In the past week, we’ve had a huge number of things go wrong at our household.

1. Computer that runs the television broke.
2. Ben’s car broke.
3. Ben almost lost his wedding ring in the snow at night.
4. Ben nearly injured himself in three different ways in the course of 72 hours: luckily not broken toe, burnt hand, or twisted ankle.
5. While investigating a toilet noise, I broke the arm that holds up the ball. Now replaced . . . and still making the original noise.
6. Replaced bathtub drain plug.
7. Took Loki in for stitch and feeding tube removal.
8. Replaced all four of my nearly bald tires, due to it being our only car at present.
9. The big one that happened last night: my hard drive broke, resulting in the loss of anything I’ve written and photos I’ve shot in the last two weeks, in addition to my emails and contacts. Nope, no review of El Rodeo for now, or that Trader Joe’s Reserve Syrah, or the Ritz at the Cheesecake Factory. Also not going to happen: my weekly General Hospital column and any other work that is not directly related to redoing my editing projects.

What this means to you, my faithful readers, is that I’m not going to have any updates until the end of next week. Why so long? Because we’re going to Disney World! It’s a trip that’s been planned for months, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for our sanity. Hopefully, we’ll manage to make it to the train tomorrow night without any additional problems. As Ben said, they can’t blame us if the train breaks down!

See you next week, when I hope to get some of those blog posts rewritten.

The Gourmez

Skyy Key Lime Pie Martini
Rockfish Grill
8030 Renaissance Parkway #905
The Streets at Southpoint, Durham
Website

Made with Skyy Vodka, this drink is a good addition to my list of key lime pie martinis in the area. The lime flavor was sweet and mellow, though I wouldn’t have minded some more tartness. It was frothed up with milk, poured in a martini glass that was rimmed with delicious graham cracker crumbs, and then dusted with nutmeg and cinnamon. Though it wouldn’t have been as pretty, I’d have liked the spices shaken up with the drink rather than sprinkled on top, so they didn’t clump at the bottom, as is so often the case when spices are used in cocktail. Otherwise, though, delish!

3 stars

Reviewed by the Gourmez 1.17.10.

Wine: Chateau Julian Bordeaux Sec 2008
Region: Gironde, France

I can’t help but feel like a wine with lots of stamps and small print, as this label has, means that I’m supposed to really like it. I am, right? But I suppose I’m supposed to think that of all wines. Regardless, all the appellations intimidate me, as well as how many times I just typed the word suppose. My first red Bordeaux did not impress, so I try this one both assuming it will be above my wine-appreciating head and below my personal preferences.

That’s a lot of expectation for any wine to handle, but the Chateau Julian Bordeaux Sec 2008 handles them all pretty well.  The nose is floral, perhaps lilac. The taste is very bright. Lilac is there, but also bold notes of grapefruit, cream, and a sharp herbalness that I’m dubbing tarragon. These elements combine to taste like a well-thought out marinade for chicken or salmon. Strange, I know, but quite good in wine form. I think it would go well with salty foods.

Other Bloggers’ Thoughts:

Couldn’t find any!

2 stars

Reviewed by the Gourmez 1.13.10.

2 shots Two Fingers Gold Tequila
0.5 shot Feeney’s Irish Cream Liquor
4-second pour of Hershey’s Nonfat Chocolate Syrup
4 shots orange juice, heavy pulp  ’cos that’s how I roll
Sprinkle of cinnamon

Shake the first four ingredients and pour over crushed ice. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

This cocktail, by all rights, should not be drinkable. But it is! I think it’s the orange and irish cream; I simply love an orange creamsicle, 50-50 bar, whatever you want to call them. I definitely added too much cinnamon on top and I think I should have gone with my gut and sprinkled cardamom instead. The chocolate is in a very small portion and that works to its benefit, merely adding a velvety richness. The tequila works surprisingly well. Drinkable, but I’ll definitely make improvements next time.

2 stars

Invented on 1.18.10.

Wine: Taylor Marsala
Region: Finger Lakes, New York

The color of this dessert wine is fantastic. It’s like looking at a blood red rose, with a copper hue around its edges.  It smells like port, with rich, dense, scents of overripe peach and tamarind.

The flavor is smooth and definitely has peach notes, but the tamarind I smelled is really closer to rhubarb, with sweet strawberry also. These fruits swim in the glass like they are in raw sugarcane or molasses syrup. It’s much better than I expected for a staple of your grocery store’s bottom shelf in the alcohol aisle.
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Last summer, I posted this blog about my cat, Loki, having disappeared a week earlier. It is leaps and bounds ahead of every other blog entry I’ve posted in terms of hits, and that must be because so many people have had pets go missing and reach out to find others in the same situation to look for some hope that their own animals might return.

Loki's Misssing Photo

Well, there is hope! Loki has returned! Last Friday, eight months after he disappeared, I received a phone call from Home Again, one of the microchip pet locator services.

“Hello, Becca Gomez Farrell?”

“Yes.”

“You have an orange tabby named Loki, who’s been missing?”

“Yes.” At this point, I think I started going into shock, a sensation that didn’t leave until I had him home for a couple days.

“Well, I have a vet office on the line in Apex, who has your cat. Would you like to speak to them?”

“Absolutely.”

I then learned that he had been brought into their office only an hour ago for emergency care.  Apex is more than 10 miles from here, and the lady who brought him in had been feeding him on and off in her neighborhood for the last six months. He was likely hit by a car, or possibly fell from a high height, and ended up with two fractures to his jaw and a ruined eye with an abscess behind it. Before the accident, he had still been wearing his black collar, but the tag had fallen off. The woman, who was crying with worry, and her son waited to meet me.  She told me that she had gone to all forty houses in her neighborhood when he first appeared, to see if someone were missing him, but hadn’t considered a microchip. Many people don’t even know they exist; I’d heard of them but gave them no thought myself until I adopted Loki and Verdandi two and a half years ago from the shelter.  I give much thanks to that woman for her having compassion and bringing him in to a vet, who check for microchips as part of their normal routines.

Loki was a mess. He was acting every bit the wounded cat–drowsy, in pain, smelling like an infection–but would try to purr through his broken jaw when I pet him. I’m not sure I would have recognized him-he looked much larger than he used to–but I think that was mostly swelling of his head, though he is a bit taller. The vet said he perked up when I came, but I would never have been able to tell that myself.  Ben joined me after I’d spent two hours there, and we ended up waiting for another one before they finished checking his blood tests and referred us on to Cary Veterinary Specialty Hospital for further treatment. Except for what was likely a false positive FIV test (Loki’s vaccines lapsed in September, but once a cat is vaccinated for FIV, we’ve learned from my regular vet and the Internet that any test for it will turn up positive because they have the antibodies in their system. He’s had four FIV vaccines in all.), his chemistries looked great, thankfully.

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Sarah Findle, with the Frankie Lemmon Foundation, sent me an e-mail to let me know about the Triangle Wine Experience 2010, thinking it would be an event right up my alley. She was right! Unfortunately, I’m going to be out of town that weekend, so you all need to go and enjoy yourselves on my behalf.

Sarah shared that “Funds raised by the Triangle Wine Experience support the Frankie Lemmon School and Developmental Center, a non-profit preschool for children with special education needs. This tuition-free developmental center serves children ages 3-6 who have developmental delays, language impairments, learning disabilities, or mental retardation.”

Drink wine and support a good cause? You can’t beat that. My friends over at Triangle Vino have a detailed breakdown of the events at TWE 2010, so head on over there to check it out. Let me know if you attend and enjoy it, so I can keep it in mind for next year.

Wine: Snapping Turtle Chardonnay 2007
Region: California

I popped this one open to simmer some risotto in it.  It tasted like lemon meringue pie, though not as tart. When cold, it seemed dry but got sweeter as it warmed to room temperature. There was some green apple peel in the mix as well.  It was a very mild, simple wine. And that risotto? Pretty tasty.

 Other Bloggers’ Thoughts:

Couldn’t find any other reviews of this one.

2 stars

Reviewed by The Gourmez on 1.10.10.

Jamaica Jamaica
4853 NC Highway 55
Intersection of highways 55 and 54, Durham
Lunch Entrees: $7-13, $1 more for Dinner
Sides: $2-6

Jamaica Jamaica is a small, cafeteria-style restaurant that focuses, as evidenced by its name, on Jamaican specialties. Vibrant paintings hang on the walls, which gives the two seating rooms some character. Lively, island radio plays over the speakers.

Jamaica Jamaica has a large menu, but I think that it’s not all available at all times. I was unable to order a jerk chicken or fish sandwich that comes on Coco bread, either because they could only serve from the platters at the time I went (2:30 PM) or they were out of the bread. Offerings include oxtail stew, Caribbean or curry shrimp, curry chicken, jerk chicken, jerk fish, and a number of different sides as well as salads and the MIA sandwiches.  It would be easy for a vegetarian to find options. The Jamaican-style sodas are definitely a reason to come out, even if you are only thirsty. I had a ginger beer soda, which one of my Jamaican friends raves about.

This is nothing like ginger ale, for those of you who haven’t had a true ginger soda. It’s so full of fiery ginger flavor that I could only drink half of it, but my tongue loved the adventure while it lasted.

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For those of you who keep up with the local food scene, the closing of Fins and eventual opening of bu*ku is already old news. But I just wanted to comment on it anyhow, because I’m so intrigued by Chef D’Auvray’s plan for the space and am really interested to see how it turns out.

First, let me say that I loved Fins. I only tried it once, during SparkCon last September, but as you can tell from my review then, I was quite taken with the beautiful decor and delicious food. The cocktail needed some work, but hey, I can only be so picky. Needless to say, hearing (from VarmintBites via NewRaleigh)that I would not be able to eat there again was disappointing, okay, nearly devastating. But gosh darn it, the plan for bu*ku sounds fantastic!

That plan is a focus on street food from across the globe, that will undoubtedly be taken up a notch in sophistication but not too much in price. It sounds like the new place will be a boon for downtown Raleigh lunch diners, who probably weren’t going to shell out the clams needed for regular dining at Fins.

And there’s going to be dim sum! I’m going to weigh in now and declare, though I know it might not be “authentic” enough for some this way, that I’m much more likely to try their dim sum if there are tags that accompany the various dishes on carts so I know what I’m pointing at. I want to know what I’m eating. Should a foodie not admit that?

Good luck with the new venture!