Meat and zoning? and storms

My feeing of being surrounded by veg*ns needs to be re-calibrated; at Grendel's tonight there was a block of 5 of us, munching away on animals from land, air, and sea. (Well, kind of air, not like those birds fly.) And of the Taiwanese couple further down I'm pretty sure A. at least was eating meat. Actually I think the veg*ns were late and few tonight.

( Read more... )

But across the intersection of not quite doom, I saw the physical embodiment of what I'd been envisioning for Mystic Avenue. Rising abruptly out of the suburban desert were four uniform blocks of six story buildings, full of shops on the first floor. I'm completely shocked that the phrase "transit-oriented development" isn't on the Arbor Point website, though it is associated with the Woodland Station site of the same company. This is where I had the Five Guys burger. Good income range: from $5 burgers and a nearby Qdoba to a sushi bar where you'd spend $23 on a chirashi bowl, which seems to match the Woodland claims of being mixed income, including apartments for <50% of median income.

The storm never did break. And I never noticed a storm today, though I was surprised by all the water on the streets when I went to Grendel's, so I guess it rained at some point.

More meat, and cheese

Just bought and sampled Salame Secchi Fiore, by Columbus Salumeria, from Trader Joe's. It's a thin white salami that they keep in the fancy cheese section along with a few other salamis. It's white because it's covered in brie mold, apparently. It's also really good. Soft and sweet -- sugar is indeed in the ingredients, though supposedly less than 0.5 grams per 26 gram serving. Has milk ingredients and is relatively salty. But very tasty.

The Spanish cheese tapas sampler that I also grabbed, alas, failed to grab me. Capra al vino, manchego (sheep milk), iberico (all three milks)... they're okay.

*goes to double check*

Actually, I take that back. On second sample, they're better. Still not a top cheese like good Camembert or Cambozola or whole milk mozzarella, but good. The cabra and the manchego more than the iberico. I wonder if that's related to my preferring romano over parmesan.