Monday, February 22, 2010

We were all smiles and laughs

The house had been pretty crowded and I had not found the time to cook lunch. So we decided to take you out to lunch for your birthday. Your sister was staying at grandma's, so it was just the three of us. I don't know why this day was so different from other days, but all restaurants we visited, were packed. "Sorry guys, we're full!!" We didn't give up though, and one hour after we left the house to go for a quick bite, we ended up in a little town nearby. A restaurant we had never heard of or visited before. We parked the car and being starved by then, we were happy to hear the lady of the house say: of course we have a table for you, always!

We were rather surprised by the interior of the house. It was old, a little outdated and very catholic (I have never seen so many religious candles or pictures of the Pope in a restaurant before). It made me giggle somehow, while we were walking to our table. I had this crazy feeling that Manuel of Fawlty Towers was going to appear in an instant. The lady of the house had us seated before she sneaked off to the kitchen.

We got two portions of freshly hand peeled shrimp on tomato and lettuce. She must have thought we were really hungry? But I'm glad she did, because the shrimp were delicious.
Figuring out what we were going to have, I was amazed about the hand written menus. Every single card was hand written, no copies in this restaurant. I have written many, many menus when I was 18 (in calligraphy, to be more specific, so trust me: it's hard work).
So we finally decided about what we were going to have: pepper steak for Eva "medium rare, please", Grandma's special pork tenderloin for Hubby and Chef's Scallops for me. Whether we wanted mashed potatoes or hand cut French fries to go with that?
It took them some time to serve lunch, but it was well worth the wait. Eva's steak was superb! It was so tender and the brandy based cream sauce was very much to be liked! Grandma's special pork tenderloin was as tender as can be and the vegetables were freshly cooked and fitted the dish real well. And then.. my scallops: fresh, fat and juicy. My first fresh scallops in a very long time. The finely chopped vegetables in the sauce finished off the dish.

The lady of the house handed Eva a nice bunch of daffodils for her birthday. That was so sweet and thoughtful of her! And she offered her a free dessert as well, but we were supposed to be at grandma's for the birthday party in half an hour, so we asked for a rain cheque. She packed the leftovers to take home, because she thought it was a shame we didn't finish it all..

Funny how things turned out. We went out for a quick bite and ended up in some fancy restaurant with an excellent service and an exquisite menu. Just the way I like it!


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