Mimino

In London I was exposed to many different restaurants.  One of the most interesting the the Georgian restaurant, Mimino in the Kensington neighborhood.

For an appetizer I choose the Badrijani, roasted eggplant with walnut sauce.  Pretty good, obviously similar to babaganoush, but it felt more like humus.  The serving was also for a table, not one guy.  I felt full after eating it.  Fortunately I had bread and the entree next

The entree was chanakhi, lamb stew with tomatoes and eggplants.  This wasn't too spicy and had a dominate tomato flavor.  I didn't get much out of the lamb meat, and the eggplants were too mushy to be of any substance.  Nothing tasted bad in the dish, I believe I was hoping for something more exotic.

 

www.mimino.co.uk

 

Nardini's/Toni Macaroni

While dinning at Nardini's of the Toni Macaroni Group in Largs, Scotland I was able to try Haggis.  I was not able to try the traditional meat product stuffed in a sheep's stomach, I did get the meat part.  I liked it, was able to eat all of it, and would do it again.  The only caveat haggis comes with is the limited portion size I desire to consume.  Though I only had a small portion I felt like I was carrying it around with me for a couple of days afterwards.

It was topped with red cabbage and served with mashed potatoes and lamb shanks (I think).  I ate all of it and thought the entire meal was great. This was a perfect meal to fall asleep immediately after.

http://www.nardinis.co.uk/

The restaurant looked like it had gone through a recent makeover and was mostly Italian cuisine.  The other people I dinned with indicated the food was good.

The Commodore

While in Scotland for work I visited The Commodore in Helensburg.  I was pleasantly surprised at the cozy atmosphere and the great food.  Prior to the appetizers we were treated to cracklins, something I was unfamiliar with.  Basically they are fried bits o' pig.  They went great with beer, my only constructive criticism was that I didn't get enough.

http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/thecommodorehelensburgh/

As an appetizer I had the French Onion soup.  This tasted good, I ate all of it, but was no different than any other above average french onion soup I've eaten elsewhere.  There was no melted cheese on top of the soup.  The meal was served with toasted cheese bread.  I thought that was a little more useful than the mushy bread that often comes baked into the French Onion soup.

For the entree I had, for the first time, braised pork belly.  The meat has layers of fat it in, but not so much that it interferes with eating.  The fat was cooked enough, or delicate enough that it either melted or digested while you were chewing on it.

 

 

To keep myself warm, I added a portion of red cabbage to my entree.  It was served with white raisins, I wasn't particularly pleased with the addition of raisins to the red cabbage.  But, I also don't really care for raisins in wet food.

 

Overall this was a great pub to eat a warm meal on a rainy night in Scotland.

Norfolk Chop House

Late this summer Cary and I ventured out to the Norfolk Chop House for a dinner with Tina and Eric.  We were both very curious about this new restaurant with exciting possibilities for good cow meat.

The special for Sunday evenings was Prime Rib.  Both of us love Prime Rib and we each ordered to our preference, Cary likes hers medium, and I like mine medium well.  Both came out almost rare and covered in fat.  I was dissapointed in the meat selection, I believe Outback Steakhouse has better cuts of meat.  By no means did the cook make the meat uneatable, or awful tasting.  I got the impression the chef thinks meat tastes good one way, rare, and he doesn't care what the order specificies.  Its a shame, Cary and I were hoping to like this place.  There really isn't a god steak place in Norfolk.

The appetizers were fine and the servers were very nice.  If you've never been inside the restaurant you should go once, they've done a nice job of making the place look like a nice restaurant.

http://www.norfolkchophouse.com/

Bermuda Food

The photos of the food that we ate in Bermuda are spread out over several phones and cameras, so this is not a complete photo-shoot and updates may come later.

Prior to travelling to Bermuda Cary and I both read that we should expect mediocre food, like one would expect to find in England.  We did not find this to be the case, the food was very good.  FIsh and chips was the staple.  This is the closest that I would get to England in a while and figured this should be pretty close to what I would get there.  I tasted good, the fried portion generally helps everything taste good.  Not much different than a serving one could get in the United States.  I think I had this meal three times in Bermuda, each one was pleasant and filled me up.

The picture above is of a T Bone served at the restaurant Blu.  Cary had the filet.  This was by far the best meal we had on the island.  Blu was on a posh resort with what looked to be a very nice golf club, the food was very expensive and the wait staff was average.  The steak was mouth watering good.

In the hotel we stayed at there were several restauarnts.  The neatest of which was a nautical themed place called "something."  They had an excellent sellection of seafod, expensively priced.  Cary had "unknown" and I had "fish"  My fish was only OK and Cary's was great.

 

The experience Cary and I had while in Bermuda was excellent.  One need not worry about the blandness of the food.  The only real bad experience we had was by the swimming pool when we ordered a vegetable wrap.  It wasn't that good and screaming kids will ruin any experience.

Ribs

Summer 2012

Based upon the ribs I had in Colorado with Nikolai and Audrey I attempted to replicate the recipe.  I bought one rack o' ribs from the store, cut it in two.  The length would not fit into the crock pot.  Placed both smaller racks in the crock pot with three bottles of beer and put the heat on low for about 6 hours.  In hindsight, I think I left it in the beer for too long.  When I estimated they were ready for the grill, much of the meat fell off as I was pulling the ribs out of the crock pot.  Prior to placing them on the rib I coated them with homemade barbecue sauce, courtesy of the internets.  I used the grill to place a nice crust on the ribs and then served with french fries and broccoli.  They were awesome!

Citrus Virginia Beach, Virginia

Cary and I ventured out to Citrus in Virginia Beach for brunch.  We had never heard of this place until it was recommended to us by a friend of ours.  Online we discovered that Guy Fieri had visited the restaurant for his Diners and Dives television show. 

There was a 45 minute wait to sit.  Fortunately they have a bar set up for the massive amount of people waiting to be seated.  The drink of choice was a Citrus Mimosa.  It tasted good.  Good enough to have two.

When we were seated our orders were promptly taken.  I chose the Fried Softshell crab sandwich.  Cary choose the Egg white Omelet with hashbrowns and Sweet Potato biscuit.  All of the food tasted as if it had been appropriately cooked. 

We discovered nothing at this restaurant that justified a 45 minute wait.

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/

Green Onion

Cary and I, and a couple of her friends, visited Green Onion for dinner last evening.  It was Wednesday and that means all you can eat mussels in a garlic butter sauce.  Cary had one portion, the fried it was served with were a little on the hard side and the garlic butter sauce was a little watered down from previous versions we have eaten.

I had a pear, blue cheese, chicken, and candied pecan salad.  I have never had that menu option at Green Onion before and enjoyed every bit of the salad.  The chicken served on top was enough to make it a meal, nothing special about it though.  The greatness of this salad was the combination of asian pears, blue cheese, and candied pecans.  I would definitely eat that again.

Omar's Carriage House

This small restaurant, in the Freemason part of downtown Norfolk, is a wonderful food adventure that Cary and I have missed for the 4 years or so that we've been living in Norfolk.  From the outside it's not very impressive, or big, and once seated in some flimsy chairs with thin bedcovers I was ready to be underwhelmed.  Fortunately, the food was great, and as a plus we went on Monday night which is also "Morrocan Night."  We each got an appetizer, hummus and a the salad made of tomatos, mozzarella cheese, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegear.  Forget the name but it was good!  Cary got a potato encrusted flounder and I had the grilled vegetables and steak over Morrocan couscous.  Both were great and portion sizes were large enough I could not eat all of the food.

Fail

The homemade sauerkraut failed in its first attempt.  Though it's only a small defeat in what is sure to be many succesful victories of sauerkraut production, it feels, and looks, awful.  Notice the carpet of mold.

A Taste of India

Cary and I ventured out to the Ted Constant COnvocation Center at Old Dominion University for their annual Taste of India celebration.  In addition to having all sorts of wonderful food, they had numerous acts, on stage, performing what appeared to be native dance and song.

Above, in my hand, is the Bhelpuri, kind of like an Indian version of Chex mix with spicy sauce on top.

 The samosas and chutney were very similar to what I've made before.  Mostly because of the fried component of the food.

Cary is chowing down on the Tikki Chhole.

Last dish we tried was the Masala Dosa with coconut chutney.  Though I ate all of it, it was the least flavorful of the dishes we ate.

To see what else is offered this weekend, visit the following site

http://www.tasteofindiahr.org/

Lolas in Ghent

Cary and I went to Lolas this evening for dinner.  We had been then once before with a group of people and were suprised at how good the food was.  The style is Carribean mixed with a Latin flavor.  Beans, rice, and plantains play a predominant role in the food.  We are both partial to the plantain nachos, pictured below.  We also both enjoy the chimichura, also pictured below.  Cary ordered a shrimp and plantain "smash" dish that came in the most unique entre dish I've ever seen.  Apparently the container was neater than the food. 

This restaraunt does have a cross-dressing party on Sunday morning's. 

Cary and her unique container filled with plantain mash and shrimp.

Awesome plantain nachos.  You are correct, Drag Brunch on Sunday mornings.

Chimichura, with mashed potatoes and asparaugs.  Very good.

Visit their website http://www.lolasghent.com/ to view the rest of their menu.

Mustard Roasted Salmon with Green Bean Salad and Basmati Rice

Cary and Spike help me eat our Wednesday night creation.  The recipie was strait from the Food Network website.

I don't know how long the link will work, the Food Network may rotate different meals through the following link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/menus/easy-weeknight-salmon/index.html

Homemade Sauerkraut (day one)

When I started on this endeavor, I figured it would be easy.  So far I've done little actual work.  The smell and sight of a batch of cabbage in brine is rather unappealing.  I will let the internets know how this turns out. 

The idea came from my brother, who got it from his lady friend, who got it from Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Katz



The Green Onion on Colley in Norfolk has a wonderful Wednesday night special.  All you can eat mussels with a glass of wine for $17 (?)  The meal comes with fries and bread, I assume to help absorb the liquid combination of butter and garlic that the mussels float in. This meal is always a pleaser and real easy to minimie spending at an otherwise pricey restaraunt. 

http://www.thegreenonionrestaurant.com/

Canard avec pommes de terre at sauce au vin

I made the following one night when I was cooking for myself.  Cary's dad, Rick, sells meat and when I mentioned I like duck he unloaded several different peices of duck for me to have fun with.  I did a a google search and with the following link I cooked myself dinner.

http://www.thecitycook.com/cooking/recipes/data/000032

Though I didn't have all the fancy ingredients for the sauce, I thought the duck breast itself came out nice.  I was concerned about burning the duck, significant smoke was produced when I put the duck, fat-down, into the already hot cast iron skillet, it tasted great.  The color of the fat was very close to black, I'm unsure if you can see it in the photograph.

The potatoes and vegetables were hanging out in the kitchen or refrigerator and needed to get eaten or they would have been thrown away.

Though I have not tried the following, I foresee it in my future.

http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2009/02/11/the-best-way-to-roast-a-duck-hello-crispy-skin/