Coddie's Vegetarian Pasta Alfredo

Upon the return of my Colorado adventure, Cary invited the Coddie/Lexia family over to hang out.  Coddie was gracious enough to cook everyone dinner.  It was a wonderful vegetarian version of Pasta Alfredo, heavy on the mushrooms. It was wonderful.  I also ate through the pain on this one, ensuring I had properly finished my plate.  Thanks Coddie!

Cafe Nikolai and Audrey, Fort Collins, CO

The last night in Colorado I spent visiting Nikolai and Audrey we prepared bison burgers for dinner.  The bison burger was ground meat from a friend of Audrey's, the mushroom was picked from an undisclosed location in the woods by an expert mushroom identifier, and bread was a loaf from the grocery store.  Not an average burger, but the rusticness of the wild mushrooms and loaf of bread, vice hamburger roll, made the whole experience more than worthwhile.  I was stuffed on two of these monsters but could easily have eaten three more, if not for the size of my stomach.

Bruce's Bar, Severance Colorado

During my visit to Nikolai in Colorado the first stop we made was to Bruce's Bar in Severance, CO.  It was conveniently located between the Denver airport and Fort Collins, where Nikolai and Audrey live.  This bar is known for its Rocky Mountain Oysters.  The options are a platter of fried bull testicles, pictured below, with fries and cocktail sauce.

They also served turkey testicles and another type of fried testicle that escapes me now.  I was unsure how I would feel while eating balls, fortunately they are fried so heavily I was unable, or would be unable, to distinguish the meat I was eating from any other fried meat.  But that's OK, this is a food item to eat for the sake of eating it, not because it tastes amazing.

Bruce's Bar does have a good fry batter, we both ate all of the fried nuts and did not complain later about an upset stomach.

Waterman's Surfside Grill

Cary and I had dinner at Waterman's Surfside Grill on the beach in Virginia Beach, VA. We've been here before for brunch with some people from the barn.  After our earlier experience on the beach with bad food we decided to try something we knew would result in a good experience.  We started off with the hush puppies and an Orange Crush.  The ingredients of an orange crush is orange vodka, triple sec, and something else, maybe orange juice.  Regardless, it was really good.  The hush puppies were good enough.  Good enough to finish the plate of fried food, but not great. 

 For my entree I had tune, seared on the outside and rare inside.  It came topped with crab meat.  I ate all of it but I will not remember this as a plate that really impressed me.  I can definitely say that it was not awful, and that I ate all of it.  The mashed potatoes that came with it were pretty good.  Vegetables were, whatever.

 Cary had the sirloin with exactly the same sides.  She also thought the food was average, she ate all of her steak, except the small portion I ate.  She also liked the mashed potatoes and thought the vegetables were average.

Those Orange Crush drinks are great.  They make the restaurant an experience.  The food was definitely not awful.

11th Street Taphouse, Virginia Beach, Virginia

On a hot evening in late June, Cary and I ventured out to Virginia Becah to try the 11th Street Taphouse.  For the amount of money we paid it was not a good experience.  If we were to forget the amount of money we paid and just consider the quality of food it was also not a good experience.  The wait staff was meek and timid and the chairs were flimsy.  Even the drinks were watered down.

Cary ordered the sliders with fries.  I think that I've had better sliders reheated from the freezer, and the fries were nothing special.  I ordered the catch of the day, flounder.  The flounder came with a starch and a vegetable.  The starch was brown rice, which I'm confident was Uncle Ben's or a cheaper non brand-name wild rice, and the vegetable was corn on the cob.  Corn is also a starch.  So I got two starches.  I don't particularly care that I got two starches but I do smirk when a restaurant claims one thing and presents another, my guess is because they don't know the difference.  The flounder came out tasting more like fish jerky than fresh catch o'the day.  I don't recal how boring and un-rememberable the two starched were.

I am glad that Cary and I were able to have a date night on the beach.  We've also discovered a restaraunt that we don't ever need to go back to.

Cary prior to falling asleep eating 30 dollar sliders.

Maybe the lemons were the vegetable, or the mayonaise?  Fish jerky is in the top right hand corner of the plate.  Maybe the only good thing about the restaurant was the pleasantly shaped plates.

A.W. Shucks

A recent trip to A.W. Shucks off of 22nd Street in Ghent resulted in a wonderful meal, which has come to be the norm at this particular restaurant.  Cary ordered and received the flounder with sides of mashed potatoes and brocolli.  A very healthy option for my beautiful wife.  I ordered the soft shell crab with sides of coleslaw and hush puppies.  I have never had fired soft shell crab before and was not sure how I was going to handle eating the guts of this crab.  It was actually very easy.  It helps that the crabs are covered in frying batter, and the crab guts were likely saturated in oil, thus enhancing the natural flavor of crab guts into fried crab guts.  Fried anything is always better. The coleslaw was plain old coleslaw and the hush puppies were great, coinciding with my expectation from A.W. Shucks.

This is an easy restaurant to go out to because of our repeated and continued success at quality meals when dining at A.W. Shucks.  Sometimes the wait is a little long, and during this encounter the waitress mixed up bills, increasing our wait time by about 10 minutes.  Regardless, we will be back here soon enough.

EURASIA

Cary, Tina, Eric, and I went to Eurasia in Virginia Beach.  This was the first time Cary and I had been to the restaurant, located in an unassuming strip mall off of Laskin Road.  The food and the wait staff was excellent.  For my appetizer I had beef carpacio (first beef carpacio experience for me),  it came with a truffled egg salad cube and salad greens.  My favorite part was the carpacio, not an offensive flavor and a unique texture.  Cary even tried one mouthful.  She had sashemi over fried avocado.  The sashemi tasted like sashemi we could get anywhere, but I've never had fried avocado.  The fried avocado was great.  For my entree I had the catch of the day, grouper, with oysters Rockefeller.  I had no idea of what oysters Rockefeller was, so I figured I would give it a shot.  The oysters were prepared fried, which according to Wikipedia, is not oysters Rockefeller.  The flounder was great, and the mashed potatoes the fish were served on top of were also great.  Cary had the shrimp and grits.  Good overall, I liked the grits portion, the shrimp were just plain on shrimp.  Nothing special. 

Overall it was great, we had the opportunity to try some food that had never eaten before.

http://www.eurasiavb.com/