Alba Restaurant

Alba Restaurant
524 E 6th St
Des Moines, IA 50309
(515) 244-0261
Dinner: 5:00 PM - Close (Tuesday - Saturday)
Lunch: 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM (Wednesday - Friday)

We were a bit confused as to where to enter, though I am glad we went into the bar, because we were able to see how neat it was, along with the open kitchen. It was pretty impressive to see the cooks at work in the kitchen. Certainly a nice touch. Holly's dad suggested that we should sit at the table right in front of the kitchen, but we didn't. We ended up in the main dining room. I have to say that I like the decor. Holly told us that they guy that was redoing parts of her dad's house also did this restaurant. I liked the doors on the ceiling, the walls, the tile...The concrete trough for the sink in the restroom (though I like the faucets) was a bit...well...underwhelming. I know concrete can look a lot better.

After being seated at a table, we had a good view of the the entire restaurant or a great view out the window. The menu was a little odd. Broken up into appetizers and salads on one side and mains on the other, except the gnocchi, which, according to our waiter Greg, should've been on both.

I ordered the Chorizo Fries and the Pork Burger. Shannon ordered the Warm Goat Cheese and Seafood Linguine. Chris and holly ordered the gnocchi and the Salmon or some fish, poached in red wine.

While I like the chorizo fries, it reminded me a lot of the cheesy fries that you can get any number of places, except better, though no cheese. The fries were good and had a nice spice added to them. Though the fries were covered in chorizo, I thought it might be something more...I liked it, but was it really fine dining fare?

Shannon's warm goat cheese was some goat cheese wrapped in, I believe, prosciutto. It was pretty good. Certainly a good presentation.

The Chris and Holly's gnocchi was probably the highlight, at least in my mind, of the appetizers that we had. I think I've had better, but it was still pretty good.

For the mains they came out together, except for Chris's which came out a little afterward. Then then brought out a small plate with 4 slices out of what appeared to be a ciabatta loaf.

My pork burger was topped with pineapple, jalapeno peppers...it was good...though the pork didn't really stand up to the pineapple and peppers. It should have been spiced with something more. Though I did like the sandwich over all, the drawback on the pork was something that would've made it into a great sandwich. More fries, these were not spiced like the others, but were still good...

Shannon's Seafood Linguine tasted more like spinach then seafood. If you would've said Spinich Linguine then it would've been right on, but for me, it tasted too much like spinach and not enough like seafood. Shannon liked it though.

For dessert I got an apple crisp, Shannon got the chocolate molten cake, and Chris and Holly split the banana foster. All were pretty good, but nothing was really outstanding.

Over the course of the dinner I had two glasses of the Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon, which I liked, and it was fairly inexpensive. I may have to see if I can find it.

Our service was attentive with a few flubs. Greg accidentally split water on to Holly's purse. I was missing silverware (Holly went and stole me some from a vacant table), but he was very quick on returning our checks after we put our credit cards in the folder. Overall service was pretty good.

With two glasses of wine, appetizers, mains and desserts our bill came to a total of $78.44 with tax. With tip, under $100. I believe Chris and Holly's was fairly similar.

Overall I wasn't astounded, but it was good, I'd go back to try more things.

A day of Good news

First thing, I got a call from the guy from MidAmerican Energy to state for certain that they will not be putting a telephone pole in my side yard. They did, however, move the hookup on the side of the house up and over about 4 feet.

Then, when I plugged in my iPod Touch into my car charger, it picked up some email from my dad which said:

Last evening Isaac went before the district board of review for his Eagle rank in Scouts. He successfully passed this last hurdle in achieving the rank. He is now officially an Eagle Scout. It will be some time before the paperwork is processed on the national level and we get the information back from them. We do not yet know when his Eagle Court of Honor will be held.

So a big props to my youngest brother Isaac!

Early in the afternoon I got an email from my co-worker Keith who linked me to a blog post and then I went and found the James Beard Semi-finalist announcement (pdf). Des Moines is well represented with: Django (best new restaurant), George Formaro (Centro) (best chef Midwest), Enosh Kelly (Bistro Montage) (best chef Midwest), and last but not least Steve Logsdon (Basil Prosperi's Lucca) (best chef Midwest). The only one I can't speak to is Bistro Montage, which I haven't been to. Quite well deserved. Brings more attention to our growing restaurant industry here.

I then got another email from the VP of Communications announcing that Iowa Health System Maintains High Credit Rating and Stable Outlook, meaning that Moody's has kept the system's Aa3 bond rating. I don't really know what all that means, however, I know that if the bond rating were lower it would be more expensive for IHS to borrow money in the future, which means that we would be able to do less as time goes by. I've heard that many health organizations are getting downgraded in this tough financial period. What it means for me directly as an employee there, is still unclear, but it's good for IHS, which means I'm less in doubt of my employment in the future.

I got home, made a call to my car loan servicer to confirm that yes indeed my car loan is paid off as of last week (6 payments early) and I'll be getting my title in the next few weeks. I've also bumped up the payment of our credit card debt buy a good 34%. And now that my car is paid of, I have, per my agreement with my wife, permission to get an iPhone, now I just have to wait for the next version of it (my iPod touch already uses 19 gigs (between apps, music, photos and etc, which is bigger then capacity of the most expensive iPhone).

Proof for (the day before) Valentines

Shannon wanted to go to Proof for Valentines, and since they had a dinner on the 13th. The Menu consisted of:

1. vegetable and goat cheese terrine/herb coulis
2. seafood cocktail/cornet
3. prime rib wellington/beet zabaglione
4. chocolate pot de creme/<3

We both had the entire menu and everything was very good. I also had the wine pairings with dinner (Shannon sampled out of mine). I think the wine pairings were pretty good, though It hink the best was probably with the beef wellington, which I think was my favorite part of the meal. Not that the other courses were anything to be upset by, but I don't fix myself beets too often (one of those ingredients I'm not terribly comfortable with, because of a lack of experience), and I have such fond memories of them. I also found out that Shannon isn't a huge fan of beets, but beet enhanced sour cream is ok. I may try to sneak them into things though...though that I'm saying it here, pretty much means that she'll know...but I'll try again.

When I was a child I remember eating my mom's pickled beets...lots of them...so much so that when they came back out, I thought I was bleeding. Oh the red dyes of beets.

We both loved the chocolate pot de creme with the almond heart shaped cookie (the <3). And it wasn't such a big serving, like they have at Django, where it's just too much.

Anyways, another great meal at Proof. For actual valentines day, I cooked, but nothing too special (Chicken Paprikas). The next day we headed up to Ames to go to the Legends for Bob's surprise 30th birthday party. It was all right (food, meh, they had Guinness on tap though). He was truly surprised. Over the entire night, though, I think we knew 5 out of the 30 or so guests...so...

Following the Herd (25 things)

1. I always wanted to be an artistic person, but never really tried that hard. When I was younger I took piano lessons where I practiced enough to win a prize (handmade stuffed bear in the style of an ewok, which I still have to this day), but then pretty much called it after that. The cycles after that were much shorter after that (Violin, guitar, etc).

2. I've always thought I was too tall. This was especially evident when I was younger. I would get chastised for behaving the same way that the other children around me who were the same age as me, or older, because I was taller/bigger.

3. I have few keepsakes from my childhood, because I don't look back fondly on it, generally. However one of those items was a drawing/portrait of me drawn by Ben H. in middle school. It meant a lot to me.

4. I have an unhealthy obsession with the board game Monopoly. I have several versions of the board game, and have it for the Wii. I still play it on the Wii, even though I find the user interface, controls, settings, and saving method obnoxious.

5. It takes a really bad movie for me not to finish it. The last one I didn't finish was Material Girls. It was so awful. I say that and I watched Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter all the way through to the end.

6. I can't believe I admitted that I watched Material Girls.

7. In college, I was invited and went several times to go to the SALT company (Jenny P. (at the time) being one of the times). I only went sober once (I think the time Jenny invited with me). Other times I was inebriated in one form or another.

8. There are a couple to a few years of college that I don't remember very well.

9. I graduated in 2000 from college with a BA in Philosophy and a BS in Psychology. In my exit interview with the Chair of the Philosophy/Religious Studies department, I asked if I could have a BS in Philosophy, because it would just be funny. He said no, but smiled all the same.

10. I blamed my clothes smelling like cigarette smoke on Clif B. for as long as my parents would believe it. After they no longer bought it, I'd take walks, and come back more relaxed.

11. I attempted to quit smoking several times. I finally quit after returning home for a new years trip to Boston to visit the Mattas. Nathan didn't believe that I'd do it, but I've been tobacco free ever since. To accomplish it, I also quit doing things that I associated with smoking. I went sober, I stopped hanging out with friends who smoked, etc. It didn't hurt that the first weekend that I was tobacco free, I was deathly ill and didn't move for 48 hours.

12. I lived without a microwave in my house for a long time.

13. I wanted to be a chef since I was a child, but I fell out of love with food. When I fell back in love with food, I went out and spent a large chunk of money, bought utensils, an entire pot and pan set and etc.

14. I bought a $100 + roasting pan....not to roast, but to make water baths for cheesecakes. I've had the pan for around 2 years or so, and I still have yet to use the roasting pan for anything other then making cheesecakes.

15. Some of my best memories of childhood are food associated. Grandmother's meals, cookies and etc. My mother is also a very good cook. I always loved my birthday because in our family we got to choose what we would have for dinner.

16. In my mind food has quite the duality. I associate it with love and suffering...but mostly love. I may not be able to express how I feel about you, but I can make you something nummy that you'll probably remember.

17. I've generally felt closer to my friends then family. Though I am starting to feel more connected with my family. The problem I think lies in that I can be myself around my friends. I have to be the super-good part of myself around my family. That's not really me.

18. For my birthday party in July of 2006, I made sure that my guests were taken care of, someone would be in charge, and someone would cut cake, while I headed off to the ER to get stitches in my finger that I cut.

19. I drove to Chicago by myself to see Radiohead. It was awesome. I drove home after the concert. Somewhere off of I-80 early in the morning, I wondered around a gas station store for quite a while, because I was having trouble thinking and couldn't decide what I wanted.

20. If you exclude Mediocre Superheroes (which was my friend's band in college) and shows related to those, the live music performances that I've seen the most, in order would be: Andrew Bird, Brother Ali, Atmosphere, Less Than Jake, Punchline, Fall Out Boy, Tori Amos, and Smashing Pumpkins.

21. Brother Ali got off stage, grabbed my shoulder, and guided me, along with the rest of the crowd during a slow emotional part of his show. Yes, that's right, I'm white and I have no rhythm.

22. I love music from classical to hip hop. However, I still think Country doesn't generally fall in the category of music. Though there are a few country songs here and there that I've actually considered buying.

23. I like to play games (Board/video/cards). I play to win, but often don't. Some of my best memories from high school were playing Bridge with my friends at Happy Chef.

24. My first taste of booze was at a friends house on New Years Eve my senior year of high school.

25. It took me well over an hour to write this.

So here's one thing...

I no longer really feel in touch with the future of my work. I have a general concept pieced together from various people of where we are headed, but no clue for certain. I often would know things, even if they were maybes, which makes me feel in control of my future.

I miss that.

But work continues. I'll add features to AT3, continue to support things, and try to keep those old servers going, until I'm told otherwise, I guess.

Short Trip

After Shannon finished work on Saturday, we got ready, packed up and headed to Cedar Rapids. Being such a beautiful day, the roads were nice and light, traffic was light. Now I don't want to put the people in Cedar Rapids off, but I gotta say this.

While people in West Des Moines my drive like total jerks, you can kind of count on that behavior. People on I380 (and other places) near Cedar Rapids drive at random. It's quite ridiculous.

We arrived just as the girls were just being finished packed into the minivan to head off to Grandma and Grandpas for the evening. We said good bye to them and went inside.

A short bit later, Nathan arrived back and we headed out to Scott's for his Annual wine party. Already it was going much better then it did before, since it wasn't so damn cold (so much so that last year, even under a nice buzz, I was freezing).

We arrived a bit late at 6:45 or so...which seemed a bit early. But we had several tastings. Shannon liked one or maybe two (which is better then normal). I think I was in not a good way cause by the end of the night my palette was exhausted and I totally didn't recognize a Zinfandel that I should have. Some of the others, I came close, but for the most part didn't do well.

After a long day, we called it a bit early and headed home to go to bed (I think we're getting old). We spent some time in the morning playing with the girls and then headed back home.

I was shocked, just shocked at how many people were at the Panera when we went to before we headed out of town. I think a french style bakery / cafe could do good business there. I know that La Mie for Sunday Brunch is always packed with lots of people just coming in for coffee, pastries and bread.

We got home after another light traffic driving day. Our kitties seemed happy to see us...even though their bowls of food were still fairly full.

Proof's Moroccan Cooking Class (01/24/2009)

Last night, after saying my farewells to Shannon, I headed down to Proof to go to their first cooking class. I left a bit early, so I ended up driving around the block before parking. I didn't want to show up too early.

I don't know what it was, but my anti-social anxiety had popped up pretty bad in the hours building up to the class. I don't often go to places on my own. There is something about going to a new place with someone, that makes it more comforting, then being alone. This is where the idea of something over takes why I'm normally used to doing.

I went in was greeted and quickly given a Sparkling Rosé (Cava Rosé, Gran Sarao Brut, Cava NV). Carly Groben (owner) was there and I was put a bit at ease...I've met her on a few occasions and Proctor is her friend...so I think It helped to settle me down a bit. The Rosé couldn't have hurt either. More of the group came in the door, and the chef came out and we were fed el Majoun. This was a combination of dried fruits, nuts and a whole lot of spices covered in sesame seeds. It was like a delicious spice bomb in the mouth. Chewy, spicy and a little bit of crunch. I so want to make these things.

After the last of the group arrived, we headed back into the kitchen. While the dining room of the restaurant is warm and inviting, The kitchen is far more practical and utilitarian. We sat in seats to watch the chef make a few things.

Chef Chris Place went through how to make flatbread, ras-el-hanout (spice blend, kind of like curry, in that there are thousands of variations), harissa (a spicy paste), cous cous, a tangent on preserved lemons (which are much easier to make then I would've thought), lamb roulade, spiced eggplant (the vegetarian main course option), and two types of tagine (veggie and seafood). I took many notes in my packet on things I didn't know about, how to do some other things... But here was the point of a few drawbacks. First, while the ingredients are listed, processes, amounts and etc were not. And while he didn't look like the Chef was measuring things, exactly, I wouldn't be comfortable doing that right off the bat. Second, the kitchen was loud. Even without the exhaust fan above the stove on (it was on and off and points during the demonstration), it was still tough to hear. And Third, it was often tough to see what was being done. Not that cooking lends well to see what I'm doing in this bowl well. Even with all that, it was still quite a bit of fun. Just kind of to demystify the whole area. It's not that complicated...its just a bunch of ingredients that you may not use every day.

Afterward, we headed back into the dining room to do a wine tasting. The wines were pretty god, though nothing really stood out as a huge favorite in my mine. I think it was huge the example of how wine changes with food, and without. I think my favorite of the batch was the Monastrel/Cabernet Sauvignon, Castano "Solanera" Yecla 2005. Which was really good with the seafood tagine.

The dinner was great. It consisted of the things the Chef demonstrated plus some almond pastry and a fortune cookie. Mine said, "I'm not a glutton, I'm an explorer of food". Which is pretty good. I still like the "I don't have a big waistline, I have a large happiness curve." better.

I spent a while chatting with Carly about food, desire to cook, and showed her some pictures of things I've made. I think it came to a point of what the kitchen reminded you of. I have many fond memories of smells and sights of both my mothers and grandmothers (dad's side) kitchen, and it kind of makes me want to share that with others. Food has always been a way for me to show my love for other people.

When I got home, I settled down a bit and was told that Shannon got some rear claws to the face...Apparently George scared Gracie, and Gracie kind of used Shannon's face as a launching point to get away. She didn't bleed, so it sounds like it should heal up well.

*sigh*

After almost exactly 7.5 years, the team at work that I have been in has officially been changed (not in the same way that new hires and etc would be).

While I'm not sure how all of this will pan out, however it still feels weird.

However, I'm still employed, I have a new boss, and will be doing the same general thing (for now).

I don't talk about work much here...cause most people don't care...but this is a big multifaceted change and I've yet to see all the parts to it yet.

January Game Night

Last night was game night and because of the snow or sickness or whatever, the attendance was small...but still fun. In attendance was Will, Proctor, Chris and Holly.

We played, Acquire, Uno, Settlers of Catan (while the girls played the simpson's game, which reminds me that I need to get the Settlers expansion pack). Will won Acquire, I won Uno (in a surprisingly short game) and Will dominated in Settlers...shortest game I've played.

After which, it was approaching midnight, Holly wasn't feeling good, so people headed home.

I made peanut butter cookies and put a dollop of melted dark chocolate on the top. They turned out pretty good...though I think I could have used more chocolate.

Proctor brought two loaves of bread and some cheeses, including a great blue cheese along with this triple creme French cheese which was soft and amazingly good on bread.

New Years Resolutions 2009 and First Week of meals

This year we have a shared goal of not using the credit card for anything other then replacing the furnace and air conditioner (this will depend on if I use the tax refund(s) for this or to pay off my car, which will be paid off by September).

My goal for this year, is to use my cookbooks more and plan and make dinners according to the plan. Too often I'll depend on the old standbys because I feel tired or just can't think of what I want to make.

So for the week of Sunday January 4th through Saturday January 10th, I'll be cooking from The Best 30-Minute Recipe mostly.

Tonight it'll be Lasagna (not from the book, or any book for that matter) and then in no particular order:

• Skillet Tamale Pie (pages 119-120)
• Skillet Shepherd's Pie (pages 118-119)
• Curried Chicken and Rice (page 110)
• 30 Minute Pork Vindaloo (Page 83)