stay in the shallow end

It was a pretty disappointing last week in food. I only had good experiences at the places I already loved: Cafe Europa and Five Guys. St. Maarten’s could have been up there if it weren’t for their price gouging on that drink.

• Wednesday: Lunch at Cafe Europa: Had another Majorca, this time with no provolone and extra hot peppers. This is one of the best sandwiches ever. When I ate the second half at home later in the week, I gave it a few dashes of Tabasco and then grilled it in the Foreman. It was even better this way.

• Tuesday: Dinner at Chipotle: I don’t plan on reviewing many big chains, but since we’re getting a Chipotle in front of Harris Teeter, I figured I’d go ahead and list it. This particular Chipotle was in Fredericksburg. Michael and Elizabeth were kind enough to think of us when their friends had extra tickets to Death Cab/Franz Ferdinand in DC. We met up with them in Fredericksburg at Chipotle and drove up together. I got the four tacos with shredded beef, and they let me put each of their four salsas on each of my four tacos. That made me happy. It’s tasty food… maybe better than Qdoba. Qdoba is just so much more convenient for me, I doubt I’ll be going to Chipotle much when they finish it.

• Thursday: Late night snack at Starr Hill: We ended up in the restaurant portion of Starr Hill after the Ween show waiting for the Peen show to start. I wasn’t hungry, but their late night menu listed an item I couldn’t pass up: Habanero-Lime Chicken Wings. Two of my favorite flavors on one of my favorite foods! I ordered them and giddily anticipated their arrival. I was sorely disappointed. There was no lime and no habanero. In fact, they tasted like some lame honey barbecue or something.

• Friday: Lunch at West Main: This is technically the third time I’ve walked into West Main. The first time was right after they opened. We walked in, stopped at the “Please Wait to be Seated” sign and waited ten minutes. Nobody came by, so we left, thinking they were still working the kinks out. But a few months later, the same thing happened. I’m not sure what compelled me to go back Friday, but we did, and now we only stood around for about three minutes before someone told us to just go into the dining area and the server would seat us. We go in, wait another few minutes to get seated, and then look at the menu. While their dinner entrees are crazy expensive, their lunch menu is somewhat reasonable. I settle on the Roast Beef Sandwich: roast beef, provolone, and grilled onions on ciabatta. I get a side of horseradish for the sandwich. Sandwich was good, but nothing spectacular. The cole slaw was just cole slaw, the fries were microwaved, and the Coke was flat. The service was atrocious, and it was obviously not the server’s fault. She’d been put in charge of nearly 10 tables as well as working the bar. I’m really surprised this place is run by the same people that run the Virginian, because I’ve had good experiences there. In any case, I’m never going back.

• Friday: Afternoon snack at Five Guys: I decided to tag along with Michael to Five Guys only a few hours after West Main. I absolutely love their burgers, but since I’d already eaten lunch, I thought I’d try something different. I ordered a hot dog with grilled onions, sauteed mushrooms, jalapenos, hot sauce, and mustard. It was fantastic. I love that they split the hot dogs to cook them on the griddle. I also got some cajun fries, which are always delicious. Throw in the free peanuts, and we have this week’s winner.

• Saturday: Dinner at St. Maarten’s Cafe and Desert at Milano: I won some gift certificates to a few restaurants on the Corner and Milano in a silent auction for the American Cancer Society, so tonight we decided to burn two of them. First, at Maarten’s, where I ordered the Mojo Chicken Sandwich, which is a habanero and honey marinated grilled chicken breast, pepper jack cheese, and jalapenos on a kaiser roll. I also got a side of cajun fries. The sandwich was good with mustard, but adding a little Tabasco made it phenomenal. Their waffle-cut fries are always good. Great meal altogether except for one problem. Maarten’s has a variety of shots and drinks on their menu, and lpk ordered one called “Key Lime Pie”, which is Absolut Citron, Rose’s Lime, Triple Sec, and Sours. It came in a small martini glass with a good half inch of it unfilled at the top. When we got the check it turned out to cost $8.75!!! WTF?!?!! I asked our server, and she confirmed it. It boggles my mind that any place in Charlottesville could justify an $8.75 martini, especially one with just one liquor. The dinner was good, but the cost of that drink really soured the whole experience. I’ll go back, but I’ll definitely be weary of the cost of beverages.
  After Maarten’s, we used another gift certificate to Milano. We went for some gelato and a chocolate chip brownie. Their gelato is good, but it’s definitely no Splendora. The brownie was pretty stale, definitely older than a day. Overall, I was disappointed. I hear their coffee is good, so it may be best to stick with that.

That’s it for last week. I’m having lunch at the new noodle shop on the corner. I’m crossing my fingers for it to be awesome.

When we got Speedy, you could not imagine a more skittish dog. Cars freaked her out, strangers freaked her out, certain foods freaked her out… pretty much anything even slightly novel freaked her out. It’s been nearly two years, and she’s much, much better now. The last couple of weeks, however, has seen a bit of a regression.

Before the last couple of weeks, walks have been fairly routine, but now she jumps away from the street with every passing car. She’s also become much more sensitive to us. She cringes if we raise our voice in the slightest or even glare at her, when previously she’d just ignore us. Most telling, though, is that she’s sleeping under the bed again.

We have a queen size platform bed. There’s only about seven inches of clearance between it and the ground. Speedy is not a big dog, but she’s definitely not a small dog. When we first got her, she would sleep under the bed, right in the middle of it. This involved her laying flat, and kicking off the floor slowly sliding herself to the middle. As she became less skittish, she moved closer to the edge. For awhile, it was just her head under the bed, and then eventually, she was completely out.

But the last few weeks, she began the trek back. The last few nights she had her head under the bed, and tonight I came into the bedroom to this:

Great. Hopefully I’m completely wrong, and her going under the bed has to do with the weather or something. Ugh, dogs are stupid.

I just went back and edited that last post. I guess I got distracted in the middle of a sentence and didn’t bother rereading it. It just started one thought and finished another. Now I’m looking at this sentence:

I was weeding my inbox and found an old email about it, sent them a quick note, and a few days later two copies showed up.

I know this is a grammar disaster, but it seems like breaking it up into sentences will make it too disjointed. I can’t think of a way to reword it so it works as one sentence. Somebody help me out here.

Edit: Fixed another grammar disaster in this post. See my comment for details.

Not really, but it’s kinda cool having my name on a book at Barnes & Noble. Unfortunately, they went through the multipage review I wrote for them and managed to find the one quote that makes me sound like a total tool:

I actually reviewed the book over two years ago. When the book went to print, they were supposed to send me a copy, but I guess that fell through the cracks. I was weeding my inbox and found an old email about it, sent them a quick note, and a few days later two copies showed up. Too bad I’m not working with this technology anymore (or any technology for that matter).

Anybody want a copy of Webwork in Action?

It seems my iPod has been chilling in one of my dresser drawers. He’s so sneaky.

Ween rocked the pavilion pretty hard last night. I think they played for about three hours. Going into the show, I thought I only knew three Ween songs, but it turns out I recognized about a dozen.

I do have to agree with Zoe, that it’s hard to justify the really high expense of pavilion tickets when you can see the show from the street. I’m sure once enough people congregate up there, they’ll put up a barricade, but even then, they can’t wall the sound in.

We also went to Peen afterwards at Starr Hill. Since I’d never seen Ween before, if you’d told me Peen were Ween, I wouldn’t have known any better. I ducked out early cause I was exhausted.

I also snapped a picture of a guy wearing the most awesome shirt ever. It had the amateur sketch of the leprechaun on the front, and underneath that it said “I wanna know where the gold at”. As soon as I get my phone back, I’ll post the picture.

My iPod is M.I.A. It’s very upsetting, and I’m using my cellphone in the meantime for music, but it’s not the same.

I know I had it Friday night, and then it disappeared. We cleaned the house Saturday, and it didn’t turn up. I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look, and no luck.

*sigh*

This week, I went down from eight meals out to five. We also made it out to Costco over the weekend and to Harris Teeter last night, so I don’t think we’ll be eating out for dinner this week except before Ween on Thursday night.

The Majorca at Cafe Europa is the big winner this week. In fact, I had it again for lunch today with a small change. I got rid of the provolone and added extra peppers. It definitely improved the sandwich: provolone is too bland and it dampened the punch of the rest of the flavors.

• Tuesday: Dinner at Christian’s Pizza: Christian’s is another one of those places that is always delicious. My first slice was the Greek which is spinach, feta, tomatoes, and maybe mushrooms, and my second slice was meatball. Personally, I feel that except for the spicy chicken, Christian’s vegetarian options are far superior to their meat options. You can never go wrong with their fresh mozzarella.

• Wednesday: Lunch at Cafe Europa: For the first two years I lived in Charlottesville, I never ventured into Cafe Europa. Something about it’s facade just never appealed to me as a place I’d want to eat. I am an idiot. After getting dragged there, Cafe Europa has become my favorite place on the Corner. They rotate their specials frequently, so it never gets boring. It is always delicious. My friend and I ordered the Falafel sandwich and the Majorca special and swapped half of them. The falafel was very good, but the Majorca was the star. Spicy grilled marinated chicken, chipotle pesto, sun dried tomatoes, hot peppers, and provolone on french bread all toasted. It was spicy, flavorful, and made me very sad that I agreed to swapping half of it away. I also tried their pasta salad (don’t remember which one), and it had good flavor, but wasn’t bold enough for my burned out taste buds.

• Wednesday: Desert at Arch’s Frozen Yogurt: I’m convinced Arch’s puts crack in their frozen yogurt. The probability of us making a second visit to Arch’s within three days of our first visit is probably ten times higher than before the first visit. I get what I always get: 3.5 oz of one of the Wow Cow yogurts with Snickers on the bottom. It always hits the spot, and they are open late, which is awesome (and so rare around here).

• Thursday: Lunch at Take It Away: I like Take It Away a lot. They make a good sandwich, and they have a good variety of chips and beverages. My only complaint would be that they don’t really offer any vegetables for the sandwiches except sprouts. I ordered the corned beef on onion rye with mustard and house dressing on the side and also the chicken and dumplings soup. I love chicken and dumplings, and was really disappointed in the soup, however, the sandwich was it’s usual tasty self. There’s nothing special about Take It Away’s sandwich’s, they just use quality ingredients which results in a quality sandwich.

• Thursday: Dinner at Amigos (on 5th): I should probably just stop including Amigos in these reviews. I had the Pollo Loco: a few pieces of grilled chicken breasts, rice, beans, and tortillas. My past opinion stands, not bad, but completely unexceptional.

• Saturday: Lunch at La Taza: We went wine tasting Saturday afternoon. I don’t really like wine, but I still had fun. Before we embarked, we had lunch at La Taza Coffeehouse, a small cafe in Belmont that opened up about a year ago. I had a chicken burrito type thing whose name I cannot recall. It was just chicken, rice, and beans and very average. Definitely not at the same level as their other sandwiches, such as the La Jefa, the Cuban Sandwich, and my favorite, the Ropa Vieja. On my way out I grabbed a chocolate brownie covered with a half inch of peanut butter. Decadently delicious.

• Saturday: Wine tasting at Oakencroft and Hilltop Berry Farm: Oakencroft was about what I expected: We tried a few wines, bought a couple of bottles, and went on our way. Hilltop Berry, on the other hand, was a lot of fun. It’s run by two very ebullient sisters, and they don’t make traditional wines. I tried wines made of cranberries, blueberries, honey, apple, and some other stuff. They even paired little snacks with each wine. I noticed they had some locally produced salsa by a company called Gunther’s Gourmet: I picked up a jar of Salsa Verde and Spicy Chipotle Pepper and Smoked Corn Salsa. While they are lacking in heat, their flavor more than makes up for it.

So after last week’s post, Waldo made me all self conscious about how often I eat out. It’s the one thing I don’t exercise crazy financial discipline on, and I really should.

I’m going to try to make things more succinct this week. (Bullet points = succinct). Please comment if you enjoy the posts, I’d love to get some feedback.

• Monday: Lunch at Bodo’s: I had an avocado sandwich with onions, horseradish, and mustard on an everything wheat bagel. Never has such a stinky sandwich tasted so good. Under $3, too. What more can you ask for?
• Tuesday: Dinner at El Puerto: We’d given El Puerto a try about a year ago, and were sorely disappointed. I went back with some friends in tow, and the food was still not that great. (Please note, I will pretty much rag on every Mexican restaurant there is). El Puerto does have one item that will keep me coming back: their salsa picante. We saw it on another table and asked for some, and the waiter laughed and asked if we were sure. It’s an excellent homemade salsa with a nice slow heat. Anything hot enough to make me flush gets an A+ in book.
• Wednesday: Lunch at Basil: Basil is another restaurant I returned to this week after an initial disappointment. I kind of got dragged along, so I just asked our server to just bring me out whatever her favorite dish was. She has good taste: the chicken souvlaki was excellent. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry so I had to bolt it and run out the door, so I didn’t get a chance to enjoy it.
• Wednesday: Dinner at Amigo’s (on 5th): She had something to celebrate, and she normally has to drag me here, so I offered it up. Amigo’s always gets the same rating from me: consistently and highly mediocre. The food is never bad, but it’s never particularly good either. I don’t even remember what I ordered.
• Thursday: Lunch at Food of All Nations: This is the definitely this week’s winner. Look at the picture of my sandwich below, it’s absolutely gorgeous. I’ve come here for lunch dozens of times and always ordered the same thing, but today I thought I’d change it up. You’re looking at a Hoo’s Chicken, minus mayo, add deli mustard, sub jalapeno jack cheese, and ciabatta bread instead of a sub roll. I only ate half of it because I also got a small piece of fried chicken to compare it to Old Virginia’s. Food of all Nations still wins. And now for my saddest food story of the week: I left the other half of my sandwich in the car overnight. Any week before this one and it would’ve made it, but unfortunately it’s this week.
• Thursday: Dinner at South Street: I love South Street’s beer, but I’m not a big fan of their food. I will say their revamped menu is much, much better than their previous one, but it’s still overpriced for mediocre food. Good thing she was buying! I had the blackened catfish sandwich with salad instead of fries. It tasted exactly how you would imagine a blackened catfish sandwich and a salad tasting. Nothing to see here, folks.
• Friday: Tea Time Desires and Marco and Luca: After a bird crapped in my pocket, I got a bubble tea at Tea Time Desires and some dumplings at Marco and Luca. I don’t really know what good bubble tea is, but I enjoyed the Taro tea that I got. I’m really torn on the dumpling issue. I was all about Marco and Luca until I saw them unpack a big box of frozen dumplings about a year go. I thought they were homemade! While they still taste good, just knowing they came out of a box bugs me. Tea Time Desires, on the other hand, has homemade dumplings, but they are steamed, not pan-fried, which results in a very different texture. I probably shouldn’t give it so much thought when I’m paying $2.50 for 6-7 dumplings, but I can’t help it.
• Sunday: Dinner at China King Buffet: We just kind of ended up here last night. I wanted sushi, but didn’t want to spend sushi money. My previous impressions stand. They did have crab legs, though, which was kind of nice. Their sushi selection was still probably half that of the old Asian Buffet.

Well, so much for succinct. I’ll end with a delicious picture of this week’s winner, the Hoo’s Chicken sandwich from Food of all Nations. Please observe a moment of silence for the second half, which never got to fulfill it’s destiny.

And like I mentioned above, if you’ve enjoyed these posts, please leave a comment.