Decided to try Foxy's in East Belfast last night for dinner. Its a new restaurant that opened in the old Chelsea's building. We were full of high hopes for a good meal and were really disappointed. Foxy's joins the ranks of the restaurants in East Belfast who go by the book with food service food. The same meal that we had can be had at the Ocean's Edge restaurant in the Comfort Inn and at Pappa J's. After looking at the menu, we almost left to go to Seng Thai, but decided to stay and work it out.
The decor is spare and chilly. The walls of the place are painted an ice blue that gives off no warmth. The tables and chairs and carpeting are all pretty institutional. There is a big metal folding curtain that separates the dining room from the kareoke part of the bar. The view is pretty great though, its just too bad that they built a bar right in front of the windows overlooking the water.
Our server was cute and attentive which was the only saving grace of the place. She brought our drinks over and we were impressed with the size of Greg's wine glass and unimpressed with the tiny measured glass of vodka that came to me in a glass with "JIM BEAM" written across the front...now that's class I tell you.

Not much on the menu for non seafood lovers but a pub steak (ribeye cut) NY Strip steak, Chicken, and pork medallions. I ordered the strip steak (says on the menu that it is sliced) and Greg ordered the scallops on a bed of rice. We had spinach salads to start which were excellent, baby spinach leaves, with pear slices, and feta cheese with a raspberry vinegrette. When the meal came, I groaned inwardly. I enjoy a great NY strip steak, it is one of my all time favorite cuts of meat. Its perfect just plain with salt and pepper. My sliced strip steak came smothered in a gelatinous brown goo so thick that I couldn't even see the meat. My sides were mashed potato flakes and microwaved baby carrots both doused with parsley flakes. MMMMMMMM! Why can't places around here make the extra effort and sautee the carrots in butter and ginger or something like that..it doesn't take too much extra time.
Greg's large scallops had been dethawed and shaken up in a bag of Cysco premixed herbs and spices and unceremoniously dumped onto a bed of yellow rice accompanied by microwaved carrots around the side. The plates were those big thick white china plates that really add that extra touch of specialness to a meal. Greg did say that his scallops were hot and not too chewy. He gave an A to the napkins but a D- to the underdone rolls with honey margarine that we had to ask for twice.
The bill was $70.00 which really chapped me. My gelatinous goo with meat came in a whopping $21.00 for probably $7.00 worth of food service food.
My take on the place was that it was opened not by a restauranteur or someone who even loves food, but by someone who is looking to make a fast buck off the tourist trade. Its too bad...I keep waiting for someplace really special to open up in town...this ain't it.
Friends of ours have taught their 1 year old to sign and she does the back and forth hand movement to signalk that she is done with something. Greg and I give this place two "done with thats"

Enjoy (elsewhere),
Seth

Not much to report. Willy World opened back up again for the season. This Northport fine dining establishment has added a new bar, has the largest flat screen TV that I've ever seen, and one of the loudest, gramatically incorrect waitresses by whom Mainefoodie has ever had the displeasure to be served. Greg and I decided to split a sizzlin' combo fajita, with chicken and "steak" (I use the term loosely) While it is always fun to assemble your own food at table, there was no sizzlin' going on when the food arrived, and our server (with a tatoo of a smokin' skeleton on her forearm no less) decided she needed to supply running commentary during the beginning of our meal. We WERE the only table of customers in the place! Anyway, the sweet potato fries are always a hit and I'm sure that if I'd had a burger or the ole standby chicken fingers, my meal would've been great...at least we got the salad bar and a hot bread and ice cream as part of the meal!

Off to Florida on Saturday, and stopping through New Orleans on Monday for lunch..Hope to have a great review for you about that!

Ta Ta
Enjoy,
Seth

I was pleasantly suprised to find out that my chocolate / caramel frosting freezes really well. We found out yesterday afternoon that it was a friend's birthday. She invited us to dinner last night without mentioning it and another friend called to tell us it was her birthday! I had two hours to make a cake before the appointed dinner time. Went down to the local gas station and picked out a dusty box of Duncan Hines devils food cake and some chocolate chips and made two layers (in my spiffy new steel cake pans from Reny's...I love these things!!) I made too much frosting a few weeks ago and decided to try and freeze it, and so I had all this frosting that I popped into the microwave for 20 seconds and then whisked back up into spreadable shape. Spread on the cake while it was still warm (a real no-no) and then added a few flowers from one of the hanging baskets we just got from Evergreen Nursery in Searsmont.
Voila!

Enjoy,
Seth

I was reading an article this morning that focused attention on a Mennonite woman and her cookbook empire based on dishes like meatloaf and sweet peach pie. What the article touted was her good ole fashioned American cooking and how popular her books are with readers. She doesn't use organic produce, colorful sauces or unpronouncible purple vegetables to make her dishes for the chic crowds. I want to meet this woman, she sounds like someone I want over to dinner! Coincidentally, I just happen to have my own meatloaf recipe all ready, complete with photograph! I made this meal a few weeks ago and thought it was very colorful. The meatloaf is easy, 1 lb of 90% lean ground beef, 1 lb of ground pork and 1/2 pound ground sausage combined in a large bowl with a can of diced tomatos, 1 egg, a few dashes of soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste, a few shakes of oregano, a few cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup quick cooking oats. Mush around in a bowl with your hands (like making chunky mud pies) and turn out onto a broiling pan. form into a loaf and into a 350 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. For this meal, I also peeled and cut up two sweet potatoes into fries, drizzled them with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and some cayanne pepper and shoved into the same oven to bake...they turn out to be a bit soft, but the taste is good (guess who wants a tabletop deep fat frier for Christmas???) Also a quick sautee of asparagus in butter and salt and pepper completes the meal. A colorful table, no?

Enjoy,
Seth