Great story!
You reminded me of a little pizza place we used to go to back in 1982 in the university district - it really had great pizzas. It was a hippie place with “Eat the Rich” signs on the walls. This time, we ordered a pizza, but it took almost a half hour. The waiter finally came out with it and said “Sorry it took so long, but we burnt the fuck out of the first one.”
Heheh. Knowing what I know today, I would have said “I would have happily nibbled on the burnt pizza until you brought this one out.”
Dined at a friend’s restaurant. He and his two friends have opened a small bar and a restaurant. Both are doing well. They are probably the “classiest” places around.
The restaurant (National Public House) is in an historic building. We usually order the special.
We shared an appetizer, Baja Shrimp:
Fried shrimp tempura / corn fritter / mango / jalapeno salsa / hot honey
Then we each ordered the Blackened Scallops. Done perfectly, thin crisp exterior with rare scallop inside.
Sea scallops / remesco sauce / creamy gorganzola risotto / citrus pesto/ charred broccolini
My gf had several glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, while I enjoyed Dale’s Pale Ale. It was a lovely night out. After dinner we sat with our friend and enjoyed amaretto, the best smelling cocktail imo.
Let me know the next time you go. I’m only 35 minutes away (depending on traffic on 28).
I will! We love the place and the people there.
Tonight (and probably the next couple of nights) shall be using the remainder of this weeks pork chile verde, along with fried flour street tortillas, refried beans, and traditional fixings (cheese, sour cream, guacamole, green onions, shredded romaine lettuce, diced tomatoes) to make tostadas. Not a fan of the premade corn tostada shells (nor is my diabetes), but the zero net carb flour tortillas fry up nice & crispy to make the shell.
Tonight was a special occasion, so we went to a local steakhouse, which was very nice as always. Steak and asparagus for me, a big burger for the husband. Deviled eggs as an appetizer (which seems to be the trendy thing around here). Angel’s Ink pinot noir to drink.
We also went to Wegman’s earlier in the day to pick out a dessert. I am a total Wegman’s fangirl and am always thrilled to walk their aisles. I really wanted their chocolate mousse cake decorated with fresh raspberries, but they only had the full size version available (way too much for just two people) so I got a couple of the mini cheesecakes with chocolate ganache topping and a single raspberry on each. Perfect size.
I’m curious if the restaurants do anything unusual with these.
There’s a brewery here that has an entire menu of them:
We went to a vegan restaurant. I had a BBQ “burger” with tempeh “bacon”, frizzled onions, and bbq sauce. With a very good and garlicky Caesar salad.
Zowie, those look great! I don’t think that trend has hit here yet. It’s a great idea, and so cheap for the restaurants to make.
Oh, my god, that sounds fantastic. Did you make it (if so, recipe plz?) or does someone in your area make this yummy goodness?
I have to admit, I’m amused that a serving portion is five halves. Why an odd number of something that, by definition, is made in pairs?
The authentic stuff IS fantastic, but you should know by now that I’m a big consumer of prepared foods and rarely make anything from scratch! 
Judging from some recipe printouts I found in the kitchen just now, the last time I made anything from scratch was either Beef Stroganoff or the wonderful crispy potato flake pickerel that @swampspruce posted a recipe for a while back.
But yes, the authentic crispy ginger beef I had in a Chinese restaurant once was great. It was very thinly sliced beef crisped in a hot wok and the flavour and texture were fantastic. The frozen stuff I had was completely different but still tasty – basically lightly breaded beef nuggets crisped in the oven and tossed in a soy-ginger sauce, served over rice and garnished with green onions. TBH I actually preferred the sweet and sour pork from the same product line because it was more authentic – it wasn’t trying to pretend to be something it wasn’t.
Last night my gf did something again that I don’t think she’s aware that she does. Saturday we had a very nice dinner at a restaurant. Sunday night she went all out to show that she can match the restaurant meal.
She made a monkfish curry that was absolutely amazing.
Served with a small side salad and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.
Pfft - they don’t have finely minced salmon or wasabi deviled eggs
Looks like a good menu on the eggs (didn’t read the rest)
Turkey Liver Stroganoff. Very nice dinner, plus I cooked some extra livers so the dogs could participate.
Pierogi tonight with potato and cheddar cheese filling. Spinach souffle, apples and cornichons on the side. Mini brulee cheesecake for dessert.
I made applesauce (Cortland apples) to serve with a dinner of leftovers from three previous dinners. It was a delicious meal.
The Cortlands were kind of blah, so I added lemon juice and a cinnamon stick. No added sugar, of course, although recipes always want you to add sugar.
Im making perogies and Haluska with sausage.