ka3ytl

In Sept, Alex mentioned a place called Hop Angel Brauhouse outside of Philly which sounded like a tasty place to try. I probably should have double checked with Alex before deciding to go there for dinner. It hasn't been open for long since Alex was at the soft opening.

The server was annoying. She was pretty determined to take our drink order. Chuck ordered iced tea at some point. I was debating between beers. I sometimes like to figure out what I'm eating before I get my beverage of choice.

French Onion Soup -- Bock Beer & Muenster Cheese -- this would have been awesome and tasty IF it hadn't come with RYE Bread. Thankfully (for Chuck at least) it was unseeded. It still had a rye taste to it though. *bleh*

Potato Pancakes -- With Apple Sauce & Sour Cream -- mostly pretty tasty. Pretty thick. Slightly burnt. I'm not sure if there was onion in it or not.

Brie -- Warm, Almond Crusted Brie cheese & Lingonberries, Served with mixed greens and toast points -- um... yeah. While probably one of the best things that I ate there, it was significantly better today since I was able to eat it while it was still melty and runny. If it's cooled enough that it's started to solidify again, it's too cool to be served. *sigh* It was 3 slivers of a round. rind cut off the top. Almond pieces sprinkled on and baked. The Lingonberries was off to the side.

Sauerbraten -- Wine braised Beef Pot Roast -- um... yeah. This was interesting. The flavors were good. The amount of tenderness, less so. I should not need to really use a knife on something that was supposed to marinate for a couple of days and then cook for several hours. It should practically fall apart. This was NOT the case by any stretch of the imagination. At all.

Braised Red Cabbage -- it was okay. It had cloves and all-spice in it. My fault for not asking ahead of time.

German Potato Salad -- really? It was? Not my definition by any stretch. Totally missing any bacon. Not enough vinegar. Not enough sour to balance the sweet.

Finally went to La Eda's (Grand Blvd, Monessen PA) last night after not going for years. It's about 5 minutes from my house. I think that I was there once and wasn't very impressed. My mother doesn't like it, so I figured that it wasn't very good. It's been around 20 years so it's very possible that it's been 10-15 since I've been there.


The salad is a little so-so. I think that the biggest issue with it was that it was too salty for me. I don't think that I'll be getting the House Dressing again (which is really all I remember from the last time that I was there to be honest). Chuck got the Wedding Soup. It was pretty good. I had it after I had my salad so it seemed as though it needed salt, but perhaps if I had skipped the salad it would have been okay. (2.65)/(3.50)

We got the garlic bread with provolone cheese on it as the appetizer (which we had with dinner). It came with sauce to dip it in. It was amazing. Totally and completely amazing. (4.50)

Chuck got the Aglio Olio and had them add grilled chicken to it. This increased the price by a whole $3.00 or something :) He really enjoyed it. I had a little bit and it seemed quite tasty to me. (12.99)

I had the Gnocchi half and half plate. It came with your choice of meat or cheese raviolis. It was simply amazing. Wow. The sauce was awesome. The gnocchi fantastic. Probably the best gnocchi I've had in a long, long, time.

I got lambrusco to drink. They asked if I wanted it chilled or not. Next time I will not be getting it chilled (I'm really not sure what I was thinking. Clearly I just wasn't).

We did not get dessert because we did not have enough room. We did go out to Starbuck afterwards and that was indeed tasty as well :)

Toni and I met up after church so that I could give her her Body Shop stuff. I then convinced her to give Abay a try. She's the type that needs to be convinced to be adventurous with food. :)

( Abay )

When I met up with Jenda she mentioned the Silk Elephant and how they have Thai Tapas. It sounded good to me, so we went. It was my first time there (much to her surprise) It was very tasty.
( Silk Elephant )

Well Tom and I hit Sushi Kim's for dinner again. It was pretty interesting. I got the Al Jee Gae and Tom went for the Sushi & Sashimi Combination Platter. Let's see. The jokes started when I mentioned that my dinner involved Fish Roe.

( this part is a little gross, so just to be on the safe side )

I know that you are all dying to know what fortunes we each got. *laugh* I meant to bring them with me, but I forgot. I opened mine and thougt that I had gotten his, but then I read his *xlaugh*

( because dl4s should be sitting down and not drinking anything before he reads this )

After dinner we headed up to the Venturing Committee meeting. That was pretty interesting. That might get it's own post. It will probably be a friends only post