Category: food

Tonight’s dinner is an imported tin of Heinz Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce (purchased from the clearance food section at Meijer) and a bottle of Guinness Extra Stout making for a particularly contrived “British” meal. The spaghetti is not great, but better than the typical super-salty Chef Boyardee canned pasta that one normally finds here in the US.

The scum around the edge of the bowl is the result of my following the prescribed microwave heating directions of heating on high for two minutes, stirring, and then heating for another two minutes on high. Apparently the average US microwave is more powerful than the average British microwave, as this caused the sauce to boil over saturating the paper towel covering the bowl and spilling down the sides.

I think I’ll finish off some leftover pizza after this.

By lunch time today I was having an off day and not feeling so well, so I wanted a good lunch. I headed over to Kruse and Muer in the Village, one of the restaurants founded (in part) by the late Chuck Muer. I’d never been to this location, but knowing as the restaurants are known for their mid-priced high quality food I figured that I couldn’t go wrong. I ended up having some very tasty coconut encrusted flounder with a sweet corn and dried cherry couscous, prefixed with a wonderful gazpacho and fresh poppy seed covered bread. I’d originally entertained the idea of dessert, but found myself a bit too full and passed on that idea.

As per my quite-frequent desire of having time to sit and think (and relax) I ate alone, enjoying the food and occasionally reading a few blogs via my phone. Unlike some people I have very little problem eating alone, particularly if I’m wanting to disconnect from work and other mentally taxing tasks. There are few things I find as refreshing as spending some time alone doing something enjoyable (like eating and reading), completely forgetting about responsibilities for a while. If I’m able to disconnect and relax for a few minutes I can jump back into work and find it fresh and exciting.

Not long after getting back to work I came across this Metafilter post that simply links to this Tumblr blog, table for one, a photo blog comprised solely of surreptitiously acquired photos of people eating alone.

This morning I ate a cup of Wallaby Organic Yogurt which Danielle purchased on clearance at VG’s. While tasty, I was a bit confused by the printing on the lid claiming that it’s inspired by “Australian yogurts”. Prior to this I’d never heard of such a thing, and apparently I’m not the only one confused by this designation.

I figure that this wording is simply a way of making a food sound more interesting by implying that it’s foreign. After all, foreign foods are better; especially those from exotic lands like Australia.

The avocado that I purchased yesterday from Whole Foods to eat today for breakfast is bad. It’s weirdly stringy, tastes salty, and is of an overall not-avocado color. Oh well. I guess that’s why they were 10 for $10.

No breakfast avocado for me, I guess. At least the peach that was purchased at the same time is good.

Last night Danielle and I went out to Aurelio’s Italian Grill, located in an old car wash at 19 Mile and Garfield in Clinton Township, stuck between a Wendy’s and National Coney Island. While the location seemed a bit strange at first, the narrow building and large number of windows made it feel bright and comfortable inside, all without much artificial light being needed.

Between the four of us we ordered the following minestrone soup, tortellini soup, Italian salad, fettuccine alfredo, spaghetti w/ meatballs, spinach & ricotta rigatoni, and chicken cremosi. All of the food was excellent, and very clearly well made. Portions were immense, with each of us bringing home more food than we ate during our meals. The photo above (and here) shows three dishes after we ate our fill of them, and here is the remains of Danielle’s chicken cremosi. Most of this should reheat well making for outstanding lunches. Prices are also quite reasonable, as for the four of us our total ended up being just under $60, including $10 in tip.

The only bad thing I could say is that the website for Aurelio’s Italian Grill seems to require both IE and the Windows Media Player ActiveX plugin to view the menu. Still, even if you can’t check out the menu before you go, give this place a try. If you’re wanting some nice Italian and live in the area, you’d do well to give this place a try.

Sometimes I put the pizza on the plate backwards, making it harder for my right-handed self to eat as cutting with the edge of the fork gets my hand very close to the other piece.

(This pizza is from Sherwood Brewing Company, purchased on Wednesday evening and eaten as leftovers at work both yesterday and today.)

On Saturday after picking up the VooDoo Dambala Danielle and I swung by Zingerman’s Roadhouse for lunch. Underestimating its size we had the Chili and Cheddar Fries (described as Our ancho beef chuck chili over hand-cut, twice cooked fries with our grated 2-year-raw-milk Vermont cheddar, as seen above) for an appetizer. It was very good, but unexpectedly large. I think we both expected to receive half as much food.

Danielle then ordered the BBQ Pork Entree with the Eastern North Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce (described as Now using Chef Alex’s Cornman Farms hogs, direct from Dexter. Traditional whole hog barbeque made with local hogs delivered direct from the farm. It’s pit smoked for 14 hours, hand pulled, chopped and blended with your choice of barbeque sauce. Served with mashed local potatoes and Southern-style braised greens) which can be seen here: photo. I had the grilled cheese made with a 7-year old aged cheddar and a cup of cream of mushroom soup (photo) along with an Asylum (photo), a mixed drink made from gin, Pernod, and grenadine.

Despite being extremely good neither of us could finish our meals, so we went home with a quite substantial portion of leftovers. I hadn’t been to the Roadhouse prior to this trip, and I was quite impressed. Service was great, food was better (and cheaper) than I’d expected, and it’s quite nice inside. I definitely want to go back there.