Speaking of Vegas, my friend Elizabeth was just there and had this review of the Lotus of Siam:
********
On Wednesday night we had dinner at the reputed Lotus of
Siam (buried in a dumpy strip mall a mile east of the casinos), which was
pretty much as fantastic as everyone says. We had five items (including dessert),
three of which I'd put up there with anything I've had at a destination
restaurant. I think the appetizer (which totally gets lost in the translation "sour
sausage with crispy rice") was the greatest achievement--how they got each
kernel perfectly deep-fried but separate will always be a mystery to me, and the
flavor combo of ginger strips, chiles, cilantro, mint, and tangy sausage pretty
much rose above. Karen was in love with the admittedly fabbo mango with
sticky rice dessert (though the sleeper item in that one is the part that gets no
billing--the coconut ice cream served alongside the hot pudding. She kept
asking the waiter what the perfumey flavoring was, and he blankly replied "Coconut"
several times. I thought he was putting us on till I read one of the old
newspaper articles later...they use three different varieties of coconut flown in
from Thailand. Big damn slabs of the stuff in it, too, which was cool). The
salmon panang curry had this really mellow, subtle cognac-inflected sauce that
was very bisque-like in texture...grand indeed.
I finally got to see my cousin's new baby (born Sunday). She was beautiful.
I keep forgetting why I hate the San Jose airport, until I get here.
Also, my flight started out being delayed for 20 minutes, but now it's up to 55 minutes.
Oddly mesmerizing
Weird.
ION, I met Peter Riegert tonight. He is as nice in person as he seems to be on screen. He's in town promoting his movie "The King of the Corner". I'm seeing the movie tomorrow. I went to a dinasaur musical this evening instead.
Now, I'm watching James Burke on PBS. I love him!
Fun with hydrogen: [link]
This set comes complete with a hydrogen fuel generating launch system, a four-point system check, a remote push-button ignition, propellant crystals, mixing bottle and two ready to fly rockets.
"Propellant crystals"? Are they like flavor crystals? Are they made of dilithium?
So what are people doing for the 4th
Working. Official reception is on the 5th, but we're commanded to be at the Ambassador's around 9:00 am Monday for something or other. This 4th has been a lot less work than any of my previous ones overseas though.
And because it needs its own post, let me be the first to say:
Happy Birthday, Frankenbuddha! Two bangs and a religion.
So what are people doing for the 4th
I'm going to go to Seattle and veg and nap and watch Veronica Mars and eat sushi and play with sparklers and take a bath in a real tub and buy lipstick and nap and hopefully babysit just a little so Plei can do whatever she wants for an hour and nap.
Going to the airport for a couple of hours and then realizing that the reason the person sitting across from me is looking at me intently is that my nose is bleeding and then about 34 seconds hearing the announcement that the already hour delayed flight is also overbooked and would someone be willing to give up their seat for a free roundtrip ticket, head home with said free ticket and a ticket to Seattle in two weeks, and pour myself a rather large margarita.
After that, dunno.
