Restaurants

by

I Have Failed Once Again…

… to pay a casino for its hospitality. Not as dramatically as in Alabama, but definitely humourously.

I went in around 6:00 to play my free game of Keno. That won me $1. I then put that $1 in a slot machine and that won me $10. I played that $10 down to absolutely $0, and that won me $10 in match play for signing up for the player’s club, plus another bonus $10 (please don’t ask me to explain why, these machines mystify me).

To be able to cash out, I had to play the free $20 completely and by the time I did, I was $8.63 up. I cashed that out, went to the buffet, and discovered that the price on the website was wrong and the real price, less the Wednesday night female discount was… $8.63.

Not being a cheapskate, I left a $1 tip to the lady who brought my lemonade and cleared my plates. 😀 So that was my grand expense for the night, a whole dollar!

The buffet was meh. I over estimated how busy it would be on a Wednesday night, so when I got there, a lot of the food had been sitting for a while. I grabbed what looked fresh, which did not involve many vegetables. 🙁

Everything was quite tasty, though. I liked their pork sticky buns and BBQ pork ribs the best. The mashed potatoes were tasty and so was the white gravy to put on them. Yes, white gravy. I had no idea what it was the first time I tried it, so on the next round, I asked a man pouring it all over his plate what it was. I even tried their sushi and it was surprisingly palatable. Oh, and I can’t forget their potato soup. Now that was really yummy!

There was a bunch of other tasty goodies, too, but nothing that totaled up to the $15 they were asking full price (my discount was definitely more than the $5 state on the website!) since the steak and baked potatoes didn’t appeal to me. But I’m not going to complain about a free meal!

The desserts were good; high quality ice cream and assorted pastries. I got one bite each of two kinds of ice cream and one bite of a surprisingly fabulous caramel cheesecake. There was also a guy impressively setting rum-soaked bananas on fire (bananas Foster, I imagine).

I’m off to Google white gravy. My mine is blown by the deliciousness of it. I can just imagine crumbled sausage swimming in it and soaking into my fabulous biscuits.

Post edited to add: white gravy is just a really thick béchamel sauce using pan drippings instead of butter!

by

Tuesday Night Social

This evening, I went back to Firelake Casino to pick up Linda in my toad. Yay for driving Moya! Not so yay for Moya losing a wiper blade down the interstate! This is the same driver’s side lost and found wiper blade from the last time that happened. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be enslaved to a vehicle. Go, wiper blade! Be free! Have a good life!

Linda was supposed to come here for dinner with some friends of hers, Carol and Steve, who is a casual reader of TWM. But the pair were running late, so the plan changed to my picking up Linda, coming back here to the Grand Casino for dinner at the sports bar, and us getting our food orders in while waiting for Steve and Carol who would join us belatedly for food then drive Linda home. It wasn’t as convoluted as that sounds. 🙂

I had what felt like a whole pig for dinner: a bacon, ham, and pulled pork sandwich! I brought half home for lunch tomorrow! It had just a little kick to it and was yummy.

While Linda and I were waiting, we were invited to play some free keno and were taught the game, which has to be the stupidest game of chance on the planet. I won $0.80! 😀 I still have my other free keno game from signing up for the player’s club, so I’ll try my luck again tomorrow.

I’m so glad I had a chance to meet up with Linda at very long last and it was a pleasure to be introduced to Steve and Carol.

I’ve met so many wonderful people this winter and I have at least two more social stops ahead of me (Wichita and Omaha) before I hit the border.

by

Two Last Days in Dallas

Saturday, I headed out to ‘the ranch’, an RV community where Ms. Cinnamon keeps her rig. Most folks there have a structure with living space plus a covered area for the RV. It is operated condo style where everyone owns their plot of land and they share the operating costs for the common areas. I got some ideas for my RV pad should I ever develop it.

I knew about this place because one of my very few nemeses bought property there some time ago and is one of her neighbours. What a small world; huh? Thankfully, I didn’t run into him!

For lunch, we stopped at the Eastern Buffet in Lindale, a good all you can eat place that even had some (pretty bad) sushi. But it was rice and seaweed, so I gladly ate it. 🙂

It was good to get out of the rig so I could separate myself from Bitha and steel myself for the inevitable that evening.

Today, Ms. Cinnamon invited me out for lunch and then to run errands. She said we could go anywhere for food. I wasn’t feeling well and had a bit of an upset tummy, so I wanted to go for something familiar and comforting. I therefore suggested we go back to Bistro B and I ordered the lemongrass chicken again. This time, I specified that I wanted lots of lemongrass and the meal ending up being doubly delicious from the last time. YUM. For dessert, Ms. Cinnamon got us the boba ice coffee, for which there are no words to express its deliciousness. It’s really strong coffee with condensed milk and tapioca pearls. Mmm!

We then went next door to an Asian market where I stocked up on staples, like rice (said casually, but check out the picture and caption of it below…), sushi vinegar, sesame oil, and rice noodles.

Next, we headed over to Sam’s club, where I had never shopped. I got a few things on my list and was irked that they do not take Visa. Ms. Cinnamon paid (thank you!) and I stopped at the ATM upstairs to get some cash to pay her back.

I picked up a few more things at Walmart and then we headed out to Costco. I am definitely going to be getting a Costco card. I’ve been debating it since last summer and I’m doing it! They also don’t take Visa, grr, but I had cash so that was fine. I didn’t need much more by then and had reached the end of the budget anyway, but I got an incredible deal on cheese (more details below). Ms. Cinnamon and I split a package of two fresh baguettes, so that’s what I’ll be having for a very light supper later.

I’m wiped from all that shopping and grateful that Ms. Cinnamon prefers to be the driving. I haven’t taken my truck out once since I got here!

My sewer hose is too short to dump, so we’ll be going to an RV place first thing in the morning to get another section and a coupler. And then it will be time to take my leave of this place and head out into the frigid plains. Oh, Texas, I will miss you.

by

A Fun Afternoon at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas

Undeterred by the pouring rain, Ms. Cinnamon and I headed out for the afternoon. I asked if she wanted to have lunch out and she suggested Vietnamese, which was exactly what I had in mind. So we headed over to the Bistro B.

The restaurant has a crazy huge and overwhelming menu. I decided that we didn’t have all day and that I wanted vermicelli, chicken, and lemongrass, which I found as a number 113. Ms. Cinnamon ordered the same thing.

The ginormous meal of fresh salad, noodles, meat, and a side of fish sauce looked lovely and tasted pretty good, but it was nowhere near lemongrassy enough for me. There was just a hint of it in some bites, but for a meal labeled lemongrass, it wasn’t enough. So I questioned the server and he offered to take back our food, but we refused since there was nothing wrong with it and we didn’t want to have to wait for them to make something new.

Well, he came back minutes later with a small plate heaped with more lemongrass and sautéd onions! And guess what he told us? That the chef purposely toned it down because the dish is too flavourful for most of the folks who come to the restaurant! Now, what we were served was not bland in the least, but the added lemongrass really made it shine. Yu-um!

Sated, Ms. Cinnamon and I headed out to tour the Perot Museum of Science and Nature, which is new in Dallas. I took a picture of the exterior when I was out the other day. It was almost 2:30 when we arrived and the museum closes at 5:00. Well, we had just enough time to see everything, but would have really needed another hour or two!

This is a very hands on museum with a lot of fun activities. From the lobby, you get a dizzying escalator ride straight up to the fourth floor dinosaurs and space exhibits, and then you work your way down.

The museum is great for kids and the kid at heart. My favourite exhibit was up in the fourth floor mezzanine birds exhibit where you put on 3D glasses and get to soar like a bird. The effect is remarkable as you get to swoop, dive, and fly by moving your body. This photo gallery gives a small sample of the exhibits. At $15, the museum isn’t cheap, but you get a lot of bang for your buck!

We stopped at the Central Market, a super fancy grocery store, on the way home to grab something quick and easy for dinner. I got a few groceries and then spent some time in the deli area trying to decide what I was in the mood for. The sushi very tempting, but I went with my first instinct, which was to have a mixed Mediterranean plate with hummus, falafel, tabbouleh, cucumber and tomato salad, and lots of other good stuff where you pay by the weight of your container. Yum!

It was really cold today (I doubt we hit 50F), but at least the sky has cleared.

by

A Day in Dallas With a Local Guide

Once again, I am super grateful to have a local guide!

Ms. Cinnamon has lived in Dallas all her life, so she took me on a tour of her city today, from seedy west Dallas to the Turtle Creek district with its huge mansions. There was really too much info for my memory to do justice to it!

Before heading to Dealey Plaza, we went for lunch at EatZi‘s, an upscale European-market type place where you can find just about anything you could want to eat or drink. She chose a few salads and I zeroed in on the sushi! This place was awesome! Tip: try all the samples so that you’ll be a little full and less tempted to try one of everything! 😀

I’ll write about our afternoon at Dealey Plaza in another post. Once I’d had my fill of that, we walked around downtown a little bit and checked out the new Perot Museum of Science of Nature, but we were too close to the end of the day, so we’ll go later this week.

We drove around some more after and finished our day off with dinner at the Highland Park Cafeteria, a Dallas institution serving homestyle cooking. I enjoyed my chicken and sides. The portions were ginormous and I have leftovers for tomorrow!

Dallas doesn’t feel like a giant metropolis. The only city I can think of that comes close to it is Chicago, another city of neighbourhoods with a compact downtown core. Only Dallas is about 1/10th the size! Dallas has a lot of green spaces (that wilt and brown in warm weather), does not allow pandhandlers, and has lots of arts and culture.

I was sad to say goodbye to palm trees in San Antonio, but lo and behold, and to Ms. Cinnamon’s surprise, we saw a few today!

Tomorrow, I will post about Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository.