Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Sticky Rice is a new H Street restaurant here in DC. It has its origins in Richmond, VA at the original location. It seems to have a huge following with kids who went to college around Richmond.

Sticky Rice is the second closest sushi shop near boyfriend’s house and down the street from Joe Englert’s hip locales, Rock & Roll Hotel and The Argonaut where my friends work.

Boyfriend and I were hoping to get in on their pre-opening evenings when they were trying to work the kinks out, but alas, we couldn’t get an invitation. So we waited a respectable amount of time after their official opening in late May and headed there on a week night early in the week in late July.

The night before we had dinner, we were there after a show at R&R Hotel for a Bucket of Tots and their Tot Sauce, having been warned by a friend that they don’t have sushi after hours, just drinks and tater tots. My though, it was very good drunk food and a good time. The Tot Sauce was spicy-licious! They give you a little pail of tater tots, perfectly crisp without being soggy or fishy (important from a place that makes tempura). They also gave you a ranch sauce for dipping, but forgo the ranch and ask for two containers of the Tot Sauce. It’s got a good bite to go with your beer.
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All I can say is that I love Anthony Bourdain. What’s not to like about a guy who puts duck, sausage, bacon and beans all into one dish? Or serves duck confit with foie gras sausage and another blood sausage? AND STILL puts rabbit on the menu?

Now that I’ve grossed out my vegan and vegetarian readers, I shall get on to my dinner review.

WARNING: The restaurant websites listed herein all seem to play loud accordian music, so turn it down before you click.

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As SingleMa has posted, we had a wine tasting dinner at Fleming’s with Debt Hater. It was wonderful to meet Debt Hater in person. She was rocking some red heels on top of being really tall already! We also got to meet, Nina, her car.

Dinner was great. A little more of the breakdown when it comes to the food and wine experience and some tips for a good wine flight experience. (Who the hell comes up with names like “flight”? Dumb.)

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And no, I didn’t write them. *sticks tongue out*

Aside: I am not so grouchy anymore today. Halloween was slightly more than I wished to spend, but still coming to about $38.00 including appetizer, dinner, beers, safe metro and bus rides, and then someone else buying some more cider and a shot. The conversation ended up being key as my friend was also a grouch and boy, did we need the drinks. (Piratz Tavern in Silver Spring is highly recommended. Service is still a tad slow, but the bartenders are excellent and the kitschy pirate decor is fun. Get the cod fritters and the bison burger!)

Anyhow, onto the articles:

The first is from Free Money Finance and how he’s sick of hearing about burdensome student loan debts. I agree that I’m sick of hearing about it as well. I agree with FMF taking on student loan debt is foreseeable and preventable. There are a great many ways to make undergrad and graduate studies more affordable. But if you read my comment, you’ll also see that I agree with some of these former students and I would like to know why the heck college is getting so expensive. Even in-state tuition is getting expensive, thus taking away an affordable option for many students for a first-rate education.

The second is from Justin McHenry at The Personal Finance Weblog and how he’s sick of hearing about ARM sob stories. Again, I agree with him because I’m a Ranty McRant Pants, but also because he has a point. Why isn’t his rate getting lowered for being a good borrower and paying his loan promptly? Why are we rewarding bad behavior? So what if Countrywide renegotiates the terms of the ARM? What if they extend favorable rates for 24 months? Does that mean the borrower will still be able to cope with a mortgage that readjusts in 2 years? Probably not. If they were foolish enough to take on the mortgage they couldn’t afford in the first place, who is say they have learned their lesson and will be able to pay an ARM with rising rates in the future?

Now I understand why on a macro market level why we need to do something about lots of defaulting mortgages. But very few people have said that we need to ensure that borrowers truly understand what they are getting through sound education.

Very few people have said we need to crackdown on liar loans and shady mortgage brokers. Fraud charges need to get filed against people who have knowingly duped the banks. Having been part of a federal fraud investigation by a flipper, I believe there isn’t enough oversight to catch collusive business practices between borrower, broker, appraiser and settlement attorney.

I think the banks are idiots for not reviewing their risk models more closely. Is everyone an effing Yes Man there? It’s a known fact that in real dollars, wages are falling, so why on earth would a bank think that making extremely risky loans to people who will be earning less in the future is a good idea?

I’ll right. I’m done.

First off, I have to say that we went to Bond Street Sushi in NoHo on a Sunday night after a serious deluge that afternoon. There were rivulets of water in the streets because it came down so hard. All three of us had to change when we got home for we forgot umbrellas at brunch.

Therefore when we were in the downstairs lounge area, it was empty. It has a lot of atmosphere. Dark, but well lit in the right spots. It filled up a little more by the time we were done, but we ate around 8pm and it was still pretty empty by our departure an hour later.

We each had a cocktail for $14 each (oy vey!). I had the lychee martini, to which fortunately I wasn’t allergic because it was from canned lychees. It was tasty. My friends had the wasabi-spiked bloody mary. It packed quite a punch. I don’t think I could have drank an entire glass of it. In fact, one of them didn’t. The other one had been jonesing for one all day that she finished hers off.

We started with some edamame, which weren’t impressively plumpy. I love fat beans, but these were alright. Then we had grilled sea bass on skewers at the recommendation of one of my friends. It was delicate, creamy white flesh with a deliciously sweet sauce that wasn’t cloying or syrupy. It was as delicious as promised. It’s definitely worth having if you come here.

Our sushi platter:
Bluefin Toro with garlic chips
Soba Zushi, in soy skin with soba noodles and snow crab
Mentaiko - spicy caviar
Kinmedai - Goldeneye Snapper nigiri
Scottish Salmon nigiri
Salmon and avocado roll
Toro and scallion roll
Chili mayo, which was dipping sauce for something I forget. But we all loved the chili mayo

There were a a few other items, but I forgot them now. I try not to be too much of a dweeb and note everything we ate. Sometimes you have to roll with the good times.

Over all, the fish itself was very good. Not the best salmon nigiri I’ve had, but definitely not the worst. I use sake nigiri as my baseline for sushi places. I like it fresh, not smoked. But this time we had Scottish Salmon because I wanted to avoid the smoked one I saw on the menu. I’d rate it an 8 out of 10. Part of that I think was that the rice was just ever so slightly undercooked and was a very small amount of rice. My friend stripped off the fish one one and that left me a lump of rice to dip into the nummy chili mayo. I think I am complaining about the quantity because I wanted more to dip!

But the soba zushi was amazing stuff. It was so unusual for a sushi item and fun to eat. Concept-wise, the waitress said a lot of people don’t expect it to come out the way it does since the outer skin isn’t nori seaweed. However, the skin it had was sort of like a soy skin I’ve had before at vegan Chinese places, so it didn’t bother me. I could have had a seaweed skin for it and it would have been just as yummy. (For my mommy cuts up seaweed on top of the soba noodles she serves at home.)

I was bummed out they were out of Japanese red snapper (Tai), which is why we chose the Goldeneye. I can’t say what it was like because I let my friends eat the 2 piece serving we received.

The Bluefin Toro was a special roll that night. There was something else in it, with a fried garlic chip on top. The crunch of the chip was good, but it didn’t thrill me much since I’d rather have cuts of toro sashimi. I didn’t argue with my friends though since they seemed to like the rolls best.

Now that it’s a few days later, none of the other sushi really sticks out in my mind. I feel bad that I can’t remember what the chili mayo was for, because it really did complement it well.

The total damage was $70 per person. Quite a lot, but it did satisfy my sushi jones. We were thinking of Megu, but I kept telling my friends that quantity over quality was important here since I can eat a lot and didn’t want to bust the bank with an overly expensive dinner. (If given my druthers, I could have eaten $120 of sushi by myself at Bond Street.)

Moominoid asked me if my dessert was really $22.

I just pulled out the receipt again. MOMA charges a 15% gratuity. I added a little less than 10% on top of it because the waitress was being extremely nice after the long wait for service, the spill that landed on me, and the free drink.

But the math works out. I gave her a 25% tip for making up for the poor service.

Check:
Lunch (Soup and entree) $25
Dessert (which I thought was included in the fixed price) $8
Soda (gratis) $4
Tax charged on subtotal $2.76
15% gratuity $4.95
Total: $40.71

In NYC and SF, I usually put about 17-20% for tip. But I also tend to calculate 15% of the POST tax total, rather than before. In DC, that’s 9% extra, so the math kind of evens out to about 17% with things like rounding up, etc.

I tacked on an extra $3.29 for tip to cover the lost 60 cents for the free soda, and to give a little more for the good service.

In the end, I gave her 25% of the check, and 22% of the total with soda. Which is inline with what I wanted to give her. But it was complicated to figure it out since I had to do these weird adjustments with the gratuity they added in. I would rather they charge a cover charge like in European restaurants so I’m not stuck diddling with the calculator on my cellphone.

Really. The killer app on your cellphone is actually the calculator!

Side note: A quick review of MOMA’s current exhibits. I loved the work of Richard Serra. The massive scale is wondrous. The balancing of heavy steel juxtaposes the lightness you feel seeing something floating mid-air. Really neat. Worth the admission price of $20, but on top of that you get to see stuff like Picasso’s Three Musicians, Braque, DeKooning, Pollack, Rothko, Monet, Manet, Cezzane, Johns, Miro, Brancusi, etc. Turning a corner and seeing a painting I learned about in Art History staring back at me makes me smile. It’s like seeing an old friend you haven’t visited in a long time. My last visit there was probably 15 years ago in high school for my Art History course.

Because MOMA is one of the few museums open on Mondays in NYC, admission can take a while. I showed up right at opening time, but didn’t get in till about 15 minutes later because of the queue. It was worth the wait.

Also, one reason why I ate in the expensive, but extremely delicious cafe was that I wanted to sit and eat without having to go out and back in. To relax on the 5th floor was worth it. Sometimes you are buying experiences, and that luncheon was pretty amazing food. It was sublime. The soup was a cold creamy cucumber soup with shrimp and cress. The entree was a grilled salmon, but very well cooked. It was tender and not gross and dried out. I hate when restaurants overcook my fish. This stuff was delicate and tasty with a nice teriyaki-style sauce. The dessert of $8 was two types of sorbet, raspberry and fromage blanc. This is where the waitress earned her money. I asked if I could get scoops of each flavor and not just one. She said yes and I got two of each. That lunch was better than anything I was going to find on the street for $12. OMG it was really good. It still makes my mouth water while I think about it.

As you can see, I really like food and art. I put a priority on experiences over things a lot of times. I try to deny myself nothing, but I know that people think I’m crazy because I don’t have a TV. To each their own.

Mapgirl does not cook. She CAN cook, but she does not like to cook for one and so rarely cooks. She uses dining out as an excuse not to hide in her apartment from the rest of the world.

Getting that out of the way, I am actually a very decent cook. There are a few things I do really well, like a full-on Thanksgiving dinner with homemade cornbread dressing. I can do it with my eyes closed at this age. But I leave the candied yam recipe to my mom, she likes the little marshmallows on top.

Korean food is a challenge for me. I can cook it at my mom’s house, but I really am not interested in slaving away in the kitchen to make all the little side dishes, plus the smell of kimchi is not so nice when it pervades the entire apartment. 500 sq feet isn’t hard to air out, but I’d rather not have my bedding smell like food in the first place.

This post was inspired by a dining budget disaster at Make Love Not Debt. I totally feel for you guys. Your post inspired this little rant of mine.

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I’m sorry, this is the real reason why I want to be rich. Forget that scholarship stuff.

Though this article did not meet the 84th Carnival of Personal Finances’ two-week requirement, I still liked it. The Digerati Life on how living in a rich neighborhood can be dangerous for the poor Yet another reason why inequity can be dangerous. (no second link for you for being a bad submitter!)

George at Fat Pitch Financials reports that Macy’s is asking for your Social Security Number. Don’t give your social security number unless you are applying for an in-store credit card. (which you shouldn’t do anyway!) Someone possibly faking as a Macy’s rep left a comment, so stay tuned to find out what happens.

Frugal Duchess wrote a great post about what teaching has taught her about money. I think her brief lessons are true. I was a better student when I had more discipline imposed on me in life. (Straight A’s in high school, till I was accepted to college, and then 4.5 years of slacking off mightily. Sorry Mom & Dad!)

Frugal Duchess again on John Travolta’s frugal money lessons. I love it. DIY projects with dad make for life long memories. Mom shopping thrift for good looking quality clothes. Good stuff. Did you know that disco was nearly dead till Saturday Night Fever revived it? That white suit? I read somewhere that the wardrobe people found it on sale in a store and it became the indelible image of disco.

Trent says Change your routines to change your financial habits. Absolutely. They say that it takes 21 or 27 days to create a new habit. Just think about your daily financial wastes. Can you break yourselves of those wasteful habits?

HC at One Big Mortar Board tells it like it is when it comes to helping your kids pay for college and why. She wrote something pretty compelling. The quote I liked best? In contrast, while I’m immensely proud of getting a master’s degree from Big 10 U., the fact that I paid for all of it out of my own savings, work-study, and lots of loans doesn’t make the accomplishment any more meaningful to me. I spent a lot more time being worried about money than being proud that I was paying my own way.

Make Love Not Debt tells us to hit White Castle for a frugal, yet romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. There’s something about those little sackfuls of burgers. But now that I’m in DC, I prefer Julia’s Empanadas as my late night post-nightclubbing snack. SOOO GOOOD… SOOOO CHEAP…. SOOO TASTY…. Even the next day. I ignore the first reviewer in the link because I don’t eat fruit so her review does not apply. I go straight for the meat ones and they are amazingly tasty.

Why do people think this is a taboo subject? One of LAMoneyGuy’s most controversial and popular posts was about this subject. Even Blunt Money writes about what to do when friends aren’t supportive about financial efforts.

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A Prairie Home Companion is now on WAMU on Saturday nights. This past weekend was live from the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia with Terry Gross of Fresh Air as a special guest. I loved it. He reminded me of so much of growing up in and around Philly. I remember going to the bodega down the street for penny candy. Throwing our sneakers up on the wire. Taking the subway or train downtown to the Gallery to shop. Driving to Reading for the outlets. Getting soft pretzels from the Amish ladies at Reading Terminal Market. Lining up at Tacconelli’s for pizza.

One thing he mentioned was scrapple. If you are vegan or vegetarian, stop reading now.

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