Macross Frontier Ep. 12 – Fastest Delivery

Oh my, the plot thickens.  After I thought some things were finished and everything was ready to move on, the producers decide to wing it and throw us more interesting twists in the story.  This just goes affirms my belief that even in a stronger season, I’d still rate this as one of my ‘must watch’ series.  Note: Sheryl fans will be disappointed by this episode.

Oh, and I lied about the batch; I’ve been able to steal Internet every so often so I can at least write this much.  However, I won’t be doing a writeup on Kara no Kyoukai Chapter 2 until I get back.

Macross Frontier: Ranka Lee’s Debut Single, “Seikan Hikou”

To be honest, I grabbed this just for Neko Nikki, which was the cutesy end to Episode 11.  It didn’t turn out all that bad, I guess.

Track list (in Romaji):

1. Seikan Hikou
2. Neko Nikki
3. Ai Oboete Imasuka – Deculture Size
4. Watashi no Kare wa Pilot – Miss Macross 2059
5. Seikan Hikou – w/o Ranka
6. Ai Oboete Imasuka – Deculture Size – w/o Ranka

Pizzeria da Baffetto

After wading through all of the places that have only standard fare, there comes a long a special place, one that you’ll remember for a long, long time. It’s places like “Pizzeria da Baffetto” that really make traveling enjoyable for me; it’s kind of like finding that proverbial needle in a haystack, I suppose. Anyway, this is a pizzeria that has the reputation of being the best pizzeria in all of Rome. The queue can be for hours on end on any given day, filled with both tourists and locals alike. Does the place deserve its reputation? I’m convinced it does, as it delivers some quality pizza made with fresh ingredients at a very reasonable price. This is one you should never miss when you venture into Rome.

Il Chianti

Close to the heart of PIazza Navona is a rather upscale looking winery that opens early for dinner.  We wanted to stop by Il Chianti solely for their offering of gnocchi, a pasta-like potato dish.  However, what we found was a rather pleasant surprise.

Gordon Ramsay: Plane Food

Gordon Ramsay.  I can’t think of any other chef that has gained such a level of fame (and notoriety) than the hot-headed Scotsman.  From his humble roots, Ramsay has risen to command three Michelin restaurants, of which very few exist throughout the world.  From his British series “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” to the US “Hell’s Kitchen”, Ramsay has evolved from a commanding kitchen officer to a worldwide icon.  His style is best described as using fresh, local ingredients in unique yet simple dishes to create a satisfying meal.  Now that Terminal 5 is fully operational, Ramsay has opened up “Plane Food”, a small but upscale cafe on the second floor of the terminal.  The remaining question, then, is how does the food fare?

The European Tour

It’s not a big secret that my family enjoys traveling.  Heck, I enjoy getting out there from time to time.  This year, it’s back to Europe after my choice last year of invading and occupying a part of Japan for the majority of 3 months.  So while this trip is mostly centered around a trip to the holy areas in Rome, we’re also going around other parts of Italy, then hitting France and England on the return leg for a bit.  I will have a monstrous backlog of writing to do about the food, too.  Here’s a running list of the places I’ll write about later:

Macross Frontier Ep. 11 – Missing Birthday

Well, we’re a good amount into Macross Frontier, and one of the common questions is that of who Alto will end up with at the end of the day.  With this episode, it looks like we have a pretty clear cut answer.  Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable episode, with it being a sort of ‘calm before the storm’, as we’ll see in the preview for next week.  It certainly does build a little suspense as to some people’s ulterior motives, and calls into question a lot of different personalities.  Another huge plus was this week being broadcast in HD quality.  It’s nice to see everything NOT be fuzzy for once, especially with a show as pretty as Macross.  Maybe they’ll keep the quality up from here on out – now wouldn’t that be something?

Get Smart (2008)

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been anxious to see this for a while now. The original show is a favorite of my parents, and I’ve grown to like its little quirks and comedic elements. As with many TV shows to movie adaptations, however, I was a bit skeptical about the movie remake of this classic TV series, and hoped it wouldn’t get butchered too terribly. Well, thankfully that’s nowhere near the case. It’s not going to be a classic, and it probably won’t get a ton of awards, but the 2008 release of Get Smart is a good movie to kick back, relax, and have a good laugh at.

(note: I don’t have any pictures from the movie, so I googled some. If you want more screenshots, I’m sure you know how to google for them)