Lunch @ Famous Dave's

Dear Food Diary,

High-Five Famous Dave's

    It's May and that's the unofficial National Barbeque Month.  Even if you don't have a lot of cookouts yet, you must at least have lunch at Famous Dave's.  They have a menu of entrees (entree means meat at Famous Dave's) to choose from for only $7.99 and for just a dollar more you get to choose a second meat.  I had the beer battered cod and the sweetwater catfish fingers.  You just have to try the catfish at Famous Dave's.  Out of this World and it fits a budget.  It comes with a side dish of your choice and both tartar sauce and rémoulade sauce for dipping.  Rémoulade sauce, that's French.  That means it's classy.  And if you get fries as your side dish, you can dip it in your classy rémoulade sauce.  Myself, I opted not to get a potato dish for my side.  Instead I got broccoli.  It was cooked to perfection and also great for dipping.   

Leftovers? Not up here.  Not up in here.

      The Maryland Department of Natural Resources did recently release a statement telling people to eat more catfish.  If you want to keep the catfish overlords from taking over and enslaving the human race, you'll go have lunch at Famous Dave's.  This is the girl who ate Fredericksburg, just doing my part.

Pho Saigon

Dear Food Diary,

Today I went to my favorite Asian restaurant in the Fredericksburg area, Pho Siagon.  No matter how many times I go there it never dissapoints.  If you've never tried Vietnamese food, you're in for a treat when you visit Pho Siagon, located on Courthouse Rd by the Salem Church Library.  The people there are so welcoming and friendly.  I took my brother today for the first time, he said he felt like he was visiting family.  The atmosphere was just that inviting.  All the food is heavenly at Pho Saigon, from the delicious fried won ton to the amazingly inexpensive braised quail they serve as an appetizer.  However, if you go there, and you must go there, you have to try the pho.  Pho is a rice noodle soup and you have a choice between any number of a variety of ingredients with which to fill it.  Personally I prefer to the steak (pho tai) over, lets say the tripe (pho sach).  For those of you that don't know, tripe is stomach.  Yes, if you want authenticity, this restaurant is the real deal.  And there is adventurous eating to be had.  When you get your bowl of pho there's a couple of things you should know.  The first question is "What size should I get?"  The answer is this: If you want to feed yourself get the large, the smallest size they have.  If you want to feed your family, get the saigon.  If you want to feed all of Fredericksburg get the super saigon.  The portions are generous but the soup is so delightful you'll be glad if you have some to take home.  The second question was posed to my by my brother "What do I do with all this extra stuff they gave me?"  My answer was, whatever you want.  Served with your soup will be a plate of ingredients you can use to add flavor to your soup.  This plate will contain sprigs of Thai basil, jalapenos, lime, bean sprouts, and fish sauce among other things.  (Don't let your brothers talk you into eating the whole pile of jalapenos.  I speak from experience.)  These are all condiments for you to use as they suit you.  Taste them, if you like it, add it to the broth.  If you don't, then don't.  If you like it a lot, add more.  It's pretty simple, and very yummy.

Thanks for reading my food blog.  I'm the girl who ate fredericksburg, hoping to bump in to you at Pho Saigon.  Who knows?  I might be there again tomorrow.  Don't judge me.

Vinny's Italian Grill and Pizzeria

Dear Food Diary,

Tonight my boyfriend took me to Vinny's Italian Grill and Pizzeria.  I found their food to be made with deliberate precision.  My boyfriend thought the Calamari was the best he ever tasted.  The pieces of Calamari were all uniform... rings that resembled meaty onion rings.  It was something you could give to a new trier of Calamari if the tentacly pieces are too adventurous for them.  I liked the appetizer but my entree was out of this world.  I ordered the Hot Sicilian Sandwich because sometimes a girl just needs a hot Sicilian.  Am I right girls? *wink, wink*  The sandwich looked delicious in the menu picture with perfectly cut red peppers and beautiful clumps of warm mozzarella.  I was shocked when I got a sandwich that looked exactly like the menu picture.  It was a sandwich with just the right amount of sopresata, pepperoni, salami, and basil on lightly toasted bread.  Gourmet level food for only $6.75.  If you are any where near Leavell's Road in Fredericksburg, you must try Vinny's.

On my way to Art Class

Dear Food Diary,

I've been busy.  Among other things, I've been taking an art class.  See my awesome drawing to the right?  Well during my travels to art class in Richmond, I acquired three new favorite restaurants.  Below are three must try restaurants in the Richmond area.

1) Stella's - Fine Greek style dining.

Must Try Items - The Avgolemono and the Calamari


2) Bandito's Burrito Lounge - A bar restaurant combo that has a variety of mexican foods with a southern Louisiana type feel.

Must Try Items- One of their dishes containing seafood, like perhaps their shrimp tacos or their creole bowl with craw-fish.

3) Fat Dragon- Traditional Chinese food with a farm to table twist and modern exotic decor.

Must Try Items- If you can handle spicy, the Firecracker Shrimp and the Chili Dumplings

Now you know where to eat in Richmond... You're Welcome

P.S. The girl who ate Fredericksburg would like you to know that she is still on a weight loss journey and to that end she has actually... hang onto your seats... joined a gym.  More updates will follow.

Barbara Eastwood's New Novel

Hello Readers,

I wanted to take the opportunity to share a couple of exciting things with you.  My new book The Dozen Lives of Erica Whitefield is now available at all major book stores under the pen name Barbara Eastwood.  You can purchase it online at Barnes and Noble.  Also you can check out my artwork I have for sale on my website Inside the Mind of Barbara George.

Thanks for reading... buy my book. :-)


* Private Message *
There you go Ryan, are you happy?  Get on Facebook you bearded freak.  Just kidding Ryan is great.  He blog stalks me and he bought my book.  Much Love. :-)

Valentine's Dinner

Dear Food Diary,

For Valentine’s Day the girl who ate Fredericksburg decided to stay in and eat at home.  And guess what; I actually cooked myself.   I started it off with a deconstructed Baby Spinach and Arugula Salad.  I specifically arranged all the salad ingredients on top of the salad in separate piles because my boyfriend is a rather picky eater and I wanted him to be able to choose what was in his salad.  I chose arugula because it is my favorite salad green.  It has a wonderful earthy taste that just can’t be beat.  I often joke that when I eat a salad, I want to taste to the dirt in was grown in.  I served two entrées.  My first entrée I served was Broiled Butter Smothered Lobster Tails.  I was shocked at how easy it was to cook lobster.  And I even butterflied the lobster tails, so it looks like the meat is popping out of the shell.  I’m getting hungry again, just thinking about it.  Here’s something I found out too.  Lobster tail goes drastically on sale in grocery stores during Valentine’s Day.   I got lobster tails from Giant that were a regular $10.99 for only $4.99.  For my other entrée I served Filet Mignon.  I read somewhere that you should add some butter or oil to filet mignon.  Apparently, though it’s the most tender piece of beef, if it’s not cooked right you can end up sacrificing taste for tenderness.  I cooked the filet mignon in olive oil and garlic cloves.  The pan-seared garlic cloves were even tastier than the beef in my opinion.  For the side dishes I served Yeast Rolls with Honey Butter, Corn on the Cob drizzled with a Garlic and Pepper Butter Sauce and Roasted Chicken Risotto with Portabellas and Asparagus.  Ok, I confess the Risotto was Bertolli.  It was still good and I had my hands full with all the other food.  We had a bottle of Champagne to celebrate.  After I gave the toast I always give, “may what goes down not come back up again,” we had dessert, a Variety of Mousse Cakes with Dark Chocolate Truffles.  And yes all this food was as good as it sounds.  Why do I want everyone to know about this meal?  I’m just bragging. 

Thanks for reading my food blog.  This is the girl who ate Fredericksburg asking, don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me? 

Kiwifruit

Today I tried kiwi for the first time.  First I was excited because it felt like I was eating a fruit from some alien planet.  I've never been to an alien planet.  Of course, kiwifruit originated in China, and I've never been there either.  Anyway, when I tasted that tangy sweet sensation I was in heaven.  My favorite part of the fruit was the part with the seeds.  I loved the texture with a very slight crunch to it.  It was better than strawberries.  If you haven't tried kiwi, you must. 

Since I had never sliced a kiwi, I watched this video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHDYDN8Q45k.  It's a great video if you're like me and you need someone to help you do something as simple as cut a kiwi.  Plus, the guy explaining has a voice so soothing, you kind of wish he was your grandpa. 

The type of kiwifruit I tried was the Hayward variety, the most common variety of kiwi.  It was first developed by a New Zealand horticulturist named Hayward Wright.  But an interesting fact is that kiwifruit actually arrived in the United States in 1904, two years before it arrived in New Zealand.  Another fact is that kiwifruits are filled with vitamin C and powerful antioxidants.  So the girl who lost weight is going to start eating three of them a day during the the next two months as part of her weight loss challenge.