restaurant review

You are currently browsing articles tagged restaurant review.

December Update and NaNo Congrats

December 1, 2011 in Monthly Update | 6 comments

It’s the first of the month, so I’ve added a new Hot Flash to the Hot Flashes page. Hot Flashes, in case you’re new here, are micro-mini stories of maybe 50 words. Ish.

NaNoWriMo is over, and I didn’t complete the challenge, for the first time out of four. MURDER WITH WHITE SAUCE is still a project that’s going to happen, just not this past November.

–Oh, before I forget, my mother and I ate at a new restaurant in Corydon, Indiana, yesterday: The Green Door. It was AWESOME! After I had inhaled the mushroom bisque, I asked the owner what those sweet and delicious round bits were, and she said, “Garlic.” They were slices of roasted garlic, and they were so mild and delicious! I was worried about radiating garlic and driving away all the hot sparkly vampires, but the clerk at the store where I bought a truckload of Tic-Tacs told me I didn’t smell of garlic at all. Then she bit my neck.

No, seriously, this is a destination restaurant, I’m telling you. Okay, back to my post.–

Imma buy a copy of Scrivener, which folks tell me is a dynamite program for organizing material. Since I don’t seem to be very good at organizing on my own, I’m hoping throwing money at it will help. Not much money. This is me, after all.

Hope your December is full of joy. To those who have suffered, will suffer or are suffering the loss of loved ones this season, I hope that good memories outweigh the bad ones, and that the season becomes one that’s dear because it brings the lost one close again. As a Christian, I can’t help but remember that this is the season when we repeatedly celebrate the coming of a Dear One who, as the song says, “did come but to die”. As do we all. And that loss is meant to soften us to the sufferings of others around us and to make us see and love our lost ones in the faces and lives of other people.

I’m not always a goof-ball, apparently.

WRITING PROMPT: Has your main character lost someone or something that hurt? Sara Deurell, a different character than the two I know about.

MA

Tags: , ,

A Satisfying, Frustrating Day

July 9, 2011 in Food, Geek | 4 comments

I met my friend Jane at the Shiraz Mediterranean Grill for lunch. #4 Daughter joined us, which was extra nice. This was the one on Frankfort Avenue, at the Clifton Apartments or whatever they are. Near Sister Dragonfly.

–Oh, this is in Louisville, Kentucky, in case you don’t know.

Click picture to enlarge

#4 Daughter got one falafel and the Shiraz salad and was surprised by this treat, the scraping from the bottom of the rice pot. Listen, I’m not being sarcastic: that stuff is HEAVEN! She was very kind and shared it with us. It made me glad I raised her to be generous.

Click picture to enlarge

Jane and I ordered steak kabobs (Yes, I know, but who can be vegetarian when the beef at Shiraz melts in your mouth? Not I, that’s who.) and sides. Hers were, um, tabbouleh salad and quinoa salad, both of which are very nice however I got some other kind of salad and eggplant. The orange bit is the eggplant. The guy said it was his grandmother’s recipe, and that she made it for him for breakfast in Iran. It has eggplant and egg and spices and who knows what all and it is delicious!

We also had basmati rice, which I suspect was chello. If you want to know what that is and how it’s cooked, say so in the comments and I’ll post my recipe.

So that’s my review of the Shiraz Mediterranean Grill. I think I’ve reviewed it before. If so, I loved it, and I loved it again today. Here’s a link to the address and stuff, but don’t expect to find a web site for it. That web site link is bogus. I don’t know if they lost track of it or it got hijacked or what. :(

We had a great day, as we always do. The frustration came from my having such difficulty doing the welcome tab for my Facebook Author page. I think I may have gotten it down, but then I decided I didn’t want to just do a tab, I wanted to do an image map, so that’s a whole raft of other nested projects. Not a big deal for people who know how to do it (of which I hope to soon be one), but a real head-scratcher for me.

I love a challenge, don’t you? Yeah, me neither.

WRITING PROMPT: Give a character a challenge which he or she would rather not be given.

MA

Tags: ,

Birthday Fun For All

May 14, 2011 in Grab bag | 1 comment

I met my friend Jane in Louisville to celebrate her birthday. Jane and I have been friends since the summer between Junior and Senior High School. Since we’re both about 28 ~cough cough~ that isn’t so long ago. Yeah, my oldest grandson is 18, so I may be a little off on my timeline.

Anyway, the nice thing about taking somebody out for a birthday is that, no matter who’s paying, you both get a good lunch. We went to The Irish Rover on Frankfort Avenue. The Rover has great food and a wide variety of beer, stout and ale. The server recommended a Bell’s wheat beer with orange slices squeezed into it. That’s a little frou-frou for us, but we went with it, and it was very good, especially with the fish-and-chips and blue cheesecake we shared. Blue cheesecake is a savory cheesecake made out of — guess what? — now, let’s not always see the same hands — that’s right, blue cheese.

Then we staggered down to the Java Brewing Company — that’s COFFEE brewing, thank you — for coffee and to eat the flourless Guinness chocolate cake we got to go from The Rover.

One of the many things we talked about is how invaluable a gift real friendship is. It can stand the test of time, of irritation, of need, of absence, and of truth.

Happy birthday, Jane!

WRITING PROMPT: Have a character meet someone he/she knew a long time ago. Is there a friendship there? Did your character know it all along, or just realize it upon this reunion?

MA

Tags: , , ,

Meanwhile, Back at the Blog….

February 16, 2011 in Food, Sparks o' Joy | 4 comments

I’m apposta have a post up today at Karen Syed’s LIFE AS A PUBLISHER, but I’m not certain when it goes up so, in the meantime, here is a restaurant review.

[NOTE: Is not today. Is 2/28/11. Duh, me.]

Mom and I went to New Albany and, as always when we go to New Albany, we had lunch at Lancaster’s. Not Tommy Lancaster’s, but Lancaster’s Cafeteria. Fans of food in New Albany (Indiana, in case you don’t know) remember The South Side with mouth-watering fondness. Well, go to Lancaster’s and you’ll think you’re back there. Good home-cooking and reasonable prices. Some of the same staff. Sometimes we invent reasons to go to New Albany, just so we can eat at Lancaster’s, that’s how good it is. Even Charlie likes it, that’s how good it is. You could get a vegetable plate and be happy.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are our favorite days. Tuesdays they have brats and sauerkraut and spareribs, and you can get the kraut with the spareribs rather than the brats, if you prefer. We prefer. Thursdays are chicken-fried steak with plenty of milk gravy. Oh, man, I’m drooling, just thinking about it!

So that’s my Wednesday stop-gap post. When my post at LAAP goes up, I’ll link to it. Meanwhile, what’s your favorite restaurant? Do you have a favorite cuisine in general, but your FAVORITE restaurant is totally different? Because my favorite cuisine is Indian, but my favorite restaurant is Lancaster’s a mid-west home-cooking joint.

WRITING PROMPT: What is your main character’s idea of “home cooking”?

MA

Tags:

I Bite A Pig and Buy A Laptop

February 10, 2011 in Food | 3 comments

You think I’m kidding, don’t you? Well, yesterday, I met my friend Jane (Hi, Jane!) in Louisville at Cubana restaurant (Caribbean, Cuban, Latin American).

But on the way, I stopped at Office Depot and bought a new laptop! My beloved Linux desktop has gone all wonky and I haven’t yet figured out what to do for it. Meanwhile, I’ve been using my old laptop and it just isn’t cutting the mustard as a full-timer. So Charlie says, “Why don’t you buy a new laptop?” And I’m like–Oh, I’m not like anything, ’cause I’m in the car on my way.

So a very nice man named William Powell (Hi, Mr. Powell!) listened to what I needed and recommended this HP G62-340us Notebook. So I got it. So far, it’s plenty fast to suit me. Drawbacks: the right and left clicks are harder than I’m used to, so I need to get used to that; the touchpad knows I’m touching it even when I don’t intend to be touching it. If I typed the way Mrs. Crosby-Lambert taught me, with my wrists elevated, this wouldn’t be a problem, so perhaps I’ll relearn the proper way to type. also, there’s a touchpad lock for just this very same sloppy typing stance, so I can cheat.

Laptops come pre-loaded with all kinds of come-on crap–programs that expire, hoping you’ll like them so much on trial that you’ll cough up the dough to own them, for instance. I paid extra to have all that stuff scraped off. And guess what? Office Depot loaded a couple of their own bits. Shortcuts to help (for a price, Ugarte, for a price), so I can live with that. I’m using it, now. LIKE!

Then on to Cubana. I couldn’t find a website FOR Cubana, and Google street view won’t show it (apparently, it’s too new), but it’s across the street from The Grape Leaf on Frankfort Avenue. Beautiful inside and out, friendly, speedy service, affordable prices for a treat, and WICKED GOOD food. Jane had vegetable empanadas (fried pies) and black bean soup. I had Lechon Asado, which the menu describes as “the famous Cuban pork dish that is marinated in citrus juices, garlic and Cuban spices”, congris (black beans and rice cooked together) and yucca. The yucca was kind of like potato. I like potato better. The congris and the pork were DIVINELY good! Four thumbs up from Jane and me (yes, that is grammatically correct). Oh, and my stuff was topped with slivers of pickled red onion–SO good!

Happy day! :) Now to tackle the desktop Linux.

WRITING PROMPT: Go to a restaurant you’ve never visited and eat something you’ve never had. Write about it.

MA

Tags: ,

My Mother’s Head

December 25, 2010 in Food | 2 comments

The other day, Mom and I had lunch at El Donahue’s–Well, the real name is The Real Enchilada, but everything inside says it’s Olga’s On The Square, but some of us old-timers call it El Donahue’s because Donahue’s restaurant was there for about seventy million years.

The last time Mom and I were there, we had a chicken adventure, but not this time. This time, all we had was way too much food. Here is a picture of my poor little gray-headed Mama looking at a mushroom quesadilla as big as her head. She took half of it home. She said it was excellent.

Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday or day off or whatever today. I said I would post, but I didn’t say it would be worth reading.

Although, if you’re in the neighborhood, I do recommend the restaurant.

WRITING PROMPT: Write a character who cares more for quantity than quality and a character who likes micro meals of the highest quality. Describe their reactions to foods at one another’s favorite restaurants. The characters don’t have to know each other.

MA

Tags:

Stout Fellows

November 24, 2010 in Food, Writing | 1 comment

I met my friend Jane for lunch yesterday. We met at one of our favorite places: The Irish Rover. We like the Rover because 1) the food is great, 2) they have beer, ale, stout and porter and 3) they’re within staggering distance of the Java Brewing Company. There, we can get coffee drinks so packed with sugar and caffeine we put on ten pounds and jitter it off at the same time.Very dark, strong beer

Anyway, at The Rover, we split the bleu cheesecake (not sweet–it’s bleu cheese with a walnut crust, warm, served with brown bread, oh, my dear goodness) and also split a plate of fish and chips. We had The New Albanian Brewing Company (located in New Albany, Indiana) ClovenFoot Belgian Stout. Here is a picture of our glasses as they looked by the time I remembered I wanted to take a picture. It was SO excellent!

I needed the mini-vacation. I came home and whacked out 2,000 words on PICKLE IN A PEAR TREE. Anton Marsden, who appeared in my story “The Gathering” in the Southern Indiana Writers‘ anthology, Off The Rack, has come into it. I learned that his name is not really Anton Marsden. It’s really Tony Pfistermacher, but he changed it when he entered the art world.

WRITING PROMPT: Invent a character who has changed his/her name. Why?

MA

Tags:

Restaurant Review, Lotus Grill

August 28, 2010 in Food | No comments

So the Lotus Grill, across the street from the con hotel, donated some food to the con suite. We missed it, but they cleverly left some menus. We walked across the street and had a nice sit-down meal.

The restaurant was clean and pretty, not over-decorated. They had hot tea but only paper or Styrofoam cups. I was like, “I wish I could have a real cup. I don’t like drinking out of paper or Styrofoam.” So the man said, “You can drink out of a bowl. You want to drink your tea out of a bowl?” I said, “Yeah!” So there was a fairly active discussion in another language with somebody in the kitchen, who came out and gave me the eye, but I got my bowl of tea. Bud Blossom would not have been as nice, I can tell you–not unless he was in a particularly good mood, or really liked you, or meant to be sarcastic.

I ordered vegetable Double-Fried Noodles, which I have never had, and it was the most divinely delicious food imaginable! I’m all about noodles, anyway, and this was sheer heaven. We don’t have a microwave in our room, so we couldn’t bring back leftovers, so I had to stuff it all down–oh darn.

If you’re ever in Columbus, Ohio, look for the DoubleTree hotel and then look across the street for the Lotus Grill.

Oh, and it’s cheap, too.

WRITING PROMPT: Does your main character have any particular opinion of paper or Styrofoam or plastic?

MA

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Tags: