h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi all.We very rarely eat in when were in america,the food is so good,and so inexpensive compared to here.
My favourite restaurant...sizzlers!!!
They do a fantastic all you can eat breakfast,and a wonderful,as much as you want evening meal.We start the day with a breakfast if were out for the day,and round the day off with our evening meal,and take fruit with us in the cool bag.
Mmmm.looking forward to our next trip,sunshine,good food,and relaxing!!

I haven't been to Sizzler's since I was a little kid, they don't have them around here (and I don't eat meat). Some places are pretty inexpensive, I remember Sizzler being one of them, as are many family restaurants.

I'm kinda snobby and won't eat at chain restaurants- that's for yuppies and suburbanites.

Nearly forgot to answer Kaz's question about Mexican restaurants. I've never heard of a Mexican restaurant serving fajitas- that's TexMex and is usually only served at places like Chilis or the like. What I normally get when we go Mexican depends on which place. There's a place in K's old neighborhood (about 20 minutes from here) called El Cid, my favorite there is the mashed potato tacos. They're full of onion and cumin and cilantro. Their fish tacos are great, too! Fernando's is my favorite, I usually get veggie quesadillas (tortillas with melted cheese and grilled veg in between them). There's a place called El Tipico which makes Mexican soup (veg base with avocado, crumbled tortilla chips, cheese, cilantro and lime juice) or chile rellenos (hot peppers stuffed with cheese and then baked/grilled) to die for. I also have a soft spot for regular cheese quesadillas, fried plantains, and white rice smothered in recaito (green pepper, cilantro and onion sauce).

At home we sometimes have Smart Ground tacos- tonight we made them, as a matter of fact! Smart Ground with garlic and cumin stirred in, chopped black olives, homemade guacamole, grated cheeses, sour cream, lettuce and diced tomato. No onions- K doesn't like raw onion. They're quite tasty!

I haven't been out for Middle Eastern food in a while. Maybe this weekend? We had Greek recently, and do quite often- they make vegetarian dolmades and their spinach rice is exquisite!

'Nuff about food yet, eh? Hope I answered your question thoroughly enough, Kaz. I want you and Moonglum to know what you'll have in store when you visit Chicago. It'll be a few years till then, but at least you can get an idea what you'd like to do/eat, etc!

Mashed potato tacos, ooh bliss!!!!

Tonight, since it's end of month syndrome big style, i made a big pot of splodge (see the Recipe Central thread), Cat came round (er...and joined hootoo!; you will have to guess who she is!) and we gobbled it down with baked beans (Heinz of course, we have standards)

Washed down with a shared bottle of Desperados, must confess it's the first time i tried this, pleasantly surprised.

Yup, life hasn't been a bowl of cherries, but it's certainly not been boring Kaz! But thes in Pakistan & even worse the poors in Kuwait invasion break my heart still. Innocent animals victims of politics.

zdt

Terri, I feel for you having to leave your animals behind, I can't imagine having to do that myself.

PC I thought there must be a lot more to mexican food. Maybe you will get to go to Brazil later, fascinating country. I want to goto Costa Rica one day. I know what you mean about avoiding chains, but some chains have been started by just one restaurant that did well, like the Lebanese chain starting in London. A chain can be any restaurant which owns more than 1 site, I could never avoid chains! All the Japanese noodle and sushi places are chains.

I know what you mean about a good restaurant spreading and becoming a "chain", Kaz. I suppose I'd overlook a good restaurant that has more than one location, like El Barco, which has four. But I avoid stuff we have like Chilis and the Olive Garden and places like that, which have a dozen or more locations in every city: corporate restaurants, you know? Places which churn out really bland and phony food, and the suburbanites think they're being all "ethnic".

One of the biggest hints we've taken as to whether or not the restaurant we're in is "authentic" is the ratio of people of that particular ethnicity to yuppies. I once went to a very pricey Indian restaurant, there wasn't an Indian person in the place besides the staff, and the food was mediocre at best. The place near my house is frequented by Indian families, has spectacularly tasty food and costs about half what the other place did- at that fancier joint we'd forked over $18 an entree, a la carte.

Terri, I'm relating to the end of the month syndrome lately, last month especially, because I'm still owed three weeks' pay and then took those four days off when I quit the old job. That's a month's pay I'm short at this point. No wonder we ran short at the end of last month.

I think we're all right now, I should have a paycheck in the mail today or tomorrow, and if I get direct deposit set up, it'll go in on Mondays. So K and I should have enough to cover the rent and bills this month. Worst case scenario, I call Mastercard, explain the sitch, and get a week extension or a partial payment or something...

In fact, I should get paid twice before the rent is due, if I play my cards right.

Speaking of authentic Indian food...(well, Pakistani, actually), in about 20 minutes, I'm off here: A536546

It's not *quite* as described. And the Entry doesn't mention the pyrotechnic display from the guy cooking roti on a flame thrower.

Not the best in Glasgow. My favourite is The Ambala Sweet Centre on Maxwell St, opposite Mohammed Sarwar MP's Cash-n-Carry warehouse. The Ambala has about 3 formica tables and the 'menu' is written on those dayglo cardboard stars stuck on the wall. One of them declares the availability of 'Heart and Kidney Curry.'

Sounds yummy. Except for the heart and kidney curry!

I've found that quite often, it's the dodgy-looking little dives that have the best food. It's not always about ambience.

Te he! I used to go regularly to the original Village restaurant in Lahore, usually Imran & Jemima & co would be there, it's actually a pretty upmarket resto there.

Ladypool Road in Brum is centre of the balti belt, there's an Ambala there too, Saleems is popular (John Peel always went there if he was in Brum) & the Butt has the hottest dhal on earth!

All were lino & formica jobs last time i was there, may have changed by now, i shall have to google & bit...

In general the French cannot handle curry at all, i have made grown men weep (*resist the temptation PC!!!!)
Just met up with some people i knew years back, moved here from Brum & have started a restaurant/bar & we may get together & do curry nights; Terri puts hat back on!

zdt

Link to a genuine Pakistani site where (if you know what they are talking about) you will end up drooling! Very nostalgic for me, i know all the Lahore places *very* well!!



http://www.paklinks.com/gs/archive/index.php/t-109195.html

zdt

We did Greek this evening. I had "macaronada", baked macaroni with grated bachemel cheese. With batzaria- pickled beets with oregano and skordalia. And a couple glasses of Roditys, which is why I can't type straight tonight.

We popped into the Planet of Sound, and got a CD for K (didn't pay attention to which) and a DVD of "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" for $5. I got myself the Tom Tom Club CD (oh, what a couple glasses of wine does to my brain ) and a $2 CD of the orange "Trainspotting" soundtrack album.

I hate all the electronic stuff on the soundtrack, but there's a few cool tunes. It's worth about $2.

K's fallen asleep on the couch, snuggled in with Herman, and I'm not ready for bed yet now that I've had two glasses of Roditys and 2/3 of this bottle of Chimay Premiere.

Terri your new friends from Brummie sound promising. I never knew you worked as a chef, I don't think I know much about you at all!

PC yep the people in a restaurant tell you a lot about it. In our local Yo Sushi, we see people from every culture there is, so that seems encouraging. They have an offer on weekdays so Moonglum takes one day off a month for us to take advantage of it.

I love getting good books and cds on offer, got a great one for £4 the other day, its a nice feeling!

I doubt that anyone on earth knows everything, i have done so many things; maybe jack of all trades; master of none? Honestly, i have just finally done my CV & it is bizarre, even if i try & make it sound respectable (ie: self employed musician/charity fundraising = busking)

Talking Heads & Beck just disappeared into the local CD shop, 5$ for the two...yes, it's an absolute pi**er when you have to sell your, the only consolation being that other folks can buy it a bit cheaper than at a normal record store.

I can honestly say i have never eaten japanese food. I am put off by the idea of sushi, cold sticky rice doesn't turn me on at all, & being fairly strict veggie (ie: no ) i doubt there would be much i could eat? Maybe i am wrong, do tell...is it much like Chinese or Thai cuisine? It all looks very beautiful though "too nice to eat" syndrome!

zdt

It's crap having to sell CDs you actually want to keep (although I think you did yourself a favor flogging Beck ). We've lost some nearly irreplaceable stuff that way. I'll make it a little easier on you by sending copies of a couple of Talking Heads CDs out with your reggae stuff. Most of my Heads stuff is on vinyl, but K has two CDs and I have the double-CD "Best Of" set, will send those out to you within a couple of weeks or so, OK?

K actually suggested I send you copies of some of his "real" reggae stuff as opposed to my ska box set anthology thingy. So if you don't like it when it gets there, it's he who's responsible.

I love Japanese food. Except for sushi- which is actually available in a vegan form made from soy instead of fish!- it's actually very veggie-friendly. I make a wickedly good Udon (soup) of my own with tofu in. And I have bags and bags of edamame in the freezer for blanching. Yummo!! I'll see if I can find some ideas of Japanese food for you, Terri. It's not all that different from Chinese, or Thai really, although it's usually not spicy.

OK, quick weekend rehash before I settle in for the evening's festivities.

Let's see, Friday night was Greek food, retail therapy, and that's about it. Yesterday we had lunch at Ann Sather's (yummy egg/tomato benedict!), went to the bank and the health food store (Trader Joe's) for some odds and ends. Watched "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", which K found on DVD for himself on Friday evening. Nice and relaxing.

Woke up around 6:00 AM with the screaming squits, so that was the morning, till about 11:00 or so. Watched some bizarre children's program on PBS, then went out for a light nibble and to get me a couple of house plants. Came back and watched "Diva", a really cool film! Dunno what we'll do between now and when Law & Order CI starts at 9:00, but I think I have an idea or two.

That's about it for my weekend. Hope y'all have had fun, too! I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone's been up to.

Hi PCandy, I LOVE Diva, that is a GREAT movie.

I am a little down tonight because I have been studying a music program and my sister brought over some sheet music for me -- and the sheet music is all too hard! Makes me doubt the progress I have made with the software program. *sigh*

Don't doubt your progress yet. I played piano for 12 years without sheet music, and there's not a single member of either of K's bands who can read or write sheet music. Sometimes you can learn quite well by ear. So your software program might turn out to be a better way for you to learn than by sheet music. Don't be discouraged!

Stomach's feeling better today, which is good- I'd hate to have to commute downtown with a freaky stomach.

Weather's cooled off to normal for this time of year- upper 80s/lower 90s- so it's not so uncomfortable getting to and from work. I miss being able to wear jeans though, instead of "office casual". I hate spending good money for clothes that are worn only for work, Such a waste of hard-earned money that I could be spending on stuff I enjoy.

Speaking of work clothes, I'd better finish getting into min and get outta here!

Hi all.I haven't had chance toread all the backlog....and ..i have to be honest here,i don't know enough about various foods from other countries,to be able to comment.I think where i live we have more curry houses than anything though!
As for reading musicI took piano lessons from the age of eight,until i was fifteen,and learned to read sheet music.I would find it a real struggle now,and i dont think i could play the piano if i tried!
Glad you're feeling better PC,"tummy things" are horrid,aren't they.
Hope everyone's well,and happy!!s

Hiya Smurfles!

Tummy thing was awful, still not feeling completely better yet. But I'll live!

Hi to everyone! Hope the week is being kind to you all.

Is the tum better yet? Was it what you ate (the eggy thing maybe?) or a virus thing? Or just maybe a reaction to stress stuff...i tend to get the trots if i am stressed out.

What sort of plants did you buy? I have quite a display now outside my door, spilling out onto the street; Michel got me a jasmine plant for my birthday last year , it was only about 6" tall & is now trailing up & all round the window! Plus; petunia, succulents, cactus,, coleus, plant(Eric!)marigolds, begonias,nasturtiums & obviously herbs! I find it odd that nobody else in this little street bothers growing plants; maybe it's an English thing?

Having said that, i was amused the other day, English tourists passing by "oh look, aren't the French artistic, you'd never see that back in England would you?"

zdt