The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 2)

[huiray]

Didn't see any dancing though!

 

That's because the plating wasn't quite right and there was no katsuobushi.  :-)

 

p.s. Those bowls I mentioned should be the medium-deep vertical-sided bowls common in Japanese cuisine; not the tsukemono-type small dish that appears to have been used instead.  ;-)

 

ETA: p.p.s. The "sauce" you got might also not have been much more than diluted soy sauce, maybe?  A good shoyu for agedashidofu would involve dashi and a wee bit of sugar (from koji; not plain sucrose) as well...  I often drink up (literally) the shoyu from an agedashidofu dish after I'm done with the tofu and the toppings and enjoy and appreciate those that were properly made. :-)

Edited November 6, 2014 by huiray (log)

[Anna N]

Yesterday Kerry Beal and I returned to Tokyo Bay.

Pretty teacups.

Pork gyoza

Tonkatsu don for Kerry

And Udon tonkatsu for me.

[rotuts]

OK  you both had the tonk.  the dif. being one came on top of something

 

and the other came w a 'soup on the side' more less.

 

a shame they were out of Squid

 

[Anna N]

OK  you both had the tonk.  the dif. being one came on top of something

 

and the other came w a 'soup on the side' more less.

 

a shame they were out of Squid

 

Yes it was a porky lunch! We might've had grilled squid but opted to stick with piggy.

[Anna N]

Yeah we ate out again today. Every once in a while we hear the siren call of the Mandarin restaurant. We know that everything will look much better than it tastes but we are suckers. I will share photographs of our plates with you. We each had two plates and dessert. No names, no pack drill.

We circled the food tables twice in search of any sign of anything resembling squid. There was nothing. So sorry rotuts.

[rotuts]

Wow   Id go there.  two circles would just warm me up !

 

is that  in the top pic a fried shrimp w a bit of sushi rice wrap ?

 

are things a bit on the sweet side ?

[Anna N]

Today Kerry Beal and I explored a brand new (for us) restaurant in downtown Burlington called The Test Kitchen (http://www.testkitchenrestaurants.com). We have known about it for quite some time and kept promising ourselves we would one day have lunch there. Today was that day.

We walked in and were greeted by a hostess who asked, "Do you have a reservation?" We both did a double take and wondered if we'd fallen down the rabbit hole. It is Wednesday for crying out loud, in Burlington and it's lunchtime. Reservation? Kerry recovered enough to say no we did not have a reservation and the hostess who had been joined by a cohort asked for a minute to see what they could do. A minute later they returned to say they had found us a table but we must vacate it by 1 PM (it was now a little after noon). Neither Kerry nor I had had anything stronger than coffee or tea this morning. This was truly happening.

We were escorted to table and handed iPads. We're sophisticated enough that we didn't even blink. There is a daily lunch menu, a $10 lunch menu and a $20 lunch menu. We opted for the $10 menu which included a glass of wine each. Our choices were red or white. Before anyone gets excited at the thought of a glass of wine and lunch for a mere $10 let me assure you that when both glasses were poured into one as happened (Kerry does not drink and drive not even a little taste) I doubt it would've come up to the two ounce mark.

After we had made our lunch selections we of course had to find out what else one could do on this iPad. Kerry took photos of me and herself. When she viewed them she discovered that every damn customer that had ever entered this restaurant had thought of the same thing as there were piles and piles of photographs of customers goofing off. So childish!

We then turned to Kerry's iPhone to take a photo of the dishes we had ordered as they appeared on the iPad menu:

As they were served:

Braised short rib quesadilla

Pull apart montecristo

We loved the wine glasses

And the napkin-enfolded cutlery

And the food was tasty but all we could say to each other as we left was, "Next time we must bring lunch".

Edited to add

After lunch we popped in to say high-end kitchen where is the store that was almost next-door and spotted this:

The price may be a little hard to read but it was $75! We found one for $10 in the thrift store just a couple of days ago.

Then we went to Costco and spotted this for rotuts

We bought neither.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Anna N (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Hey, Anna!

 

Thanks for reporting on your failures. Sounds like a pretty epic one, too.  Sorry. :-(

 

Weirdly, this place has a 5-star rating on yelp, with 12 reviews plus two "not recommended" ones??? There's a photo on that site, that's dated 10-15-14, of a chalkboard sidewalk sign that claims the lunch wine pour is FOUR ounces. Scrolling through the photos on yelp, photo no. 2 (dated 10-15-14) depicts a lunch pour of red and of white, that are probably about a half cup. It also comes with an overly cutesy stuffed bunny rabbit. Self-plugging reviews, anyone?

 

They stole your Manitoulin kitchen name, and definitely did not run with it.

 

You and Kerry are still the Masters of the Test Kitchen Universe! 

 

On the upside, they seem to have been in business for less than a year, and if your experience is typical, they shan't continue to rip folks off for long.

 

I'm sure you'll have much better luck next time. You're in the 99th percentile for success; just chalk this one up to an "interesting" experience.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

Edited because I am apparently unable to correctly spell a two-letter word. I hope this condition is temporary. 

Edited November 20, 2014 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[Anna N]

Hey, Anna!

 

Thanks for reporting on your failures. Sounds like a pretty epic one, too.  Sorry. :-(

 

Weirdly, this place has a 5-star rating on yelp, with 12 reviews plus two "not recommended" ones??? There's a photo on that site, that's dated 10-15-14, of a chalkboard sidewalk sign that claims the lunch wine pour is FOUR ounces. Scrolling through the photos on yelp, photo no. 2 (dated 10-15-14) depicts a lunch pour of red and of white, that are probably about a half cup. It also comes with an overly cutesy stuffed bunny rabbit. Self-plugging reviews, anyone?

 

They stole your Manitoulin kitchen name, and definitely did not run with it.

 

You and Kerry are still the Masters of the Test Kitchen Universe! 

 

On the upside, they seem to have been in business for less than a year, and if your experience is typical, they shan't continue to rip folks off for long.

 

I'm sure you'll have much better luck next time. You're in the 99th percentile for success; just chalk this one up to an "interesting" experience.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

Edited because I am apparently unable to correctly spell a two-letter word. I hope this condition is temporary. 

Sorry that this came over as a bad review. That was not my intention at all nor did either of us consider it an epic failure. We had great fun and I am not a restaurant reviewer. Nevertheless I stand by my impressions. I suspect also that we stole their name for our Manitoulin adventure not the other way around.

I rarely comment on the quality of our lunches since we made a vow from the beginning that we would not review restaurants. This was just so far out of the norm that I was still amused by the time I got home hours later and wanted to share my amusement with those who follow this topic.

[rotuts]

AnnaN   I thought you were quite fair.

 

now about that Calamari-in-a-Box

 

Rats!  Im not a costco member !

[Anna N]

AnnaN I thought you were quite fair.

now about that Calamari-in-a-Box

Rats! Im not a costco member !

Thanks, rotuts. We always have fun when we do lunch together even if the food is inedible or in this case rather pretentious. It's about enjoying each others company and a break from routine. The food is quite incidental to the experience.

I don't have a membership either just friends and relatives who do!

Edited to make more sense.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Anna N (log)

[rotuts]

""  It's about enjoying each others company and a break from routine. The food is quite incidental to the experience.  ""

 

except of course for the stunning calamari you seem to frequently find.

 

 

I might be reduced to getting some TJ's Frozen

Edited November 20, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[MelissaH]

I can't think of anything better to do with a pretentious experience than laugh. Thanks for sharing it. I would have loved to join you, except that I don't think I could get to you right now!

[Anna N]

It will soon seem as though Kerry Beal and I do nothing but lunch! Truly, truly we worked this morning clearing out a basement of a relative's house that will soon be sold. After a few hours of that though we did require sustenance. After dropping some goods off at Value Village we headed into Hamilton to partake of pho which seemed the appropriate meal on the day following our first snowstorm of the 2014-2015 winter season. We were not so badly hit as upstate New York was a couple of days ago but enough to know it's going to be a damn long winter.

For rotuts some calamari

For Kerry a large order of beef and chicken pho

For me rare and well-done beef pho

And to share a plate of garnishes

I also ordered an iced Vietnamese coffee but it somehow was forgotten and I ended up having it in a takeaway cup in the car. I am not a fan of winter but must say that a bowl of pho takes some of the sting out.

[Anna N]

More basement cleaning today and then an errand took us out to Hamilton not far from Was the Ethiopian restaurant we have visited before.

Not sure if you can see this but the cup is oval rather then round. It contained Kerry's spiced tea.

I had a bottle of Rickard's Red which did not make it into the photograph.

Doro (chicken) wat and lamb wat with accompaniments on injera bread. Additional bread was served with this and more bread brought later.

[Smithy]

Was the injeera bread in this picture intended mainly as a 'plate'?

[Anna N]

Was the injeera bread in this picture intended mainly as a 'plate'?

I'm no expert on Ethiopian customs but I believe that this bread, too, is meant to be eaten. I love that there was no concession to Western customs although I expect that had we asked for cutlery it would have been provided but it was not offered.

[rotuts]

was that one layer of bread ?

 

ive been to  ( at the time ) the only Ethiopian restaurant in BOS and the palter for the whole table was much like the one you picture,

 

but had many layers of bread under the food.  something very new to me at the time, and 'not so picturesque' but delicious

[MelissaH]

The absolute best part of going to an Ethiopian restaurant is after you've eaten most of the stews and veg from on top of the injera, and finally being able to eat the plate covering piece that's been soaked with all the juices!

[Anna N]

was that one layer of bread ?

 

ive been to  ( at the time ) the only Ethiopian restaurant in BOS and the palter for the whole table was much like the one you picture,

 

but had many layers of bread under the food.  something very new to me at the time, and 'not so picturesque' but delicious

It was just one layer.

[Anna N]

The absolute best part of going to an Ethiopian restaurant is after you've eaten most of the stews and veg from on top of the injera, and finally being able to eat the plate covering piece that's been soaked with all the juices!

Melissa

I agree with you when the injera is made, as I believe it should be, from 100% Teff flour. The injera at this restaurant incorporates some wheat flour (I understand) and the bread on the platter becomes soggy and rather unpleasant after a while. The injera we enjoyed in Buffalo was just a different creature altogether.

[MelissaH]

I'd settle even for injera that has some wheat flour in it, if I didn't have to drive 70+ miles each way to get it.

[Anna N]

Apparently we have been careless about posting our lunches. I will try to get caught up over the next few hours. Last Wednesday we returned to Banh Thai in Burlington as they have the best calamari.

Tea for Kerry.

The anticipated calamari.

Siamese beef.

Spicy noodle chicken.

And rice of course.

[Anna N]

On Sunday there were four "ladies who lunch". A friend, who is not a member of eG, invited us to lunch. She brought along her friend and chose the Test Kitchen as the venue! We had warned her to make reservations however for it would appear that they are not so necessary on Sunday.

Two of the diners ordered the $10 lunch special "French dip" and two ordered the lunch special "Dirty Burger".

Being the much more authentic "ladies who lunch" than Kerry and I, dessert was a foregone conclusion. Three desserts were ordered and shared.

Chocolate cake made with quinoa flour

Apple crumble

And an interpretation of a Blondie.

We finished with a cup of coffee.

[Anna N]

Many errands to complete today and around lunchtime we found ourselves in Jackson Square in Hamilton home of the multicultural supermarket Nations.

While Kerry ordered two bowls of Ramen with brisket:

I bought a pound of pork with crackling to serve as our appetizer:

For food court food it was all quite good.