Total Dinner Bummer!

Just returned from a most underwhelming tapas dinner at a new place we were trying out, Cafe Marbella.

In my experience, it's pretty hard to go wrong with tapas. I was clearly mistaken. The food was ok but nothing special, the service wasn't so swift (we had to ask for bread and water more than once) and the place is so LOUD, it was actually a little assaulting.

I'm always disappointed, because our dinner outings are less frequent nowadays in this frugal new world, when we don't have a good experience when we go out.

Total dinner bummer!

Easter Indulgences

Easter is fast approaching and I've taken a mad fit in my head to do something a little Eastery. Brunch that is. . .Easter Brunch. Let's just see if I can actually get some people to show up.

While it's a strictly Christian celebration ("He is Risen" and all that), I'm thinking about getting yummy lox and bagels from one of those great Jewish delis in Skokie, plus make an egg casserole, fruit salad, freshly-baked cinnamon rolls or coffee cake. Oh yeah, and Bellinis. I love a good Bellini. It's making me hungry just thinking about it.

Which of course is not good for my diet. I lost no weight this past week, but thankfully didn't gain any either. My possibly-pregnant-but-not nausea combined with pre-period hormonal cravings had me eating some un-point friendly offerings last week. I went a little crazy with the cream cheese and freshly baked whole grain bread if the truth be told. Crazy.

Now though, it's back on the wagon. Counting points and dreaming of Easter morning indulgences. Just keep those damned but so, so delicious Cadbury mini eggs away from me. They are like kryptonite to my super dieting self. I curse you Cadbury.

Worn Down and It's Only Monday

Up again working until 2:30 am this morning and then back downtown to client's office 7.5 hours later. I clocked just under 65 hours of work last week.

I know I'm being really boring and repetitive about my stupid "Secret Project." BUT I AM TIRED!

Only one more day to go and it probably won't take the whole day. Maybe a couple of hours on Wednesday morning at the worst. I'm actually hoping to get a full night's sleep tonight. What a treat.

No work this evening though. Going to book club. It's all about the Oprah Webcast for her new book club selection, "A New Earth." Very enlightening. In fact, I could use some enlightening right about now. And a BIG nap! Maybe even a BIG drink.

Highlight of the weekend (the only time I wasn't working or getting limited sleep), Craze and I went to the trendy sushi spot Bob San. It was pretty good, but not as good as I remember. That said, I'm thankful to say that there were no digestive side effects from consumption. Bad sushi on a train! Bad! Sushi on a regular plate delivered by waitress, good.

Double Yum Not Such Fun

Ok, my title is not entirely true. The experience was fun. The aftermath, not so much.

After driving out to Arlington Heights to our strip-mall destination, Sushi Station, we dove into the conveyor-belt-coming, sushi-grabbing, yum-yumminess of it all with reckless abandon. Unfortunately, several things we wanted to eat never came around on the belt and when we asked the somewhat surly Japanese waitress if we could just order them, she told us to wait for them to come around on the belt. Huh?

Finally, we gave up hope on the shrimp tempura and futo maki rolls steaming their way towards us while we indulged instead in Boston, San Diego, California, Texas and other geographically anointed rolls.

I even broke a cardinal rule of the belt by taking something off and then hurriedly putting it right back on. Here's a tip: unless they explicitly tell you it's chicken tempura don't be surprised when it turns out to be jellied squid salad. YUCK!

Craze was engrossed in the conversation to our right between a couple of 16-year-olds on a date. The girl was blond and lovely, with exaggerated Amy Winehouse maquiage. Her dinner companion was a gangly and somewhat dorky looking guy (bless him). Between the two of them, they discussed the merits of early versus later episodes of Rugrats and their hopes for the future. He wants to be a stand-up comedian. Ms. Winehouse's alter ego said that she may pursue psychology at college or just go to cosmetology school.

They were quite a hoot as they tried to make the best of the evening before their stated 11pm curfew. Sadly, then they left and soon, too, did we.

Since Craze had indulged in a really big bottle of Japanese beer, I took the wheel headed back to Chi-town. It was not long after hitting the highway, that I realized that something wasn't quite right in the stomach department. Needless to say, pulling up to the garage finally nearing home, I jumped out of the car, left Craze to park it and made a run for the house. I'll spare you the gory details only to say that much quality time was spent in our downstairs WC and I've been downing Pepto Bismal tablets ever since. And damn, people, I didn't even eat the jellied squid salad!

Something was clearly awry with our meal selections. As a result, my opinion of sushi on a train may have been derailed I fear. . . at least for the time being.

Double Yum!

Last night Craze, our friend Thea and I went to a dance performance. Dance is not something that usually falls into our set of entertainment considerations, all a little too high-faluting and la-dee-da. But, we went because Thea's client's mom is the head of the dance company and scored us free tickets.

Aside from it being a rather lengthy endeavour (nine separate performances over a two-hour span), it was pretty entertaining. It's not something I would seek out, but I really enjoyed it (even if they could have shortened it up a bit). And I was totally envious of the buff dancers bods. Wow--lithe and muscly at the same time.

By the time we exited the Athenaeum Theater, it was 10:05 pm and we were all starving. Much discussion took place about the eating options at that late hour. Thai, sushi, Ethiopian, Colombian, Vietnamese, middle-eastern. . .aye yaye yaye. Finally, we decided to try one of our fave Lebanese places that we hoped would be open. Thankfully, they didn't close until 11 pm, so we enjoyed a delicious assortment of chicken soltani, tabouli, hummus, falafel, kibbie, pita and on and on. We ate a LOT, but it was so good.

Other than that, we've spent a lot of time in the past week (and again this morning because of the results of the ritual morning thermometer reading) trying to impregnate me. Time will tell if it's working this month. I'm hopeful. At 43, I finally feel that being a parent would be a great thing and something I would not only enjoy but I feel I now have the insight to actually be a pretty great parent. Fingers crossed.

Tonight it's off to Sushi Station, this cool sushi place out in the northern burbs where the sushi comes around on sort of a train track and you grab what you want off the conveyor belt. There's nothing I like better than the thrill of scoping out your favorite maki roll as it hurtles towards you and scooping it up before someone else does. The thrill of victory combined with a culinary delight. Double yum!

Saturday Sushi Left a Bad Taste in Our Mouths

Craze and I went out to dinner last night and it was a BIG disappointment. Going out for dinner is a big thing for me, since I cook every night. I really look forward to having one delicious meal a week that someone else slaves away in the kitchen preparing.

Also, since money has been tight lately, we've been going to places we know that are less spendy. My absolute faves at the moment are an Ethiopian place called Blue Nile up in a tiny strip mall on the north side of the city and Houagh Lough (which I think I totally spelled wrong), a Vietnamese joint on the far north side with the yummiest beef you've ever tasted. Just thinking about them both is making my mouth water!

But alas, last night, I was in the mood for sushi. So, we went back to a place we haven't been for a while, a place on Western Avenue next to the El trains and near Lincoln Village called Thai Oscar. About a year or so ago, Craze and I went there almost weekly. We've taken friends and family there who all marveled at their modestly priced, yet super delicious maki selections--especially the veggie tempura role which has historically been my favorite roll of all time.

But last night, after the very brown, verging on black with overcooking, and largely flavorless egg rolls, I remembered what I'd forgotten. We stopped going there because the food totally lost its zing last year. We had a couple of meals that were ok, but just no where near as good as they had been. And last night was the third strike in my book.

Beyond our almost burnt appetizers, the maki we ordered all tasted the same. It didn't matter if it was a spicy tuna, ebi shrimp or, my former fave, the veggie tempura roll, it all tasted mediocre and oddly similar. Even I, not claiming the culinary detective skills of someone like Gordon Ramsay, could tell that they hadn't changed their frying oil in too long and everything with a deep-fried ingredient had an oily, slightly bitter, rancid taste. Fifty dollars later, that bad taste in my mouth just turned to disappointment and annoyance.

I was pissed that their prices has gone up for such totally marginal food (our bill at the delicious Blue Nile comes in under $30). And I was even madder that I've been saving Weight Watchers points all week specifically for this dinner outing. My calorie cache had been wasted and I would have to wait yet another week for my palette to be satiated with something less than super healthy. Arrgh!

At least a trip to the movies was planned for after dinner and that did not disappoint. We saw the Spanish film "The Orphanage" which was both atmospheric and edge-of-your-seat scary (even though you never saw any real carnage like your garden variety horror movies). Really worth watching, just don't go alone!