Text 36615, 100 rader
Skriven 2010-04-09 05:13:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: outing 2 31
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At Casa Shipp, I had the pleasure of tasting Far Eastern Shore
Black Swan Rouge, a sweetish red made by friends of either
Bryan or Kathy, I forget whom. it's a light red with a distinct
aroma of blackberries, which some red grapes have. In this
case, it turns out that the natural aromas of the grapes
have been enhanced by the addition of blackberry juice, which
is cheating but not bad cheating. The wine was mild and
pleasant, perfect for quaffing out on the deck. I'd not see it
as standing up to a steak or anything, but it was pleasant in
the context - wine for people used to soft drinks but ready
to graduate to something slightly more adult). Also tasted:
Ocean Spray diet blueberry (contains 5% juice) - this, despite
its pronounced blueberry aroma, tasted somewhere between
Jell-O and Kool-Aid, with a finish of artificial sweetener.
To me, not a success.

We chatted about life and FIDO, and when we next looked up,
it was time for supper, so Dale and Gail introduced me to
their haunt, T-Bonz, back in I think Ellicott City, where
it was half-price burgers, $3 pint drafts, and half-price
potato skins, chicken wings, and onion rings night. One has
to work hard to get a clientele in the door on Monday and
Tuesday, but this place succeeds well. T-Bonz is partway
between bar and restaurant, but unlike many such, it seems
to be doing okay at both.

One of the $3 drafts is 33rd St, brewed for the house by I
believe Clipper City - it's a medium weight, medium color,
fairly lightly hopped ale with a distinct maltiness and some
syrup and citrus notes. Not bad for the price, but for my
second round I wanted something more challenging. I went for
a sampler - 4 x 4 oz tastes of anything on draft, $5.50,
pretty remarkable as a couple of the drafts are $6 to 8 for
a 12-oz pour. So the mathematician to my left pointed out
that if one wanted, say, the Belgian tripel, which lists at
67c an ounce, one could get a "sampler" of 4 x of the same
thing and get mighty buzzed at half price. I didn't want any
Belgian tripel and went for 4 interesting choices.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale is your standard American pale ale, with a
slightly bathroom nose, medium to thick body, good hops, and
a grape aroma. It sort of surprised me.

Otter Creek Quercus Vitis Humulus had a very strong banana
clove aroma, quite thick, very alcoholic, rather cloying I
thought - not what I expected at all.

Wells Bombardier ale was the lightweight of the family, at
about 4 1/2% alcohol: mild, malty, but with more hoppiness
than American brews of this sort (it's English).

Clipper City Big Dipper double IPA was an explosion of tropical
fruit, Bazooka gum, with moderately high hoppiness and an extra
thick body. As with many such brews, it was a bit sticky sweet.

Later I looked on the Internet and decided that the bartender
had poured me random choices: what was served as the Rogue
might have been the Rogue but might have been the Otter Creek.
What was represented as Otter Creek must have been the Belgian
tripel. The Wells was right. I don't know whether the Clipper
City was rightly identified or the Rogue or something else
altogether! So much for the educational value of the sampler.

Food: two orders of half-price Buffalo wings, spicy. These
came as two completely different kinds of wings, both pretty
decent. The one put in front of Dale was smallish brown wings;
the one put between Gail and me consisted of big juicy segments.
Both tasted pretty much the same, and a quite spunky Buffalo
sauce - vinegar red pepper sauce, a bit of margarine, and some
minced Jalapenos - helped them down. We all ordered burgers
with onion rings, theirs medium-rare, mine rare. They all came
medium, with Gail's being slightly less done than ours. The
meat was good, rather lean; not so tasty nor so fatty as Five
Guys, but you can't get a pink burger at Five Guys, and you can
here. 8 oz portion, originally a ball (hand-formed or machine,
I couldn't tell), mashed probably by hand and certainly to
order, even if by implement; fairly sturdy kaiser roll;
lettuce and green tomato slice obviously from a factory. The
rings were of the puffy batter variety but pretty good. The
cost was reasonable, the service good, the company terrific.
Good choice.

It was between times for the bus, but I looked at the schedule,
and during off hours, the Z6 leaves from 14000 Castle Blvd, just
2 miles south of Burtonsville, so Dale and Gail took me there.
We just missed the Z11 express, but it turns out that 14000 Castle
Blvd is a regular bus hive, with 55 daily departures for Silver
Spring, and the Z6 took off just 10 minutes later. A quick and
easy trip, good as I really had to pee, given the aftereffects of
all that beer and all that Lasix (which for me has irregular
effects - it's supposed to take effect quickly and LAst SIX hours;
for me, it takes effect somewhere between 3 and 10 hours after
ingestion and lasts some arbitrary length, usually about 2 hours -
right now, as I type, I am suffering the effects of a pill taken
9 hours ago). A quick transfer to the S2 (my eyeballs must have been
turning yellow), a sprint back to the apartment, and blest relief.

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