Kevin's Watch

So your background allows you to have a wonderful lunch of a Reuben with a side of grits!

- Dan -

Mmmm...?

No.

A rueben has to have good deli cole slaw (long strand, not this aweful fine chopped stuff so many places serve now) and a sour pickle or sour tomato.

Miss a couple of days, and miss a lot!

I make a fantastic biscuits and gravy. In fact, on one vacation I took to Winnepeg I had the pleasure of making it for some Canadian friends who had never had it before. Apparently all gravy up north is the brown kind.

And as for tinned corned beef, my mother makes a hash using a can of corned beef, potatoes, and onions. She cubes the potatoes and boils them until just tender. Then she chops the meat and cooks it to release the fat, and tosses in a large onion that has been chopped finely. After the onion is translucent she adds the potatoes to the pan and salts and peppers to taste. She lets the hash get brown and crispy on the bootom before flipping it over to brown the other side. She typically serves it for brunch with homemade muffins, or eggs sometimes.

And what's for dinner tonight? I think I'll get some takeout Chinese from Hong Kong Inn. Maybe it'll be the beef and broccoli.

Well how to tell you about brown sauce? You know tomato ketchup, right? Comes in a squeezy bottle, or one of those hilarious plastic tomato shaped containers? Well brown sauce is exactly the same texture and consistence, cept it's brown. I suppose you'd say it's a savoury sauce, slightly tangy. It's gorgeous on chips or mash (any kind of spuds really) and a bacon and egg butty isn't complete without a huge dollop of brown sauce squidged on top.
Oh, butty equals sandwich.
And how can gravy be any other colour than brown?
And if I'm not that hungry can I just order grit instead of grits?

Wyldewode wrote:And what's for dinner tonight? I think I'll get some takeout Chinese from Hong Kong Inn. Maybe it'll be the beef and broccoli.

Being a northeasterner, I'm pretty picky about my Chinese food. I'll admit to going to some of the cheap places for a fast lunch. But the only really good Chinese food I've found in the area is Mr. Yen's just south of the James River Fwy. and a little place in Ozark which I think is called Chen's. It's in a strip mall just off the Hwy. CC exit on Rt. 65. The Korean style Sweet & Sour chicken is excellent.

(Wyldewode and I live near each other).

- Dan -

Dan65802 wrote:I know Roanoke well. The Anglo side of my family come from the Radford/Christiansburg area.

- Dan -

And I bet the Roanoker Restaurant was there then, too.

My kids go to Hollins University (formerly Hollins College). I get one of two reactions when I mention the school name: either a polite but puzzled "where is that?" or "Oh! That's a good school!"

Brasidas wrote:Oh, butty equals sandwich.
And how can gravy be any other colour than brown?
And if I'm not that hungry can I just order grit instead of grits?

Thanks for the "butty" translation.

We got all colors of gravy here in the States: brown, tan (chicken gravy), redeye. We're very colorful.

I suppose you *could* order a grit, but they'd look at you funny. And it would be an awfully small serving -- akin to a single grain of couscous. Grits usually have the consistency of...hmm...oatmeal, sort of.

And now I want ketchup in a tomato-shaped container.

What's really funny is where the brown sauce is put in the tomato shaped container...

Dan65802 wrote:
Being a northeasterner, I'm pretty picky about my Chinese food. I'll admit to going to some of the cheap places for a fast lunch. But the only really good Chinese food I've found in the area is Mr. Yen's just south of the James River Fwy. and a little place in Ozark which I think is called Chen's. It's in a strip mall just off the Hwy. CC exit on Rt. 65. The Korean style Sweet & Sour chicken is excellent.

(Wyldewode and I live near each other).

- Dan -

The one in Ozark is fantastic, but I could take or leave Mr. Yen's. Hong Kong Inn at least has a lot of variety (they have over 20 menu items), and is reasonably priced. The location on Sunshine is the one I typically go to, as the chefs there seem better than the other locations. Also it's close to home.

Went out for dinner last night and yum it was great. Went to a place called Ask, which is a chain of pizza/pasta places. Not the best food in town, but the most consistently good of the reasonably priced places. They'd updated their usual menu so everything I had, I hadn't had before.

Had a bottle of their house white - nothing special, but fruity and easy.

Marinated olives to take the edge off.

For starter I had Funghi Ripieni al Forno (baked mushrooms stuffed with a mixture of chopped spinach, pancetta, grana padano cheese and breadcrumbs, seasoned with garlic, parsley and onions, served with mixed salad leaves and garlic mayonnaise)

Main course I had Fusilli alla Cacciatora (marinated chicken breast, wild mushroom, red chillis, fresh thyme and garlic, cooked in butter and finished with baby spinach)

At this stage I was very happy indeed, but mentioned to gf that I'd love a raspberry sorbet for dessert, but we only knew one place in town that served it - Ask's dessert menu is normally limited. Then waitress brought (new) dessert menu and guess what was on it?

Dessert was raspberry sorbet.

Followed by a cognac, then an expresso.

I had such a lovely meal, with great service too, that I went and found the manager and told her, before we left. I was quite glad, our waitress walked past as I was talking to manager, so I was able to point her out.

*sigh*

Sounds heavenly, Stone.

Tonight is the first night of Shavuos, and Lubavitch is having festive meals tonight and tomorrow. Beorn and I haven't been in a while; it is just so crowded during the school year.

Now that summer term has started, we'll try again.
So the next couple of days will be holiday meals.

Tonight and tomorrow night will be the typical festive meals I've posted about before. But tomorrow afternoon they'll have a dairy buffet. Blintzes, cheesecakes, meatless lasagnas...mmm...

I'm not sure what's for dinner tonight, but since I feel yucky it will be something that is obtained from a restaurant. Maybe something from the new Thai restaurant around the corner from my home. . . Drunken Noodles, maybe?

on the grill -

turkey sausage (still eating no mammals.)
red potatoes
corn on the cob

and apple juice to drink.

CovJr took me out to dinner tonight. We went to Andalu and had tapas. It was his first time eating tapa style. We started off with Cambazola fondue with crispy bread and asian pears and fuji apples. Then we had the carpaccio with fennel salad. After that we had the grilled swordfish on a bed of mashed potatos and sauteed mushrooms with arugula garnish and lamb cheek and ricotta ravioli with mint garnish. We finished off with the short ribs and white bean salad. Everything was delicious except the white bean salad tasted too minty or not lemony enough. Couldn't quite figure it out but it tasted off balance somehow and the ribs were a little on the sweet side. The swordfish was excellent, they even had a drizzle of pesto around the edge of the plate to drag it through. Yummers. Here's a link to the menu.

www.andalusf.com/menu.html

Yumm, Jenn.
I've never done tapas either.
Sounds heavenly.

As Bounce would say, "Tapas are GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!"

Just had a Kashi TVdinner: Rosemary Chicken on barley with green beans-very yummy, hit the spot!

I made Cov the infamous Jenn's Spaghetti. He's doing the washing up now. He had two heaping plates and complained of overfill so I think he liked it just fine.

He's had both your stroganoff and spaghetti?
And he has to go back to British food???

Oh...the torture!

Keev does reside in San Francisco!!!

What's for breakfast is American-style toad in the hole (as opposed to British toad in the hole) and English breakfast tea. Jenn's treating me well. Last night she cooked me her spaghetti thing.

Yum.
I call it Egg in a Nest.
But, yum.

Jenn, can I come have you cook for me next? Pretty please?