Meet the best friend
Had a good time out at Halo last night with Jenifer, Susanne and Danny. I took the path of discretion and only had two martinis (which was probably a good idea) and I’d had a mini snack of pretzels before heading out so I didn’t plan on being any kind of sick that night or this morning.
We had fun chatting and laughing and telling the, by now, infamous “vomit story” (ask us about it sometime, it requires a two-person telling of the tale). It’s the first time I’ve been to Halo where I didn’t recognize anyone else there. Which can be kinda fun, oddly enough.
After dinner we staggered over to Rice, well we headed in that direction, but my stomach was hungrier than I thought and realize that Logan Tavern might be cheaper (and closer) so we did stop in, but to seat 4 of us was around 45 mins, so we continued on to Rice and got lucky as I think there was just one table left in the place.
It was a good meal, but the ambience was distracting, a little too dark and loud and I feel that a restaurant shouldn’t make too many of a patron’s senses work themselves to death. Sight and Hearing were trying to keep up with just the people at my own table that by the time the food arrived, I felt I’d have to sacrifice clarity just to get Taste and Smell up to speed.
I had Green Tea dumplings which were very good, though I find that it’s pretty hard to mess up dumplings, of either the totally sealed variety or the ones that are kinda pinched at the end, like the way some chocolates are wrapped (these were the latter) and the sauce was a good complement without being overpowering. For my entree I had Crispy Chicken stuffed with crabmeat. It sounded a lot better than it tasted, though the presentation was nice (even if I’d had my camera, I couldn’t have gotten a good shot of it without the flash). The crabmeat didn’t taste seasoned at all which is fine if you’re just eating crab as the animal does have its own flavor, but when you cook it inside something else, you lose the taste of it unless you add a little sump’n. And the chicken was good, but dry, which I’m not used to from any asian crispy chicken dish, coated in sauce or not.
I’ve had a great meal at Rice before though, so I can’t count the place out, this just wasn’t my best night there.
After a quick pit-stop at 7-11, Danny was kind enough to offer me a ride home and I collapsed shortly afterwards, taking time to play my turn in the Civilization IV PBEM game I’m playing with Sean. It’s gonna take us forever to complete, I’m sure.
