A Season of Nerd

This is a late post on geeking it up with my kids. I previously posted on taking my daughter to W00tstock in NYC, and in return I took my son to PAX East in Boston this year.



PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is perhaps the most fan based gaming exposition in the country. It is run the way gamers would enjoy, the unoficial motto is "Don't be a Dick" the security is all volunteer force of "enforcers" cookies are sold to benefit Childs Play and concerts are held on the first two nights.

Welcome to PAX from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

We cruised through the exhibitor section,



and my son liked this the most so we spent a lot of time playing prerelease games.



3d games, kinect games, etc. I had planned on attending more of the talks and sessions but the boy was having too much fun, so I hung with him.






We did have great food though we managed our time between the conference and great food. We ate at the Legal Test food Kitchen, which is a test restaurant for Legal Sea Food.



(During happy hour oysters are a dollar),



The Barking Crab great seafood, although a very crowded touristy place.





In the evenings concerts dominated the expo.



But on the first night, The Omeganauts dominated the scene with a live giant Jenga competition.

PAX Jenga 1 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

PAX Jenga 2 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

PAX Jenga 3 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

PAX Jenga 4 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

PAX Jenga 5 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

PAX Jenga 6 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

PAX Jenga 7 from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

That was followed by a concert, so we never made it back to the hotel till very late. The next morning



we rallied





we chilled in the sumo lounge



and hung out at the Harpoon brewery



Tremendous collection of beer cans... billy beer



old school ">Schafer


Generic beer



We played some old school arcade games



The concerts where awesome, but our favorite was Jonathan Coulton

Mr Fancy Pants from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

I am glad to be shopping here with you + Mandelbrot Set from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

Go check out his songs at JonathanCoulton.com
We had a great time, check out PAX with your kids.

Purple and Yellow Cauliflower

purple and yellow
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I bought two head of cauliflower at Broad Appettite. They were standing out from the table of one of the vendors. The purple color an obvious draw, but for the yellow the fractal arrangement of the florets is stunning.

(quick aside great Jonathan Coulton song "Mandelbrot Set" describes albeight erroneously the formula for fractals)


Anyway... I briefly steamed the cauliflower, less than 10 minutes and then put it in a bowl and doused it with 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil with toasted garlic and covered the bowl.



I served it with chicken breast which was pan seared and Mac and Cheese (yes from a box)



It was delicious, try it out



Mandelbrot Set By Jonathan Coulton

BroadAppetit

BroadAppetit hot crowd
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

Another post on Broad Appetit. I swung down on Broad around noon and quickly ran into RVAfoodie and his wife (darling octopus) and the internet famous Jasper. They gave me the skinny on what to hit and they were right. The Thai pork belly from Six Burner was great, soft and fatty with an excellent savory sauce.





I had never eaten at Croakers, although I always have wanted to.



They by far had the most generous serving of food for $3



A large piece of perfectly fried catfish, cornbread, sauces to choose from, (the hot sauce was so great) onion and peppers and fries. I actually didn't finish the fries because I wanted to hit some other sites.

I got a blurry photo of the pastrami slider from Balliceaux, It was incredibly tasty the pastrami falling apart under the bun.



I had the ribs from Haligans pub and then scored some Macarons from Petits Bouchees



I said hi to Kitchen Musings and was awestruck at how tasty the Macarons were with contrasting textures and tastes, somehow cold on a blazingly hot day. My favorite was the passion fruit one.
I had a great time, and wished that I could have tasted more, but I was stuffed. Great fun and food, very proud of the Richmond restaurants that participated the great bands and crowds that braved the heat.