Movie Night V2: Reel Rock Tour 7

For the past six or seven years (and we had no idea), the Reel Rock Tour has been spreading its love for “climbing” throughout the world (mostly the U.S.). This is obviously a big deal in Boulder, a hub for climbing and outdoor enthusiasts, so they decided to kickoff the tour here.

Marga and Megan were super nice enough to not only invite us, but also get us tickets to this amazing and popular event. The mini film festival started at 7:30 p.m. last night and we had made it just in time. One of Marga’s friends, Sheri, had saved us some great seats so we were very fortunate there because these were films you would not want to miss. They announced that the “theatre” at Chautauqua Park held 1300 people and that the event sold out for last night and tonight as well. On the trek up the hill to the big log cabin/barn where it was being held, we were given not one, but two free Clif bar samples! Awesome stuff Boulder. As Alana said, if Clif was trying to push their products, then they are in the wrong place since they’re already so popular here. And then the event began…

After some announcing and thank yous and introductions and what not they finally turned the lights off and began the show. First up was The Dura Dura, or the hard hard for our non Spanish speaking readers. Chris Sharma, a very “rad” American climber”, and Adam Ondra, a very not-rad Czech climber, competed against each other to conquer the hardest route ever climbed. It was old school vs. new school but in the end, they bonded and learned from one another. Afterwards, there was a short segment on the recent surge of powerful women climbers that have decided to not just sit back and do the easy routes, but get hungry and do the 5.13s and 14s despite the powerful moves that are required. It was a well-put together and informative film that capture some great climbing of the new hardest routes in the world that have been found in Spain. Really great stuff from amazing climbers.

Adam Ondra

Then they decided to show what I thought was the best film of the night, The Shark’s Fin. The Shark’s Fin is a part of Mt. Meru in India and it is a ridiculous climb for alpinists because of the weather and altitude. The film gives a lot of background on Conrad Anker, one of the greatest alpinists of all time. After failed attempts to climb the fin in his past, Conrad has some unifinished business with his deceased best friend. Conrad puts together his 2008 expedition, despite one of the three members having gone through a skull-shattering ski accident. Through strokes, broken equipment, -25 degree temperatures, and frostbite, the close crew tries to make it to the “center of the universe” (as Hindus dub it) in their final attempt. The emotion of the story and beauty of the mountain make this film one anyone, climber or not, cannot miss.

Then there was an intermission with poorly organized giveaways! We could have gotten free gear but they didn’t explain what was going on! There was a headstand contest for the best prizes, but we are both HORRIBLE at them, especially me, so we didn’t even try. Alex Honnold, the star of the 4th film, signed posters and Sheri got one for Alana! We just wanted the next films to start asap because, thus far, they were incredible.

Next was the Wide Boys, a shorter film about crag climbing (climbing off-width cracks, using and contorting your body to hang on). It’s an insane looking and painful sport that is far less common than other forms. It is like ultimate fighting against a rock, or so they say. The film highlights Pete and Tom, two Brits that decide to leave the weak off-widths of Great Britain to climb all the cracks in the American Midwest. After two months of training in a cellar, the boys conquer them all and even end their “world tour” with an attempt at the Century Crack, the hardest off-width (that we know of) in the world. It has never been done before. This film had some great footage, but it was short and failed to really develop their story; there wasn’t the same connect as the first two films had. The emotion didn’t emerge.

Finally, the film that had everyone’s hands sweating, Honnold 3.0. Climbing is actually very safe if done with proper prep and gear. Alex Honnold is the exception to that notion of safety. Alex is arguably the greatest soloist in the world, and not a shabby sport, speed or boulderer at that. This film shows his reclusive life living out of his van with his new girlfriend. Alex trains in Bishop, CA, where Chris Sharma lived for quite some time, in order to prepare his next big feat, something that has never been done before, a triple crown of Yosemite up Mt. Watkins, the Nose, and Half Dome, in under 24 hours. He’s done all three by himself but 7,000 ft of vertical walls with free soloing (NO GEAR) 95% of his climbs, and fatigue setting in, just how safe can this invincible fearless superman be? The footage of an amazing attempt at an amazing feat was top notch and Honnold is such an interesting character that getting to see him not in hiding is a treat. A great film.

Well that’s it, we left afterwards and forgot to support the Access Fund and the American Alpine Fund by joining both for 35$, usually it’s way more than that! Silly us, we were tired and forgetful. See if the tour is coming to a place near you because its worth it!

Sep062012

Gourmet in Boulder: Pizza Bagels

So, I’m not actually talking about those delicious little treats that can be found in the frozen food aisle. We know as long as you toast them in the oven and steer clear of the microwave (best-worst invention ever) that they’ll be reliably delicious, in a very cheap sense. I’m talking about pizza and bagels, specifically in Boulder. This will be similar to the sushi post; another rant because I’m not comfortable/in-shape so no fitness posts quite yet.

Now I won’t say that New Jersey or even New York has the best sushi, although Masa is supposed to be top notch, but it does truly have, overall, the best bagels and pizza in the United States, and from what I’ve tasted, in the world. I’m not talking about gourmet style artisan pizza, for the record, I’m talking about a good old fashioned throw it in the oven family style pizza pie. Some people say it’s the water where we’re from, some people say it’s the dense population of Italian-Americans, and some people say its the climate. I don’t know what the secret is, but there most certainly is a difference. And that has become very apparent in Boulder.

New Jersey

When Alana first came to New York, she thought she had good pizza in the city, but I brought her to New Jersey and had her experience real pizza. She’s stubborn and proud (in a good way) but she easily admitted how good it was. Then we moved onto bagels, where North Jersey took it home again. No competition. So growing up with pizza and bagels all the time, I wanted to keep eating them in Boulder. Alana didn’t object because the ones she had in Jersey made her crave them all the time. Then we got to Boulder and tried…

Cosmos, Blackjack, and Abo’s… and for bagels we went to Moe’s (all of these were recommended by individuals who have lived in Boulder… for their whole lives)… this is how it breaks down. And for the record, Colorado Daily, you had an article last week that talked about Abo’s being New York Style Pizza… you clearly don’t know what it is and you should do some more research before you put it into circulation. Here, I can make a mistake, because no one reads this.

We’ll go from worst to best.

Moe’s – Overpriced in every sense. The bagels are much more expensive than back home, they’re literally half the size, maybe even a third, and they don’t have the proper texture. I saw that a New York Style Bagel Sandwich was nearly $8. It had tomato, onion, lox, cream cheese, and something else. I had never heard of that before… so there goes the authenticity. Even if it is authentic, it can’t be because people from New York would know! Plus, that sort of sandwich wouldn’t be more than $4 back home, and it’d be twice the size. Moe’s bagels are smaller and harder than Dunkin Donuts. We had the Italian and the Pesto, and they were little rocks. I can’t even put into words what it’s like to bite into a bagel back home, but it was the total opposite of this. I got an egg and cheese on the pesto bagel. The egg was one of those disgusting pre-made patties. This was just garbage. Alana disagreed but I gave this place a 0/5, no questions asked. I wouldn’t consider going back there again. But then again, there are several locations. They didn’t even have ketchup so I could drown the taste of that horrible sandwich. Her Italian bagel with cream cheese was better, but still not even good

Blackjack – Horrible Domino’s ripoff. Same style but worse taste and texture. We didn’t know it was like that so it was our mistake. If we want that kind of cheap late pizza we’ll never go back to Blackjack. Domino’s is the easy choice, same price and better quality. Delivery service was good though.

Abo’s – Again, that article was very off in calling this New York style. It’s not. The texture wasn’t bad either… the texture was in fact almost good enough to want to get again. It was the taste that killed it for me. It tasted like… absolutely nothing. Some of the blandest pizza I have ever had in my life. The sauce, the cheese, the dough… all bland. Plus, it was relatively expensive for the size of the pizza. Alana didn’t mind it, but she’s not as picky as I am with pizza. Delivery service was good, but at that price for that serving size and quality, wouldn’t get it again.

Cosmos– There is some real potential here. With the reasonably priced extra large pies, and a solid texture to the pizza, Cosmos is hands down the best we’ve had so far. The marinara is a bit spicy for me, I don’t think it’s the right move, but that’s the chef’s choice and I can’t do anything about it. Even with that spice, it’s still got the texture and flavor to buy again, which is what we did. We’ve already had it twice, and with a jar of spicy ranch in the fridge for Alana, we’ll definitely get it many more times.

Well that’s it for tonight. As we have more pizza and bagels in Boulder and the surrounding areas, I will make sure to update the blog with what we’ve found but until then this is what we’ll have to work with so I’ll be missing Jersey a bit more than normal.

P.S.- This may have sounded kind of harsh, we didn’t hear back from the jobs we wanted today and the darn bulb in the bedroom blew. We love you all! Thanks for reading

Aug312012

The Best Waste of $98 EVER!?

Who: Alana and Chris
What: Hunger
When: Dinner time
Where: Boulder, Colorado
Why: Worked out
How: Via the Taurus

(Basically a review of Japango)

What a weird and pointless way to start what I want to say. So it’s Tuesday night, we just did some cardio (I swam 1650 yards, ask for the workout if interested, and she did the elliptical and bike) and then a get-back-into-shape-kinda lower body workout. Now Fred (Alana’s cousin [Megan]’s boyfriend from New Jersey) had mentioned that Japango has an all-you-can-eat-sushi night every Tuesday. Wait. Hold up one second. Did you just say all-you-can-eat SUSHI? Here in Boulder? Landlocked Colorado? Intriguing.

One of my absolute favorite things in the world and my favorite post workout meal… conveniently after our first night back in a real gym. I forced Alana to go (she didn’t put up much of a fight). So we jump in the car in our workout clothes and drive over to Pearl and Broadway, park the car for free since it’s past 7 p.m. and find the restaurant. We enter at about 9:05 and we know that is closes at 10:00, but that won’t be a problem… we’ve never had problems with all you can eat places closing early. (!)

As we’re greeted, relatively quickly for the small staff and decent sized crowd, we ask about the deal. What’s the deal? Well, in fact, it is $29.99…! What?! Thirty bucks? Oh man, have we been spoiled having it for way cheaper in New Jersey, but it’s worth it, or so we tell ourselves. The hostess continues, you can have all these hand rolls, these sushi, these special rolls, and these dishes from the kitchen. Cool. Not that we have ever been to a place that doesn’t include non-sushi items, but we started taking it for granted and to have it taken away now would be really heart-breaking. So we’re seated in a TINY table that we knew would NOT be able to fit all our food, but we didn’t bother to have it changed. The nice waitress comes, we order waters, and look at the menus/checklists. We start tallying stuff off, Alana orders a red wine sangria, we hand in the checklists knowing that we might only get one round’s worth of food because we showed up so late, and we wait for the kitchen stuff to come. (That’s right, I said stuff, so you can replace it with any word you feel is more intelligent because I love being not-intelligent sometimes)

We start with some house salads with ginger dressing. They’re big, and the greens are dark and there’s spinach! But the sauce is weak, tastes more like ranch than ginger. Bummer, I eat it all. So does she. Next, we get tuna salad! A bowl of the same greens… with three pieces of tiny seared tuna on top. But the sauce is amazing and has a nice zing to it, so naturally, I eat it all, and finish hers. Alana ordered me seaweed salad; how nice of her. And they even included three kinds of seaweed. It was good; they didn’t make it too spicy like other places often do! Next is the “tuna steak” or six-or-so pieces of the same tuna in the salad, but in more of a teriyaki sauce and it is lick the plate good! She ordered spicy calamari, which I can’t eat, and it was VERY spicy so she finished it all. She also got mussels, which were like cheesy clams casino and Alana had all three. I love cheese, but when it’s time for sushi night, cheese better stay out of the way. So far, it’s on track to be a good investment, but now the moments of truth are about to begin. (By the way, the sangria was very iced-down, very juiced down, very weak, etc. Didn’t last long but tasted good… but not worth six bucks).

Okay so, here’s my issue. I read in the Boulder Daily (I think that’s what it’s called) that Japango’s all you can eat sushi is world famous! It said the Daily Camera named it best sushi in 2010 and 2011, AND best Asian in 2010. And now I become a food snob. This was garbage. I should post a video rant because I can’t put it in text. Did they only try one place and not require that it had to be good…. or even decent? Best sushi? I’ve had tuna from my college’s cafeteria at 1 a.m., 16 hours after it was delivered from the sushi restaurant in downtown Manhattan, that was fresher than this tuna. And I didn’t just try a few things. I tried EVERYTHING (just about). Even the quail eggs. The squid, octopus, scallops, red clam, tuna, salmon, smoked salmon, white tuna, yellowtail, white fish, halibut, mackerel, etc. And to top it off, their orders are a two-piece minimum, so I got to taste two of everything. We also had eel hand rolls, tuna hand rolls, avocado roll, the Las Vegas roll, the New Orleans roll, and the Boulder roll. You can see for yourself, in the picture, what we ordered. I’m rambling, which is how I present my rants because I don’t like to prepare arguments all the time. Let’s continue.

Now, Alana does not like wasabi. Or horseradish. Anything along those lines. I know that a sushi chef does sometime have the tendency to smear some wasabi paste in between the rice and the fish, but in all-you-can-eat? With this horrible quality of fish? Are you trying that hard to mask the not fresh flavor of the fish with something so strong?

I eat sushi like this: I take the piece of sushi and put it right in my mouth. No soy sauce, no wasabi, no ginger. Why? Because that is how it’s supposed to be done. The chef should prepare a fresh piece of fish and properly cook and vinegar his rice, potentially brushing a special mixture of soy sauce and seasonings on top to compliment the flavor of the fish. Not kill it. Now I could care less what you do with your maki, hand rolls, special rolls, sashimi. I put whatever on all of those too. But sushi is sacred, the relationship between the rice and fish is crucial, and Alana doesn’t like wasabi, so don’t assume all fifty pieces of sushi should have it without asking!

I mean, you’re clearly not a real sushi chef if you’re willing to serve fish that bad! I could give you a grade of how fresh each type listed above was, but it’s not worth it. Some was fresh, some was kinda fresh, some wasn’t fresh at all. The hand rolls were okay but obviously someone didn’t rush to get them to us because the nori was soggy by the time I got it. (I always eat the handrolls first to prevent this soggy effect). The avocado rolls were ALL rice and no veggie. The specialty rolls were awful. Now, my number one rule of all-you-can-eat sushi is don’t get specialty rolls. They fill you up so you can’t eat the good stuff. These tasted like nothing. And they had a ton of great ingredients in them, on paper. But they weren’t fresh or prepared right and as a result I soaked it in soy sauce to eat it. Alana had white tuna, some avocado roll and some New Orleans roll. I ate everything else, or tried to.

Now, getting to the end. We knew that you get charged 50 cents for every piece left on the plate. I have NEVER been charged extra, but there’s a first time for everything. We got charged ten dollars, for 20 extra pieces. It was that bad. I wasn’t even full but I could not punish my stomach, who is so nice to me, by shoveling in more fish that was not fresh. I felt bad and was willing to pay. BUT we had fun! We had fun making fun of the guy behind us that was worshiping everything they put on his plate. Jiro Ono would have whooped that guy bad. The bill came and it was 30 for each of us, 6 for the drink, 6 for tax, and 10 for the extra sushi we did not eat. We gave the waitress, who was very good, a twenty percent tip of 16 dollars, and took our bag of leftovers home. (They let you bring the leftovers home, which they should because you paid for it.) And they sat in the fridge, and we threw them out the next morning. I felt horrible about it, but it was really bad. Now, could it be like this all the time? There’s no way! If it got those awards from the Camera, it must have it’s good days, but we’re never going back. And for me to not go to the only all you can eat sushi place where we live is a huge deal! Why’s that? Here’s why:

I have had sushi in the middle of the Atlantic, in Bermuda, in Peru, in South Korea, on top of a mountain in South Korea, in New York, in Los Angeles, in Miami, and tons of places in between. I’ve had all you can eat in three continents. In our last months in Jersey, we had it AT LEAST once a WEEK! We went to three places usually: Arigato in North Haledon (THE BEST!), Sushi X-1 in Ridgewood (PRETTY COOL!), and Gen in Ridgewood (Not bad!), and they cost us 20/22/20 per person. They offer more kitchen goods and sushi, free desserts, and the fish is fresh, most of the time! (LOOK AT THE PICS AT THE BOTTOM)

It must be that here in Boulder it’s hard and expensive to get fresh fish, which we understand! But if it’s not fresh, DON’T SERVE IT! Are you going to serve a raw filet at a steak house? I would hope not. It could get you in trouble. I wish the all-you-can-eat sushi crew was there to help us out. Dan Liwanag, the first person I had all you can eat sushi with, Scott Reiners, the co-founder of weekly all you can eat night, Allan Wu, aka Master Wusabi, who gets us the freshest fish by talking to waitresses in their native tongues, Scott Polhemus, the wind tunnel when it comes to downing Japanese alcohol and food in a way that would please a shogun, and Dr. Capitani for starting the original “sushi night.” (Adam and Aedan, future members of the crew, I salute you!)

Master Wusabi when he’s not eating sushi

Master of Windtunnelling Food

We want to keep this tradition alive, but if Japango is all that Boulder can offer, that tradition will die soon. We will have to try other places and not get all you can eat to see who has the best in Boulder.

Japango’s ratings!

Service: 4/5
Decor: 2/5
Music: 1/5
Kitchen food: 2/5
Sushi: 1/5
Price value: 2/5
X factor: 0/5* (No slices of oranges or pineapple!!!)
Overall: 12/30 (Maybe give it a chance… maybe… one time)

UPDATE: My weekly contest! Whoever can submit the best Japanese dining experience will be sent a special prize related to this topic. I don’t care if you’re in Malaysia or Philadelphia, I’ll get it to you for your efforts and dedication!

PREVIEW: I’ll be bashing the Boulder Daily Paper’s review of pizza. Obviously whoever wrote it and compared certain pizza to New York style isn’t from New York!

Thanks for reading! If you made it this far you get to use this free joke I stole from Alana who stole it from Twitter…

How come the T-Rex couldn’t shake hands?

Because it was dead!

(Oh, and here is the appendix, a graveyard of past, and better, all you can eat sushi nights with the individuals listed above and some extras who I apologize for not including, like Brit!)

And this…oh definitely this…is how sushi SHOULD be made. Thank you, New York

Aug142012

Welcome to Boulder!

So we’ve finally arrived to Boulder, Colorado–our new home after graduating college. We took a road trip from New York all the way to here then to California then back to here again. It was many long hot hours in a cramped car, but we got to see a lot of America which was really enjoyable.

We got an apartment (450 sq ft) and set to decorating and finding some furniture. After dumpster diving, we ended up with a comfortable futon bed, a bookshelf, and a bedside table. Although we may not have all the furniture yet, we certainly got the food down after several trips to various grocery stores.

Our first cooked meal was a breakfast. Stir-fried eggs with spinach and soy sauce to top. Pretty simple, pretty fast, all with fresh ingredients:

Happy with our first meal, we got back to work: rearranging the limited furniture we had, cleaning the floors and walls, and going out to buy goods we needed like tongs, a trash can, and more hangers. We found that the Boulder Public Library was very close, had great hours, beautiful architecture, and–most importantly–FREE WIFI! We both had lots to do online. It really throws you off after having Internet close to your finger tips at all times to going to no internet anywhere in the house (or in our case, the apartment). So we began to spend hours and hours in there, getting stuff done, job applications, and relaxing.

With our business and craze of getting the apartment together, we ate lunch almost every day at a great Tibetan family-owned place called Tibet Kitchen. Amazing lunch deals ($4.95 for a lunch plate with 1 entree and a huge bed of rice) and a great atmosphere, we had to keep coming back (plus it’s only a 5 minute walk from our apartment).

After eating to our heart’s content out, we knew we had to keep dinners in the apartment to save some pennies. We went to the grocery store (so far we’ve visited King Sooper’s, Safeway, and Whole Foods) and did our casual browsing. We came across some wild-caught shrimp for a reduced price. Chris loves to cook seafood so we scored right away.

That night, he made garlic shrimp. Very simple, throw a bunch of fresh shrimp (dead, of course) into a frying pan, pour some oil and garlic in and let it cook! One of the more simpler things to cook. We had a great messy meal, getting oil and garlic all over our hands as we de-shelled the shrimp and popped ’em in our mouths. Pretty delicious and a very low budget meal. We had plenty of leftovers the next day to make curried shrimp and mushrooms over rice the next day.

And here we are, in Boulder, slowly settling in and our apartment is looking like it’s becoming a home. We love it here. And we’ll love it even more after we get out on the rocks tonight to practice climbing with family.