Got the word this morning, heard the food is good, so check it out, people and if it’s good, go back, cuz we need to keep our good restaurants going for a long time, says I!
Archive for the ‘Bright's Northfield Restaurant Blog’ Category
It’s Official, Pam Pam Opens Sept 9th!
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Bright’s Flashes
Saturday, June 5th, 2010We’ve been doing so much lately, we don’t have time for a full blown one subject blog, so we’re keeping with what we started recently and that is just a few thoughts, brilliant flashes or ill thought out dribble, whatever comes up and is relevant, important, or just plain cool or stupid. You be the judge.
First, I’d like to give a shout out to the owner of Aquatic Pets at 414 S. Division Street in Northfield. Why? She said she would take a slightly broken aquarium that was left here when we bought our home…this is saving me a $20 fee at the landfill, as it is the last of stuff I am clearing out, recycling and giving away. Aquatic Pets will sell the slightly broken aquarium to someone who will use it as a terrarium, fix it, or some great art experiment and then turn the money over to the animal shelter! How cool is that?
Then, I ‘d like to say that Kurry Kabob is a very good place to eat, the food is fresh, and like homemade the owners tell me they use no prepackaged herbs or anything. It is always good food and oh, if you are a little afraid of herbs or spices in your tum tum, they will cook you some plain dishes so you can go with the people who love the spice, like me. It’s so good for you, and the tumeric spice which is in every curry sauce is said to stave off Alzeimer’s by cleaning out the arteries…you see, there is no such disease in India. You have to eat it a lot, not just one trip to Kurry Kabobs. At least that is what I have heard lately…andnot meant to be medical advice. I am not a doctor, nurse or anything like that, but I go to one or two!
We got some super herbs and flowers over at the Northfield’s farmers market a couple of weeks ago, and they are doing very well. Now I found out that Dundas has a Farmer’s Market, too. Mon and Wed from 3 to 8pm and on Saturday, hours unknown. It’s nice because a lot of people cannot make the Northfield hours during the week. I haven’t been to Dundas yet, but I will go soon and tell you all about it.
Went to Applebee’s and had the sampler plate, well, I had one third there, dh had one third and I took a third home. Gained 3 pounds. No lie. That stuff tastes great, but whew, talk about calories. D had the bbq ribs, which were pretty decent for a chain restaurant. The waitstaff has improved considerably, imho, and the prices are low enough. Don’t park in the pick up spots though. I didn’t know servers came out to get the orders! We just pulled in for a minute to see if they had a spot for us, and out comes the woman ready to take my order! Fast.
Recently I decided to eat out less, and I have been taking home half my restaurant meals for some time now, but still struggling with the five or six pounds I would love to loose. Not working. I have decided to stop eating at home as much. I lost two pounds with this plan, real weight. Seems like I think my home cooked food is less fattening, so I eat more of it. Hope this plan sticks and the food I eat doesn’t.
Monte’s in Faribault is still good, if not better with nicely priced lunches. Depot in the same city, not to be confused with Home Depot, is under new ownership. The food was pretty good when we visited last week and the three trains roaring by made it super fun for us sitting next to the window!
Gotto try the Cheese Cave in Faribault, a new store on the 300 block of Central Avenue, west side of the street. Mmmmm. The cheese is aged right back of Depot restaurant in a cave. Wow. Right here in Minnesota. Whodah thunk it?
Bon Voyage for now and Ciao, ciao, good bye!
Tour D’ Pig
Thursday, May 27th, 2010These are my notes from Northfield Golf Club Chef’s Tour of the Pig and Wine Tasting. I didn’t want to do the whole blog thing with it because it’s not fair…I am not a gourmand, or a foodie, or anything, I just like to talk about eating. So, some of what Chef Rahael offered was not to my uneducated pallet, but I do like to experiment and take a chance from time to time. Overall, I was not happy with the suckling pig parts and I wasn’t crazy about the wines, save one. So, read on to get a snapshot of an idea and know that the Chef is holding tastings on Saturdays until further notice, I heard through the grapevine.
Consumme’ from the Rear End – just okay for me,dog, to borrow a phrase from Randy of American Idol.
Ham from the Middle,partly okay, partly rubbery and unpalatable.
Head Cheese from the Other End, Keep your head on and don’t serve it to me again. Ick.
Bacon Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Bacon! Now you’re talking my ay anguage lay, piglutin!
Topper was Cherry stored in Pork for 15 years…dh says I didn’t hear that right, but who gives a…..!
Oh My God, that was cherry flavor elevated to platinum gold! Give me 15 more of those, please!
Paired with these 3 wines.
1. Crane Lake Sparkling Wine Champagne made from real Crane feathers,
I loved this one completely.
2. Malvec? – too oily for me…use it to grease up
the pig and then go try to catch it.
3. Call me a Cabernet! I want to go
home now.
OMGoodness! NGC
Friday, April 2nd, 2010If you miss dinner at the golf club this evening, 4-2-10, you missed something to write home about.
Raphael outdid himself again. My goodness. Even dh said the pan roasted filet mignon which was served with a courvoisier and tarragon cream sauce, baby asparagas, and savory mashed potatoes was like he already had desert. Yeah. That’s something coming from him.
I ordered the pan roasted walleye with tomato and caper butter sauce and I have to say the crust on the walleye was the most delicious thing under the tanning bed! OMGoodness, I said, again and again. The walleye meat was very good indeed. Just about as fresh and sweet as you can get in Northfield. I also had the asparagas and mashed potatoes.
Both meals came with salad buffet and cream of clam soup. Good enough on that note.
We later had the new molten chocolate desert with raspberry sauce, carmel sauce, blueberries,raspberries, a dash of whipped cream and a hot chocolate cupcake brownie sort of thing. Delish. Everyone who sees it drools. I just came home and did an extra long spin on my bike.
We only had one iced tea, so the bill came out at just over $50. A nice little splurge for us, but one we truly enjoyed. Kudos to the staff at NGC as well. They are always top notch with us and everyone and the same basic crew has been there for a few years at least.
Don’t forget to see my greeting card site for your Mother’s Day cards;
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/Bright
I have a nice selection now and a bunch of funny cards to boot. Know a nurse? Nurses Day is coming up pretty soon. Yes, it is Nurses Day and not Nurse’s Day. Very confusing, but then ‘they’ do like to keep us off balance. 
May 6-12th is the entire week dedicated to nurses in the USA. May 6th is National Nurses Day and May 8th is National Student Nurse Day.
Jumping On Hogan Brothers Bandwagon
Sunday, March 14th, 2010It’s been a while since I have written about Hogan Brothers in downtown Northfield. It’s about time now. We strolled in on Saturday around 3PM. My regular readers know that I get snack attacks at off hours which makes it good for avoiding the rush, and getting in on more thoughtfully served food, temperature wise,coordination of timing of different courses, and sometimes even visual presentation. But at Hogan’s the biggest deal for me is avoiding the wait in line. I love to walk, but never have liked standing in one place. For some, there is a delight in socializing while in the que, and I like that, too, but not so much while standing for more than a very few minutes.
Anyway, I ordered a full tuna and Swiss cheese hoagie, warmed up, and dh ordered the ham and Swiss and iced tea. I ordered a small fancy coffee with whipped cream, forget which one now, and a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie, the big kind. Later I went back for a double scoop of French Silk ice cream to take home. To be brief, cuz I gotto go, the food was delicious, the three meals,two drinks, and two delicious snacks we got, plus change thrown into the tip jar all came down to less than $17.00 and came out to the table as fast as any fast food place around.
Thanks, Hogan’s, for doing such a good job! AND FOR THE MUSIC AND ART, TOO!
Fast Food Restaurant Row aka State Hwy 3, Northfield, MN
Thursday, March 4th, 2010Fast Food Restaurant Row aka State Hwy 3, Northfield, MN
We went ahead and tried the new KFC, across from Cub’s Food Store, We had the 6 piece all white meat family pack
with a small side of cole slaw and a little thing of mashed potatoes and three soda biscuits.
It came to around $17, and will last us for three meals. Not bad there.
The grilled chicken was new to me, but I am an old KFC fan from Chicago and I used to eat
the fried chicken once a month for a few years, I guess. Never more than one or two small
pieces. The sides, cole slaw, potatoes and biscuits are very much the same now as they were then.
I love the slaw and will eat all of it, but I leave the liquid at the bottom of the container
as it’s too sweet for me. The potatoes with gravy are as bad as ever and I don’t touch them except to taste them today so I could report on it. The biscuits have lots of baking soda, which I like, but these biscuits seemed to get heavier as I chewed and I had to get rid of it. Baaack.
Over all the chicken was about as good as the other chicken providers on FFRR, save CUBs. I love
Cubs minus the skin, then George’s broasted chicken and then Culver’s. Quarterback is okay I think but I really don’t remember, as it’s been awhile.
My dh saw man in the drive in eating chicken while he was waiting for a chicken order, so I guess
either he was comparing or KFC has a ready made audience.
Stay In and Eat Out
Thursday, January 28th, 2010Dh and I have been working like crazy. After two years of running his own business, he is much in demand. And my card business is starting to grow it’s own wings. See http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/Bright I really love making the cards and the jokes and the verses from the heart. I get a lot of wonderful feedback and return customers now and it’s a great thing for me, and I am so grateful to even be alive these last two years, limited as I am, I can still do quite a bit.
Now that I got that out of the way, I wanted to write about Kurry Kabob’s take out. As I said, we have been busy and didn’t want to do the food thing ourselves, so dh went out and got us a Maharaja Dinner for two, $49.95, plus tax. That was a lot of money to spend, but guess what! We got the first night big dinner, and two more days of hearty, last all day lunches for both of us. So, six meals, scrumptious meals for $50 some odd dollars ain’t too bad.
The great part is that they were well packed and hot upon arrival even though it was about -2 degrees F when dh picked them up. It’s not that far from us though. But here’s what came with the Maharaja Dinner for two, from my not that reliable memory…I chicken chili dinner, 1 curry chicken dinner, 1 whole box of veggies, lamb sausage, 2 lg prawns, several pieces of tandori chicken, 2 large pieces of naam bread, 2 cups of rice, yogurt cole slaw style dipping sauce, mint sauce, bbq sauce, two donut cakes in honey sauce. I think that was it. Oh, it was good, though, and that curry tumeric cleans your brain so you don’t get the dreaded Al’s Himer whatchacallit. I jest, but not about the tumeric. You will also find it in mustard, so if you fav fast food restaurant has quit handing out mustard, go see Pai at Mandarin and she will fix you up.
Yep, the curry is spicy and I order mine medium. I would get the hot, but it’s accumulative and I can’t take it after a few bites, but I really do like it. The point I am trying to get at is that Kurry Kabob will make anything you want to your specifications, if you are of a mind to have no spice or all kinds of spice. They are very accommodating hosts.
Right now, I am drinking cold spearmint tea, which is so satisfying. I never use ice cubes at home. But I will cool the glasses in the summer time once in awhile, and I do keep the frig cold cuz dh likes his milk cold, cold, cold.
One more thing I will share with you drink wise, is that after years of making my hot lemonade one way and only one way, I have now added one cinnamon stick at the simmering stage. It is a wonderful smelling, super delicious tasting and extraordinary healing spice. Splurge and buy a bag of sticks off the little spice rack next shopping trip.
A Holiday Dinner to Remember Plus
Sunday, December 27th, 2009Yesterday, the Saturday of Kwaanza, we celebrated at the Northfield Golf Club Restaurant. They have a pretty decorated tree in the front lobby, next to a nice gas fire place. Once inside you can see the tree lights from the decorated trees outside dance all along the open window walls. It’s quite magical.
The dinner was set for 5PM to 9PM and we were practically the first ones there, as I like to eat early, believing that the later you eat, the more you will retain. Then when you get up, you are not that hungry, so you skip breakfast, and that really is the most important time of day for humans to absorb and utilize vitamins and minerals and then burn calories throughout the active cycle of the 24 hour period. Ah, but I digress. Sorry.
Anyway, I ordered the Shrimp Tempura, Caesar salad, baked potato and mushrooms. D had the filet mignon and mashed potatoes and asparagas plus buffet salad bar. It was all good. When you come in early, the chefs have time to pay attention to your food and only your food. Super. I must rave about the Caesar salad though because it was one of if not the best I ever had. A bit of mustard was present and the rest was light as air. So, too, about the mushrooms. Ah, just plain ol’ button mushrooms, whole and fried up in the pan. Delicious. I didn’t want them to end, so I had every other bit a mushroom and ended with a mushroom.
Now the shrimp was good, too. It wasn’t covered with all the oil and batter one usually gets. It was so underdressed, I barely noticed it in the dim but flattering lights of the restaurant. The shrimp were firm, but not rubbery, not soft, not mushy. They were like you dream shrimp would be, but never are except for when one of your fav chefs makes them on Kwaanza.
I am not raving about the baked potato. I think it was an attempt to keep it from drying out too much.but it was slightly underdone for me, but that made me not eat all of it, and that’s a good thing. My respiratory meds make me hungry and even ravenous at times, and I really have to watch my weight even over the holidays. I am hearing a lot of heads shaking up and down right now. I know you are with me as sighs of failure drift by this page. Oh, don’t feel bad, pretty soon, you’ll be up and running off all those extra calories, when you actually take back the things you don’t want and get something you do want.
Here comes the best part, while we were waiting for dinner, we ordered a Sazarac. Some of you may know, a Sazarac is the first official cocktail of the United States, originating in New Orleans. Now, I am not a drinker, can’t do it, won’t do it, but once or twice a year, I will imbibe with a half drink of something. I get all warm and bubbly and then I get a cup of coffee before I pass out for the night from it. Haha.
The Sazara reminds me of days in New Orleans with friends on a Public Chemical Advisory Panel. We’d all go out to dinner after each meeting and swap food stories. My closest buddy, an elder named Doc usually had something to do with whiskey , maybe cuz he is from Kentucky where they make quite a bit of it well, but he told the Sazarac story and I went with it and tried it and always liked it. Any bartender worth his salt (did I just say that?) knows how to make a Sazarac, but if yours doesn’t…here you go;
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/SazeracCocktail.htm
Happy Holidays to YOU!
Ole Store
Monday, November 30th, 2009We finally made it over to Ole Store. Now, let me say, I have loved that space in all it’s carnations, or is that reincarnation? Anyway, it’s a white and black car nation, and no one can do anything about that right now. Oh, speaking of cars, what is the difference between your wife and your car? Give up? Your car doesn’t holler at you every time you get gas.
So, dh ordered the Greek pizza and thought it was very good, but it was too cheesy and salty for me but did have redeeming flavor bits about it. Here’s my secret, whenever I order pizza, I order it with light cheese and reiterate and underline it, cuz they are so used to making pizza a certain way, they forget. If they do, I just pull if off. It’s a terrible waste though. Certain cheeses are very salty and I avoid those for the most part.
I ordered the tuna sandwich and I was sorry. It was that oily, flat, kind of smelly tuna that has sat in a can too long. I ate some of it, but under gastrointestinal protest. And the bread is too thick for that sandwich. Some of the lettuce was actually too rough to chew, and only the tomatoes go without being sliced by my sharp tongue. The chips were okay, more salt, and so I shared them with dh. I guess I shouldn’t get the chips, either. What ever happened to cole slaw? Much healthier and cheaper than chips. Also, I found there are no substitutions when I asked for tuna on pizza at first. Oh, well. Can’t have everything I want now, can I? Oh, I can always stay home and make tuna on pizza. And I think I shall! HINT: Northfield is aging and elders need a more healthful and caring diet. Let’s see if we can change menu’s and cooking techniques a bit more for our elders and people with special dietary needs. This is the type of thing that can bring more business to our town. A town that cares about it’s people is a town that thrives!
Bright’s Top Three Restaurants Plus
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009My criteria for a great restaurant is not fair to anyone at all mainly because we don’t go everywhere. All the restaurants in Northfield are contenders, but a few stick out for me.
Given that, here, informally, is how I decide :
1. They are good if I can’t cook it at home myself.
2. If the food is consistently good and interesting to me, and doesn’t al taste the same.
3. If the ambiance is clean,comfortable and conducive to conversation and slow paced eating.
4. If the level of friendliness and welcoming attitude is neither too low or too high.
5. If the prices are reasonable…I must say, all Northfield restaurants do well here.
6. It helps a lot if there is electrical outlets available for my O2 machine.
7. Waitstaff does a good job.
Not necessarily in that order of importance. Ultimately it depends on the food.
So, my top three spots belong to
1. Northfield Golf Club and everyone there!
2. Kurry Kabob and everyone there!
3. George’s Vineyard and everyone there!
Alright, I’ll do top three fast food restaurants:
1. Culver’s and all the staff I have seen so far!
2. Subway and all the sandwich artists!
3. Culver’s again.
The gee I wish I could add one more goes to Perkins. They have done a bang up job. They rotate one part of their menu so there is always something new,
their bakery is very good, albeit not that healthy, sorry, but once in a while I have a half of something bad that’s so good, and they stay open a lot.