Holidays

I am in Europe visiting friends (rough life, I know.) Stay tuned.

Mitchell's Fish Market

Yesterday, I had plans to have some girlfriends over for dinner. I decided that I wanted to make mussels for them, and I buy my mussels by the pound at Mitchell's Fish Market in Eastwood. I know that people don't normally think about Mitchell's as a source of raw seafood to take home and cook, but you should. The mussels are only $3.50 per pound, which blows my mind.

Anyway, I decided to have lunch at Mitchell's while they cleaned the mussels. My mother joined me. She had some boring spinach salad, but I had the delicious grilled scallops. They have stopped serving the lunch entrees with mashed potatoes and replaced them with roasted fingerling potatoes, which are SO MUCH BETTER. The mashed potatoes did nothing for me. The vegetables served with the grilled entrees are awesome because, unlike Crapplebees et al, they aren't cooked to death and soggy.

The entree included six big old scallops. I normally subscribe to the practice of not leaving any scallop behind, but I couldn't finish these. This was a LOT of food. I was in heaven.

I also really liked it when I ordered an iced tea and the waitress brought me a whole carafe of iced tea. Furthermore, the tea was chock full o' lemons (love) and there was an iced tea spoon in the glass. I LOVE iced tea spoons. I understand this is weird. I may or may not have taken iced tea spoons from restaurants before because I like them so much. Sorry . . .

Anyway, I love Mitchell's and I always have. This Catholic girl will continue to eat there all the time, not only on Lenten Fridays or Oyster Mondays (you owe it to yourself to check this out) but any day of the week. But not today, because TODAY is the day that I'm going to the 1913 Room for dinner. Jealous?

Eden's Juice

Several times a week, I make myself a kale smoothie. I then take it out in public with me in a clear container, and everyone I encounter is grossed out.

Seriously, you have no idea how many times I have to explain myself to people. I JUST WANT SOME VEGETABLES, PEOPLE!

I love my smoothies, but I hate cleaning the blender. I also really want businesses that offer healthy stuff to stay in operation, so I have been hitting Eden's Juice in downtown Lansing hard. I went there five times last week. I am totally obsessed.

I don't really go for fruit smoothies (frankly, because I asked if the orange juice was made there or was bought, and I found out that it was Tropicana and I don't drink store-bought juice) but I love the raw vegetable juices. My favorite is the Cold Fighter- carrots, apples, ginger, and oranges. I generally get a shot of wheatgrass too, because wheatgrass is a staple of mine and I drink it twice a day. Theirs is so much better than my frozen wheatgrass powder. You can watch them actually cut the grass and blend it up right in front of you. Hello . . . picture of health, anyone?

They give me a little slice of poppyseed bread with my juice and I have a wonderful afternoon snack.

Last week I went in with a friend of mine and we got the wheatgrass grand slam- a shot of wheatgrass that you follow with shots of pure ginger, lemon, and cranberry juices, then a pineapple juice chaser. It made me feel like I live in the rainforest and just go around picking fruit and eating it all day. Maybe that's a little bit weird, but I'm into it.

Fun fact- Eden's Juice is in the previous location of my favorite salad bar ever, Fresh. When I worked downtown, I would eat at Fresh at least three times a week. Interesting how another healthy business ended up there.

Fun fact #2- the owner is MSU/Olympic basketball player Steve Smith's cousin.

Fun fact #3- if you ask for a spinach smoothie, they will indeed make you one. This place is fantastic.

Bravo

Last week my friend Tom and I headed to Bravo in the Eastwood Towne Center for our traditional post-board meeting carb fest. I generally try to stay away from chain restaurants, but Bravo and it's neighbor Mitchell's Fish Market are just so darn GOOD.

Tom dove into the bread basket, but I don't go to Bravo for the bread. I go for the house salad. I'm not a salad lover, but this salad is exceptional. I love it, and I get one without fail every single time I go to Bravo.

Tom had the shrimp diavolo, which I've had several times. It has a little spice and it's probably my favorite thing on the menu after the lamb chops, which are incredible. I wish I had some of those lamb chops right now, as a matter of fact . . .

I got this chicken thing from a specials menu-
Chicken Valdostana
Thinly pounded chicken breast sautéed and topped with Prosciutto di Parma, Fontina, diced tomatoes and a mushroom white wine sauce. Served with brown butter and sage fettuccine

The prosciutto sold me, which will ALWAYS happen. Prosciutto is one of my absolute favorite things to eat. I can't get enough of it. However, I didn't love the dish. I mean, I ate every bite of it, but it wasn't one of the best things I've ever had at Bravo.

Regardless, I'm happy with every meal I have had at Bravo (and I have had a LOT of meals there.) It's freaking delicious. You can't go wrong.

Christie's Bistro

Last weekend I was at the Lexington Lansing (the reincarnation of the Sheraton Hotel) for law school prom. I ate, I danced, it was lovely. I stayed at the hotel that night and the next morning I called my homegirl to meet me for brunch at Christie's. It's been at least five years since I ate there and I had high hopes.

The brunch buffet looks impressive, and I put a serious hurt on the peel and eat shrimp (which I wish were seasoned like the peel and eat shrimp at Mitchells). I don't care for omelet stations, so I ignored that and focused my attention on the prime rib. The asparagus looked good, but at dinner the night before I had eaten about 67 spears of asparagus and that was enough for me.

I don't know if they don't have mimosas and Bloody Mary's, or if the waiter just didn't offer me one, but I stuck to coffee (meh) and iced tea.

The dessert table was dressed to impress. I didn't have any cake because I was stuffed with prime rib and shrimp, but the chocolate cake that I'd eaten the night before was fantastic and I noticed it on the dessert table at brunch too.

However, this brunch is expensive. For the two of us, the bill was $40+. Not worth it. I would have been better off ordering off the room service menu and spending the afternoon lying in my king sized bed with the curtains pulled completely shut to block out the sun (my favorite thing to do in hotel rooms. Try it.)

Save some money and go downtown to Soup to Nutz instead.

Mongolian BBQ Hell

A few weeks ago, my brother and I were trying to decide on where to meet for dinner. He lives in Perry and was unwilling to drive into Lansing, so he suggested all the crap chain restaurants near the Meridian Mall. I vetoed Chili's, Outback, and Olive Garden, and he has already had his yearly sushi roll, so Maru was out. I struck an agreement when I suggested Mongolian BBQ. I wanted to eat something relatively healthy, and he wanted me to pay, so BBQ it was.

I spent many afternoons in college at Mongolian BBQ. I couldn't cook, so my friend and I would go at least once a week to pay $15 for the most basic of lunches- stir fry. I understand that a lot of people go for the "experience," which to me is ridiculous. If they would serve the food to me at my table without requiring me to go watch the grillers sing and ring that God forsaken bell, I would be just as happy.

Anyway.

I was happy to see duck as one of the options. I was happy to see tofu. I was not happy to see krab. I loaded up my bowl with the above-mentioned duck and about three times as many green vegetables, then dumped on some lemon pepper and called it good. I asked for brown rice instead of the ubiquitous white, and while I was finally given brown rice, it took about ten minutes. We were also, apparently, there on sorority night. My ears will never be the same.

I like stiry fry, and I understand the premise of the restaurant. What I don't understand is why watching college kids slap your food around with giant metal rods is entertainment.