Restaurants, What I ate

Lunches, lattes, and lust-worthy onion rings {the week in food}

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Over the years, I’ve developed a bad habit of eating at my desk and working straight through lunch.  Bypassing a midday break means more work gets done, and, all else equal, I get to leave an hour earlier than I would otherwise.  It’s a horrible, horrible thing.

Lately, in an effort to maintain my sanity and some degree of happiness, I’ve been making a conscious effort to break away from my desk every day for lunch.  Most days, this means me, my salad, and my iPad huddled next to the fireplace in the back of Caribou Coffee.  It’s incredibly relaxing sitting next to the heat of the fire and feeling the buzz of the city whirling by.  Though, I’m quickly developing and addiction to afternoon lattes.  Good thing or bad thing, I’m not sure.

This week, I also squeezed in a lunch at Pure Pizza at the 7th Street Public Market, which I capped off with a delicious latte o’ love from Not Just Coffee.  (See?  Addicted!!)

not just coffee charlotte

Friday, I met my new friend Keia (check out her blog:  the Sunnyside Up) at Harvest Moon Grille.  Keia and I first met via phone when she interviewed me for her Creative Loafing article on what is means to be a foodie.  This was our first official lunch date, and in true Mary fashion I started our convo off by awkwardly exclaiming “So… I want to be you!”  I quickly followed our laughter with an explanation that I’d love to work as a freelance food writer and attend an abundance of fun food events as she does.  And now you want to be her too, am I right?

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Product Review

Lean Cuisine Loogie {review}

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It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago I subsisted on a diet rich in processed foods and Olive Garden takeout.  As a new college graduate, I found cooking dinner during the workweek especially challenging.  By the time I got home from the office and pulled a meal together, I’d be close to passing out from hunger.  And the reward for all my hard work?  Eating  the leftovers for dinner e-v-e-r-y night for the rest of the week.  Oh, the joys of cooking for one.

Back then, I had a few quick standbys–deli turkey sandwiches, blue box mac and cheese, and rotisserie chicken quesadillas, to name a few–but, my specialty was cheese ravioli, steamed broccoli, and Texas toast.  From the depths of the freezer to depths of my belly in 5 minutes flat.  When I was especially tight on time, I’d often turn to prepackaged freezer meals to fill the void.  Somedays, I’d have a Lean cuisine for lunch and another for dinner.  I was partial to the pastas, pizzas, and paninis, though it wasn’t the taste that made me opt for the frozen entrée route–it was the low price and the low-calorie counts displayed on the packages.

lean cuisine mezzaluna ravioli (4)

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Recipes

Asian Pork Tenderloin Skewers {recipe}

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About that recipe I promised you…

asian pork tenderloin skewers

How good do these pork skewers look?

I tend to shy away from Asian cooking.  Usually, it’s because the recipe calls for lots of ingredients I don’t have on hand (rice vinegar, sesame oil, fish sauce?  oyster sauce??).  The long recipes and foreign (no pun intended) techniques are intimidating!  Last year, in a short-lived wave of cooking confidence, I bought a wok at Ikea, and I’ve used it a whopping two times.

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What I ate

Pork skewers, Phillies, and a bunch of crappy meals {the week in food}

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Upon review of my food photos from the past week, I was struck by just how much meh there was!  I went out to eat more than usual, and you’d think the increase would have upped my odds of getting some great meals.  So, apparently the odds were not on my side, BUT I did hit the recipe jackpot with these Asian-inspired pork tenderloin skewers!

Asian pork skewers

Stay tuned for the recipe post coming later this week–I can’t wait to share it with you guys!

The skewers almost made up for the barrage of blah I endured.  It started with dinner with my pal Vanessa at Levant, a Mediterranean restaurant uptown.  The 7pm reservation I made was almost laughable given we were the sole patrons in the restaurant for the duration of our meal.  Is this ever a good sign?  Levant is owned by the same folks who own Kabob Grill (one of my favorite lunch spots in town).  The menu is nearly identical, but the food that we were served was no comparison to Kabob.  I’m still confused on this…  I’ll have to swing by Kabob soon to fill my kafta cravings!

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