Breakfast/lunch places in Phoenix

We enjoy our weekends, especially eating a late breakfast or lunch. Our favorite standby is Harlow's in Tempe. I love their chorizo in any number of their dishes, especially the huge Eggs Maximilian. Even the simple chorizo and eggs is a great way to start the day. Their chorizo, for me, has the perfect balance of flavor and heat. We even have a favorite waitress who remembers us, Katrina. Harlow's is one of those places that attracts everyone: college kids from ASU, hipsters, families, bikers, Scottsdale pretty people, and the like.

Sometimes, though, a change is nice.

One of our friends was checking in on Foursquare a lot at a place called Joe's Diner, on 16th Street between Camelback and Indian School. I tried it solo while Tara was out of town and loved it. After several trips, the only thing I didn't love was their sausage patties. They were kinda dry and rubbery and not up to the rest of the food. They are your basic diner, with breakfast, lunch, and a bunch of sandwiches, plus daily specials. Nothing earth-shattering, but everything is done very well. The owners have been there every weekend when we've gone. Joe comes out of the kitchen and chats with customers. On one visit, he asked me about the food, and I told him my dislike of the sausage compared to the rest of the food. In a subsequent visit, the sausage was vastly improved and he confirmed that he'd changed the recipe. The only thing I have problems with now is their chorizo. It's made for him by Carolina's using his own recipe. It's very bland for chorizo, with hardly any flavor and no heat. Luckily they have so much else that is fantastic, it's not really an issue for me. I also like that both Joe and his wife (who always says hi to us when we go) are free to recommend other places to eat. Joe admitted his Italian sandwich is an homage/copy of DeFalco's in Scottsdale. His wife recommended Bertha's in Arcadia, 5th Ave Cafe at 5th Ave and Thomas, and Times Square at I17 and Deer Valley. JK also mentioned that their coffee is great.

Today we were able to try 5th Ave Cafe for a late breakfast. It's a nice space right on the corner with a little bit of parking out front and more in the back. We got there about 1/2 before they closed for lunch. Service was pleasant although there were a few small issues with timing. I also saw another table have an ordering issue/language barrier problem, but they fixed it and several of the staff apologized for the mix-up. They did keep our drinks refilled like troopers, as just about any server who walked by when a glass was empty would immediately ask if we wanted refills. For our meals, Tara got the biscuits and gravy plate, which came with a couple scrambled eggs and red potatoes. They were some excellent biscuits and gravy and Tara loved the herbed potatoes, crunchy outside and creamy inside. I got the Chorizo Cowboy, a skillet scramble of eggs, chorizo, hash browns, and cheese sprinkled on top. I also got a side of sausage. The scramble was really good. It didn't have the nice chorizo flavor of Harlow's, but it was still quite good. The hash browns were very finely grated, so they were very crispy. It all worked. It came with a huge buttered tortilla, so I used 1/2 my skillet to make a breakfast burrito. I stuffed myself and still had some leftover scramble. The only odd thing was when the waitress dropped off some syrup on her first delivery of our meals. Tara and I gave each other an odd look, as we couldn't figure what required syrup. On her second trip, she had my dish and a huge plate with a "short stack" of pancakes, which looked really good. She asked who had them and we said nobody. She later admitted she'd keyed it into our order by mistake. I'd gotten a $10 gift cert from restaurant.com and even with two drinks, our order was still under the $20 min before tax. Not a bad deal. 5th Ave Cafe will definitely be in our rotation now.

On the complete opposite end of the cost spectrum, there's St Francis at Camelback and 1st St. A friend had posted pictures of his brunch there a while back and it looked so good, we had to try it. Along with our friend JK, we went for their Sunday brunch a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, they have a live band and horrible acoustics, so we could barely hear ourselves talk. The food, however, was spectacular.
The Bakers Board, with scones, baguette, rosemary mini-biscuits, a mini-cinnamon bun, and toppings for the breads, was a meal in itself. The scones with creme fraische were incredible. The bread with the butter and jam was also right up there. Tara and JK thought the mini-biscuits were a bit over-kneaded, but I still loved them. The cinnamon bun with homemade caramel sauce was my least favorite. The sauce had too much of a burnt flavor for me.
While waiting for our table, Tara spied a group eating fingerling potatoes that looked too tempting to pass up. Cooked with rosemary, sage, sprinkled with a pecorino cheese, and served with a lemon aioli, they were crazy good.
Tara ordered the House Made Biscuit, with fennel sausage gravy and two fried eggs on top. Hands-down this was the best biscuit and gravy I've had. The gravy had a strong flavor with huge chunks of sausage. The biscuit was easily four inches across. A great dish.
JK had the Wood-Oven Baked Eggs, with red wine braised beef, summer vegetables, tomatoes, and gruyere. I had a tiny taste, yet it had a ton of flavor.
I had the Pork Chile Verde, with cilantro, lime, jack cheese, two sunny side up eggs, and homemade cornbread. I was in love with it. Not quite as good as the dreamy Carne Adovada at Dick's Hideaway, it was still fantastic. Not too much heat from the spices and a great melding of flavors. The only let down was the homemade cornbread. Compared to the other baked goods, it was out of it's league. It didn't help that it was served cold. Warm with some butter would have made a huge difference.
With our drinks, including a couple mimosas, the bill came to $85 for the three of us. Ouch. If you don't go nuts like we did trying so much, and forgo the mimosas, it would be much more manageable. Still, the food was so good, it would be hard to not order some extra dishes.

Zaytoon Kabob Bistro - North Phoenix

Wow, I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted. Things have been quite hectic. We moved to a new house in February, so January was full of searching, applying, and moving prep. We're finally mostly all settled.

Some of the first mail we got at our new place was a ValuPak of coupons. One was for a local, fairly new Middle Eastern place called Zaytoon Kabob Bistro. They are located in one of the small strip malls on the southwest corner of Greenway and Tatum. Since we moved farther from the large cluster of restaurants at 7th St/Bell, we've been looking for new places that are closer to home.

Zaytoon is a five month old restaurant. You order at the counter and they bring your food out to you. As the name implies, most of their menu is kabobs, either in wraps or entree form. Ground beef, chicken, shrimp, lamb, veggie, and a few others. They also have daily specials. On my first visit, the friendly and helpful girl at the register explained that the owner is Iranian and the specials are all Iranian specialties. They are unique on the menu and not just discounted regular items. I think that's a great idea.

On my first visit, I got the gyro wrap to go, along with an order of hummus. These are my usual measuring sticks for a new Middle Eastern restaurant. The gyro meat is made in-house. The gyros wrap was huge. A large quantity of gyro meat (beef and lamb), along with veggies and sauce, all wrapped in a fresh, house-made tandoori bread. It was very good. The hummus was excellent. There was an added flavor I couldn't identify, but it was obviously made in-house as well. This was evidenced by a few whole or nearly whole chickpeas that escaped processing. Tara and I ranked this as our second favorite hummus after Z's Greek on Thomas near 40th Street.

On my second take-out visit, I got the chicken kabob entree (marinated boneless chicken, breast or thigh), which came with basmati rice and 1/2 a piece of tandoori bread. The chicken was also very good, with a nice marinated flavor. It came with a massive side of rice, easily enough for two or three people. The rice was OK. It was basic basmati rice, nothing special. For that, you head to Eden's Grill just down Tatum at Thunderbird. Their rice is amazing, but a different review.

Tonight, Tara didn't feel like cooking and suggested we go to Zaytoon, as she hadn't tried it yet outside of the hummus. Surprisingly, they were nearly packed on a Wednesday night. They have around 15 tables and most were taken. A huge group was ordering at the register when we arrived, but the owner let his son deal with them and took our order at the other end of the counter. He was incredibly friendly and helpful. Tara got the ground beef kabobs (ground beef mixed with onions and Zaytoon seasonings). I got the daily special: Eggplant Stew (A stew of beef, yellow split peas, and eggplant in a saffron tomato sauce, served with steamed basmati rice.

We also got a hummus appetizer with two extra pieces of tandoori bread. The owner even asked the kitchen to do our order in front of the large group so we wouldn't have to wait for twelve dishes to be done before ours.

The hummus arrived before I even made my way to the table after getting my drink. I let the extremely hot bread cool before dug in, but Tara didn't way as she has a higher pain threshold. The hummus was still as good as we remembered. It was a very large portion and we found we couldn't stop eating it. As we did, we noticed the large group started to get their meals. That was fine, as they were there before us and we had a ton of hummus to keep us very happy.

After about half of the large group had their meals, our came out. Immediately after we got them, the owner came out and apologized for our meals taking longer than normal. This caught us by surprise as it didn't seem to take long at all. We assured him that we didn't even notice and were just finishing the hummus in any case. Sometimes you can't beat the service at a Mom and Pop place.

Tara's ground beef kabobs were excellent. She even went so far as to say there were better than the ones she used to get when we frequented Shish Kabab House in Glendale. High praise indeed.

My stew was very good, although I'm not sure I'd get it again. The saffron tomato sauce had a very interesting flavor, and I'm sure people love it, but it was right on the border of my tastes. I didn't DISlike it, but I'm not sure it's something I'd order again. What I did love is that it DID have a distinct flavor and didn't seem to be too toned-down for the general public.

All the plates and utensils are plastic and the interior is very clean if not too special. All of the staff has been very friendly on all my visits and the owner even more so tonight. The best part is that the most expensive items on the menu (the lamb and the shrimp entrees) top out at $9.99. The generous portion of hummus was only $3.75. My daily special was only $7.99. It's a great alternative to Chili's or other chains down at the Cactus and Tatum area. Judging by the large mid-week crowd and owner greeting many patrons like regulars, they have quite a following already.

Chili Time

Sorry for the near-abandonment of the blog. My primary computer's web browser doesn't allow me to sign in for some reason so it's a hassle to create new posts.

With the weather getting colder here in Phoenix, I've had a craving for my chili. This isn't an old sacred family recipe. I cobbled this together after some trial and error during my long-ago time in Dallas. It's not even close to an authentic Texas chili recipe. I read dozens of chili recipes online and blogs and threw together the elements that sounded good. Eventually I settled on this and it usually comes out pretty tasty. I try to keep the spice level down, as I'm not a hard-core heat enthusiast. I prefer flavor over incendiary ingredients. I found grocery store generic spices work best for me usually. I tried high-quality spices and chili powders from the awesome Central Market in Plano, and man, I felt like the ill-fated at the end of Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's nothing special and can be modified to one's tastes. I've used both beef and turkey for the meat and both work wonderfully.

Tim's Chili

1 lb ground sirloin
1 lb ground chuck
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2-3 tbl chipotle chili powder
2-3 tbl chili powder
1-2 tbl ground cumin
1-2 tbl onion powder
6-8 cloves fresh minced garlic
1 tbl coriander
1 can refried beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 jalapeno chile, finely chopped
1 Anaheim chile, finely chopped
1 medium to large white onion, diced
1 medium to large red onion, diced
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Kosher salt
4 cups water
2 cans chicken stock

Brown meat and drain fat. In an 8-quart pot (that's what I used), combine meat with the
rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and
simmer for 90 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

A Tale of Two Buffets

A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend whom we met at Dim Sum posted some pictures of an Indian restaurant he went to, India Oven in Mesa, and said it was great. The pictures, including some delicious looking garlic naan, sold me. A week or so later I was able to try it. I've been back another time as well.

Recently, the Phoenix New Times reviewed Guru Palace Cuisine of India, another Indian restaurant in Mesa, coincidentally also off of Gilbert Road and only .8 mile away. I tried Guru Palace this weekend with a brave Tara (who has had some bad Indian meals).

India Oven's buffet typically has four or five non-vegetarian dishes, four or five vegetarian dishes, salad fixings, dessert, and some other items whose purpose I'm not sure of. On both my visits, they have had a chicken dish (chicken tikka masala both times), a bone-in goat dish (not tried), a lamb dish (lamb vindaloo my first visit), and tandoor chicken.

The chicken tikka masala is excellent. The chicken had the right texture and the spices were perfect for my palate. I had to restrain myself or I would have eaten way too much. I'm typically not a huge lamb fan, but I decided to try it here. I'm glad I did. I loved the lamb vindaloo as well as the lamb dish on my second visit that I can't recall. Both times the lamb was fork tender and the flavors of the dishes were perfect. I recall having another vindaloo dish years ago that was much spicier, but the spice level here was just what I like. I am still shocked at how much I enjoyed the lamb. Garlic naan comes with the buffet and is brought to the table hot from the oven. It, too, was great. The naan was nicely browned without being burnt and the garlic flavor was strong but not overpowering or bitter. For dessert I had some kheer and gulab jamun balls. Kheer is one of my favorite ethnic desserts and this was as good as the rest of the meal. The gulab jamun was good as well, but they do a cold presentation which I'm not a fan of. I like them hot. Service was friendly and attentive and my water and naan were both refilled as needed. I did try some of the vegetarian dishes and they were also quite good, but I forget their names.

Guru Palace has a somewhat larger selection at their buffet. One our visit, they had bone-in chicken curry, boneless chicken tikka masala, a bone-in goat dish, and tandoor chicken for the non-vegetarian selection. Among the vegetarian items were paneer, vegetable korma, some bjahis (sp?) and a few other. They also have a salad area and another area for creating your own filled pastry whose name escapes me. Dessert is there as well.

The chicken curry was surprisingly bland. Nothing really jumped out at me other than the bone-in pieces of chicken were a pain to eat. The chicken tikka masala was good, but the chicken pieces seemed to be dry or something. Oddly, they also had perfectly straight edges where they were cut. The texture wasn't as tender as India Oven's version and it just didn't seem as good to me. I really liked the veggie korma, though. Quite sweet but with a nice flavor. They do give you a choice of plain or garlic naan and we chose garlic. We got about six or seven large pieces and at least half had very burnt/blackened patches that were quite acrid to eat. Some of the garlic had a very bitter flavor like it was fresh and uncooked. The kheer for dessert seemed to have a heavier hand on the spices. It was good, but unbalanced. The gulab jamun, on the other hand, are served warm and were perfect. If I wasn't limiting my sweets, I would of had a lot more.

Service was another story. We were seated right next to where all the staff came and went from the kitchen/prep area. Our waiter, the other waitstaff, and possibly the owner walked by repeatedly without offering to refill Tara's empty soda glass which was right on the edge of the table. I even saw one look right at it and continue without pausing. At one point when our waiter checked on us, I asked for ice (my water was luke-warm) and he said OK and kept going. After watching him cycle through the kitchen a few times without bothering with my ice, I stopped a waitress and asked for some. She dutifully dumped 4 ice cubes into my water and moved on. We could see glasses at other tables full of ice. Needless to say, this didn't make us feel overly welcome.

One thing that really bugged me was that several tables were letting their young kids run rampant around the restaurant. I'm not sure if they were related to the owners or not, as some people who spoke to them went into the back. They were quite unruly and nobody ever tried to get them under control.

India Palace is my obvious favorite of the two. It's got a slightly smaller selection, but it seems more balanced and I enjoyed it more. The service is much more friendly and polished. Their buffet is $7.95.

Guru Palace was full for our 2pm Saturday visit, so they seem to have quite a following. However, for me, the service, kids running around unsupervised, and bitter garlic flavor of the naan didn't do it for me. Their buffet is $8.99.

India Palace will keep my business for now.

My Week With A Toyota Prius

I've heard a lot of the pros and cons of driving a hybrid car. Some of our friends have a Prius and love it. Other articles I've seen have been very negative of the Official Car of the Green People. Being a person who loves fast, preferably German, cars, I've been more on the side of efficient diesel powered cars than hybrids. Call me a torque whore, but nothing beats that kick in the pants feeling of brute force.

For the last week, we were visiting my relatives in Maine. Since we flew into Boston and always rent a car, my curiosity of the Prius got the better of me when I found I could rent one thorough Herzt for only $15 more than our usual standard/full-size car. I reserved one. Since we would be driving quite a bit, I figured we could easily recoup that extra cost in gas savings.

The first order of business was to go test drive a Prius at one of the local dealers. Since neither of us are petite, especially me, I wanted sure we could fit comfortably in one. A few weeks ago Tara and I were down in Tempe on the weekend, so we stopped by the Toyota dealer down there. A nice older gentleman greeted us and we explained the situation. He showed us their selection and we picked out a pretty blue one the same color as Tara's Camry. It had most options except the solar cell-powered roof vents and remote A/C. The salesman demonstrated how to start/stop, select gears, and park it. I took it on a test drive with Tara up front and him in the back seat. In the mixed loop of highway and side streets, it drove quite well. Tara and I had ample room and I was able to get comfortable behind the wheel. The steering wheel didn't telescope as far out as I'd have liked, but it was certainly doable. After the test drive, Tara admitted that she actually loved the Prius and wanted one. And she hadn't even driven it.

So fast forward a few weeks and we arrived in Boston to the Heat Wave of '10. Humid and miserable with 90s even up in Maine. Our rental Prius was a dark grey 2010 model that was pretty much as stripped as they come. No navigation, solar room, nothing. Still, except for a sunroof, it had the same options as Tara's Camry. It had the proximity key, gentle-touch locking on the driver's door handle, and all the fancy hybrid displays for charging, range, 15-minute graph of mileage, etc. Curiously, it had no remote trunk release, even just a button on the cabin. Just the manual switch above the license plate in the back.

Once I had everything adjusted to my liking and our bags loaded, we were off. The first thing you notice is the engine revving at a constant speed due to the continuously variable transmission. Unlike conventional cars, where the engine noise will get louder as you gain speed, this is constant. You get used to it and it's not a big deal after a while. In the stop-and-go traffic on Route 1A north from Logan, it ran great. The engine shutdown/startup at stops is seamless. For the most part, I didn't notice it happening. While not a stoplight dragster, it has enough power to keep up from stops and accelerate like any other car. More than once in light traffic, I found myself doing 75MPH on 1A before I realized it. So highways speeds weren't a problem at all.

The most annoying thing I found was the visibility out the back hatch. The rear hatch has two panes of glass, the main rear window and a lower section. There's a solid metal bar where they join together and it was right in the middle of my rear view. You get used to it, but visibility was also an issue with Tara, who is about 5' tall.

For all the press it got/gets, the Prius basically drives like a regular car. I've owned a 1978 Chevette, 1984 Oldmobile Firenza wagon, 1995 Saturn SL1, 1999 Saturn SC2, 2002 Audi A4 3.0 Quattro (whom I still miss), 2006 Audi A3 2.o, and my current 2008 VW Passat sedan. Add in various rentals and friends vehicles, I can safely say I've driven a wide variety of cars. The Prius is pretty much middle ground among them. It's not sporty at all, but it handled the twisty roads of my youth in Georgetown at pretty good speeds with no problem. It was an excellent highway car, smooth and pretty stable in crosswinds and rain.

The best part was the mileage. The EPA rates the 2010 Prius at 51 city/48 highway. I had thought I'd read it had a 12.5 gallon gas tank, so when we had fill up after only about 450 miles, I was disappointed. With an indicated range of 7 miles until empty (Tara hadn't noticed the low gas light when she headed into Georgetown), I filled it up at the closest gas station to Georgetown. It took less than 9.5 gallons. This was with it a step away from running on fumes. The trip computer and displays had been indicating upwards of 47 or 48 MPG in our mixed driving. On the highways, I kept at a pretty steady 75 MPH with cruise control. When not stuck behind slow cars into and out of Georgetown, I also kept a bit above posted speeds. We drove roughly 900 miles during our visit and used only 19 or 20 gallons of gas. Overall we averaged between 45-47 MPG and occasionally saw close to 49 MPG. This without any attempt at hyper-miling and with the Power Mode button enabled.

Granted, I was just renting the car. My Palin-loving relatives kept spewing out what I assume was Fox News propaganda about how the Prius is an evil car, blah blah blah. Luckily, I just tune them out. My sister risked divorce and disownment by actually sitting in the car and admitting it seemed pretty neat. My friend Joe gets a bit over 40 MPH in his Mini Cooper and that car is loads more fun to drive. The Mini is rather short on luggage space, though, and not really a practical four-person car. The Prius' trunk isn't a large as the Camry, but it held our huge suitcase and Tara's computer bag fine. Fold down the rear seats, and you'll get a lot more space.

What I came away with is the Prius is a completely practical car despite being a full hybrid. It has plenty of room, even for a large person like myself. It has more than enough power to keep up with or pass most traffic on the highway, and will get nearly 48 MPG doing it. I drove it like I drive our cars and still got over 46 MPG overall. Would we buy one? I'll let you know when Tara decides to trade in her Camry. :) Starting at only $23,o00 or so, it's a very tempting proposition.

Palee's Crown - Mesa, Az

While our good friend Seth doesn't post as many reviews as he used to, we still pester him for opinions when he tries new restaurants. At a group dim sum recently, he highly recommended Palee's Crown in Mesa. He did warn us that they loved their heat there, so to be careful when ordering spicy items. We're always up for a great Thai restaurant, so we decided to give them a try. As a bonus, the Entertainment 2010 book had a coupon for Palee's.

We arrived at 7pm on a Friday to an empty restaurant. I'm pretty sure they turned on the lights when they saw us walking up to the front door. As Tara stepped into the restaurant, she stopped abruptly and I nearly walked into her. She was reading a sign on the table in front of the door that said they no longer accepted coupons of any kind. Bummer.

The young waitress told us to sit wherever we liked. We took a booth in the corner and looked over the menu. It was the fairly standard Thai menu with all the usual suspects. We ordered curry puffs, fresh rolls, massaman curry with chicken for Tara, and panang curry with chicken for me.

The curry puffs (crispy puff stuffed with chicken, onion, potato, curry powder, and coconut milk served with cucumber salad) sounded a lot like our beloved Osha Golden Pockets at Osha Thai Cafe. Seth has a nice picture the Osha Golden Pockets. Alas, Palee's curry puffs were different. They had a puff pastry shell instead of the crispy wrapper at Osha. The filling reminded me of the texture of baby food, but I did like them. They aren't as good as the Golden Pockets, though. Tara wasn't a huge fan. The pastry shell merely reminded her of the spectacular pork pastries we'd had at the dim sum at Phoenix Palace, which she is still trying to marry once the legal issues can be resolved.

The fresh roll (rice wrapper stuffed with steamed shrimp, lettuce, mint leaves, carrot, cucumber, and angel hair noodle served with hoisin sauce topped crushed peanut) were OK. They seemed poorly wrapped and mostly lettuce. The sauce seemed more like a spicy peanut sauce than hoisin sauce. Tara really liked the sauce and even had a roll herself, which she usually doesn't with fresh spring rolls.

So far, we weren't terribly impressed with Palee. Then the entrees arrived.

Being mindful of Seth's warning, Tara opted for no spice in her massaman curry (potato, onion, carrot, bell pepper, and peanuts with Massaman curry pasted in coconut milk). She loved it. It had excellent flavor but no heat at all. She was extremely happy with her choice. Everything was perfectly done and she glared at me whenever I took a piece. I heeded her warnings and desisted. She even had enough to bring home for a small snack.

My panang curry (rich Panang curry paste in coconut milk with bell pepper) was also top-notch. I asked for it extremely mild, since we'd been warned about the heat levels. Even at "mild", my mouth was burning and my head sweating in short order. I suffered through it, as the sweet flavor of the curry was just what I look for. I'll try it with no spice on our next visit. I managed to polish off all if mine, despite the heat. Definitely a winner.

We passed on dessert. Our bill came to just under $40 after tax. While a couple groups came in after us, there were never more than two tables including our during our whole visit. This is a shame considering how good their food is. We need to go with our friend JK so he can try it pet-pet hot. He's psychotic like that.

Palee's Crown

1245 W. Baseline Rd,

Mesa, AZ 85202

HDTV Experience So Far

I'm having surprisingly little buyer's remorse over my HDTV purchases after nearly two months.

The Sony HDTV works awesome for a lower-end model. I lucked-out in it having a matte screen finish given that there are windows on the opposite side of the room that can be bright during the say. The picture quality is fantastic and you really notice the extra details in full HDTV shows. Even when I use my old SD TiVo as a source or watch SD channels, it doesn't look too horrible. Even Tara, who is not really impressed with all my toys, admitted that she can see the difference and does like it.

The LG Blu-ray was discontinued literally within a week of my buying it. Luckily it's replacement in the LG lineup only offers a few new things and I don't care about them. I actually like the BDP390's front panel design better. The new BDP570's whole front panel has to be down if you have a USB drive plugged in. My BDP390 has a slot cut-out in the front panel that you just need to remove a small plastic plug to insert the USB drive. Speaking of which, I've downloaded AVI files to the drive and once you plug it in, the Blu-ray player automatically discovers the movies on there and you can play them. A very nice feature. The picture quality is excellent, no matter what source you are using. The built-in wireless N adapter easily streams Netflix programming in high-def. It's a great player all around.

I still only have a Cox Cable HD DVR. I still can't quite afford the new TiVo boxes yet. Picture quality is quite good. I had to install a signal amplifier in order to be able to plug more than just the DVR. This house has horrible cable signal strength. Luckily the amp does the job really well. I lose the On-Demand features as the amp isn't bi-directional, but it's an acceptable trade-off.

The el cheapo HDMI cables continue to do a fine job. I don't see any issues with the signal at all when using them. The Sony TV can actually shut down the DVR when you switch picture sources away from the HDMI port the DVR uses. Quite cool.

I've even plugged my laptop into the TV with a VGA cable to watch Hulu content. Even that was very good. One of these days I hope to either get a laptop with an HDMI port or just build a little Home Theater PC (HTPC) to watch Internet content on it. That's a little ways off, though.

All in all, the HDTV upgrade of the home theater went smoothly and I'm quite satisfied. It's not an end-all be-all, balls-to-the-wall home theater setup, but it looks and sounds great and that's really all I care about.