Shady Maples Revisited - Early!

So the other day we were told not to show up at work until 12:30.  I thought what better time to go to Shady Maples?  You might be thinking, "What?!?!?!" Since I started this new project, I had to learn to get up early, and Shady Maples ends their breakfast buffet at 10:00am.  So I figured, what better way to trick myself into getting up early than with the promise of delicious awesome food?  Another of my night owl friends also loves breakfast, so I thought I would entice him with the same offer.

We were good and made it to Shady Maples by 9:00am.  We totally pigged out!  Everything was delicious.  The only mildly disappointing note was that the cheese sausage was a bit overcooked, so not so juicy.  The eggs benedict was delicious.  But my favorite was their apple fritter.  Drool!  You could see the chunks of apple and they even included raisins.  It was fried and crispy to perfection.

After thinking about the apple fritter, this has to be a short post, because I am now starving!  Needless to say, it was totally worth waking up for.

Dry and as Far from Ethiopian as One Gets

One of my best friends and complete pizza addict mentioned that he had never been to Tacconelli's.  Although I had never been either, I was shocked and thought that he, of all people, should visit this infamous place.  After multiple calls (3) I finally got through to a person (their answering machine asks one to not leave a message and apparently they were on vacation), and was able to pre-order my dough. 

After walking in, you can see immediately that this was a cutesy, classic neighborhood pizza joint.  Although it was 8:45pm and we had made reservations, the place was packed and we had to wait a good few minutes before a table opened up.  I visited the restroom and realized that it was tiny and tight (but thank goodness clean).  Anyone who is not a size 4 or below would probably be more comfortable not squeezing the this restroom.

The pizza, when it came, was a thin crust pizza.  We had ordered a regular pizza with spinach, sausage and half pepperoni and half mushroom.  The pizza was fairly delicious.  The toppings were incredible, fresh and delicious.  The tomato sauce was a great flavor, not too acidic.  If one likes a thin crust, the crust was very good and crispy.  It was like air, even though I was not that hungry, I easily downed 3 slices and seriously thought about the 4th one. 

Now for the few negatives.  There was not enough cheese for my taste.  And the weirdest one is that the pizza leaves a dry, papery feeling in your mouth after you eat.  This is especially on the roof of your mouth and your tongue.  Very bizarre and a little worrying.  For me, this took a star away, frankly, I should probably take 2.  This pizza overall is a bit overrated in my personal opinion.

On the plus side our waitress was very nice and sweet.  All the waitresses seemed like they were this way too!

Foodies Unite for Ethiopian

I had a very special experience the other night with several (8 others) foodie friends.  I have been talking up Ethio Cafe so much that a few of my foodie friends (you know who you are ) really wanted to try it and bring their other foodie friends too.  It was a wonderful experience to talk food and trade notes on Ethiopian and other restaurants with these folks.

I made reservations at Ethio Cafe and was a little disappointed to see chef #2 on deck (see 2 entries ago for explanation).  But the food was delicious, and the wonderful thing about having so many people was that we were able to order one of everything off the menu!  Mmmm I had the Kitfo again, this time completely raw. Although I am not a big fan of raw meat, the texture was delicious raw.  It was creamy and had the consistency of tuna tartare. One friend did not think it had enough spices in it, but I thought it was pretty flavorful nonetheless.  It should also be noted that this friend likes his food HOT! So perhaps you can gage what your reaction would be to the level of spices given that I can not take any spiciness at all.  hahaha Although I suspect there is a big vast middle ground between us.

I also had Dulcet for the first time. Kudos to all those at the table to were willing to order it with me. It is beef, tripe and liver all chopped up.  If you are thinking "YUCK!," you could not be more wrong.  It was DELICIOUS!  Again, perhaps it should be kept in mind that not a lot of food faze me.  We also had Lamb Kilkal (sp?), which is my new favorite Ethiopian dish.  I do not know how I went so long without knowing about this!  I have wasted the last few decades of my life!  hahaha It was Lamb chunks in a buttery broth.  The broth tasted like pure herb flavored butter, if a certain friend did not point out that there were only a few oil bubbles floating on top, I would have believed it was pure melted butter.  We were probably not eating it in the proper way, but who cares as long as it goes down into the tummy?

It should be mentioned here that a friend had baklava for dessert and highly recommends it.  I am still kicking myself for not ordering it too.  I was too stuffed for dessert.  Shocking, but true.  It really only happens around Ethiopian food.  Well, there is always next time!  

Ethio Cafe was nice enough to stay open an hour later than their usual closing time for us. I can not say enough great things about this place; can you tell?  hahaha

High Street Caffe - Bowl Lick'n Good

One of my friends from West Chester and I discovered that we both love High Street Caffe.  We also saw that they recently started a prix fixe menu.  3 courses for I believe $30 (please do not quote me on that figure).  Mmmmm I got the Lobster Ravioli for appetizer and Jambalaya for my meal.  As usual High Street does not disappoint.  I think that I am just a wuss, but the Jambalaya was too spicy for me.  Sigh. And of course for dessert, I got the banana's foster. I think my friend was surprised that I meant it when I said that I would probably lick the plate hahaha.

I know this is a short entry, unfortunately High Street is always wonderful, so there is not much new to report.

Mom the Foodie

So, mom came into town again for her annual retreat.  What does this have to do with food?  Ohhh, my friends, I will soon tell you - a whole lot!  Mom is actually quite adventurous when it comes to food.  She really enjoys Ethiopian ever since I introduced her to it.  About a week before she flew in, I emailed mom to state, "I hope you do not mind, I am planning on taking you to Ethiopian food for lunch after picking you up from the airport."  Mom replied, "Of course not!" Hahaha.  Now, you can all imagine where I took her.  That's right!  Ethio Cafe to test out (again) and see if they are as good as they were during our EE. (If you do not know what EE stands for, please read 2 entries ago.)

So according to plan, I picked mom up at the airport and directly drove to Ethio Cafe.  It was just the two of us in the small restaurant.  A younger lady than the one who had cooked for my best friend and I (see 2 entries ago) was in the kitchen.  Mom and I decided to order the Vegetarian Combo platter (of course!) and tada.....Kitfo!!!  For those of you who are like, "What's a kitfo?!?!?!"  It's for eating!  Ok, if you didn't get that joke, I am sorry.  If you got that joke, I am even sorrier.  *ashamed look* Anyways, Kitfo is essentially Ethiopian Steak Tartare.  I asked mom if she really wanted it totally rare the way it is supposed to be eaten, and she gave me a look.  So I asked is medium well good enough?  And she agreed.  I have wanted to order Kitfo for a while now.  It is a quintessentially Ethiopian dish, and I had not tried it yet.

The food came out and it was DE-LI-CIOUS!  Although the Kitfo was still bleeding raw (it was not medium well all the way through, it was more like 1/4 completely raw and 3/4 completely done hahaha), so mom would only eat a little bit of it.  Nonetheless, mom and I agreed that the spices and the taste was wonderful!  The Veggie combo platter was out of this world, as usual.  The only dish on it that was iffy was the cabbage dish.  I think it was a bit bad, it was a little sour.  grrrr  I will say the food did not seem as top notch as when my best friend and I ate it, but it was still very good.  I will say that this is still my favorite Ethiopian place in the city.  My theory is that chef 1 is a 11 on a 10 point scale and chef 2 is a 9.5 on a 10 point scale.   

When we left the chef gave us 2 sambusas to take with us.  It is similar to the Indian samosas.  The crust is a flaky phyllo dough like crust, and the inside is a delicately and deliciously flavored lentil beans.  I do not even like lentil beans, but I have been anticipating getting another one of these soon!

I welcome all comments on this front by all who have eaten at Ethio!

So not only did I eat Ethiopian with mom, I also had the opportunity to take her to Shady Maples!  I know, mom got a twofer!  On the day I was supposed to take her and another lady (Aunty Linda) to the airport, we decided that we would try to hit up Shady Maples.  Here is how crazy it was to attempt this:  We were meeting up with Aunty Linda at 10:30am at my house, we would arrive at Shady Maples from my house at 11:15 then be able to eat until 1:15.  We would have to be on the road by 1:20ish to be at the airport by 2:30pm to catch their flight.  A tight schedule only 2 hours to eat and stuff ourselves silly at Shady Maples.  Unfortunately the timing meant that we would miss breakfast (see last entry for rant about that time) and have to do lunch.

Well, we made it a little later than our projected time, but not enough to deter us from eating.  Turns out it was Aunty Linda's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTY LINDA!) , and on your birthday you get to eat for free at Shady Maples.  Seriously, the only thing better than a meal at Shady Maples is a free meal at Shady Maples!  Whoohoo!  Now you all know where to find me on my birthday.  Lunch was almost as delicious as breakfast!  There was a lot more variety of food, they had approximately 20 different kinds of dessert alone!  Try not to have a heart attack, but believe it or not, I had so much other stuff, I only got to try 2 types of dessert.  Their homemade bread is SO good, they had about 8 different types including spinach, cheese, apple and peach.  Their apple butter and brisket was especially delicious.

I waddled out of there like a penguin, and drove to the airport despite my food coma haze.  Glad to report made it safely.  So, I highly recommend Shady Maples for any meal, but not necessarily the driving afterwards.  Hahaha