul's Drag Race at the Hippo (who is hosting RPDR finalist Sharon Needles on May 4!).

And happy birthday to my sister who is once more only a year younger than I am :-P

Wedding in Provincetown I: Civil Marriage is a Right

To bring my musings on Massachusetts full circle, I must take this blog back to Provincetown, the first place I deliberately visited in New England.  I probably would not have gone (any time soon anyway) had my friends Eric & Alan (hey guys) not married there last weekend.  Why not DC?  Well, yes it is closer, but they wanted to give a nod to the state to legalize same-sex marriage before any other.  Plus, Provincetown is a lovely place for a wedding.  And with over 50% of the full-time residents identifying as gay or lesbian, it's not like this sort of thing is unexpected.

I met several of my friends and fellow wedding guests at BWI by sheer coincidence (all out on the same flight).  Once in Boston we ran into a woman going to another P'town wedding that same weekend!  So the five of us hopped on the mass transit to the World Trade Center station, headed to the docks for our ferry tickets, and sought out food.  Our destination was a non-descript sports bar, Jerry Remy's Sports Bar and Grill.  Or at least I think it was Jerry Remy's, as the photograph suggests.  Apparently their website suggests there is only one, and it's at Fenway Park.  Unless the Red Sox have started playing out by the World Trade Center, we definitely weren't eating at Fenway Park.  Anyway, we all had some lovely microbrews from Western Massachusetts and some massive burgers.  They tout their fried dough burger, which the waitress warned us was at least 1200 calories.  I wasn't goin' anywhere near that.  One of us did order it, but on a brioche instead.  I got a filling and satisfying burger ($14) with a side order of sweet potato fries.  As far as sports bars go, it was pretty decent food.

 

We headed out to Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod, on the Fast Ferry - courtesy of the Bay State Cruise Company (only about $85 round trip from Boston to Provincetown).  I didn't get sick, even with the rough seas.  Perhaps I have a built-in Dramamine supply.

 

Once in Provincetown, we settled into our various B&B's - the Cape, apparently, is full of them.  Mine was the Admiral's Landing, a lovely place on Bradford Street with friendly proprietors that serve homemade muffins and raisin bread for breakfast.  Do check it out if you're up there.

Later that evening the cocktails began.  Not long after that came the food - lots of it.  Before the wedding guests convened on Friday night, I went exploring Commercial Street to get a taste of the place.  Along the way I stopped in the Provincetown Portuguese Bakery for some cheap eats (cash only): a lovely lemon tart, and a bacalhau, that famous Portuguese codfish cake (total: less than $4).  Still not a fan, though I don't blame the bakery - it's not their fault I don't like coddies.  But I liked the tart.


After cocktails we split off into our own separate ways for dinner.  I went with the groom and groom and a few more of us to the Karoo Kafe, perhaps Cape Cod's only South African restaurant.  Once there, I had to confer with Alan, one of our handsome grooms, who is from South Africa, to find out just what to order that would be authentic.  After he conferred with the owner - he had a long conversation with her in Afrikaans - he told me to order the lamb curry ($14), which after tasting mine he said was pretty authentic: a little bit sweeter than a typical curry.  Another one of us ordered the antelope burger ($10), but found it unremarkable.  Yes, I almost ordered it.  I've never eaten antelope.

The next day was filled with little nibbles here and there, some cheap, some relatively pricey, but most good.  A note about Provincetown: it is not difficult to find cheap and good food if you know where to look.  But it is much much easier to find very expensive food.  I was more of the "Where can I get a super-cheap lobster roll that is actually worth eating?" mentality.  That's how I roll when I don't get paid until the next weekend.

 

I needed to wander out that morning for some toothpaste and hair spray.  Instead, I found myself meandering  up and down the breath-taking Pilgrim Monument and through the Provincetown Museum ($8) - near the site of the first landing of the Pilgrims before heading to Plymouth, I might add.  Then my day of eating began.

And oh, all the eating I did:

* The aptly-named Burger Queen was recommended to me by my innkeeper.  For just $10 you can get a classic and decent lobster roll, complete with the toasted buttered roll, and both small and large chunks of lobster.  They also had a Maryland crab cake (!) available for $16.  I didn't bother with it.  I wasn't sure how P'town Yankees, God love 'em, would do making a crab cake.


* Since whoopie pies have crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, I have been eating my fair share of them.  The one I had at Deja Vu for $2.50 was not one of the better ones I've had, though it wasn't all that bad.

* More than making up for it was the White Russian flavored ice cream from Lewis Brothers ($3.75 for a small cup).  Filling.

* I stopped in the Provincetown Portuguese Bakery for more stuff, some meringues to take home for family.  I regret that I didn't get to explore more of Portuguese-American culture while there.  That will be the next time I visit Provincetown, whenever that may be.

* A friend from Maine recommended Mojo's among other places, and Mojo's was the only one I could make it to.  Their onion chunks (for about $4.50) were fried in some sort of light batter.  Very crispy, and I love the take on onion rings, but they were not the best fried onions I've had.  Again, not bad.

* Scott Cakes, however, is a local institution.  They do their own laid-back take on the national cupcake craze by making just one type of cupcake: yellow buttery cake with pink buttercream frosting.  It is an unbelievably wonderful cupcake - either regular size ($3) or small ($2).  Do they put crack in these?  The innkeeper said she asked about a chocolate one hopefully soon, but Scott hasn't yet found a chocolate cake recipe he's happy with.  I was perfectly happy with the ones I bought, and even tried to bring some home.  By the time they got to Baltimore the icing was not so much on the cupcakes anymore as all over the insides of the box.  Oh well.  I ate it off the insides of the box anyway.

Finally: the wedding at the lovely Crown & Anchor, usually manned by a few drag queens telling passersby what's going on that night.  It was a lovely ceremony on the beach at sunset, with delicious appetizers and an open bar.  That and so many spectators in the balconies, all strangers to us, applauding from the balconies.  I am hoping for that when I land me a husband.

 

The happy couple.  Congratulations, Alan & Eric!

After post-wedding hors d'ouevres and cocktails, we headed into the dining room for dinner.  We had several choices, if I remember correctly: seafood pasta (this is what I ordered), scallops (this is what I should have ordered) and steak.

 

Dessert was an array of gourmet cupcakes.  Guys, you outdid yourselves.  I hope you can pay it off.  Though they tell me, as weddings go, it was a lot cheaper than a typical straight wedding might have been.

The next morning I headed back to Boston on the Fast Ferry.  You will read about my eats there later this week.

Other photos:

Oh he's leavin

On that midday boat to P'town

The view from atop the Pilgrim Monument

What ah ya lookin' at?

Oh Varla, when will you missionize at the Hippo again?

She was standing there, all day...

Next thing you know they'll be letting gay cupcakes marry!

The First World War Veterans' Monument in the center of town

 

Heterosexuals are also welcome in Provincetown

 

Apparently, they love the whale watching.