Operacaffe

While in San Diego, Barbara Jo and I got dinner at a restaurant called Operacaffe before we headed to w00tstock. And then we liked it so much we went again the next night!

First of all, nice decor. Cozy but not cramped. No full bar, but a decent selection of wines by the glass. I got the pinot grigio and was quite well-pleased.

I ordered a gnocchi special (I think it was $15.95 or so) and Barbara Jo got the penne speperina ($13.95). (The next night, she got the gnocchi and I got the penne.) They were both fabulous. Usually I’m a little wary of gnocchi because they can turn into rubber so easily, but the chef did a wonderful job. They were either filled with asiago or it was an asiago sauce, I can’t remember which. Supremely tasty and correctly pillowy in texture. There was a piece of chive laid across the top of the dish that should definitely be eaten and not just cast aside as a garnish. The penne had some nice heat from the sausage, and a deliciously creamy sauce.

The waitstaff was friendly—actually, they remembered us on our second night. Service was relatively swift. Operacaffe is right across from the Balboa Theatre, so I imagine they get a lot of pre-show diners. They offered a 15% discount on food for Comic-Con attendees, which was nice.

The only blemish on an otherwise perfect meal was the basket of bread on the table. Now, when we were looking at the menu outside, the hostess had mentioned that their chef was from Florence. I know from personal experience that Florentine bread means saltless bread. So I wasn’t expecting much when I picked up a piece. But this was not Florentine bread. There was no textural interest, and the taste was oddly sweet. It was like plain white sandwich bread. It was bizarre, to say the least.

So skip the bread and save space for your pasta. The servings are pretty big, so you’ll appreciate the extra room.

It should be noted that we are DEFINITELY going back there next year.

Upcoming plans

I didn’t do any hall cosplay this year at SDCC. I considered bringing Sue Sylvester (either the track suit or wedding dress version), but I decided against it because a) Glee fans nooooooo, and b) I was just too darn busy. When you’re planning to be in line for four hours, followed by panels for another six, wearing costumes is pretty low on the priority list. Maybe next year. I did miss it a bit.

My next event is Yaoicon in October. This is a pure cosplaying event—the convention doesn’t interest me at all. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be making this lovely lady from the video game Eternal Sonata to wear with my cosplay buds. Which means a whole lotta crunches to get my stomach photo-ready.

San Diego!

So what did you do last week? I spent it in San Diego, making my annual pilgrimage to Comic-Con. I had a super time, as always. For the second year in a row, I made it into all the panels I decided I had to see. It’s remarkable when that happens. It requires waking up VERY EARLY, though.

Apart from the panels, there was the masquerade. Watch our dumb skit!

That’s me as Dot Matrix, and my pal Umi as Princess Vespa. More details about the construction of my costume can be found here.

Well, there goes the week

I went to a A Dance With Dragons release party last night at a local independent bookshop. It was reasonably well-attended, I think there were like 50 people there. Snacks and wine for free, but I did not partake (it was already difficult staying up until midnight). There was a sort-of pub quiz thing, and sadly, while I did not win a copy of the book, I came in second or third and received a little stuffed dragon. Even though I misspelled “Rhaegal.”

I called myself “Team Yay Sansa.” With the broadcast of A Game of Thrones on HBO, I’ve been hearing a ton of Sansa hate, and while she is written specifically to be hard to like in the first book, she’s grown a lot since then. So I thought I’d throw her some love.

I’m heading off to San Diego Comic-Con next week. I am VERY excited. This will be my fifth year attending, and my fourth year participating in the masquerade. I still have a decent amount of work left to do on my costume, and hopefully this book won’t impede that too much!

Trader Joe’s Gorditas

I rely a lot on Trader Joe’s for my lunches at work. They have a lot of really, really good frozen foods.

However, these?

These suuuuuuuck. It’s a five-inch (approximately) diameter disc of masa filled with the most tasteless beans, cheese, and chiles imaginable. And it’s 350 calories for this tiny little thing! They’re sold in packs of four, so unfortunately I have three more to choke down. I think I will need to bring in some complement of salsa, sour cream, and avocado to work in order to make them palatable.

So yeah. Super-disappointing.

Stuff from Trader Joe’s that has served me in good stead for lunch include:

Pizza Olympiad
Paneer Tikka Masala with Spinach Basmati Rice
Shrimp with Green Curry and Jasmine Rice (weaklings, it’s not THAT spicy)
Chicken Quesadillas
Mac and Cheese (although it’s too big, 1 or 1.5 servings would be better than 2)
Chile Relleno
Eggplant Parmesan Towers (these take like 2x the cooking time indicated because they’re so freakin’ dense)
Curried Lentils on Basmati Rice with Cumin (well, I liked it)

A pleasant discovery

One of my coworkers gave me a bag of Kirkland Green Tea yesterday to try out. It’s actually not bad. It is, I would go so far to say, quite pleasant. A mix of sencha and matcha—after you brew the tea for 30 seconds, you empty the matcha dust from the bag’s packet into the tea. There was a little notch cut out on the tag so it could hang on the side of your cup, which seemed like a keen idea, but my mug was too thick for it.

Well done, Costco!  (Sadly your website appears to be broken, so I linked to Amazon up above.)

More reviews here:
Green Tea World
Chowhound

Sewing FAIL

I must have the world’s pointiest knees. That is, I assume, the only reason I wreck sheets within a year of purchase. Of course, since I am also a packrat, I keep said ruined sheets. Yesterday I took one out to use as scrap fabric to attempt to make a pattern for an upcoming costume. Afterward, I started looking at the sheet and came to the conclusion that it would make good pajama pants. The elastic in one of my pairs has been failing lately, and I like having extra comfy pants.

The last time I made comfy pants, I used a harem pant pattern and simply didn’t add elastic to the ankles. These pants are HUGE. This time I decided to use a slightly more fitted pattern with a two-piece leg. I French seam them because they’ll be going in the wash a lot, and I wanted them to hold up as well as possible. So I cut and press and sew and press and sew and press. Then I put the one leg inside the other so I can sew the crotch. And… fail. I’ve sewn two left legs.

This would not have happened if I had just used a one-piece leg pattern! Argh. So now I’m faced with a couple choices. Do I rip out the seams (all four of them) and resew? Or do I make two right legs and end up with two pairs of comfy pants? I’m leaning towards the second option. However, I don’t have enough material left to make the right legs. What I do have is another sheet I ripped a hole into. I think I may end up making what are basically the world’s dullest Harlequin pants. Cream and taupe.

I’ll take another look at them when I get home and make a decision. I hate when I screw up simple things like this. Frustrating.