get your island on!

 Nuff said.  Picture post after the jump!

 Thursday I went to the chatback after the play "Red" at B street theater.  Liv and Elaine O'Brien did it.  The play itself was really good.  I recommend it. 

 Look at that terrible fake Rothko.  The director explained afterwards that to produce this play they actually had to agree to make the reproductions really terrible and not to sell them.  I guess some companies have gotten in trouble for auctioning them off.  Real Rothko's put me in a trance.  So restful, although I guess they are supposed to be about death and pain and destruction, but they don't make me feel that way.

In a little bit of a coinkidink, the new Cronenberg movie, Cosmopolis, has a pretty major scene where the billionaire playboy wants to buy Rothko's chapel and install it in his apartment.  Elaine has been to it.  It's in Houston.  I liked Cosmopolis! But I feel like I'm the only one in the world who liked Crash, the Cronenberg one.  If you like that movie, you will probably like Cosmopolis.  I love his jank Canadian style.

 This sign was outside Kupros.  Please read the whole thing.

 This was a gin/Campari/rosemary/lemon drink at Ella.  You know what?  I am totally over Campari.  Anything you make with Campari just tastes like Campari.  Real talk.  Way better was a Gibson that excellent, excellent bartender Chris made me with Nolet's Gin.  This is a new Gin from the Netherlands made by a family that has been distilling for 300 years.  It is soooo floral, it's amazing.  It's distilled with Turkish roses, so says the internet.  I can't believe how many different characteristics gin can take on.  Gin, I love you.  My Gibson cost 14.50 so this stuff must not be cheap! That was a surprise.

Ella has delicious, affordable happy hour snacks and reduced cocktails.  Hit it up.

 I found this dead dog in the dirt.  JK, it's PomPom, asking for belly rubs.

 I cooked an epic meal inspired by the newest Saveur on foods of Mexico.  With mixed results.  Their salsa recipes were not as good as ones I just make up.

 They had a chicken marinade with achiote paste, which I guess is the same thing as annatto seed?  I had a Vietnamese soup recently which I think had annatto in it.

 marinade.  it had yellow mustard in it, too.  like from the bottle.

 kind of blah red salsa.  it took a lot of prep.  toasting guajillos and arbol chilies, then soaking them in water, then blackening tomatoes, garlic, and onion, and all to come out just ok

 the tomatillo one was better but I like to blacken the tomatillos forever in a cast iron, and this just called for a brief boil. 

 quick pickled red onions in red wine vinegar with spices.  these are great!

 I made up a roasted habanero/lime paste salsa.  I think the habaneros would be better broiled in the oven so they would stay juicy.  They get a little dessicated on the stovetop.  The fruity smell of habanero is out of this world.

 OK, yes, I had a problem with grill flareups!  It is hard for me to wrap my mind around how few coals you need for cooking chicken.  So few! And patience and time and a closed bbq lid and not fucking with it.

taco made with homemade tortilla, chicken, onion, and tomatillo salsa. the end.