is it your birthday too?? :O
i swear, i know soooo many ppl who have their birthday on or around my birthday. :p grunters finally got to celebrate a bday in dc after 6 years of griping that his day of aging was always spent alone. some new faces at the table and some old, including the formerly estranged vandy friends marg and ryan of yesteryear. ahh yes, it has been too long... we also got to meet a military friend along with a HS friend of grunters, the latter who had some great vomit stories. was fun times along with an enslaught of food from maggiano's. it was my first time there, and i'll prob not be making a repeat visit anytime soon. :p good wine though. XD
that reminds me... i'm older than grunters by a good week or so... that should give me special priviledges in korean culture right? like i get to kick him around all the time while he picks up my poop? good stuff if true. sad sigh if false.
we finally got to try coastal flats in tyson's I. the menu borrows a lot from the sister restaurants/chains sweetwater tavern, mike's, etc as expected. this is the beer battered cod fingers. i'd been craving beer battered fish, so i flew off my diet for a breather and took a huge bite. heaven!! at first... then suddenly the grease went straight to the bottom of my stomach and stayed there. :p very crispy, but surprisingly heavy for what it is. they need to work on the cole slaw, too much mayo.
i never knew how much my brother singe loved bananas until this weekend. it seemed like every other craving out of his mouth had something to do with bananas, so grunters begrudgingly ordered the banana pudding. i leered at it from the side. *back on diet aura* :p
grilled lemongrass pork over vermicelli at the vietnamese place near me. one of the rare vietnamese restaurants that doesn't look like a complete dive. i prefer grilled items elsewhere, but their pho is good enough for me plus they have this awesome lunch/dinner set special. :p i haven't gotten around to ordering the raw egg + soda + milk drink yet.
the shrimp red curry from previously mentioned special. 7.95 and you get a soft drink, soup, and a main entree! the portion is HUGE. :p shrimp wasn't the freshest in the world, but they were large and plentiful, easily over 18 pieces floating abouts in there.
dried seasoned anchovies, one of the ban chan at anangol in annandale, one of my favorite korean places. dried tiny anchovies (chirimen) were my parents' favorites, and i grew up eating this over rice or as a snack by itself.
grilled whole mackerel. this has got to be one of my favorite fish dishes. i didn't know koreans ate it like this too! :p i'm used to eating it with soy sauce and grated daikon. sooo easy to make, but it'll stink up your house for weeks.
chewy egg flour noodles with squash soup. i keep on ordering this and keep on forgetting how incredibly bloated i get afterwards. they expand in my stomach like crazy!! i like the seasonal chicken soup that comes with these same noodles, but i can't find it anywhere except this one korean noodle house in college park. :(
i forgot what this was called, but wes orders it all the time!! tofu kimchee... :p either that or soon dubu without the jigae bit. XD
chicken pesto with pine nuts from grunters' bday dinner at maggiano's. i've still yet to be impressed by pasta dishes at large americanized italian chains. :p the sauce was a bit too watery, but i was too full by then to really enjoy it anyway.
rigatoni with a light cream sauce. i believe it had some chicken in it. :p we ended up taking this home. oh, i forgot to mention that we ordered from the family style menu, which was a 25.50 per person deal with unlimited servings of the dishes we ordered. it came with 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 2 pastas, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts. wayyy too much for a table of relatively light eaters. the waiter brought us seconds to take home. :p
we of course had to order the tiramisu. not bad, but where's the booze? :p very light and fluffy.
we've been grilling a lot at wes' pool this summer. some grilled jpn eggplant and sweet potatoes from this weekend. we grill enough for lunch leftovers. :p everything tastes better with grill marks on them!
if there's anyone who pish poshes at the idea of carbs being uber important for endurance sports, try doing 20+ laps in the pool, running intervals of 5.5-7.5 mph for 30 mins, not eating any carbs at all for dinner, then waking up early the next day fueled only by a handful of cereal and see how well you do on a 30 mile hilly ass bike ride.
good god!!!! i totally felt myself on the verge of bonking 10 mins out into the ride and was totally dead 5 mins after that. i managed to drag myself through the rest powered by pockets of downhill generated speed. of course that meant i was barely pulling 9 mph on the uphills if even. :p one day i'll move up to a road bike, but that day has not come yet. well more like my bank account isn't prepared for it yet. :p slynkie better bring his brand spanking new trek 1000 next time he comes down to the area!!!