Against my doctors orders I accepted an assignment from Richmond Magazine. Twenty breakfasts later, an increase to my Lipitor dosage, and my work was done. Managed to visit quite a few interesting places.
Best Overall? Black Sheep – good food at a good price.
Most Creative? Stronghill – sorry, I’m a sucker for foie gras at brunch.
New Find? Perly’s – loved the space, the whole experience was like stepping back in time.
The Worst? Zeus Gallery – overpriced mediocre food and awful, awful service. After a string of bad experiences there a few years ago I decided to try it again. In the interim food portions shrunk, prices increased and plating became an afterthought with the food slopped carelessly onto the plate. The waitress probably could have handled the half-full restaurant except she spent her time chatting with friends and telling customers how busy she was instead of actually doing anything. When our food did arrive the kids got their pancakes first (half the size of the portions 4 years ago), M got her dish 5 minutes later and mine took nearly another 10. The waitress’ friends always had full water and coffees. Everyone else in the dining room had to ask as they were not a real priority. It’s sad, Zeus used to be our favourite brunch place and we would also go frequently for dinner. Looks like it may be another 4 or 5 years before we try again.
Anyway, all this and more, except for Zeus, can be found in the July Breakfast issue of Richmond Magazine. Rush out and buy a copy today!
FOOD
~On a pre-birth visit to RVAFoodies we sampled a dish that really caught our eye, both for it’s simplicity and it’s taste. Grilled Nebulsi Cheese. M procured some from the Mediterranean Market off Broad on Meadow. The cheese is mild with a bit of a tang and I agree with Foodie when he says it’s a ‘taste of spring.’
To prepare heat a non-stick pan (the flatter the better or a griddle would be best) over medium high heat and spray with a bit of olive oil to lightly coat the pan. Slice the cheese into 1/4 inch strips. Place in pan and grill until a crispy coat starts to form, less than 2 minutes. Flip and grill until brown, less than a minute. Remove to plate to cool.
The pieces we did were a bit big so we actually cut them in half so they were bite size for both us and little Finn (he loves this dish). It took a couple of tries to make this come out right. Too high heat and it melts to the point where you can’t flip it but the mistakes were still tasty. The ‘to go’ menu looks really good so we’ll be back to try some of the Market’s other offerings.
FLOWERS
This last week saw our yard come into bloom. The star magnolia (planted 5 years ago and already nearly 20 feet), which failed to bloom last year put up a valiant effort this year and produced a multitude of 8 inch flowers. Sadly, the 70 degree then freezing the next weather we’ve had over the last couple of weeks prevented the blooms from fully opening and the five days of rain we had going into the weekend destroyed the flowers completely. On the bright side the rain made the soil soft enough that we did some major planting yesterday, including an Elizabeth Magnolia, a rare specimen that produces yellow flowers, and a fig tree in hopes of making some sort of fig sauce suitable for foie gras in the coming years.
The tulip beds in the front also did better this year, in spite of the early spring in January and the pack of feral cats that have spent the last couple off months peeing on the poor struggling plants.
POTTY TRAINING
Potty training has been going well, for the most part. It’s been a couple of weeks now that Finn has been sleeping through the night in big boy underwear and we have yet to have had an accident. One small fly in the ointment. Pooping. Can’t get him to do it on the potty for the life of us. We’ve noticed he has a pattern. He’ll go into his room and close the door or, if he’s with me at the store, he’ll lie on his stomach under a table reading a book. Now we just have to catch him before the critical moment and move him to the potty. Hopefully we’ll get through this soon as I am getting a bit tired of dealing with the crap… 
