Text 11677, 98 rader
Skriven 2007-02-11 02:24:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: land o chains redux 43
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A return to Abuelo's (the return to the Dixie Cafe having
been treated in a previous message). Ella Lou took me and
her daughter and son-in-law here - it's somewhat different
from the last visit; it's gotten a bit more chainy but is
still pretty decent. One starts off with baskets of chips,
which are fresh, thin, and good; these are served with
good, spicy tomato salsa and (new to me) chile con queso,
bland Velveetoid cheese with some really quite nice quite
hot jalapenos cooked in. The soups of the day were tortilla
soup (a silly thing I think) and shrimp chowder (not very
Mexican). Kristen got a cup of tortilla soup, but she was
across the table and I didn't get a bite. Ella and I both
got cups of shrimp chowder (cups of soup are $1.50 with a
meal), and the stuff turned out to taste sort of like clam
chowder bit with shrimp and without potatoes: not unpleasant.
Barry made a bowl (about 4x the size of a cup) of chowder
his meal; Kristen had a grilled chicken salad. Ella, as she
was treating us, had the steak and enchiladas special - two
enchiladas, reheated from frozen, one a chicken in green
sauce, the other I think beef in chile con carne (it was
hard to tell), next to rice, beans, and a 12-oz top sirloin
cooked from frozen though not bad for that. I had the cheapest
of the specials at 5.99, a ground beef and bean burrito with
chile con carne on top - it was quite bland but filling; both
it and the rice were improved by the leftover salsa. As
Ella didn't eat her beans (too spicy), I took them, and I
found them almost inedibly bland, although cooked with ham.
Last time, the beans had been lovely and peppery. Ella had
a lime pie (not Key, but they didn't claim Key), which was
not bad. The very best part of the meal was the Dos Equis
dark: Barry and I each had two pints.

Between rehearsal and concert we took Bob Umiker to the
East Buffet north of Fayetteville. Apparently there are a
number of families that run buffets - the Lins, the Easts,
and the Pandas. Each has strong points. Lin serves fried
scallops (real) and fried oysters (real). I forget about
the Panda, which I have been to once (this distinguished
from the Panda up by Dale and Gail). East has the most
interesting selection.

What I had.

Steamed octopus with green pepper - unlike most places, East
guts the heads; of course here the things are bigger than the
standard baby octopodes: I could put one of these half in my
mouth and look sort of a character in a Johnny Depp movie. I
had about five of them.

Soy-scallion mussels - horrid - shriveled and stale.

Creamy mussels - horrid, because Japanese-style mayo broiled
on top of shellfish is intrinsically horrid; for some reason,
these were much fresher and nicer than the above.

Salt-pepper crab - I didn't bother, zooming in instead on
other things.

Steamed snow crab legs - okay. I didn't have any - Ella Lou did.

Salt-pepper shrimp (with heads) - I ate a lot of these. They
were really, really good. Even better than last time (I note
that a year ago we ate here under the same circumstances, and
I'd eaten a lot of these then).

Regular fried shrimp - okay.

Chicken wings - very salty; all second joints, no drummers.

Salt-pepper frog legs - less good than last time - sort of
dried out, so they tasted like chicken (no joke).

Beef with broccoli - there were pieces of gristly beef
pushed off to the side, so I took those. Yummy. The broccoli
wasn't bad, either.

Baked salmon - okay.

BBQ spareribs - that lurid red Chinese restaurant sauce, but
not quite as sweet as usual. Good ribs. I had two.

Star anise duck - decent; less good than last time. One
problem was they put other spices in too; another problem
was the duck was kind of overcooked. And finally, by the
time we got there the tray had been picked over, so all
that was left was bony and fatty bits.

Szechwan chicken - very nice, not sticky sweet and disgusting.
A lot of slices of jalapeno: I raided all the jalapenos from
the tray and had just a couple bits of chicken. Ate the peppers
with the ribs and the beef and broccoli.

My fortune told me to be satisfied with what I possess.
I guess I'm never going to be rich.

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