Sunday night, Ivon and I enjoyed a magnificent dinner at Fuel. We started with the ultra dense corn soup (one bowl = five ears of corn!), then split the night’s feature tuna dish – served medium rare. I had originally planned to make the tuna my main, but upon learning Ivon had never tried Chef Belcham’s signature Crispy Duck For Two, I changed my mind and ordered that instead. While we were waiting for it to arrive, Ivon mentioned visiting a friend who offered him some tomatoes from her backyard garden. They were tiny, orange, had a cirtus-like scent, and proved sweet and incredibly delicious. Ivon assured me he wasn’t the type to just pop tomatoes like candy, but these were particularly good… Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember their name. As he wracked his brain in an effort to come up with it, we were served a surprise course in honor of my 50th dinner reservation (not counting the many times I drop by and simply grab a seat at the counter or come in under somebody else’s reservation).
- 50th Anniversary Reservation Pork with Golden Sunray Tomatoes.
Accompanying the delectable pork was a summer succotash and some golden sunray tomatoes – THE very tomatoes Ivon had been raving about earlier. He was right. They WERE sweet and utterly delicious! Finally, it was tine for the duck, presented to us whole, then whisked back to the kitchen where it was deboned, plated, and then served.
- Crispy Duck. Presented…
- And served.
“This is the best duck I’ve ever had,”marveled Ivon, echoing the exact same sentiments of at least two other duck first-timers I’ve had the pleasure of introducing to Fuel’s version. We skipped dessert, paid the bill and, as we were preparing to leave, noticed the anti-foie gras kooks were at it again, standing outside waving their placards, shouting at customers, their faces of course masked in order to intimidate and harass. I delayed my departure so that I could buy anyone in the restaurant who wanted one a complimentary foie gras in honor of the demonstration, then left.
As I was exiting, one of the pastier-faced vegans yelled something at me. I turned and informed her that their demonstration was counter-productive and that, in fact, such protests actually increased foie gras sales. They were doing a disservice to their own cause. Our debate went something like this…
Me: You do realize that foie gras sales actually go up during these demonstrations.
Her: SHAME!SHAME!SHAME!
Me: You’re actually doing a disservice to your own cause.
Her: SHAME!SHAME!SHAME!
Me: For instance, tonight, I bought foie gras in response to your protest.
Her: SHAME!SHAME!SHAME!
Me: Your –
Her: SHAME!
Me: – signs –
Her: SHAME!
Me: – are actually –
Her: -misleading.
Her: SHAME!SHAME!SHAME!
It was grand debating the issues with her.
Back in the office today. The plan was to print up copies of the script, pace and polish, and put them out. Unfortunately, my formatting problems were not behind. When I completed my first pass on the scripts, they were about 56 pages each – about 5 pages too long. So I tightened them up, bringing the page count down to more manageable 51. The following day, I discovered that I’d written the script in the old Atlantis font (Times New Roman). I changed the font on both scripts to New Courier – and had the scripts balloon to 58 and 60 pages. Sooo, I went over the scripts yet again, tightening, trimming, and excising until I finally had it down to the 51 page target mark. I went in today and asked Lawren to print them up. He informed me that, alas, simply changing the font on the script was not enough. The Universe scripts necessitated a whole new formatting that included borders and margins. So he reformatted my scripts and they came back to me: 46 pages long and 5 pages short! So, I spent the day referring back to my initial drafts, putting back some of the elements I thought should go back, yet leaving out the elements that deserved to be excised. And, tomorrow, I’ll go over the scripts yet again with an eye to the act breaks and adding a couple of requested scenes. Yeesh. It’s times like this I’m sorry I didn’t follow up on my initial third grade career choice of private detective.
Today’s blog is dedicated to birthday gal Jumble. But an extra special dedication to blog regular Shiningwit who is going through a very difficult time right now. Incredibly saddened and sorry to hear about Sassie.
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