Another Trip, Another Return… waitasec, haven't I said that?…

Just got back from another trip on Saturday morning—-to review and clarify:

Vancouver Trip: last week, eight days, a group of five to seven guys (over the course of the trip); hockey game, restaurant with hot waitresses.
In between: studied for a midterm; took a midterm; left for airport two hours later.
Richmond Trip: past four days, just me and chief grad student, working with a large unnamed corporate client’s technicians.

Chief grad student was working with a nasty cold this entire trip; the techs took care of him and got him a sippy cup and a gallon of orange juice. It was funny. Oh... did I mention that both of the techs are quite attractive women?



The tech holding the package of sippy cups has a Southern accent as hot as Jodie Foster’s in Silence of the Lambs; the other one is a part-time aerobics instructor. They both look good in tool belts, and know how to use them. Rawr. And both have significant others, of course [grin].

As a side note and question--does this fall into the category of raw objectification, or is it come across as a goofy/amusing way of describing the situation? (which was my intent) Also, don’t walk away from this paragraph just thinking, "Bats has it going on for Southern women who wear tool belts." It’s more a combination of competence and intelligence, and the attraction kinda goes along with it.

Once again, we actually had time to see the city, or at least eat in some nice restaurants. The first night was a dinner at a tapas bar called Europa, in the Shockoe Slip portion of town.

On our final night there, we went to a French Bistro called CanCan Brasserie in the Carytown portion of town. I tried their "Pan Roasted Sweetbreads with Acorn Squash Roasted with Crushed Black Pepper, Heart of the Woods Mushrooms, Sherry Vin and Hazelnuts." In case you are not familiar with sweetbreads, they are the pancreas and/or thymus glands of an animal (typically a calf/veal). As Cecil Adams puts it: "They're called sweetbreads for the obvious reason that if you called them thymus glands or whatever you couldn't give the damn things away. The art of euphemism goes back a long way."

I have had sweetbreads only once before in my life, at Anago Bistro in Cambridge, at Leper and Elizbeth's wedding rehearsal dinner. A new experience, and I thought they were pretty good. Given the opportunity, I thought I would try again. I have to say that I was slightly disappointed. The ones from Cambridge were much smaller, and a lot of the flavor is concentrated at the seared exterior of the sweetbread. In contrast, the Richmond ones were larger, so they had a large less-flavored interior. Also, the heaviness/richness of the dish, combined with the concentrated 'organ meat' flavoring made me end up leaving some of it uneaten. Which is kind of a shame, considering how much effort goes into preparing sweetbreads.

Anyway... given my penchant for trying all parts of the animal (including chicken feet) I think that I need to try eating tripe. And brains. Someday. Ghaaagggh... braaaainnzzzz.