China Wok

Lena and I were busy working on the new house.  We'd successfully installed the new hardware on the toilet that had been running (YES!) and she was begging for food.  I didn't want to take a long break.  I remembered China Wok was nearby and suggested we give it a try. 

The menu was the typical Chinese-fast-food-type menu with about 500 things on it (how do they do that?!).  I ordered Curry Chicken.  She had Beef with Broccoli.  We both opted for fried rice and ordered a can of soda.  It was $10 and change.  You've got to be kidding me...  Wendy's across the parking lot would've cost us more.

After about five minutes, our food and fortune cookies were brought out.  The fried rice had these weird pieces of snow-white chicken in it.  My curry chicken had a bit of spice to it, but was so terribly salty.  I felt my blood pressure increase during the meal.  LOL.  Lena thought her food was ok, not great.

For the price, location, and speed (closest restaurant to my new house), I'm sure I'll return...

King Gyros

Ever go into a place that looks like a dive and fall in love? 
Gosh, that sounds like my love life, too!

Anyway...  Lena and I dropped Leo off at baseball pre-game warm-ups.  We had about 30 minutes, so shot straight over to King Gyros.  We each ordered a Gyros Platter and baklava.  About five minutes later, we each had warm pitas, a huge pile of gyro meat, a long square of feta cheese, sliced onions, tomatoes, about 1/3 cup of tzatziki, and a chunk of baklava.  We proceeded to dive in and were blown away.  This stuff was amazing.  Since we were on a tight schedule, I shoved the (thankfully in plastic wrap) baklava in my purse to take to the game.  I stuffed myself with gyros (how do you pronounce it anyway?).  Lena ate some of hers and brought the rest to the game, where she proceeded to make gyros in the stands.  They were so good!  I swear we could've sold them for a profit to the people in front of us that were eating Subway (ha!). 

The baklava didn't make it to the seventh inning stretch.  Come to think of it, it didn't make it to the seven batter.  LOL

I will be a regular here.  Wow.

Bear's Place

I was childless for a few hours and decided to try something new.  I stopped in Bear's Place, had a ten minute wait for anyone to notice me (patrons only at one other table), and eventually got a menu.  I ordered a red wine (served warmer than room temperature) and a Little Bear -- the signature meal but smaller.  I was sadly unimpressed with the burger.  There's nothing I like better than a greasy pub burger.  This just isn't it.  Sigh.

Pizza X

It's a Friday night.  I bought a house that day.  What better way to celebrate than with a champagne toast?  I invited a few friends and my daughter.  Sarah came, my daughter came, and she brought her friend Casey.  After the champagne ran out (not including the underage college kids, of course!), we moved on to wine.  I had a call from Mouhamadou and invited him to join us. 

And then more wine....  with many laughs out on the deck.

Pizza X was eventually called.  For five of us, we ordered two pizzas, bread sticks, and cheese bread.  Somehow we didn't eat it all (LOL).  I was completely wined up and just didn't think much of any of it.  It was ok.  The Tootsie Rolls were a cute touch, but I really like Aver's Pizza a lot better.

I think we killed four bottles of wine...  before we went out!  Yikes.  No wonder I woke up with a killer headache and one less tooth than I started with :-o

Basil Leaf

Since I'm a single mom and (virtually) never have a break, I've declared it Mothers Week.  I deserve more than one day, right?

It was a beautiful afternoon.  Driving home from work, I realized I didn't really want to go home to the mess/bickering/noise that exists at my place.  Instead I ventured to 4th Street and wound up at Basil Leaf.  Since it was early, I was the only customer outside, picked a seat in the sun, cranked up the music on my iPhone, and ordered a glass of wine.  Nice.  Flipping through the menu trying to decide what to order, I saw the signature dish and ordered it.  If the restaurant is named after it, surely it's good. 

The waitress brought a bowl of miso soup.  It was a lukewarm broth with a couple chunks of tofu, green onion, and basil thrown in.  It was ok.  By the time my meal arrived, there were other patrons so I had to turn down the Aretha.  Sigh.  The Basil Leaf appeared to be a stir fry of chicken, green beans, carrots, .. next to a dome of rice.  They seasoned it the way my kids would -- with tons of soy sauce.  It was so incredibly salty that I had to make a big decision - do I order the second glass of wine even though I'm in an outdoor cafe and there's a cop car parked 40' away?  Uh, yes.  Surely I'm still legal to drive, right?

I love the patio.  The wine was good (I had Malbec).  The food, not so much.  I like to be able to taste something besides soy sauce.

I continued the evening with a mall massage.  Ahhhhh.  I should do this every day!

Cafe Django

I was in the mood for some background music, so convinced Sarah to meet me at Cafe Django.  The weather was just nice enough, so we sat on the back deck.  We found out later that there was a $5 cover charge to see the band, but no cover charge to hear them out on the patio.  Yes! 

While waiting for Sarah, I ordered a carafe of sangria.  I haven't had good sangria since I was in Barcelona  couple years ago, and I lived on it there :)  I was really excited to see the variety of fruit floating inside -- apple chunks, strawberries, and blueberries sitting at the bottom.  There was probably more, but I was too delighted with the taste to drink it slowly :) 

We had no idea what to order, so asked for an appetizer.  The waitress suggested Momos, so we had the Beef Momos.  Looking through the menu, I noticed the entire menu is labelled to let you know which items are/can be vegan.  Sarah and I both like meat, but this would be important to others...

Sarah settled on the Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian stir fry with beef, tomatoes, and onions over rice.  There were papas fritas (aka french fries) on the side.  I had the House Curry with Lamb.  Sarah's was ok, but the beef was really chewy.  Mine was wonderful!  Just a touch spicy (as I'd ordered it), so we had to order another carafe of sangria.  Sigh.  ;)

The live jazz started up inside.  We decided to prolong our meal with tiramisu.  It was tasty, creamy, but did not have that strong bite of a real tiramisu. 

Sitting outdoors on a beautiful evening, listening to live jazz, having a wonderful meal with a great friend -- what could be better?

Feast Bakery Cafe

Gosh, who knew my little blog would get me free food?  As I was sitting at work yesterday, five desserts from Feast showed up at my desk.  Considering I work about 45 minutes from there, it was quite a treat.  Thanks Tom! <waves>  I will re-review this place once I go for a meal.  Until then, here's the scoop on the desserts :)

Tiramisu -- I lived in Italy.  So did my friend Shar.  We dove into this tiramisu as if it was, well, hell, I dunno...  as if it was tiramisu!  I had a bite before she got to my cube.  I declared it better than sex.  When she had a taste, her eyes rolled back in her head and she had a similar comment.  I think one other person got a taste of it, but we devoured the rest.  It was a-maz-ing.

Peanut Butter Pie -- This was also great.  Not nearly-orgasmic like the tiramisu, but an awesome dessert.  I think I had about half of it, too.  I'm surprised I didn't go into a sugar coma yesterday!

Coconut Caramel Cupcake -- This was large with lots of icing and something in the middle.  It was also very good.  Half of it actually made it home, where Lena pounced on it.  She was only eating the frothy icing (which was nearly an inch think in places), but I think she evenutally ate the rest of the cupcake.

Apricot Chocolate Brownie -- Good.  Not my favorite.  Perhaps because there was actually something healthy involved?  LOL

Salted Chocolate Caramel Shortbreat -- I'm not a chocaholic.  Some have tried to tell me I'm not really a woman since I'm not totally into chocolate (well, I am an engineer...).  This dessert was designed for a woman other than me, because it was very chocolaty.  The salt/chocolate combo was really odd to me.  Definitely #5 of the 5.

I'm very excited about going to Feast now to see what they can do with real food.  And have some more tiramisu :-D

Noodles & Co.

My niece has told me this is her favorite restaurant.  Lena and I wanted to eat somewhere outside (a lovely afternoon).  Noodles & Co. had outdoor seating and parking nearby -- both surprising on the Saturday afternoon of IU graduation weekend.

Lena ordered Chicken Noodle Soup and I had the Thai Curry Soup.  They were delivered to us outside, and we dug in.  I now understand why I see noodles being slurped up from the bowl -- there was no way to get a long noodle to sit nicely in a spoon.  They would slide out.  I briefly thought about cutting them with a knife (would Miss Manners faint at a knife inside a bowl of soup?), but then just started slurping away.  My soup was ok, nothing great.  Lena felt the same about hers.  Sigh.

The people watching was extraordinary.  Lots of graduates and their proud families.  Lots of small dresses and high heels.  Dudes in ties and shades, trying to look cool.  People standing in the middle of Kirkwood to get pix with the Sample Gates in the background.  There was one happy couple -- the dark-headed guy holding up his diploma and his cute blonde girlfriend holding up hers -- upside-down.  Was that on purpose?  Another dude, after his pic, started immediately running back to the curb.  A car had to slam on brakes to avoid hitting him.  Ok dude, you got the diploma but don't know to look before crossing the street? 

I'm not sure what the fuss is with Noodles & Co.  Did we order the wrong thing?

A Taste of India

It was probably a bad idea to go out to dinner on graduation weekend.  But still...

It was a lovely evening.  My daughter Lena and I wanted to have a nice dinner without my sons.  We invited them to join us for Indian food, knowing they'd decline.  They did :)

I've been told by an Indian (who stood me up on Valentines Day -- WTF?!) that A Taste of India was the best Indian in town.  With it being graduation weekend, there were tons of Indian families all dressed up, eating in large groups.  It was warm, the storm looked like it was far away, so we opted to sit on the patio.  Ten minutes later, our orders were taken -- naan & garlic naan, butter chicken, curry chicken, and a diet coke.  After waiting for thirty minutes, I flagged down a different waiter, asked if I could at least have my diet coke and if the naan usually took so long.   I know they were busy with graduation weekend, but still...  If I knew it would be a busy evening, why didn't they know and prepare?  Besides, there were still a number of empty tables. 

After my complaint, everything arrived at the same time about 5 minutes later -- soda, naan, rice, chicken, and the storm.  And a promise for free dessert since we had to wait so long.  We moved our table in from the edge of the porch and ate.  As we were finishing, the rain started coming sideways so I went in to pay.  Naturally, the unprotected entrance was filled with people standing watching the rain so I had to stand there, in the pouring rain, and wait for them to see me and move out of the way.  Let me tell you, none of those people wanted to move.  After two moved, I darted in and shoved the other one out of the way.  Thanks, bitch.

We didn't get our free dessert.  We got an apology and 10% off.  The same group of people was huddled around the door again, so I had to do a bunch of loud "Excuse me's" so I could leave.  Apparently they've never seen rain before?

Well, the service sucked.  Perhaps it's less authentic, but I prefer Amol India.  The only way I'll be back is if Anand wants to go there on a date (which he's mentioned before).