Gaucho's Brazilian Steak House

Well, I went to Gaucho's Brazilian Steakhouse in Manchester, NH last night – which, for a pesco-vegetarian is just perfect :-) Well, it was really pretty neat. There was a nice salad bar. When you are done with your salad, you turn over your coaster from the red side to the green side and various waiters come to your table to serve various meats – the meats are on skewers and are cut at your table. And they’ll continue to come to your table as long as they see the green coaster. When you’ve had enough, you turn it to the red side. If you want some more, then you turn the coaster back to the red side. The meat-eaters that I dined with really enjoyed it – they all agreed that the prime rib was their favorite. And there was even a musician with a guitar singing Brazilian songs.

BTW, the meats that they served were:
• Filet Wrapped in Bacon (Faixa Enrolado con Bacon)
• Prime Rib (Alcatra) - A Gauchos favorite!
• Flank Steak (Fraldinha)
• Short ribs (Costela) • Sirloin (Picanha)
• Lamb (Cordero)
• Chicken (Frango)
• Turkey Wrapped in Bacon (Peru Enrolado con Bacon)
• Sausage (Lingüiça)
• Pork Loin (Lombo de Porco)
• Pork Ribs (Costela de Porco)
• Chicken Hearts (Coração de Frango)

And they also served salmon – which was good for me and was very good! And they also had sweet plantain and yucca – both DELICIOUS! I had extras of these.

And the price for all the salad and meat you can eat was $22.95.

Anyhow, this is Elsa Gourmand’s review of Gaucho’s Brazilian Steak House. As I've said many times before, "who better to review a steak house than a pesco-vegetarian".

Vacation

I've been enjoying my vacation this week...OH YEAH.

(Disclaimer: This is pure satire. I'm being preemptive here. I don't want Oprah exposing me on her show as a liar, because I'm not. I'm just an aspiring satirist - an aspiring performance artist, if you will. I'm not drinking or smoking and I never had a root canal with or without novicane.)

Personal Question #2 - $365M Jackpot

If you were to win the $365M Powerball Jackpot (sole winner), what is the first thing you would do?

I would give $ to my parents, Carmen and Vovo and we'd have one heck of a cousins' outing - on me!!

Cheney Shoots and Scores!

I came across this piece of satire concerning the most recent Dick Cheney shooting and thought it was pretty funny. Enjoy.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Snow, snow, snow
Why do you blow, blow blow?
With all the passing years, you have become my arch enemy, my foe
You are the villain Iago, to my Othello.

From you I cannot hide
Although I do find solace inside.
And with my dog by my side,
I cannot even ask him if he wants to go for a ride.

I’m glad yesterday found me buying some food
Although people at the store were pushing, shoving and very rude.
I won’t be surprised if some of them get sued,
Especially the guy that was inexplicably nude.

All I see out my window is white, white and white
I look everywhere – to my left and to my right,
But, it doesn't matter, there is no light, there is no night,
All I see is white, white, white.

Oh, snow, snow, snow
Why do you blow, blow, blow?

- Poem by Elsa written Sunday morning, 02/12/2006

Arrested Development

What can I say? I just saw the last 4 episodes of one of the funniest sitcoms of I have ever seen. Arrested Development was cancelled by Fox. All I can say is farewell to one of the best written, best casted, best acted, wittiest and absolutely funniest shows I have ever seen. I consider myself one of the lucky ones to have witnessed such unmitigated talent. It was good while it lasted and I am a better person for having followed the trials and tribulations of the Bluth family. Au revoir. You'll surely be missed. (Sorry, I didn't mean to call you Shirley.)

Zillow.com

I just came across this website zillow . It gives you a satellite picture of your home and the surrounding area and also give details of your home (i.e. sq footage, how many baths, parcel size, etc). In addition, it gives an estimated value of your home and of surrounding homes.

Personal Question #1

From time to time, I'll be posting general personal questions which I'll answer and I invite you to answer, too, if you'd like - up to you - no pressure. These are going to be personal questions, like "what would you do if you had a million bucks" - questions like that. I will also be posting Trivia Questions from time to time where you can guess at the answers and will title those Trivia Question #1, etc.

Ok, here it goes...

Q. If you could select any occupation in the world, where you would be at the top of your field and very successful, what would you be (i.e. President, actor, politician, doctor, scientist, sports, musician, director, producer, etc)?

A. I would be a writer. I would love to be able to write well and be creative. I think I would mostly write novels, but maybe some political commentary and essays and also some funny stuff. I would love to be able to write a novel like The Kite Runner - something that is so moving. Or write something that is topical in a perhaps funny way - like Al Franken or Jon Stewart. I would love to write a funny novel in the vain of The Confederacy of Dunces. Bottom line - I would love to write.

I would definitely stay clear of any profession where you would be so famous that paparazzi are always following you around and printing "stuff" in tabloids, etc. Imagine if every time you left your house, you would be bombarded with flashing bulbs and everywhere you went, people would be staring, pointing, taking pictures and asking for your photograph. That kind of life is so unappealing.

H.L. Mencken

As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. - H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

I believe the quote speaks for itself.

Humorous Kurt Vonnegut

I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut’s latest book titled A Man Without a Country. It is quite insightful and comedic at times. Below is a very small excerpt from the book that I thought was pretty funny – it just hit me the right way, so I thought I would share a little of Vonnegut’s humor with you. It is the beginning of Chapter 4.

“I’m going to tell you some news.

No I’m not running for President, although I do know that a sentence, if it is to be complete, must have both a subject and a verb.

Nor will I confess that I sleep with children. I will say this, though: My wife is by far the oldest person I ever slept with.

Here’s the news: I am going to sue the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, manufacturers of Pall Mall cigarettes, for a billion bucks! Starting when I was only twelve years old, I have never chain-smoked anything but unfiltered Pall Malls. And for many years now, right on the package, Brown and Williamson have promised to kill me.

But I am now eighty-two. Thanks a lot you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.”

Dentistry and Trivia

Well, today I went to the dentist. And I am happy to report that I got a gold star!! Well, not literally a gold star, more metaphorically…or maybe rhetorically…or, well, you know what I mean. My dental hygienist told me that she hoped all her patients today were as easy as me – to which I anxiously requested she take that back, “I am certainly not easy” I said – to which she promptly replied, “No, not that kind of easy. You just have great teeth and they are very easy to clean.” (Please note that I took some literary license with this exchange. I don’t want to be called Ms. Frey. But I did have a good checkup!)

So, here is some trivia for you today, in honor of dentistry. What movie is the following dialogue from:

Christian Szell: Is it safe?... Is it safe? Babe: You're talking to me? Christian Szell: Is it safe? Babe: Is what safe? Christian Szell: Is it safe? Babe: I don't know what you mean. I can't tell you something's safe or not, unless I know specifically what you're talking about. Christian Szell: Is it safe? Babe: Tell me what the "it" refers to. Christian Szell: Is it safe? Babe: Yes, it's safe, it's very safe, it's so safe you wouldn't believe it. Christian Szell: Is it safe? Babe: No. It's not safe, it's... very dangerous, be careful.

Ok, one more trivia question relating to dentistry. What was the name of the elf that wanted to be a dentist in Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer movie?

First Post!

This is it...I officially have my own blog - woohoo! I feel so empowered...or that might be something else I'm feeling (I knew I should have gone light on those GD beans!). Anyhow, welcome to my blog.