The Ice House

The Ice House in Ballina, Ireland  - my favorite place to eat in Ireland! The building is an original 19th century ice house where salmon was kept fresh for shipping. It's located on the Moy Estuary. For dinner, I had salmon in le beurre sauce - which is really just a yummy butter sauce. Thank you to those huge cows all over the Ireland country side. Irish butter is absolutely the best butter you'll ever eat! And dessert - Toffee Sticky Pudding - better than good. I've got to try this at home!

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Lulu's

If I ever need to choose a last meal to enjoy, my menu will include fried brie. We just had brunch at Lulu's in Charlotte. I had the Mimosa salad, which was fresh greens with strawberries, green apples, nuts, and two pieces of fried brie on top. The dressing was light - champagne lemony- yummy. With the salad, have a bellini. My friend had eggs benedict. He was happy with that. The sauce was good, and the grits were creamy. Great place for brunch on Sundays!

Vivace

Brunch at Vivace
Vivace is one of my favorite restaurants - great atmosphere, consistent quality. Today for brunch I had Quiche Florentine with spinach, carmelized onion, and goat cheese. It was superb! Three inches high! It was served with a field green salad that had a light viniagrette. My friend had Benedicto Vivace with poached eggs, proscuitto, spinach, and tomato hollandaise sauce. The taste was great, but the eggs and sauce were cold. Tip for Vivace: Heat your plates! Hot food should be hot when served!

Old Stone Vino Bistro & Wine Bar, Kannapolis, NC

Tonight we ate at The Old Stone Vino Bistro. I had a panini - fillet, with a strawberry spinach salad. The salad was very good. The spinach leaves were crisp, pecans were toasted, and the strawberries were fresh. (Why do they not cut the long stems off of the spinach? Difficult to be a lovely dinner date with spinach stalks sticking out of your mouth.) The panini was disappointing. The meat was tough and the sandwich was just barely warm when it was presented. My dinner partner had the pork special - chicken marsala. (I didn't understand how chicken could be the pork special either!) His meal came with a soup starter of chicken and dumplings. His soup had no chicken and no dumplings - it had broth and celery. The broth was very peppery and very salty.  He also got a salad with this that was marginally good. The chicken dish was okay.

We ordered a very good wine, Solena, an Oregon Pinot Noir. It helped us to better enjoy the over-bright, golden-colored room. A dimmer switch on the lights would be a great idea, and soft music would be an improvement.

Dessert was a little dry - chocolate mousse cake - tasteless. We were disappointed that there was no coconut cake offered tonight. The first time we dined there, the coconut cake was superb.

We'll update you on our next restaurant...