Monday, July 26, 2010

Lunch at Hershey Park

We were spending the day at Hershey Park, and had a catered lunch, thanks to Jonathan's company. Nothing fancy, just the standard fare of burgers, hot dogs, barbecued chicken, macaroni salad, fruit salad, and ice cream novelties. The burgers were okay, fruit salad was very fresh.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Cocoa Diner/Grill

We were spending a couple days at HersheyPark, and Jonathan's parents met us on the second day. We started the morning at a diner for breakfast. The Cocoa Diner/Grill (everything here has a chocolate-y name, LoL) was a nice little stand-alone that's open 24/7 except for Monday nights. We waited about ten minutes (maybe less), and had fairly prompt service, considering how busy they were. Breakfast was pretty standard in both pricing and quality, but that's about what is expected from any random diner. Jonathan and I would both recommend you NOT get the pancakes... they were pretty bad. Otherwise, everyone liked everything... eggs, toast, bacon, hashbrowns, etc.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Carlucci's Grill

By this point, you may remember me mentioning Carlucci's before (especially if you follow me on Twitter). It's a family in the area that owns and operates a bunch of different restaurants. Well, it was finally time to try out the one we probably saw first, all things considered.

The only downfall was that we had eaten a late (and rather large) lunch of ribs and potato salad, so we weren't super-hungry. The appetizers alone were very filling - complimentary bruschetta and some sort of focaccia cheese bread. Service was pretty prompt, and it was nice to hear an atypical birthday song being sung to other tables throughout the evening.

Jonathan's parents shared the Pizza Del Mare, which is the same thing I ordered. I thought it was different - a wood-fired pizza with shrimp, scallops, and calamari. It was pretty good fresh (not as delicious in reheatings), but I think it would have been much better with a white garlic sauce rather than marinara.

Jonathan, on the other hand, went traditional and chose the lasagna. He got the New England Clam Chowder to go with it, and really enjoyed the soup. He kept trying to make me taste it, but I don't care for the milk-based chowders most of the time. He also thought the lasagna was excellent, but it wasn't my style. You could hardly taste the noodle, which to him was a plus but to me is a negative factor.

I don't know that we'll be back. The menu was pretty large, but there were probably only two other things that sounded outstanding to me, and with the plethora of good Italian places around, this one didn't really stand out. It's biggest draw is probably its location, honestly.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Joy Tsin Lau

We were in Philadelphia for Independence Day. After the parade, we went to lunch in Chinatown. I was excited about a true Chinese meal (omg do I miss California Chinese!!), but got silly-nervous about the prospect of not having any English again. Jonathan picked out a place called Joy Tsin Lau that was doing a discount for the 4th (10% off with events calendar), and we went in for dim sum. We were seated after a short wait, and had delightful service throughout. Our waters were refilled twice (very important when it's near 100 degrees out!), and the carts came by at pretty good intervals. The food was fresh and hot (at least three out of five of our dishes were fresh-out-of-the-kitchen), and very good. We had pork dumplings, shrimp dumplings (but a different kind), bacon-wrapped shrimp, pork fried rice, and something that now escapes me. The cart-pushers knew the names of the meats in English, and that's all we really needed so that was fine.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Trenton Thunder Game

We went to the Trenton Thunder (the Thunder is the AA version of the Yankees) baseball game on July 3rd with a couple friends. We had dinner there, and can report fabulous things about the cheesesteak (but strange provolone-cheez-whiz) and the breaded chicken sandwich (not Chick-Fil-A quality, but good). We also tried the Stewart's root beer on tap (tasty!) and some Chickie & Pete's crab fries (not made of crab. regular fries with Old Bay seasoning).

Monday, July 5, 2010

New Plum Tree Garden & Lemonleaf Grill

Well, we finally found the Asian place near us that's really good. It took almost 11 months, but it's probably safe to say that any and all Chinese we get from here on out will be from New Plum Tree Garden in Langhorne. They also have a Thai menu, and it was pretty good too, but we already have a Thai place, hehe. (No website, but the menu is online.)

We called in an order for pickup, and it was ready when we got there, so that's a big plus. I ordered one of the chef's specialties, the Shrimp Amazing. It had really large shrimp and a variety of vegetables, cooked in a Peking sauce that was slightly spicy with a great flavor. It came with white rice, and the overall dish really lived up to its name! Jonathan went for the Thai side, and had Khao Pahd Supparot. It's a coconut & pineapple fried rice with chicken, peanuts, and fried onions. He thought it was kinda different, not overly strong in flavor, and very good.

For an appetizer we got two shrimp egg rolls, which were a tad over-wrapped (if that makes sense), but otherwise very good. The shrimp were plentiful and the overall flavors were balanced nicely. We also got the gang sarong, which were deep-fried shrimp wrapped in thin, crispy noodles. They were okay... not worth the price, but the sauce with which they were served was fantastic.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

FunPlex

I was with some kids at FunPlex in Mount Laurel, NJ, and we had lunch while we were there. I must tell you, the pizza wasn't very good. So, either get something else (I don't really know what else was offered), or eat before you go.