Further Confusion 2016

[tuftears]

I should probably cover Further Confusion before it completely slips my mind!



dracosphynx and I began the day with a trip to http://www.yelp.com/biz/mitsuwa-marketplace-san-jose where Dracosphynx had his custumary Japanese curry, and I had the bento lunch box special. That's beef and a pork tonkatsu, rice, a Japanese salad, and miso soup. Plenty of food!



Dracosphynx went shopping for some Pocky and such, so I browsed around the candy store in the front of the supermarket. I saw this: potato chips covered in gourmet chocolate.

Oh Japan, y u so weird. :) Actually, I gather that these are an American snack, so it's not actually Japan's fault.



The dealer's room at Further Confusion has started to trend more towards fursuits and accessories thereof. I still managed to get a few things-- notably, Sofawolf had "Rat's Reputation", a new book by Michael C. Payne, who wrote 'The Blood Jaguar' a considerable while ago.

These snow leopard paws! SO CAT.

I met up with various people, and started on a sketch for normanrafferty's upcoming Urban Jungle RPG; partway through I ran out of lead in my mechanical pencil and had to beg Dark Natasha for some. She's such a sweetheart. :)

Then of course, there was... the Fursuit Parade.



There must have been at least a hundred, maybe two or three! This is a pretty meager selection of a few that I managed to catch.



This one is special though, not so much because of the suit, though the head is well done, but because he is cuddling an actual fennec! Aw. ^_^

We met up with FurryMUCK wizards later at ARCADIA, a very pricey steakhouse, thanks to Drew for herding us cats. (meow!)



These are fries! Ordinary, you say? Apparently they've been fried in duck fat. Not only that, each of the three containers of fries has a different flavoring, along with the three sauces of barbecue, horseradish, and tangy ketchup. I didn't realize that about the fries, and only nommed some from the closer one, which was chili flavored. Mel. White clued me in after. Whoops.



The food is pretty pricey, and they seem determined to nickel and dime you, going so far as to charge for sauces that other restaurants would normally just bring you alongside. The presentation is fancy enough, to be sure. Here's the filet mignon I ordered, with a side of broccolini.

Was it good? Well, yes, it was pretty good. I'm not convinced that it's better than, say, sous vide flank steak pan-seared at home, but it's in the same taste class at least. The broccolini was a little on the bitter side. Honestly, I think Acquerello impressed me more as 'worth it' but that restaurant is in a higher 'weight class' as it were.

So, I'd give this restaurant a B-. The prices really put me off. If you're going to charge a lot, charge a bit more and bundle the sides with the food, embrace the 'high end' rather than giving people the choice of being economical or spending a lot for a full experience.



Dessert was pretty good though; I guess the idea is to sooth people's financial pains with a happy ending. tugrik ordered beignets; I ordered vanilla ice cream doughnuts, and we shared them with our end of the table. They were pretty tasty!

Comments

[centauress.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a theory to the super-expensive food places that they want to be 'accessible' and their sauces are expensive.

But the nickel-and-dime approach actually costs them money to count all the dishes. I dunno, I do think that sometimes they make it too complex to order a decent meal in order to bring their plate-price down. I'd rather a default (small) amount come with the meal and then pay for add-ons that I prefer than have to deal with piecing together a meal with an expertise that I don't possess over meals that I've never tasted ^-^

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

This is the first high-end steakhouse I've been to so I don't know if they're just following 'standard practices' or if this is their own crazy. :) They certainly don't do this sort of thing at -- whoops, I'm wrong. Looking at Black Angus's menu, they do charge for 'steakhouse butters'. They offer a nice selection at $1 apiece but still, come on guys.

Though I admit I'd find 'bacon & bleu cheese' an interesting topping worthwhile paying an extra buck to try.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated by the costume of ... a raven in a uniform somewhat reminiscent of 19th-century Prussia? (Or maybe it's supposed to be a black eagle.) That's the sort of thing that makes me curious to know more of the story of the character.

RE: Potato Chips & Chocolate: I think a couple of times I've seen ridged potato chips half-dipped in chocolate (HALF dipping them seems to be part of the presentation?) as snacks. I can see the appeal as a sort of "salty-sweet" mixture. I'm having trouble telling by the picture, but it looks as if they've taken a different approach to the "half-dipped" factor, as it looks like it's coated in chocolate on just one side of each chip?

[rowyn]

I really like chocolate-dipped potato chips, myself (both the one-sided and half-dipped). Salty-crunchy-chocolatey! :9

The fursuit with pet fennec is super adorable. D'aww!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the chips! And that costume does remind me of the Korvs. :)

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

Arcadia changed its theme some time in the late 2000s. When I first was there for an industry conference (2006), they had a wide variety of dishes (not just steak), and their theme seemed to be putting their own specialized flair on everything. It was wonderful (even though not all of the food was to my taste). By 2008-ish, they'd re-branded as a steak house, and a lot of that went away (though a few items were still present as sides).

I don't remember the pricing scheme in detail, but as far as I can recall it was the usual "X for the meal, Y for appetizers or side dishes, Z for drinks" scheme that most normal restaurants have. It's possible that I just didn't encounter the circumstances you did, though.

Another factor that may be contributing: They're the main restaurant in the primary hotel for an enormous convention centre. Most of their customers will be people from out of town who are there for an industry conference of some kind and who are going to a restaurant to schmooze deals with other attendees and/or to pamper themselves on the company dime (for some values of "pamper"). I can certainly see a restaurant trying to aim for the lowest common denominator _and_ gouge under those conditions.

It's a pity, since the place was great a decade ago. At least it still sounds like you had a decent time, price structure notwithstanding. =^.^=

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I picture Admin eyeing the expense receipt with gimlet eyes. "So, you had a steak dinner with Ms. X from XYZ Industries... But did you really need to purchase the sauces as well?"

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

While I'm sure that certainly happens, I suspect that the people indulging (especially for wining-and-dining schmooze targets) have tacit or explicit permission to spend whatever they like. It varies from institution to institution and from person to person.

As a grad student, I could spend pretty much whatever I wanted and my supervisor would sign off on it as long as I didn't do anything crazy. Nowadays, that's harder, because the university tightened its rules after someone claimed parts for their expensive car as a research expense, but I'm sure that there are other places that are more lenient.

For purposes of brokering deals, I'm sure that no bean-counter in the world would want to risk their job telling the marketing-type that they shouldn't have spent $400 on food and drink trying to Close That Sale. I suspect the lower end of that demographic is who Arcadia is currently trying to appeal to.

Now I want to eat there again, darnit. =^.^= Some day!