Archive for March, 2009

Northfield Fast Food Fish Sandwiches

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

As  you may remember, a few weeks ago I promised to do a comparison of fish sandwiches around Northfield’s fast food offerings.  We did Culver’s, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and today I am doing Arby’s.

I have been around Arby’s for a couple of decades now and I rarely visit them.  I have to be pretty hungry or have to have been pretty silly to promise to include them in a fish sandwich throw down.  Well, I must say, imho, they come in last after everyone else.  The fish is dark, thin, heavily breaded and come with a lot of bread which is kinda heavy and dry and just the right amount of lettuce and tartar sauce if that is what it is. The price is good at $3.18 including tax and a free glass of water.  And I only had to wait four minutes for it, even though there were no other customers.  It was served plenty hot and they even gave me a napkin and a nice big wrapper.  So, there you go. I am done with the fish sandwich thing now. For lent and forever.  I might try one over at the Rueb sometime, but I really like their veggie burger and usually order that.

I don’t see the fish sandwich on their website, and I don’t know what kind of fish it is, but the tv ad says it’s from the Pacific, well they intimate that anyway.  http://www.Arbys.com

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Northfield’s Cheap Pete’s

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

There are about fifty two restaurants in Northfield, give or take a new one just in or another about to go. One of the best things about eating out is that we don’t have to clean up after our meal. Even with the dish washer, I still feel like I have to do a lot of work to get my kitchen back to where it was before I started cooking. I’m one of those cooks that cleans up as I go, but I still have a lot to do at the end when I’d rather be enjoying the evening some other way. You agree, right? So, let’s get out of doing the dishes, go out for a change of scenery and still maintain the bank balance…let’s go for Cheap Eats.:

Arby’s comes to mind first. Then Cub’s hot prepared food deli and Target’s snack shop. Move north to the new Kwick Trip gas station where they have pizza and lots more.

Then we have Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake, McDonalds, Super America, Pizza in back of McDonald’s. Casey’s Pizza, and Wendy’s and the new Culver’s.

Taco Oasis, Taco Bell, Quarterback Club, Subway and Dairy Queen. There are the two college cafe’s.

Downtown we have Hogan Brothers, Domino Pizza, Tiny’s Hot Dogs. Erberts and Geberts Subs and Clubs and I will throw in Mandarin Garden, cuz they are cheaper than many especially if you split the meals in two. There is usually enough food, and calories to spare to take some home. Sweet Lou’s is closing soon, sadly but they belong on this list.

You can make a meal out of the cinnamon rolls and coffee at Brick Oven Bakery and also Quality Bakery has an array of sweet treats.

I guess I should mention the various offerings at the gas stations, but  I have tried to take most of my non teen meals out of somewhat less mechanical surroundings.  Am I mad? Perhaps.  Perhaps.

All the non gas station grocery stores in town offer cheap homemade sandwiches, or cooked hot chicken, or soup or pizza.  For me, I will buy those if I am in the store, but to go to the store just for the cooked meal I will bring right home to eat, well, that’s not gonna happen.  The whole point of eating out is to get a different experience than the one you normally get grocery shopping.  But that’s just me getting fussy.

So that’s all the thinking I want to do about Cheap Pete’s.  I have had my breakfast of a half avocado on oatmeal toast and a half of an Entemann’s chocolate cake donut, two flax seed oil capsules, one multi vitamin and a couple of blue green algae capsules.   There is a new moon today and I need to get started on something NEW!  See ya round!

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Applebee’s Restaurant

Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Applebee’s
2433 Hwy. 3 South
Northfield, MN 55057

Phone: (507) 645-8955

Today we met some friends at Applebee’s restaurant.  It is only our second visit since the no smoking ban went into effect.  We tended to avoid it altogether before then.  But today, we found the business suit and tie set sitting alongside the mommy and baby set, and the air was filled with air.  There were a lot of smiles and good conversations going.  We were happy to have a very good and prompt server who did everything right.

The food was decent.  I had the fried shrimp and fries and the boneless hot chicken wings and dh had his usual bacon cheeseburger and fries.  Our friends had the tomato basil soup, chicken caesar salad and fresh shrimp with spinach.  No one complained, except there seemed to be bacon grease on the spinach salad, which our diabetic friend did not wish to consume.

I am into this food combining.  We try to eat only two of the three food groupings of protein or fruits and vegetables or carbohydrates.  We eat only vegetables (or fruit) with protein or vegetables with carbs, but never protein and carbs.  So, I didn’t eat the fries today.  The fried shrimp is prolly a no no but when I go out I like to order things I do not make at home…and I love fried shrimp and always have…I have never fried anything but an egg and veggies at home.

So, the service was good, the food was decent, the atmosphere fun and friendly..the prices just right.    They are handicap accessible and they are working with the Northfield Senior Center to help raise funds for a purchase of musical instruments, an offer which ends soon, so just make a little donation to the Senior Center, where they do wonderful work and deserve some extra cash dollars.

Next day.  I still feel like it was okay to eat those 25 fried shrimp.  Hats off to Applebee’s.  I am pleasantly surprized.

http://www.applebees.com/

Carside To Go

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Food Combining

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Ever feel like you ate too much?  Feel like your meals aren’t giving you energy?  Feel like you want to sleep instead of hike?  Maybe you combined more than two types of food and are overloading your digestive system.  If any of this sounds familiar, then I advise reading this great article on food combining and you can thank me later.  :)

http://tinyurl.com/dedbmt

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Irish Soda Bread

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

St. Patty’s Day is coming soon, and I could not wait.  Other holidays, I am happy to wait for, but this one, this time, no, I wasn’t gonna do it.  I wasn’t going to miss my chance to get me some Irish soda bread.  It is something I did not grow up with, and I rarely got, but when I did, I knew that I had partaken in the Rolls Royce of not too serious breads.  And I loved it.  I am a not too serious kind of girl, so you see what I mean…we are a perfect match.

Back in my old home town of Chicago, we lost almost all our neighborhood bakeries in the late eighties, after the sugar prices went up.  There was only one bakery on the South Side that still made soda bread and it was hard to come by there as well.  I only made the ten mile trip to that bakery one time and all I got was some day old Irish soda bread, while decent, wasn’t all That.

So, last week, I did it.  I actually planned ahead, called Brick Oven Bakery and ordered two loaves of ISB. We got inside the house and I went after my ISB knife, cut two one inch slices for me and dh and pulled out my friend Marilyn’s strawberry freezer jam that I have been saving all winter for this very occasion.  I spooned the jam on the bread and sat down to commence eating some of the most delectable ISB I have ever had.  Whoooo, it was good, and as a result I did not wait for dh.  He got a call.   Good for me.  I sat there, all alone, chomping away uninterrrupted on this light, but not disappearing before you really get a chance to even appreciate all the work that goes into baking good bread.  There were sweet juicy raisins for added blissfulness.  Oh, boy.   Scrumptious and delectable.  And a crust so perfect, so ISBish, it must be a miracle I ate. The jam just made it like manna from above.  I managed to eat three quarters of my bread before ol boy got down to the table with this distracting sort of ambiance that is no good to eat ISB by. :) He ate all of his bread before I even got my last quarter down.  He needed more.  I was concerned that maybe I over ordered, that  we may not be able to finish two loaves by ourselves, but something tells me, I have no worries.  This St. Patty’s Day I am gonna dance a jig, and sing an Irish air, and give thanks for the Brick Oven Bakery bakers.

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Northfield Fish Sandwiches

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

As promised, I am writing about fish sandwiches this week. We got over to Wendy’s, where, for the first time to my limited knowledge, is offering cod fish sandwiches. I got one and thought it to be alright, but too much frying in evidence. More about the bun than the fish, but adequate at 470 calories and under $5, though I am not sure how much under, as I provided the cash, but dh paid. haha. The commercial indicates that the cod is from the north pacific ocean, but never really says if it is wild caught or harvested, though I do not believe cod is farmed at this point.

We can compare that to my fav, Culver’s, who offer Atlantic cod, or walleye. I always order the cod and it is more about the tender flaky chunks of fish than the bun. It is a bit more expensive than Wendy’s, but to me, it is worth the extra dollar or two…plus there is enough calories at 740 to count as two meals! The walleye is not much better.

I have not ordered any walleye around Minnesota in the last four years because people treat it like gold, and maybe it is, but I remember sending back little slivers of walleye that barely filled up one half of the bun and looking so lonely, after I was super hungry and had waited long periods of time to be served the meal…at the old Ranch House, that I so loved, and down around Rochester, I just gave up on it. I love lake fish and consider it some good eatin’, but I guess you just have to get that for yourself, or know a good and generous restaurant owner.

Alright, back to our local fish. I have been desperate enough to order fish sandwices from Mickey Dee’s prolly one hundred and fifty times in my life. It is delicious, neat and you know exactly what you are going to get each time, each Mickey Dee’s across this country. That is the secret of their success. Standardization. If you have ever travelled by auto or rv or motorcycle across our nation, you know that one of the big concerns is if you get what you think you ordered or not (or some variation of “what am I taking on chance on with my life at stake!”) And now for $2, give or take some cents, McD’s gives you a precise square of fish with cheese and tartar sauce on a bun that will hold the fish until it’s all gone. And it’s only 380 calories! Where that fish came from is anyone’s guess, and I guess it’s harvested.

Arby’s does not have a fish sandwich on their online menu, although I saw it offered on tv. I may try to get over there before the end of Lent to see what’s going on with that. But, we do have fish fry offers at the Northfield Ballroom from time to time, and also, I think the Vets have fish fry night, too. Check them out and do eat fish, but not more than twice a week, if you don’t know where the fish is coming from.

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