Food and Fic

[itsallovernow]

Sunday night, as part of LA's dineLA Restaurant Week, (lunch and dinner prix fixe meals all over town to encourage you to try new places you might not otherwise), we went to Dakota, which , as it turns out is the restaurant in the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.

I love the Roosevelt, even though they've chichied it up, made it hip and expensive. It's old Hollywood, dark and gorgeous and lovely and has always been one of my favorite places in the city despite the new penchant for a $14 martini (and side note: as I mention martinis here fairly often, I hope those of you who don't know me understand that I am not talking about a frou frou drink. I'm talking an ice cold gin martini, very dry, with a twist. Preferably with Hendrick's gin, but Sapphire will do in a pinch. Or occasionally a dirty vodka martin with three olives missing their pimentos. No, I don't order this in public very often because I WILL NOT eat pimentos and will pick them out and sometimes, you just don't want to subject your companion to the squirmy little pimento piece wrapped in a napkin). Anyway...

Because I'm lazy, here's the menu: dineLA menu

We had one of each and it was really... just spectacular. The steak was perfect - tender and flavorful and beautifully seared with this amazing bordeaulaise sauce (basically a red wine reduction). The scallops were lovely (in a ginger soy sauce that was nicely balanced and which I wanted to drink), seared on both ends, firm and sweet. The salad of tomatoes, watermelon and fromage blanc was about 80 times better than I thought it'd be, despite the ingredients being somewhat out of season, and the desert was just lovely - rich and chocolatey and not ovwerwhleming.

Plus, the restaurant is all dark wood and leather and low lighting and good acoustics and I would NEVER have eaten there otherwise because steak is not really my thing and it's prohibitively expensive. But, for those of you who live in LA who haven't taken advantage of Restaurant Week, I'd highly encourage it. Dinner is either $25 or $34 depending on where you go (deluxe or premier) and lunch is a total bargain at $15 or $22! We had lunch at Luna Park a week ago, and while I don't find their food spectacular, it was still a fun lunch for a great deal!

***
Onto the fic, in honor of the primaries, give me a character and I'll tell you something about their attitude towards government or politics - a first time, a thought, a moment of participation, a moment of disgust, or a moment of joy.

Comments

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

dude, I'll eat your pimentos

Uh character... Titus Pullo, Vala Mal Doran, Aeryn Sun or Kara Thrace on Earth (dealer's choice).

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Aeryn has no use for politics. She's a weapon not a diplomat. The explosion, the jab, the thrust. She's not the nuance. She's the bright burst of change. The end point. The spark. As an assassin, and yes, she'll say it out loud now, she learned how words could be weapons, how the twists of the tongue could be just as lethal as a pulse blast. As a parent,as a mate, she's learned subtlety and rage and the art of offering choice in it's purest, most controlled form. She's learned not everything should be solved by violence, learned it far earlier than any of those careers in fact, but she still preferred those moments of clarity when she was told to strike and she did, swiftly and perfectly and with unmatched grace.
***

Neither Pullo nor Vala have much use for politics. Politics are for other people - people with time and wealth and no blood on their hands, who've always got coin in their pockets and wine at the ready and dark, cold eyes betraying the kind of ambition that involves more than a warm bed and someone to share it with a bag of gold tucked under the mattress.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

cuz I know you want to: Toby. ;).

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

The night they win the election, the days leading up to it when Toby knows they're going to win and almost wants to seek out a cornfield in Kansas to hide in so he doesn't jinx it, that night he sits by himself in the dark chill of a Washington night. He smokes a cigar and talks to the version of his father that lives in his head, that gives sage advice, and never worked for an organization of questionable morality.

He sings praises in his head for what government can do, lets the purity of his belief shine through for a few moments, before retreating back into reality, into the inevitable conclusion of a difficult future. Toby loves very few things - the democratic party on it's best days, even if those days are far behind him; CJ Cregg, on her best days when she's bright and full and his friend; his ex-wife, even when she's right which he'll never admit; the US constitution, always; the New York Yankees, forever and ever amen; and his family, painfully and thoroughly.

He loves this in a different way, the process of choosing, the processing of influencing choice, of giving voice to a nation and taking back what they give.

He sits for a minute, quiet and cold, thick smoke curling up around him and savors it.

[50mm.livejournal.com]

I'm talking an ice cold gin martini, very dry, with a twist.

Yes! I agree completely! :) Have you ever tried Citadel gin? Very good, esp with a twist.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I have not!! I'll take a look though!

[denynothing1.livejournal.com]

*sigh* The Vermont thing was also part of dineLA. Boy were they even more outclassed than I though originally. That sounds like a lovely menu.

I've never been to the Roosevelt for food, only for drinks and a nosh. I should remedy that.

I want to hear about the first time CJ Cregg voted. *greedy*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It was a lovely menu!! Particularly as it would have been ridiculously pricey otherwise.

***

CJ voted in college for the first time. It wasn't a presidential election. In her district in Northern California, there wasn't much competition for the democratic vote. They were an isolated pocket of liberalism in a vast and changing world and that made her ridiculously happy some days. She liked the word feminist (she also liked being braless and if the two were intwined so be it!)

California allowed referendum's, and now, so many years later, she doesn't even remember what the issue was, nor how she'd voted, only that she'd felt this awe at having a voice in a process, however small. She's pretty sure the thought, the awe, didn't linger much past the moment, that she went on about her day and didn't give it another thought, even as she attended rallies and protests - the felt so much like doing something, anything to bring about change - but she can capture the brightness of that ballot still. That tangible proof that she had a right to have her say.

This, at least, is what she tells the press when they ask her about her votes, her record. She tells them about that day, and if it's so much spin, well, it's still spin she believes.

[denyeverything1.livejournal.com]

Whee! Thank you so much! I miss CJ so much, and her fabulous blend of idealism and pragmatism.

She tells them about that day, and if it's so much spin, well, it's still spin she believes.

That's *perfect*.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Yeah!! Glad you liked it.

[jcalanthe]

What a fun idea! How about Wallace from Veronica Mars?

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Politics, in Wallace's estimation, are all about negotiation. How do you keep this person on your side while still maintaining your edge. How do you balance your status as the youngest starter on the team without getting beat on. How do you negotiate being friends with a girl who can't stay out of trouble, who won't stay out of the line of revenge and ruthlessness and regret and not get tarnished.

Politics mean that sometimes you fall, sometimes you're tarred with a nasty brush of association. You can get points back here, there and everywhere, but in the end, you are you're running mate.

He knows these things when he chooses Veronica. Knows the the trade off of her ferocity will ultimately outweigh the millstone of outcastness that she brings, that she wears like a badge of pride and that he'd still like to tuck under his vest, reveal like Wyatt Earp.

[jcalanthe]

Oh yay, this is wonderful! Thank you so much!