Of Life, Food, and Fun

Went to Starbucks for a snack yesterday. I got their new horchata frappuccino and a cookie croissant. The drink was very good. Better than expected. Later, we went to Bongo’s for dinner. I noticed their menu on the board indicated what was spicy, but their paper menus didn’t. I’m glad I saw that. The thing I had last time was marked as spicy. This time I got their bucco chicken plate. It has spiced chicken topped with cilantro crema and pineapple salsa along with garlic rice, black beans, coleslaw, and a maduro. It wasn’t spicy. (Well, not hot spicy, still had a lot of spices.) Yay! It was very good. I had red velvet cake later from Central. That was good, too.

Went to Kachai Thai for dinner last night. We were celebrating my parent’s birthday. We shared chicken satay and vegetable spring rolls. I got Thai fried rice with beef and without onions. It was all very good. We went to Central to get desserts. I got their creme brûlée cheesecake tower. It didn’t really have anything to do with creme brûlée. One side of it was labeled ‘caramel’. That’s really what it was. It had a very thick caramel layer. It was very rich tasting. It was great! Just a little intense.

Cream and onion potato chips for a snack. This was from the India Universal Yums box. It tasted a lot like Ruffles with ridges sour cream and onion. It didn’t seem to have that slight ‘sour’ taste. Overall the flavor wasn’t as strong. The chips were pretty small. A full serving is the whole bag. It wasn’t spicy. Yay! (Again, I can’t have spicy food, and a lot of them were this time.) It has a picture of a hunk of cheese on the bag, but there is no cheese in the ingredients list. Just milk/fats. Weird. It was good, though. I’m not going to try the ‘party mix’, which would have been next. It says it’s spicy. I probably won’t have the ‘mango extreme’ hard candies, either. I decided I won’t go back to their samosas, since they were too spicy. There are only a few things left, and I’ve already had a serving of each of them. Besides the spicy stuff, it was a decent box. Hopefully the next one won’t have so many spicy things.

I don’t know if it was eating too much, or laughing too hard at something last night, but I had a symptom come back this morning. The pill I take for it didn’t have time to work. Hopefully, it’s just a one time thing.

Crusties Cheese Balls and milk filled toffee candy for a snack. These were from the India Universal Yums box. The cheese balls were oddly spicy and addicting. A serving is the whole bag. It probably wasn’t very good for my gut, because of how spicy it was. The toffee candy isn’t in the pic. I had to have something after all the spiciness. It was much better. A little tough at first.

Mini samosa and orange soan papdi for a snack. These were from the India Universal Yums box. I had a serving each. The samosa was a bit weird. I guess I’m not used to a mung bean kind. I’ve had the potato and chickpea ones. This one was a little too spicy yet oddly sweet. I don’t know if I’ll have another in the future. The soan papdi was really good. The only downside was how much it fell apart. Made it a little hard to eat. They say it’s like Indian cotton candy. It seems denser or something. Not quite like that. It also had pistachios and almonds. Both of these have a lot more servings. Probably the most I’ve seen in a while.

Nacho Tikka Masala chips, cappuccino cream chocolate sandwich cookies, and cardamom cream sandwich cookies for a snack. These are from the India Universal Yums box. I was just going to have the coffee cream cookies and the chips. However, the chips were way too weird and spicy. I could only eat one. I really liked the coffee cream cookies. It was a light coffee taste with a nice amount of chocolate. It has bourbon in the name, which I think is actually referring to a place. There’s no alcohol in it. I’m a little iffy about the cardamom cookies. I actually like cardamom, but these were a little too strong. It needed something like more sugar to counteract how strong it was. I had a serving each of the cookies. I think the coffee cream cookies have 3 more servings, and the cardamom ones have 1.5 more servings. At least I can enjoy the coffee cream ones longer. I had a regular chai latte with them. (It’s a Keurig thing.) It went well together.

This month’s Universal Yums came today. They estimated that it would arrive next Saturday, so a bit early. It’s on India this time. Like the others, there are stickers, a map, a review section on the other side, and a booklet. The booklet had recipes for Noon Chai (Kashmiri Pink Tea), Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani, and Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding). Interesting ones. I tried the ‘Chak Boom Tomato’ for a snack. (They describe it as Corn & Rice Snack With Tomato Chutney Flavor.) It was like Cheetos without the cheese and dusted with a bunch of spices and some tomato taste mixed in. Good and addicting. A little spicier than I’d like. There’s a lot of other interesting snacks. Nacho tikka masala chips (without cheese, weird), cream and onion chips, cheese balls, party spice mix, samosas, orange soan papdi (thought it looked like halva at first which I hate), chocolate cookies with coffee cream, more cookies with cream, and a couple of little candies in the Teeny Yums bag.

Went to Green Light Diner for lunch. It’s been about 6 months since I was there last. It took a while to get a table. We left a phone number and checked out the new kitchen/cooking store not far from it downtown. That was interesting. They had huckleberry syrup that looked really good. I might try that in the future. They also had shakers, knives, pots, cookie cutters (tons of different shapes), seasonings for popcorn, popcorn mixes, tons of very concentrated flavor extracts (like vanilla, garlic, mint, rum), and more. Very interesting. We went back to the restaurant and waited a while. They seemed really busy. I ordered a tuna melt with a Caesar salad. On the menu it said it would come with fries. After a long wait, I got my sandwich. They said my salad and fries should be coming soon. I had to ask again about them. Eventually my salad came. They said it doesn’t come with fries. Not what the menu said. They asked if I wanted to add it, and I said no. My parent’s thing came with a pasta salad. I don’t think it mentioned that on the menu. She doesn’t like that kind of pasta salad. I had a couple of bites of it. The pasta wasn’t cooked enough. I had half of the sandwich. It was good. The salad was just ok. Halfway through eating, I ordered the ‘King’ milkshake. (I had a craving for a milkshake.) I thought it would come after I was done with the sandwich and salad. It wasn’t long of a wait for that. The ‘King’ milkshake was great! It had chocolate ice cream, peanut butter, bananas, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and pretzels on top. I think I’ve had it one other time. My parent had to tell them we were ready for the bill. It was taking a while. I think other customers were frustrated with the service there. It wasn’t very good. We also looked at Crimson Cove, which was next to it too. They have a new name now, but the same products. I think it’s changed to Fjord Goods. My parent found chocolate covered cherries and nuts, I think. I love their smoked cheddar, but our refrigerator isn’t working very well. So, it probably will go bad faster than I can eat it. (This is partially why I haven’t been cooking much.) When we get a new refrigerator I’ll definitely get it.

Went to Moctezuma’s for dinner. I got an horchata. I think it was the first time I had it. It was great! I got their 2-item combo: classic enchilada and taquito. Both of them with beef. I chose their poblano rice and black beans as my sides. The taquito normally comes with an avocado sauce and a sour cream sauce. I didn’t want either, so it came pretty plain. The whole thing was smaller than I was expecting. That’s ok. Didn’t really like the taquito. The enchilada was nice. I love their poblano rice. Didn’t have much of the beans. I got their Mexican brownie for dessert. (First time I had theirs.) It came out in a big skillet sizzling. It had a caramel sauce around it. I’m glad there was ice cream, so I could cool the brownie enough to eat it. Burned my mouth a couple of times, though. It was amazing!

Went to the Oak Table for brunch. It was kind of to celebrate my parent’s birthday early. I got a mocha first. I asked them to get a saucer or something under it since it tends to overflow. They understood. Probably other people need that too. It was overflowing when I got it. I got their apples and cinnamon pancakes. It normally comes with 6 of them, but they asked me if I wanted 3 instead. I told them that would be great. 6 of them would have been way too much. I’ve had their apple ‘pancake’ before, which is more like a soufflé. It’s huge! They’re known for it. I don’t think I’ve had their regular apples and cinnamon pancakes before. Wished there was more of the cinnamon sugar on top/under the pancakes. Had some of the maple syrup on them. I also got breakfast potatoes. I needed a savory thing with it. It was all very good.

Went to Hakata for dinner last night. It’s been a while since I was there last. I got their potato croquettes which come with a salad. One of my faves and I like that there’s salad with it. Then, I got pickled bean sprouts and miso soup. They come with the entree. I love their bean sprouts! I didn’t touch the soup. It’s not very good, plus it was hot out. I got yakinikudon (without onions), which is a BBQ beef rice bowl. Another fave. They were a bit weird this time with our food and forgetting my fork. I had to remind them about the fork a couple of times. Then they came back and gave me 3 forks. Maybe it was too busy or something? It ended up ok, and the food was great.

Went to Chipotle for dinner last night. Haven’t been there in about 2.5 years. I think that was at around the grand opening. They were just starting out so things weren’t quite right. I wanted to see if they improved. I really liked their carne asada last time, but they only had that for a limited time. I decided to try their regular steak. I got a burrito with that, white rice, queso sauce, shredded cheese, black beans, and mild salsa. Got a Diet Coke with it. The table wasn’t very clean. The tortilla part was better. The steak was very fatty and chewy. Not good to me. The queso sauce was a little spicier than I remembered. It was huge. I had a little under half and was too full to eat more. I didn’t want to throw so much out, but it’s not my fault they make their burritos so big. I’m glad I tried it again. It just isn’t as great as I thought it would be.

My parent made what we call Sausage and Potato Thing for dinner. It’s usually a little different every time. She added broccolini this time. It was all good. I had a chocolate ‘mini Boston’ from Central for dessert. It was amazing! Very chocolatey.

Went to Denny’s for dinner. We were thinking about trying Mi Playita, but they were closed. We were going to go to Diablo’s after that. They had a piece of paper on their door saying Closed, out of business. We liked that one, but they were having issues with staff lately. I didn’t think they’d go out of business. I hadn’t actually been to Denny’s in a couple of years. We shared onion rings. They were crisp and the onion part didn’t slip out which was a plus. Tried their bourbon sauce with it, since they were out of BBQ sauce. It was very sweet. I got their chicken tenders. I chose broccoli and mashed potatoes as my sides. Honey mustard for my dipping sauce. It came with a ‘dinner roll’, which was actually garlic bread. It was all very good. The tenders were seasoned well and were crisp. Wish there were more broccoli. The potatoes had the skins mixed in and were chunky, which I like. The bread was crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. I had half of everything. Easy to split. It’ll make a nice lunch. Had cookie dough pie for dessert. It was great!

The last thing she wanted to go over was my weight. She said I look like I lost some since the last time she saw me. I stopped weighing myself back in January, because I was tired of losing so much through throwing up. Lately, I’ve felt like I gained a lot of it back. However, I didn’t fill up the ‘chair’ I was on (turns into a table to lay on) like before. I had room for my purse next to me and then some. I feel like I’m bigger than I actually am, which is a weird feeling. I told her I didn’t want to know how much I weighed. So, she ended the appointment there.

Went to Paella Bar/Burrata Bistro for dinner. Shared their focaccia. It was nice and fluffy. I first ordered their penne alla puttanesca. I took a couple of bites and noticed it was way too spicy for me. They didn’t mention anything spicy in the description. I think I tried it before, but forgot about it. Back then I just painfully powered through. This time I stopped, and told them I couldn’t eat it and could I switch it for something else. I got their 4 cheese pasta. That was great! The leftovers will make a nice lunch. I got tiramisu for dessert. It had a stronger alcohol/coffee taste than others I’ve tried. It was very tasty.