Chapter 32: Good times in SLC

 

Chapter 32: good times in SLC

              Currently, Ben, William, Sarah, and Natalie were visiting, and my great college friend Hana would be coming the next day, Saturday morning. On Friday the 5 of us decided to go off-roading at a place called “Little Moab” using Ben’s super truck (a Toyota Tacoma). The drive there is beautiful. We get to Little Moab and find some good off-roading spots. I get out to spot, William does as well. I spotted for Ben last time we did off-roading down in the canyonlands and arches NPs. Basically, I needed to keep an eye on the leveling of the tires and to prevent bottoming out by watching carefully the upcoming ledges and angles, keeping the position of the back tires in mind. It’s a fun group activity. Every new off road “trail” we chose was like a brand new puzzle, but  a puzzle that was more dangerous, and treacherous, and more active with more collaboration. We off-roaded for a while. It was a beautiful area. We only had one moment that got a little bit dicey and the car almost bottomed out. After “solving’ several puzzles, we decide to head over to Little Sahara, where there are sand dunes to drive on. I remind everyone of our 7 PM diner reservation that we cannot miss, and set an absolute turn around time of 4:15 or so PM. We get to Little Sahara and immediately decide we should have come here first. There are plenty of good offroad sections. And the Dunes are well-formed and accessible. And we had brought skis to potentially do some sand skiing, but wouldn’t be able to now due to time constraints. Oh well, plans for next time. We go up a few dunes, observe the hilarious crawl mode of the truck, which basically makes mounds of snow with oscillating application of torque and breaks, in order to create terrain that can be driven over. We get to the top of a dune and observe the rest of the area from our relative high point. It’s beautiful and we spot several opportune spots for the next time. Now it’s time to start going back for the diner. Google somehow finds me a route back and we begin to follow it, until it brings us to a locked gate on private property—the kind of property that is likely protected with a shotgun. I jump out and check the gate; it’s padlocked and there’s no way to open it. We don’t want to idle outside the house too long, so we start driving back and take an alternate road that appears as though it’s going the correct direction. We all joked about why Google would route us through private property like that. Maybe there would be a driving alert next to it that said “warning, drive quickly, firearm area”. Eventually we get back to the freeway. We make good time at first, then hit a god deal of traffic, but certainly get to the restaurant before 7PM. I sleep on the way there, or attempt to. I’m incredibly tired, between not sleeping well and radiation, and I had recently ran out of salt tabs, and so I was worried that I may also be hyponatremic. I try to eat some salty snacks before taking a nap. They just make me more thirsty. That was the worst bit of this SIADH thing, I was always thirsty for water.

              We get to the restaurant—Table X—which serves a 7-course tasting menu with drink (wine or nonalcoholic) pairing. We have a private table that has a window which overlooks the garden. At first I’m disappointed because I had thought that I reserved an outdoor table in the garden. It turned out to be fortuitous when in a few minutes a massive thunderstorm began, drenching every outdoor table and guest. We get the menu. I’m very excited to take this group of friends out to a fancy dining experience. William especially is a food science nerd, and I know will be fun to talk with about the food. Natalie is also a phenomenal cook, and I’m eager to hear what she has to say about the dishes. I look at the menu and order the 7 course vegetarian tasting menu with wine pairing. I had previously had the standard 7 course a few weeks prior an wanted to try something new. Most of the others got either the 5 or 7 course standard tasting menu with either wine or non-alcoholic pairing. Natalie opted to do no pairing and get her own drinks.  Soon they brought out the first mini-appetizer, designed to be a small bite packed with flavor to get our mouth ready for the rest of the meal. It’s always one of my favorites and never changes. Meanwhile William and I look up the qualifications for getting a Michelin star. Curiously, only the food is considered, and there is nothing about atmosphere, interior design, or waitstaff. The food continues to come, first an interesting salad, then probably some of the best sourdough and cultured butter I have ever had in my life, along with some new white wine pairings. Although I did not specifically want alcohol given my fatigue, the bonus wine tasting element was a fun addition to the evening. Eventually the first real appetizer comes out—a pesto risotto. The basil is all grown in their garden. We get a sweet and tart white wine for pairing. Together they are fantastic. The brightness and flavors of the wine help cut magnificently through the salty-savory favors of the risotto. William is similarly impressed. When the waitress comes back he asks more about the farm that the parmesan cheese came from, and what is giving the dish it’s citrus taste. It’s apparently a local farm that they have a contract with, and there is a tiny bit of garden-grown lime giving the citrus taste. After the risotto is the first main. I get a Zucchini dish with an incredibly delicious sauce or glaze, and the rest get a white fish. A new glass of white is brought. Another Spanish wine. It pairs oddly well with the zucchini, but has a bit too much sweetness to be a truly great paring. I ask William what he thinks. He thinks it pairs well with the overall savory taste of the fish, but states that the fish tastes overdone, and that maybe they should have used a sous vide and then seared it instead. Having had the fish before, I agree. The others agree but like it alright. The next, between-mains dish may have been the most creative and best. The next dish was a specially cooked egg from a nearby coup. The wine pairing came first, another Spanish wine, this one pink, mostly the taste of white, with a touch more sweetness, but also with a longer-lasting tannin tail, surprisingly. Then the dish came out. It was a sous vide egg, served sunny-side up, with associated mushrooms and sauce and crunchy pork bits. William asked several questions about the egg’s preparation. How could they get a soft yolk with sous vide when the yoke cooks at a lower temperature. Does the white every become hard? The result was a egg white that had a gelatinous, smooth, and soft texture, with a custardy inner yoke that still bled when you poked it. The textures of the egg were incredible, like nothing I had ever had before. William decided that he was going to start to sous vide his eggs from here on. The dish came wonderfully together with the crunchy pork and mushrooms with some sort of mushroom sauce.  William and I discussed what we thought might improve the dish. The soft texture of the mushrooms could possibly be replaced, given the already soft egg, but the mushroom added too much from a flavor standpoint. We decided that perhaps adding duck and duck Confit in place of all the pork, would be the best option. The duck confit, savory and crunchy, would pair well with the sweet parts of the egg.

              Then it was time for our last course, A brisket for them, and a seared eggplant steak for me. They brought out the last wine pairing. Finally, a red wine. I was becoming tired of the white wines. The dishes came. I knew that there’s was fantastic because I had had it before. My eggplant came with some seared onions and carrot as well. William asked the waitress about the sauces served with the brisket. He was mostly curious about a clear oil immersion and a green herb sauce. The green sauce was an emulsion of several herbs from the garden. I unfortunately forgot what made the clear sauce, but it was certainly some food or spice soaked in oil for extraction for some time. It seemed like William was getting many cooking ideas from this dining experience. I was happy to have someone to chat with who was also so nerdy about nice food. I must admit that my eggplant steak was subpar—although in fairness I was never a huge fan of eggplant steak, and it can be difficult to prepare well. Although the carrot and onion were fantastic. Finished with these main courses, the deserts start to come out. First is a homemade ice cream, vanilla, with some homemade granola. It’s quite good, but I’m getting full. I feel as though the ice cream should have a hint of lemon to it. For some reason there’s another white wine pairing with the ice cream, which is fine. We finish, and they take our glasses and prepare to bring the second desert. We request no more wine pairings. I certainly feel as though I’ve had enough. The last desert is an olive oil cake, which I’ve had previously and is certainly delicious. I take one bite and realize that I am way too full to finish it. Natalie, having ordered the 5 course menu, did not get an olive oil cake. SO I give mine to her, which she enjoys much more than I would have. At the end of the diner I make sure to buy some of their fantastic bread and butter to take home. We thank the staff, Ben is generous and pays for several people, so I let the reservation deposit go to Natalie. Ben drives us back, drops us off at my apartment, and then goes to pick up Sarah. We lounge and relax for a while in the apartment. I’m tired and need to go to bed, which I do shortly after. I feel somewhat bad because I won’t be able to say hi initially to Sarah. Natalie goes along with ben, as Natalie, Sarah, and Ben plan to sleep at an AirBnB that Natalie booked to make sure there was enough room (thank you).

We spend most of the following days relaxing and having low-energy hang-out sessions, including playing one of the best board games ever made: wingspan. Eventually everyone needs to go. Between Ben and me, we get everyone else to the airport. Ben continues on his long drive all the way back to Seattle.

              I have one neuro-oncology appointment before the next adventure, which they called about before and offered to cancel because nothing specific needed to be discussed. I keep in order to set up next steps. The appointment comes. I’m doing OK in general, just became more fatigued in general from the radiation, which we expect to improve with time. The side effects are additive no matter how much time passes between, so my doctor is not surprised. We discuss next steps for treatment. I want to start something called an Optune device as soon as possible. This is essentially a helmet that applies oscillating electric fields to help prevent tumor growth. We’ll continue the Pembrolizumab at the same time. I had seen decent results from the trials with Optune and so I was hopeful and excited to get started. I ask briefly about other clinical trial and medication options. We haven’t found anything specific yet, and while we’ll keep you eyes out, we won’t know until after the next MRI. There’s also the problem of the washout period for pembrolizumab and avastin. Many trials require a large amount of time since last receiving these medicines to try and ensure that any results notable are due to the experimental drug. This annoys me, but I guess I have to play the game if I want to try something new…. It would be a little while before everything got started. I felt like we had mostly a plan. I was not looking forward to the MRI in several weeks in the beginning of October; but until then I had several trips and vacations to keep me occupied.