StringGrrl sees the World

Less than focused candid as we took our table at the Contigo  Biergarden A short visit to Austin Texas, brought me to dinner with colleagues and alliance partners at Contigo . Contigo is styled after the Contigo Ranch, the childhood digs of one of the co-founders. It features entirely outdoor seating with food that is as fresh and airy as the decor of their "dining room". Tempura Green Beans, White Bean Dip The menu is "ranch-to-table", the menu is compact and with enough choice but not too much clutter. A list of 9 bar snacks, charcuterie, 5 small plates, 6 entrees, and a short list of desserts. For starters we ordered their crispy tempura battered green beans, white bean dip, pork liver pate, and ox tongue sliders. StringGirl and her new friends from Dell Ox Tongue Slider, AMAZING!  Sous vide tenderness, finished on the grill. Pefection. The Ox Tongue sliders were the crown jewel of our starter selections. Yes, the green beans were perfect and...

Pop-up Haiku Shop  I've been representing companies at technical conferences and tradeshows for sometime, and had started to think that all of them are fundamentally the same. Hollow out the inside of the convention hall, fill it with booths, vendors, rolls of disposable carpeting, bad padding, and it's another show. I guess I have not been going to the correct conferences, or have just been in the wrong field all this time., The Dell EMC World conference in Austin gave me a whole new perspective on what trade shows could be like, if you joined an industry not only run by engineers and shop rats. Queue for poetry requests During the Dell EMC World conference in Austin they filled the convention center, not only with booths and vendors, but also had live music throughout the day. Local Austin bands filling the convention hall with everything from Roots rock and Country, to Bluegrass and the Blues. For the gala premiere party dinner the rolled in Food Trucks that se...

Sixth Street Austin (the Dirty Sixth?) Among her most recent travels, StringGirl had the rare occasion to travel someplace in the US. Domestic travel rarely appearing in these posts, this is a monumental occasion that will require several posts to keep up. AirBnB Walk to 6th Street and Convention Center Where to stay? After having been unceremoniously told that my previous reservation at the DownTown Doubletree was not being honored (boo, loss of clout with me Hilton People), I used Hipmunk to direct me to an available lodging within walking distance of the Austin Convention Center. It pointed me toward an AirBnB listed as " Walk to 6th Street and Convention Center ". That is worth a blog post on its own. However, it bears saying now in this post. The place was perfect and indeed a short walk to the convention center. Potato image of StringGirl with the box from Shipleys Do-Nuts Kolaches from Shipleys Do-Nuts  One of the kind folks from Dell, who was our ho...

Not far from Nuremberg (Nurnberg) is the little town of Schwabach. It lies along its eponymous stream (Bach) and is named Schwabach (Swabian-bach) by Franconians labeling the people who once dwelt there. The view from the Market Place https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwabach Even on this Autumn Sunday the lovely blooms decorate every bridge crossing the Schwabach Apparently Schwabach is known for the craft of "Geldschläger", or Gilding. There were a few artisnal shops specializing in handicrafts of gold leaf wrapped object d'art. And even a small kiosk which appeared to offer historical lessons and tours for visitors to the city. Gilding workshop Note the thin gold foil spooling from the press The front of the historic Leitner Brauhaus  As with any self-respecting German town, there is a local brewery or two. We found this one toward the end of our walk and sat to enjoy the last of the sunshine and sample the house specialty. Christian at the ...

Usually when in Amsterdam, the only meal I make a special effort to eat is a Rice Table ( Rijtsttafel ) in the Dutch Indonesian tradition. But what that means is that for all the times I have been in Amsterdam, I have a pretty one dimensional picture of the cuisine available in this international city. StringGirl at Eastman Beer and Grill My colleagues were in the mood for Steak after we had packed up the GTC (Graphics Processing Conference) with NVIDIA held at the Passenger Terminal in Amsterdam. What fulfills a long week a at a trade show better than a good old fashioned steak. You know you are in the right place when the waiter offers you a selection of knives The place that Yelp found for us was the Eastwood Beer and Grill inside the Doubletree Inn and Suites near the Amsterdam Centraal station. There menu was straightforward and exactly what is necessary at a proper steak house with no fluff or filler.  IPA from Brouwerij 't IJ ... for starters With a bee...

 The Rice table is part of my fabric of Dutch-Indonesian culture that must be experienced every time I visit Amsterdam. Our new colleagues at IC.IDO (part of ESI Group) all said that they had never had a rice table before. Unwilling to let that criminal injustice go unchecked, I made it a point to get them to go out for one during our recent visit to Amsterdam. We ate at Aneka Rosa , a neighborhood Indonesian restaurant not far from our respective hotels and a place that StringGirl had dined at once before.