Sukahoti

When: April 2011

Where: Main St, Manchester, CT

This was the appetizer "Katong Thong".... I've had it before and it's delish! Little philo dough cups of sweet potato, carrots, peas, ground chicken,bell peppers, curry powder. And this little cucumber relish was sweet and devine! Carrots, cucumber...rice vinegar. Wonderful....

Tempura Fish...with a salad. VERY tasty.

Lee had his usual sweet and sour chicken.

And the rice pudding was soooo sweet and refreshing!

Corey's Catsup & Mustard Birthday lunch

When: Mar 1, 2011

Where: Corey's Catsup & Mustard, Main St, Manchester, CT

My Aunt Norma and I took my mom, Muriel out to lunch at Corey's Catsup & Mustard's for her 83rd birthday, which is a favorite of mine AND my mom's.... I always try to order something different from the last time I'd come, so this time I tried Chicken Winter Blues, a spinach salad with Grilled chicken (soooo flavorful!), blue cheese (never thought I'd like that!!), crasins and a delicious dressing (nice and light). The moment you put it in your mouth, it went...aahhwwhh (that's the English word for 'heaven'!!).

And you can't go there unless you try the sweet potato fries with maple mayo. I've tried to make the maple mayo at home ( it can be done), but there is something they must add that puts 'specks' in it, and I haven't figured that one out yet. Maybe some day I'll ask them. Wonder if they'd give it to me....?

Just yum!!!

2nd Trip: Mar 11, 2011

With: Daughter Julie (her first time)

On the menu:

Horsey, Horsey, Roast Beef sandwich (mine), roast beef with horseradish sauce on grilled sourdough. Yum! Actually, from this photo on, it was what we brought home for leftovers.

and her's was Blackened Chicken Quesadilla's (appetizer although she planned on taking some home for dinner). She got four sections, but we split two of them there.

and The Man Burger, a great big burger with a great cut of beef, fried egg, pastrami, cheese, bacon... (the catsup got messy- her addition). doesn't this look like a real heart attack about to happen??

You also can't have a burger without the fries (they serve them with dipping sauces- blue cheese dressing,honey mustard, and spicy-kind of a smokey flavor-catsup).

Four Leaf Clover Restaurant

When: Mar 4th 2011

Where: Route 5, Bernardston, MA

Our impression: Lee & I went to this restaurant as a 'day trip'. He had the day off, I was on layoff (seasonal) so off we went for lunch. It's almost into VT, so it would take us a couple of hours to get there. The last time we went here was for a car cruise (probably 10 yrs ago).

We got there before the lunch crowd (11:30am), but it was nice to see it was the typical booths with the 'juke box'...and it worked!

We sat in the half that had the counter and booths, but they did have another section that were just tables.

Lee ordered a sirloin burger that looked delicious (he had them add sauteed onions and peppers), coleslaw and Fries (which were cut from the potato, skin and all- delicious!!).

My dinner was a Hot Turkey Sandwich (Lee & I both, had a salad, too) and while the bread wasn't as toasted as I expected, it was delicious! And they served LOTS of turkey under that piece of bread.

Lee ordered a Bread pudding (doesn't this look HUGE and scrumptious??)....

And I ordered a homemade blueberry pie. They had made it that morning and the first bite was ...HEAVEN! The crispy flavor of cinnamon and flakiness. Unfortunately, the more I ate it the more I realized they put an awful lot of granulated sugar, which didn't dissolve, so it was a little gritty. But delicious crust and blueberries!

Brown Sugar Catering, Manchester, CT

I recently went to a catered affair at our church and the meal was really not bad at all. I might have changed a few things, like a crispier salad, but the flavors were there. Let me give you a tour of the menu...

First course, family style salad. Little limp, but nice color and flavor.

Delicious chicken....

 Roasted potatoes.... not sure how they found paotatoes so small.

 Widl Rice (didn't have any, so can't tell you how it was). Well, I couldn't be a pig and have BOTH potatoes and rice, could I?

Green beans in butter sauce (these were great! I went back for more)

 Nice dinner... It was catered by Brown Sugar Catering

 The dessert was a light stewed apple (or was it pear?) with raisins, cinnamon sauce wht a dollop of ice cream. Yum!!

Adam's Mill's Sunday Brunch

Every year, our company takes us to a Sunday brunch at a local restaurant. Instead of a Christmas party.

I love it because,

1. It's free

2. It's only 1.2 miles from my house

3. It's delicious!!!

I should have taken more photos, but I was hungry and it was 'gettin' cold', so I only took a couple. This was my omelet, with broccoli, onions, mushrooms, cheese which was nicely paired with crisp bacon, and stuffed salmon (superb!).

I went up for seconds, but I had a salad, shrimp cocktail, a little pork medallion, and home fries (of which are in this top photo. They were great!

But, of course, you can't NOT HAVE dessert! I was good, I only had this one with the fixings on top, then went back for a second one, with just a 'splop' of whipped cream and a 'drizzle' of fudge.

Now, I can die.

CW's- Chops and Catch

CWs, Chops & Catch Restaurant  *****

                                         Rating system... 2 out of 5 forks...

Where: Hartford Road, Manchester, CT
When: Jan 2011- within a month of opening...

Now, I must admit I didn't remember to bring my camera, so this photo is one taken of my leftovers when I got home. Nulli's Style Baked Haddock with Crabmeat stuffing.

We decided to check out this place, since it was

1. around the corner from our house (maybe a mile or so- very long walk)

2. and we love the owner's other restaurants, Corey's Catsup & Mustard, and Pastrami on Wry (last name of the owner).

The first impression was nice, although it's hard to not see pieces of the last restaurant that was there. The decor was ocean blue and soft browns. Nice placemats (kind of a open-weave, woods-y look to it), however the tables are really too small to have nice heavy silverware and large plates (mine came on a rectangle plate that I almost had to place cock-eyed on my 'space'. But, ... I'm getting ahead of myself.

Staff was very friendly... thanks, Dominique. You were soooo attentive, along with a woman, whom I'm assuming was upper management. Prices were more than I was expecting, but probably not out of bounds for 'fine dining'... anywhere from 17.00-29.00 per entree. Dinners come with one 'side', but I notice that the sides were $3.50 each or three for $10.

My tea was served in a VERY wide mouthed cup... so much so that the tea cooled off VERY quickly ( after three sips) and I kept having to ask for more hot water - that was irritating for me, so I only asked for one refill. I like HOT tea.

House Salad was a very 'fluffy' bowl of greens....baby spinach, chicory, escarole... And the lightest dressing I could have ordered was oil & vinegar or a 'creamy' (not very light in my book) balsamic (and I love balsamic dressing, just not anything creamy). With this day of people trying to eat on the light side, you would have thought they'd offer more vinegarette dressings than -creamy. I opted out for lemon wedges. As disappointed as I was in the salad 'greens', I wish I'd known that there was a (1) slice of tomato, one (1!) slice of cucumber and some shredded cheese at the bottom of the bowl! I noticed it after I'd eaten more than half of it. (btw, if you want to know why a restaurant can charge a lot for a salad, have the chef serve the thin tomato slice with no skin on it.- people will pay more for that tomato (?)--not me). I like my salads to look colorful, not 'fluffy'. Much more appealing AND looks like you took time to make it look nice.

It seemed like a long wait for our food, but when it came, it looked delicious!! I had a Baked Haddock with Crabmeat stuffing and penne pasta, with lemon butter sauce and grated parmesan. Unfortunately, the pasta wasn't all that hot...kinda warm. Almost cool... Sorry, but I like my food hot or very warm when I get it. My husband had Kansas City steak and loaded baked potato (hmm...maybe that's where they went to get the dinner). It was 'okay', but for $24, it should have been wonderful or even exciting!)

No room for dessert, but I figured I'd spent more than I wanted to already.... Not planning to go back anytime soon. Sorry, Corey, ... this one wasn't for us.

ps.... while talking to a fellow parishioner at church, they said they had a awful time there, too.... Hey, Corey, pay attention, please. We LOVE Catsup & Mustard and Patrami on Wrye... We've converted from Shady Glen people.

Zips Diner- Dayville, CT

This is part of why we'll come back....but only partly.

Zips Diner in Dayville was just a 'winging it' kind-of-day... We felt like hitting a diner on a Sunday brunch mode. We looked up diners on the internet and this one spoke highly of their breakfasts, and their coconut cream and banana cream pies. My personal favorites.

 It's a perfect redition of the old steel hulled diners, and it was pretty packed for a Sunday - late morning. We almost missed this sign below, because we were looking for the 'diner'. I know, I know... it really is hard to miss the sign.

It was fun to see the old cars that came into the parking lot....This guy was only one of a few out for a drive. Nice day for it, too.

Walk inside and it takes you back in time....the stools, the chrome... beautiful. 

 And then there was the food!!!!..... Oh, yeah.....Hubby decided on the breakfast, ala traditional. Eggs homefries and hash. The hash was in addition to the breakfast choice, but sooooo worth it.

 

I opted for the club sandwich. It was very good, but aren't they all? I truly couldn't wait for the dessert!!!! 

The photo's a little fuzzy, so I think we have to go back for another photo opp. It was sooooo good. No, really. Good, with a capitol G. I almost didn't want to eat all of it, so I could bring some home in the doggie bag that I'd started with the club sandwich (great lunch for work tomorrow).

Could I leave it? ....Nope. gone.

I did end up with a nice lunch for work the next day. 

 I'm giving you a sneak peak at the bathroom....dilema? check out my bthroom blog to see the interesting critique on this one... http://www.tripstothejohn.blogspot.com/

 The fun part about hitting the bathroom was on the way out and back into the diner was, that you had to go through the 'dining car' entrance and 'lo and behold, there was an old fashioned phone booth! Wished it worked. I would have spent money to make a call. 

Oh well, ... we'll have to come back to try something else out.