Text 27560, 95 rader
Skriven 2015-05-29 11:16:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: fern park 745
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Annie called and worked things out with Mike and Jill,
so we did get to meet after all, this time at Bradley's
Fern Park out past Muncy. This is also a reincarnation;
last year the place burned down (refrigerator shorted
out), and the owners chose to rebuild in the same spot
in the same style with the same old hazardous parking
right by the highway. Sarah was with friends, so Mike's
friend Chip joined the party.

It looks like a partially gutted house - apparently
always had - with tables in what might have been the
living room and the dining room and the den. The smell
of new lumber overpowered that of food, which I took
as a bad sign.

We were seated in a corner in the front of the house,
where it was harder to get stuff to us; there was no
advantage to this, as the noise bounced around and to
our walls and was deafening at times.

Our meal was wholesome and abundant, nothing I'd go out
of my way for. The waitstaff was cheerful and friendly
but not altogether the most efficient I've ever seen.

The bargain was a 22 oz Yuengling draft for $3.50. As
it was my turn to pay, it should come as no surprise
that with my luck my Guinness was about twice as much
(prices for draft beer are not on the menu).

Chip, whose birthday it was, splurged on the crab cake
dinner, which he pronounced good, despite my now eagle
eye telling me that there was a lotta lotta filler in
those two 4-oz cakes.

Mike and Jill got burgers of one kind or another. I
saw Mike's rare one, and it was indeed rare.

Annie got the seafood combo - fried oysters, haddock,
shrimp. The proteins were decent but quite overwhelmed
by the thick, coarse breading.

The mains came with mountains of fries; the burgers
with little bags of chips. Mike and Jill each tried to
order an order of fries, to which I said that the
table was going to be awash in fries, and they should
just mooch off Chip and Annie. The waitress agreed.
The compromise - one extra order of fries. I believe
that everyone had three or four pieces, except me,
who passed, and there was more than one full order of
fries left over. And no dogs in any of the families,
so out they went.

I had two appetizers, bacon-wrapped scallops and
steamed mussels in garlic butter. Neither was bad per
se, but both were substantially flawed.

The scallops were constructs of off-cuts of scallop
held together with meat glue, so the grain was sort
of crazy quilt, which was strange; the nicely smoky
bacon was hugely salty. I amused myself by pulling
apart the bits and trying to see if different components
had different tastes or textures. Nah, none of them had
any taste to speak of, which condition one encounters
even in real unprocessed scallops these days.

The mussels, inconsistently cooked, were fresh enough
but insanely salty, to the point that I started to
hold each mussel up so the garlic butter would drain
off. I don't often waste fat, but I did so a few times
during this trip. I actually didn't drink any of the
garlic butter juice for the saltiness; similarly, I
left off some of the bacon from the scallops.

I was parched from the salt and ordered a pint of
Angry Orchard for dessert. It came 12 oz (charged at
12 oz, so no major foul).

I figure the burger people did best. Afterward at home,
Annie turned to me and said, was that uninspired or
what? I had to agree. In order of preference, the places
we ate at this visit -

Home!

Pier 87, assuming the fry cook continues to work there

Crippled Bear

Mulberry Cafe - I will not order braciole again, though

Fern Park - would not be enthusiastic about returning.

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