Posts tagged ‘restaurant depot’
Bánh Mì For Lunch, Fion Wine Pub for Dinner
It was really nice not having to be at work until noon. I was finally able to get the extra sleep I’ve been needing, since I wasn’t able to rest any last night. I did decide to wake up a bit early though, and pickup some lunch for the girls at work. I stopped by the Baguette House in the Chinatown Center on North Lamar and got some sandwiches, which are absolutely delicious. If you’ve never had one, it is a French baguette with grilled meat topped with pickled daikon and carrots, onion, cilantro, jalapeno, mayonnaise, and soy sauce. The Vietnamese name for it is “Bánh Mì”.
When I got to work I finished making the King Ranch Chicken Casseroles for tomorrow, and headed off to Restaurant Depot. The first thing I noticed were the shopping carts that are available. One of the choices is something that looks like what they use in hotels to bring your luggage up to your room, and the other was a large flatbed cart that looked incredibly hard to navigate around the isles. I was right. Once we started adding the boxes to that flatbed, it became almost impossible to maneuver. Luckily there weren’t many people in there, otherwise I probably would have ran into a few of them. I wish we had more time to look around, because I totally would have gone through each isle. If you didn’t have to own a restaurant to shop there, I would totally use them to buy all of my groceries for home.
After work, I decided to meet my parents since they just arrived in town. I wanted to pick up the fresh Kingfish that my brother and dad caught yesterday, and since everyone was hungry we decided to go to the Fion Wine Pub for dinner. We had an appetizer of calamari that were tossed in buffalo sauce, which were amazing. I would like to do something similar but with a sweet chili sauce, or maybe even Teriyaki sauce with lemongrass and sesame seeds. For my entree I had the “Austin’s Best Patty Melt”, which as far as I am concerned lived up to the name. The Texas toast was perfectly buttered and toasted, and the bacon was in nice thick strips instead of the cheap thin sliced bacon like most restaurants serve. I would have liked some mayonnaise on it, or some mustard, but that is more of a personal preference.
Overall, I had a pretty good day today. It was a good way to finish up my year as being 25 years old. Tomorrow I turn 26!
Shepherd’s Pie and Chicken Parmesan
Alright, so the flank steak turned out a little tough, but the marinades were good. I needed to let them absorb the flavor for longer. I only gave them about an hour, instead of overnight like I usually do. The Borscht was okay, but since all I had were beets to put in there it was a little plain.
I tried two different variations of the potatoes, the only issue is that the one I think tastes better discolors it. Would you eat mashed potatoes if they were a slight pinkish orange? I may have to figure out a way to make them taste similar without affecting their appearance too much. Also, do you prefer skins in your potatoes or no skins? Personally, I love potato skins and feel kind of cheated when I don’t get any. There is also a lot of waste involved when everything is totally edible…and delicious.
At work, I spent most of the day making Shepherd’s Pie. I ended up with one bus tub full of mashed potatoes and another full of nothing but ground beef, onions, and mixed veggies. I am hoping it was enough to feed all 100+ people. Before that though I made some fried chicken for Chicken Parmesan and used the garlic croutons I made last week for the breading. Best idea ever! I just had to add a little more salt and they were already perfectly seasoned. I don’t think any of it was left by the time we picked up everything.
Tomorrow I should finally get to go to Restaurant Depot. Next week is super busy, so we need to get most of our food while we can. There won’t be time to get anything after this coming Sunday. I am probably going to be like a kid in a candy store. I could probably spend all day in a store like Restaurant Depot. A Sysco warehouse? An entire week…easily.