Archive for "Food and Drink"
Farewell Dinner at Longhorn
Posted on November 27, 2013 by Ching under Family, Food and Drink.
Brian’s parents treated us to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse on Sunday night. It actually should have been the other way around but they insisted.
Brian and I had never been to Longhorn before. This was our first trip. They were off to a rocky start when they asked us to wait to be seated when there were several vacant tables throughout the restaurant. I’m not sure what was going on there.
We had some of their pretzels with the beer infused cheese dip while we waited for our entrees. It was pretty good. What I liked most about them is that they were super salty so I didn’t need to salt them.
I can’t remember what this salad is called. It had apple chips and bacon and a tangy dressing. It was decent, but I don’t think Brian liked it.
I took a picture of the bread because I take pictures of everything, specially if it’s a restaurant that I’ve never tried before.
We should have stopped at the salads. Alas, eating healthy was not meant to be.
Brian and I decided to keep the calories and cost down by sharing an entree.
He had the filet and the baked potato while I had the lobster and shrimp mac and cheese portion of the entree. I had a bite Brian’s steak which I thought was good, but he was unimpressed.
The food was just okay over all. If we’d been there before, I don’t think I would have picked it. It’s just not the kind of restaurant that I would go out of my way to dine at. I do think it’s better than Outback, but I wouldn’t eat at Outback either. LOL.
At least our server Damian was great. He was friendly and attentive. His service elevated our dining experience. If we ever go back, I’m asking for his section.
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Leftover Stew
Posted on November 27, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
One of the dinners Donna made while she and David were staying with us was beef stew. She made a ton so we had plenty of leftovers. I was starving after I got home from my Sunday morning workout with Val so I rummaged through the fridge and decided to heat up some of the left over beef stew. While I was rummaging through the fridge I also found our leftover shrimp so I went ahead and tossed it in there. Voila! Leftover stew. It was actually really good. I wouldn’t mind having it again.
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Date Night
Posted on November 17, 2013 by Ching under Date Ideas, Events, Food and Drink.
Brian and I started our date night at Taste and See 2 in Old Town.
The restaurant has been open for several weeks now, but this is our first trip there since we both have been very busy.
Chef Jason Febres and Steven Bacci have really stepped it up. The place looks fantastic and the server uniforms look really spiffy.
We started dinner with one of our favorite tapas: queso fondue.
Brian had his usual, the real Cubano with truffle fries.
I wanted to be adventurous and try something that I’d never had before, the saltinbocca. How can you go wrong with chicken and prosciutto?
It was delicious. I even liked the mushroom and the cracker thing.
We left the restaurant very full and happy. The beers helped. 😉
After dinner we went on to Abode to watch Blockhead perform. Reby and Aaron were there also. Come to find out, Aaron is a huge Blockhead fan.
We actually got a real treat last night. I had no idea that Aaron is Cutter J, the Absurdist. He’s amazing!
He makes music, plays with spoons, and even tap dances.
Oh, and Blockhead was really good too.
Brian really enjoyed date night. He thanked me several times for taking him to see Blockhead. Yup. That’s what I do. I plan great dates. LOL.
Here’s a link to Taste & See 2 on Urbanspoon.
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Post Halloween Party Aftermath
Posted on November 9, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink, Home Ownership.
We picked up a little before we went to bed after the party last weekend, but this is the mess that we woke up to the next day.
Rather than deal with the mess straight off, Brian and I decided that this was the perfect excuse to go have brunch at a new place, Birds on the Roof Bakery & Cafe. We’d heard many good things.
The place is actually quite nice. I really like the colorful decor.
The place is kind of quirky. I like the cloth napkins, novel napkin rings, and even mismatched silverware.
The fancy water glasses are nice too, but they don’t hold much water. It wouldn’t be so bad if they refilled the water glass more frequently. I kept running out of water and it would take forever between refills.
The runny eggs were strike two. Brian specifically asked for them to be fried hard.
The bacon was good but the damage was done. Brian did not want to touch his eggs but he didn’t want to ask for them to get redone either so I ended up eating them.
There’s not many places in town you can get crepes, so that is what I ordered. Here are a couple of pictures of my chicken and spinach crepe.
I was not particularly impressed. The crepe itself was too thick and more pancake-like than I prefer. They put a lot of filling in it also which is both good and bad. It’s great that you get more chicken for your money, but all of the filling overpowered the crepe and made it even less crepe-like. Sad to say this but the chicken florentine crepe that I had at a kiosk inside the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando when we were there for the Zumba instructor convention was far superior (even if I did have to eat it out of a water cone, LOL).
Here’s the dessert display case. For a bakery, it wasn’t very impressive. It looked kind of sad and empty actually. If you’re going to tack “bakery” at the end of your name, I’m going to expect more than this sad display case. When I think of a restaurant and bakery, the display cases I’m envisioning are the likes of Bagatelle (fantastic cakes, by the way, and they always give you free dessert which is a bonus) and Copper Oven. Their bakery here seemed like an afterthought.
They served an English muffin with Brian’s breakfast and I asked for toast, neither of these tasted like they were baked on site. They gave us this hard French roll while we were waiting for our food and that didn’t taste freshly baked either. I would have much rather had Tita Tessie’s pan de sal over it.
As far as the price goes, their prices are pretty reasonable. No complaints there. Service was slow, but it wasn’t terrible, and the runny eggs were not the servers fault so we gave her $4 bucks, which is a decent tip relative the cost of our meal. We looked at the ticket and she wrote it down correctly, Brian and I concluded that the cook either wasn’t paying attention or didn’t know how to make a hard egg.
I really wanted to like this place because other people I know have loved it, but everything I liked about the place had nothing to do with the food. I like the clever name. The location is great. The restaurant has a wonderful ambiance. I like having cloth napkins and real silverware. The decor is nice and cheerful. All of that stuff is fabulous so if I’m just going there to hang out, I would totally love the place. As far as the food goes, I’ve had better breakfast meals elsewhere, so if I’m looking for somewhere to eat Birds on the Roof wouldn’t be my first pick.
On the bright side, when we came home from breakfast we were ready to tackle the aftermath of the previous night’s party. We still need to do some deep cleaning (vacuuming and mopping, etc.) but we picked up the mess and wiped all of the surfaces. Look at what we accomplished.
Our house was back to normal in no time. Of course, we were still pooped from having stayed up all night so we ended up taking a nap after this and didn’t wake up again until five in the afternoon. That was pretty much our Sunday.
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We Need to Quit Eating Out
Posted on October 24, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We really need to quit eating out. It’s been hard to slow down, though. It is my birthday month after all. This time we found ourselves at Bite ME BBQ. At least we were somewhat responsible and decided to split a dinner.
We had sliced brisket, pulled pork, ribs, and a hot link. We had fries and coleslaw for our sides. It was just at the right amount of food for the two of us. Actually, it was more than enough. I felt like I ate too much. I didn’t have enough room for peach cobbler, which is my favorite thing to get at Bite ME.
I really need to buckle down next month. Watch the nutrition and ramp up the workouts. I feel fatter by the day!
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