Text 31330, 74 rader
Skriven 2009-11-23 12:20:08 av Michael Loo (1:18/200)
     Kommentar till en text av Jim Weller
Ärende: not hot trends 411
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 ML> Use white turnips and parcook them first.
 JW> I used the disgusting yellow ones and was so discouraged I won't be
 JW> doing it again.

... they taste so good with butter ...

I've had some success mashing them, preferably cut with
potatoes or something. Deep fried didn't work, I recall.

 ML> My mother used to get Mrs. Paul's eggplant sticks for
 ML> a special treat; I think they're among the best of the
 ML> fried mystery crunchy genre
 JW> Eggplant I have not tried, but I might. I'll have to wait until
 JW> Roslind is out of town though.

Had deep-fried green beans last night, in a surprising setting.
Surprisingly good.

So after the concert, we all went to TGI Friday's, because
one of the singers has a husband who's the bev manager there.
It's illegal to comp booze in this state, so we got comped
food instead. Free food is good, even if it's TGI Friday's.

We were sitting around chewing the fat, and Curt came out
from the back - he'd just gotten off; plopped himself down
at the table and called for a bunch of appetizers. We hadn't
thought of soaking the company to that degree, but whatever.

Mozzarella sticks, "loaded" potato skins, and these green bean
fries. The sticks were really domino shapes, crumbed and fried,
served with a decent marinara. People went to town on these, as
though they were the best thing on the planet: I found them
rather bland and rubbery, as mozz tends to be. The skins had
cheddarish stuff melted on them and a sprinkling of bacon; though
they tasted better, they didn't go down so well, probably because
the shells were too thick. I expressed surprise at the third
choice, but the green beans turned out to be quite good (someone
said "you can't stop," which is surprising for green beans, and
someone else said "kids love them," which is even more surprising).
They're parcooked and then rolled in a rather salty panko-and-onion
breading and fried crisp. In fact, I had quite a handful of these,
as the cheesy stuff didn't appeal quite so well. After these, it
was pretty amazing that we had room for our main meals at all.

I got a flatiron steak rare, with onion rings and sweet potato
fries. It came medium-rare, which I deemed okay for free food.
8 oz, and it was all I could choke down after all those green
bean fries. The rings got passed around the table, and the
sweets ended up going home in a box. My friends Paula and Linda
(formerly inseparable, now separable) both got Dragonfire chicken,
which is a chicken boob soaked in "kung pao" sauce, served with
confetti rice and veg. Curt admitted that as it's Friday's version,
the kung pao sauce might be on the sweet side. It was. Also at
table: sausage and peppers over pasta; Jack Daniels bbq chicken
with a side of grilled shrimp; and plain chicken with plain
potatoes and plain broccoli. These things were reported to be good,
but the plain chicken had been sprinkled with some kind of
seasoning, which rendered it inedible to the orderer: he had it
sent back (he didn't want to send it back, but we all browbeat
him into it) in favor of real plain chicken, which came about the
time everyone else was finishing up. Surprisingly, some of us had
room for dessert: peanut-butter pie or the chocolate brownie a la
mode, which has some weird name. I split a chocolate thing with
Paula (actually, she had 80% of it). We spent a mere $30 on booze
and were comped $170 in food. Left a $45 tip, but $75 split 8 ways
for dinner sort of makes up for a lot of sins.

Verdict on the food: not bad at all, considering. It's portion-
controlled, previously frozen, and all that, but compared to other
chain places pretty respectable. One does bear in mind that this
is a pretty new and fancy outlet, and of course the bev manager
was sitting with us (not that he could do anything about the food).
--- Telegard/2/QWK v3.09.g2-sp4/mL
 * Origin: Get your COOKING QWK fix here! -- bbs.nsbbs.info (1:18/200)