The Z's for Party Number Two, and a Lot of Fun at the Explo

A wise person (Peg Bracken) once wrote that if you bother to really clean up your house for a party, you should have two, not one. So yesterday the Zinfandinis came over for party two -- an early dinner and a game of Apples-to-Apples. As you can see, Sophia Zinfandini is growing up fast.

Last week, Hanky Girl invited Plot to the Exploratorium (look carefully at the above photo) for one of their After Dark Series exhibitions. This one was all about food.

One thing is for sure: if you reduce food down to science, it doesn't become any more appetizing.

(This one is a deconstructed hamburger. It took 27 hours to make -- probably longer than you or I would spend to prepare one.)

The series appears to be about dating and drinking. It's a singles bar for Geeks. (Good looking Geeks, Plotnik hastens to add.)

There are presenters all through the museum, surrounded by crowds of people, showing you how to sharpen your knives, or how your oven or your toaster work, or the point of sous vide cooking. The problem is there are so many people in attendance, and the exhibit areas are so small, it is basically impossible to see or hear the presenters most of the time. But the stuff you do see is really fascinating.

Many thanks to Hanky and the Explo folks for an evening that was as much fun as it was crazy. But the next steak Plotnik cooks on the grill will be done the way he always does it. It just seems more fun than submerging it in a sous vide bag for 72 hours at 57 degrees Celsius, then cooling it immediately in liquid nitrogen before finishing it off over charcoal which has probably been chosen for its carbon-neutral content.

But he wishes you could see the lobster with every morsel of shell removed from its body. That was one astonishing photo.