Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Conference Food

Typical lunch at this conference. Grilled salmon (they also had something like tandori chicken), white bean ragout, cauliflower salad, cherry quinua salad, grilled vegetables and jasmine rice with pine nuts. A decent selection. Plus two or three kinds of dessert.

Last night, I finally made it out of the hotel and a couple of us walked towards downtown to try out the Weber Grill restaurant. As in, everything on the menu is cooked in a Weber grill. The food was really tasty, especially the pretzle rolls. Probably too much sodium, but I this is only the second time that I've been here. The last time was in July 2009 when the Internet2 Joint Tech meeting was in town. Tonight, five of us went to P.F.Chang which is a chain restaurant that had tasty asian food. (no pics = didn't happen = no calories?)

The keynote speaker on Monday afternoon was former hacker / engineer / CTO / CEO now venture-capitalist Harper Reed. He had shown this picture in the middle of the talk probably to get a response from the audience (it worked!). The talk was about pushing the boundaries and not accept the status quo. If you saw him on the street you wouldn't think most of those titles would fit but he was an excellent speaker with a great message.

14 comments:

  1. I'm keeping that last photo! Both the cat and the horse are appropriately terrified of the sea!

    Your "typical lunch" looks awfully good. I'm ready to have someone cook for me a few times now. I'm glad you seem to be enjoying your time in IN.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looks like a crab fishing boat with the hydraulic winch in the background. I think the cats expression was showing what you can expect when suggesting something different.

      Delete
  2. So anyone who didn't react to the picture was asleep during the talk? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pretty much, though the guy talked so quickly and was one of those that changed slides every 5 seconds or so, that it would've been difficult to not pay attention.

      Delete
  3. The conference food looks pretty good.

    I think PF Changs would have more sodium than the Weber Grill though since Men's Health voted them saltiest food in America. Maybe PF hides it better.

    That last pic is a good one. Someone has mad photo shop skills.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The conference food was pretty good. The P.F. Chang food was pretty good but you're right, it probably was pretty high in Na. That's what you get when going out to eat as a group.

      Delete
    2. Photoshop! You mean that isn't real?

      Delete
  4. Richard I think the cat is real ... it has the real, "I'm disgusted' look of a cat! (Love the idea of slipping slide like that into the PowerPoint. I will have to try that next time.)
    As far as sodium and eating out goes... seems to me that the only seasoning (as seen on TV) restaurant chefs know is salt! I find I become dehydrated after a dinner out ... too much Na.! Probably why I rarely eat out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the cat's expression. Kind of a "this doesn't look like fun" or "you woke me up for this?".

      Tonight's dinner was pretty tasty which probably meant it had too much Na. I've noticed feeling dehydrated after some meals but not all restaurant meals are bad.

      Delete
  5. I've my wife say "he/she has a real horse face". I guess she was being catty.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great idea with this powerpoint to engage the audience and get their attention (back)! It's a horse mask I think. Friends of mine were wearing these while skiing and videotaped their decent. One had a horse mask, one a squirrel, the other a chicken.

    In terms of salt, what tastes salty to someone might be bland for someone else. It takes about 6 weeks to desensitize the taste buds on our tongue if we are used to eat salty food. I always try to stay away from salt but use herbs instead for cooking. It's not this easy of course when eating out.

    Enjoy your conference!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a pretty unusual picture in the middle of the presentation. Usually at most tech conferences, you can see a lot of phone and laptop screens glowing during a keynote talk but not during this talk.

      I find it extremely challenging to eat healthy when eating out especially if you are with a group. The Tapas place last night had a lot of vegetarian and vegan options and even a gluten free listing. By listing, they had a seperate list of items that were either gluten free or could be modified. But a colleague, who was gluten free, says that it is almost impossible to avoid it in a restaurant.

      Delete
    2. It certainly is a challenge to eat healthy when it's outside the own kitchen. You never really know what the ingredients are, amount of salt and also 'contamination' with gluten. Most food I find way too salty. But it's a cheap and easy way to intensify taste and to increase weight by binding water. Best is to keep dressing and gravy aside, this also helps to decrease the fat intake.

      Delete