Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Avalon

Jonathan's aunt and uncle were in town for a few days since Jonathan and Dennis were riding in the Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge. We drove out to West Chester one night to have dinner with them and some of their friends.

Avalon is a little place in downtown, near the university. It's an Italian place that is BYOB and cash only, good things to know. However, the BYOB thing is kinda strange there; we were served complimentary (though average and skimpy on the fruit) sangria. After we ordered, bread arrived, soft and crusty and warm, but nothing spectacular. As a table we had a three-cheese platter for an appetizer. One was cheddar and another was aged, but I don't remember the specifics (and the list apparently changes, as the one on the online menu was not what we saw the other night). The portions were generous, considering that the six of us hardly finished the plate, LoL.

Three of us ordered the gnocchi. This took me by surprise when the plates came out, since I might have ordered something else had I known that, LoL. Still, it was good and cheesy, and just enough so that I could finish it without being super-stuffed. Jonathan had the lobster risotto. It was great, except it strangely had corn intermixed with it. The salmon with ratatouille was also ordered, and I believe it was gobbled down rather quickly, so it must have been good, too!

The important bit to remember about this place: it's cash-only.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Higgins Crab House

Since Maryland is known for seafood (especially crabs!), we stopped at Higgins Crab House, a family-owned place. There are actually two of them in Ocean City, and we stopped at the northern one. Since I don't like crab (I was actually hankering for a fried shrimp and clams combo of some sort), I ordered the grilled tuna sandwich, since it was the fish of the day. I was actually very impressed with how delicious it was, as grilled tuna isn't always the greatest (of course, we both prefer ours scarcely seared, LoL). The fries were pretty good there, too, but they were just so plentiful that neither of us finished them. Jonathan went with the crabcake sandwich and a cup of crab soup. He enjoyed both of them, noting that the soup was really different - it almost looked like pulled crab, if that makes sense? The tartar sauce which came with both meals seemed to be a house recipe of sorts, but was nothing special (though it did serve the entrees well).

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Where Pigs Fly

We spent the night in Dover on our way to Ocean City. Near our hotel was a place called, Where Pigs Fly, a barbecue joint that had great reviews. We found them to be pretty good. The free bread wasn't anything special, but it was hot and fresh, which was nice. I had the pulled pork sandwich with Memphis fries, and Jonathan went with the triple platter (pulled pork, ribs, chicken with fries and baked beans. The pulled pork was pretty good, but I wasn't the biggest fan of their barbecue sauce (it was kinda Tennessee-style, if you're familiar with that). The ribs were unbelievable, falling right off the bone! I didn't try the chicken, but Jonathan said that it was really juicy, which is sometimes hard to do with barbecue. The fries were AMAZING. We both really enjoyed them, and I asked the waitress about them. They're not even a secret recipe - they're out of a package, LoL!! The beans were beans.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Fu Wah

There were a few people at work who wanted to try and create a day of the week where a bunch of us ordered out lunch on a regular basis. However, it ended up only happening twice (organized, anyway). Both times we ordered from Fu Wah, and it was pretty decent.

The first time I had the garlic chicken with fried rice and an egg roll. The egg roll was HUGE, and pretty decent with some soy sauce. The garlic chicken was a tad bland, but pretty good and very lean. The fried rice was decent, with bits of pork and few vegetables. It had an interesting flavor overall, but there was a ton of it so I didn't come close to finishing it.

The second time I had the sweet and sour chicken (sauce on the side), again with the fried rice and egg roll. The egg roll was still good, but the rice was kinda "eh" that time. The chicken was overly plentiful, and I couldn't imagine eating it all! I would have had at least one other lunch from the leftovers, but since I was at work, I couldn't refrigerate the leftovers soon enough to make them worth saving.

I wouldn't order from them regularly, but they are decent and cheap, so if you're in Trenton/Ewing and looking for lunch, you might find them to work out if you have a craving for Chinese!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

KatManDu

Jonathan and I were going to a Trenton Thunder game with a bunch of people I work with, but beforehand we wanted to meet up with some he works with for a happy hour. The place is pretty much next door to the stadium, so it worked out really well. We parked in between the two, then walked back and forth.

I was kinda skeptical of KatManDu, because although we've seen it a dozen times, we've never been inside, and it doesn't look all that exciting from the front. However, it turned out to be a pretty cool place.

Cover was $5, and that includes a buffet, so nothing wrong there. The music was live, and pretty good. The sets could have been arranged better, but perhaps it was just that musician... who knows. The drinks were reasonably priced, but I was kinda iffy on the food since the price was so low. However, there was no need to worry!

I started with the mashed potato bar, where you have a choice of regular or sweet, and all kinds of toppings. I chose cheese, onions, bacon, and sour cream. It was dished out by a server, and served in a martini glass! The only downside: you can't get it all because of the shape of the glass.

The meats and sides station had the assumed crudites and fruit plate, but also had hot roast beef and a few other options. There was also a chili area. The dessert station featured deep-fried pretzels, and a chocolate fountain. For dippers, there were rice crispies treats, strawberries, marshmallows, oreos, and a few others.

There was also a nachos station, a stir-fry station, and a pasta bar. We didn't hit those, mainly because of the lines. If we had more time before the baseball game, we totally would have... well, I know I would have tried the pasta and Jonathan would've tried the stir-fry!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Nizza

Next it was time for dinner. We had no real idea what we wanted, so we just kinda wandered around, slightly out of the overcrowded-tourist-area to see if anything struck our fancies. We ended up at an Italian place called Nizza. We only waited about five minutes before we were seated, and the service was pretty good. The water was served by the bottle - even tap! Rob went with pizza, and had great things to say about it (I forget the toppings now). Jonathan chose spaghetti with sausage and meatballs - it was good, he'd recommend it. I went with the gnocci in four cheese sauce, and it was fabulous. It was portioned perfectly, although it was too hot to dig in as soon as it arrived on the table.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

La Villa

It was kinda funny, actually. We were talking about what to have for dinner (which, on Saturday night, means going through the leftovers in the fridge), and Jonathan suggests we supplement our leftovers with pizza. We weren't swimming in extra food, so I agreed.

We dug through the coupons and pulled out the pizza ones and Jonathan picked La Villa as the place we'd try. After checking out their online reviews and menu, we went with the Trenton Tomato Pie, and added pepperoni. The Trenton Tomato Pie features light mozzarella, chunky tomato sauce, garlic, and olive oil. The crust is suuuuper thin. As in, there's really no way to hold a slice without it being floppy, unless you fold it.

We were slightly skeptical at first, I won't lie. It smelled amazing and all, but it looked kinda average. However, we were not disappointed. The taste was very different... the olive oil/garlic/chunky sauce made for a more bruschetta-like topping, which went very well with the lighter cheese and our added pepperoni.

Our only suggestion: eat it there. By the time we got ours home (probably 15 minutes), it was getting cold and needed to be microwaved. Actually, the place looked pretty nice and with a large menu and good location (right off US1), we might go back to dine-in anyway.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Giggleberry Fair

I was with some kids at Giggleberry Fair for the day. They ran around and played and we had a good time, but I wanted to be sure to brag about their pizza. Not the greatest in the world, but suited the group just fine for lunch. Much better than some other entertainment center pizzas!