Viewing Category: Regional
This Saturday, November 18, is Barcamp Manchester. I was in the vicinity of a Barcamp in Austin last year, but wasn't a participant. This will be my first time. If I can get a network connection, I'll try liveblogging it.
Doors open at 10AM. We're capping the attendees at 100. There's a little over 100 people registered on the Wiki, we're thinking we'll see about 70% turnout from people who've put their name down. We'll see how it goes.
FOLLOWUP
Here's the flickr pool tagged barcampmanchester.
The conference was a success! About 75 people showed out of the 100+ who'd signed up. We had enough food. I also discovered that (1) my hairline has eroded far beyond what I thought (2) it is time to hit the treadmill and (3) I hate interrupting speakers to remind them about time...next year I'm bringing kitchen timers.
I didn't attend full sessions, though I caught bits of several and am feeling energized. Tired, but energized.
Ian Muir has been busy organizing the first BarCamp Manchester for November 18, right here in Southern New Hampshire. It looks like people are starting to register, so that rocks!
Spread the word! Ian is also looking for corporate sponsors to cover the cost of food and other sundries like shwag.
The poster is comprised of photos I took of stuff lying around my house, composited together quickly (and rather sloppily) in Photoshop before being dumped into Illustrator. The cool windows in the background were created by Joan, which helped get the whole poster rolling when I was stuck...thanks Joan! This part of New Hampshire is known for the old textile mills that still line the river. They have windows that are rather distinctive and tall, and most of the buildings have been converted into high tech office space.
I've been wondering where all the action is in Portsmouth. Back during the Bubble, there were dozens and dozens of interactive shops cropping up. The area was even given a new monnicker: The eCoast. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of where the eCoast is headquartered, or even if it's more than just a handful of dreams anchored by a few web pages. That's the trouble with organizations; oftentimes, there's nothing very tangible about them. I'd feel a lot better if, at any time I felt like it, I could drive to Portsmouth and visit some kind of artifact somewhere and be at the eCoast. Heck, it could even just be a physical bulletin board that someone nails to the side of a building. Put a small table next to it and a URL, and you've got a location. Bring some beers and you've got a party!
Anyway, I'm starting to hook up with people in the area, so we're planning on having some kind of regular lunch thing to see what happens. For me, it's an interesting experiment in being someplace else and seeing how that affects my social surface area; it's amazing what happens when you just make the effort to not be where you usually are. I suspect that's when the real magical things happen.
If there's anyone out in Portsmouth with an interest in chatting about productivity, design, freelancing, or just swapping stories, drop me a line! I'm going to be around there more often.
Last May my sister Emily had a tremendous idea for Memorial Day: relive the hot dogs of our youth. Actually, that's not quite correct...we wanted to relive the hot dog that our Dad remembers from his pastorin' days back in the '60s: the Rochester White Hot. Dad used to live in Upstate NY as an assistant pastor in Brighton before I was born. As it so happened, I went to both the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology for grad schoolin', so this bit of Americana overlaps both of our personal histories. I must have even been the same age as Dad when he was in the area...eerie!
Every time Dad visits, we ask him if there was anything he misses from living in the US. Without fail he says, "White hots. And good cheese." For a long time I thought this just meant any of the white hot dogs you can get in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, but Dad said these weren't quite right. We even went to a German deli staffed by authentic German frauleins and looked at the white sausages there, but even these were not the hots we were looking for. They were good, but they not the White Hots of Dad's memory. Not even close.
Em dug up this link to The American Museum of Natural History, which at one time featured a selection of ball park franks as part of their Baseball as America exhibition. Apparently, Rochester NY has a regional hot dog that's produced most famously by Zweigles. It's made of uncured, unsmoked pork, which is what gives it the white color. The American Museum of Natural History's description goes into a bit more detail on how the hotdog is served:
Split and griddled, this dog is served on a toasted bun and topped with a hot sauce (a meat chili made from a secret Rochester recipe), chopped onions, and any one of a variety of mustards.
Emily further recalled the joy of another Rochester brand, Nance's Sharp and Creamy Mustard, that she had once enjoyed at my house. It's one of my favorite mustards, though I wish I could remember who first recommended it to me. Em likes it too, so I was able to get a bottle of it at the local Hannaford's supermarket.
Dad was originally planning to visit this June (sadly cancelled), so Emily arranged to order a variety pack of Zweigles Hots from NewYorkStyleDeli.com. The prices are a bit high if you pick and choose, but the specials are actually pretty reasonable when you consider the hassle of shipping perishable food overnight. Our package arrived just prior to the Memorial Day weekend in a nifty red cooler with freezer packs all around it. NY Style Deli also included two paper Zweigles hats to wear while grilling...an unexpectedly awesome touch :-)
Here's a pack of genuine Zweigle's White Hots. Since they're uncured, they're highly perishable, so once you open the package you're pretty much committing yourself to eating them all or freezing them later. I don't really like to freeze hot dogs because it seems to do terrible things to their texture...I could just be imagining that though.
Our variety pack included some Red Hots, which we grilled for comparison. There were some skinless skinnier hot dogs too, but I didn't bother to take a picture.
Emily also found a recipe for the secret Rochester meat sauce mentioned by the museum. I don't have the link, but it was similar to this one on David Rosengarten's site. It's possible that this meat sauce is related to the "hot sauce" they put on the infamous Rochester Garbage Plate, a "specialty" that I never dared try myself when I lived in the area. I must admit I am curious now, looking at this picture. NewYorkStyleDeli.com sells a Hot Meat Sauce Mix for $2.99 too, but what fun is that?
With all our preparations complete, we had a problem: neither of us had ever seen or eaten an authentic Rochester White Hot. I wasn't even sure what one looked like. There was a small, low-resolution photo of the American Museum of Natural History site, so we used that as our model. Here are a few quick photos I took before eating. Unfortunately my indoor lighting setup is half-broken and I've been having some white balancing problems (my gray card may be too old), so the color is a little off:
I later re-read the recipe, and noted that pan-fried hots are split in half; not sure if that would have been more authentic. But they were still pretty darn good. If there are any Rochester natives reading this, send me a picture of the real thing!
Flavor Comments:
Nance's Sharp and Creamy Mustard, if you haven't had it, has a nice kick to it. It has a similar punch to that of wasabi, though not as overpowering as in the case of the really fresh stuff (you know, the kind that makes you think you're about to die). The mustard is also a little sweet.
The White Hots themselves I found rather mild. They're also not very salty compared to a lot of other hot dogs (Nathan's, for example), so the condiments you choose play a major part in defining the taste. Even when charred, the white hots stayed pretty mellow.
The meat sauce, as we prepared it, was also mild and fragrant. It's got a bit of cinnamon and thyme in it, and adds to the overall sweetness of the plate. It was not very meaty or flavorful by itself, but it added a welcome beefy taste to the hot dog that would otherwise be missing. I think even if the bits of beef were more charred, it would help; the sauce is simmered for a long time, so browing the ground beef very thoroughly might help next time.
I definitely wanted pickles and potato chips with this. It helps balance the slight sweetness. I reached for them immediately. I wonder what they use in Rochester?
For the bun, I probably would also choose a more neutral-flavored one rather than a sweetish one next time. I think for such a mild dog, the selection of bun would go a long way to making it "just right". We used some buns from the supermarket, and you know how those are.
For the Fourth of July, Em and I will be recreating bien dang, the taiwan lunchbox one buys when travelling. I remember these fondly from car trips and train rides we took when first arriving in Taiwan; they're also readily available for the lunchtime crowd in any town or city. I have been working on recreating the pork chop recipe so we can make these and maybe drive somewhere to eat them :-)
I like surfing the Internet for good design, but I like it even better when I find it close to home.
Case in point: A friend of mine, Stacey Kamen, has just finished her new website for 2006. Like me, she's an independent designer fighting it out in the trenches. Unlike me, she has no problem making a web presence that's colorful and snappy, striking just the right balance of design, approachability, and commercial intent. Everything is nicely fitted together, and I am not ashamed to admit that I want to lick those Flash buttons right off the page. Mmm...shiny!
And on top of that, she can write copy that matches the tone of her design. Her voice is active and insightful, and not afraid to toe the line with phrases like this:
"Your logo is like your spouse. Changing it can cost you big. Get it right the first time with a professional logo designed by Stacey Kamen."
Heh! The site fits her personality and professional standards, and that's totally awesome.
I'm impressed, and inspired, and I can see I need to inject some personality back into my site design...it's so subdued. That's not the way I want to present myself; I need less "um" and more "awesome!" in the mix! It's reassuring to be reminded that there's one more person locally who knows what they're doing. This kick-in-the-pants comes at exactly the right time.
Thanks Stacey! To a kick ass 2006!
Today we had a special meeting of our New Media Group at David Kelleher's office. He has space at TechSpace Boston, a kind of high-tech office incubator oriented toward startups and small business:
Located in the South End, this handsome brick and beam facility consists of 20,000 square feet of office space, onsite parking, café, copy center, administrative support and concierge service available to all clients.
It's pretty easy to get to from I-93...we got off at exit 20 onto Albany St, and drove along Harrison Ave through the SoWa district. The building itself is located at 580 Harrison Ave, though this is actually a vanity address (the real one is 715 Albany Street). As you're driving along Harrison, look for the sign that says "580 Harrison Street Parking" if you have an access code, or park on one of the side streets / Washington St. The closest bus is the Silver Line on Washington St. The building has a big "580" on the roof so you can't miss it. Just look up!
It's a pretty nice space, funky in that Dot-Com way but somehow still humble. DaveK's office was small but furnished with Internet and phone service. Apparently you can rent just a couple days a week to keep costs down (you basically timeshare an office) and visitors have access to free WiFi. There's a pool table too. The only bad thing is that the whole facility (like Boston) seems to shut down at 5PM. What's up with this town?
After our meeting, we ate at a place called Morse Fish Co. on Washington Street. I had some misgivings going in, but it was very good: fresh and crispy. I just had fried haddock and fries (fish and chips, basically), but you can choose from a wider variety of seafood. The fries were particularly notable: seasoned, crispy, and golden-brown. It may have been the best fish-and-chips experience I've had in this area, beating out a couple clam shacks and one fancy restaurant, but admittedly it's not usually the sort of thing I eat. Definitely good, though. And CHEAP! They serve lunch all day (basically, a smaller portion than dinner) for about 6-7 bucks.
The New Media Group meeting was good too...did some debugging of one of David Cort's projects, talked about a bunch of interesting data-vis applications using real-time capture, and touched on some 3D tools (gMax, Celestia). A couple new faces at the meeting. The non-networking network grows!
I went bowling twice this weekend, once at Lane and Games in Cambridge, and then again at Merrimack Ten Pin here in New Hampshire. And yes, it was the full-sized experience, not that candlepin or duckpin stuff. Here are my notes on the quality of the facilities.
I'd driven by Lane and Games for years, but never actually went inside until recently. It has two floors of lanes, all candlepin on the bottom, and split candlepin / tenpin on the top. It's also got a few pool tables, a bar, and a video game room. It's a little run down at the edge, but it bustles with activity...good place to spend a Friday night with a bunch of friends, which is exactly what I did. It's conveniently located right off Route 2 going into Alewife, about a 45 minute drive door-to-door from Nashua.
The equipment is on the older side, maybe mid- to late 80s, but it works fine. The video game selection is OK but not in great shape... I tried to play a bit of Street Fighter II, but the controls were completely and utterly messed up. Very irking. On the other hand, they had a good Sniper game (needed some lube on the gun mount), and of course air hockey. Tokens only.
Merrimack Ten Pin is located off D.W. Highway next to Newick's Seafood. My sister and I have been talking about going bowling for a year, and we finally decided to check out this place after hearing about it from another friend. It turned out to be a very nice modern facility with an active league schedule.
The color scheme was a bit hard on the eyes at first, but everything looked clean and well maintained. They have "glow bowl" there, so that explains the paint (it's all black-light fluorescent). There was a nice snack bar with frozen cokes (which I love) and all the usual snackage: burgers, chicken strips, nachos, etc. The snack bar lacks the seedy charm of Lane and Games, but they have beer on tap right next to the lanes! Another cool thing is you can charge all your food to the lane tab, and pay for everything at the end of the session. Lane and Game's, by comparison, is all "cash up front" for lane time and food.
The equipment at Merrimack Ten Pin is also a little more modern, with these cool molded scoring stations. You could control the TV and program the gutter bumpers on a per-bowler basis. I'd date the system around mid-1990s, judging from the quality of the text character generator and the 3D animations played between each frame. The lanes and furniture were also in great shape.
The video games: quite a few gun games, including a large-size Time Crisis III and an older House of the Dead. I tried Police Trainer, but the gun calibration was waaaay off. I got taken. They've got a couple pins--The Simpsons was one--and of course air hockey. No tokens necessary.
At long last, Jeff and I visited Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square. It's right on Mass Ave, near the Hong Kong restaurant. The rumor was that this was where you could get some of the best burgers in Boston, and possibly the best onion rings. Thus began The Burgering, Part II...
On the way to the Burger Cottage, I passed these placards that extolled the virtues of vegetarianism. Their argument was somewhat undermined by the "switching to vegetarianism is easy!" placard, which showed various substitute products for beloved American meats. Which just said to me...Americans love meat...this put me in the mood to enjoy an excellent burger experience. Meat Lovers:1! Vegetarians:0!
The establishment itself was a single largish room with tables crammed together. Seating was prompt and courteous. Although it was a rather muggy day, and therefore not the best weather for enjoying fried food, I gamely ordered the Deluxe Burger Platter, which came with fries and the famous onion rings. The Deluxe Burger is just a plain hamburger that costs almost 9 bucks, but I wanted to taste the unadulterated pure burger experience. Of course, I ordered rare. And for a side, I also ordered the sweet potato fries.
The sweet potato fries arrived quickly, and I found them pretty tasty. They were fairly chunky fries: thicker than a McD's fry but not a wedge. I'd say they were maybe 2x the thickness of a McD's fry. Still, I would have to say the sweet potato fries at Ryles are better if you like a crisper texture; the Bartley's version was a little "deflated'. The regular fries were good, but nothing about them stood out in particular.
The onion rings I found disappointing. Mine were coated with a light batter that fell off the rings, and had a slight powdery taste. The batter wasn't browned, and actually smelled a bit like raw fish. Maybe it was the oil. I might have gotten a bad batch, but I wasn't that impressed. I like a slightly crisper, stickier batter and more caramelized onion flavor.
As for the burger itself: not bad. The patty was formed by hand, and had a nice char on it. It didn't taste of wood smoke or charcoal, though, but it was competently seared. The inside was rare as I asked, and overall the burger had a good texture. Sometimes the ground meat is over-mixed and becomes kind of pasty in texture...not so with this burger, which puts it ahead of the Martha's Exchange burger I had last night.
The bun had a very neutral taste. The bottom of the bun wasn't coated with butter or mayonaise, so the juices tended to soak the bun as you ate. As I had ordered the plain hamburger, there were no fixin's on it to detract from the pure taste of beef: juicy but unseasoned. The phrase that came to mind was that this was An Honest Burger, unpretentious and uncomplicated.
Overall, I found the experience to be a little lacking compared to the after-hours Brasserie Jo burger I had had a few weeks ago. That burger wins on the fragant toasted bun and tasteful seasoning of the charcoal-grilled hand-formed patty. It was a more memorable tasting experience.
I will go back to Bartley's on a less muggy day and try one of their special burgers, which might be more of a fair comparison. The Quest for Great New England burgers continues!
Tomorrow I'm going to Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square to sample their famous burgers.
I had a burger at Martha's Exchange here in Nashua to serve as "the control". Unfortunately I had to get it to go, since they had stopped seating for the night. It was still nice of them to put my order in. Anyway, Martha's is known in this town for having pretty decent burgers, served rare if you ask. My "Texas Burger" was pretty good...nice and rare! Not bad at all. There is a disparity between the taste of the burger meat and the butter-toasted bun though...they just don't quite go together for me. I think the burger to really try is probably the Gorgonzola Burger, which I'll get next time I get there in time to be seated.
I imagine this week we'll be grilling too for the 4th of July weekend. My sis is coming with entourage in tow, so I'm looking forward to some good eatin'. Let there be watermelon!
I've been to Not Your Average Joe's a couple of times now for lunch, and both times I've had a delightful time. The food, the service, and the atmosphere were excellent! I like this place a lot.
The first time, I had an exquisitely-prepared mustard-crusted chicken...I was amazed that it was cooked just right, the tender breast still juicy and firm-but-not-tight. The string beans were not overcooked either, retaining enough crunch to be interesting. The second time I had the grilled black angus sirloin meatloaf, the comfort food favorite with a mix-in of smoked gouda and chipotle (a pepper I've recently been into lately). This was pretty good too, though not as amazing as I'd hoped. I'd call it "meatloaf plus"...it's still meatloaf, with just a bit of extra kick. The amazing experience of the day was undeniably was S's salad, almond crusted goat cheese "served warm over mixed baby greens with raspberries, caramelized pepper pecans and our raspberry vinagrette". The warm goat cheese was amazing; though as the cheese cooled to room temperature it lost its potency. I wonder if all goat cheeses kick such ass when warmed up.
Prices for lunch entrees range from $6 to $15. The atmosphere and service were very nice. The decor reminded me of WIRED magazine: neon colors sheathed in trendy, design-conscious form. It wouldn't be a bad place for a casual-but-fun lunch date.
Not Your Average Joes
Locations in Arlington, Beverly, Dartmouth, Hyannis, Lexington, Methuen, Needham, Newbury, Randolph, and Watertown. I've been to the Lexington and Arlington locations, both were very nice.
You are reading page 1 of 4
Go to Next Page >>
