First a couple of comments on your comments – from techie-talented people who could figure out this Google blog. Sandy, I said I threw out the onion soup crocks? Dang. Since The Man Who Taught You Your Work Ethic apparently likes my onion soup, I may have to search out new crocks, once I’ve got cupboards to put them in.
And an Oops! on my part: Mike, who is in charge of making my kitchen the coolest in Brookfield, actually spells his last name “Wahlen”. So when you see my fab kitchen and decide to have him fix up yours, look for that spelling in the phone book. Or just look for Cabinet Werks.
Today both Mike’s carpenter and the electrician are banging around in my house. Early this morning The Engineer Who Drew The Electrical Plans And Likes To Kibbitz and the electrician were perched on two ladders, consulting in the future Best Kitchen In Brookfield, when I mentioned that the fan in my bathroom doesn’t work today, but the lights coming from the same switch do work. There was this moment of silence. Then The Eloquent Engineer said, “The same switchplate, not the same switch.”
Good grief. Get a life.
Maybe construction people could manage to get a life if they didn’t start it so blessed early in the morning. If I actually have a best time, it’s not morning. After The Man Who May Never Retire leaves at about 7:15, I like to have a leisurely cup of Starbuck’s sumatra while perusing the New York Times, and then take a second cup with me as I tour my gardens. After that I can almost face the day’s phone calls and meetings.
One of the major inconveniences of remodeling: strange guys in the house before 9 AM. (I’m too old to actually enjoy this.) This is probably even worse than the lack of a garbage disposal and adequate electrical circuits.
I think I’ll go for a very long walk. And remember a lovely dinner at Louise’s Trattoria. I have to confess we did kind of pass over George Webb’s in favor of Louise’s. I promise to have a meal at Milwaukee’s finest all-night breakfast establishment (that would be George Webb’s, for you out-of-towners), but after the Melting Pot, I needed a fix of Good Food.
If there is a nicer place with better food on all of Bluemound than Louise’s, I haven’t been there yet. The decor is stunning, with blond woodwork and cool European light fixtures, or as the Man Who Often Exclaims About The Light Fixtures In Public Buildings explained, “cable system lighting with MR16 lamps”. Ooh! Don’t you just LOVE that techie talk? The bar area is mighty cool too. For the couple who asked me to be on the lookout for neat bars, this one would be hard to beat. Very attractive, with a conveniently located TV on which to watch your favorite Brewer’s game, and a lovely bartender to distract you from your team’s occasional meltdowns.
We each ordered wine, even The Connoisseur Of Diet Pepsi. My sangiovese (when in Rome,...) had decent tannins and a pretty long finish for $6.75 a glass. The Man Who, If He Drinks Wine, Drinks Chardonnay, had a Kendall Jackson ($8). The wine is served with Louise’s delicious chunks of bread rubbed with spices and oils, though for my taste their dipping oil is too sweet and has too much vinegar. But the bread is so good, who needs to dip it? Our waiter was charming and helpful (not to mention handsome – but of course that makes no difference in how I judge an establishment). My, isn’t this evening off to a good start?
The menu at Louise’s also gives me goosebumps – I just want to take it home and browse through it while soaking in a hot tub. I finally settled on the Tortelloni Vegetali with spinach and a parmesan sauce ($10.95). It was rich and delicious and.... what else can I say? The Man Who Has No Indecision Problems In Italian Restaurants ordered the meat lasagna ($13.95), which he was pleased to point out was just what he expected. That is, it was just like home and his wife’s lasagna – though I haven’t told him that he doesn’t get homemade pasta from my kitchen.
A final note: it’s suddenly turned to fall in Wisconsin, so our al fresco evenings may be over. But if they are not, Louise’s is the nicest al fresco location on Bluemound, which perhaps isn’t saying much. The restaurant’s location is high above and pretty far from the road noise, and its outdoor tables are screened from the traffic by a dense hedge.
Kitchenless in Brookfield
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Melting Pot, plus More Dumpster
I hear that putting comments on this blog is very difficult – that Google doesn’t recognize the passwords you’ve created, etc. How annoying. I’m sorry. It’s so much fun to read each other’s responses. Let’s hope Google gets their act together... Meanwhile, if you can’t figure this out, you can send your witty(or not) responses to my personal email if you want, and I’ll address your comments either there or on here.
So this weekend The Electrical Engineer Who Shares This House With Me got to play with the electrical work for the new kitchen. He was practically drooling over being able to see inside the walls: all those delicious-looking cables and wires and switches and stuff. He was up on a ladder peering into the attic when I asked how it was going. His reply, verbatim, was, “Still got some circuit 17 things to disconnect to figure out where the hell they go.” He has a degree in this stuff. I’m sure he actually knows what he’s doing. But I find that kind of ambiguity a bit disconcerting.
I spent the weekend trying to fill the dumpster from the storage dump that is our basement. The old cookie tins and wooden hangers and bent candles were easy decisions. But the 33 rpm record albums from the 60's were more agonizing ones. Peter, Paul and Mary and Harry Belafonte and, would you believe, Nancy Sinatra. I actually had an album by Nancy Sinatra. The Man Whose Taste Runs To Beethoven convinced me that no one would have the equipment to play these relics anymore. So, with much angst, I pitched 37 of these gems into the dumpster. If you tell me that today they are worth hundreds of dollars, I’ll just have to shoot myself. Or get a ladder and climb into the dumpster...
We showered before we headed off to the next restaurant on Bluemound, a Thai place that turned out not to be open on Sunday. Next was the Melting Pot, so I’ll write a few words about that establishment. We had eaten there a couple of weeks ago, and The Man’s wallet would not, ungrudgingly, open again for fondue. He and I can well remember when fondue pots became all the rage. Probably this was in the Peter, Paul and Mary, mini-skirt- and- lime-green- patent-leather- boots stage, when I wore my hair teased up into a ski slope. Though the music was great (in my opinion), neither the fashions of that era, nor the fondue, need to be revived.
The tiny, expensive menu of the Melting Pot is what first stuck us. Mostly there are meals for 2 people, which require that 1) you are dating and trying to impress each other with how similar your tastes are, or 2) you are twins. The man who describes some foods as Funky (like broccoli or cilantro) and I do not share all food tastes. Besides, the meals for 2 are $54- $86. Rather pricey for a blue jeans kind of chain restaurant. The remainder of the menu consists of cheese fondues and a few entre items, of which only two would appeal to The Red Meat Man.
Then there’s the ambiance. It’s dark. Is this meant to attract lovers? People who don’t wish to shampoo their hair that day? And the tables are high, with low bench seats in the booths. Not ideal for families with children, which most of the customers seemed to be.
We settled for a simple cheese fondue, as it said this came with vegetables to dip. Well, darned few of them. So a pot of melted cheesey stuff (and not very cheesey tasting at that) with a few carrots cost $7 per person, plus $9 each for a glass of wine (my rioja tempranillo was very good, by the way) and $5 each for an unexciting caesar salad. We won’t be back.
Kitchenless in Brookfield
So this weekend The Electrical Engineer Who Shares This House With Me got to play with the electrical work for the new kitchen. He was practically drooling over being able to see inside the walls: all those delicious-looking cables and wires and switches and stuff. He was up on a ladder peering into the attic when I asked how it was going. His reply, verbatim, was, “Still got some circuit 17 things to disconnect to figure out where the hell they go.” He has a degree in this stuff. I’m sure he actually knows what he’s doing. But I find that kind of ambiguity a bit disconcerting.
I spent the weekend trying to fill the dumpster from the storage dump that is our basement. The old cookie tins and wooden hangers and bent candles were easy decisions. But the 33 rpm record albums from the 60's were more agonizing ones. Peter, Paul and Mary and Harry Belafonte and, would you believe, Nancy Sinatra. I actually had an album by Nancy Sinatra. The Man Whose Taste Runs To Beethoven convinced me that no one would have the equipment to play these relics anymore. So, with much angst, I pitched 37 of these gems into the dumpster. If you tell me that today they are worth hundreds of dollars, I’ll just have to shoot myself. Or get a ladder and climb into the dumpster...
We showered before we headed off to the next restaurant on Bluemound, a Thai place that turned out not to be open on Sunday. Next was the Melting Pot, so I’ll write a few words about that establishment. We had eaten there a couple of weeks ago, and The Man’s wallet would not, ungrudgingly, open again for fondue. He and I can well remember when fondue pots became all the rage. Probably this was in the Peter, Paul and Mary, mini-skirt- and- lime-green- patent-leather- boots stage, when I wore my hair teased up into a ski slope. Though the music was great (in my opinion), neither the fashions of that era, nor the fondue, need to be revived.
The tiny, expensive menu of the Melting Pot is what first stuck us. Mostly there are meals for 2 people, which require that 1) you are dating and trying to impress each other with how similar your tastes are, or 2) you are twins. The man who describes some foods as Funky (like broccoli or cilantro) and I do not share all food tastes. Besides, the meals for 2 are $54- $86. Rather pricey for a blue jeans kind of chain restaurant. The remainder of the menu consists of cheese fondues and a few entre items, of which only two would appeal to The Red Meat Man.
Then there’s the ambiance. It’s dark. Is this meant to attract lovers? People who don’t wish to shampoo their hair that day? And the tables are high, with low bench seats in the booths. Not ideal for families with children, which most of the customers seemed to be.
We settled for a simple cheese fondue, as it said this came with vegetables to dip. Well, darned few of them. So a pot of melted cheesey stuff (and not very cheesey tasting at that) with a few carrots cost $7 per person, plus $9 each for a glass of wine (my rioja tempranillo was very good, by the way) and $5 each for an unexciting caesar salad. We won’t be back.
Kitchenless in Brookfield
Sunday, September 9, 2007
APPLEBEE'S
I’ve discovered that electricity is a major issue when kitchenless. This is the first weekend we’ve suffered with no kitchen. Okay, “suffered” is strong. But I sure made a mess of making coffee. I do not share coffee tastes with The Man Who Can Drink Caffeine At Any Hour But Likes Weak Coffee. Thus I brew decaf expresso for me and brown water with a shot of caffeine for The Man. But both coffee pots now take turns plugging into one extension cord. So I moved the expresso machine across the room to the bay windowsill near another outlet. In the move, I must have wiggled the little pot into which it brews. Then I walked away to create the rest of our breakfast. By the time I looked back, there was coffee spewing in all directions, on the windows, the carpet and puddles on the wood surface of the bay windowsill.
The rest of breakfast was waffles and bacon. Not exactly served together however. I cooked the bacon, as I usually do, in the microwave. The frozen, whole wheat, cinnamon waffles said you should make in a toaster oven. The problem: my $29 microwave and my borrowed toaster oven and the refrigerator are now all on the same circuit in the sunroom. You can see where this is going... The refrigerator turned on while heating the waffles and bacon and – blooey! No power. We had a very gracious breakfast of separate courses: first bacon, ten minutes later, waffles. After I found the jar of maple syrup in a box behind the bar in the rec room. And after cleaning up the coffee disaster. Next weekend – Panera’s.
But I know that what you really came to read is the restaurant review. At about 8 PM last night, we went to Applebee’s for dinner. Again we were about the only people over forty eating out at that hour. Kinda fun to be out with the hip and trendy crowd every night.
I applied the lesson I learned at Pano’s Char House: when everyone else is drinking beer, do not order wine. I ordered a huge, 16 oz bottle of Hacker Pschorr. Weiss beer with a lemon – yum. Applebee’s giant menu shows drool-enhancing pictures to tempt you to order luscious, gooey stuff, like mashed potatoes smothered in bacon and mountains of cheese. The Beef Eater Man went back true to form and ordered a bacon cheeseburger ($6.99), preceded by a bowl of onion soup. Mr. Gourmet Man declared the burger was “even better than McDonald’s” – high praise indeed. It had a charcoal grilled taste, plenty of cheese and a crisp bun. His onion soup was also good, though he affirmed it was not as good as my homemade onion soup. (The Man is not stupid.)
After much agony of indecision, I ordered the Cajun lime tilapia ($8.99) and a side caesar salad. I like fish and seldom cook it at home, to avoid gagging noises from The Man Who Is Seafood Adverse. Well... What did I think “Cajun” meant? Wow! The fish was cooked to perfection (I think), but the spices rubbed on all surfaces rendered it about 500 degrees beyond my palette. I tried to scrape them off. I nibbled in the middle. I thanked the gods of malt and hops for 16 oz of cold beer. I nibbled a bite of fish, slugged down some beer, and quickly ate some of the delicious vegetables that came with the fish. I ate all the vegetables. And all the beer. I downed my caesar salad, even though it was swimming in dressing and had dry croutons, but at least the romaine lettuce was cool.
Bathroom review: close to disgusting at this busy time. The large, under-counter waste container had run over, so women were throwing their paper towels in a heap in a corner. To Applebee’s credit, when I told our waitress of the problem, someone went in quickly to clean it up.
My opinion on this issue: women wash their hands. Busy places should assign someone to empty the waste container OFTEN. A messy bathroom turns me off of the entire establishment.
With clean bathrooms, though
Kitchenless in Brookfield
The rest of breakfast was waffles and bacon. Not exactly served together however. I cooked the bacon, as I usually do, in the microwave. The frozen, whole wheat, cinnamon waffles said you should make in a toaster oven. The problem: my $29 microwave and my borrowed toaster oven and the refrigerator are now all on the same circuit in the sunroom. You can see where this is going... The refrigerator turned on while heating the waffles and bacon and – blooey! No power. We had a very gracious breakfast of separate courses: first bacon, ten minutes later, waffles. After I found the jar of maple syrup in a box behind the bar in the rec room. And after cleaning up the coffee disaster. Next weekend – Panera’s.
But I know that what you really came to read is the restaurant review. At about 8 PM last night, we went to Applebee’s for dinner. Again we were about the only people over forty eating out at that hour. Kinda fun to be out with the hip and trendy crowd every night.
I applied the lesson I learned at Pano’s Char House: when everyone else is drinking beer, do not order wine. I ordered a huge, 16 oz bottle of Hacker Pschorr. Weiss beer with a lemon – yum. Applebee’s giant menu shows drool-enhancing pictures to tempt you to order luscious, gooey stuff, like mashed potatoes smothered in bacon and mountains of cheese. The Beef Eater Man went back true to form and ordered a bacon cheeseburger ($6.99), preceded by a bowl of onion soup. Mr. Gourmet Man declared the burger was “even better than McDonald’s” – high praise indeed. It had a charcoal grilled taste, plenty of cheese and a crisp bun. His onion soup was also good, though he affirmed it was not as good as my homemade onion soup. (The Man is not stupid.)
After much agony of indecision, I ordered the Cajun lime tilapia ($8.99) and a side caesar salad. I like fish and seldom cook it at home, to avoid gagging noises from The Man Who Is Seafood Adverse. Well... What did I think “Cajun” meant? Wow! The fish was cooked to perfection (I think), but the spices rubbed on all surfaces rendered it about 500 degrees beyond my palette. I tried to scrape them off. I nibbled in the middle. I thanked the gods of malt and hops for 16 oz of cold beer. I nibbled a bite of fish, slugged down some beer, and quickly ate some of the delicious vegetables that came with the fish. I ate all the vegetables. And all the beer. I downed my caesar salad, even though it was swimming in dressing and had dry croutons, but at least the romaine lettuce was cool.
Bathroom review: close to disgusting at this busy time. The large, under-counter waste container had run over, so women were throwing their paper towels in a heap in a corner. To Applebee’s credit, when I told our waitress of the problem, someone went in quickly to clean it up.
My opinion on this issue: women wash their hands. Busy places should assign someone to empty the waste container OFTEN. A messy bathroom turns me off of the entire establishment.
With clean bathrooms, though
Kitchenless in Brookfield
Saturday, September 8, 2007
YOKOSO RESTAURANT
Japanese food and German wine. Our parents, aunts and uncles are turning over in their graves. Well, actually, our families came from Germany (long before The Great War), so they’d probably forgive the wine. And we hosted an exchange student from Japan and have travelled there, so we, well, no – one of us, actually likes the food.
The Friends Who Requested That We Check The Al Fresco Dining On Bluemound met us at Yokoso Restaurant last night. Yokoso is tucked in the back of a shopping center, closer to the freeway than Bluemound Rd. Thus its al fresco dining, located in a small, treed area on the south side of the building, is not negatively affected by the roar of Bluemound, and it is almost distant enough from the freeway that it, like a child of the 50's, can be seen and not heard – much. But al fresco in Wisconsin is such an iffy proposition: either the umbrellas are weighted down with snow and ice and it’s 3 degrees, or it’s raining, or it’s hot, or it’s disgustingly humid, or, like last night when none of these other factors were an issue, the mosquitoes could carry a good-sized German-American across the freeway into New Berlin. We ate inside.
Looking around as we entered, it felt like we were not in Kansas anymore, nor even the Town of Brookfield. So urbane and sophisticated is Yokoso. And the customers must come from San Francisco and New York City. They are young and pretty and thin, with beautiful skin, and dressed in that casual, but intentional look of people who like themselves and have interesting ideas to talk about. Whew! It feels good just to be one of them. Our table in the SW corner of the seating area was pretty noisy, but getting any table on Bluemound Road is lucky on a Friday night.
I must digress to the kitchen demolition here. I spent the whole day tucked back in my office while the US was waging WWIII against Mexico in the other part of the house. Bombs were screeching across the sky, smashing into concrete bunkers, Hispanic soldiers in tanks were driving across metal bridges, jackhammers were upending convoys, all to the rhythm of mariachi music. Was it noisy! And then it became cold. And colder. The workers had a door open through which to cart out the bodies of appliances and cabinets. Meanwhile the air conditioner chugged constantly to chill outside Brookfield. The war was in a sealed-in area which contained the thermostat. I could not get to it. Nor could I get out. I had planned to finally file everything neatly in my office. Instead I cruised the internet, munching a bag of granola, sipping water from the bathroom, with occasional forays into bed to warm up.
Which is to explain why I spent quite a lot of time on Yokoso’s website (www.yokosorestaurant.com) to study their menu and wine list. After all, I am a restaurant critic. I must do my research. They had a Duck Pond pinot gris that I researched. Duck Pond is good stuff in red wine, but I figured we’d have white wine with the very seafoody Japanese menu. Just in case we wanted a glass of red, I researched the Budini Malbec on Yokoso’s wine list. Malbec is a favorite wine of Our Daughter Who Travels A Lot.
Back at the restaurant that evening, I told the waitress I’d like to try the Duck Pond pinot gris. “Sorry,” she said. “We no longer carry that.” Our Friends Who Are From San Francisco And Know Wine Better Than Anyone We Know hoped to order the gewurtztraminer that was on the website, but it was not available in the restaurant. The Budini malbec was also not available. As a third choice, they said the Bex reisling ($30) would go well with the fish. And they were right. It was light, a bit sweet, but with enough acid to be an interesting accompaniment. We enjoyed the snack of steamed, salted edamame ($4) while studying the lengthy menu.
(I hope you haven’t fallen asleep yet, before you get to the food course.)
Our Friends Who Had Been Here Often ordered a variety of sushi and sashimi ($2.25-$2.50 each) and a Brian roll ($13), which they had discovered other patrons enjoying in the past. I am hesitant to order raw fish so far from the ocean, so I ordered smoked salmon rolls ($5.50) and a sliced crab-stuffed roll called the Spider Man ($10). Our Yokoso-Experienced Friends were right again. The sushi and sashimi were the best. Delicious, fresh, fresh, fresh yellowfin tuna and maguro tuna and flounder and salmon. The Man Who Accompanied Me To Japan And Made It Home Without Starving To Death Of Funky Food Disease ordered Udon noodles stir fried with vegetables and beef ($13) as his entre and was perfectly happy with his meal.
Desserts are not worth the calories they're made of. We split two mochi balls ($1.95 each), which are nothing but a scoop of sherbet wrapped in rice paper. The ladies room is beautifully decorated with granite and one of those bowl-type sinks, though it did show the signs of a busy evening (full wastebasket, t.p. on the floor).
After our meal, we quizzed our waitress on the food items she likes best. She said she thought Yokoso’s appetizers are the best. We had only tried the vegetable tempura appetizer ($5), and it was tasty, generous chucks of broccoli, squash, banana peppers and sweet pototoes fried in a batter you could only describe as “dainty”. The only complaint I’d have is that these large pieces of vegetables are difficult to handle with chopsticks, at least for the chopstick-impaired (me). One of the amazing memories of traveling in Japan was watching The Man Who, it turns out, Handles Chopsticks Like A Chinaman. While I was trying to retrieve chunks of squid I’d dropped into the tempura sauce in a tea garden in Kyoto, he was whipping rice in the wasabi and to his mouth without disaster.
I’m going to try to show you a photo of the-room-that-used-to-be-my-kitchen. I’m amazed at how small it looks and how old. Cabinet Werks is going to have a challenge turning this into “the most beautiful kitchen in Brookfield” as Mike Whalen promised in his comments on this blog.
Now I’m REALLY
Kitchenless in Brookfield
The Friends Who Requested That We Check The Al Fresco Dining On Bluemound met us at Yokoso Restaurant last night. Yokoso is tucked in the back of a shopping center, closer to the freeway than Bluemound Rd. Thus its al fresco dining, located in a small, treed area on the south side of the building, is not negatively affected by the roar of Bluemound, and it is almost distant enough from the freeway that it, like a child of the 50's, can be seen and not heard – much. But al fresco in Wisconsin is such an iffy proposition: either the umbrellas are weighted down with snow and ice and it’s 3 degrees, or it’s raining, or it’s hot, or it’s disgustingly humid, or, like last night when none of these other factors were an issue, the mosquitoes could carry a good-sized German-American across the freeway into New Berlin. We ate inside.
Looking around as we entered, it felt like we were not in Kansas anymore, nor even the Town of Brookfield. So urbane and sophisticated is Yokoso. And the customers must come from San Francisco and New York City. They are young and pretty and thin, with beautiful skin, and dressed in that casual, but intentional look of people who like themselves and have interesting ideas to talk about. Whew! It feels good just to be one of them. Our table in the SW corner of the seating area was pretty noisy, but getting any table on Bluemound Road is lucky on a Friday night.
I must digress to the kitchen demolition here. I spent the whole day tucked back in my office while the US was waging WWIII against Mexico in the other part of the house. Bombs were screeching across the sky, smashing into concrete bunkers, Hispanic soldiers in tanks were driving across metal bridges, jackhammers were upending convoys, all to the rhythm of mariachi music. Was it noisy! And then it became cold. And colder. The workers had a door open through which to cart out the bodies of appliances and cabinets. Meanwhile the air conditioner chugged constantly to chill outside Brookfield. The war was in a sealed-in area which contained the thermostat. I could not get to it. Nor could I get out. I had planned to finally file everything neatly in my office. Instead I cruised the internet, munching a bag of granola, sipping water from the bathroom, with occasional forays into bed to warm up.
Which is to explain why I spent quite a lot of time on Yokoso’s website (www.yokosorestaurant.com) to study their menu and wine list. After all, I am a restaurant critic. I must do my research. They had a Duck Pond pinot gris that I researched. Duck Pond is good stuff in red wine, but I figured we’d have white wine with the very seafoody Japanese menu. Just in case we wanted a glass of red, I researched the Budini Malbec on Yokoso’s wine list. Malbec is a favorite wine of Our Daughter Who Travels A Lot.
Back at the restaurant that evening, I told the waitress I’d like to try the Duck Pond pinot gris. “Sorry,” she said. “We no longer carry that.” Our Friends Who Are From San Francisco And Know Wine Better Than Anyone We Know hoped to order the gewurtztraminer that was on the website, but it was not available in the restaurant. The Budini malbec was also not available. As a third choice, they said the Bex reisling ($30) would go well with the fish. And they were right. It was light, a bit sweet, but with enough acid to be an interesting accompaniment. We enjoyed the snack of steamed, salted edamame ($4) while studying the lengthy menu.
(I hope you haven’t fallen asleep yet, before you get to the food course.)
Our Friends Who Had Been Here Often ordered a variety of sushi and sashimi ($2.25-$2.50 each) and a Brian roll ($13), which they had discovered other patrons enjoying in the past. I am hesitant to order raw fish so far from the ocean, so I ordered smoked salmon rolls ($5.50) and a sliced crab-stuffed roll called the Spider Man ($10). Our Yokoso-Experienced Friends were right again. The sushi and sashimi were the best. Delicious, fresh, fresh, fresh yellowfin tuna and maguro tuna and flounder and salmon. The Man Who Accompanied Me To Japan And Made It Home Without Starving To Death Of Funky Food Disease ordered Udon noodles stir fried with vegetables and beef ($13) as his entre and was perfectly happy with his meal.
Desserts are not worth the calories they're made of. We split two mochi balls ($1.95 each), which are nothing but a scoop of sherbet wrapped in rice paper. The ladies room is beautifully decorated with granite and one of those bowl-type sinks, though it did show the signs of a busy evening (full wastebasket, t.p. on the floor).
After our meal, we quizzed our waitress on the food items she likes best. She said she thought Yokoso’s appetizers are the best. We had only tried the vegetable tempura appetizer ($5), and it was tasty, generous chucks of broccoli, squash, banana peppers and sweet pototoes fried in a batter you could only describe as “dainty”. The only complaint I’d have is that these large pieces of vegetables are difficult to handle with chopsticks, at least for the chopstick-impaired (me). One of the amazing memories of traveling in Japan was watching The Man Who, it turns out, Handles Chopsticks Like A Chinaman. While I was trying to retrieve chunks of squid I’d dropped into the tempura sauce in a tea garden in Kyoto, he was whipping rice in the wasabi and to his mouth without disaster.
I’m going to try to show you a photo of the-room-that-used-to-be-my-kitchen. I’m amazed at how small it looks and how old. Cabinet Werks is going to have a challenge turning this into “the most beautiful kitchen in Brookfield” as Mike Whalen promised in his comments on this blog.
Now I’m REALLY
Kitchenless in Brookfield
Friday, September 7, 2007
SUBWAY: FAST AND HEALTHY
I am getting stuffed from eating my words. I may actually have to rave about a fast food establishment. Okay, so “rave” is a bit of an overstatement. Still, it’s quite shocking. I thought our meal at Subway was good.
The Man Who Foots My Bills By Working, Instead Of Retiring, Like Normal People Would Do had a meeting to go to last night. Thus our dinner could not be our usual affair at which we chat intellectually about the important issues of the day while leisurely sipping our wine. No, it was to be Subway, the fastest of the restaurants in the next shopping center as we headed east on Bluemound.
Walking up to the counter to order, what should I see but a printed nutrition list! Right there where you order your food. And whole grain bread choices for any sandwich. Gee, Todo, we are not in KFC anymore. It appears that this restaurant chain uses an emphasis on “eating fit” as its marketing ploy. How unique.
I settled on a Subway Club sandwich on honey oat bread. It comes with ham, turkey and beef slices, atop which I chose lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices, olives and red onions from the raft of sandwich toppings. My honey mustard dressing was one of the many fat free selections. The whole thing was ample and pretty darned tasty.
The Man With The Happy Wallet And Full Tummy did not over-extend either his calorie or his food budget here. The Wallet forked over a total of $11.11 for two 6" sandwiches, a small bag of chips and two 16-oz soft drinks. As for calorie cost: my sandwich contained 320 calories, The Man’s Cold Cut Combo blew 410 calories. Could be worse.
There is no al fresco dining possible here, which is a good thing, considering the location amid shopping mall. My ladies room trip found the toilet flushing when I went in and it continued flushing and flushing... As for cleanliness, no one had scrubbed in the corners – ever, but I’ve see worse (KFC comes to mind). My advice: use the bathroom at Panos’ across the road.
One goes to fast food for convenience, not ambiance. Still, I would say generally Subway was reasonably clean, light and cheerful, and the food was tasty and perhaps even healthy. Even the patrons looked fit – with a couple of exceptions...
That would be the two who are
Kitchenless in Brookfield
PS: Exciting kitchen demolition photos soon!
The Man Who Foots My Bills By Working, Instead Of Retiring, Like Normal People Would Do had a meeting to go to last night. Thus our dinner could not be our usual affair at which we chat intellectually about the important issues of the day while leisurely sipping our wine. No, it was to be Subway, the fastest of the restaurants in the next shopping center as we headed east on Bluemound.
Walking up to the counter to order, what should I see but a printed nutrition list! Right there where you order your food. And whole grain bread choices for any sandwich. Gee, Todo, we are not in KFC anymore. It appears that this restaurant chain uses an emphasis on “eating fit” as its marketing ploy. How unique.
I settled on a Subway Club sandwich on honey oat bread. It comes with ham, turkey and beef slices, atop which I chose lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices, olives and red onions from the raft of sandwich toppings. My honey mustard dressing was one of the many fat free selections. The whole thing was ample and pretty darned tasty.
The Man With The Happy Wallet And Full Tummy did not over-extend either his calorie or his food budget here. The Wallet forked over a total of $11.11 for two 6" sandwiches, a small bag of chips and two 16-oz soft drinks. As for calorie cost: my sandwich contained 320 calories, The Man’s Cold Cut Combo blew 410 calories. Could be worse.
There is no al fresco dining possible here, which is a good thing, considering the location amid shopping mall. My ladies room trip found the toilet flushing when I went in and it continued flushing and flushing... As for cleanliness, no one had scrubbed in the corners – ever, but I’ve see worse (KFC comes to mind). My advice: use the bathroom at Panos’ across the road.
One goes to fast food for convenience, not ambiance. Still, I would say generally Subway was reasonably clean, light and cheerful, and the food was tasty and perhaps even healthy. Even the patrons looked fit – with a couple of exceptions...
That would be the two who are
Kitchenless in Brookfield
PS: Exciting kitchen demolition photos soon!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Panos' Char House
I’ve never had any desire to eat at Panos’ Char House. In my mind it is Greek. Enough said. I’ve never been tempted by gyros. Okay, okay. So I’ve been wrong before. I’d eat my words, but I’m too full.
The Man Who Pays For The Food I Review took me out tonight for our first actual, kitchen-under-demolition meal. Actually, the kitchen will be demolished tomorrow, it turns out, but I have no kettles, no plates, nothing left on which to cook and no electricity with which to cook it. The Man Who Keeps Track Of All Things Including The Order Of These Reviews said Panos’ was next on my list. I kind of dressed up – put on slightly less scruffy sandals and combed my hair, as I figured Panos’ looks more upscale than KFC. And it is. But the clientele is not. Jeans and t-shirts rule. As for al fresco dining, there is a patio, whose location is suitable only for automobile enthusiasts, though there is a Panos person somewhere who knows something of garden design. Able to ignore the beautiful flowers but not the humidity, we ate inside.
The wine list is neither extensive nor expensive. There are nine red wines available by the glass or bottle, none of them over $30 per bottle. I ordered a glass of B.V. pinot noir ($7). It was drinkable, though not interesting in any way. As we were eating I looked around at what the other patrons were drinking. Hmmm... Mostly beer. I checked the beer list. There are 12 beers on tap, including that yummy Spotted Cow, and there are oodles of bottled beers offered.
So I learned something: When everyone else is drinking beer, don’t order wine.
Okay, moving on to the food. The menu is large and quite varied. There is a section of Greek food, but most of the menu would fit the Char House motif. Speaking of motif, the decor is definitely US western. Huge hand-painted murals of canyonlands cover the walls. It has the look of a place in which you’d expect to find great grilled steaks. But did we order those? Of course not. Even The Man Who Darned Near Always Orders Beef ordered a chicken stir fry ($11.95). I decided to do the “When in Rome” thing – or rather Athens – so I had a Greek salad ($3.25) and spanakopita (spinach and feta filling in phyllo dough) ($11.95). And, surprise! Everything was delicious! My Greek salad was loaded with feta cheese and kalamata olives (not those disgusting black rubber-tasting things from a can) and peppers and red onions on Romaine and came with a very nice home-made dressing, a balsamic vinaigrette with chunks of feta cheese in it. (You will soon figure out that if it comes with cheese, it’s sure to please me.) The Man’s meal came with chicken dumpling soup. It too was wonderful, a large portion with delicious home-made dumplings in a chicken stock that had never seen the inside of a can. Our waitress, Terri, assured us that all of Panos’ food is prepared on the premises. Somehow I doubt that will be the case in many of our Bluemound Road establishments.
On to the main course. First, the size is prodigious. I do not consider volume as a criteria of value when it comes to restaurant food, but Panos’ surely offers that. The Male Appetite I Was With ate perhaps a third of his serving of chicken stir fry, and not because it wasn’t incredibly good. It consisted of large pieces of chicken, pea pods, water chestnuts, lots of other vegetables, all in a teriyaki sauce. My perfectly browned and crispy spanakopita could also have fed three more people.
Terri could see that we were bulging at the seams, but cheerfully asked to show us the dessert tray. What a selection of yummy-looking treats! Several cheesecakes, a number of chocolate gooey things, a tempting home-made carrot cake. Perhaps next time...
I cannot even say a negative word about the ladies room. It was spacious and sparkling clean and attractive, with pastel decorative tile walls and floor, granite sinks and – is it possible? – waste baskets that were not overflowing!
I will go to Panos again. Perhaps just for dessert and coffee. Or maybe for beer and an appetizer.
With no electicity, you can call me...
Kitchenless in Brookfield
PS: We hadn’t planned meals of leftovers. I’m going to try to freeze them all until I am with kitchen again. Otherwise all this perfectly good food would go to waste. And my mother would be appalled.
The Man Who Pays For The Food I Review took me out tonight for our first actual, kitchen-under-demolition meal. Actually, the kitchen will be demolished tomorrow, it turns out, but I have no kettles, no plates, nothing left on which to cook and no electricity with which to cook it. The Man Who Keeps Track Of All Things Including The Order Of These Reviews said Panos’ was next on my list. I kind of dressed up – put on slightly less scruffy sandals and combed my hair, as I figured Panos’ looks more upscale than KFC. And it is. But the clientele is not. Jeans and t-shirts rule. As for al fresco dining, there is a patio, whose location is suitable only for automobile enthusiasts, though there is a Panos person somewhere who knows something of garden design. Able to ignore the beautiful flowers but not the humidity, we ate inside.
The wine list is neither extensive nor expensive. There are nine red wines available by the glass or bottle, none of them over $30 per bottle. I ordered a glass of B.V. pinot noir ($7). It was drinkable, though not interesting in any way. As we were eating I looked around at what the other patrons were drinking. Hmmm... Mostly beer. I checked the beer list. There are 12 beers on tap, including that yummy Spotted Cow, and there are oodles of bottled beers offered.
So I learned something: When everyone else is drinking beer, don’t order wine.
Okay, moving on to the food. The menu is large and quite varied. There is a section of Greek food, but most of the menu would fit the Char House motif. Speaking of motif, the decor is definitely US western. Huge hand-painted murals of canyonlands cover the walls. It has the look of a place in which you’d expect to find great grilled steaks. But did we order those? Of course not. Even The Man Who Darned Near Always Orders Beef ordered a chicken stir fry ($11.95). I decided to do the “When in Rome” thing – or rather Athens – so I had a Greek salad ($3.25) and spanakopita (spinach and feta filling in phyllo dough) ($11.95). And, surprise! Everything was delicious! My Greek salad was loaded with feta cheese and kalamata olives (not those disgusting black rubber-tasting things from a can) and peppers and red onions on Romaine and came with a very nice home-made dressing, a balsamic vinaigrette with chunks of feta cheese in it. (You will soon figure out that if it comes with cheese, it’s sure to please me.) The Man’s meal came with chicken dumpling soup. It too was wonderful, a large portion with delicious home-made dumplings in a chicken stock that had never seen the inside of a can. Our waitress, Terri, assured us that all of Panos’ food is prepared on the premises. Somehow I doubt that will be the case in many of our Bluemound Road establishments.
On to the main course. First, the size is prodigious. I do not consider volume as a criteria of value when it comes to restaurant food, but Panos’ surely offers that. The Male Appetite I Was With ate perhaps a third of his serving of chicken stir fry, and not because it wasn’t incredibly good. It consisted of large pieces of chicken, pea pods, water chestnuts, lots of other vegetables, all in a teriyaki sauce. My perfectly browned and crispy spanakopita could also have fed three more people.
Terri could see that we were bulging at the seams, but cheerfully asked to show us the dessert tray. What a selection of yummy-looking treats! Several cheesecakes, a number of chocolate gooey things, a tempting home-made carrot cake. Perhaps next time...
I cannot even say a negative word about the ladies room. It was spacious and sparkling clean and attractive, with pastel decorative tile walls and floor, granite sinks and – is it possible? – waste baskets that were not overflowing!
I will go to Panos again. Perhaps just for dessert and coffee. Or maybe for beer and an appetizer.
With no electicity, you can call me...
Kitchenless in Brookfield
PS: We hadn’t planned meals of leftovers. I’m going to try to freeze them all until I am with kitchen again. Otherwise all this perfectly good food would go to waste. And my mother would be appalled.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)