Friday on the Town
Yesterday Kate and I went downtown to meet Pramas for dinner. We'd made reservations at Assaggio in honor of Rodney coming to town but the remnants of our most recent icy storm put a kink in those plans as Rodney decided he'd rather make the drive on still-icy roads to his aunt and uncle's house in the daylight hours and had to beg off dinner. Still, since we had made the reservations we decided to give the place a shot anyway.
I have to admit that my food photography is suffering lately. I find that when we go out to eat in dimly lit restaurants, my photos take a lot more fiddling and I'm very aware that I'm preventing my companions from digging into their grub while I screw around with the camera, so I try to rush and end up taking poor shots. Part of it is that my camera only has a smallish view screen by which I can line up and focus the shot, and in too-dim lighting I can't see anything but vague, shady blobs. Point and pray isn't a very effective technique. I also can't use my cool super-close-up setting (through which I've gotten some great shots in the past) because those shots turn out poorly in dim light, if they turn out at all. Assaggio was precisely this sort of restaurant, so I only got a few shots and none of them made me entirely happy. This is probably the best of the bunch:
We had two good salads, though I think Pramas got the better of them (shaved fennel, green apple, Parmesan and truffle salt), and shared the beef carpaccio. He chose the special (rack of lamb) and I chose sea scallops and ravioli in saffron-cream. Excellent! Kate had a half-order of Tagliatelle with Bolognese but didn't enjoy the meatiness of the sauce. Outside of bread and plain side salad, this place was not particularly adaptable to Kate's tastes. Chris finished off Kate's pasta so he skipped dessert but I had a hazelnut gelato and biscotti with a double espresso. Sadly, although the service was friendly it was also slow and I spent too much time sitting with empty plates in front of me waiting for the next course. I got my espresso way before the rest of my dessert arrived and it was only lukewarm. I made the mistake of waiting for the biscotti to show up, by which time the espresso was cold. Disappointing.
After dinner Chris and Kate headed home, while I walked over to the EMP to join Ray, Christine, Carol, and some of Christine's co-workers for the 2007 Elvis Invitational. I think that may have been the coldest walk I've ever taken in Seattle. It was brisk out there last night. The Elvis-tational was fun for a while. I snapped some shots of some of the Elvises I found walking around, and a few of the amateur performances. Unfortunately some of these guys were REALLY BAD. You can just imagine their pals at karaoke night encouraging them to do it, how they'd "be great" on stage. They weren't. When we left a three-some made up of Alvin Chipmunk in an Elvis wig, a girl "chipette" and a guy dressed as Strong Bad. NO idea what that was about but I figured it was high time to get out of there and hit the new Heavenly Spies show at the Can Can.
The Spies were fun, good new additions to the group and some good new material. Undecided on whether I liked Double-Oh-Sassy's solo numbers, but Secret Agent Rhinestone continued to work it and rock the house. Ultra was sighted (and pulled on stage for a cameo). Toward the end it was mega crowded and the view from our unfortunate table in the bar was thoroughly blocked but it was otherwise a satisfying evening. Christine was setting out to give me a ride home when Ray noted we were practically on the front doorstep of the Zig Zag and Murray was working, so we went in for one last cocktail, Murray's choice. Whew. Quite the evening.
I have to admit that my food photography is suffering lately. I find that when we go out to eat in dimly lit restaurants, my photos take a lot more fiddling and I'm very aware that I'm preventing my companions from digging into their grub while I screw around with the camera, so I try to rush and end up taking poor shots. Part of it is that my camera only has a smallish view screen by which I can line up and focus the shot, and in too-dim lighting I can't see anything but vague, shady blobs. Point and pray isn't a very effective technique. I also can't use my cool super-close-up setting (through which I've gotten some great shots in the past) because those shots turn out poorly in dim light, if they turn out at all. Assaggio was precisely this sort of restaurant, so I only got a few shots and none of them made me entirely happy. This is probably the best of the bunch:
We had two good salads, though I think Pramas got the better of them (shaved fennel, green apple, Parmesan and truffle salt), and shared the beef carpaccio. He chose the special (rack of lamb) and I chose sea scallops and ravioli in saffron-cream. Excellent! Kate had a half-order of Tagliatelle with Bolognese but didn't enjoy the meatiness of the sauce. Outside of bread and plain side salad, this place was not particularly adaptable to Kate's tastes. Chris finished off Kate's pasta so he skipped dessert but I had a hazelnut gelato and biscotti with a double espresso. Sadly, although the service was friendly it was also slow and I spent too much time sitting with empty plates in front of me waiting for the next course. I got my espresso way before the rest of my dessert arrived and it was only lukewarm. I made the mistake of waiting for the biscotti to show up, by which time the espresso was cold. Disappointing.
After dinner Chris and Kate headed home, while I walked over to the EMP to join Ray, Christine, Carol, and some of Christine's co-workers for the 2007 Elvis Invitational. I think that may have been the coldest walk I've ever taken in Seattle. It was brisk out there last night. The Elvis-tational was fun for a while. I snapped some shots of some of the Elvises I found walking around, and a few of the amateur performances. Unfortunately some of these guys were REALLY BAD. You can just imagine their pals at karaoke night encouraging them to do it, how they'd "be great" on stage. They weren't. When we left a three-some made up of Alvin Chipmunk in an Elvis wig, a girl "chipette" and a guy dressed as Strong Bad. NO idea what that was about but I figured it was high time to get out of there and hit the new Heavenly Spies show at the Can Can.
The Spies were fun, good new additions to the group and some good new material. Undecided on whether I liked Double-Oh-Sassy's solo numbers, but Secret Agent Rhinestone continued to work it and rock the house. Ultra was sighted (and pulled on stage for a cameo). Toward the end it was mega crowded and the view from our unfortunate table in the bar was thoroughly blocked but it was otherwise a satisfying evening. Christine was setting out to give me a ride home when Ray noted we were practically on the front doorstep of the Zig Zag and Murray was working, so we went in for one last cocktail, Murray's choice. Whew. Quite the evening.