Text 17167, 179 rader
Skriven 2007-06-25 15:57:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: 'ventures w/ Sacs 718
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I took the bus down to Springfield so I could see the Sacerdotes
for the weekend. Turns out the train would have been $10 less,
but the schedules weren't so favorable. I got to the ticket
counter in plenty of time so got to catch the one previous to
the one I'd planned on. The thing was half full. The driver was
a natty black guy with a New York white guy accent (think Bobby
Flay); he gave a long safety and courtesy spiel including the
suggestion that cell phone use be kept to a minimum, which it
was. The Mass Pike was completely chockablock from about Wayland
to nearly Springfield, and several times we came to a standstill
- when that happened, each time I woke up, thinking we were at
our destination. Still, we ended up merely 10 minutes late. In
a few minutes Dave arrived in the truck and we were on our way
to Enfield, where I looked forward to a weekend of doing virtually
nothing and going virtually nowhere.

There were a couple nice pound-plus chuck steaks from the Stop &
Shop green meat bin, which were grilled up without marinade or
any fancy treatment, just a sprinkle of salt and pepper. They
were not the tenderest things in the world of course, but they
tasted almost as good as prime rib for a small fraction of the
cost. To go with this, rice and spinach and various tastes that
I think I've already discussed. Chatted a bit, had a Cooper's
(modestly skunked), and went to bed.

=

Dave made biscuits for breakfast, which he sided with Jimmy Dean
pure pork sausage, which is sagey, not too fatty, and pretty
decent, though I got a large fragment of bone in one of mine.
Also eggs, which I turned down as gracefully as possible. The
biscuits were quite good, I thought maybe a minute underdone or
so; went well with the apple-cinnamon jelly that Lynnie had made.
That held us until an earlyish dinner, which took us to the Texas
Roadhouse. I know that Bernie's Dining Depot was on the list, but
the family had eaten there just a couple days before, and the
consensus (even I could not help agreeing) was that two-to-four
pound slabs of red meat were going to do none of us any good, and
we would have to make do with one-pound slabs.

The place was hopping, even though we got there before 5.

I picked out a nice sirloin from the case (you can either choose your
own or take the luck of the draw) - well marbled, with a vein of fat
and just a bit of gristle down the center. Dave complimented me on my
good choice but preferred to take his own chances, or perhaps he
hadn't decided yet what size steak to order.

When we were seated, the waitress told us that beers came as
16 or 22 oz; she lied; we both got smalls, which were too small;
Dave opined that they were "14s or even 12s," to which I agreed
with the smaller number; a simple look at the bottom of a mug
confirmed the smaller number. The beer selection was not special,
with a number of mass market things plus one local selection,
which I had never heard of and which the waitress thought was
the darkest thing available; so I ordered that. Dave prudently
ordered a Sam Adams. When my beer came out, it was as pale as
a Miller and tasted almost as wimpy. I was about to send it
back when Dave very kindly offered to switch with me. I think
that the restaurant benefited most from this gentlemanliness.

The usual peanuts, whose shells one is supposed to toss on the
floor (an enhancement to the atmosphere, you might say, at no
extra cost to the restaurant). When we arrived, the floor was
clean. When we left, the area right near us was littered with
shells, 90% courtesy of me. Lynne and Dave tossed a couple each;
Maryanne thought it beneath her dignity, so I bounced one off
her onto the floor just so she could sort of participate in the
ritual without really doing so.

The yeast rolls looked kind of squashed but tasted pretty much
the same as usual. We got seconds, which looked better.

Being in a silly mood, we perused the drink menu and found
the Texas Peachfuzz calling our name. We passed it around
the table, and eventually it was gone. It's peach schnapps,
maybe peach nectar, and some vodka, served with ice.

Maryanne had a small sirloin, medium-rare, with a salad I
think and some other side, very ladylike.

Dave ordered a 1-lb sirloin, rare, with chili and a baked
potato with sour cream (he originally misspoke and asked for
his steak with sour cream, which caused all to laugh at him,
including the waitress). 

I got the preselected 1-lb sirloin, rare as well, with double
chili, as what real man wants a salad with his slab of beef,
and the rice pilaf here is at best a D-, and I'm not a potato
boy. The first chili came out as an appetizer: it was slightly
spicier and quite a bit saltier than I remember. It was full of
beans (bad) and gristle (not bad). On top were some mild Cheddar
and a few dice of onion.After I hotted it up with a teaspoon of
red savina puree, which I'd brought along in anticipation, it
was decent.

When my steak came out, it was pretty nice, done properly,
tender, juicy, and beefy, a modest amount of salty seasoning
on the outside; but it was the wrong shape, and there was no
lovely vein of gristle in the middle. A pound of meat filled me up
nicely, and I was a little glad we hadn't gone to Bernie's, where
I would have felt obligated to consume perhaps twice as much meat.

Dave's piece of beef looked at least as good as mine, and I regretted
a little participating in the choose-your-own-steak charade.

I ordered a second beer, a large Sam; what came was about 15 oz
of Sam, about 3 oz of beer ice, and a bunch of foam in a 22 oz
glass. The waitress said that the keg had run out, so I was being
charged just for a small, which I guess was okay, but what beer
parlor in Massachusetts runs out of Sam Adams at like 5:30 in the
afternoon? Plus it was really too cold, as one can guess. Ah,
well, I paid only $3.49 for it.

I had the second cup of chili for dessert.

Lynn liked her chicken fried chicken, which she also got with
double chili.

The bill was by no means enormous.

On the way out I remarked to Dave that the meal was pretty good,
but I hadn't received the piece I had picked out. I described the
anatomy of this steak, whereupon Dave got this smile - turns out
he had been served my meal and I his, no great tragedy, as they
were both prepared the same way.

Big Lots is just down the street, so how could we resist?
Picked up a few things to try, including

Kikkoman Pearl soy milk in green tea and vanilla flavors -
the green tea was bitter and unpleasant, and Dave described
the color as "meconium" - one of the nastier drinks of the
century; the vanilla was less attractive than wnat's generally
available at the supermarket or Trader Joe's.

Wyler's Light kiwi-strawberry sugar-free instant beverage,
8 packets per container, each packet making 8 servings.
Dave got this because Wyler's has a decent reputation. Well,
this is not so bad as to ruin the reputation, but it was still
not nice - distinct artificial-sugar taste and pucker, the
flavor the very model of artificiality. The color was a
cloudy pink as if one took skim milk and diluted it with
pink lemonade.

Sunkist Fruit Smoothie Blitz (made with real fruit juice) -
these are your regular fruit chew things but processed in such
a way as to taste miraculously creamy. Plus they come in blue.
We all tasted the blue ones, which didn't comport with any other
blue food experience that we'd had before; I finally decided that
the flavor was artificial cherry vanilla. The other flavors were
strawberry and something else unidentifiable.

At the store I'd pointed out some cereal product to Lynn, which
she was very excited by: it's called Dead Man's Chest, made
by Kellogg's. The main draw is a picture of a leering Johnny Depp
on the box. I gave it a taste - it's like chocolate Corn Pops
mixed with "pirate-shaped marshmallows," which are like Lucky
Charms and in fact not at all pirate-shaped. Not overwhelming, but
Lynn says that she's going to put the box on her bedroom wall when
the cereal is gone as a tribute (not to the cereal but to Mr. Depp).

On the way out of the store, Lynn had picked up a bottle of red
soft drink, which she gave me a pull of - it was very sweet but had
a little acidy berry taste, which wasn't unpleasant, but about 1
second later I got this rush, and I guess a funny look on my face,
and she apologized, saying, I'm sorry, I forgot, this stuff is
loaded with caffeine: Vault Red Blitz, a Coca-Cola product.

I had the last Cooper's lager of the pack that Dave had bought
at Glen's intercontinental urging as a nightcap - the batch was
pretty variable, and the one I'd previously tasted was a bit
skunked; this one was simply not too fresh but wasn't offensive;
in future though I will confine my Cooper's imbibing to within
a day's travel of the brewery.

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