El Chaman & La Rostiseria & Bangkok City

I was fairly successful in filling up my dance card this weekend; I hate having free time because I might get bored, and start thinking, or feeling, or cleaning my apartment...never a good idea.  I decided to shamelessly indulge myself with a good lunch on Friday, so I checked out a place my brother recommended, El Chaman.  The name alone is enough to recommend the place.  Well, I got a sinking feeling when I walked into the restaurant because there were cloth napkins on the table and all sorts of glassware and art on the walls...I can't afford ambiance.  Luckily the prices seemed about average, so I had some delicious fish ceviche and some Peruvian beer the waitress recommended.  I loved the waitress because she: 1. expressed a definite opinion when asked, 2. didn't make me feel like a loser because I was eating alone, and 3. sang along to the lounge-y type music playing -  a female, swingy adaptation of Beatles songs.  Everything was fine except for the tip being included...really, for someone dining alone?  I could understand with a big party but, whatever.

I went to the mall with mom on Saturday and we ate at the food court.  Seriously, what's with all those women hawking bits of chicken at every other food stall?  I feel like I'm being attacked by kids selling Chiclets in Mexico for God's sake.  I did go for chicken, but not for that sweet, glazed chicken crap (I really don't like sweet food very much).  I had roast chicken, cucumber and tomato salad, and mashed potatoes at La Rostiseria.  I don't know which restaurant started off with that fine ass rotisserie chicken but I do thank the culinary gods for it.  I have stolen bits of Publix rotisserie chicken, cold, out of people's refrigerators before.  And, it does seem *healthy*.  For what it's worth.

Restaurants need to stop diversifying and need to specialize.  If I had a restaurant, the menu would offer like 4 choices: vegetarian/vegan, meat, fish, chicken.  You either like what I'm serving, or eat somewhere else.  I can't resist ordering sushi if it's on the menu, but if the restaurant is really going to concentrate on doing something else well, then don't serve sushi! 

I had the lunch special at Bangkok City with the bad kids from work (the ones that sit in the back row, you know which ones I'm talking about) and ordered their sushi.  Well, at least it wasn't expensive...but it was so lame!  The fish had this watery consistency and taste, like it's been frozen and defrosted and frozen and...sadly disappointing.  The Hot and Sour Soup was just all wrong.  And it had baby corn.  If I never eat baby corn again, I could possibly live a happy life.  What kind of mutated, ridiculous, foul ingredient is that?  The texture, God.  And the taste.  Insipid.  One of my coworkers had  the Nam Sod and let me try a bite...now, THAT was pretty good.  The lime-y, fish sauce-y, and ginger-y sauce was very good on what is basically a meat salad.  It looks pretty easy to make, too...

Oh, and I'd like to give a shout out to Valentine's baking skills, especially to my impromptu birthday lemon- coconut-fig (I think) cake...she'll make someone a great wife, someday ;)