Resto: M sur Masson

Adresse: 2876 Masson

Cote: 4,8/5

Alors voilà, j’ai envie d’ouvrir ce blog par un billet sur un restaurant qui a volé mon cœur à deux pas de chez moi. Je n’y suis allé qu’une fois pour le moment, mais quelle fois! C’était pour une occasion toute spéciale; ma fête et celle de ma meilleure copine. Je parle du secret le mieux gardé de Rosemont; le M sur Masson.

Le M sur Masson est situé, comme son nom le dit; sur la rue Masson au 2876. C’est un minuscule bistrot coincé entre un fleuriste et une tabagie. Premièrement, dès notre entrée, nous avons été séduits par la décoration sobre et jolie de l’endroit. Les couleurs chaudes et l’éclairage tamisé à la perfection nous ont tout de suite mis en confiance. À noter aussi les vieux bancs d’église qui longent l’endroit qui fait un coquet écho à la très belle église Saint-Sulpice en face.

Puis, comme c’était notre première visite, nous avons été accueillis comme des rois. La carte, qui change selon les saisons et les humeurs du chef, nous a été expliquée avec force de détails et on nous a répondu gentiment à toutes nos questions. Il en fut de même pour la très belle carte des vins du restaurant.

Autre chose très charmante, c’est les hommages à d’autres restaurants que propose le M sur Masson. Au moment où nous y sommes allées; c’était les huîtres Rockefeller qui étaient en vedettes et que j’ai choisi. À se rouler par terre! Sinon, le menu nous offre une belle diversité de plats mélangeant la cuisine de terroir avec la fine cuisine française. En entrée Sarah a pris un plat de palourdes en sauce légère, Alexandra un tartare de saumon exquis et Daviel et Audrey auront opté pour la spécialité de la maison, une soupe à l’oignon.

En plat principal j’ai attaqué une épaule de porc braisée croustillante avec gnocchis, choux de Bruxelles au beurre et shiitakes. Se sera fait également dévorer une truite noire d’Alaska et je ne sais plus quoi encore (il faut me pardonner; c’était en mars dernier, peut-être que mes acolytes du moment pourront m’aider?). Les assiettes sont d’une grosseur plus que suffisantes, surtout si on aura pris une entrée. Malheureusement, nous n’avons pas eu la chance de goûter aux desserts qui, si on se fie au reste du menu, devaient être succulents.

Donc, en gros, le M est une place d’enfer avec une carte plus que sublime et une ambiance agréable, bien que nous semblions un peu jeunes pour l’endroit. (Eh oui, certaines gentes arrivent encore à regarder les autres de haut quand bien entendu on apprécie également ce qui nous fond dans la bouche…) Il faut absolument que j’y retourne au midi. À ce que l’on dit, les tarifs y sont beaucoup moins chers pour une aussi bonne cuisine. Parce que, faut dire, près de 60$ par tête sans le pourboire, ça commence à faire pas mal de sous…

We had Pita Bread and Dips ( Hummus and Olive ), Oceanic Citrus Salad, Beef Lasagna, Spaghetti Bolognese and Vanilla Cupcakes.

Their website : http://www.ilovemarmalade.com.my/

They also have a cute boutique connecting to the cafe called KITSCH. Cannot check out the boutique as got my hands full with my double D.

Bref, nous sommes allez faire la route des vins dans les cantons de l'est.  L'idée n'est pas tant de visiter toutes les vignes des différents vignobles, mais plutôt de déguster les différents produits offerts par les producteurs de vins d'ici.  Très, TRÈS, intéressant.  À cinquante sous du verre pour déguster, vous pouvez en faire longtemps ...très longtemps, et pour pas cher ...vraiment pas cher.

Ensuite, si vous êtes dans le coin de Dunham, je vous suggère fortement de faire le détour vers Frelishburgh afin de vous rendre au Domaine Pinnacle.  La dégustation est entièrement gratuite, les gens on ne peut plus sympatique et chaleureux, et les produits tout simplement fous !  Nous sommes revenu avec une bouteille de cidre de glace, une bouteille de cidre de glace pétillant, ainsi qu'une crême aux pommes.  C'est un peu comme un Bailey's en 4 X mieux !

Nuité au Chateau Bromont pour clore le week-end, la Barmaid du Golden Pub qui nous a servi alors que nous sommes allez prendre un verre aurait intérêt à lire mes cours de restauration 101 par contre...mais ça, c'est une autre histoire !

Nous avons mangé à un restaurant formidable aujourd'hui. J'ai pris des escargots pour la première fois et franchement, probablement pour la dernière fois aussi. En fait, ce n'étaient pas bien passé.

Je suis sûr que les escargots étaient parfaitement cuits mais pour moi la chose la plus difficile était d’essayer d’ouvrir les petits bêtes.  Je les ai luttés pendant quelques minutes et finalement le serveur m’a aidé.  Je ne sais pas s’ils vaillent la peine.

Un autre aspect du repas qui m’a surpris était que du vin coûte mois que du soda. J’ai voulu boire un Coca, mais ça coûtait presque 7€, du vin coûtait seulement 3,50€. 

 Photo prise de http://www.finestchef.com/escargot_recipe.htm

I'm thinking that if things stay how they are now I'll be going full in for Resto and using this build http://thottbot.com/wotlk/druid/t#//eWvXHSn.T I'll miss my bugs, yes, but I'll be amazing! XD

Plansplan s'enrichit quotidiennement et se propose dès à présent de vous faire partager ses meilleurs plansplan resto !

Ici que du bon, de la qualité, agrémenté de crûs savamment sélectionnés.
Le premier restaurant que plansplan vous présente c'est le Comptoir du 11eme, 35 rue Faidherbe à Paris, dans la 11^e.

Situé non loin du métro Faidherbe-Chaligny, il propose une excellente cuisine, très fine, à des prix raisonnable (compter 25 euros à la carte, entrée-plat ou plat-dessert). OK, c'est pas donné donné, mais cela vaut véritablement le détour. Les vins sont eux aussi très bien (ils proviennent de Vinactive, le caviste des vignerons médaillés, un pote de plansplan) et peu chers (bouteilles à partir de 18 / 20 euros).

Les plats sont très bons, les produits utilisés d'excellente qualité, le chef marie les saveurs avec originalité et discernement. Mais de quel type de cuisine s'agit-il ? Hum, difficile à décrire… Pour simplifier, disons qu'il s'agit d'une cuisine de bistro revisitée et modernisée. Avec ça, vous êtes bien avancés me direz-vous ! La carte d'été compte par exemple de l'agneau, servi avec des patates douces au sauternes (eh ouais !), du thon à la japonaise (servi dans sa feuille de brick, un délice !), entre autres plats.

En bref, courez-y ! Vous ne serez pas déçus.

Just like the souvenir bumper stickers and T-shirts say, except with the heart symbol. A few weeks ago, Chelsea asked me if I could take off the weekend of my birthday, which this year was also Fourth of July weekend. I said sure, as I am glad to take any opportunity to get away from the job. But little did I know what she had planned. Obviously, she planned big. Specifically, she had planned to take me to Mario Batali's Babbo for dinner. Seeing as we live in Chicago, that was real big.

Of course, my birthday was only one day, so we had to plan out the whole weekend, and that involved dining at some of the many great places that we only get to hear and read about. But first, before the food, before the drinks, before the amazing service, I just have to write down how much this city impresses me. I know that being there on a holiday weekend can be a little misleading because most of the locals are away, escaping their hectic routines. Still, there were enough good people left to give an idea of who makes up the population--for instance, Mr. Big and Chris, the fabulous designer from "Project Runway" who did things with human hair that no one thought possible. And the great bones that make up New York were still there.

This was the first time I was there in the summer, so I had the good fortune to be able to really absorb the architecture and my surroundings.

We also visited the area of the former World Trade Center, which we did not do the last time we were there. I'm not sure what is planned for the site but the city has moved on, and I will never forget.

There is so much history and character in New York that makes me proud to be an American, believe it or not. Kind of fitting for such a patriotic holiday and for someone who doesn't often feel so patriotic.

But enough of the cheesy sentiments and on to the juicy and tasty tidbits. First of all, we had the luxury of being able to stay with Chelsea's good friend who has a place in SoHo. And we also got to take a tour of her friend's big-city newsroom office. It seems like our friend is adapting well to New York life, as she too split town the day after we got there! Good for her, though, as she got to live it up on the beach, and good for us as our stay was made so comfortable by getting to stay in a comfy apartment in a great location.

Some people look at my photos from trips and say, "Sure were a lot of pictures of food!" Well, I am a chef. And food is beautiful. But there are many other pictures. Like this one:

Since Chelsea and I love to eat and cook so much, planning a trip around the restaurants we want to go to helps us to organize our trips. It's not like we have an itinerary for everything, but if we know we are going to have lunch at Franny's

and chocolate at Jacques Torres

we'll make sure we walk the bridge back to Manhattan to work it all off!

Before I get into the specifics of each of the places where we ate, I have to say that everything was great. The growing season is really starting to kick in, and that was definitely reflected in all of the dishes we tasted. We even hit a couple of farmers' markets just to scope them out.

Our first restaurant was a pilgrimage of sorts. I remember many years ago being handed the book Simple Cuisine, written by the chef Jean George Vongerichten. This book is all about creating simple yet elegant food whose flavors are bright, light, and tasty due to techniques that embrace fresh broths and the juice from vegetables rather than the use of heavy butter, cream, and demi-glace, which are popular in traditional French cuisine. So a trip to one of Jean George's restaurants was a necessity. Believe it or not, Jean George offers a $27.07, three-course tasting menu in several of his restaurants. We opted for the one in the "casual" dining room of Nougatine, which is in the Trump Plaza Hotel overlooking Central Park.

You can actually look into the kitchen from the outside of the restaurant, so if you are geek like me you can watch the cooks preparing the food.

Below are the pictures of the food from Nougatine. The tasting menu offers two choices in each category, so naturally we ordered one of each course plus an extra course.

[caption id="attachment_79" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="watermelon salad with arugula"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_80" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="peeky toe crab with asparagus and melon"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_81" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="prawns with rice vermicelli"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_82" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="petit filet with creamed corn"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_83" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="strawberry, cake, and mint granita"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_84" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="chocolate brownie"][/caption]

I was very happy with everything and feel like I've come full circle by tasting a nice range of Jean George's dishes. The brilliant colors are the first indicator that his cuisine is vibrant and fresh. It's nice to have a multi-course lunch and not leave stuffed as well!

After lunch I mentioned to Chelsea that it was probably the best start to any vacation we've had! A nice walk through Central Park helped to solidify that feeling.

That night we headed out to a relatively young restaurant called Resto, a Belgian-style place with a pub-like atmosphere. We tend to like these types of places that are casual but tend to have really tasty food and beer. I also liked the overall look of the place. Especially the gunmetal Xavier Pauchard stools.

Some standouts on the menu were the chicory salad with crispy pig's ears and the braised beef cheeks over fries.

The next day was a rainy one. The whole weekend was pretty overcast with spotty showers but we weren't complaining. We headed to the Greenmarket nonetheless and took shelter a couple of times under some produce tents.

One sight that I wish I had taken pictures of was of the many cooks and porters who were making their way through the market, loading up dollies and push carts with boxes of fresh produce. They were even using their own Lexan kitchen boxes, which was particularly impressive--no waste! Craft was one of the restaurants I recognized doing this because of the workers' embroidered jackets.

One positive thing about overcast weather is that it makes for better photography. Especially at the Greenmarket, where the color contrast tends to be so intense.

After consulting our damp Time Out NY Dining Guide, we pinpointed the mini empire that is Bouley Bakery and headed in that direction. We had a late breakfast/lunch above the bakery. Then we headed downstairs to the bakery for a few sweets and some coffee. Canneles must be consumed wherever they are found. The canneles at Bouley Bakery were incredibly delicious, with their unique chewy outside and just a hint of some sort of spicy liquor throughout the eggy interior. We also enjoyed an incredible grapefruit dacquoise.

The rest of the afternoon was spent bumming around, and we snuck in a much-needed nap before dinner. I'm glad for that because dinner turned into a mini marathon of dining and ummm, research, of creative mixology.

Sometimes the best experiences turn out to be the least-expected ones. This was the case with a little restaurant in Greenwich Village that is gaining a lot of notoriety these days, Blue Hill. We had the chef's tasting menu and also put together another tasting of various dishes in order to sample a wide range of the menu and to get a good feel of the chef's philosophy. In addition, we were brought a few complimentary starters, one of which was a cured meat sampling made from the heirloom pigs raised at the restaurant's farm upstate. Without going in to detail about each and every dish, I can say that the meal was absolutely incredible. It was not elaborately plated or garnished. The fresh ingredients of impeccable quality and the flawless preparation of those ingredients made the meal memorable and kept me thinking the whole time, "This must be what Chez Panisse is like." The comparison was even more apparent when we were presented with a small dish of unadorned cherries after dessert. I would really like to try the chef's other restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, in the future.

After dinner at Blue Hill, we walked to Tailor, a hip, forward-thinking bar in SoHo, to ring in my birthday. Tailor definitely lives up to the hype, with a variety of unique flavor combinations and surprises on its cocktail menu.

The next day we took a trip to Brooklyn and wandered around the waterfront. We had heard about the pizza place, Grimaldi's, at the base of the bridge and thought it would be a good opportunity to try some Brooklyn pizza. Well, it took a stroll past the block-long line complete with a huge thermos of water for thirsty patrons standing in line to realize that we would not be trying Brooklyn pizza here.

The next turn of events turned out to be quite interesting. We consulted our handy Time Out guide for another pizza option, called it, there was no answer, before we came across another option, Franny's. We wandered for a while, got directions from a nice woman who had felt our pain of being a tourist in an unfamiliar place, hopped on the 2 train, and sat right across from someone we had met in San Francisco who, unbeknownst to us, had relocated to NYC. After a nice chat on the train we headed a couple blocks to Franny's, which turned out not to be what we expected--a typical Brooklyn pizza joint. Rather, it reminded me that I had once sent Chelsea some photos of Franny's taken by a photographer and food blogger I keep up with, Ulterior Epicure.

I didn't take any pictures of the food at Franny's because I was too busy eating amazingly delicious food like fresh sugar-snap peas and Neapolitan pizza, and drinking delicious beverages like homemade celery soda and Brooklyn-brewed beer.

After a hike back across the bridge and a little freshening up, our trip culminated in the piece de resistance, my birthday dinner at Babbo.

The place certainly lived up to its reputation--an elegant room, delicious food, and cool music. Once again, we were given the VIP treatment, but this time I think it was because we had to wait a little while for our table. The portions at Babbo are definitely on the hearty side, so keep that in mind if you are a tasting menu kind of diner. Our eyes were bigger than our stomaches but everything was greatly appreciated.

Just when I thought the night couldn't get any better, Chelsea gave me a birthday card. When I opened it I found some pasted images of what else, a Caja China!!!

Do I have the coolest wife in the world or what?!

A nice stroll home on a warm summer night marked the end of yet another dream-like adventure.

Thanks to my pumpkin,

See you next time, NYC.

Was ik er niet gepland naartoe gelopen, ik had het restaurant puur op basis van de inrichting links laten liggen. De zwart-witte aankleding met een vleugje rood doet nogal koel en strak aan, niet onmiddellijk het interieur dat ik met kwalitatieve sushi associeer maar eerder met een trendy bar die een poging onderneemt om mee te profiteren van de hype van het moment.

Bij het reserveren werd me gevraagd of ik voor de beef of de sushi kwam en omdat ik niet voor mijn tafelgenoot wou beslissen, vroeg ik of het niet mogelijk was om dat ter plekke uit te klaren. Geen probleem, zo bleek. Toen ik naar binnen stapte, kreeg ik een tafeltje toegewezen vlak bij de deur. Al snel volgde een mandje met brood en werd in een schaaltje extra vièrge olijfolie gegoten. Terwijl ik nog even op m'n lunchpartner wachtte, kreeg ik alvast de kaart waaruit bleek dat ik in het beef-gedeelte aan tafel geschoven was. Zou me straks gevraagd worden of ik mijn keuze al gemaakt had tussen de beef of sushi? Veel uitleg kreeg ik niet van het nochtans overvloedig aanwezige personeel dat zich onledig hield door met elkaar te staan keuvelen ipv zich over de weinige klanten te ontfermen.

Een vriendelijke maar wat schichtige dame stopte me de kaart toe. Het menu stond op een A4'tje beschreven dat in een hoes met flapjes geschoven was. Blijkbaar was de opsteller van het menu niet op de hoogte van hoe het aan tafel zou gepresenteerd worden want door het ontbreken van een kantlijn verdween hier en daar een stukje tekst onder de linkerflap. Een euvel dat al had kunnen verholpen worden in de eerste week na de opening maar goed, het flapje opheffen was ook een oplossing. Geen sushi op deze kaart, wel de boodschap dat op eenvoudig verzoek sushi en aanverwanten naar beneden kunnen gehaald worden.

Als mijn gezelschap aankomt en blijkt dat ook zijn smaakpapillen op sushi ingesteld staan, vragen we of we naar boven kunnen verhuizen zodat we vanachter de bar de chef aan het werk kunnen zien. Daar krijgen we al snel een schaaltje voorgeschoteld waar op een paar druppeltjes sojasous een sashimi van zalm ligt met erbovenop een stukje appel. De appel is niet zuur genoeg om de combinatie met de vette vis te doen slagen en had wat mij betreft mogen weggelaten worden.

Op de kaart prijken naast sushi en sashimi ook maki (sushirol) en teppanyaki (op een ijzeren plaat gegrilde etenswaren). Groot was mijn verbazing toen ik zag dat vier van de vijf soorten maki Philadelphia kaas bevatten. Hè? Ik had gehoopt er de authentieke Japanse keuken aan te treffen en kom dus enigszins bedrogen uit. We gaan voor de California maki, de enige variant zonder Philadelphia, een assortiment sushi en een teppanyaki van rundsvlees. De kwaliteit overstijgt die van de meeste trendy sushibars maar kan helaas niet tippen aan de originele versie. De maki en sushi zijn lekker zonder meer, het gegrilde rundsvlees had iets malser gemogen. In een zaak die gespecialiseerd is in ‘beef’ verwacht ik stukken vlees waar je mes door glijdt wat hier niet het geval was.

Een beetje teleurgesteld bekijken we de dessertenkaart die handgeschreven is, mét kantlijn deze keer, en het traditionele Brusselse assortiment bevat. Klassiekers dus als crème brûlée, dame blanche en moelleux au chocolat. Het enige dessert dat nog wat uit de band springt, is ijs van groene thee. Toch maar de moelleux au chocolat, die niet enkel een smeuig hart bevat maar zo goed als volledig lopend blijkt te zijn en geserveerd wordt met het obligate bolletje vanille-ijs.

Bij het afrekenen worden we er nog eens aan herinnerd dat in het pand vroeger ‘Sister Act’ gehuisvest was. Het concept en interieur mogen dan aangepast zijn, de btw-briefjes zijn gebleven. Volgende keer toch maar het echte werk uitproberen bij Kamo of Nonbe Daigaku.

This morning (and I do mean this morning...from about 4-7 AM) me and some guildies got together and were running around doing all sorts of stuff. I visited the underground area of SW for the first time, that was pretty cool, and I got to see the other side of that random portal that you can't go into. We ran all over the place from that area, went swimming and ended up at this random house where we danced on the roof. It was a good time. Then we decided -- hey let's have more capital city fun! We went to IF and worked our way up the mountain and onto the gates. Good thing there were two pallies, cause a few of us died from falling. I barely had enough Noggenfogger to get up there, I was getting rather unlucky with them, lots of Skellies, hardly any slow falls. After that almost everyone logged except for me and a friend of mine who was on his pally alt. We went into IF and dueled there as skeletons...but with no weapons or spells. He was kicking my ass (silly prot pallies and their damage) since I was doing 9 damage each hit. Lol. So then I got bored (After fighting for more than 10 mins...my last noggenfogger ran out doing it) and I actually dueled him with spells. Took a while but eventually I got him to go oom and I moonfire spammed him to death. Innervate wins!

Then another one of my pally tanks came along and they dueled, and she kicked his ass. XD But then again he's in pretty much all AH greens since he just respecced to Prot from Holy and had no gear before we went shopping.

Val (The pally who won) is actually the person who inspired the name of this blog -- whenever we run into each other I dance for her, she finds the Tree dance endlessly amusing.

I logged off a bit later, intending to get some sleep. But I didn't sleep. I NEVER sleep. -_- I ended up browsing the internet for hours on end. It's 9:30 AM now, and I still haven't slept. If you haven't figured it out by now...I'm not gonna be sleeping today.

Oh, on a gear note: I finally got my gloves enchanted with Major Healing, and I now have +898 healing. Only a bit more and I can start to try Kara. And Mp5. I need more of that, a lot more. If I could just get my LW up 9 more points I could make my windhawk armor. Or I'd be able to at least. That enchant knocked me below 1500g again. >_< I wish money grew on trees. I'd be all set if it did.

Well now I'm off to farm more crap. Until next time!

-Relest

Sunday morning. We went to Echo Beach at Canggu, about 20 minutes from Seminyak area. It is a good place to surf, but for us, all we need is just having breakfast.

Sandy beach. Nice waves. Many choices of breakfast. And with a good friend beside you to share everything in mind, what else you could ask for more?

Ruko dijual, lokasi Jl. Pakel Baru Utara, Jogja (daerah Menteri Supeno). Lt/b 310/221 m2, ukuran 18,75 x 11,25m x 3 lantai, HGB, hadap Barat, cocok utk karaoke, kantor, mini-market, apotek, klinik. Harga penawaran Rp. 2,5 Milyar nego.

Informasi lebih lanjut, hubungi Angling 0817-957-2772 atau Agus 0817-950-4162

Maintenant que j'ai un semblant de tribune, je peux commencer à expliquer à monsieur et madame tout le monde que des fois, vous avez l'air vraiment épais avec vos joke de client.  Pensez-vous vraiment que vous êtes le premier à nous faire votre joke plate que vous avez répété dans l'auto pendant 30 minutes avant d'arriver ?  Mes chers amis, apprenez : 

1 - Quand on vous demande si votre groupe paie les factures séparément et que vous répondez, ben cramper : Non !! C'est toute lui qui paye !! Haaahahhaa !!!  Sérieusement la, on se la fait faire 10 fois par semaine

2 - Quand vous êtes prêt à payer, de grâce, arrêtez de demander la soustraction, c'est aussi drôle que la bonne vieille joke de pet pis répète !

3 - "Deux place sur la terrasse ...."  En pleine tempête de neige.  Come on....

4 - Finalement, c'est peut-être pas vraiment une "joke" de client, mais quand quelqu'un échappe une assiette par terre et que vous vous mettez à applaudir là....vous pouvez garder ça pour vous la prochaine fois.  Si vous échappez votre fourchette par terre, pensez vous vraiment que les 7 serveur(euse)s sur le plancher vous venir vous voir pour vous applaudir ? 

Assez pour aujourd'hui, mais peut-être que bientôt je pourrais écrire un billet complet sur comment tipper ! Car semblerait-il que la notion de 15 % de pourboire, c'est pas tout le monde qui comprend ça !

1096 Queen Street West

Don't let the exterior of swank black, with the absence of a sign fool you into thinking Nyood (pronounced nude) is too ritzy for you. Dress in your casual best and you will have no trouble gaining entry...but make reservations for the best tables by the window.

Actually there is no bad seating in this beautifully decorated restaurant. The decor is a combination of old meets new, a Parisian feel with a Grecian ceiling (or is it Roman?) meets nouveau modernism touches of white bookshelves, industrial light fixtures and concrete tables. The space is 2000 square feet, and feels spacious yet cozy with a subtle warmth. The elegant, elongated bar meets a tastefully decorated open concept kitchen.

The delicious food comes as tapas. I visited twice in one week!  If you like to share your food, then this is the place to come. An extremely delicious lychee shrimp cerviche was my favorite dish. But then my mates and I also gobbled down the mushroom and shrimp flatbread and whole snapper filleted. Dessert was to die for...the strawberry creme brulee, espresso brownie, and the blueberry ice cream (tasted like fried ice cream) were stand outs.

Owned by Hanif Harji, who also owns the trendy Blowfish and Kultura eating spots, and managed by the enthusiastic "Sacha".

Nyood is definitely a place where you take your time and graze. It is the hottest restaurant in Toronto right now, so go! Take about $200.00 for a couple including a glass of wine, taxes and tip.

W4W Toronto - We are there.

Now, if someone could help me not get pwned in battlegrounds or in world PvP, I'd really appreciate it. :P

So, one question. I now have 3 elemental shields: Water, Earth, and Lightning. I used Water mainly when I was Elemental. Do you mostly use Earth now as Resto?

Hello there again, I'm getting a lot of fun doing battlegrounds and I'm trying my second week for arena. Looks like arena is not that hard after all, however I'm still looking for a capable partner to start doing serious arena in 2v2

and 3v3.

Now I'm making a new shaman on Anub'Arak but I don't feel like leveling another character while the next expansion is soo close, so I may just transfer one of my 60+ alts there. I'm having a lot of fun here on Cenarion circle and I'm even doing some videos that I'll put here in the comming days so stay tunned.

Have fun in WoW and enjoy life.

-Chacal-

<HordeGuyOnAllianceSide>

Not all it’s cute and shiny, ever since I get to lv 70 I had zero and none world pvp, and I don’t mean the lame halaa or terokar world pvp, I mean the casual “I’m just questing while from nowhere some random horde rogue backstabs me in da face!” I actually miss the times when I was horde when every 4 or 5 mins some alliance run into me to start a fight, of course that was a pvp server and on Cenarion Circle the philosophy seems to be to avoid getting flagged for pvp.

I usually on perma /pvp so I may get attacked by anyone at any time, however even on Quelthalas Island this just doesn’t happen. I may be surrounded by 5 horde and me alone and they just keep questing, I don’t get it. Anyway Arena and battlegrounds keep me on my toes all the time so I don’t have to be afraid to get rusty on pvp skills.

By the way I’m doing a little video about my transition to alliance RP server that I hope you enjoy. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.

-Chacal, Lv.70 Resto shaman-
<HordeGuyOnAllianceSide>

]]> http://murrayhillneighborhood.wordpress.com/?p=68 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:18:38 +0000 vross2000 http://murrayhillneighborhood.wordpress.com/?p=68 Thought I had mentioned this restaurant before on the blog but I was there yesterday and they say that I had not. It is Resto 111 East 29th between Park and Lexington. The food is from Belgium and delicious. Dinner is usually very crowded so call for a table. The owner is Christian Pappanicholas and he is not from Belgium but knew from friends uptown that this would be a hit. If you like beer and you would like a choice of about 100 this is the place for you. Lunch is very calm especially during the summer and you can even dine outside where there are a few tables. At lunch try the hangover pasta....my favorite. For those people in the fashion biz he is married to a fashionette at the Tobe Report....Abby. T: 212 685 5585 www.restonyc.com.

New alternative to Starboucks and Dunkin Donut....Joe the Art of Coffee in Grand Central Station. There are 3 others around New York...if you enter the station on the Lexington Avenue side it is on the left.

Upstairs at Country @ 90 Madison Avenue at 28th Street will reopen as a separate steak house by the same owners at the end of the summer. T: 212 889 7100

Ammos- 52 Vanderbilt Avenue @ 44th T: 212 922 9999-has climbed in its star rating by Crain's to 3 stars from 1 1/2 last year. Mediterranean with Greek accents cuisine and stunning in size. It is pricey....

Yet another pub....just what we need... especially on Third Avenue...Vino 313 @ 201 East 31st. They are calling it a wine bar and it will open in September. We have become a neighborhood for the "Millenial Generation" who obviously drink a lot and need a quantity of places to hang out. Thank goodness I do not own an apartment on the bar section of Third. Maybe they can keep their customers in their bar and not on the street.

Nicola Paone @ 207 East 34th Street is closed

Thanks for the great comments on my last post, everyone! I had been leaning towards resto anyway but you guys helped me feel more confident in the decision. I've already mapped out my talent tree and have been spying for new equipment. I feel like I'll miss my crits and my Elemental Mastery. It will be an interesting adjustment to no longer be the lightning bug. Still, I've had experience healing at lower levels and it was fun so I have more confidence in my ability there than to play Enhancement anyway. You can check out my gear on the Armory and if you have any recommendations, let me know. I tried Be.Imba but it keeps giving me an armory error message.) The tricky part is that I haven't done an instance since... wow, since Blackrock Depths (and I didn't even finish that one). So I have no idea how I'd get the drop-type gear. Actually, I have no idea how I'd get ANY gear that you can't purchase. Anyway, just keeping you up to date.

Updated: The Be.Imba report finally came through. It looks like at least I was right-on for leveling and grinding. It also looks like I do need some gear improvements. Okay, a LOT of gear improvements.

www.letangbleu.be

Ryan Skeen, formerly of Resto (which I love) is now at The General Greene, a new American restaurant opening tonight in Fort Greene, Crooklyn. Drop and give me 20!

I'd like to take a moment to explain the spell that made me love resto shamans, Earth Shield. What's so special about Earth Shield? Well, take a look at the description:

"Protects the target with an earthen shield, giving a 30% chance of ignoring spell interruption when damaged and causing attacks to heal the shielded target for 150.  This effect can only occur once every few seconds.  6 charges.  Lasts 10 min.  Earth Shield can only be placed on one target at a time and only one Elemental Shield can be active on a target at a time."

The base amount healed goes up to 205 per charge with rank 2, and 270 per charge with rank 3. The most common use is to stick it on the tank and let him go to town. This is a good thing for two reasons. First, Earth Shield will provide the equivalent of a Heal over Time spell, proccing as the tank takes damage, and providing a steady stream of health with no further input from the shaman. Per WoWWiki, each tick receives 28.6% of your total +healing, meaning that the spell will receive a total of 171.6% of your +healing over its six charges. Furthermore, it's a good candidate for downranking, as every rank will get the full benefit from your gear.

Earth Shield's most distinctive feature, however, is not the healing it does, but the threat said healing generates. Much like a priest's Prayer of Mending, the agro generated from its heals goes to the person it's cast on. That means that no only will Earth Shield generate absolutely no threat for you when you cast it, but it will actually increase the threat generated by your tank as he gets hit and heals himself.

That factor alone would make Earth Shield worth casting in damn near every situation, but there's more! 30% chance of ignoring spell interruption when damaged? Cast it on yourself and laugh at that swarm of mobs attacking you while your heals go off ontime and uninterrupted. In fact, cast it on yourself whenever you're about to do something incredibly stupid. Like trying to solo a Fel Reaver* or clear out those BlackRock Depths quests at level 70**. It's also very handy in pvp. With some resilience and enough +healing, you can be invincible. Right up until someone dispels it and kills you, at least. It's still a nice tool to have when you're the only person guarding the mine in AB and a warrior charges you.

Earth Shield does have a couple limitations, however. First, you can only have one elemental shield active on a target. This mostly means that you end switching between it and Water Shield when soloing, but it can also come into play when you have multiple resto shamans in a raid. Second, casting it on a pally tank will keep them from getting mana back from being healed--pallies generate a portion of the healing they recieve from other players as mana, but because each charge of Earth Shield is treated as being cast by the player with the buff, the game treats it as if they had cast a heal on themselves, and they get no mana from it. Luckily, if you're in a situation where a pally tank is running out of mana, you are generally in a fight that is easy enough that you should be able to get by with standard heals alone.

In order to maximize ES's effectiveness, cast it before a pull as opposed to in combat. This serves two purposes. First, if will allow you to drop a Wrath of Air totem if you aren't using it during fights, along with using the cooldowns on any +healing trinkets you have. Remember, ES will heal your target for a total of 171.6% of the +healing you had when you cast it, not how much you have when it actually procs. Secondly, casting it while out of combat will hopefully allow you to regenerate the mana used on the spell before the pull, meaning that it is effectively a free heal! The 10 minute duration means that you can cast it before the group takes a break and it will still be ready when everyone gets back to their keyboards. Unless your group takes more than ten minutes to get back to their keyboards. If that starts happening regularly, maybe you should look into finding a different group, or look into what everyone else is doing for fifteen minutes at a time while you keep recasting Earth Shield.

*That worked, kinda. I kited one to Honor Hold and let the guards and other players there kill it while I cast a lot of Healing Waves on myself. But, they were uninterruptable Healing Waves, so I think Earth Shield gets some credit there.

**That was a total success, although I don't think BRD is particularly challenging to most classes at 70.

Wanneer ik restaurant 'Sea Grill' betreed, monstert de maitre d' me van kop tot teen en blijft z'n blik net iets te lang ter hoogte van m'n jeans hangen. Daaruit leid ik af dat hij m'n outfit niet geschikt vindt voor z'n etablissement. Ik bedenk dat mijn Joe's designerjeans even duur is als een menu voor twee met aangepaste wijnen maar hou dit wijselijk voor mezelf, net als het feit dat ik mijn exemplaar voor minder dan de helft van de Belgische prijs in New York op de kop getikt heb waardoor hij nog net goed is voor een menu voor één persoon en een glas water.

Omdat mijn gezelschap nog even op zich laat wachten, neem ik alvast plaats in wat de maitre me aanwijst als de bar maar ikzelf eerder als een salon ingericht volgens de smaak van m'n bomma zou omschrijven. Vanuit een sofa neem ik de omgeving in me op en terwijl ik het restaurant inkijk, vraag ik me af waarom de decorateur van één van de meest gerenommeerde visrestaurants van België er in godsnaam voor opteert om als hoofdtoon zalmroze te kiezen. Het is niet omdat ik in een visrestaurant zit dat ik overal visthema's wil te zien krijgen. Alsof deze passé kleur (is ze eigenlijk ooit wel ok geweest?) op zich nog niet erg genoeg is, wordt de bar van het eetgedeelte afgescheiden met een plexi wand waar reuzenschelpen in vastgemaakt zijn. De schelpen zijn zo groot dat het me niet zou verbazen mocht ik er door opgeslokt worden als ik het zou wagen om er mijn oor bij te brengen in een poging de zee te horen. Als mijn zakenpartner aangekomen is en ik haar op de schelpen wijs, oppert ze al lachend dat het misschien een aangepaste versie van het warenhuiskassasysteem is. Afwachten tot we de rekening krijgen om te zien of de ober een koker bovenhaalt en haar visa-kaart via de schelpen naar een verborgen kassa laat zuigen.

We trekken onze smaakpapillen op gang met een glaasje huischampagne waar we grissini, een krokantje van parmezaan, een groentendipsaus en nootjes in bladgoud bij geserveerd krijgen. Voorzien van een haakje zou je de nootjes zo als oorbellen kunnen dragen maar we zijn in een klasserestaurant dus we gedragen ons en eten ze gewoon op. Even later volgt een viskroketje met een pepersausje dat van mij gerust iets pittiger mocht zijn.

Ons glas is nog halfvol als we al naar onze tafel begeleid worden vanwaar we een goed overzicht hebben op het volledige restaurant. Niet alleen de muren maar ook het vloerkleed blijkt zalmroze en op de matte ramen waarachter wellicht de keuken schuilt, werd een landschap van bergen en een meer gezandstraald. Een interieur dat de gemiddelde Vlaming in de jaren '80 en wellicht de gemiddelde Waal (excusez-moi, je ne veux pas être raciste, les goûts et les couleurs, n'est-ce pas...) nog steeds als 'modern' zou omschrijven. Het geeft een troosteloze aanblik en overstijgt in geen geval de inrichting van het gemiddelde hotelketenrestaurant.

Als voorgerecht neem ik de Noorse koningskrab bereid met grof algenzout en kruiden, mijn tafelgenote gaat voor de langoustines met morieljes. Een rolwagen komt aangereden en wanneer het deksel van de pan getild wordt, krijg ik flinke stukken krabbenpoot te zien op een bodempje kruiden. De schaal wordt ter plekke vakkundig door de ober verwijderd en de royale moten krab worden met olijfolie overgoten. Ik had eerder de bouillon verwacht waar ze in gegaard werden maar wie ben ik om Yves Mattagne te vertellen hoe hij zijn gerechten moet serveren? Het vlees is sappig, mals en smaakt puur. Van de overkant van de tafel doet de 'mmm' vermoeden dat ook dat gerecht in de smaak valt.

Voor het hoofdgerecht hebben we beiden ons oog laten vallen op de zonnevis met fijne groentjes. Ik verheug me er op met de overheerlijke versie van 'De lijsterbes' in Berlare in het achterhoofd. Na m'n eerste hap ben ik wat teleurgesteld ook al is de vis deze keer wel overgoten met een rijke bouillon. Een ultrafijn worteltje, pijpajuintje en stukje artisjok tillen het gerecht ook niet echt naar een hoger niveau. Ben ik te kieskeurig of mist dit gerecht diepgang? Mijn disgenote lijkt ook niet helemaal overtuigd. We houden het allebei op water dus over de wijn kan ik weinig, om maar niet te zeggen niets, vertellen.

Omdat we allebei geen zin hebben in een dessert nemen we gewoon een koffie. Maar aangezien we ons in een sterrenrestaurant bevinden, wordt die uiteraard vergezeld van 3 kleine dessertjes en een bord vol truffels, spekjes, cuberdons en pralines. De koffie is krachtig en gelukkig niet bitter, de overvloed aan zoetigheden raakt wonderwel bijna volledig op. De rekening klokt af op 249,5 euro, zowaar de prijs van een Joe's jeans.

authentic Italian food for an affordable local price. It's near Bumi-Net at Mozes Gatotkaca street, Yogyakarta. I went there at 21.00 and ordered a plate of pizza with mozzarella-i did forget what it exactly called. It's the most cheaper pizza there, for IDR 25k, pretty cheap for a plate with large size-pizza.

The atmosphere there make us felt not in Yogyakarta, they make an atmosphere like we're in other country :D

Lot of people there, most of them were foreigner..couple whose sat next to my table spoke with languages which i don't recognize what language it was...It's pretty nice place to talk actually..

I did order d menu at about 21.10, n we wait like forever till the food came (OMG, 45 minutes?)..i'm a bit impatient back then, but when d pizza comes and i ate it, ow...it really tasty...delicious...i mean it...I'm not a pizza lover, actually. But i'm telling you the truth..it was really nice, plus, the pizza i ate was d cheapest pizza there, how tasty is d pizza with higher price?

you should try it there, and i surely will go there again :D