1st- minnesota state fair, st. paul environs
8th- red lobster, golden valley
10th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis
16th- french meadow bakery and cafe, minneapolis
17th- grand ole creamery, st. paul
22nd- chili's, st. louis park
24th- jewel of india, minneapolis
28th- annie's parlour, minneapolis
29th- pizza luce, minneapolis

1st- minnesota state fair, st. paul environs (a)

mmm, things on sticks.

well, no things on sticks, but many fried things.

and it was a nice day to go, as the food lines, which are a long wait on the weekends and some evenings, were not that horrendous.

minidonuts. tom thumb, not the other kinds. crispy, sugary, yet not so very greasy. they do them right here. these were the only things on my food agenda, but i went mostly with the hardcore old favorites.

blackened chicken sandwich from cajun... er... junction? the most healthy food i had all day, as the point of the state fair is fried things. pretty good, but i don't think i'd go for it again.

ice cream has to be from the dairy building, though the nitro soft serve is also good. the honey sunflower seed scoops in the ag building (near the bee and honey display, of course) also looked tasty.

onward to cheese curds from... whatever that place is that's near all the political booths and near one of the tom thumb donut stand. after a while, you get a bit dazed from the sun and the people and the grease and such. though you walk it off it you do it right. fried cheese. that's the good stuff.

next, a few fries from freshfrenchfries. not as good as remembered, but still pretty good. a fry sampled later from some mysterious place was actually a bit better.

also random free food- chicken nuggets shaped like a chicken to satisfy the needs you have to bite the heads off avian things, garlic bbq sauce, candy. water was free, but it's mostly near the education building. cheapass that i am, after i had a soda earlier in the day, i saved the glass and kept refilling it with water. $2 per bottle is a lot at the rate you have to drink the stuff.

i suspect i would have sampled more if the day had not been so very humid and a bit on the hot side. i have no idea why i had no things on sticks. usually i end up with at least one.

what can you do. it's not like i can't have some every anymore.

8th- red lobster, golden valley (c)

this wasn't our first choice of restaurant, but the one we wanted to go to was closed for dinner. surprise for us.

the best thing at the 'seafood' place was the baked potato, and i suspect that's because it was salt-encrusted.

some kind of cajun salmon was not spicy, and drenched in way too much butter sauce, which it could have used none of. after i scraped it off, it was ok. it was somewhat inexplicably topped with tiny shrimp which were tender yet didn't have much taste. the side salad was sad (say that seven times sequentially...), the cheddar bay biscuits needed one more trip around the cheddar part.

the rest of the seafood sampled ranged from plain (broiled flounder, so that's what's to be expected) to kinda flavorless (scallops, shrimp, and crab in cheese... i am not sure how they made cheese tasteless, but they did... broiled, even... weird).

about the same as last time, but the service kind of deteriorated in the end. we had to wait for the check, and between the first draft and the credit card one, crab bisque appeared randomly on the bill, which we had to wait for them to remove.

10th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis (a-/b+)

not everything can always be an a, alas. after three of them vincent wasn't quite as good as the previous trips. i attribute that to the private party that was in the dining room making the service a bit spotty in places. and alas, the sweet corn veloute, while tasty, didn't work well with pepper (my own fault). and i think they topped it with something else... i recall more of a flavored oil, while this time i think it was creme freche. (i wish i could remember things).

the fries were still all that... and a bag of chips.

get it, it's... well, not funny. but how many potato jokes that are not dan quayle related are?

sadly, i was unable to finish them, which i think means i am coming down with some sort of dread disease or my stomach has exploded, as that should not happen in my world.

and it's not like i was feasting on large piles of foodly goods beforehand or anything.

but it did.

so now i have to encorporate that in my worldview somehow.

sigh.

anyway....

i even dragged someone there who doubted (or should that be dared to doubt) my word on both the fry and the rep of the burger. how could anyone doubt my word on fries with that? hrm.

especially since i am always right. (heh.)

16th- french meadow bakery and cafe, minneapolis (a-)

my friend cancelled out on me with lunch plans here (bitter, me? always... but hey, i believe in karma... heh). i decided to go anyway, 'cause they're a good place to hang by yourself for lunch, especially not on weekends, with the order at the counter and go sit down to be served kind of thing. dinner, a bit different, maybe a bit less so (again, especially on weekends), as that is regular table service.

i went with the grilled cheese, a departure for me, as for lunch i usually like the grilled rachel. i was in a grilled cheese place, and had turkey for dinner last night, and still have more turkey to get through, sandwich-wise, so grilled cheese it was. even if it had tomatoes on it, which i usually don't like. here, they work well, as they use more of a swiss thing on the good, good sourdough (i think) bread. and it melts nicely and it was totally perfectly done.

and though my specific craving was for fries with said sandwich, it comes with blue and white tortilla chips and some nice salsa, which should have been in a larger bowl, it was hard to get at. i coped.

also, i had ordered a loaf of bread to take home (for said turkey sandwiches), which didn't show up at all til i inquired about it. but they were nice about it, which helps.

it's a nice place to linger over your beverage, post-lunch, unless someone sits besides you in an almost empty room and starts yakking loudly to table companions. stop sharing, people. really. i ask nicely. i was indoors rather than out as i had none of the sunscreen on and didn't want to burn my epidermis. but i digress....

grand ole creamery, st. paul

17th- grand ole creamery, st. paul (b-)

so i walked out of dinner next door to this place tuesday wanting a cone because of the waffley goodness scent eminating from the place, and didn't get one, though i'm not quite sure why at this point. so since i was in the hood, i went back for it.

i wanted something with body (read: chunks of things) so i got north country crunch. though i had to sample the flavor 'dirt' just on principle. it had to have chunks with a name like that, right? i also went with the waffle cone, which i rarely do, and was kind of disappointed, as the cone didn't match the idealized smell of the place.

and might i add some of the counter staff (like the one waiting on me) are kind of rude sometimes. at least they were not entirely polite to me, as after i asked for a sample of said dirt and was about to order my cone, they turned to someone else to help them. i said my order anyway. and it's not like it was crowded on a cloudy, cool, pre-dinner kind of a day and time. hrm. this does not make me happy with the stuff priced the way it is.

so the cone turned out to be maple-tasting, with chunks of things like nuts. and while good, and yes, creamy, this is not the joint for superlative chunk-filled ice cream. i would guess that the non-chunk flavors work quite well, as the ice cream itself was darned good.

anyway, i sat outside to eat my cone on the benches they have and watched people wander by. the dog bowl filled with water was a nice touch there, too.

22nd- chili's, st. louis park (b-)

we (mr. and mrs. bad restaurant karma, besides myself) were all surprised that the food didn't suck. yes, it took a long time to get there for an almost empty place, but again, it didn't suck. the brk's ordered off the guiltless menu, and that stuff was less icky than you think it would be... the chicken was tasty, and i like their black beans.

i got the fajita nachos (theory i honed from my applebee's experience, go with the apps for dinner at a place like this and you're bound to be less disappointed....). it should have come with guacamole. it didn't. when i mentioned this and some was brought, it was one step away from being a guacsicle. so i asked for some that was less frozen, and that's pretty much what i got. not quite warm (and it was faux guac anyway), which was the only major misstep. other than that, not bad for this kind of place. interesting.

who knew?

24th- jewel of india, minneapolis (a)

ok, love the place, just one tiny tiny issue. i love palak paneer. i've not found a buffet with it anywhere near my house. this place included. they had the spinach in with some other veg, including carrots, which i was not fond of. i picked out the carrots. but that's my issue, not theirs. the chicken tikka, aloo gobi, veggie pakora, kheer and the rest were all most excellent.

with a two for one coupon, this place was tres affordable. without one, still not pricey. both myself and my dining companion wondered why we both never got around to this place when going to school and later working at the u. one of the better west bank joints, buffet-wise. it's a bit spendy for dinner for many u students... but lunch, not so much. it should have been more crowded. i'll be back.

28th- annie's parlour, minneapolis (b+)

they changed the bread on the grilled cheese to one that wasn't quite as good, and it wasn't as grilled as last time (not enough to get that ultimate meltoscity). so the a of last time is downgraded.

still tasty with fries (no malt this time) though. service was decent, and it was a nice evening to sit on the patio bundled in a hoodie and watch the sunset over downtown minneapolis. it's not their fault construction noise was in the hood at the time. it was strangely uncrowded during the normal dinner hour, but it was a random tuesday evening, it's big crowd's probably lunch and after-bar.

29th- pizza luce, minneapolis (a-)

default pre-concert quick dinner downtown. i remembered to order the veggie slice this time, as they tend to do better than the chicken-based ones in the waiting area. this time it was gouda, black and green olives, and mushroom. very tasty. still, the whole ones are better. especially the one with goat cheese and spinach, if i recall it correctly. though i was a bit hungry, i wished you could get a half of one, or a smaller side salad than they had ($3+ is a lot for a side salad, attractive as they were). the service was spotty in the line, as the order person wandered off for a bit.