after dinner sneeze

a lot of g says, t says

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breakfasts of champions

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t says:  Because I like to pretend to be hip/cool, I’ll hang out in the cafe at g’s work.  Hmmm – in retrospect, I realize that that sentence doesn’t really seem like it makes sense: “yea – I’m soooo cool that I hang out at my wife’s workplace.”  Well, regardless, the point of this post is not my “coolness”, rather, the cafe’s food.  Like any good cafe, they have fresh coffees and pastries (including a few vegan selections for those out there who like to make baking sweet treats as difficult as possible).  But even better are the awesome breakfast specials that change day after day (I’ve never seen the same one twice).  These are my three favorite thus far:

nutella+pb+banana+bread=superbreakfastsandwich. It reminds me of that nutella commercial where the mom talks about how she uses it to get her children to eat healthyl: "I spread Nutella on all kinds of healthy things, like Multigrain toast." What the hell else would you put it on? Broccoli?

bacon+egg+cheese+pretzel roll. And you thought a bacon-egg-and-cheese biscuit was good? Not after one of these. AND, because it's pretzel instead of a biscuit, it's healthier, right? Riiiiiight.

No big deal - it's just some pancakes, right?

Wrong! It's a return of the bacon-egg-cheese combo, this time flanked by mini-pancakes. These are 10x better than the McGriddle could have even dreamed. (Trust me, I've had plenty of a McGriddles in my time.)

The only problem with these specials is that because they change every day, you are never guaranteed such success as these on any given day.  Or you could be like g and go for the good ‘ol standby: egg-and-cheese wrap.  (Apparently, for her, pig is not its own food group … Boooooo!)

The cafe also has an assortment of interested packaged foods.  For instance, I’ve also encountered many intriguing chocolate bars, chocolate-covered items, and candies.  We got db hooked on these:

If I take a picture of the object in the manner above (i.e. off-center, shadows, lots of wasted space, peculiar background), that's "artistic", right?

chocolate unwrapped

Personally, I found these chocolates to be a little too crumbly for straight-up eating.  Maybe grating on top of some baked items would be good.  But of course, db can go to town on these, right from the wrapper.

Written by afterdinnersneeze

23 November 2011 at 8:24am

Indian Royal Rumble: Ekta vs. Tiffin

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t says:  A long time ago, kp told us of an awesome Indian delivery place called Tiffin.  g and I were fans of Indian food from our Hopkins days, so we couldn’t resist the idea of it being delivered to our door – especially if the delivery guy was wearing formal attire (white button-down shirt, dark dress pants, tie – VERY classy!).   Well, times have changed.  First off, Tiffin no longer has the prim-and-proper delivery dudes.  Second, there’s Ekta, a second Indian delivery place which is clearly Tiffin’s rival.  There’s actually quite a bit of history between the two – a “spat” as it’s called.  Very dramatic, I assure you.

g and I had compared the two in the past, but neglected to write down the results.  Our gist was: “yea, Ekta’s a buck or two cheaper, and it’s Butter Chicken was unstoppable.”.  However, due to errors in tip calculation, I got into a “spat” of my own with an Ekta delivery guy (to be fair, both of us were to blame: I couldn’t calculate, he was a jackass, I was spiteful).  The result: g and I banned ourselves from Ekta to avoid the addition of saliva to our food.

Flash-forward a year or so.  a and v wanted to revisit the Ekta and Tiffin throwdown.  They were veteran Tiffinites.  We suggested that Ekta might be able to deliver food of greater deliciousness.  They were intrigued.  Obviously, the only logical next step is to get some foods from each and see who came out on top, right?

November 2011, Fri Night Delivery, Party of 4.  The evening started with a wine-tasting at Ristorante Panorama.  They were doing a Portugal-themed evening, with a producer from that area providing 2 whites, 2 reds, and 3 ports.  It was quite an experience, as the wine was very good – especially when considering that you were permitted as much as you liked of any of the wines for a 2-hour span (6-8pm) for $25.  I thought of it as a happy hour that I actually wanted to be at!  Yea, the free food was kinda bad (the cheese insipid, the bruschetta soggy … but the calamari wasn’t bad!), but we’re confident that the real food (i.e. not free) served at the restaurant had to be better.  After all – they put a lot of focus into their wine (they have the Guiness-Book-certified world’s largest number of wines on tap: 120), so they have to at least deliver “ok” food, right?  I hope so.

But I digress – back to the Indian food.  We returned to a and v’s apartment at 8:30 and placed our orders.  g and I chose Ekta dishes.  a and v chose Tiffin dishes.

Ekta:  Butter Chicken, Masaladar Chola (“the chickpea dish”), Saag Paneer, Peshwari Naan, Samosas
Tiffin:  Lamb Rogan Josh, Saag Paneer, Samosas, Plain Naan

Tiffin arrived first, taking approximately 40 minutes.  I was VERY impressed, as Indian takes at least 1 hour (on a good day) to arrive at our humble abode near Rittenhouse – I guess Old City’s just closer!  Ekta, on the other hand, went MIA.  So we feasted on Tiffin as we waited.  An hour-twenty passed.  At this point, we were hungry – and perhaps a little impatient (I think the wine consumed was disinhibiting our behavior a bit).  So we called near 10pm and were informed, “all the orders are out on delivery”.  Cool.  At 10pm, we brought in our “fixer”: v.  She was able to ascertain that the driver had failed a delivery attempt – apparently “no one was home”.  That was false – we were home.  AND, the delivery guy didn’t call us!  We were told he’d attempt to re-deliver.  v somehow got the Ekta delivery guy’s cell phone number.  That was weird that Ekta just gave out the number.  She then proceeded to call the delivery guy to ensure proper delivery of food (see?  she fixes things!).  And voila – we had the food in the apartment in about 10 minutes time (turns out the delivery guy rang the non-functional doorbell, but didn’t bother calling us to see if anyone was home).

Ok – here’s the scoresheet:

Here's the summary sheet - complete with butter chicken stains.

Of course, the problem with the sheet is that it’s a little incoherent.  I believe that the problem is that we got distracted a lot by what was said (we’re all soooo funny) to really do a full-on dish-by-dish evaluation.  Allow me to summarize here:

Delivery speed: Ekta loses, obviously.
Delivery guy tact/competence: When we told the Tiffin delivery guy that it was a competition and that he delivered first, he asked, “so does that mean I get a good tip?”  While we’re sure he was just being playful, it could be construed as kind of tactless.  Meanwhile the Ekta guy was very humble/apologetic, which we appreciated – but does that make up for not even attempting to call us.  We’ll leave it a draw or give Tiffin the edge (I favor competence over tact).
Saag Paneer Faceoff:  At one point, a decided that “green poo” was a good descriptor of Saag Paneer.  Kinda gross.  But true.  In the end, Ekta had the superior poo – it had more oomph than Tiffin’s.  Personally, I preferred Tiffin’s texture, but it really did lack spice and spinach that Ekta brought.
Samosa Faceoff:  Ekta’s was superior for having a nicer consistency filling, a crispier crust (that’s right – it was crispier and who knows how long it stayed in that styrofoam container for while the guy was delivering it?).  Also, “the green stuff” (i.e. there’s some kind of sauce they put in a tiny round container that’s green – mint chutney?) from Ekta beat out Tiffin’s due to its thicker consistency and bolder flavor.
Dish of the night:  Ekta’s Butter Chicken.  Seriously.  If you order nothing else from Ekta, you have to order the Butter Chicken.
Honorable mention:  Masaladar Chola.  g commented: “They taste have bacon in them – not just veg.”  And it’s true.  These are some kickin’ chickpeas.  I think dz would like them a lot.  They are spicy, though.
Food Winner:  Ekta (just so long as you can wait for it).  Damn – tough night to be Tiffin.  Tiffin had a distinct advantage going into the challenge, as we were hungrier when they arrived.  Despite that, Ekta really brought some thunder … albeit nearly an hour later.

As you can see, there were also a few desserts for the evening.  I made a cranberry upside-down cake (with chocolate chips!) as well as a twist on Paula Deen’s pumpkin-gingerbread-trifle (I replaced the pumpkin with chocolate – duh!).  At one point, when contemplating the categories that should be used to compare the two, after “Taste”, I decided “Chocolate” was a pertinent category.  g felt that was silly: “That doesn’t make sense.  You made them both – so you know if there’s chocolate in it – how is that a category?”  My response: “It’s simple – does it have chocolate or not?  They both have it.  That means they both win!”  a deemed this to be the new “funniest thing I’ve ever said”.  I’m not sure if that means that it was particularly funny or if the implication is that may baseline funniness is low.  Oh well.  a felt the choco-gingerbread-concoction was superior to the cake.  I disagreed.  We’ll call it a draw.

Written by afterdinnersneeze

20 November 2011 at 8:45am

Han’s Dynasty Continues

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t says:  Han Dynasty is one of our favorite places to eat, especially because it’s far more forgiving on the wallet than the restaurants we typically visit.  On one hand, it’s just Chinese food … but on the other, it’s no ordinary General Tso’s chicken.  At the suggestion of smn, I threw together a Sunday night dinner with some peeps.  In the end, it turned out that all of the attendees were adsz cast members: smn, dz, k, cm, n, g and me.  a and v also dropped by a little later on (they picked up some food for takeout) – so it was quite an adsz extravaganza!

November 2011, Sunday Dinner, Party of 7.  After taking our seats (no waiting!  yay!), we were faced with our first decision of the evening: EtOH or no?  In the good ‘ol days, this would be a stupid question, as Han Dynasty was BYO.  But long gone is the era of carefree wine consumption as Han has started enforcing a $10 wine corkage fee ($1 per beer, $2 per large format beer).  Boooo!  Although $10 is incredibly reasonable, I guess the thought of a few extra dollars dissuaded us.  Fortunately, cm, k, g, and I had a glass of wine before dinner, so we were content, and I think that the majority were anticipating a spicy meal which would be dangerous if wine was the primary liquid used to attempt to cleanse the palate.  n gets a special shout-out for thinking of bringing a bottle of white to share – but she got to take it home to save for next time!

The next big challenge was figuring out what to eat.  We initially contemplated the $20 “tasting” that we had done in the past.  Basically, you pay a certain amount per head, and food just keeps coming out of the kitchen until you cry uncle.  It’s a superb deal.  That said, we had a vegetarian and a pescapoultritarian at the table, and the last time we did the tasting, very few veggie-friendly dishes came out despite our request.  cm then decided to put himself in my hands, trusting that as the token Asian person at the table (or at least – “the Asian closest to China”), I’d be able to pick out the “good dishes”.  That was a lot of pressure – so I called in a consult – our actually-Chinese friend who has had many-a-Han dinners in the past.  Armed with his recommendations, I placed our order and let the food fly.

Beginners: Dan Dan Noodles, Cold Sesame Noodles, Spicy Crispy Cucumber, Dumplings in Chili Oil
Meats:  Black Bean Sauce Fish, Double Cooked Chicken, Cumin Lamb, Tofu in Garlic Sauce (no, not really a “meat” – but close!)
Veggies: Eggplant in Garlic Sauce, Bok Choy and Mushrooms

Here are the highs and the lows:

Victory!:  Dan Dan Noodles (of PW fame), Cold Sesame Noodles (smn said they were “the best sesame noodles she’s ever had”), the Eggplant in Garlic Sauce (k, who doesn’t even like eggplant that much still liked these!), and the Black Bean Style Fish (my pick for the best protein of the evening!).  Special recognition should be given to the Spicy Crispy Cucumber appetizer – it tasted exactly like spicy, crispy, cucumbers (surprised?).  k, who normally doesn’t do spice, found that she “couldn’t help herself with the spicy cucumbers – they were too spicy for her, but so good she wanted to eat more and more”.

Defeat!:  Cumin Lamb (WAY too many chiles, and the lamb was sparse and overcooked and really tasted like nothing more than cumin).

Alrightie-then.  So there was a lot of delicious food and really only one regret.  And even though now there’s a corkage fee, I think we’re still happy to have Han Dynasty be the adsz pick for best cheap eats; our dinner was $20pp INCLUDING tax and tip!  And if you want some wine, just bring in some magnums or something (it’s just one bottle, right?) – problem solved!

Written by afterdinnersneeze

17 November 2011 at 9:53pm

Insomnia Cookies might keep me up at night.

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t says:  The other day I was feeling blue.  There’s only one thing to do when you’re feeling blue … eat chocolate!  I happened to spot an Insomnia Cookie Truck.  Boom.  Done deal.  I swung by asked, “what’s the best ‘deluxe’ cookie you have?”.  The dude replied, “the s’mores one.”  I got one of those and one traditional chocolate chip (or chocolate chunk or whatever it is they call it).

Two giant cookies ... sitting in a tree ... k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

Someone took a bite out of my cookie! (It was me)

I dove into the s’mores cookie.  Gotta say that it looked awesome. It felt awesome, too (nice and warm). But the taste was only … “ok”.  Only ok?!  That’s impossible!  It’s chocolate and marshmallow and graham!  I think it’s because the cookie, itself, was a little dry.  And even though it was brown, the cookie didn’t taste super-chocolatey – I kept longing to encounter a chocolate chunk – that’s where the money was.  I liked the deep, almost-dark chocolate flavor of the melty morsels.  The graham cracker, although good in theory, really didn’t do much for me; the large pieces burst apart into chalky, dry crumbs (maybe they would have been better in the background of a moist-er cookie?).  The marshmallow had a fun-to-chew stickiness about it – but some chunks were so large that I found myself chewing long after the rest of the cookie had disintegrated.  It cost over $2 – I felt a little cheated.

I saved the other cookie for g.  She came home and offered me a piece.  Now THAT was a mighty fine cookie.  The cookie was sweet (but not too sweet), moist, and studded with plenty of those chocolate morsels that I looked forward to in the cookie above.  Mmmmm.  Conclusion – when I see that truck again, I’ll be picking up some more plain ones – no question.

Written by afterdinnersneeze

5 November 2011 at 8:07pm

FriSatSun – so close but so far!

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t says:  Friday night rolled around and g and I lacked plans.  It was time for date-night!  But where to go – where to go?  It was cold outside and we didn’t want to be bothered with a cab … so we instituted “dz Dining Requirements” – I’m coining the phrase right here, right now.  As we scanned the list of neighborhood restaurants, we found one that fulfilled criteria numbers 1 through 4: FridaySaturdaySunday.  And even though it was right around the block, we had never gone!  And why not?  I think it’s because every time we go online to check the menu, we get turned off by the silly pic and slogan on the website.  We decided that tonight was the night to put that behind us.

10/2011, Friday Dinner, Party of 2.  We walked in to a very very bizarre atmosphere.  It had these mirrors all over the place, a chalkboard illuminated by blacklight, and weird murals (and I’m sure there were some other weird things there that escape my memory).  We didn’t know if it was intentionally bizarre or if someone thought it was “cool”.  Be that as it may, we took our seat, pulled out our bottle of wine (that’s right – NO corkage at FriSatSun – even though they sell alcohol!  Buzinga! … and we’ve had it twice before – we like it a LOT), and got ready to eat.   Bring on the food:

"Poached" asparagus

g ordered the aspargus appetizer.  g liked it a lot, but I felt that the asparagus could have used a few more seconds poaching.  I preferred the tomato-caper vinigarette which had a sourt-sweet-salt which was quite nice.  I found myself eating it on the table bread (which, by the way, is delicious – crusty outside, soft inside).  Overall, though, I felt like the dish was too much summer, and not really fall … which was the next dish:

butternut squash ravioli

A sucker for pasta, I of course picked out the ravioli.  It smelled like a wonderful mix of hearty fall flavors – seeds, nuts, squash.  Unfortunately, I found the dish to be quite mediocre.  The ravioli’s dough was a bit dry/sticky and there wasn’t a whole lot of filling (but the little that was there was pretty good – a creamy butternut flavor) and the sauce was a little bland (I actually can’t remember what it was supposed to taste like … so I guess that makes it very bland).  On the flip side, nothing tasted bad – it was just … too “subtle” for my taste.  For example, when I think of butternut squash and pasta – I think of a mouthful of flavor more along the line of this risotto that we make.

salmon with rice and swiss chard

The grilled salmon and lemon creme fraiche was similarly mediocre.  I take that back.  The fish was cooked superbly – a beautiful texture.  So … they mastered the hardest part of the dish (the fish cookery) … but missed out in other areas.  The fish could have used more seasoning (salt, pepper, and maybe an herb or two), and the creme fraiche was on the weak side.  The rice … straight-up bland.  It boggled my mind – why would someone let this dish out of the kitchen?  Then I got the answer: the Swiss chard.  Mmmmmm.  It made everything better.  It brought in a salmon-worthy accompaniment and sang with our wine (the rice, on the other hand, was beyond repair).  Was the resultant flavor worth a full 20-something-dollars?  No.  But, it was a sizable piece of fish that was cooked well – so I’d go as high as $19 (it is fish, after all …).

g's crabcake

I don’t have much to say about g’s crabcake because I only had one taste.  From what I gather, the cake, itself, was a nice consistency and rich (g couldn’t imagine having to eat the two-cake “large” plate), but lacked oomph (noticing a pattern here?).  BUT – the jicama slaw and mustardy sauce swooped in to the rescue.  Tada!  All better!  g liked the dish just fine – and I liked the flavor combos more than those in my salmon.  I think I’d like my crabcake a little more “crabby” (i.e. more obviously composed of crab – less filling), but, given the richness and accompanying flavors (and the size), I’d pay $19 for this dish, too … and that’s exactly how much it was!  Woohoo!

After such sizable plates of food, g and I were both kind of full.  As we stared at our wine, we realized that we still had a glass or two left.  We obviously had to stick around for dessert, right?  Having the larger sweet tooth, I was the one that had to decide our dessert fate.  Molten chocolate cake was on the eerily-glowing blackboard (the blacklight, remember?).  I figured why not?  Plus, if we really finished the bottle of wine, then the dessert’s taste wouldn’t matter so much …

molten chocolate cake ... with whipped cream

This dessert was awesome.  I’ll say my one quibble with it up front so I can go on gushing about it afterwards: yea, it could have been served warmer.  There.  Done.  Now let’s talk about how delicious it was.  The crusty outside gave way to moist cake and a thick, sweet, chocolate that you could eat with a fork (I hate it when it’s too liquid-y).  I was about to say, “you know, this might be too sweet” but just put a forkful covered in some of the whipped cream … shazam!  That was it!  The whipped cream [to me] tasted unsweetened and it added a perfect balance and beautiful additional texture to the cake.  Was it a simple “molten chocolate cake and whipped cream”?  Sure.  But it was a delicious, delicious guilty pleasure.

In summary, I’d say that FridaySaturdaySunday did a “good” job.  Sure, nothing was particularly novel,but at least now I know that every bite should have a mix all of the components of the plate.  Add on the reasonable portion size and that the excellence of the dessert and bread.  Add on the fact that they’re BYO and have a bar. Add on the dzDD compliance.  Voila.  You have a restaurant that I’d be ok with going back to again in the future (maybe with dz?).  Of course, I’d order something different (except the dessert … that’s staying the same) – but at least I’d come back!

Written by afterdinnersneeze

2 November 2011 at 5:42pm

Fond Brings Back the PORK BELLY

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t says:  g and I went back to Fond with a bunch of peeps – it was the night they brought in their Fall menu.  While we were excited from our past Fond experience, I was especially excited for the menu change, as it marked the return of their super-awesome, super-ridiculous PORK BELLY (remember: Pork Caps)!  Because we had so many peeps, I’ve pooled together their reviews for you here.  Sorry – not a whole lot of pictures, though (it was dark in there).

I will start off and post the wine list that I created for the night:

the wine list for the evening

smn says:  SO MUCH FUN. Can we please do it again? Like soon?  The restaurant was fantastic- welcoming staff, neat area of the city, cozy feeling inside. The food was equally fantastic. The amuse bouche [t says: I think it was some kind of root vegetable soup] made my mouth oh-so-happy. I could have had a whole bowl of it, along with more of the tasty olive bread! Speaking of bowls, the the cauliflower veloute was soooo good. Could have had more of that, too, even without the dollop of greek yogurt/saffron. My scallops were delish and cooked perfectly. Surprisingly, dessert didn’t blow me away. I didn’t love the passionfruit sauce, and without a sauce of some sort the mousse cake was just mousse cake. I loved every single glass of wine put in front of me- nicely done, t. I also sampled g’s short rib and kp’s PORK BELLY- yummo all around! As for dz, he also liked the amuse bouche, enjoyed his salad appetizer (in part because of the large portion size), and inhaled his tuna dish. One observation on my end is that Fond is lacking a solid vegetarian dish to round out the menu.

kp says:  So here’s my take …

Re:  Foie Gras App:  The foie gras was expertly seared with a nice crunch leading to a nice creamy interior. The flavoring (a sweet accent of sweet potatoes, turnips and pecans) was a nice but a little overpowering and too sweet over the foie gras. Maybe just hint of next time would be much better, the carmelized were a little lost in the mix too.

PORK BELLY ... looks like a slab of meat, but it's so much more.

Re:  Berkshire PORK BELLY: Holy crap- this thing was porktastic. One of the first times i have the PORK BELLY expertly crisped on the outside but the meat still easily falls apart- you could eat with a spoon. The escarole was nice cut to the fattiness of the meat and buttery sweet potatoes but I think there needs to be a more stronger cut to balance that fattiness. The sweet potatoes were the perfect accent of delicate sweetness to the meat and again was expertly prepared, it so well caramelized. PS If your really nice to the waiter they may offer Sirachi- which for one bite of the PORK is nice (but I love spice).

Re: Cannolis:  These little cream filled delights were amazing and the brown butter apples and cider were just the perfect fall accent to bring to this dish. The pastry remained crunchilious the mascarpone filling was and airy delight!

t says:  I went for the tuna crudo.  Shocker, I know!  We had a nice white, so I eschewed the escargots I normally go for in favor of the fish.  Take a peek:

tuna over asian pear and sesame seeds

It was a delightful dish, with all the right flavors – but composition was a little off.  I think it was because those sticks of pear were a little hard to eat and juggle on the same fork as the fish and the sauce.  Great flavors, but just needed a better way to put it into my mouth.

Next up, I went for the PORK BELLY, as kp mentioned already above.  It was every bit as delicious as I remember it from the past.  Without a doubt the best piece of PIG you can get.  It’s all about the contrast between the top crisp layer and the rest of the tender meat with just the right amount of fat (so I guess whoever’s providing them with PIG should also get credit).  But I also agree with kp – it needs a little something else to brighten the plate.  It’s kind of like making football players take ballet to keep them light on their feet – but come on – this is one helluva kick-ass football player nonetheless.

The surprise of the evening was the shortrib.

shortrib

The shortrib was g’s dish.  I had some.  HOLY.  CRAP.  I haven’t had a shortrib this good since the slab of shortrib included in Talula Garden’s beef duo.  It was fall-apart-tender and glazed in that rich thick sauce.  I can’t tell you what was in it, but what I can tell you is that if I go back, I’d actually not be able to choose between the shortrib or the PORK BELLY.  But of course – there are worse things in life than being forced to choose between the two.  I don’t recall the accompaniments (?Brussels sprouts? ?onion spatzle?), but like the PORK BELLY, I don’t recall there being much counterpoint to the rich lusciousness of cow meat.

In the end, I think everyone enjoyed their dishes at Fond.  The apps and mains are done superbly well.  For some dishes, all the right flavors are there, but maybe a dish here or there could use a little more tweaking in terms of composition/presentation.  For others (i.e. the pork belly and shortrib), I don’t think you can find better cooked slabs of meat in Philly.  Period.  With a little bit of brightening, these are best-dish-dish-I-ever-had worthy (crazy good!).  The desserts around the table were all thought of as “good”, but not really life-altering.  They ended the meal on a sweet note which [I believe] is necessary, but I don’t think they’re going to change anyone’s life – but I’m not even sure if that’s a fair assessment – “ragging” on dessert because it wasn’t life-changing?  Hmmm.  I guess there are worse situations for Fond to be in …

Written by afterdinnersneeze

31 October 2011 at 10:53pm

Screw You, Snow!

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t says:  So it decided to be cold and miserable out today.  Boooooooo!  Annoyed with the cold, g and I resolved to stay inside … then we realized we had no food.  So we resolved to go outside … to Village Whiskey.

10/2011, 3pm Saturday, Party of 2.  We sat at the bar-table-things in the back.  Not before long, we were elbow-deep in deliciosity.

Oh short-rib-cheddar-fries ... it's been too long!

Trust us … as good as it looks in the pic – it’s even better in real life!  Add the fact that it was cold outside, and voila – a perfect way to warm up.  g and I still believe that it’s one of the best things on the VW menu.  Nice salty potato and lusciously soft shortrib smothered in golden cheese.  The problem is that it’s a huge serving – no single person should consume this entire thing.  Even after splitting this between g and me, we knew that there was no way we’d be able to down a burger afterwards (but we didn’t mind some leftovers).

Chicken sandwich with long hot peppers.

The chicken sandwich was kind of bad.  Sorry VW – the streak of awesome sandwiches ends here with the chicken.  The long hots were indeed spicy and completely overpowered every other flavor that may have been incorporated.  Furthermore, the chicken was very dry.  When tasted sans chicken/peppers, the mushrooms, cheese, and bread were good – and so were the taro root chips!  Nevertheless, the sandwich made me a little sad because I missed my normal go-to: bbq pork sandwich.

g got the ... surprise! veggie burger! It was as good as usual.

A classic g & t drink selection!

g feels that the above picture is a classic representation of our tastes.  I go for chocolate and sugar – she goes for fancy mixed drinks … “with heels and accessories” (it’s in a stemmed glass with fruit garnish!).  Both were wonderful.

I will say that the one thing that surprised us was that the service did NOT suck!  The hostess was nice enough (it wasn’t the super-terse/snobby one with the tats), our server was both competent and expedient.  True – no one was bubbly/friendly, but I’m glad to see some changing-of-the-guard going on over there.  Figures though – the one time they have not-crap service, I order the boring chicken sandwich.  Stupid, stupid t!

Written by afterdinnersneeze

29 October 2011 at 5:34pm