Text 18609, 85 rader
Skriven 2007-08-06 09:32:00 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Picnic 01
=================
Been mostly lurking and replying to personal messages over the past 
week, but I've finally got my notes together and here are my
comments and accounts of the 2007 Echo Picnic:

Thursday's Event was dinner at Dimitri's, a local Greek place:

Dimitri's is a pleasant and charming restaurant; the atmosphere is
somewhat casual and very comfortable.  The service is attentive and
friendly, and it apparently is a place that draws quite a bit of repeat
business from the cheerfully familiar banter between the service staff
and many of the diners.  Our waitress was cute and affable and attentive
without being obnoxiously perky.

She also found out most of us were from out of town and new to the
restaurant, and brought out several "first-time platters" - small
sampler's portions of various specialties that they offer to n00bs
like us as a sort of introduction to their cooking.  We found:

- Stuffed grape leaves: Pretty standard but still tasty. Meatless,
  I think.  Lynn enjoyed these more than I did.

- Tzatziki.  Strained yogurt, pureed cucumber, dill; they top their
  gyros with this. Each little cup was topped with a couple of oil-
  cured olives.  The tzatziki was tasty even though I'm not a big
  fan of dill, but didn't seem to be a big hit with the others at
  our table. The olives were pretty standard.

- Gyro meat on a bed of julienned sweet onion: Delicious, thin
  slices of beef (not lamb, though I really like lamb gyros best.)

- Spinach/rice pilaf: Tasty, kind of wet. Lynn loved it, Maryanne liked
  it, I thought it was okay but hell, it's just spinach and rice after
  all. [g]

- Avgolemono soup.  Meh.  Cold something soup with lemon.  Call me an
  unsophisticated rube, but I really don't like chilled soups. 
  ("Waiter!  Send this goddamn potato soup back to the kitchen
  and tell 'em to heat it the hell up!  It's ice cold!")

Along with the n00b-noshes, we were brought a basket of fresh hot
bread and a shallow plate upon which was sprinkled various 
Mediterranean herbs and some grated table cheese.  Extra-virgin olive 
oil was poured to this to provide a dip for the bread in lieu of 
butter.  Yummy (this has long been a favorite of ours.)

Some of the foods ordered by the party (people sitting close to
me, that is) included:

- Spanakopita (Burt Ford) - Nicely rendered spinach pie, just the
  way I like it (i.e. not too much feta.)

- Moussaka (Maryanne, Burt) - Eggplant stuff, Dave no like but
  Maryanne and Burt were pleased with it so I guess it was good.

- Fettucini Alfredo (Lynn) - Rich and creamy, very satisfying. One
  of Lynn's favorite dishes and she was not disappointed.

- Lamb rib chops (Steve) - Looked gorgeous but I was too polite to
  reach over and fork one for a taste. [g]

- Saganaki (me) - This was listed on the menu as "Flaming Grecian
  Cheese."  I was looking forward to this, but they disappointed me
  by lighting it on fire a long way from the table, then bringing it
  over after it had been extinguished. =(  My disappointment was
  compounded at finding it to be a rather ordinary slab of mozzarella,
  crumbed with panko and then deep fried before being immolated.

- Some Kind of Veal - This was Ruth's.  She seemed to enjoy it - I'll
  have to see if she's posted anything about it.

- Gyro (me) - Pretty good as gyros go, and very generous. I ended up
  eating the meat and leaving the pita without regret.

- Mussels (Michael) - Big greenlips, which puzzled me: Why would 
  a restaurant so close to the ocean not serve a big bowl of native
  purple mussels instead of NZ greenlips?  At any rate, they looked
  wicked good and I smacked myself in the forehead for having not
  ordered that instead of the gyro.



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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, 
minutus carborata descendum pantorum
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