Snowstorms of 2010

Spring is tiptoeing into Virginia.

After several snowstorms, the ivory turf is beginning to show its natural green. Optimistic birds (nevermind that groundhog dude) are chirping. Mount Chipotle may or may not have shrunk a few inches.

Winter has surrendered! We're free to embrace the next season! Spring break, Foxfields, Virginia baseball, Orioles Opening Day – here we come!

Then I fly to New York City for a day-long conference.

And the city promptly gets deluged with a record 11.5 inches of snow in one day.

This is the view out the stairwell window of the conference I was attending. The university was technically closed, but hundreds of MBAs still made it to panels, sessions, and a cocktail reception.

Still, I admit, it makes for a pretty-as-a-postcard view.

Mr. J. Frost, can we call it quits now?

Restaurant tour of Charlottesville

With the help of friends, I'm slowly starting to make a dent in the massive list of intriguing Cville restaurants. (Q3 is also helping. So long, high-maintenance Q1 & Q2!)

A few visits worth a repeat:

Shebeen

247 Ridge-McIntire Road, Charlottesville

This cozy South African restaurant is near the downtown mall. A friend and I ended up there the Friday of Valentine's Day weekend, when the usual celebratory spots were packed. (The celebration centered around Batten Incubator news – another post for another time.) Shebeen had a lively vibe that is still conversation-friendly, an elusive combination.

The menu is filled with delicious-sounding things, like peri-peri wings, curried crab dip, and samosas. And those are just appetizers.

We weren't all that hungry, so we split the Sadza Cakes ($17). "Rich Parmesan polenta cakes topped with eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, sugar snaps, shiitake and portabella mushrooms with lemongrass beurre blanc." Totally delicious.

Beer Run

156 Carlton Road No. 203, Charlottesville

Beer lovers (and I don't mean Bud Light fanatics), take note: This is a spot worth driving across town. The shelves are stocked with all sorts of microbrews. On Wednesdays, a rep from a brewery, usually somewhere on the East Coast, will offer free samples. Even the weekly e-mail lists great descriptions of upcoming tastings and what's on tap right now.

But Beer Run is more than a beer market. It's a bar and a cafe. And it serves up a pretty tasty brunch.

Though be forewarned: Brunch is only on Sundays. Saturday morning, you'll have a choice of tacos, instead.

We ended up there on 2/14, which meant the dishes came attached to silly names. This delicious crab omelet was called, oh, Sweetheart Crab Delight, or something like that.

Talk about decadent. No, the French Toast isn't burnt to a crisp here. That's dark chocolate shavings. With strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. Completely yummy.

Zinc

420 W. Main Street, Charlottesville

Eating out as a treat goes one level up when you find another foodie. Ordering takes twice as long, but it's also twice as much fun. And you can have dinner that includes escargots and sardines and mussels. (Yes, that's a good thing. Though not, I agree, every day.)

Zinc is a French-style bistro nestled inside a converted garage. The plates are small, the waitress warned us, similar to tapas. She recommended 2-3 plates a person.

Can you guess what these are?

A.

B.
C.

D.E.

F.

Answers:

A. Lentil salad. Nice, but not the best thing on the menu.

B. Mussels and fries. Lots and lots of succulent mussels and crispy fries. I almost thought we had gone to Brussels.

C. Zinc rounds out its beer and wine menu with cocktails. This kir was concocted from champagne and what we guessed was raspberry liquor, but now (thanks, Wikipedia), I think it was a black currant liquor (creme de cassis).

D. I ordered this "Happy Ending" first and ended up with Bailey's, kahlua, and ice cream even before the bread basket arrived. A mistake or a brilliant move? Brilliant, I tell you.

E. This mysterious photo is actually escargots (that would be snails) with pesto. I've usually (as in 3 times ever) had escargots in its shell, accompanied by a torture-looking device that could be used to pluck out eyeballs. (Sorry. Not appetizing.) These escargots were yummy guys, if you like soft pockets of salty happiness.

F. Sardines. Am I the only one who didn't realize that sardines are not tiny, like anchovies? Once the bone gets extracted, you are left with little fillets of tender, meaty goodness. Really tasty and full of flavor.

Siips

212 E. Main Street, Charlottesville

A charming wine bar on the downtown mall, Siips becomes my favorite stop when Acme Swing plays. This local jazz band might, on any given night, include a fiddler or an accordion player – plus a handful of groupie lindy hoppers. And there is no cover.

The bonus is the encyclopedia-ish wine menu, so comprehensive that it comes in a binder. Pours can be as little as 1 ounce for port or 3 ounces for wine. We tasted two ports from Portugal, a 10-year Croft and a 10-year Taylor Fladgate and tried to discern the patchwork of flavors. Raisin? Grass? Apricot? Pretty delicious.

Snacking between dancing can be a treat, too. This brie/dessert plate included ice cream, crepes, chocolate balls of some sort, walnuts, dried apricots and other fruit.

That's all for now. Cases are calling. Any recommendations for where to try next?

Chinese New Year at Darden

For the Chinese New Year, the ABCD club and DSA hosted a Cold Call (that's Darden-speak for a community-wide gathering with food, drinks and assorted festivities – but no actual professor cold call. Whew.). Cold Calls usually happen on Thursday afternoons and range from a chili cookoff to pizza and trivia to barbeque outside on the lawn. Tip for incoming first-years: You learn quickly to get there a few minutes early to line up, or you'll be staring forlornly at the empty pizza boxes or serving trays.

The dancers were phenomenally fun, and the line for the Chinese buffet stretched half-way to Beijing. Well, almost.

My first game at the JPJ

(Tonight at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.)

ACC basketball, oh, how I've missed you.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I went to Maryland undergrad. It didn't take long, though, before basketball fever struck. The air in Cole Field House was electric most nights, especially when Duke came to town. Oh, how badly we cared about each basket, each foul, each free throw. The games were hypnotizing, a few hours of immersion into another world. Maryland basketball gets into your blood. I'm a Terp for life.

But now I'm a Cavalier, too. And way overdue for my first game at home.

Without three cases to prep for, without Learning Team meeting tonight, with a Friday Reading Day waiting in the wings, the timing was perfect. The UVA men's basketball team took on N.C. State tonight. Bonus: The 'Hoos have been pretty good so far this season.


The John Paul Jones arena, just a few years old, is a modern temple to college basketball. The hallways reminded me a little weirdly of a convention center, with carpet and polo-shirted guides everywhere. Still, it's beautiful.

Take 15 minutes before the game starts and walk around. You'll eventually reach The Hall of Fame stretch — a mini-museum of past UVA stars with timelines of both the men's and women's teams.


I learned all sorts of interesting things. Duke gets everyone's blood roiling, apparently.


Ralph Sampson, a star way before my time.

Here's a 60-second grainy clip of the event's start. The team will run out for warm-up practice, and if you listen closely, you can hear the fans spell out U-V-A later in the chant.

The student section is behind one of the nets and wraps around to the side. Here's how the scene looks when a Wolfpack player tries to shoot a free throw. I've never seen the spinning lollipop-like things before — but what a neat idea for a distracting background.


Right, I almost forgot about the game itself! The first half was close. Back and forth we went. The rebounds never seemed to go our way. In the second half, despite a string of fouls, the game started to tilt our way, until the endgame was clear. Final score: UVA 59, N.C. State 47.

Next game: Saturday against Wake Forest. (Assuming, that is, we don't get another snowstorm. There's a formidable opponent. So far, Cville 0, Snowstorm 2).

Flickering thoughts

(My fireplace tonight. Yes, many of these apartments have working fireplaces. Jefferson would have approved.)

Ivy Gardens, the sprawling complex by Darden, at times feels like the dorms. Say, at 7:52 a.m., when I join the stream of bundled students with backpacks. We look like turtles lugging around shells, I think to myself.

Other times — say, when the fire gets crackling — Ivy reminds me of the delicious pleasures of being an adult.

When I was a child, I hated fires.

They always appeared to me like devilish flames, mischievously waiting to leap from the brick to the carpet to the Christmas tree. When Dad would pull back the metal curtain to move around the logs, I'd flee from the room. I didn't trust the fire.

But now, somehow, I love it. The flame holds a steady calmness. A timeless, hypnotic glow.

Even the prep is a treat. I love arranging the balled-up Wall Street Journals, a starter brick, the wood into a "log-cabin style" — like assembling a gingerbread house. I love striking the match and watching the bits of fire lick the newspaper and dance around, until a blaze is humming and hissing. I love curling up in an armchair, reading about Brazil in 2003 or Piaggio in the 1990s, by the warm snap-crackle-pop.

And then I get all philosophical. The fire reminds me of how far humanity goes back. I think of cave men huddled around a ring of rocks, or colonial women in aprons cooking over the fire, or all the people across the world tonight staring into flames.

How far we are. How close we are.

The flame always reminds me how much I've changed. Or more importantly, how many things stay the same.

Sweet and Spicy Chili, unlocked

I got a surprise gift in my inbox a few days after blogging about Darden's Chili Cookoff: the recipe for my favorite of the chilis. It was like a Chili Christmas.

Here, for your pleasure, and mine are the secrets behind Sweet and Spicy Chili.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 C chopped baby carrots or diced large carrots
• 1.5 lbs. ground meat (beef, chicken or turkey)
• 7 pieces bacon
• 2 T light brown sugar
• 1 can corn kernels in juice
• 1 can light red kidney beans in juice
• 1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
• 1 small can tomato paste (6 oz)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 pkg. chili seasoning
• 1 T honey
• ¼ C light brown sugar
• ¼ C honey BBQ sauce
• ¼ C pineapple juice
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• ½ tsp ground red pepper
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp nutmeg

Garnish: bleu cheese crumbles or shredded cheddar cheese with sour cream and tortilla chips

Directions

• In a medium or large stock pot, lightly spray with cooking spray and add olive oil. Sautee garlic and onion over medium heat, adding salt and pepper.
• In a medium skillet, lightly spray with cooking spray and brown meat. Drain and set aside.
• In a large skillet, cook bacon. Add 2 T brown sugar halfway through to caramelize the bacon. Drain cooked bacon on a paper towel. When cooled, chop the bacon and set aside.
• In a small pot or sauce pan, boil chopped carrots until slightly tender. Drain, then add to the stock pot with garlic and onion.
• Add the remaining listed ingredients to the stock pot and simmer over medium heat. Add ground meat and bacon.
• Simmer for 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.
• Serve hot.

What MBA-school recipe would be complete without brands?

For testing purposes:
Ground meat, turkey
Chili seasoning, McCormick’s low sodium
BBQ sauce, Kroger brand Honey BBQ
Corn, Kroger brand sweet corn kernels
Diced tomatoes, Hunt’s brand
Pineapple juice, Dole
Tortilla chips, Fritos

Enjoy!