![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
now that was a lovely evening
May. 23rd, 2007 10:35 amThere are quite a few restaurants in the near vicinity that we've never yet eaten at, so we decided for our anniversary to pick one. We tossed around a few ideas and then Joel mentioned a little Greek place that's on one of the side streets coming off the market. On Monday when I ran errands I stopped and looked at their menu, and it looked decent and reasonably priced, so we decided to try it out. You never know what you're going to get with a pig in a poke, but we sure came home with the bacon! I knew it was a good sign when soon after we were seated, most of the rest of the restaurant filled up too. A full restaurant is all the recommendation it needs, usually. They had wonderful decor - on one of the large walls they had a map of Greece painted, and most of the individual little tables had maps of various Greek islands painted; we were sitting at Skiathos. Since anniversaries only come once a year, we decided to go all out and each order a starter in addition to a main course, plus half a liter of retsina. Joel got feta baked in the oven with tomatoes, little hot peppers, and olives (the piece of feta was about the size of two card decks!), and I got mushrooms fried in garlic. It was worth going to the restaurant for these alone! And I'd go back just for these alone. The retsina, too, was quite good, it has a very complex taste which mingled incredibly well with the feta and the garlic.
For the main course, Joel had veal cooked with vegetables (including pieces of a carrot which had to have been as big around as my upper arm), and I have what was listed in the menu as gyros baked with tomatoes, vegetables, and cheese. It ended up being little bits of very nicely spiced meat in a sauce with tomatoes and vegetables and cheese baked over the top; very good, but not what I was expecting from the description!
We were planning to also splurge and get dessert (they had baclava with ice cream in the menu), but by the time we finished, we were too full; I hardly ate half of my main course (which means, hooray, we've got tasty leftovers for dinner!). I was shocked when the bill came and it was all less than €50 for the two of us. I would've cheerfully paid more.
After dinner we played a game of Twilight Struggle (strategic game based on the Cold War era), where no matter whether I'm the US or the USSR, Joel always creams me. The game ended after three turns (out of a possible 10) this time, though he kindly said that there was really only one thing I could've done differently and that most of it was just bad luck and really good cards for him.
We finished up the evening by trying out a surprise Joel had picked up earlier in the day. The last time we were at the natural foods store, we saw this honey wine with herbs and spices. The ingredients lists were fascinating, but the price was just sufficient to not quite warrant getting one just to try. I guess an anniversary is worth splurging. :) There's a red and a white; the red has sage, angelica, goldenrod, fenugreek, silverweed, lemon balm, hawthorn, rosemary and passionflower. The white has coriander, licorice, vanilla, clove, cinnamon, anice, cacao, hyssop, thyme, and orange. We opened the red last night. Wow. It is incredibly pungent. It almost smells overwhelmingly medicinal, but not quite. It's very sweet and thick and herby and I can't decide if I like it quite a bit, or if it's too syrupy. We weren't sure whether it'd be best chilled or not; we chilled the white and didn't the red, but I think that perhaps, since it's so sweet, the red might be better chilled a bit. Well, we've got most of a bottle left, so we'll see!
While we were enjoying our honey wine Joel plyed me with numerous details about the Revolutionary War, the French and Indian War, the Seven Years War, and various battles of the Civil War until I fell asleep. Sometimes, esp. after half a bottle of retsina and a glass of wine, listening to Joel talk strategy and tactics and battles is an incredible soporific. I love falling asleep to his voice -- though he's never keen on my falling asleep while he's trying to tell me something.
For the main course, Joel had veal cooked with vegetables (including pieces of a carrot which had to have been as big around as my upper arm), and I have what was listed in the menu as gyros baked with tomatoes, vegetables, and cheese. It ended up being little bits of very nicely spiced meat in a sauce with tomatoes and vegetables and cheese baked over the top; very good, but not what I was expecting from the description!
We were planning to also splurge and get dessert (they had baclava with ice cream in the menu), but by the time we finished, we were too full; I hardly ate half of my main course (which means, hooray, we've got tasty leftovers for dinner!). I was shocked when the bill came and it was all less than €50 for the two of us. I would've cheerfully paid more.
After dinner we played a game of Twilight Struggle (strategic game based on the Cold War era), where no matter whether I'm the US or the USSR, Joel always creams me. The game ended after three turns (out of a possible 10) this time, though he kindly said that there was really only one thing I could've done differently and that most of it was just bad luck and really good cards for him.
We finished up the evening by trying out a surprise Joel had picked up earlier in the day. The last time we were at the natural foods store, we saw this honey wine with herbs and spices. The ingredients lists were fascinating, but the price was just sufficient to not quite warrant getting one just to try. I guess an anniversary is worth splurging. :) There's a red and a white; the red has sage, angelica, goldenrod, fenugreek, silverweed, lemon balm, hawthorn, rosemary and passionflower. The white has coriander, licorice, vanilla, clove, cinnamon, anice, cacao, hyssop, thyme, and orange. We opened the red last night. Wow. It is incredibly pungent. It almost smells overwhelmingly medicinal, but not quite. It's very sweet and thick and herby and I can't decide if I like it quite a bit, or if it's too syrupy. We weren't sure whether it'd be best chilled or not; we chilled the white and didn't the red, but I think that perhaps, since it's so sweet, the red might be better chilled a bit. Well, we've got most of a bottle left, so we'll see!
While we were enjoying our honey wine Joel plyed me with numerous details about the Revolutionary War, the French and Indian War, the Seven Years War, and various battles of the Civil War until I fell asleep. Sometimes, esp. after half a bottle of retsina and a glass of wine, listening to Joel talk strategy and tactics and battles is an incredible soporific. I love falling asleep to his voice -- though he's never keen on my falling asleep while he's trying to tell me something.
