banquet

christmas happened. woot. my brother is in town visiting so i had someone with whom to spend the day while i was busy doing nothing.

day one
breakfast/lunch: "huevos rancheros," meaning, heated tortillas topped with black beans, chicken (made with nasty taco seasoning out of a packet), fried eggs, salsa verde (made by me first thing in the morning), flavorless out-of-season tomatoes (expensive!) and cheddar cheese. very healthy. very light.

dinner: Locomotive, which is closing on january 1st for good, with Emily and Mary. my last meal at Locomotive (i still have leftovers from the meal for lunch tomorrow, which counts for something): Aloo Baigan, potato eggplant curry over rice, which i split with my brother. we also shared borek, a filo pastry filled with spinach and feta. served with tomatoes much better than the ones i bought at the store. the borek at Cafe Zam Zam, which might have been better because it was the first i'd had and it was free. dessert, which is always the highlight of Locomotive, involved Oregon Snow, which is a coconut lime gelato that never fails to amaze, some sort of alcohol-drenched spice cake with vanilla ice cream, tiramisu and chocolate pot de creme. all absolutely fantastic. i was stuffed about half way through dessert but felt it necessary to finish all of it since it would be my last Locomotive meal. sigh. they talk about coming out with a cookbook -- i hope it happens.

day two
breakfast/lunch: leftover huevos rancheros. not bad.

dinner: at marche, the fancy restaurant near my house that seems to be the default for out-of-town guests. to start, we split the risotto goat cheese fried fritters which were okay. not nearly as good as the dozen oysters that we ordered. oh, except we'd ordered 1/2 dozen and they brought out a whole dozen by mistake. bummer. as an entree, my brother got this divine venison with apple-smoked bacon, roasted chestnuts and brussel sprouts. a lovely combination. really lovely. i was still recovering from Locomotive, so i got a salad. okay, granted it was topped with bacon and a poached egg, but it was light, i tell you! light!

dessert: we stopped at Lucky Noodle on the way home for gelato and espresso. ever so euro of us, don't you think? i got dairy-free peach gelato which was fantastic. mike got strawberry which was not as good as the peach. but i am partial to peach ice cream. especially peach ice cream from Kilwins in ann arbor, with big chunks of frozen peaches. the best! it's a chain, but it looks so down-home, independently owned, etc, etc, that i've chosen to be fooled. and word is that it's actually a Mackinac Island joint which makes it better, right?

day three
my brother is gone, sadly. it was nice to have him around for christmas. now i'm back at work. today i ate at glenwood with some folks from work. i had a greek omelette, homefries and an english muffin. carb-o-licious! i need a nap now.