sockii

I agree. I gave up diet soda about 7-8 years ago--I was heavy, and a heavy drinker of Diet Coke/Pepsi (like at least 3-4 cans a day, oftentimes more than that). I had read some of the (still debated, often debunked, but I can't help believing them) studies decrying the horrible side effects of aspartame and just didn't want to take the risk any longer. One of those side effects noted even then was a supposed increased craving for carbohydrate-rich foods (bread, chips, etc) which could lead to increased obesity. Now, it still took Weight Watchers for me to lose the weight a couple years later, but cutting out aspartame *did* decrease other ailments I had (such as frequent migraines), so I'm inclined to give some merit to the idea there may be some chemical link between diet soda--or artificial sweeteners in general--and weight gain.

I agree with all of the above--I've been to Astral Plane more than a few times and always had a lovely evening with very good food. It's a neighborhood favorite for me and my sweetie when we want a romantic dinner out without too much fuss.

I agree. I honestly think the only reason she even made it past the submission tape stage was the "hot" factor. She came across horribly to me and had that tight-lipped fake smile that just made me go "ew". She didn't seem to have a clue how to interact or even look at the camera (but I guess eye contact is an unnecessary skill for a Foot Model...) I like Eric too, and I hope he can learn to loosen up in front of the camera. Otherwise I'm rooting for the couple...I enjoy their interactions and it seems like they actually have some decent cooking ideas, if not incredibly wild and different.

I'm a fan of this as well. I feel like I have a truer sense of the "real price" of the wine when the system is defined in that manner; if I order a bottle at $40 I know it's probably going to be quite decent quality to my tastes, vs. something that's just an $8-10 bottle that's marked up by some unknown percentage. (I also love Fri Sat Sun's wine list for a reason mentioned above--the tasting note details provided with each wine and suggested pairings. I mean, I love wine but I am no expert of every vinyard and vintage out there, and I like having those little pointers there to help me make up my mind.) And you know what? I was at Fri Sat Sun about a week ago, and despite the modest markup they have to be making a killing on their wine sales given how virtually every table had a bottle going. And in some cases, more than one. Keep prices reasonable and I think people will definitely order more...

You people are evil. On my lunch break today I HAD to go to DiNic's and try the roast pork (with cheese and greens, of course). Mega-WOW. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat a cheesesteak again, this was just SO much better. Thanks all for placing the evil thought in my head!

My mother and I were thrilled to death to find the Byron 01 Chardonnay as a Chairman's Selection this month. The Byron is one of her favorites so we've been indulging quite a bit the past week. Sad to say, I only wish the service at certain locations matched the quality of the wines. Yesterday she went to one Center City store to buy a couple cases of the Byron and only ended up getting 8 bottles after getting yelled at by one of the stockpeople--for daring to take an empty box by the Byron display and starting to fill it up with the bottles she was going to get. Apparently she was "destroying!!!" the display by filling up the box, and it was a real trial for the staff to complete her order--hence only leaving with 8 bottles instead of two cases. I think from now on we'll go to one of the other locations to fulfill our boozy needs. It's not the first time we've encountered far less than pleasant service at that location...

Hmm, interesting. For me it really depends on who I'm dining with. When I go out with my friends--whether it's 2 or 3 of us or a large group of 10--I find we generally order appetizers to share but stick with our own entrees. I never thought about it consciously but that how it's seemed to work out with my circle of friends, in general. I think it may be because we all have pretty different tastes and eating habits: a few of my friends are vegetarians and/or have major food allergy issues; others (:: cough :: okay, me) try to eat fairly healthy and avoid a lot of fried foods and heavy sauces; others are strict meat-and-potatoes types that aren't going to go for anything too exotic & don't worry about their weight. So by the time we all manage to find a restaurant we can all agree to go to, it's rare we're going to find entrees we'll want to share! But a couple appetizers for the table to pass around generally works out okay. When my boyfriend and I go out, though, we always coordinate what we order so that we can sample the maximum number of tastes. It's usually a "what looks good to you?" question where we'll see which dishes were appealing to both of us. The only time we end up eating the same thing is if we're both doing a tasting menu or some other special-for-two at a restaurant. With my mother, it varies. She has concluded through the years that I seem to have better "radar" for picking out a restaurant's best/better dishes than she does, so she will often wait to see what I've ordered and pick the same :-) It doesn't bother me because I'd rather see her happy with something she's ordered than disappointed after a couple of bites (and then I always end up feeling guilty and giving her most of MY meal, which she liked better, and eating most of hers instead...)

We had a car--drove it 10+ hours from Philly there & back again (UGH). Mostly it was just the fact that by the time we finished working the show, it was so late most nights all we wanted to do was grab something quick and collapse. Not fun! But if we coordinate better next year we might have more time & energy to explore...

Continuing on the Chinatown possibility, I have to say my friends and I give Vietnam Palace a bit of an edge over Vietnam. The sentiment is particularly strong from a friend of mine who is vegetarian and says she always finds the food at Vietnam too heavy and a little greasy, but loves Vietnam Palace.

Just a follow-up--I want to thank everyone who recommended Restaurant Villages to me for my trip! We only had the time & opportunity to really enjoy one night out on our own, so I knew we had to try Villages. Everything was wonderful--we mostly orded from the evening's specials menu, though I started with the roasted beet "tower" salad from the main menu, which was perfect. The entree I had for the evening was (if I remember correctly) a 12-hour smoked pork shoulder with asparagus and beans, which was just the satisfying meal I needed after a long weekend working a convention! Our server was very helpful in suggesting some of his favorite dishes, and despite his warning that it was not to everyone's tastes, we had the chocolate tamales for dessert--which was absolutely perfect to MY tastes: not too sweet, not too heavy, just very chocolately Anyway, I will totally look forward to going back next year when I'm in town for the weekend, and hopefully I'll have some time next trip to check out some of the other places recommended as well.

Matyson is the only one from your list I've been to--several times--and I have always enjoyed it a lot. But weekends can be a little tricky unless you're flexible with your timing (as in a very early/very late seating). Wouldn't hurt to give them a try though. Melograno is very nice as well, but takes no reservations. Again, if you get there right at opening or late in the evening, you shouldn't have any/much of a wait. And I never see much talk about it here, but I've been to Caffe Casta Diva twice and had some really fabulous Italian food there. They do take reservations and I did get a Friday night seating at 6 at the last minute a couple weeks ago.

Poor service is definitely my #1 reason not to go back to a restaurant, no matter how good the food is. I'll gladly instead choose to go somewhere that the food is decent and I know I won't leave cranky about the way I was treated (or in some cases ignored) while dining. Biggest service peeves would be... -- Being seated quickly, but then having to chase someone down to get a menu after being ignored for 10 minutes. -- Being taken to a really undesireable table when plenty of better tables are available/unreserved, and then getting attitude like it's some HUGE favor or outright impossible to let me sit anywhere else. -- No apologies offered if a waiter screws up an order, or any offer of compensation if I now have to sit and wait twenty minutes for my correct entree while my dining companions chow down. -- Attitude and/or condescending service in general. -- Being treated oddly if I happen to be dining alone. I happen to LIKE eating out on my own sometimes--it lets me focus on the food more so than the company, sometimes I just want a quiet meal out where I can read a book and enjoy a nice meal. I cannot count how many times I've been treated like this is some horrible abnormality (*gasp*! A woman! Enjoying eating on her own!), or with some weird over-concern from the waiter like I must have just been stood up on a date or something. -- A waitperson who has to bitch to the customers--in detail--about how lousy his/her day has been. I'm sorry for you, but just get me my drink and shut up, please, thanks. -- Having good service during most of a meal but then having the server go MIA when it's time to get the check

Thanks for the tip--what's their address? I'm going to Lansing this weekend for a business trip so would love to add these guys to my itinerary.

I cook because I refuse to pay $20 for a dish I can make for half the price--and make better--at home. I cook because I am concerned about my health and don't want every dish I eat to be loaded with hidden (or not-so-hidden) fats and other ingredients I am concerned about controlling in my diet. I also like to know the quality of the meat, chicken, or fish I'm cooking, to have inspected it with my own eyes and know it was truly fresh from the market that morning. I cook because few things are as satisfying as having a knock-out meal ready for someone I love the moment he or she comes home. Those are just the reasons that come right to my mind. It's not to say that I don't enjoy going out to eat a couple times a week, but it does make me selective as to where I'm going to spend my dining-out $$'s. I only really enjoy going to restaurants that serve the kind of food I don't have the resources/time/ingredients to prepare at home easily, like Vietnamese & Korean, sushi, etc. Go to an Italian restaurant for a plate of pasta? I think I'll pass.

I just wanted to say thanks to James, Taylor, and everyone else at Meritage for another wonderful dining experience last night. We definitely did not mind lingering in the lounge over cocktails and that wonderful Tapas plate, and everything we ate & drank was truly exceptional. So glad you are in the neighborhood, and I'm looking forward to bringing some friends to enjoy it with us in a couple weeks. Cheers and congrats once again on the approaching 1st year anniversary!

Monday, I'm taking the train (ugh) from Philly to Cleveland...and I have an almost 5 hour layover in Pittsburgh just around dinner-time. So I figure, what better way to kill the time than to find somewhere good to eat? Can anyone recommend anything within a reasonable (and safe) walk from the Amtrak station (which is like 11th & Liberty Ave)? I'm pretty open to anything that'll be reasonably priced and hopefully offer something good to drink to kill the pain before getting back on the train for a few more hours.

I'm going to be going to an event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next Tuesday evening--can anyone recommend a good place to go beforehand for dinner? Doesn't have to be fancy (and preferably not too expensive.) Just looking for some good eats right around the HoF for myself and a couple of folks--we're all coming in from (way) out of town without much idea of where to go. Thanks!

Thanks again everyone for the input and opinions. Sounds like we have some good options and choices (and of course I'll follow-up with our experiences after the trip!)

Yeah, that sums it up pretty nicely. I confess I do have a couple bottles of Yellow Tail on hand, but only for serving at parties where I have some friends who don't care about wine quality/wouldn't notice the difference anyway, just are drinking to get a little (or a lot) plastered. Their so-called "Reserve" chardonnay didn't even match a mediocre California Chardonnay. I have had a couple--I wish I could remember their names now--very nice Australian wines at wine tasting dinners, obviously better quality stuff than they've been pushing in our local state stores as the new cheap drinks (YT, Stonehaven, Alice White, Hanwood, etc.) While I've found few of these outright offensive (save the Alice White Lexia...the first wine bottle I have just poured down the sink in disgust after one glass!), they just seem to lack the complexity and subtlety I've come to desire in my wines...even in wines $10 and less. The other problem I seem to have is that most of the Australian whites I've had totally knock me for a loop very quickly--I feel seriously toasted after a glass or two. It's weird, for I can easily polish off half a bottle of a good California or French white and just feel pleasantly buzzy. I do find, though, that the Wyndham Estate Bin 222 Chardonnay is a fabulous cooking wine. I wouldn't mind some good recs for better quality Australian wines to sample, though. It just seems like they've been pushing the low-end swill around here and it's hard to find what quality stuff I'm sure is out there.

Thanks for the recommendation--my companion and I are definintely big fans of good wine, so this will have to be on the list! (And if we enjoy our first visit to Villages, we'll probably go back again.)

Are they a national chain, or something local? I seem to recall a lot of El Azteco's out there...not that I'm always against chains, mind you, but I just generally try to patronize local joints when traveling over something that I can find elsewhere...

Good day, egulleters! I will be spending a long weekend in the Lansing/Okemos area later next month, working a convention, and I'm looking for some good dining recommendations. Usually when I've worked this convention before I've been stuck with the few choices in walking distance around my hotel--which consist of little more than a Dennys, Ponderosa, KFC and a mediocre Chinese buffet . But this year I'll have a car and a companion who, in exchange for putting up with me working all day, I'd like to be able to entertain with at least a couple decent evening meals. So far, Restaurant Villegas is on the list...can anyone recommend anything else? We're pretty adventurous and willing to try almost anything that's good, be it a steakhouse or good ethnic place. Thanks in advance for any help!

Let's not forget the problem of counterfit bills. I've had more than a few shady characters try to pull paying for a $10 purchase with a $100 bill (or traveler's check that decidedly did not have any of the security marks/foils/etc on them.) Also had a guy grab a $100 bill he was going to use to pay for an item and run out the store as soon as I reached for my Currency Testing Pen. There are definitely risks to cash transactions, as well as credit ones...

The fee generally only applies if a debit card charge is run through with inputting a PIN number. If you tell the establishment to run it as a charge card--which any debit card with a V/MC stamp on it can be--and you sign the receipt like a regular charge, there is no additional debit card fee. At least not on my card... The benefit for me of using a debit card is quite simply being ultra-aware of how much I'm spending. Having been through bad credit card debt once (ooops!), it's not something I want to ever go through again--so I *very* rarely use an actual credit card these days, only for very large expenditures, hotels & air fare, things like that. Using a debit card, I know I'm only spending money I actually *have* at the moment, in my bank account. Yeah, I could take the cash out of my bank account as well and just pay cash, but I don't always know exactly how much I may need to spend when I go out shopping for something, to a restaurant, etc. So using a debit card keeps me more aware and in control of my spending than using a regular CC. And as long as I get the establishment to run it the right way for me, there is no extra charge for it.

Which technically does not make your card valid at all. Use a card signed "Show picture ID" at a government run facility--such as a Post Office--and they are required to make you actually sign the back of your card on the spot or else not take it at all. Also, on average, how many places actually end up asking to see your ID? How many just run the charge through and don't ask at all? And that card can be used without checking at automatic check-out machines and the like. (And yeah this is going completely off the original topic so I will hush up now. I just know a lot of people are saying doing this adds extra security to their charge cards when it really doesn't at all...)