Restaurant Review: Iris

Tonight my parents and I ate at Iris, a contemporary American restaurant near the intersection of Inwood Road and Lovers Lane. This restaurant is co-owned by Susie Priore and chef Russell Hodges.

For my appetizer I selected the "Prosciutto with Roasted Figs, Seckel Pears, Golden Beets, Baked Goat Cheese, and an Aged Balsamic Glaze" ($13). The plate consisted of a layer of prosciutto upon which sat a mound of organic microgreens beneath a round of goat cheese. This was surrounded by the figs, pears, and beets and a drizzling of the aged balsamic glaze. The balsamic glaze was rich and mellow and applied sparingly so as not to overwhelm the delicate salad as most restaurants neglect to do. I thought the warmed goat cheese, while delicious, took a bit away from the cool, crispness of the fruit. Otherwise, the plate was delicious and is highly recommended.

For my entreé I selected the "Double Chop & Loin of Lamb with Medjool Dates, Saffron Texmati Rice, Grilled Asparagus, and a Fresh Mint Apricot Chutney" ($30). The lamb arrived a perfect medium and the meat was silky and smooth with an almost melt-in-your-mouth character and the rice was fluffy with a hint of spice. This is also highly recommended.

The restaurant is beautifully decorated on the interior with various works of art from local artists. The wines-by-the-glass tend to be a bit pricey ($8 - $14/glass).

Overall, I highly recommend a visit to this restaurant. While it lacks the typical Uptown Dallas crowd it follows in the footsteps of such notable, unforgettable gems as Hattie's, York Street, and the sorely missed Barclay's.

St. Patrick's Day @ The Ginger Man

It being such a nice day, Brandon and I went to the Ginger Man around 5:30 pm and grabbed a spot outside on the back patio as close to a heater as we could.

An awesome band that played last year called Spinach came on stage around 8 pm and started playing music reminiscent of Weezer, Jack Johnson, John Mellencamp, Jackopierce, U2, and others.



Lora, Laura, and Cheryl joined to help keep us warm and toasty. As the temperature dropped and as I shivered more and more, my hoodie made an appearance. As the evening progressed and as my natural charm came out as a result of consuming many glasses of Abita Purple Haze, my hoodie transformed into a hoody and my dormant superpowers began to surface.



After the girls left us, Brandon and I returned back to the Ginger Man to continue our philosophical discussions about girls. Realizing that that conversation was getting us nowhere but hungry, we headed eagerly to Whataburger to enjoy some delicious taquitos and call it a night.

Thanks to all of you who showed up on such short notice!!!

Sláinte!

SXSW

The South by Southwest Festivals + Conferences is in mid-week running from March 11 through March 20 in my hometown Austin, TX. The number of showcased musical acts is 1,279 playing at 60 different venues around town.

For all of you music lovers out there who can't attend, what may be of interest to you is that you can obtain music from the showcased artists for free by going to the following link. So far it's over 750 full-length mp3 files.

It does require that you download and install the BitTorrent client, which is also free.

The BitTorrent client is pretty simple and neat. However, so far, it has taken me at least five days with another estimated two extra days remaining to download 2.6 GB of music. Is it painful? Absolutely! My download rate varies between 1 KB/s and 20 KB/s. Hopefully my download rate will stay high. Once that is done, I will try and keep my client open so that you might benefit from any load-balancing that is available.

Enjoy!

Anoopa Sharma

Occasionally I take time aside to cover issues unrelated to me and to my personal life. Sometimes when I am taking daily time to read other blogs I come across items I find humorous and/or interesting, and I enjoy sharing them with you, the reader.

However, sometimes I will find the need to share with you things that affect me a little deeper. This is one of those times. Anoopa Sharma, someone I did not know but was a friend to many, passed away yesterday evening in a Birmingham hospital. She was involved in a head-on car accident on Saturday, March 5.

Some friends of hers created a blog after the accident as a way to keep friends and relatives updated as to the condition of her recovery. However that blog has now become a tribute.

You can visit her website www.anoopa.net to read the thoughts and prayers from others.

What is the takeaway from this posting? Remember to cherish the time you spend with friends and family and make sure that they know how much you care about them. Life is too short. Don't take anything for granted.

It is said that it is always best to end with a quote. And if someone else has said it best and you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like.

"Dance as though no one is watching you, love as though you have never been hurt before, sing as though no one can hear you, live as though heaven is on earth." - Souza

St. Patrick's Day

The festivities started just after noon on an absolutely beautiful, clear, mid-80 degree day in March. We sat out in front of Ana's watching many of the revelers walking towards the party on Greenville whilst enjoying beer, cider, and B-to-the-E.



Around 2:30 pm we headed over to join the crowd. Wow. It was waaay more crowded than it was last year when it was overcast and drizzly at times. How we were able to stay together was nothing short of miraculous--wall-to-wall bodies everywhere. "Yikes" was deemed an official word of this year's St. Patrick's Day weekend. Laura was not feeling too well so Quince led the first group back to Ana's for a more relaxed time.



Around 4:30 pm we met Kendall at "The Gate". They were no longer letting people in so we finished our beers and started heading over to another party before Ana unfortunately twisted her ankle and went down in a heap. We then headed back to her house so she could ice her ankle and take some Advil. The first group of our party was keeping Ana's warm and so we were continued the festivities there.



Around 8:30 pm we headed over to dinner at the Blue Goose. Oddly enough, Greenville was still relatively packed and, after an hour wait, we were finally seated for a table. After dinner we headed over to the Dubliner before we decided the line was too long. So we ended up at the Pony Keg instead. With the energy level waning in a major way and with Ana's ankle, we decided to call it a night and head back around 11:30 pm.



Thanks to all for hanging out with us this weekend! While we weren't able to finish up the night at the Slip Inn, it was an absolutely awesome day start-to-finish with great friends!

Dragostea Din Tei

I was reading Robert Scoble's blog, and came across the Numa Numa Dance. This is awesome! Depending on your connection speed, it will take about two minutes to load. If you decide to download the Shockwave Flash Object, you can open the file with Internet Explorer.



The song is entitled Dragostea Din Tei from O-Zone.

You can view the O-Zone music video at the following link:
http://mapage.noos.fr/martialro/ozone/video.html

If you wish to purchase this song, it is available from the following link:


For more information, see the following blog:
http://badmonkeynobanana.blogspot.com/2005/03/numa-numa-dance.html

March Pint Nights at the Ginger Man

Pint Nights are every Tuesday starting at 4 pm. If you buy the beer of the day you get to keep the logo glass.

March 1st - DeKoninck glasses
March 8th - Belhaven glasses
March 15th - Murphy's glasses
March 22nd - Potluck glasses
March 29th - Bass glasses