Text 11694, 88 rader
Skriven 2008-08-07 09:28:08 av Michael Loo (1:18/200.0)
Ärende: Cortese's 735
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Cortese's was our meal out - a good choice, as there was something
for everyone: pizza, sandwiches, big platters, American food,
Italian food, fried stuff. And the prices though slightly splurgy
if you got steaks or something were well in line with what you got.
Also, they could handle a crowd of 16 rowdy echo folks and family.

We followed Janis and Ron's car; as Burton is a bit of a literalist
at times, we followed it into the drive-up ATM near the restaurant.
This was just a few seconds' detour, and Jim got us back on track
in two shakes.

A word about Jim. He's the Magellan 760 that Burt and Shirley use.
He has a more mellifluous and less mechanical voice than the GPSes
that I've known before and is joined at times by his Greek chorus,
a female voice that we dubbed Joanie. They're a pretty crack team
but fall down on occasion; more than once I told Jim to shut his
piehole, oblivious to the fact that he doesn't have one. Burt
thinks he's great company on the road, though.

The restaurant is a one-story sort of 1950s building with three
sections, a left-side restaurant, a middle bar with booths and
stools, and on the right the place they put rowdies like us.
All done in a retro neighborhood hangout style.

our table
the Shipps
Carol and Charlotte Shenkenberger
Matt Kracht and Alana
Nancy Backus
me

the other table
the Fords
the Hafflys
the Krachts
Dave Drum
Georgia Applegate

Here's what I had, the first two my meal, the third what I
ordered for the table, the rest tastes off other plates.

BBQ shrimp New Orleans style - a huge disappointment. I know
what New Orleans BBQ shrimp are; had them at Pascal Manale,
where they were supposedly invented, as well as other places,
as well as having made them myself; the menu description here
said something about Dijon mustard, and I thought, okay, maybe
a little mustard might enliven the butter and garlic (and
Worcester sauce in the original). Noooo - mustard was the
dominant flavor, followed by tomato, followed by salt. This
bore no resemblance to BBQ shrimp New Orleans style. Maybe
they were aiming for a hot remoulade sauce. Bad idea. A pity:
the big shrimp were, though halved to look like more, fresh
and sweet, though a bit overcooked. C-. And the serving was
sort of small as well, even for an appetizer. Let's say D+.

A fried squid appetizer on the other hand was generous and
of a good standard, just a touch underdone for my taste, but
very tender. No surprises, lots of tentacles. B+.

Onion rings for the table - big, hand-cut, with a pleasantly
herbed breading. Fried nice and crisp (probably twice fried,
as the onions were very, very done inside). B.

Chicken piccata (Dale's) - lemony, yummy, no capers though. A
little soupy with wine sauce. The chicken wasn't pounded enough. B-.

Broiled scallops (Gail's) were good, no quibbles. About as good
as I'd guess it is possible to get in inland New York. A-.

Eggplant Parmesan (Nancy's side dish) - quite nice, a little
smellier cheesier than I make. B. I like eggplant. B+.

As there was no call for bottles of wine, those of us inclined
to indulge had a beer or two, which was fine for the highly
flavored food. We ordered Charlotte a Shirley Temple, which
she'd never had before. It came with numerous cherries. I took
one and, after describing how Carol Bryant used to tie the
stems with her tongue, demonstrated, getting it done in just a
few seconds, a record for me. Charlotte shortly came up with
a knotted stem of her own: on receiving a tiny raised eyebrow,
she cheerfully admitted that she'd actually cheated and used
her fingers.

On the whole a successful venture into the wilds of Binghamton.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Nocturnal State BBS (1:18/200)