Weekend Eats

This has been somewhat of a slow weekend. Tara's been in severe pain with cramps, so she's been very immobile this weekend. Yesterday she spent in bed, so I went to find something to eat. I thought about going to Stacy's, but I had a feeling she'd be VERY unhappy if I went alone. After some thought, I decided to try Humble Pie again. Tara's not a pizza fan, so she could care less if I went alone.

I got there about 4pm and they were pretty empty. One table of four, four or five people sitting at the bar seats, and some people seated outside. When the hostess asked how many and I said one, she pointed to the bar, but I asked for one of the four-seat high-tops. She said they were only for groups of four. I looked at the empty restaurant and said "You're kidding." She looked around and mumbled something about it not being busy so I could sit there if I wanted. Gee, thanks. Service was kind of slow but eventually I ordered the pistachios, roasted leek, shaved red onion, and parmesan pizza and a half Romaine and celery hearts Caesar with torn grilled sourdough croutons.

The salad arrived after a short wait. It was absolutely covered in finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano and that added a great flavor. It was perfectly dressed. Each piece was liberally covered in dressing, but not swimming with it. A cheesecloth-wrapped lemon wedge was on the side. I squeezed a bit of lemon juice and dove in. It was a really good salad. The dressing, cheese, and lemon all combined to form a flavor that really hit home. The lettuce and celery was chilled and crisp. A really good Caesar, although how traditional it is, I don't know. I do know I enjoyed it. That's all that matters, right? :)

The pizza was very similar in description of Pizzeria Bianco's Rosa: Red Onion, Parmigiano Reggiano, Rosemary, AZ Pistachios. I could see it sitting near the oven for quite a while before it was brought to my table. Considering how slow it was, it was a good guess it was mine. Despite the wait, it was still too hot to eat, so it's not a big deal. It, too, was very good. The crust was a bit blackened in spots, but that's not unusual for the fired pizzas. It wasn't as good as the Rosa. The primary reason seems to be that Reggiano wasn't used. The Rosa's cheese was nicely crisped, so it had that amazing flavor that Reggiano gets when baked. This pizza was missing that. It still had very good flavor and I finished the whole thing, but my hopes of finding a good Rosa substitute were dashed.

Overall, it was definitely a good meal. The pizza only suffers if compared to the PB version, but then, most do. I still enjoy the pizza and if I have other Tara-free days, it's certainly on my list of options.

Since Tara was homebound, I decided to be a nice boyfriend and stopped by Mr. Greek to grab her some hummus and a couple pitas. I'm happy to say it was still excellent and possibly the equal to Shish Kebab House's version. Tara made short work of it.

Today she was feeling better so we headed to JP Pancake. We hadn't been there since the unfortunate incident when she got her new car back in December. We got there just before noon and noticed they had a sign saying they were closing early today at noon. Tara and I debated trying to eat, but I went in and Rachel told me we were good to go. The other waitress said we were "grandfathered" in. It's good to be known by the waitstaff I guess. :)

Tara had their cinnamon French Toast with bacon and I had the Sunrise Breakfast (two pancakes, two eggs, and sausage). As usual, it was great and we were both happy. The table next to us had three soccer mom types at it who were (scarily) probably my age. They were talking about iTunes, iPods, burning LPs to CDs on their Bang & Olufsen (must be nice) stereo. It just seemed very funny to me to hear them speaking geek. At one point, the word "blowjob" was very audible, but unfortunately neither Tara or I caught the rest of that particular discussion thread.

The highlight of the weekend was my visit to Target before going to Humble Pie. I was waiting for them to fill a prescription and all of a sudden I heard shouting and fighting near the entrance. Along with most people, I headed that way and saw some guys attempting to subdue someone just outside the doors. The plainclothes security guy eventually got the very unwilling guy into some handcuffs. He apparently tried leave the store with a 22" Westinghouse TV and a large quantity of two-piece women's bathing suits. It seemed like a very daring choice of wardrobe for a somewhat scary looking, disheveled individual. I'm pretty sure he won't need to worry about a TV for a while.