Favorite Places to Eat

It seems my wife and I get into a habits when it comes to places to eat. For a few months we will go somewhere several times a month, and then skip it for a while. Some of our new favorties include:

Korean BBQ- a new experaince for us, and as far as I know the only one in the area. Good but to pricey for regular meals.

Japanese Grill- We love Japanese food but generally its expensive. A new inexpensive place has opened near us and we go often. Still amazes us that people come in and are surprised to find they dont have sushi.

Baha Burger - which bothers my wife because of the non-traditional spelling but we both love the burgers. Serving 5 different burger types and a veggie option and a multitude of options for things to put on it. Last night I had an Angus Burger with blue cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, bacon, peach chutney, and yellow mustard on a kaiser roll with sweet potato fires.

Indian - Indian is even more of a staple for us now that a great new place opened near us about a year ago, with several Indo-Chinese options. I love Lamb Sagwala (sp?).

Whataburger - I know its been around for years but its new for our area. Its convenient and different enough from some other fast food that we eat their when we are inthe mood for that sort of thing.

Overall I am quite happy that so many interesting types of resturaunts are opening in the Birmingham/Hoover area.

So, what are your favorite places to eat?

Wow, I want to live there!

I don't go out to eat that much, but when we do it's either a local "gastropub" or on special occasions The Harvester. But neither have a specific theme like your places did.

it's kinda lame but mostly chinese and pizza places that deliver, so it's not really going out to eat i suppose. that and i get some kind of salad wrap at the sub shop on my delivery route pretty much everyday.

I don't know about your area of the country (I'm in D/FW, TX), but I've found that of all the asian cuisines, Vietnamese offers the best version of the staple Egg Roll around.

Their iconic soup, Pho (pronounced "fuh," I'm told), while seemingly simple, is tasty, fragrant, and filling. Generally, its a big bowl of broth (chicken, I believe, but possibly another kind) with sliced beef and a huge helping of noodles. Seasonings include, but are not limited to: black pepper, cilantro (a parseley relative), green onion, yellow/white onion, mint, bean sprouts, and jalepenos.

Another thing about Vietnamese cuisine- due to the long French occupation of their country, they have picked up a LOT of the techniques of French baking. So far, I've found their breads & pastries are as good as the ones from my native New Orleans.

Thai offers some of the best appetizers and brown sauces out there, and has some excellent spicy dishes.

If you like Japanese, be sure to try Udon (soup)- but check the ingredients. Personally, while I like most of the Udon I've had, I disliked the one with Sea Cucumber (looks like a turd, texture like gristle).

Awayfarer and I absolutely love the seafood joint down the street. It's a tad expensive, but it has great, fresh seafood and excellent sushi. We always go out to eat on Fridays (it's our "date night") and we go to this restaurant almost every other week.

It's nice to call ahead to reserve a table, then not have to tell them who you are when you come in because they just recognize you.

My wife and I recently moved from Rotterdam to Leiden (we live in the Netherlands). The one thing we miss is the huge choice of restaurants: literally around the corner, we had the best Thai restaurant we'd ever been to (an opinion borne out by all our friends), a very good Indian, a fantastic gastropub, and a lovely Spanish tapas place. Here, all we have is a Chinese.

This week was Barbecue, Italian, Pizza, and Chinese.
Last week was Middle Eastern and Japanese.
Last month I also had German, Mongolian, Chicago-style pizza (close to it), Vietnamese, Iranian, Tex-Mex, and Vegetarian.

I'm not counting "American" cuisine, since that's really diverse.

There's also a Jamaican place I like, Indian, Spanish, and French (my favorite restaurant, despite it being not my favorite cuisine)

Houston is really great for cultural diversity. All those I listed are just the ones I can remember right now.

I just remembered I went out with some friends to an Indian restaurant called Rajpoot, and the food was lovely. I had a Lamb Dhansak, which was very nice. But the people who work there are just a tad creepy. And I've heard bad stuff about the hygiene.

My favorite place to eat is the local Cracker Barrel restaurant in Holyoke. It's basically good ol' country eatin' type meals (lots of chicken, steak, gravy, potatoes, cornbread, that sorta thing) for really inexpensive prices. The service is good during off-peak times (sometimes a little off during peak times), and the restaurant is actually part of a small store that sells candies of all types, scented candles, and quirky merchandise of various sorts.

The other place that comes to mind is Goten of Japan in Sunderland. There you sit at large communal tables around a grill while the chef cooks your food right in front of you, doing all sorts of tricks in the meantime (including tossing bits of the food for you to try to catch in your mouth). It's a quite entertaining place to eat, though since it's pricey and out of my easily-accessible area I've only gotten to go a few times.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Wow! All this food sounds like lovely food!