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DFWTexEx

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Everything posted by DFWTexEx

  1. What's the feeling about the best Peking duck in Dallas (or surrounding area)? Is there any place that carves at the table?
  2. There are several that I make. Some fresh and some cooked. But, this is my favorite easy one. And, yes, it's roasted and it's fabulous. I take a several tomatoes cut in half, rough chop an onion or two (there should be more tomato than onion), a couple of serranos, and a couple cloves of garlic. Toss in a sheet pan with a bit of oil and lots of salt. Make sure the cut sides of the tomatoes are facing up. Roast on high heat until everything has a good char but there are still juices. Put in food processor and start to blend. Add cilantro and some lime juice. Taste for salt. Perfect.
  3. Excellence Playa Mujeres is great. But I enjoyed Secrets Maroma Beach better overall. Both are blown away by Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen. It just opened last year and it’s awesome. Great food, awesome pools (including a huge sand entry lagoon) and great staff. Beach is ok. If you want to level up, do Impressions Moxche. We are checking out Impressions Moxche for a birthday in July. All these places are adults only.
  4. Huatulco is stunning. We went for the first time last November and loved it. We stayed at a resort, but did get out some. Contact Oswaldo Rojas at Gran Turismo Huatulco for transfers and tours. At the very least, do the private bay tour with him. There are several beautiful secluded bays in the area. You will go to some spectacular beaches that are pretty much not accessible except by boat. You can snorkel and swim and then end up at a restaurant under a palapa on the beach with cold beers and fresh seafood. It will be a good day. He can also take you inland to see waterfalls and coffee plantations. The whole area is a protected natural space. They do a great job with water reclamation, building restrictions and all that. It is very progressively green. It's a small town of only 25,000 or so people with only a couple of traffic lights. It is very peaceful place with an incredible, Hawaii like coast. The town itself is small and charming too. We want to go back. The downside is that you will be there in the hot, rainy season. So, bring bug spray!
  5. Well, we pulled the trigger. I have gone on 3 Carnival cruises (2 with my grandmother when she retired, 1 for a work event). All 3 were fun in their own way, but nothing I would ever do again. We have resisted cruising for 25 years. Virgin has changed the equation. We dug into what they are doing and became intrigued. It's adults only. This not only means no endless games of Marco Polo in the pools, but the entire experience is geared to adults: adult humor, adult language, cocktail forward, no Broadway shows, adult and sex friendly shows. The ice cream bar is called "lick me till I scream". While the cruises are "vanilla" and mostly populated by straight couples and straight singles (they have solo cabins), the experience is tailored to be very welcoming for everyone (LGBT, all gender identifications, curious, etc.), including the upside pineapple lifestyle crowd. Apparently, it is not for the socially conservative. This all sounds perfect for us (same sex couple). The food is set up around specialty restaurants that seem to be very good (all included with no extra charge) with no formal dining hall or buffets. There are no old fashioned "activities" (although there is drag bingo), no silly art auctions or photographers on board, and you have to sorta find your way through the day with all the fun stuff they are doing around the ship and at night, the clubs rock. The staff is paid well and is very happy to provide good service. This is all from reviews I have read. We are doing a Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona September (including a night in Ibiza). I'll report back then. They are sailing out of Florida now for Caribbean cruises.
  6. DFWTexEx

    Dallas | Burgers

    Yes, I tried it twice and there is no reason to go back even though it is really convenient. Ordinary at best. No reason to go there. Crown Deli makes a better old fashioned burger, just south on Hampton. You are also pretty close to Wingfield's and Boulevardier (best upscale burger in town).
  7. We are doing dry January + eating better + being more active. So far so good. I can't see drinking until a nice big red with steak on Valentine's day. I love how much better I am sleeping and how good I feel when I wake up. We are social drinkers through the year, drinking some wine with most meals and cocktails when we go out. But, like everyone else, the number of events, birthdays (including mine), and other celebrations in Q4 is just off the charts so it got to be too much. By the time Jan 1 came, I was ready to hit pause. I haven't missed it at all, except for the social part of it. But, since more than half the people I know and hang out with are also on dry January, it hasn't been terrible.
  8. We had Jellyfish installed in December. For holidays, game days, special stuff, the system is awesome and we are really pleased. The track they install is so subtle and painted to match the house trim. We have a 1913 house in a historic district and I was nervous about how it would fit in or if would cause landmark commission issues. You can’t even tell they are there. Love it. No need to install lights on our high pitched roof again! I need to figure out how to select only certain lights to create a more subdued accent scene for every day used. Their accent preprogrammed setup is too much. Hue is terrific for interior lighting but this is a different thing.
  9. Sounds like a botched theft. Someone cut into the habitat and thought they could just scoop up this wild animal. These things may not big leopards, but they eat small prey. I wonder if there is blood on the scene. As far as the neighborhood, there are some gems in that area (Beckley Club Estates with the roaming peacocks is lovely), but right around the Zoo is rough, for now. The new Southern Gateway Park, to be built on a deck over I35 (think Klyde Warren) right at the zoo is already transforming the area. If you hate gentrification, look away. If you've got a couple of million to buy some land, go for it, but you are way too late for anything close.
  10. I am looking forward to the new guest policy for Centurion. The clubs are nice, but man, they are overcrowded. The DFW Centurion is just about unusable. If I have time, I go over to Terminal E for the low end PP lounge and get a plate of pot roast if I need lunch. Much better than fighting the crowds at Centurion. $50 for guest (including spouse) + $30 per child should make a difference.
  11. Yes, but the worst priority pass club is better than sitting with the unwashed.
  12. Brass Ram should be this list. We had a great meal there for my birthday this week. It's a Nick Badovinus restaurant, so it's all pretty much spot on. The place is an ode to a mid century prime rib place. The mood and vibe are just right, upscale and cool but comfortable. There were some tables dressed up (jackets for men, cha cha heals on the women) but also tables of what looked like roughnecks in jeans just out to eat a big piece of beef. The martini "menu" is thoughtful, as it should be: no crazy flavors, just various styles of classic martinis mostly depending on the gin:vermouth ratio. The appetizers fit right in: waygu pigs in a blanket, perfect old school salads -- even with house made thousand island dressing, etc. There are steaks and fish on the menu, but you go there for the prime rib. There are four different cuts and each comes with Yorkshire pudding, horseradish cream and au jus. We (two big guys) split the third biggest cut. With apps and sides, it was all a feast and we had plenty leftover for awesome sandwiches with sides the next day. Service was just right. The sommelier in particular was really good, friendly and helpful. I recommend this place. It's downtown, down Commerce in the new "East Quarter" district. Badovinus bought the triangular "flatiron" building. National Anthem is on the first floor. Brass Ram is on the 2nd. And they are going to add some sort of rooftop lounge on top by next summer.
  13. Imerovigli for us. Loved it but we were there longer than one night. The views there are beautiful and much more peaceful than Oia.
  14. A+ Loved the finale. I laughed out loud at the shootings. So crazy and perfect. And the whores didn’t get punished.
  15. Isn’t the point of LoveSac is that it’s not a “sectional”? It’s a modular system that you can rearrange from time to time and even add on to? I don’t know how valuable that is but I don’t think you just compare it to a packaged sectional for pricing. They are comfortable. Also. there are generic versions of the system available online at a lower price. If you are not going to use it as a system and just want a sectional to sit there for 10 years, it’s not worth it.
  16. Just got back from a three-night trip, our first since 2018. It wasn’t a trip like what is usually talked about here, as this was with my 80-year-old parents. Let me just say that: damn, I love Vegas. We stayed at the Bellagio and watched the fountain shows from our room. Just magic, still, after all these years. Mom and my husband went to see Bocelli at the MGM at the same exact time my Dad, sister and I were at T Mobile to see George Strait. We all walked to our shows. Where else does that happen? We also snuck in RuPaul's Drag Race show at the Flamingo on another night (not with the parents!). Cheesy and fun too. National Finals Rodeo and Pax 12 Championship game were in town. Great vibe everywhere. Just packed enough and good mix of crowds: lots of sequins and cowboy hats. Meal highlights: Mon Ami Gabi (perfect as always…for the price and atmosphere and tremendous service, the best place in town), Carmine’s (great food – except for the amount of food waste -- and great atmosphere), Jaleo (a must stop for us, especially now considering what Jose Andres has been doing with WCK) and Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars (ridiculous). We’ve been going to Vegas since the 70’s. As kids, our parents gave us a roll of quarters at Circus Circus and sent up to the 2nd floor games. So, we have always loved it. I was happy to be back and ready to go back for just a couple’s trip. There is so much more to do.
  17. I thought season one was brilliant, but this season is even better. It takes some skill to put together a bunch of dislikable characters and make them so watchable. The music and visuals are just perfect too. I'm betting that Greg is the Wyoming Cowboy and he is scheming with the gay scoundrels. We know that there will be multiple bodies in the water, so the yacht likely goes down. How it all happens, I don't know.
  18. Texas 37, TCU 16 501 total yards
  19. On a nice day, the most lovely lunch in Dallas.
  20. Living in Dallas, I rarely go to steakhouses when I travel. But, I ended up at Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak at the Fairmont Scottsdale once. It was a truly great and memorable. We ended up serving the wine we had there at our wedding. The appetizer of a ravilolo with egg yolk was extraordinary.
  21. Are some of you actually blaming the (assumed) loss on missed holding calls? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  22. I had one dose of the shingles vaccine. I expected the worst, but I barely noticed it and had no side effects. Going in for my second dose tomorrow. Is that the one that sucks?
  23. Backdating policies is not that uncommon. It corrects errors made in the binding process. BUT, it all keys on a No Known Loss Letter. In this letter, the insured certifies that it is not aware of losses or incidents that could lead to a loss in the gap period. It seems that is where these folks lied (allegedly).
  24. The first spread event outside of Africa was a gay rave in Europe. Lots of people, very close to each other and it spread. Naturally, it popped up at a similar event in Puerto Vallarta and now a handful of cases from a gay event in Dallas. It's not a gay diseases, but these festival type events are a perfect place for it to spread and then you have easy headlines. The CDC piled on by saying that "although anyone can spread Monkeypox, current tracking suggests hat gay and bisexual men make up a high number of cases" even though tracking is suspect right now for a variety of reasons.
  25. DFWTexEx

    Dallas | Italian

    I am not sure I understand that. Yes, they are different. But in every respect other than the view, Lucia was much better: hospitality, service, food quality, presentation, value. I do get that the Monarch experience is different and believe me, we will go back (although I prefer Kessaku upstairs), but if I had to recommend an Italian restaurant to someone, it would be Lucia.
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