On the Road Again

We drop off Adam at the airport and drive 9 hours from Clemson to Jacksonville!
















Image courtesy of CuteOverload.com.




We arrive in Jacksonville, check into our swankified riverfront hotel, and walk to dinner at River City Brewing Co.

Tonight's Beer-O-Meter guest judge, Pammy:



She tries the Pale Ale.












It's mild with the tiniest hint of hoppiness. She thinks Trish would give this a decent rating.











Pam really likes it!














Tonight's second guest judge, Wisa!

Wisa hates beer. More than Trish. I mean, Wisa hates beer more than Trish hates beer.

Agh. You know what I mean.




The point is that this is the first time I've ever seen Wis try one.

She hates it.








And now, we move on to appetizers...











Alex, good Boy that he is, orders the fried 'gator tails.


















Hmphm. Chewy...













... and yes, it does taste like chicken.











Even mostly-vegan Yurika tries one. She does eat fish, and this could be considered a sort of four-legged fish, I guess.








This has to be better than that strange crab rangoon thing, right?











Eh. Not bad.














Entrees! Yurika wins the prize for prettiest entree: shrimp & veggie tempura.

I get the gumbo, Franco gets the jambalaya, and Alex gets mahi with maple creamed corn & crispy risotto cake. It's all pretty good - nicely seasoned, good balance of textures, and pleasantly plated.

Minor complaint: the asiago toast that came with my gumbo was stale. Not that big 'a deal.




Dessert! Even though Alex is ready to burst (since he had the 'gator, his mahi, and some of Franco's jambalaya & my gumbo), I talk him into ordering the coconut and pineapple creme brulee.

And he doesn't even like coconut.

Luckily for him, the only coconut in it was sprinkled on top and easily picked off. The custard was a little overcooked but had a lovely pineapple flavor.

Adventure THIS

Trying Japanese food in South Carolina is the very definition of adventure. We could go to another pub-like place, but instead, we throw caution to the wind and go to Tokyo Japanese Steak House.

The menu is promising. Lots of selections, and all of the Japanese words are spelled correctly and used in the appropriate context. The green tea, which is loose-leaf, comes in individual pots.

Wisa gets the curry, thinking that it's a safe bet. This is what she gets:





Tofu & veggies stir-fried in curry powder.

Hm. Technically, I guess it is curry.












Those triangle-shaped things are a kind of crab rangoon (yes, I know that's not Japanese, but I want to cut this place some slack). Who doesn't like deep-fried crabby things? Well, it turns out we don't, especially when they're filled with what appears to be a combination of sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese.

Franco gets the tonkatsu.


















Adam and I both get the yakiudon, which really turns out to be yakisoba. Small portions with lots of onions & salty teri-like sauce. Not great; not terrible.
















It was definitely better than we expected, and considering its location, Tokyo Japanese Steak House is doing a decent job. Am I going to go back? Heck, no. But on a scale of 1 (Hy-Vee salad bar) to 10 (Mustard's), I'd give this place a respectable 6.

Break out the red pen

Compare & contrast two university publications -

An example of good editing:



Now, I am not tooting our own horn here, because this blurb was ever so slightly edited by the good people here at Clemson U.

All they did was tweak maybe three or four words, but it was done quite well.



An example of bad editing:

San Jose marches to its own beat
(excerpts from Wesleyan University's newspaper)

By (a Wesleyan student, I assume)

As the lights came up on the Crowell Concert Hall stage last Friday, the silence was broken with one mighty, ringing beat from a Taiko drum. Throughout the evening that drum and a dozen others like it produced a myriad of sounds—beats with a pattering quality like rain or with a hoove-like insistence that clacked, pounded, and boomed. The members of the San Jose Taiko Company took their audience on a percussive tour de force, performing traditional Japanese Taiko drumming with a modern twist...

These rhythms were used throughout the concert to perform pieces inspired by various ideas and cultural components, including globalization, cultural unity, and the Asian-American experience. In their expression of these ideas, the performers made use of high-intensity drumming, high-energy martial-arts-inspired choreography, and a hypnotic communal vigor that kept the audience mesmerized and yearning for more...

Some pieces built their drumming into a textured tapestry of sound, while others emphasized a lone drum or flute. Regardless of instrumentation, the performance was an unrelentingly full-body, full-energy affair—at one point a drummer's vehemence caused his headband to fly off mid-song. As one watched the performers leap, jump, and kick in carefully-choreographed sequences, it was not difficult to understand why the performance's program noted that company members are expected to keep in top physical shape as part of the rehearsal regimen: the fervor needed to transport an audience the way San Jose Taiko did left all the performers grinning and soaked with sweat by the end of the night...


Hm. Not a lot of editing going on at Wesleyan, I see. I don't expect student writing to be all that great, and I appreciate the enthusiasm of this reporter, but where's the grammar police when you need them? In this blogger's humble opinion, most of the burden is on the school paper's editor to fix the awkward language, bad punctuation, and the general Mickey Mouse-ness of the story.

This is not to say that this blogger isn't guilty of similar mistakes, lest she become the snarkee (instead of the snarker), but if one is paying serious beans for a college edumacation, one would hope to have a more involved editor.

I ain't sayin... I'm just sayin'.

Anatomy of a Salad

Three distinctly different salad-eaters offer their Ruby Tuesday's salad bar strategies.



Yurika, the mostly-vegan:

Mesclun greens, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, beets, garbanzos (garbanzi?), lots of sunflower seeds, and balsamic vinaigrette.
















Wisa, the mostly-carnivorous:

Lettuce, broccoli, cheddar, carrots, edamame, portobellos, bacon, & honey mustard dressing.
With a mini-cheeseburger chaser.













Meg, the mostly-omnivorous:

The obligatory mesclun, beets, cherry tomats, red onion, edamame, carrots, broccoli, garbanzi (garbanzos?), sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and enough bacon to qualify it as the Main Ingredient. All covered in honey mustard dressing.




There were also some prefab salads in the bar: potato, pasta, bean, etc. salads. They strike me as the place where the old, tired veggies go after they're deemed too unattractive to stand on their own.

But, hey - no complaints from me. Loyal readers will compare this salad bar favorably to the one at Hy-Vee's in Iowa. Oy veh.

Summing up the snacks

A certain Loyal Reader and sometime guest star has expressed concern over the apparent lack of adventurous eating on the part of the author - to which the author says, heck if I'm going to be the one ordering fried 'gator. That job would go to The Boy (aka Alex), who still seems to be under the impression that I am the boss of him - at least when Wisa's not around.

So I shall sum up our most recent (if mundane) snacking adventures:




Clearwater:

Alex & Pam both get the brisket @ Smokey Bones BBQ. It was covered in a spice rub, which she liked. But Franco claimed it wasn't the proper Texan way to make brisket.












Verdict: On hold, pending comparison of Texas-style brisket.









Mama Fu's, a pan-asian fast-foody sort of place. Not great, but not terrible. The Chinese lunch we had in Wisconsin was much, much worse.

Yu & I both get the spicy Thai Basil Noodles with smoked tofu. Not a lot of basil, but plenty hot & with lots of tofu.









PJ gets the Pho. Certainly not authentic - no tripe or side of basil. She says it's okay.

Verdict: If Mama Fu's is all ya got, then it's not so bad.











Clemson, SC:

Yurika, Ishi, and I stop at a Whole Foods-ish market on the way to Clemson U. Yu & I get some fried tofu with sesame/ginger sauce, sprouts, & bread, and we have a parking lot picnic. The others, who had arrived in Clemson earlier, had gone to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place, which I thought would be horrible (we are in South Carolina here) but turned out to be not that bad.

But I am happy with my vegan healthwich.

Found Cheese

Morning concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Who goes to a 10:30am concert, you ask? Not too many people, especially if said concert is not really advertised.

Whatever.

There are, however, two very special guests in the audience: Dean Miyakuzu (sp?), one of the founding members of SJT, and his wife, Gaye (sp?). They drive for two hours to see us! Thanks, Dean & Gaye!














After lunch, we hit the road. We drive 9 hours to Atlanta and spend the night. What do we eat? Nothing memorable. What games do we play in the car? True confessions, foodie-style. I ask the boys what snacks they loved as kids but would never think of eating today. Me: Kraft mac & cheese. Alex: Hostess "fruit" pies. Adam: random found cheese, placed in a bowl, microwaved, and eaten with a fork.

Game over. Adam wins.

Back to the beach

Thursday -

After a lazy morning & lunch at Panera, we plan on going to the beach - as soon as the torrential rain stops. Which, thankfully, it does (I would've gone to the beach, anyway).
















Clearwater Beach!


















It's much bigger than Naples, with lots of waves. In the shallows are thousands of itty-bitty fish that zip around, some flying into the air.





Looks like one of those fish has flown into Franco's ear and lodged itself in his brain.















Alex & Yu take pictures of Franco stumbling off into the water.













Sand art!

Well... maybe not art.

Not so smart

Wednesday -

Drive from Naples to Clearwater. On the way, we stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch, which is not that interesting, foodwise. But attached to the restaurant is a gift shop, which is fully stocked with knick-knackitty trinkets. And candy.

Yurika the Canadian says these aren't Smarties. Smarties are supposed to be like M&M's.














Alex disagrees.















While Yurika & Alex argue, Franco test-drives the rocking chairs on the gift shop's porch:
























Rocker? Perhaps. Adult? Hmmm.



We arrive in Clearwater and go to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. It's a little like eating at Disneyworld - there's all sorts of boat-things and fish-things on the walls. Like it was decorated by a poltergeist at a nautically-themed garage sale.


Since Trish isn't here, we have guest beer critic, Alex:









He tries Jack's Pumpkin Ale.











This is what Trish would've thought of it:



















But Alex says it's not bad:



The food is okay - lots of fried sea critters. I'm saving all the detailed snack blogging for the more interesting regional things. I mean, do you really want to hear about places like Panera or Perkin's? I hope not.

Where's the food?

Loyal readers will note that this blog has been woefully lacking in roadsnack details.

That is because this blogger has been so distracted by the beach that all food information has leaked out of her sievelike brain. Although the food here has been quite good, it has also been not-so-memborable.

She promises to be more diligent in the future about posting snack stories.

Worth a Thousand Words

'Nuff said.

Tomorrow: Heading to Clearwater, Fl. Thanks, Naples! We had a great time!

Beware the ducks

This morning: 2 school shows in the theater.

Lunch: The theater is next to a swankified shopping center (think Santana Row), and we have lunch there at the Silver Spoon Cafe. Yurika orders the fish, and it comes with half a lemon in a lemon sock.





Silly or functional? A little of both.












Later: We have the afternoon off, so Pam, Alex, Ishi (this tour's LD), Franco, & I head to the beach, where we are greeted by flocks of prehistoric-looking duck-things. Part duck, part turkey, part stegosaurus?
























Could this be the mythical turducken? Perhaps this is where they live before they're shipped off to Paul Prudhomme's chopping block.




Whatever they are, they're a little creepy. This New England girl is used to attractive, color-coordinated mallards - the kind you'd find in an LLBean catalog.






Silly or functional?

You decide.

Naples, FL

Our hotel: Moderately swanky suites (each with a kitchen!) with a breakfast buffet, giant pool, and free laundry. In each room is a hotel directory and local guide. And recipes, in case you want to use your kitchen:


I'm not even going to make a snarky comment here, because it's just too easy.

















Nearby: Beaches! Where you can actually go swimming and not get eaten by sharks, drowned by a riptide, or run over by a surfer! And the water is warm!





Yurika with an iruka.













Today: Free until we load in @ 6:30. Details about the concert hall later...

While I pack...

So here's something to look at while I do laundry, catch up on recipes, and watch the last episode of Battlestar, season 2...





































More painfully cute photos here:
http://cuteoverload.com/


Leaving for Naples on Saturday!

Last images of New England

Vermont:

Dude.




















Boston:

Legal Seafood at the airport -




Do not do not do not ever go to the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cookoff. It'll ruin chowder for you. We went a few years ago, and this is the first chowder I've had since then that tastes normal.

Not that I'm a huge Legal fan, but this wasn't bad.









Thus ends our New England adventure.