pacific seafood

Feb 3, 2011

Something Asian.  Something seafoodish. Something buffet-ish. That's what Mike wanted for his celebratory dinner.  Now he's two years away from turning "over the hill".  Since I'm close myself, there's been more notice-taking of how the 40's offers youthful hope.  It may not need to be such a dreaded milestone after all.....er...um....we hope.  Ha!

Phoenix's Pacific Seafood Buffet looked promising with over a hundred different offered items.  What was interesting was the limited indulgence of crab....both steamed and fried.  The steamed ones disappeared even faster creating a competitive line.  What an odd sprint moment to be in it with very young orientals with adrenaline to get our tab's fair share.  The steamed meat was so much easier to pull out of the shell than the fried meat.  [A point taken for future maw shoving].  The fried meat was that stubbornly attached to the shell.  This hardly seemed to be the "appropriate" setting to be shoving any kind of food up into my maw with greased fingers as a result.  Until today, I'd never been to a seafood buffet restaurant where steamed crab was so limited.  We were there 1 1/2 hours taking our gormandizing time and it was only ever replenished two....maybe three times.  That was the only disappointment.

Unlike Mike, I discovered that no matter how flavorful the seasoning, octopus will never be any level of affinity. Bleh......

This was the second or third day I was experiencing the affects of not having been on any green food supplement for over three months.  So, not only was the fatigue at it's highest, but it was accompanied by headaches that didn't want to go away.  I found myself pining for some bowen works and/or the energy to use the tension releasing magic balls I'd purchased at Costco days prior.  However, it took three mores days of the unpleasantries to make the connection.  Of course, within just a few hours of having gotten some of the berry green down the feeling of pounding head compression was almost entirely gone after the Super Bowl party. 

The deserts were just as unimpressive as that of any other buffet restaurant.

basket of beauties

Mike's mom, dad, sister....etc sent a basket of flowers for my birthday....check out the beauties!!!

[click on photos to enlarge]

Cheesecake Factory

A 'las!  After responding to countless heart and ego stimulating yummy-licious birthday greetings on my facebook wall, I can now concentrate on blogging of the fabulously divine birthday-DAY.  The day before I picked mom up at the airport shuttle drop off.  The kids were so excited to have her.  They greeted us jumping up and down by the drive way.  Cute.  In the morning Mike took the kids on to school.  How perfect that my birthday landed on his weekly day off [Wednesday] this year!  

I wanted my birthday morning coffee in my new fall mug I found at the dollar store....

Then Mike pointed out the warning label I so airheadedly missed before purchasing several days ago at el chipo-mart....

I'm guessing there's led in the paint that even the shimmering finish can't protect any drinker from.  But not to be too discouraged.  Mom had brought me a birthday mug she found in California....

Yes, I laughed with MUCH satisfaction!

Mike made the Filipino [birthday] breakfast of beef tapa, rice, and eggs fried just the way I like them...garnished with tomatoes....

After shopping with Kelly [Blackwell-station secretary] at Costco for my various lettuces [romain, mixed greens and some avocados] and being an ear for Trish Lewis (I REALLY like her!)....I picked the kids up from school and then Mike and I enjoyed the leisure drive down to Phoenix.  First we stopped at the Fry's electronics on Thunderbird.  That's one crazy tech happening place.  Good gravy!  We were looking for a blue ray movie player that can do several tasks: netflix, web, pandora...etc.  Happy to type that they had the better deal compared to Wal-mart.  Bad for Wal-mart, good for us.  I'm beginning to dislike Wal-mart as it is.  But oh, well...should there be found a need to dedicate a carping entry for that subject later....welp, I'll leave the rest of the comments for that.

We went to the Cheesecake Factory up from Thunderbird, off of 83rd.  There are TONS of eateries in that area.  Americans have it good as far as culinary entertainment goes.  Much to pick from in every major city...and yet, so many seem to stay bored.  They don't know how to just be still and enjoy some peace and quiet.  Oops, does that include me?  Great for the industry, though....and good for the currently declining economy, yah?    

The mango margarita.....deletably divine.  I asked for half the tequila.  It was still very good.....

Mike's appetizer: spinach dip.  Comes with chips and tomatoes....

I had the Thai lettuce wrap all to myself....

....and I couldn't finish it.....so do you think I could really dig into the luau luau salad?  The fried egg roll wrappers I knew would go soggy if I didn't eat them up.  And that's all I ate of the salad...the rest was a great lunch for today.  Do these pictures do the salad justice??   It was evening...so no daylight.  It was uncomfortable to be setting off the camera flash but difficult to be discrete. Maybe you can get an idea of just how BIG the salad is [just like every other CF dish] when clicking on the photo.  Hmmm.....

Mike's was a nice juicy medium cooked steak with country "flavored" mashed potatoes and fried asparagus....

the onions got tossed to the side.....

With a great cup of coffee, never leave the Cheesecake Factory without some lip lickin' cheesecake!  Mike couldn't finish the Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate cheesecake....

from the Cheesecake Factory website 

Yah.....lick those lips after hitting the picture for a bigger deletable view....!!!

....and I could only eat one bite of the red velvet cheesecake....

from the Cheesecake Factory website

...did you click on it for a bigger lip lickin' view?  I couldn't pass up something so stunningly vibrant!  They were both good to....

the last bite as the perfect after-"party" leftovers!

I've now been walking, breathing, eating, drinking, running and living on this earth for 38 years.  Definitely looking forward to new ventures God has in store for us!!!!

southern scheming

Tomorrow is a celebratory day for my hubster. I'm pondering and deliciously scheming as to what exactly this pinay wife should do about it. The idea of putting together a booty expanding southern cuisine of country fried chicken over biscuits, smothered with sausage/bacon gravy is a perfect image for my mind's eye to salivate over. Oh, how I would love to be able to top that off with some blood sugar raising peach cobbler. Only, his southern bell mother would probably do much better than I could with a peach cobbler. I have yet to master one I, myself, find pleasing.

Lunch is already spoken for at Aliva's. They seem to have the tastiest Mexican cuisine in the area. He'd like to top that off with a movie. Wonder what's showing in town. So, that's probably what we'll do. Let all that gluttening indulgence sit and settle on our hips and thighs.

Mom called this afternoon. So, we jibber jabbered, we two. We jibber jabbered until we were through. I shared of our tire with this place and why I personally believe it's time to move on and find something new. Mum's the word....yup, mum's the word......