Restaurant Review: “School”, Lexington, KY

Here is my first attempt to review a restaurant.  Being a self-admitted non-gourmet, I would take it with a grain of salt (my critique, not the food).

• Restaurant: SCHOOL
• Location: 162 Todds Rd, Lexington, KY 40509 (in Chippen Dale Square) (859) 269-0677
• Web: http://web.me.com/schoolschoolschool/Site/HOME.html
• Genre: Japanese-French Fusion (I think..)
• Setting: Business casual
• Price: $18 – 25 per entree

This oddly named restaurant sits quietly in a small row of shops in Chippen Dale Square.  School is no Benihana: no “Hibachi” grill or the chaotically busy atmosphere.  The restaurant has more of a lounge-like feel.  The sushi bar sits at the center of the restaurant surrounded by a “Kaiten Zushi” conveyor on which a parade of small plates of sushi circulates.

Sushi Bar with Kaiten Zushi Conveyor

The way it works is that the chefs prepare plates of sushi randomly (seemingly, anyway) and place them on the conveyor.  Patrons can grab any plate that is on the conveyor at any time.  You are charged per plate which is color-coded.

Price per Plate Color Codes

2 Japanese brothers are the executive chefs of the restaurant, Nobu-san for Japanese food and Hide-san for French. Dawn knows Nobu-san and the owner, Tomoko-san (who was not available during our visit), from her previous work experience at Japanese Food Store in Lexington.

We met with the brothers before we placed the orders.  Dawn and my parents went with Hide-san’s recommendation of a fish plate.  I, feeling obligated to order something different, asked for “Wafu Steak (Japanese Steak)”.

We asked Nobu-san to prepare a sushi platter as an appetizer, which was simply delicious.  We did not sample the sushi plates on the conveyor, so I’m not sure if they are equally good as the platter.  The platter consisted of squid, salmon, tuna and yellow tail.  Even the squid which is usually rather bland (in my opinion) was presented in such an appetizing manner and was the BEST-ever tasting squid sushi, according to Dawn.

We also had a big plate of shrimp spinach salad shared between Dawn and myself.  Perfectly seasoned with vinaigrette dressing, this was a hit among us once again.  Please note that the salad plate is so big that you can share between 2 people easily.

My entree of Wafu Steak was PHENOMENAL.  It was done just right (although I don’t remember our waitress asking me how I would like it cooked… hmm…) and the meat was so tender.  It was seasoned with a somewhat sweet sauce, and I think this made it one of the best steaks, if not THE best, that I have had (I think Dawn agrees).  I wouldn’t think a Japanese restaurant would be the first place that you would think of to get a good steak, but I HIGHLY recommend that you give it a try.

The fish that Dawn and my parents got was flounder, we think.  This was a French dish, and again, they enjoyed it very much.  While this is definitely a French dish, it still had some Japanese-ness to it, according to Dawn.

All in all, this has been a great dining experience.  The price range is at the higher-end of MY scale, but it is a great occasional dine-out spot.

Verdict: WE LIKE IT!  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! :)

Sorry about some bad pictures.  My phone cam isn’t so good in low light condition.

RC Plane + Video Camera + Fireworks + AC/DC = 5 minutes of AWESOME!!

A perspective of fireworks like you have never seen!  Double-click the image above and enjoy it in a bigger HD clip!  Yee-haaa!

Gyoza* Party

3 plates of these, and 5 of us finished them all.

*Gyoza: Chinese dumpling, widely popular in China and Japan as well as outside of East Asia, particularly in North America (from Wikipedia)

The Adachis – Our Famous Sickly Relatives

My brother told me about these commercials some time ago, and I just ran into them again lately.

What intrigues us is that this poor family is “Adachis”, but obviously not of a Japanese heritage.  I had no idea that the family name could be of another civilization.  Unlike other cultures, Japanese did not migrate beyond their confine of their small islands historically, so it is safe to assume that this is a coincidence that our family names match.

I can’t tell what heritage this sickly family is being portrayed as.  Italian? I think the name sounds more like an Italian, but I’m just guessing…  They speak with an American accent, though.

My discovery with the encounter this time around is that they have made an online game based on the commercial series (http://www.gettheglass.com/).  I haven’t played it yet, but it seems to be a well-made game with cute characters that don’t resemble any of my real family members.

Anyway, here is to the family!  Salu! or Kanpai! or whatever!

Hypermiling*

Theoretically speaking, you would get a better gas mileage if your gas tank is less full because you are not carrying as much weight from the gasoline.   So in order to achieve a  good gas mileage, you should wait before you fill up again until you are down to the last drop (actually, you shouldn’t even fill up.  You should buy just  enough gas just to last you until the next nearest gas station… but you may find that very impractical… lol)

The problem is you may not be around a gas station when you really need to fill up.  Timing decision is very crucial.  I find the “fuel range” indicators with which the recent vehicles are equipped very useful for this purpose.

I did it pretty well this time.  You might call it a stupid pursuit of insignificant efficiency compromising safety & sanity…

Only 1 mile left to go as I arrived at the gas station!

*Hypermiling: the act of driving using techniques that maximize fuel economy (from wikipedia)

Unidentified Flying Objects in Formation Flight over Cincinnati

I was walking toward my car in the parking lot of my office, and I noticed a bright light over Cincinnati.  Our office is located very close to the airport, so air traffic of low flying vehicles are very common, so I didn’t think much of it.

As I reached my car and unlocked the door, I noticed that the light is actually 4 lights, and they are flying in formation.  Hmmm… bunch of airplanes approaching?  No, they are not heading toward the airport.  Military aircrafts in training?  No, they are moving awfully slowly… Helicopters?  Then why are they flying in tight circles?

The lights then formed a straight line and started to move away from me, then faded away one by one until there were no more of them.  I managed to take a couple of shots with my phone, but I still can’t tell what they are.  I didn’t see any articles of any other witnesses, so I assume that they were not anything abnormal, but from where I was standing, it sure looked out of this world!

The lights are flying away in formation…

… then start to disappear one by one…

Halloween 2009

For once, I actually dressed up as something for Halloween this year.  I originally wanted to be a pirate (I’m not really sure why.  Maybe it’s the fluffy shirt…), but when I went to a Halloween store, the costume dubbed “Captain Jack Sparrow” was priced at $99.99!  Of course, I was in the store 2 hours before trick-or-treating was starting, and I understand that these seasonal stores take advantage of us procrastinators…  Bastards…

So I looked around for a cheaper option, and found this “Phantom” costume for $35.  After the disappointment with my pirate costume, this sounded like a good deal, so I went with that.  Check it out!

Hachi in Phantom Costume.  Check out the glowing eyes!

It’s  basically a black nylon 1-piece long dress with a black mask that makes it look like a reaper hood.  It comes complete with the “glowing eyes” device that you wear like a pair of glasses connected to a battery pack.  The red eyes fade in and out for the spooky effect.

My lovely wife loves dressing up for occasions like Halloween or Renaissance Festivals, and she had been looking forward to this day (especially since we never do stuff like that…).  With her Renaissance outfit, dark eyeliner and fake fangs, she turned herself into a sexy Vampire Lady (I don’t know the technical name for it)!  I think she got it together very nicely!

Dawn is hungry for blood… Where are the trick-or-treaters?!

 

The first kids arrived shortly after 6pm.  I think they were a little scared of our outfits…  I’m glad they didn’t cry or anything.

We didn’t get many trick-or-treaters after all.  I don’t know, maybe 20?  Maybe less?  We even sat outside with a bowl of candies so that kids would know to come around our house without skipping.  Oh, well…  A little disappointing, but we did our part.  Maybe it will be better next year.

Waiting for brave souls to approach us, but we were left hungry… Thank goodness for all the left-over candies!

Seattle Trip Pix

so… Dawn and I were in Seattle during the last week of July visiting Scott, Dawn’s BFF. It just happened to be the hottest week in the whole entire recorded history of Seattle (official high at 102… in Seattle? whodathunkit).

Anyway, I’ve been too lazy to post the pictures here (perhaps the effect of the heat wave?), but i finally got them all uploaded into my Picasa account. Here are some of the ones I like. You can see the whole album here.

The Troll under the Bridge (L) and Us with Seattle skyline in the background (R)

Scott and Dawn at Space Needle Observatory (L) and a man feeding seagulls (R)

Shot of the Week! Good job, Scott!

Pike Place Market. Right-most is the very first Starbucks shop.

Click for Video! Pike Place Market Fish Throwing!

Show Stealing Squirrel… lol

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/enlarge/squirrel-portrait-banff.html

Scott Noel posted this picture on Facebook, and we thought this was hilarious.

A Movie about a Dog with My Name

I think every Japanese knows about this loyal dog, and apparently this is a movie based on the story with a modern American setting.  I hear this movie will open on 8/8 (in Japan only?).  Since “Hachi” means number 8 in Japanese, I guess that’s a promotional thing echoing “Independence Day” opened a few days before 7/4 in US.
The last I checked, the name “Hachi” was never popular in US (or even in Japan).  Perhaps, the movie will reduce the chance of people mispronouncing my name.
Make me proud, Dog!

A Time Lapse of the Construction of a F/A-18 Super Hornet

Japanese Restaurant In… Mexico??

Federico (we call him Fred), the plant manager of the plant that I'm visiting, wanted to take us to this Japanese restaurant in Saltillo. Since the president of the Mexican Region had already told me that there is no Japanese restaurant around here, I was pretty skeptical. Sure, there was no Japanese working there, nor it looked like a traditional Japanese restaurant, but food was good! Of course, we ended up ordering too much stuff, so I feel like I’m about to explode…

Our party of four included Fred, Ben (our HR guy), myself and Armando. Armando was somebody that we happen to run into at the hotel we are staying. He and Fred used to work together, and I happen to know him from my previous project in San Antonio. Of course, Fred and I didn’t know that Armando was our mutual acquaintance, so it was kinda freaky to run into him in Saltillo of all the places (none of us live in Saltillo, btw).

Sushi Itto is the name of the restaurant. No I don’t know what that means…

Japanese Mexican Fusion Sushi with avocado and mango. Zesty & Tasty!

Aerial View of Houston, TX

Can you see Downtown Houston, a cluster of skyscrapers?

French MacBook Transformer... LOL

Niiice Lamp… You like?

Dawn & I went to Value City Furniture in Florence, pretty much just to browse, and we came across this lamp.  We have been wanting a lamp to light the niche area in the master bedroom, and this seemed to be able to do the job.  Currently at a $199 price tag, we decided to sleep on it… or wait for the big sale event…

As seen on the store floor…

Aren’t they pretty??

Compulsive Pix with My Phone

Mom in the background


Another angle


There is my wifey!

Dawn Paints Our Bedroom!

I'm lucky to have a such handy wife! You can't really tell the color of the paint from the photos below, but it's called "Faint Maple" (how do they come up with these names??). It's a light brownish color resembling cappuccino, complementing our furniture color (espresso... what's with this coffee theme...?) It's amazing the difference a little color makes...

Very detail oriented Dawn

The 10-ft ceiling in our bedroom is nice until you decide to paint it...

Dawn shows off her mastery in wall painting.

Mason Graduates!

Mason, our nephew, graduated from Woodford County High School. Both of us knew Mason since he was born, so we are happy for him to make this great milestone of his life while we feel the pain of realization that we graduated 18-19 years ago... OMG!

Commencement at Frankfort Convention Center

Dawn & Hachi paying close attention to the speeches

Mason & his favorite aunt

The boys & the crowd

The graduate & his Japanese uncle

Giant Family: Morey (dad) & Mason

We were stuck for a couple of hours in the parking structure as the crowd tried to get out of it all at once. We finally got to Cracker Barrel in Georgetown around 10:30pm.

Dawn finishes the famous peg game on her first try!

Look at him GO!....

... and ends up with 4 pegs... WTF...

We got home a little past midnight...

Trip to Soriana

Just a couple of snaps when we visited Soriana, a Wal-Mart like store in Mexico.

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An aisle view at Soriana

Tequila section at Soriana. How stereotypical...