Cypress Nook

Before we get started, I had two grapefruits and big bowl of frozen grapes last night after I shut down the computer. Then this morning, two large bowls of watermelon.

At lunch time, I was riding around McNab Road, and I realized that I was near Cypress Nook, and had always wanted to try the place. I'm not a big Schnitzel fan, but I like a nice weiner as much as the next guy, so in I went.

Cypress Nook is a tiny German restaurant on the side of the road. They've been there forever, as far as I could tell, and they managed to get by without my money for all these years. At 1:00 pm on a rainy Tuesday, I figured out why... the restaurant was full. That's the beauty of living in South Florida -- we have a wealth of wonderful dining options. I probably drive past a half-dozen awesome places every day and don't even know it.

I ordered the Two Bratwurst plate. That came with a choice of two sides: Cole Slaw, Sauerkraut, Potatoes any of six or seven different ways, or Red Cabbage. I went for the Sauerkraut and the Red Cabbage.

And they bring you a BOWL of mustard!

The sausages were very good. My problem with sausage is that I have trained myself to eat lots of them, so only scarfing down two was good practice. The Sauerkraut was also very good, and the red cabbage was Freaking Excellent. So good that I asked the waitress to bring me more. I thought that I was ordering a side dish, but she brought me a small portion and didn't charge me for it. I had a full afternoon of driving around ahead of me, and that's the only reason that I didn't buy some more to go.

I was ecstatic. Vegetables that weren't just good; they were a destination all by themselves.

In the name of thoroughness, I asked to see the Dinner menu. It was mostly the same as Lunch, until I saw the section that was called Burliner Curry Corner.

From their menu:

Authentic homemade German red curry sauce / paprika / herbs / curry powder / onions / organic ketchup / cayenne pepper / pineapple.

 Then they ask you to choose your heat level.

So yes, I will be back. Perhaps with my friend Viv; she's a curry fan, too.

Friday's (On Monday)

I still have a pile of restaurant birthday coupons left, so Lonnise and I went to TGI Friday's on Federal Highway for dinner tonight. It's not that easy to stick to our food plan there, but we did a good job, I think.

We started by splitting an appetizer: the BBQ Chicken Flatbread. We ordered it without either of the two cheeses that it comes with.

Click on me to see me larger!

I'm sure it would have been a little more exciting with the cheese, but it was OK anyway. There were six pieces; Lonnise ate two of them and I had the other four.

For our main dishes, we both ordered the same thing: the Sizzling Chicken and Shrimp. We again had them leave the cheese out of the plate, and we swapped the 'creamy mashed potatoes' for broccoli.

 

This was better than either of us counted on. The chicken and shrimp were tossed in a spicy marinara-type sauce. The chicken breast pieces were excellent, and the shrimps were, well, Friday's shrimps. We didn't expect much, so they were OK. I ate every bite in my plate, and most of Lonnise's broccoli.

On the way home, I stopped at Albertson's and picked up some Watermelon and assorted vegetables for the week. I had some watermelon already, and will probably polish off some of the remaining birthday fruit.

Here's Lonnise getting ready  to have her main dish.

Monday Day

I was in a fog this morning. Didn't even remember to take my vitamins.

For lunch, I broke open a box of Weight Watchers Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans. For a frozen meal with probably fake sour cream and fake cheese, it is surprisingly good... go figure.

Sunday

In the morning, I worked on the remaining fruit from my Birthday basket.

• Finished the Strawberries
• Pear
• Oranges

Later, I did in a bowl of Watermelon.

Brent, Jeff and I watched the Heat finish off the Bucks this afternoon at the Hooters outside of the Hard Rock. It is not very easy to eat any semblance of healthy there, but I finally settled on the the blackened fish sandwich with beans on the side. It also came with a pickle.

I passed on the tartar sauce. I'm not sure how they expect you to get all that fish on a bun; I used half for the sandwich and just ate the other half with a fork. Surprisingly, it was pretty good.

The best part about watching games at Hooters is that you can make the Hooters girls take pictures with you.

 

For the Grand Finale of Birthday Week, Johanna invited me over to her house, where she and her mom made me dinner. We had a salad with tomato, onion, cucumber, avocado, and maybe one other thing.

Along with the salad, mom made some chuletas (pork chops), accompanied with rice and mashed potatoes. They were served -- as mom said -- Colombian style. I think that meant it all came on one plate, but I'm not sure.  Regardless, they were very good. I haven't had a chuleta in a while, so this was a treat.

There's potatoes on the bottom and rice on the top. The flash from the camera makes it hard to tell.

Here's a picture of Johanna eating her dinner.

Fortunately for me, there was an oven issue that precluded making birthday cake. Although I would have appreciated the effort, and I would have eaten (and surely, enjoyed) it, I think that it is just as well that I didn't eat cake a second time in three days.

When I got home, I had some (OK, a lot of) frozen grapes. That should do me for tonight, and tie a ribbon nice and neat on the Birthday Week festivities.

1:30 am

Two bowls of frozen grapes. I couldn't sleep.

Saturday. Plain Old Saturday.

Well, it is not my birthday any longer. Back to normal.

I went to Loretta's house this morning. Deanna had extolled the virtues of the Miracle Pineapple Corer, so I got one for each of us (but not from Williams-Sonoma). It worked great!

Start with a pineapple...

...Cut its head off...

...Shove and twist...

...And Voila! Pineapple.

The black handle pops out and you slide the pineapple in the bowl. So I ate some.

We have a Conch Truck that comes to the office sometimes. I bought two containers of Conch Salad from them yesterday, and Loretta and I ate them to complete our Island Lunch.

It was good, but it was just conch, tomatoes and cucumbers, and salt/pepper. It really could have used some onion and celery. I thought it was just OK, but Loretta liked it more than I did. Here she is, about to dig in:

Loretta and Conch Salad. That's her in the red shirt.

Then I went to Jim and Angela's house for a while to watch basketball. When I left, it was dinner time, so I stopped at Boston Market and had the Chicken Noodle Soup with free refills.

The first of four bowls of soup

Four bowls of soup later, I left.

On the way home, I stopped at Albertsons and stocked up on Grapes, Watermelon and frozen lunches. I had two tubs of watermelon tonight, so my liquid quota for April and May has been met today.

Go Rich - It's My Birthday! - Part 2

First, here's the balloons that were attached to the fruit bucket this morning. I couldn't get a good picture at the office, but here they are in my living room.

In the afternoon, a pear from the bucket. And more strawberries.

Later on, I went and met Lonnise and a bunch of other people. We wound up at Pei Wei on Federal Highway.

I was just Out of Control. It was my birthday, and damn right I was going crazy.

OK, maybe not crazy crazy. Just a little loco. I passed on the Crab Rangoons.

First up, I had a bowl of Hot & Sour Soup. The food runner girl asked if I needed extra small bowls to share....AS IF. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Nobodys got time for that.

You can't really tell by looking here, but there's enough soup here for four normal people.

After that, I had the Chicken Pad Thai. I had them hold the bean sprouts, but I forgot to tell them to keep their tofu, so I had some of that, too.

My phone died... I used someone else's camera.

In a shocking development, I finished the whole thing.

These have been a couple of eating-intense days; I need to cut it out before I get back to Peru.

Here's everyone at the table at the restaurant. One of the the Pei Wei staffers climbed up in a booth to take it:

Go Rich - It's My Birthday!

Yup... finally legal. 21 today.

I started the day with a bag of baby carrots from my refrigerator.

 

Then, I got to the office and Yuri, Cherie, Milka and Dave had gotten me a Fruit Basket and Balloons. They put it together themselves, and it weighed a ton!

This picture does not do it justice... more coming.

And... Milka worked last night (and busied up her family) to also make me a cake! I was touched by the gesture.

Cake... for me.

If that wasn't enough from Milka, she also got me a great gift: Miami Hurricane Slippers!

Rockin the Slippers

So for lunch, we ordered from Moe's. I had the chicken bowl with brown rice, onions, and salsa... no cheese.

After that, we cut up the cake. They used trick candles, but I caught on. Eventually. It is a rare day that I eat dessert in North America... this was worth it.

I was full, but later on, I broke open the fruit basket. There was a quarter of a watermelon, a canteloupe, giant strawberries, kiwis, bananas, grapes (they're in the freezer!), pears, apples, oranges, grapefruits and something else that I don't remember. I had a few of the giant strawberries, a banana and a couple of grapes, just for quality control.

That's it for this afternoon. I'm going somewhere tonight, too.

Gramercy Deli

I had some frozen grapes at around 4:00 pm.

My friend Sandy had recently moved up to Delray Beach and this was my first opportunity to go and see his new apartment and go out to eat to further celebrate Birthday Week.

After visiting for a while, I announce that I was hungry. He had already scoped out Gramercy Deli and pronounced it a fine place to eat. It turns out that he uttered the Understatement of the Century.

It's your classic South Florida Deli... a counter with Smoked fish, deli salads, knishes, etc. I saw the prices (not cheap, but not a fortune either) and was surprised by the crowd of, ahem, older folk entering the place. Main dishes were in the $14-$20 range, and the Early Bird crowd usually looks for someplace more, er, inexpensive.

Meals at the Gramercy come with an appetizer, beverage, and dessert. Both Sandy and I opted to start with the Matzo Ball Soup.

This was excellent. Sandy doesn't eat a lot, and he wanted to leave room for his main course, but he downed almost the whole bowl of soup. I don't have that problem, so I just demolished it.

Like all Delis worth their salt, they trotted out the bowl of Sours. I had a couple of pickles, some pickled tomatoes, sauerkraut, and some red peppers. Awesome.

Sandy had the Hungarian Goulash, and in a surprise move -- I opted for the Turkey Leg Dinner. Someone had it at the other table, and it looked delicious. The waitress assured me that it was a popular item, so I went for it.

Sorry about the blurry photo -- I was so excited, I was shaking.

Seriously, this is worth driving to Delray Beach for. This leg would give shame to the large ones that they sell at Disney. And, the meat was tender and fell right off the bone. I stripped that baby clean. My side dishes were tomato salad and mushrooms & barley. It was a well-rounded meal. Here's the two of us ready to dig in (that's the pickle bowl in front):

From left to right: Sandy, Turkey Leg, Me.

The meals came with dessert. We ordered two slices of cheesecake and Sandy took them home, along with most of his dinner. We finished it off with tea (Sandy) and coffee (me). The whole thing came to $36 plus tip. It felt like we were stealing.

Here's another picture of Sandy. I miss that he doesn't live as close any longer; he's a lot of fun.

Thursday day

Sorry, no pomegranates.

This morning: watermelon. Then, more watermelon.

Later: fruit salad. And a second fruit salad.

Here's a picture of me and Percy:

It's Wednesday!

If this was the Mickey Mouse Club, then it would be Anything Can Happen Day!

Sadly, I'm not a Mouseketeer. So here's what I ate today:

Two hard-boiled eggs.

Publix fruit salad.

My friend James brought me some peppers from his garden at home. I ate those next.

Another Publix fruit salad.

A bunch of raw string beans.

Then, Ed and I went to a chicken place and I had a large rice, beans, and chicken bowl. I added onions and hot sauce.

 

9:40 PM UPDATE: I got home and had some watermelon. That's probably it, unless I stay up late and have some grapes. 

Mi Propiedad Privada - Miami

OK, it was Opera Night and it is Birthday Week. Loretta and I drove to Miami and had dinner at Mi Propiedad Privada in Brickell.

Their branch in Lima is one of the best places around, and we had eaten here one time before. Tonight's food was great, but it's a shame how bad service can put a damper on good food.

It turns out that Tuesdays are $10 cebiche night at MPP. They're usually $16-$18, so it was a good deal. Once that was confirmed, my entire dinner plan changed.

I had two cebiches as appetizers (they're not huge). One was a classic fish cebiche, and the other was mixto (a combination of fish, shrimps, calamar, octopus and shrimps) in a red pepper sauce. Both were very good. They would have been excellent if the waiter hadn't put them in for 'low spice' (it was right on our check) instead of the medium to hot that I asked for. He screwed up a couple of other things too, not to mention spending most of the time we were there talking to the pretty waitress and totally ignoring his tables.

For my main dish, I went for my standby: Parihuela. This is the fish/seafood soup that I eat probably five times a week when I am in Lima. It was excellent.

Sorry, no pictures. They all came out crappy when I sent them to the computer.

Loretta started out with the Causa assortment, and followed it up with the stuffed fish au gratin. The stuffing was mixed seafood. She said everything was really good, too.

Loretta and the Causas

No dessert; we both had a cup of coffee.

When I dropped mom off at home, I had some frozen grapes from her collection, and then some more when I got to my place.

Steamed Fish @ People's Choice

Earlier today, raw string beans and watermelon - lots of watermelon.

Sergio and Percival were discussing whole steamed fish. As it happens, I am a big fan, so I got them to sign me up.

We called People's Choice on 31st Avenue in Ft. Lauderdale and placed the order. Sergio and I picked them up.

Let me tell you... this was a bargain at $14. It was a whole fish topped with/surrounded by a mess of vegetables, and some crackers. The crackers were soaked with fish/vegetable juice, and were delicious. There was cabbage, okra, carrots, potatoes and other stuff in there, too. Here's what it looked like when I opened the container, and then when I moved the vegetables to show the fish.

It was really good, and not just the fish. The potatoes were firm, but somehow also soft and they rocked. I'm glad I walked by while they were discussing it.

Here's Jennifer getting ready to dig in. It's her fisrst appearance in the blog!

When we picked up the food, I saw that the restaurant had a $5 Brown Stew Chicken lunch special. I think that we will be hearing more from this restaurant.

Birthday Week continues with a trip to Miami for Peruvian food tonight.

Sea Watch

Lonnise took me to Sea Watch tonight to help kick off Birthday Week.

I always enjoy Sea Watch, and I never get to go there enough. They never fail to whip up some great food. Tonight was no different.

I started off a bowl of the Conch Chowder.

I love soup

After they cleared the soup, I don't know what happened; I had a piece of bread.

I don't love bread nearly as much as I love soup

Then, my main dish arrived: Paella. Sea Watch's version has shrimp, mussels, clams, crab, three different types of fish, sausage, chicken, and maybe a piece of pork; I don't remember. I often get this here, but tonight's dish was exceptional. Even the rice was outstanding.

Ready to Dig In!

Lonnise had the Lobster Bisque and the two appetizers for her main dish: Conch Fritters and the Crab Cake. She said the fritters were excellent, and then did the 'roll her eyes in ecstasy' look when she tasted the crab cake.

 

On the way home, I stopped by Albertson's and bought some watermelon (the real kind - in the plastic container), and ate some when I got to the house.

Two hard-boiled eggs this morning.

Checkers

Yes, Checkers.

I went out after the Heat game tonight, and heading home, I was finally hungry.

I drove through Checkers and got some sort of Bacon Philly Burger. They were 2 for $5. It was a burger with some Cheesesteak meat and a slice of bacon and grilled onions. In a brief second of sanity, I had them leave out the mayo.

It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. So I had the second one, too.

The good news is that I don't have to do that again.

Salsa and Chip at Chuck's House

I went to Chuck's house for a while this afternoon.Mike had made fresh salsa, and they had chips for dip.

I wasn't really hungry, but I love salsa, so I used the chips as little spoons and just ate the salsa. The chips looked really good, so I broke down and had one -- one -- the traditional way. It was pretty damn fabulous.... full of cilantro.

One chip. No more; no less.

I'm still not hungry.

Sunday Day

Amazingly, after last night's cow, I actually found myself wanting food today.

I wasn't all that gung-ho about it, but I knew that I had to eat something, so I ran over to Publix and got some hard-boiled eggs and more of the fruit salads that were on sale.

I had two eggs and two of the fruit salads. I can now go back to my post-beef stupor and watch basketball today.

You only see one fruit salad; rest assured that I ate two.

Fogo de Chao

We went to Fogo de Chao for dinner last night. They serve Rodizo-style, which is Brazilian for guys walking around with meat on swords, and slicing off hunks of cows for you right at your table.

Johanna and I first went to the bar for a drink. It wasn't enough that they give you drinks there; they also have to bring you hot and delicious cheezy rolls. I had one.

Cheezy Bread

We went to our table. Before they inundate you with cow, you get to hit up the salad bar. It's pretty impressive. I think the one at Chima is better, but this one is still very, very awesome. I made two trips, with some of the highlights being Chicken Salad, Sliced Salmon, Prosciutto, Salami, Mushrooms, Sun Dried Tomatoes, assorted Peppers, and Parmesan Cheese.

 

Right before the meat starts, they bring you some side dishes. We had Fried Polenta Sticks, Plantanos (they called them something else), and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I had one of the Polenta Sticks and some of the Mashed Potatoes. They also brought the Cheesy Rolls to the table. I had another one of those, too.

Fried Polenta (with cheese)

Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

The meats began. We were served -- and I ate -- in no particular order: Top Sirloin, Bottom Sirloin, a diefferent Top Sirloin, Parmesan-Crusted Pork, Pork Ribs, Filet, Chicken, Sausage, Filet Wrapped in Bacon, Leg of Lamb, Lamb Chops and probably some other stuff. Here's a represetative sampling:

Sword Dude with Top Sirloin

Top Sirloin and Bottom Sirloin. The Bottom Sirloin was one of my two favorites.

Sword Dude with Lamb Chops

Lamb Chops and Leg of Lamb

Filet wrapped in Bacon

They call this Picanha. I call this one of the Top Sirloins. This was Johanna's favorite

Sword Dude with Sausage and Chicken

Sausage, Filet and Chicken.

We ate until the food was backed up to our esophaguses (esophagui???). Other than being Way Too Much, it was wonderful.

Johanna managed to find room to have a Strawberry-Ice Cream blended thing for dessert. It looked good, but even if I ate desserts, there was absolutely No Way I was getting any of that down. I just had a cappucino and was done with it. Here's Johanna modeling the salad bar, before all the carnage began:

Johanna posing with the Smoked Salmon

Fogo de Chao was really, really good, and we couldn't have asked for better service once we were seated, but we have Chima here in Ft. Lauderdale. Their meat selection is slightly different, and although their service is good, I don't think that it was *quite* as attentive as Fogo de Chao, but you don't have to drive all the way to Miami Beach for Chima. Both of them are a notch better, in my opinion, than Texas de Brazil. If I was anywhere south of the Dade County border, and I was in the mood to eat a cow, I would head straight back to Fogo de Chao.