A couple of weeks ago, B and I hit the road with Lindsay and Padraig. Our destination? Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT. Our goal? Lunch at Bobby’s Burger Palace and dinner at Bar Americain. It was to be our very own Bobby Flay Day (as opposed to the non-existent national holiday in Chef Flay’s honor). After my trip to Vegas in August and my meal at Mesa Grill, I became a Bobby Flay convert. Lindsay and I have been planning this trip since we learned that Bar Americain opened last November. We wanted to give it a few months to work out the “new restaurant” kinks, so we could be assured a great experience. And our trip was finally upon us!
Our first stop was Bobby’s Burger Palace. I know that burger joints are the new “in” thing for celebrity chef’s to do, and I was expecting a casual but up-scale dining experience –similar to Hubert Keller’s Burger Bar in Vegas (casual atmosphere, upscale burgers). What I was not expecting was an upscale cafeteria experience. You have to stand in line, single file, to order your meal – burgers, sides, drinks. You pay, you get a number. Then you find your own seat. When your food is ready, it is brought to you. I don’t know what happens if you decide you want another beer, because we chose not to say. The dining area was pretty full, and the line was pretty long. We were hungry and we didn’t want to take the chance that we wouldn’t be able to find seats after we paid for our food, so we decided to eat somewhere else.
I would tell you where we ended up getting lunch, but it was so forgettable I barely remember having lunch at all that day.
Since the primary motivation for the trip was to eat dinner at Bar Americain, we weren’t too broken up about missing out on the Burger Palace experience. And dinner was definitely worth the trip. We started with some raw bar – oysters and cherrystones. Our entrees ran the gamut of the red meat selection – Lindsay and Padraig both got steaks, B got lamb and I got venison. I’ve never had venison before, and it may have been risky to order it for the first time in an expensive restaurant where I was dying for a great meal. But it was good… oh, very good. It reminded me of roast beef. Yummy. For sides, Padraig got Brussels sprouts, Lindsay got some kind of cauliflower gratin, and B and I shared some creamed spinach and mushrooms. All the food was delicious, and the only thing worth pointing out as unusual was that the sides were definitely portioned for one person, but the entrees were big enough to share.
In my experience, a la carte sides tend to be at least big enough for two people (if not more), and the entrees are not huge. I shared my venison with everyone at the table and still couldn’t finish all that was on my plate. But when I stole a Brussels sprout from Paddy’s dish while he was in the bathroom, I literally had to re-mix the dish so it wasn’t obvious that something was missing. I’m not kidding.
All in all, it was a great restaurant – the food was delicious, oddly sized portions notwithstanding, and the service was great. I would definitely eat there again.
Later that week, B and I had dinner at Legal Seafood. Since it is Lent, and I choose to obey the “don’t eat meat on Fridays” rule, Legal’s has been our Friday night restaurant of choice. Plus, they serve Old Salt Ale by Harpoon. Not sure what I like more – the beer, or the salt and lemon with which it’s served. (I actually think it’s the salt and lemon.) B tends to order off the specials menu at Legal’s, and I attempt to choose a lighter, healthier option (I’m not always successful in following through on this plan, but I arrive with all the best intentions). This time around, I got the wood grilled scallops. I’ve had these at Legal’s before, and have never been disappointed. We started with the mussels, which are always a hit. The first few were good. Then I got one that felt a little undercooked. I remember someone saying once that you are never as sick as you are when you eat bad mussels, so I was reluctant to eat more than a few. When our entrees arrived, I was a little surprised that the scallops were bay scallops (the smaller ones) and not sea scallops (the bigger ones). I like them both, but I strongly prefer sea scallops. I would never order wood grilled bay scallops – as far as I’m concerned, bay scallops should only be served in a casserole dish covered in a butter sauce topped with bread crumbs (or on a pizza with bacon – trust me, it’s delicious). And to make matters worse, they weren’t that good. They also tasted a tad undercooked. I didn’t finish those either.
Normally, undercooked or raw seafood isn’t an issue for me. But since B and I were leaving for Mexico the next day, I didn’t want to take any chances of waking up with seafood-itis.
Yes, that’s right… we were off to Cancun. ‘Tis the season for spring breakers, so we made sure we stayed at an adults only, higher end all-inclusive resort outside of the main Cancun area. The resort was amazing – a Caribbean paradise in Playa Mujeres. The resort included eight restaurants featuring a variety of cuisines, and I was anxious to try as many as possible. We arrived Saturday afternoon, and were leaving Tuesday morning. That got us 9 meals, and therefore 9 opportunities to try some new food.
As it so happens, Saturday was B’s birthday (Happy Birthday, B – I love you, baby!!!) so he got to choose where we ate our first dinner. (Lunch was a quick sandwich with chips and salsa… salsa good, chips weird.) B chose Chez Isabelle, the French restaurant. We got the tasting menu, and a couple extra appetizers (I was so getting my money’s worth out of this all-inclusive price tag). The starters were okay, and I thought the entrée – chateau briand – was better than average. For dessert, we got some very rich chocolate cake and a serenade of “Happy Birthday” for B. Very sweet. All in all, the meal was pretty good.
But it was all downhill from there…
The next morning for breakfast I got the Huevos Rancheros and B got the Huevos Something Else (I can’t remember… truthfully, I want to forget). The eggs weren’t that bad, but the more I thought about them the worse they got. For lunch and dinner, I had about 27 margaritas at the swim up bar. (I can’t say this enough – Victor, our swim up bar bartender, you are a very bad man. Mucho mal hombre. Yeah, I know, my Spanish is not bueno.) Since I was inoccupado (which is Spanish for passed out and/or throwing up) for the rest of that afternoon, night and into the following morning, B got the opportunity to try out the room service. He got a turkey club sandwich which he said was okay, and then an American breakfast which was pretty good. If you are ever in Mexico and find yourself hung over, take note – ginger ale is an impossible find. We couldn’t even get some at the bar. It made my recovery awfully difficult, but I have no one to blame but myself (and Victor).
The next night we decided to try the tapas restaurant for dinner. Not so good. We bailed fairly early in the meal and opted to try the buffet. After circling the entire buffet and having only sautéed zucchini on my plate, we knew we were pretty SOL as far as getting a good meal that night.
Interestingly enough, the best food we had in Mexico was at the Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville Restaurant in the Cancun airport. Kind of a shame, but at least we had some food to remember fondly. (And I will try for the rest of my life to duplicate that fresh guacamole.)
The day after our return trip home was St. Patrick’s Day. In true Irish fashion, I threw some food in a pot and boiled it. Dinner is served. All kidding aside, it’s just not St. Patrick’s Day without corned beef and cabbage (and carrots, and potatoes) with a side of Irish soda bread and Guinness. We were desperate for a home cooked meal by this point (at least I was), and since really all I needed to do was throw the stuff in a pot and boil it, this was a no brainer. And it tasted oh-so-good.
The rest of the week didn’t include many highlights or lowlights food wise, so fast forward to today… I have made my first attempt at duplicating that fantastic guacamole, and it’s in the fridge with the flavors blending and developing as I write. For dinner tonight, I’m making a pasta dish based on a recipe I got from Lindsay. I mentioned this to Lindsay this morning and she has no recollection of the recipe I am talking about. I remember the dish being really good both hot and cold, so if all goes well tonight there should be some good leftovers too. I’m making some slight variations to the recipe, so I want to try it out before I share the details. But since I’ve been the absentee blogger as of late, I will share a mid-week update on the success or failure of Penne a la Lindsay.
Bon appétit!
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