Eating Out... Overwhelming?

Boy that is sure what happened to me when DH and I decided to go to a new restaurant in town.  Now that the kids are teenagers we like to go out occasionally by ourselves... you know like a date.  Remember those.  They are usually very relaxing enjoyable times.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings.  DH hubby loves wings and I enjoy them too on occasion.  Thought I'd surprise him and suggest going some where he wouldn't think I'd like to go.  He was surprised and looked forward to going.

We walk through Buffalo Wild Wings doors and the first thing that hits you is the noise.  OK this isn't going to be a quiet experience.  One can barely talk to their companion it's so loud.  They wanted to seat us at a 2 person table right by the entrance and hostess stand.  Really?! Do we need a little more noise added to our experience?  We asked for another table.  Hostess then points to the next table.  How about this one?  It's a big round table for 8 people.  Really?!  You want 2 people taking an 8 person table when there are plenty of 2 and 4 person empty tables in this room.  Now I'm starting to sound like a pill when my hostess really doesn't have any common sense.

OK we're seated at a 4 person.  Our waiter comes over immediately and gives us a game controller and wants our drink orders.  "Want me to show you how to operate the game controller" he asks?  What do you want to drink?  Controller? Drinks?  Controller?  Drinks?  With the noise, lights, TV screens, choices and decisions to make so suddenly we are totally overwhelm.  Then we get the menu.  I should have turned and left before the menu came, because DH doesn't do well at making food choices in a new restaurant when things are calm and quiet.

He is clearly ready to throw one of his "I'm overwhelmed tizzy fits."  I remain calm and do the things girlfriends do.  Give him a squeeze, a wink, hold his hand.  He's distracted enough to look at the menu calmly.  BUT he snatches his hand back as I see the wheels in his head start whirling.  I can't blame him I'm totally confused too.  They don't serve just wings.  They serve all sort of things like burgers, wraps, salads, flat breads and ribs to name few.  How I deal with a new menu is I simplify.  I pick the first thing that appeals to me and I close the menu.  I know there are many choices I want, but I can't have them all so why agonize.  It's a wing joint I'm having wings.  DH on the other hand has all the choices whirling around in his head.  If I hadn't put a stop to it he might have gotten a nose bleed.

I asked him, "Anything appeal to you?"  He says, "I DON'T KNOW.  THERE ARE SO MANY CHOICES.  EVERYTHING APPEALS TO ME."  I ask in my loving syrupy girlfriend voice, "Why don't we share a wing platter."  He says, "I DON'T KNOW THERE ARE SO MANY WING PLATTERS AND WING SAUCES!"  I suggest we try a traditional wing sauce.  We'll get one platter with bone in wings and one with boneless wings and we'll share.  We'll get a side of hot sauce for him and blue cheese for me.  Crisis dialed down no one's head is going to explode.

We order.  First thing we are told is there are no french fries.  We can have potato chips or potato wedges at no extra charge.  I love crispy freshly made potato chips and DH loves potato wedges.  No problem.  Out comes our order.  We have 2 cups of blue cheese dressing, and 2 cups of ranch dressing.  Wings were your typical hot wings.  Nothing special, but good.  My potato chips were very thick and squishy.  They were just chip shaped potato wedges, which I don't like.  The potato wedges were at least seasoned and had a flavor.  DH offer to share his wedges.  When out of the corner of my eye I see 2 kids eating french fries.  WHAT?!  I was told no how no way was I getting french fries.  I grab one of my husband potato wedges and what do I get a lone french fry.  You know one of the non existent french fries.

The mild sauce was starting to get a little hot for me so I looked around for my celery.  No celery.  My platter was clearly pictured with celery.  What did they run out of celery too?  I stop the waiter and ask?  He tells me that since I have 2 different flavors of sauce I get no celery.  I didn't order 2 different kinds of sauces.  DH doesn't like ranch and I only like the blue cheese.  Sorry you have 2 sauces no celery for you.  WHAT?!  I didn't want to push it at this point.  I just wanted to go home.  The noise level and the disappointment of this meal was just at its apex for me.  I don't throw tizzies in restaurants, but I sure wanted to at this point.  I just remembered I was enjoying lunch with DH on a rare day off that he had during the week.

Before I left though I took a quick movie of a quarter of the restaurant.  I counted 32 TV screens in the whole restaurant.  Some might think that's a good thing, but with each one on a loud different channel... it's not.

Restaurant Review

New Years Eve we decided to give this restaurant a try. It came highly recommended. It was described as "Home Town Buffet only better." Well, I have two problems. First I didn't think Home Town Buffet is very good. I love to cook and taking me to a buffet where their main goal is to get large quantities of food out fast isn't always a good thing. Secondly, I can't eat a lot of food in one sitting. I don't have a problem with it, but dear hubby doesn't feel like we're getting our money's worth when taking me to a buffet.

We decided we had to try the "Golden Corral" just to see what all the hoopla was about. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. The selection and quality of the food was very good. My daughter and I fell instantly in love with their Loaded Potato & Bacon Soup. I moved on to fried clams, beer batter fish and had a stare down at the freshly made onion ring station.

A cook came out of the back with 6 large freshly deep fried delicious looking onion rings. A gal standing right in front of the warmer tray asked the cook, "Do you make these fresh yourself?" He said, "Yes, we do." She said, "They are wonderful." She proceeded to pick up all 6 onion rings and put them on her plate with me standing right there waiting for at least one. This is where the staring came in. I gave her the "I can't believe you are going to take them ALL when you've already had some!" look. She hadn't quite got to her plate and let 2 of the onion rings slide off the tongs back in the warmer tray. I smiled at her. They were good! Beer batter dipped large slices of sweet onion cooked to a tender perfection.

I had a mini sirloin burger, a mini buffalo chicken sandwich, a bite of orange chicken and "OH GOODIE" creamed spinach! Yes, I'm weird and I love the stuff. I surveyed the Mexican section, the Italian section and cruised through the bakery section. They were making their own bread dough. You could watch them working in their kitchen. This is also where I saw the cutest mini donut machine. My first thought was I want one! It could sit on my kitchen counter forever. Check out my short video. I just had to share it's cuteness with my friends and took a video.

I have to say though the only 2 things I didn't like at the Golden Corral was their orange chicken. Had a fake odd orange flavor and the creamed spinach was to put it mildly disgusting.

A mere 20 minutes into our adventure I was full. My daughter and I decided to share the same side of the booth as my husband was up and down many times. Now he is someone who can eat a lot in one sitting. After sitting for about 20 minutes I decided to just look at the dessert section. All different cakes and pies, Rice Krispie treats and fudge, pudding and jello, soft serve and ice cream scooped on a cone. What to get?! Who are we kidding I can't just look. Everything looks so wonderful. I'm getting the feeling of being in Wonka land. Then I see it my all time favorite pie Coconut Cream and it's so tiny. A wafer thin (any Monty Python fans out there) morsel of Coconut Cream pie. Surely I can fit this in. After fighting off my daughter I ate the pie and nearly exploded in the true sense of Monty Python's "Meaning of Life." If you haven't seen "Meaning of Life" don't it's pretty gross. If you have you get the idea.

We all had a great meal and will definitely try this restaurant again. Next time I may have pie first!

To see if there is a Golden Corral near you visit their website.

Store Hours
As a general rule all Golden Corral's are open 7 days a week. Specific hours and menu items may vary. Please call your local Golden Corral to verify days/hours of operation and menu offerings.

Lunch and Dinner 11am to 10 pm
Saturday Breakfast 7:30am to 11:00 am
Sunday Breakfast 7:30am to 11:00 am

My local restaurant is located in NORTH HIGHLANDS, CA, 4940 WATT AVENUE 95660.
(916)348-4396

Karen's Thai Chicken Soup

This recipe was created by my friend Karen Hawkins. She was telling me years ago about a restaurant (La Bou) that had a delicious Thai Chicken Soup. So, we went to lunch there and had the soup. She was right it was so good and when the weather gets cold it more than hits the spot. It's smooth tomato broth slides down your throat and warms you from the inside out. She decided that day she'd try and recreate it. This recipe is SO close that I don't think I could tell the difference. Although I probably could as the restaurant version is so spicy hot I almost couldn't eat it. That's how good the soup was... I was willing to endure pain to eat it. Mine is a lot cooler in the spice department.

Karen's Thai Chicken Soup

2 celery sticks, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil
1 large chicken breast, cut in bite sized pieces
1 - 14 oz. can low fat coconut milk
1 - 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 - 14 oz. cans chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked rice
Thai Chili Paste to taste

Saute' celery, onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is soft. Add chicken breast and cook until done. Add coconut milk, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and chicken broth. After bringing to a boil add rice and Thai chili paste to taste depending on the amount of heat you like. Simmer until rice is cooked.


Lynne's note: I like to low fat coconut milk I'm sure the full fat version would be fine. I also like to use the petite cut canned tomatoes. I don't like the large chunks of tomato in this soup. In last night's version of the soup I had 4 chicken thighs that needed to be used. After the celery/onion/garlic was sauteed I added the chicken broth only. I then added the 4 chicken thighs without their skin. I simmered the thighs until cooked through. I removed them let them cool and cut into bite sized piece. I added the chopped chicken back to broth along with other ingredients of the recipe. I used reduced sodium chicken broth and the soup needed some added salt in my opinion.

As for the heat in this soup it does need some zing so don't skip it. I had this odd hot sauce in the fridge that my husband and daughter like to use to season food. My son and I have tender tongues and don't add hot sauce to anything. For the recipe though I do like a little heat. I've used chili oil in the past as I usually have some on hand. Last night I thought I'd try above sauce I had purchase for DH at the grocery store. It was recommended on the Food Network as being very flavorful. I just take DH's word for it. After quizzing him on exactly how hot was it I started by stirring in 1/2 teaspoon. Then I tasted. I ended up adding 3 teaspoons all together. I probably could have stopped at 2 1/2 as my nose was running quite a bit. BUT the soup was good! Didn't slow me down a bit.

Note: Dh hubby and I had leftover soup for lunch. As I ate mine I got to thinking it was so much better than the night before if that is possible. I wondered would I ever make a batch of soup and then save it for the next day before eating? The soup still had the wonderful tomato broth that feels so good going down one's throat, but it was thicker more like a stew. The rice in the soup had really absorbed the broth and thicken the soup. I was a little worried that the soup might be spicier since I used a new hot sauce, but it was just right.

DH called me from work and asked me if I had eaten my soup. He then went on to say it seemed so much better the next day and would I consider making the soup and waiting a day to eat it. I laughed as I had just visited that idea when I ate my soup.