Landscaping and Red Lobster

On Sunday Phil's parents made their way into NJ for a change. They had been in the area paying respects to family and stopped over afterwards. Phil's dad helped us get rid of two shrubs in our front yard that we'd been meaning to deal with for a while. The landscaping in general in the front yard is not the greatest, but we left it the way it was for lack of time and energy. But they were ultimately too big for our liking and one of them was dying or dead and possibly attracting bugs, so it was time to say goodbye. It definitely helped that Phil's dad had an electric saw. Down went the first bush...


Then, down went the second bush...

They made it look so easy. ^__^

Now to figure out what to put in that big space left behind...

After a hard day of work (at least for Phil and his dad), we took Phil's family and my mom out for dinner at Red Lobster. It had been over 3 years since Phil and I last went back in Ohio. Phil had been craving it for weeks after seeing all of the Lobsterfest commercials on TV. Mainly I think he just wanted to try and beat his record of 7 Red Lobster cheesy biscuits (or was it 9?). And here they are in all their glory. A little bit more buttery than I remember, but still good! ^__^

My mom and Winnie. Check out the giant plates of food!

We ordered an appetizer of the lobster artichoke dip...It was really less of a dip and more like a sauce. Definitely would skip that one if we ever go again. And every dish came with a salad.

By the time the appetizer, salad and soup had come and gone I was already full. And then the main dishes came...I'm not a big seafood person (I know, not your typical Asian), so I thought I'd opt for something slightly less seafood-centric, the Crab Alfredo. Let me just say this is way more food than any single person should ever consume...I barely made a dent...I think I should have just stuck with the soup, salad and biscuits.

Everyone else's dishes looked much more manageable. My mom got the Lobster, Shrimp and Parmesan Scampi.

Phil's parents shared the Lobster Lover's Dream, plus a side of lobster baked potato. Hmm, lobster baked potato...

Phil ordered the Grilled Maine Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp, plus a side of lobster mashed potatoes. Now the lobster mashed potatoes weren't bad. Although with my state of fullness I didn't really eat that much of it. Winnie got the same thing, minus the mashed potatoes.

The food didn't look quite as good as it does on the commercials, but then again it never does. The food was OK, but I have a feeling it'll be another couple years before we go again to fulfill Phil's cheesy biscuit cravings. In the meantime he'll just have to make do with my homemade cheesy biscuits.

Congee Village and Doughnut Plant

Saturday was another trip to Congee Village. I've realized that a lot of these food posts are starting to blend together since we usually order the same things, so I only posted the one new dish that we ordered this time. It was the beef pan fried noodles. Other than that we had the standard Congee Village fare - garlic chicken, tofu, congee (rice porridge) and beef noodles.



Before lunch I had stopped by the Doughnut plant to pick up some dessert. Lucia and I sampled some donuts after lunch at her apartment. The classic Raspberry Jelly and one of the special flavors of the day, Fresh Orange. The Fresh Orange was very tasty.

I hung out with Lucia for a couple hours while she prepped for a dinner party later that evening. The main dish - pork leg. That is one giant hunk of meat! I never would have thought something that big could fit in the oven, but it did. I have to remember to ask Lucia how it turned out.

Adrienne's and South Street Seaport

We didn't stay away from the city all weekend. On Sunday we went into Manhattan to meet up with some college friends for lunch. We got there a little early and somehow managed to find parking relatively fast, so we took a quick stroll by the South Street Seaport. It was such a beautiful day (the first nice weekend after lots of rain) I had to take a picture of the bridges over the river.


And me and Phil by the bridges over the river...although the water looks so much more green in this picture for some reason...

We stopped in at the mall at the South Street Seaport just to look around. There was a little store selling random posters and knick knacks, including this little "kimochi" toy. Kimochi means "feelings" in Japanese, and these little toys come with little toy faces that have different emotions depicted on them. Cute, yet strange all at the same time.

Then it was time for lunch at a pizza place called Adrienne's Pizza Bar in the financial district. I'd never really spent a lot of time in certain parts of the financial district. This place was on a small back street that almost doesn't look like it belongs in modern day NYC, more like something out of Europe - cobblestone road, no cars, small European style shops. I should have gotten a picture, but I forgot in my rush to get inside.

Once enough people arrived we started ordering for the group. To start things off we put in a couple orders for the Caprese (mozzarella, with tomatoes and basil).

And then we ordered lots and lots of pizza. I only managed to snag a picture of one of the pies since they were all spread across the long table. I don't remember which one this was, but all of them were pretty good. My personal favorite though was the old fashioned, which was similar to a deep dish pizza.

Here's everyone enjoying the food.

Group picture! (minus Phil who is behind the camera)

After pizza we headed back to the South Street Seaport with the group for some dessert at the Häagen-Dazs there.

While we were hanging out eating ice cream a guy came by on his bike with a husky to buy some beer. Not sure how he planned to ride the bike, hold his dog and drink his beer at the same time, but that's a separate subject entirely...The best part was the husky kept trying to sneak behind the drink stand to snag some beer. That's one crafty puppy!

Jose Tejas - EAT!

It was the first Saturday we hadn't spent in the city in a while. So instead of Asian food we decided to go out for some Mexican for lunch. The only non-chain Mexican restaurant we've been to in the area that we like so far is still Jose Tejas - the restaurant with the giant neon glowing "EAT" sign outside just off of Rt. 1. This place is usually pretty full, but I think we just beat the lunch rush this time. Phil's standing outside the restaurant ready for some good eats!


As with any good Mexican restaurant you get free chips to munch on while you wait. I made the mistake of also ordering queso dip to go with it. Don't get me wrong - the queso dip was delicious, but I think it played a large part in why we didn't even come close to finishing our main dishes. Phil ordered a chicken quesadilla. Surprisingly, Phil only made it through half of it.

I ordered a taco and enchilada dish. Talk about a huge pile of black beans...

This is definitely one of those places that you're guaranteed to leave full, and probably with a doggy bag or two. ^__^

Yogee Restaurant and Baby Fun

Another weekend and another lunch in the city, with who else but Kevin and Lucia! This time we are at Yogee Restaurant. This is only the second time I've been here, but I think the food is okay. I'm not sure Phil's dad is so fond of it though.


We ordered a couple of bowls of congee (rice porridge) and the fried dough sticks (aka: yu tiao) for dipping.

We also ordered several beef noodles dishes. This one dish must have been fresh off the stove (or maybe out of the oven), you can still see the smoke rising out of the bowl.

According to the cousins the rice noodle dish tasted a little burnt, but I didn't get around to trying any myself. Maybe they were going for the "extra crispy" flavor...

And pineapple fried rice. But they used canned pineapples, so maybe not as tasty as it could have been.

After we said goodbye to the family we headed into Flushing, Queens so I could meet up with one of my old college roommates, Le, and her baby girl, Mai. We met up in a little Korean bakery on Union Street called Koryodang. I stumbled across this place when I was looking online for bakeries in the area, and the menu looked so good. But somehow the bakery wasn't quite what I had envisioned, and their menu didn't seem the same. It ended up being similar to your standard Asian bakery, just with more seating. Maybe they don't bust out the shaved ice and stuff until the weather gets warmer...

Doesn't Mai look so cute in her little jumper! If only I had gotten a picture while she was wearing the hood with the bear ears - priceless.

Vietnamese and Book Club Fun

I'm a little behind, but better late than never!
This particular weekend we made our semi-regular trip into the city to have lunch with Phil's family. This time it was over to the Vietnamese place on Grand Street. Kevin and Lucia joined us.


We ordered the fried Vietnamese egg rolls. The egg rolls always come with lettuce leaves and basil. I always used to think it was just for decoration, but apparently you're supposed to wrap the egg rolls in the lettuce when you eat it. Who knew?

As always we also ordered the customary beef and chicken curry dishes with bread. The best part is soaking the bread in the curry sauce.

And of course we ordered some pho soup noodles and some dry noodles with veggies.

Later that day, after we made our way back to NJ, I headed out to Madison to meet up with my book club. Just a small group of friends and friends of friends that get together about once a month (or at least try to) to talk about whatever book we happen to be reading. We normally get together at a place called the Atlanta Bread Company, which is kind of a Panera-style place where you can get sandwiches and other foods, and have dinner while we chat.

After our book club meeting I stopped by a Friendly's with two of my old highschool friends, Jamie and Justin, for some dessert. Here's Justin getting ready to chow down on his ridiculously huge peanut butter cup sundae. Looks yummy!