A Clandestine Affair: Charleston's Underground Kitchen

Last weekend, I experienced yet another first in my life. I paid money to eat a mystery dinner with +/- 29 people I'd never met before in a secret location.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Underground Kitchen.

Charleston's Underground Kitchen describes itself as "...a giant, infrequent dinner party involving strangers and amateur cooks who like good food and don’t mind making a few new friends." Who on earth would not be intrigued by this claim?

I learned about Underground Kitchen from the blogosphere, of all places. Being a newcomer to Charleston, I've poked around on the Internet quite a bit over the last couple months. I've found that the best way to learn about a city's offerings is to find the local bloggers. While perusing a local blog aggregator one evening, I noticed the term "underground kitchen" popping up in a couple different spots, and my interest was immediately piqued. Like a bloodhound, I followed the scent right to The Underground Kitchen's website. After reading how it worked and admiring the site's design (a well-designed website goes a long way with me), I wasted no time signing up for the invite list.

Within a couple days, I received an e-mail from The Underground Kitchen announcing the date for their next affair. "I should do this," I thought. Mom has been telling me I need to get out and meet people, and she's never given me bad advice. I've known this as well, but really haven't felt up to it. The Underground Kitchen, I decided, would be just the catalyst I needed. So, I did the following:

1. Paid $40.00 of my hard-earned scratch to someone I'd never met, let alone heard of, via PayPal.
   
2. Immediately wondered if I'd just given $40.00 of my hard-earned scratch to a pimply-faced Belarusian teenage genius with an affinity for illegal-in-most-countries Internet porn and pirated MP3s.
   
3. Shrugged and waited for further instruction.
   

Between the time I paid for my reservation and received the e-mail disclosing the supersecretninja location, I told anyone and everyone who would listen about what I had just signed myself up for. Everyone's reaction can be summed up as follows: "Wow, really? That sounds SO cool. Wait... this is in Charleston?" Having never been to anything like this, I wasn't sure how to accurately describe it. "Well," I'd say, "I think it's kind of like a rave, without the candy kids. Or like Eyes Wide Shut, without the whole freaky, masked orgy thing going on*. I won't know where it is until a couple days before, and I won't know who will be there or what we'll be eating until I arrive." Needless to say, everyone I talked to about it was intrigued.

Fast-forward to last Saturday, when I pulled into the parking lot of Charleston's Habitat for Humanity ReStore with a chilled bottle of wine and a major case of the butterflies. A couple days before the event, I was talking with Bridget on the phone and nervously telling her that I felt certifiably insane for making my first social outing in Charleston a mystery dinner party with 30 strangers. She stated in her calming, matter-of-fact way, "Dinner with 30 strangers is a lot less scary than dinner with three strangers." A genius observation, and exactly what I needed to hear. As I walked to the door I chanted in my head, "30 is less scary than three. 30 is less scary than three." And I was golden. I even squashed the urge to declare, "Fidelio!" as I made my presence known.

I walked in to a dark-ish warehouse, atmospheric in its string-lights and candle-lit dimness, the hum of fans (it was a hot evening and the venue was not air conditioned), laughter and various conversations, and the most amazing smells ever. I was greeted by one of the chefs and introduced to the other, who was feverishly chopping what looked like cilantro. My first impression of the non-chopping chef was that this guy seems like he never meets a stranger, and I felt immediately at ease. Both of these guys were genuinely friendly, despite being in the throes of cooking for 30 people in a warehouse. These people seemed cool. I was not going to need my brass knuckles after all.

After putting my name on a sticker and a place card, I went over to the wine chilling station and just started talking. I'm an interrogator's dream come true... when I get nervous, I talk. So talk I did. And I met some very cool people in the process. I'm horrible at remembering names, but was able to piece some names together with websites and blogs I'd visited or people I'd seen on Twitter. At that moment I realized, once again, what a trip the world wide web is.

Dinner was a study in social engineering; place cards had been strategically set to ensure that people who knew each other well were not seated directly next to each other. I was seated in a wonderful little pocket of guests, as I'm sure the entire table was. The people in my immediate vicinity were warm, welcoming, friendly and excellent conversationalists. Several topics were breached, and nobody's delicate sensibilities were offended, no insults were hurled, nobody burst into tears. I felt very comfortable and happy among what felt like were like-minded individuals.

And then there was the food. Let's talk about food. Okay, so these cats refer to themselves as amateur cooks... and I guess in the literal sense, they are. Do not mistake amateur for average, though, or even just pretty good. The food they prepared was excellent on a technical level, but more importantly, it was creative. Flavorful, inventive and freakin' delicious. The courses were as follows:

• Appetizer: Curried Chicken Salad with Walnuts & Cranberries and Curried Pea Dip
  
• Salad: Roasted Corn & Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese and Ginger/Tomatillo Sauce
  
• Entree: Grouper with Zucchini Cakes and Stewed Tomatoes & Olives
  
• Dessert: Chilled Pear Soup with Walnuts and Honey (I think)
  

A few things. First, the curried pea dip looked kind of like guacamole but I could not, for the life of me, place the flavor. It wasn't guacamole. Not even a hint of avocado, and a completely different consistency. Now that I know it was peas, I'm like, "DUH! PEAS!" When it's not easy to immediately place a flavor, you know something's been made both creatively and skillfully. Second, I love goat cheese. I love ginger. I love tomatillo sauce. NEVER would I think to put all three together. Yet, it worked magically.

I managed to take a few snaps, before the wine and food buzz really kicked in and I felt too jolly to be taking photos. Behold:


Our top secret location


People who actively seek out dinner parties at classified locations


Beautiful and tasty vittles

So, to sum up, The Underground Kitchen is a must-do if you like mystery, intrigue, good people and amazing food. The aspect of raising awareness for Habitat for Humanity was a really cool angle as well. Local readers, you have to try it. Just don't secure your reservation before I secure mine. And out-of-state friends and family, if one of your visits coincides with an installment of The Underground Kitchen, you can bet your sweet ass(es) I'll be taking you with me. Every city would benefit from something like this.

Finally, read about the evening from the perspective of the UGK Maestros themselves. I love, love, love that they gave a nod to Bridget's sage words of nerve-calming advice (a story I repeated several times throughout the evening with my rosy-cheeked, wine-buzzarded self).

Not even remotely scary... absolutely, deliciously cool. Right here in Charleston.

Edited to add: Local restaurant critiquing crew, Fork You Blog, have posted their take on the experience at Fork You Blog. It's a fun read.

*I can not vouch for what may or may not have happened after I left.

Oklahoma, Okay!

Summer camp is over.

I recently returned from a four-day company conference in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City has always held a certain charm for me. I've never met anyone from Oklahoma whom I didn't like, and while this was only my second visit, both visits were time spent with warm and interesting people and being pleasantly surprised by the city itself.

The best thing about the conference was being able to spend time with so many of the creative, progressive, inspirational people I work with. We're spread out all over the country, but have never been reluctant to reach out and share ideas and insights with each other. I don't think that happens in many companies, and I feel very fortunate to work with such a dynamic and talented group of people. It was wonderfully refreshing to see both familiar and new faces and talk shop with fellow new media dazzlers.

Now, peep this cool snap I took in Bricktown:

Google? Really?

I just noticed Google's new favicon.

It's weak. I'd have expected more from Google. Granted, one doesn't have much of a canvas to work with when creating a favicon. That poses many challenges. But seriously, Google? This?



Since I can't harp on the blasé without sharing some fancy, the following article from Smashing Magazine has an impressive listing of tiny, yet truly lovely, favicons.

Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons

Fav on!

Can you feel it, see it, hear it today?

I rarely listen to music on the radio anymore. Morning Edition, The World and Inside Appalachia on West Virginia public radio are about the only things I switch the iPod out for these days. I left my iPod at the house today, though, so I hit scan on the radio as I was driving around. About two minutes in, I hit the scan button to stop and make sure I was hearing what I was hearing. Sure enough, I was reminded why I don't listen to the radio anymore, and was reminded that I am most definitely getting older.

What stopped my FM scan in its tracks? A cover of Faith No More's Epic. I listened in disbelief. It was terrible. Remember when the American version of The Office premiered, and anyone who was at all familiar with the UK version hated it? And why did people hate it so much? Because at first, it was little more than an ersatz version of the real thing. The script was followed nearly word-for-word with different actors; no original humor or dialog. It was too close to the original to translate properly and just seemed cheap and lazy. Well, that's kind of what happened here. It's easily one of the worst covers I have ever heard, and to be a cover of such an amazing track... well, damn.

I'm a big fan of covers done well. A cover done well, in my opinion, is an artist respecting the original-- leaving it untouched; un-molested-- but taking that original and putting a fresh, unique and personal stamp of ownership on it. Examples of this would be Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, The Afghan Whigs' cover of TLC's Creep, Sonic Youth's cover of The Carpenters' Superstar (I had this opinion long before seeing Juno, thanks), Swans cover of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (Gira's version, Jarboe's drives me up a wall) and-- I know I might get flamed for this and will justify it if anyone wants me to-- Mark Ronson's cover of The Smiths' Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before. These are creative interpretations of the original, not lazy rip-offs.

So, yeah, I am listening to this horrible Faith No More cover and the only thing that is different is the noticeable absence of Mike Patton's (one of the most underrated male musicians in recent music history, but that's another post) vocals. Everything else is a direct lift from the original. Oh, wait, they kind of altered the piano outro by a few notes at the end. As luck would have it, the DJ actually said the name of the band after the cringe-inducing aural trespass had ended. Atreyu? I am spelling it like the character from The Neverending Story, since I imagine that's where the band's name originated from. I am so annoyed, I can't be bothered to look it up. Atreyu. Never heard of 'em, which is probably a sign of my age. Furthering the age issue, I don't care who they are. Probably some Hot Topic phenomenon. Definitely lazy. But who knows, I'm just an old music snob/lady curmudgeon and they could be awesome. Correct me if I am wrong.

I guess that's really what is at the root of this rant: My disdain for lazy "art" and how pervasive and readily embraced it is in today's mainstream culture. There are, without a doubt, innovative and creative artists, musicians and filmmakers producing original and captivating work. Many of them do not go unappreciated in the right circles. What I am so turned off by is the pandering to the lowest common denominator. More and more drivel... less and less effort.

C'est ça. End rant.


Mike Patton saw what you did there.

Design and the Elastic Mind

Note: Many of the external links in this post go to a Flash-authored site. Completely annoying, yes, but the content is worth checking out. I promise.

Wow. I desperately, desperately want to check out this exhibition at MoMA.

Design and the Elastic Mind

It runs until May 12th. I've never been to New York City, much less the Museum of Modern Art. But I am going to try to make this happen. Especially after reading this review of the exhibit over at Core 77.

Where my New York people at?!

Despite my enthusiasm, some of the works featured in this exhibition freak me out. There are some prototypes of concepts that just don't sit well with me, but that I'd love to see nonetheless. Granted, the imaginings that make me nervous are merely that-- imaginings. If there is one thing I appreciate in life, it's imagination. However, were something like RFID tagging on human beings ever to become a mandated reality, I'd be one of the first people heading off to the hills to live in a cave. Nonetheless, I love that someone has the type gray matter in his or her head to envision and translate into something tangible such an idea.

That said, I fear visualizing an (even more) Orwellian future. Although not a tinfoil hat kind of girl, I am very private. Despite this public-facing blog, despite my varied online activity, I am reluctant to reveal too much of myself to anyone other than people whom I feel close to and have a strong sense of. Which is such a contradiction, given that I can be found on Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, here, my personal website (if I ever get around to re-designing and re-launching it) but these accounts aren't so much a social thing for me as they are my attempt to keep ahead of the curve as it applies to my career. Yes, there is an interpersonal aspect of social networking and folksonomy-driven sites that I enjoy... I have friends and family all over the country that I love to keep in touch with. I like to know what people I care about are up to. But what I really get from these various accounts and interactions is simple: Knowledge. Ideas. Collaboration. The banter I engage in and follow with co-workers and other webby-type people on Twitter goes much further than a welcome diversion on a stressful work day. My profile on Colour Lovers isn't to make color buddies, but to stay abreast of color trends and to store and create palettes for future use in my designs. The Internet is an amazing resource, and as I gradually overcome my reluctance to make myself present "out there" the more I benefit professionally.

Because of these things, the Harvesting the Internet segment of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition is what interests me most. The exhibition's website shows several Google Earth mashups, which thrills me to no end. About two years ago I was working on the fourth redesign of alabama.gov. During this time, I teamed up with our very talented and motivated lead developer, Robert. The goal was to create an interactive mapping segment of the portal with limited resources available to us. We didn't have a dedicated GIS or mapping agency to work with, so we had to be creative. Robert found a way to work with Google's API (before they openly made such an API publicly available) to sort of reverse-engineer Google's mapping features to fit our needs. I then skinned it and incorporated it into the overall site design. If I am not mistaken, alabama.gov was the first state government web portal to integrate Google maps into the site. Technically not a mashup in that whole Web 2.0 sense of the word, it's something we needed to innovate for ourselves and I am very proud of that. alabama.gov's mapping feature allows visitors to the site to locate everything from libraries to blood donation centers to locations of Alabama's 'moon trees' in one spot. To see similar and more sophisticated web applications being showcased in an exhibition at MoMA thrills me to no end.

But, I'm a design geek like that.

A design geek who shudders at the thought of paper as we know it being phased out for digital versions, but who (in her dreams) would absolutely love a 3-D printer so that she can design and print out her own custom fruit bowl, for the real!

Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go...

Rockin' The Kitchen Like It's My Job

Who's up for some more foodiness tonight? Because I'm still all about Campaign for a Less Fat Coco while attempting to zero in on easy things that I really like as to not be deterred from said campaign. Dig? Dig!

I really did not want to make dinner tonight. The heat has been oppressive and draining this past week. Anything involving a flame or radiant heat does not appeal to me at this juncture. However, I just spent $6.00 on two organic chicken breasts and I'll be damned if those sweet little cluckers die in vain because I'm too lazy to appreciate their sacrifice and make something delicious out of them. So, I changed into the thinnest, shabbiest t-shirt I own, slid on my garden clogs and fired up the grill.

2o minutes later:



I ain't tryin' to brag, but this was one of my best experiments yet. And you can do it, too! Here's how it all came together:

1. Take a boneless, skinless chicken breast. Rinse and pat dry with a paper towel. Rub completely with olive oil. Sprinkle salt and black pepper on both sides, rub in to the chicken breast. After I do this, I go turn on the grill and let the chicken sit out to "sweat" a little.
2. Once the grill is hot 'n' ready, turn the heat down to medium-ish and throw the breast on. Get yourself a portabello mushroom. This is a personal preference, but I never rinse or wash mushrooms under water. They absorb water quickly, and that screws up the texture IMHO. Rather, wet a small piece of paper towel and spot-wash the mushroom, removing all dirt. Drizzle with olive oil, put on the upper grill rack (or the non-heated side for indirect grilling).
3. Hang out a bit, then remove the mushroom. I think I left it on for 5 minutes, tops. Just enough to get it tender and give it a couple grill lines. Then, remove the mushroom (leave the chicken). Go inside, get yourself a small baking pan and put your grilled shroom on it. Sprinkle generously with feta cheese and drizzle with olive oil. A dusting of Hungarian sweet paprika is good if you have any. Place under your oven's broiler until the feta starts to melt together and brown slightly. Remove da shroom; set aside.
   
4. Get a dinner plate, throw a handful of baby spinach leaves on it, squirt some bleu cheese dressing on the spinach leaves (go easy, though, too much will overpower everything else) and sprinkle with some pre-cooked, crumbled bacon on top. Not too much, just enough to give the end result a slight smoky flavor.
5. Yank the chicken off the grill, and cut into strips. If you put it on the spinach leaves while it's still really hot, it'll wilt the leaves which is good for texture. Arrange the chicken, garnish with sundried tomato (I like the julienne-cut tomatoes that come in a pouch).
6. If you're like me, dice the Hell out of everything and mix it all together. Best salad ever. Filling, tangy, smoky and nutritious!

If anyone makes this, let me know what you think!

Now, I order you to cast your gaze upon my handsome boy.