Friday, January 15, 2016

I miss your face.

The countdown is on.  Seven weeks until baby's due date and I'm starting to feel the pinch.   Literally.   This baby is resting on my bladder in such away that I'm putting the Charmin kids through college.  I just looked back at my last entry and it was when I was 22 weeks along.  This Sunday coming marks my 33rd week and time is flying by!!    Christmas in our house was a very different experience this year too.  Where we normally would be drinking Chupacabra's on the Las Vegas strip we instead were at home, hunkered down in the snow having family over.   It was a nice time, and we are excited for what next Christmas is going to bring, having an eight month old!

But after Christmas and New Years passed, we settled back down into our routine.  And that means M works during the day and I work nights.  My days are usually spent watching TV, pissing around the house, starting my 'nesting' phase and waiting for 5 pm to go to work.   I talk to M all day long on Skype but 5 out of 7 days we don't see each other.  He's in bed by the time I get home, and even though he should be sleeping, he's not.  Then he bitches about how tired he is at 6am.    Muffin...tell me all about being tired.  I dare you. ;P

So, now that the baby is approaching its exodus I'm reducing my work hours.  My days off aren't Saturday and Sunday every week, but at least I have an extra night off during the week that I can see M.   We were feeling rather absent from each other and we needed to rekindle our Thursday night Date Nights.    A new pub he saw on the way home the other day and a message that simply said "I miss your face" was all I needed to hear.   I put on my stretchiest pair of maternity pants, a low cut top and off we went.   Because damn right I'm gonna take advantage of these new mammaries.

Browns Social House opened back in the summer, on Elbow Drive and 51st Ave SW.  It's a bit off the main roads and the parking situation is absolutely terrible.  But if you can get over that, good.  Walking in, your first impression is that it's a bit small.  Swanky too, very dimly lit and that old school Edison type lighting, but small.  Nine booths, probably the same amount of high top tables and a smaller section of low rise tables.  The space just doesn't feel very large.  But for a Thursday night at dinner time, the restaurant never filled, so maybe it doesn't need to have any extra seating.  It is going for a classy pub/Asian vibe which was pretty intriguing to us.  I am more the poutine and a burger girl whereas M was much more into the Asian influence and enjoyed the fact that he could chose something I normally wouldn't go for.     There's a handful of dishes like Shrimp & Chicken Pad Thai, or #28 Dragon Bowl.  There's a lot of nope in that for me, so I'm happy that he gets to eat something ethnic while I get what I want.  Best of both worlds :).


We were in no rush at all so we lingered over our drinks for a long time before even ordering an appetizer.   Poor server probably got tired of asking us if we were ready yet.    We got caught up on our lives, the baby, work and family stuff.  I nursed my Coke (Yes!  They get bonus points for serving Coke) and he enjoyed a Social Ice (a house brand lager and Bellini slush) or two while we people watched.   When I finally decided on some food I went straight for the poutine.  Hey, I didn't really need to compromise with him, he had his own to choose from.  His final decision on a Dynamite Roll proved to be just okay.   The rice was overdone, so it made the roll almost too sticky.   The tempura was well cooked, but it could have used more wasabi.   I don't think he'd order it again but it tied him over until we ordered our entrees.   My poutine on the other hand was delicious.    They call their gravy "Alaska Highway Gravy" and there's a rather large part of me that doesn't want to google that term.  It just doesn't give off a...safe?...clean?...appetizing vibe.   The fries are HCDC.   I mean, come'on, you all know that term.   I've been saying it for years!    Uhhhh.  Okay, you're right.  What the hell does that mean?  It took us a few minutes to find it on the menu but it means Hand Cut Double Cooked.   Duh.   Fries were done perfectly, the gravy was piping hot, my only tiny complaint was that the cheese curds hadn't melted.   Now, some poutine perfectionists will say they should stay as curds, but i like when they are half melty-half curdy.

Dinner was quite a while later, as we had filled up on our appetizer round, and I struggled with my choice.  I had it narrowed down to a few choices and it was a game time decision.  I went for the steak sandwich in the end, but not after a serious amount of debate.   Normally I'd never fret over this meal but it was a 5 oz cut, so quite tiny, and it was 25 dollars!   Holy Shit!   That's the most expensive sandwich I've ever had.   To be totally fair, I would have been okay with the price, if it was an 8 oz cut of meat, or if it had truffles on it.  But seriously?   Twenty five dollars can get you a whole steak dinner in a lot of restaurants.    Risky gamble this was.   And it kind of paid off.  It was a good cut of meat, very little marbling, and no fat cap or gristly pieces.  But, it was over done... closer even to medium well than the medium rare I'd ordered.   The one onion ring was good, the fries (HCDC don't you remember?) are still good (and yes, I was thisclose to ordering them done up as poutine, but I thought that might be overkill) but the slaw on the side was confusing.   I could visually identify green onions, parsley, maybe some cilantro and white.  That's all, white.   I'm sure it was the cabbage, but there wasn't a hint of colour on it and it had no flavour.    When I ate a bite of it, I tasted grass.    Now, maybe that floats your boat, it doesn't float mine.   They really could do with leaving that off the dish and giving up an extra onion ring or two.   And because I didn't eat my slaw-garnish, I should have had my fries as poutine.  Hindsight :/   But I was saving room for dessert!

M surprised me a bit here at our main course and he chose the chicken meatball spaghetti.  And I'm only surprised because he finally could have had something I consider "weird" and then he went all normal.   No matter the spaghetti was really good.   Noodles were cooked well, the sauce had a faint spice to it so it wasn't bland, and garlic toast points.  So far so good.  The meatballs were a tad bit disappointing.  If you've ever made a chicken meatball you'll know they are tricky.  The protein is so lean that when its cooked it dries out, and here was no exception.   There needed to be another wet, binding ingredient.  I really can't even pinpoint what that should have been, but they were dry.   The sauce from the noodles helped, but chicken just isn't the best route to go with spaghetti.  Now, that dish was on the specials menu, so it's unlikely that we'll see it again, but overall we both had good main courses.  Not great, but enough that we're full and content.

I'd been holding out for dessert for like 2 hours at this point and finally I get to order it!   Sticky Toffee Pudding is my go-to dessert.  I don't even really like dessert, I don't have much of a sweet tooth.  Except for STP.   The trouble with this is that my be-all end-all, none will ever taste better than this one, is the one made at the Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill in Las Vegas.    Because we aren't loaded, I only get that one twice a year.  So any of them here are just fillers.   And this one put up a good fight.  Fresh out of the oven (microwave, whichever) and topped with vanilla ice cream and crushed up toffee bits it did a solid job.  It was definitely lacking in a sauce though.   There was a small layer of whipped cream in between the pudding and ice cream that wasn't necessary.  Take that out and do a drizzle of a sweet glaze or sauce and it would have been even better.   Unfortunately the dish is only on that same specials' menu so I'm not sure if it's there permanently, or just right now.

I should have had a poutine as an appetizer, a poutine and a STP as main course, then a STP as dessert.  And I will not tell if that's a pregnancy craving or just me being a bit of a fatty.   You make your own assumption.

We'll be back for sure, it was a lovely date night, and a lovely restaurant.  I hope we can get a few more of these in before baby gets here!














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