Christos

Oooooh, dinner was a good thing. I went to Christos down the street and they are definitely made of yum.

I got a sampler plate to have three different meals. Spanakopita, mousaka, and dolmathes. All are small versions of larger dishes and they were perfectly balanced. Retsina was the main (white) wine, with its lightly pine flavor, and I ended the evening with chocolate mousse and a mavrodaphne, which is a sweet red wine.

What a perfect dinner to have to celebrate my own birthday. Happy 31st, Tegan. You deserved it.

Everest on Grand

I treated myself to a massage early this morning, lunch at Everest on Grand (the Yak Momos are YumYum), and renewing my driver's license that thankfully did not take long.

Nepali food is like a cross between Indian and Chinese, but less... spicy. If you had to climb down a mountain to get your spices, you'd use them sparingly as well. And yes, I really did have yak meat for lunch. It's like beef, but... leaner.

Now to figure out what I'm going to do for the rest of the day.

Cravings

I want to remind myself that at some point soon, I want to go to Cecil's.

Cecil's it would seem makes knishes locally. And a good simple potato knish just sounds delightful.

I'm kinda in the wrong area of the country to find those easily. At least I don't think Kramarczuk's has them. They're Eastern European, but I'm guessing not Jewish. And I'm not so sure of other places that could possibly carry them.

Growing up in NJ, we used to be able to get like a three pack of these square knishes in the deli section of the grocery store (Pathmark). I could toss one in the toaster oven to heat them up and just nom nom nom...

*sigh*

Anyway. I should not be looking at food websites when I'm trying to motivate myself up off the couch to make myself some foods.

Relax is still not Yummy

I think I posted long ago once that the restaurant Yummy, well, wasn't. Well, that restaurant is about one of the closest restaurants to me, so I decided to give it another shot.

In that time, the name has changed to "Relax: Exotic Chinese Cuisine". The menu doesn't look all that different. I will give props to the cream cheese wontons (a weakness of mine) which were fresh and amazingly *light* for being deep fried. But the Kung Pao Chicken... It left me just kinda meh.

Its not the worst I've had, but it's also just not good enough for the money IMO. Maybe it's that Little Szechuan has ruined me for all other Kung Pao with how fabulous it is. I just don't feel that I should pay that much for a dish that ends up being mostly water chestnuts and bamboo with a sprinkling of chicken and peanuts.

*shrug*

There are enough Chinese restaurants almost as close that I can keep trying until I find one that I'm fond of.

Solera

Went to Avenue Q with K and had an incredibly awesome time. Afterward we headed to Solera for happy hour and to spend a gift certificate K had.

It's on Hennepin. And it has downtown prices. The decor is adorable and much my style. The seating arrangements are interesting... definitely suited to mingling, but I'm not so much about the bar scene.

The food was good, interesting twists on classic things. But I doubt I will think about it that much because it's really expensive to eat enough feel like you ate a meal.

The drinks... well, the drinks are drinks and I'm kinda not that much more coherent now. :)

Azia

I started my afternoon with lunch at Azia. I'd been here once for drinks with a friend from California when she was visiting. Mostly it's higher priced than I prefer to spend, but lunch is better than dinner for that. So I gave their food a try. Nice quality food, good flavors, good presentation. Their Cranberry Cream Cheese wontons were interesting, though an odd flavor (the spice was *just* not blended in well enough).

Their Burmese curry Ahi-Tuna steak could be a favorite. But really, it costs more than I want to spend on a regular basis. Not bad happy hour specials either; and their drinks are fun.

Decision, I'd go there if others wanted to. The food is quite good, and I loved having a slow lunch, paying attention to the flavor and texture of every bite. But I'm not thinking this place is going to be a regular for me. It's just too expensive for more than an occasion.

Peninsula

Tonight was another adventure in new restaurants, and this time even new cuisine. I went to Peninsula for Malaysian food.

The only disappointing part of the meal was the reisling I ordered. Which was the cheapest on the menu, so not all that surprising. For an appetizer I had roti telur, a crispy Indian style pancake filled with eggs, onions & bell peppers. Served with spicy curry chicken & potato dipping sauce. It was light and delightful, if a little larger than I was expecting.

And then I ordered the Peninsula Char Kway Teow, Malaysian stir fried flat rice noodles with shrimp, squid, bean sprouts, & eggs in soy chili paste. My first hint that it would be good was when the waitress got visibly excited and said it was her favorite noodle dish. And then when she was bringing it to me, a couple that had just been seated stopped her to ask what it was because it smelled amazing. And then said "I want what she's having" when they ordered. And the other two people sitting near me asked what it was as well.

Looking at their orders of satay and egg rolls also looked really good. That being said, I'm a fan of the spicy, but it looked like they had non-spicy as well for my friends who are not all about the spice.

I have no left overs. I was very hungry when I sat down and it was too good to even stop eating. I will so be going back to this place.

Have I mentioned I love living off of Eat Street? Yum.

Next places I need to try are also down at that end of Nicollet, Harry Singh's Caribbean, and Christos for Greek.

ETA: I have since found out that this not a place to bring your friends who have shellfish allergies. They are not good about keeping things separate enough for their safety. Still, the food is tasty.