That old stand-by...

So I've been out here exactly 1 month--my dad a little longer--and both of us are still looking for that one restaurant we go to when we're all out of ideas. Our only criterion for this "stand-by" restaurant is that it possess at least one item on its menu that we always crave, and won't break the bank. Well, I think we've found it: Room. Dad likes the brie, bacon, and honey hamburger (hold the brie, bacon, and honey), and I enjoy the Asian-style beef carpaccio, garnished with ginger, sesame seeds, green onion, rocket (spring greens), and soy sauce. My Indian-spiced main course of rack of lamb was also excellent, but I didn't love the sides that came with the orange-almond halibut I'd had last time, though the fish itself was tasty. Hard not to love rack of lamb, though. On the side was some mint cous-cous. Dad's cream of zucchini soup was very good, and the raspberry creme brulee was excellent though simple.


Another cool thing about Room is that they have a selection of board games you can play while waiting for your food--surprising for the upscale interior, but adding to a sense of relaxation. I had almost forgotten how to play Mastermind, but it turns out it's one of the most straightforward games in Parker Brothers' repertoire. I mercilessly won a match in 4 turns. OH YEAH. (That's my Mac-from-It's-Always-Sunny-Season-4-finale-voice, that is, when Charlie announces that Mac gets to be both Night and Day Man in his musical "The Nightman Cometh," mocking Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," though the names are where the similarity stops.)

SPEAKING OF IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY...Season 5 begins tonight! Well, tomorrow morning for me. Don't know how timely European television is with network premieres in the States, but the internet should serve me well.

Tonight should be really fun--I've made a friend! Well, I sort of forced the relationship. He's the landlord's son, and the exchange of telephone numbers was virtually before we had met, but he's 20 and attends "university" in nearby Delft and speaks perfect English and Dutch (well, they all do here, but he's Australian). Anyways, we're going to watch a soccer match at an Irish pub a few doors down from my apartment, then we might catch this carnival-smelling thing at a downtown park. It's probably a lame festival (free entry) but I rode past it Tuesday night on my way home from seeing Kit Armstrong and a few others play in the Chamber Music Festival and really wanted to photograph it. Armstrong debuted an original quintet, inspired by one of Mozart's, for "blazersprogram", or, "winds" (bassoon/French horn/oboe/clarinet) + piano. He's only 17! American, but it reminded me most of Schoenberg, though a little more fluid. It was all right. I think I liked the Beethoven Sonata for Piano and Cello that opened the night the best.

Later dudes.