Lucky 16

Around 6 weeks ago I put in to get tickets to a Phillies game at the office. The Mrs. and I sort of "collect" ballparks and we hadn't been to the new Phillies park yet and we figured why not go down the last weekend of the regular season, they're playing a crummy team and the game probably won't matter anyway so it should be an easy ticket from work and it was. So that's how we wound up witnessing the Phillies clinch the NL East on Saturday from a skybox in which we were served free champagne right after the final out.

The game also brought our Major League Baseball stadium total to 16 near as we can figure. We've probably been to almost that many minor league parks as well.

I complain pretty often about my job, but once in a while it comes through with a cool perk like that.
It was a big sports day in South Philly as the Flyers played their last game in the Spectrum. It was a preseason game vs. Carolina at 1pm and some folks were late arriving to the Phillies game because they wanted to witness that bit of history.
We ate dinner at Morimoto after the game and while the raw courses were excellent there was some slippage in the quality of the rest of the dishes. We just did 3 courses a la carte instead of the full tasting menu (we weren't ready to climb that mountain starting at 9:30 at night) so I don't know if more attention might've been paid if we were spending more money and time. Toro tartare was sweet and unctuous if occasionally overwhelmed by the fried shallots that accompanied it. The "Morimoto sushi" with three types of tuna, one piece of salmon and crab meat wrapped in paper-thin cucumber was just about flawless. We both ordered the spiced lobster because we both remembered it being spectacular as part of the tasting menu. Then it was cooked but served chilled with the cool temperature keeping the spices from being too hot. This time it was served warm and overspiced; the Mrs. had to scrape off some of the spice coating and I thought it trampled over what was a perfectly cooked crustacean.

I noticed the dessert menu now seemed overwhelmingly French which I thought was just weird, but I went and ordered creme brulee anyway. Totally mediocre. The Mrs. had a yuzu-milk chocolate ice cream which was pretty good.

There was also one thing that screamed "we're now an established restaurant and past the reviewing and impressing the public" phase: The chopsticks on each table. When the Mrs. and I first ate at Morimoto shortly after it opened several years ago they had reusable chopsticks with nice designs on them resting top of stones that looked like they were taken from a nice mountain stream. Now they have those cheapo balsa wood ones like you get with takeout that you have to snap apart to use and they're resting on one of those round acrylic stones that you get to dump in planters or fish tanks for a dollar a pound or whatever. I guess everyone needs to cut costs in this economy.

If we ever have the occasion to go back I think we'll stick with sushi and sashimi and grab dessert elsewhere.