January 2008 Archives

I haven't blogged for awhile. Yes, I still eat out--I just haven't had a meal that made me moan with pleasure. Restaurants pale in comparison to Frontera Grill. I think it will take awhile for me to get excited about a restaurant again.

So . . . where have I been eating? I guess there would be two categories: the ubiquitous chain and Chinese/Vietnamese restaurants.

I try to avoid chain restaurants. In general, they seem to serve huge, fatty portions of not very subtly flavored food. Recently, I've eaten at Cheesecake Factory and at Chevy's. The dinner at Cheesecake Factory was memorable only because of the good company. My parents were in town and I really wanted them to meet my best girlfriends: Samina, Bo, and Toni. We had a nice time talking and getting to know each other--although the dark lighting and cavernous, echoing room made it a little difficult to connect. Still, mom and dad liked my friends and vice-versa. It made the trip out in the pouring rain very much worth it.

The food fulfilled one of the purposes of food--I was definitely full at the end of the meal. I had parmesan chicken and spaghetti--the plate was so enormous that I ending up eating it at three separate sittings. This was a single serving portion? I don't think so.

Others ate salads, fish tacos, and vegetarian shepherd's pie. The dish which most entertianed me, though, was the Navajo taco--a fry bread filled with various ingredients, including mayonnaise. What? I couldn't believe it when I read the menu. Mayo on a Navajo taco? Who develops these dishes? Although mom enjoyed the sandwich, this doesn't look like any Navajo taco I've ever eaten.

We did enjoy the rich cheesecake (we shared three pieces), but I'm going to continue to resist chain restaurants which homogenize the U.S. in the worst possible ways. Banal food, single portions that could feed entire families, and depressing rip-offs of really good food from other cultures.

That said, I can't say that my meals at Imperial Gardens and Kim's were much better. The dish I most liked at Imperial Gardens was the chicken filled lettuce wraps, a dish which I fear originated at P.F Chang's and made its way to Chinese restaurants. I liked it--especially since I'm trying to lose that extra 5 pounds I gained over the holidays. As Kyle said, it was like mu shu only with lettuce. The plum sauce nicely complemented the chicken and lettuce.

Alex's Mongolian Beef was also tasty: crunchy vegetables complemented by savory beef. Still, what can one say about a Chinese restaurant where they don't bring our chopsticks? Actually, I think what I can say is that the waitress heard what we ordered and knew that we were the knife and fork type, so I suppose this is more a commentary on me than on the restaurant!

The last restaurant I'll mention is Kim's, a Vietnamese restaurant on Shaw. I'd heard good things about Kim's, so I wanted to try it. But I felt like I needed to order vegetables (that 5 pounds again), and, unfortunately, the more risky dishes were out of season (stir fried pea shoots and another dish with Vietnamese spinach). I ended up with the mixed vegetables. They were perfectly satisfying, if a little banal. The broccoli was cooked just right, as was the corn. The dish was much better than Samina's very boring mushroom and bok choy. Luckily, she found a chili sauce that punched up the flavor.

So . . . my meals out recently have been rather uninspiring. I much prefer raving over food, but I haven't found anything rave-worthy in the last couple of weeks. Ho hum.

Last summer, I blogged about how much I loved Village Bakery, especially the onion bialy with smoked trout spread. At the time, I didn't have a digital camera, so the entry didn't include a picture. When I was in Athens over the holidays, I made sure to remedy that situation. Here it is, in all its glory.

Yum! Wish I had one to snack on right now!