Gyro c/o Zorba's

On another day I ordered the gyro sandwich from Zorba's - with extra tomatoes. It was a good move and a tasty hit-the-spot treat.
The dragon was overwhelmed by the extra tomatoes.

Soup, Squid and Scallops c/o D'Mitri's

After our dinner at Pub and Kitchen, T. and I planned on getting together again and trying a new place. This ended up taking months of planning, mainly because I lead a very interesting and full life. Ha. After some discussion, we decided that it was time to give Dmitri's a shot. I first heard of the establishment from excellent champagne popper V. at L.'s bachelorette weekend. V. basically said it was the best seafood restaurant in Philly, and that I should really go. Nearly a year later I finally made good on my assurance that I would do so. It's BYO, so we brought a bottle of Italian wine, which makes perfect sense for a Greek restaurant. Pysche. I started with a bowl of the gazpacho, which was a special that night. I liked it. I think I like my gazpacho with a little more of a kick somehow. Basically I like gazpacho that borders on salsa. Still, it was refreshing.
We shared the grilled octopus appetizer. And folks, this dish is no joke. I have never had such tender tentacles. With just a little lemon, oh man, a nice grilled taste, no heavy chewing. Very special.
I chose the scallops as my main course, pan fried. In some fancy seafood places you pay $18 for, like, one scallop. That was not the case here, as the plate placed in front of me was brimming with eight nicely crispy on the outside but tremulously tender on the inside scallops. Tremulously tender? I just like the way it sounds, let's move on.
The rice and greens that came with the dish didn't blow me away, but they were above average in terms of having been seasoned nicely.
T. ordered the chicken skewer special. The meat chunks were charred in a good way and had a nice flavor to them. We both commented that perhaps they were a little, eetsy beetsy bit dry, but that didn't stop T. from enjoying them, nor me from sampling.
We went way early, like senior citizen-style, because all the reviews say that it's quite busy/difficult later in the evening. While I enjoyed the meal and thought everything was good, I didn't fall in love with the place. If I were forced to recommend only one BYO restaurant in the city, it would still, hands down, be Modo Mio. But if asked for a recommendation for good Greek, I would definitely say that this is the place. Sorry Zorba's.

Charcoal Chicken Pita c/o Zorba's

I continue to enjoy the occasional French fry in Zorba's sandwiches. So does the dragon.

On a completely unrelated to anything note, it's fall. What's up with that? The wind has kicked up and today, as I was walking to the grocery store, the wind almost ripped my heavy earrings off of my ears...or almost ripped off my ears, leveraging my heavy earrings. I do like the look of fall foliage, but in the midst of the busy season I don't get that much time to get out of the city to actually witness it. I have no doubt that elsewhere in the universe orange, red, yellow and gold leaves are making their entrance on trees...but the trees on my street generally go from green to on the ground without my really picking up on the pretty. I should probably try to be more observant. Yesterday I walked six miles and felt real good about it. Today I feel fine, but my legs do betray the fact that I don't generally ask them to walk six miles. It's a good feeling on the whole, though my bones feel funny. What? I'm rambling. What else can I ramble about? I have plans to discuss the books I've been reading, and maybe even a small round up of all the awful movies and television I watch. Oh, and I have long been preparing (in my brain) a list of my favorite products. Looking for a killer lipstick? Well, you just wait, I have thoughts on this matter. And on matters of cheese, crackers and seltzer. Also, I need new shoes. That's enough random for one post.

Greek Salad c/o Mugshots

The Mugshots Greek salad wasn't bad. They provide enough olives and that's really important. To me.

Corn and Gyro c/o Earth Day at Centennial Park

Nashville celebrated Earth Day on the 17th, or the Saturday before the 22nd, whichever one makes chronological sense. This celebration was held at Centennial Park, which was very close by the hospital at which my mother was residing. When the lunch time hour came around I went on over to have a look. There were a number of farm stands and booths on display, but staying at a hotel with no kitchen led me to shy away from produce and meat envy. In other words, I did not go and touch what they were selling. I did, however, take a walk along the main food stall area, observing what was offered before deciding on what I would actually eat (funnel cake you tempted me greatly). There were towering stacks of fresh fried potato chips...I passed. And huge drumsticks for those who wanted to feel like they were at a Renaissance fair...I did not want to feel that way.
But roasted corn? Oh man did I want some of that action, even though where the corn came from is clearly going against the whole point of Earth Day. I found it funny how much of the food made no effort to be at all sustainable. I mean, am I crazy? Could they have local corn in late April? I really don't think so, which means it was shipped some crazy long distance just to be eaten at an event purportedly geared towards everything that is not agri-business. I don't know enough to be knowledgeable about this sort of thing, but I do know just enough to be righteous about it.
That said, I bought an ear of corn and sprinkled parmesan cheese and old bay spices on it...would have been so much better if they had mayo and limes but, alas, they did not. Hypocrisy!
Still a little hungry, I stopped and ordered a gyro pita from the Greek restaurant stand. It was unwieldy and overstuffed, but I would prefer my food generous to withholding. Just like I like my men. Ha. Ha. No, it's true.
It's strange, the dichotomy of my time in Nashville. While I continue to have little interest in discussing the recent and important events of my life in any detail, it must be clear to those of you who read the blog regularly (or know me in real life) that the whole reason that I'm in Nashville is rather serious. And yet here I am: still eating, still making the jokes, still providing my half-assed commentary on food that no one really cares about. The fact that I'm almost two weeks behind my real life is also interesting. Even if it is only through meals, I get just the tiniest bit of reflection and insight on the events that I cover here, which I might have otherwise missed. I have long considered this blog a sort of place holder for larger, more expansive and smart-fancy-pantsy writing projects. But perhaps it is fine for them to simply be the markers. Will I get rich and famous? No. Will the blog ever become anything more than what it is right now? Probably not. But I find great comfort in its chronicles. Of course I do, it's my life. This will end the philosophical part, and the entirety, of this post.

Gyros Sandwich and Horiataki c/o Zorbas Taverna

For another work lunch I went with the gyros sandwich from Zorbas and a horiataki salad. The pita sandwich was lovely lovely lovely.
The salad was good, though I had literally one olive...I feel like this is the second or third time that I have ordered the salad and had very few to no olives. That is a bummer.

The Dragon Eats Back

So, my work life has picked up speed and made it so that my life feels as if it is all work, all the time, which is not entirely true, but it's pretty much true. I think everyone in the office is working both days of the weekend, and 10-12 hour days during the week. And this has been going on for two weeks, and will probably last at least one more, if not two. It can get to you a little. One way that our boss men hope to boost morale is through free lunches and, if you're still in the office at 7, free dinners. The lunches started last Monday, I believe. Here is a partial recap:

Our first day we ordered from last year's trusty King of Tandoor. I ordered the Motor Ponir (homemade cheese fried and cooked with green peas Punjab style). The dragon took a post on the garlic naan and kept an eye on a runaway cheese chunk.
The next day we ordered from Luigi's Pizza Fresca. I asked if anyone wanted to split a salad, but no one did, so I just ordered a full rugula salad anyways. So, why even mention asking about the splitting? No idea.
I also ordered their veal parmesan hoagie. It was disappointing. Mainly due to the meat, which shouldn't have been surprising, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I think an eggplant parm would have been the better call. The dragon was crushed under the weights of my sandwich expecations.
Then there was Greek from Zorbas. I ordered the gyros platter, not realizing how much I prefer it in a sandwich. It was still delicious, but I love the lettuce, tomato, tzatziki, gyro meat, pita combo much more.
Waves of meat.
The next day it was from Mugshot's. I had their goat cheese/spinach/pesto sandwich and a side salad.

Then we were back to Indian. This time I ordered the lamb achari, which had plenty of lemon pickle kick to it, in addition to tender lamb.

Gyros Sandwich c/o Zorba's

I had a good gyros experiemce for lunch one day. I'm not sure if this is a normal situation for gyros, but mine had a french fry, maybe two, in its layers. It reminded me of salade Lyonnaise (I should really just write a Lyonnaise salad), a dish I have always enjoyed. The tzatziki sauce was quite nice, the meat as well.
It came from Zorba's.

Lunch c/o Zorba's Taverna

On Tuesday (I think) we ordered from Zorba's for lunch. I chose to have taramasalata and a Greek salad. The Greek salad had a total of one olive. Sigh. I don't know what's proper, but I know that my conception of the dish is laden with Kalamatas. The taramasalata wasn't too exciting either. I don't know where it was that I had really good Tarama (that was Zorba's wording, they also said it was the "authentic Greek Taramasalata"), but I feel like at least once I've had this appetizer where the caviar was intact. What I mean is lots of tiny little caviar eggs popping in my mouth, rolling on the tongue and bathed in creaminess (Zorba's says it's olive oil, bread, lemon and potato, in addition to the fish caviar). The texture of the dip was a compelling asset that was missing in this rendition. Ah the expectations one forms for certain dishes.
The dragon kept his distance from the taramasalata.
The pita was quite lovely, soft and warm even.
The dragon was more enchanted by the salad. It, too, expected more olives.

Dinner c/o Diasporas'

On Friday I registered myself on campus and took up residence in a dorm...which is really funny since I managed to never really live in a dorm while attending college...unless you count my freshmen year in a trailer (they ran out of dorm rooms) but that was very different than typical dorm life (as I understand it from four years of high school). Then I met up with my friend J. J. and I worked together at the now defunct White Rabbit Coffeehouse and Cafe. Eventually we both left that hothouse of crazy but we stayed friends. J. has not left the Hudson Valley region and I am jealous of her. We met at Diasporas', one of my favorite restaurants during my two post-graduate years in the area. The ebf and I found it late in the game but frequented it a fair amount nonetheless. I had kind of hoped that the same waiter would still be working...but of course, like so many things, the staff was different...except for the owner/chef's father being the greeter, he was still there.
We shared the taramasalata appetizer. Good fishy roe and creamy goodness with lemon and chopped tomatoes.
I had planned on getting their salmon ravioli. Unfortunately it was no longer on the menu. Instead I went with one of the night's specials: a veal chop with a rose water sauce. The veal was not quite as tender as I had expected. The sauce was interesting. New. I liked it.
Oh how I love it all.

Icosium Kafe

On Friday No Longer Wayward SAICer and I went to Icosium Kafe (at Foster and Clark) for dinner. This was a first visit for both of us but I had read rather positive reviews about the food and was looking forward to Turkish coffee. Icosium Kafe is a créperie (I think that accent's wrong) and has quite the selection of both sweet and savory crepe fillings. And most everything comes with either Chicken or vegetable soup. I went with chicken. The broth was very fine though the chicken was a little too uniformly chopped for my taste.
The coffee was exactly as I hoped...I asked for it sweet...I'm not sure that sweet is 'authentic' but that's how I like it and it was perfecto.
I ordered the Greek Crépe which was filled with tomatoes, olives, Feta cheese, hummus-like dressing, Halal Merguez (extremely tasty lamb sausage), baby spinach and maybe something else. The thing was massive. If I hadn't ordered the lamb it would have been $8.50 for the huge crepe and soup. I wonder if they make their sweet crepes a bit thinner, more dainty, or if they're as hearty as my savory crepe.
I'm totally going to go back.

Fickle, Strange Blogger

So for the last little while I've been trying to upload a certain photograph...but blogger was very insistent about that not being a possibility. And yet blogger didn't think twice about these three photographs. Fickle, fickle and strange blogger. These are badly photoshopped pictures from the dinner I had at Santorini's, thanks to the pageant friend's parents. We started out with the flaming cheese, an eggplant spread and a chicken salad...and oysters. The cheese, as always, was flamalicious until it got cold and kind of rubbery. I didn't try the chicken salad and the oysters didn't make me sick but weren't all that great in the true world of oysters.
For my entree I had the lamb artichokes. In person they looked a little more appealing than this photograph. Lamb, tender and on the bone, with fresh artichokes and vegetables in a butter lemon sauce. I think I would have liked it much better without the sauce. The lamb truly was amazing but overall it wasn't quite it. I went to Santorini's once before and was overwhelmed by their selection (though in my post I say I wasn't...who's to be believed?) and then a little let down by the actual quality of the food.
I thank the friend's parents for a wonderful meal...there was orange sorbet served in an orange and that was nice and refreshing.