Friday, July 28, 2006

Ty Fun Thai Bistro

With all of this heat lately, I can barely stand to be in our upstairs apartment (no a/c) and have absolutely no desire to turn on the stove. We've been grilling out a lot, but yesterday I was just too lazy to go to the grocery store and then cart all the groceries and grill stuff up and down the stairs a million times. So my husband, friend and I went out for dinner.

We really liked the pad thai and spring rolls that we tried from Ty Fun Thai Bistro at the Taste of Tremont last weekend so we decided to go there for dinner. I hadn't gotten a chance to peek in the place and check it out first. For some reason I thought it was going to be more of a take out place but it's really nice inside - cloth table clothes, pretty folded napkins & gold silverware. A new trendy Tremont spot for sure! It's kinda small inside with tables pretty close together. There's a row of 2 tops that run across the wall with chairs on one side and a long pillow covered bench on the wall. Tons of pretty pillows but not sure of how comfy sitting there would be. We had a table in the far back corner so I had a great view of the entire place.

We called ahead to confirm that they do not serve alcohol. We were told it's byob and needed a reservation. That night every table was full and people were waiting outside in the rain.

Let's get to the food...

Appetizer - I forgot the name but it it was 6 shrimp, each wrapped in a spring roll wrappers, deep fried and served with spring roll sauce. Be careful! These were piping hot and I think we all burned our mouths but it was worth it.

Soup - Thai hot and sour soup. Very good mix of flavors and very hot. Another warning! There are huge slices of ginger in the bowl that I thought were chicken. If you like to eat huge slices of ginger you will be happy, if not you will be surprised. Lots of smiling and watering eyes at the table.

Entree - The menu is large and we had a hard time choosing. I believe I ordered #59 off of the vegetarian menu. It was a type of curry made with coconut milk, red peppers, cauliflower, broccoli and tofu all cooked up in a banana leaf bowl. It was delicious! My friend ordered a vegetarian dish made with a tamarind sauce and my husband a duck dish.

Their presentation was creative. A sweet potato flower and other interesting sprigs of things garnish each dish. The rice is formed into a heart shape - cute! But the plates are enormous, blue squares that are too big for the table. When I was brought my plate my chest was nearly punctured with a sharp corner! 3 of these plates just barely fit on our table for 4. And they've also already acquired many chips - must be a huge pain to wash and handle!

Eating hot (temperature and spiciness) Thai food, when it's hot outside and you're trying to avoid cooking because it's too hot at home probably doesn't make sense, but I really enjoyed myself!

Monday, July 24, 2006

I am still full

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Friday - girls' night out at Stan Hywet Hall. We saw a performance of Much Ado About Nothing. It was a really great way to spend a summer evening. Next month they're putting on the musical Always...Patsy Cline.

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I have been wanting to put a picnic basket together all summer so I ran to the market at lunch and picked up my "supplies". I made 2 types of sandwiches on a french baguette - turkey, smoked gouda, spinach & mayo and ham, swiss, bibb lettuce & dijon mustard (combination was too salty). The turkey and ham are from that apple cured meat vendor. I had remembered this lunch meat being MUCH better than it was on Friday. Our side was a quick pasta salad - Ohio City Pasta pesto, fresh mozzarella and strawberry tomatoes. For dessert I bought some cookies and 3 slices of pie.

Saturday - Peninsula Farmers' Market in the morning & Bloggapalooza (I loved the red beans and rice from the Town Fryer) in the afternoon.

Sunday - Taste of Tremont had a full day of GREAT weather. My husband, brother and I sampled a lot of food...

La Tortilla Feliz - ceviche
Lolita - prosciutto cantaloupe skewers
Parallax - pulled pork sandwiches and noodle salad
Sokolowski's University Inn - pierogi and brat
St. John Cantius - stuffed cabbage and cabbage & noodles
Ty Fun Thai Bistro - egg rolls and pad thai

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Upcoming Events

There is so much to do around here!

This weekend:
July 13 - Movie Under the Stars (Wallace and Grommit)
July 13 - 16 - Cleveland Ingenuity Festival (made it onto the ReadyMade Blog!)
July 12-16 - Harborfest

And next weekend:
July 22 - Bloggapalooza

Monday, July 10, 2006

cell phones suck

Yesterday my husband dropped his phone in the drink. Well, it actually slipped out of his t-shirt pocket into the river as he helped his dad bring up their dingy. This trip was for "grown ups only" - we were just transportation. The raft and parents were launched near Lockkeepers and we then picked them up at Shooters. We will make this trip soon - can't wait!

So anyways the phone is gone and we are screwed. Rant begins now.

I purchased him a new phone a while ago, off of Ebay, because he couldn't hear on his old one and we were not eligible for any new phone "rebates". Who is actually going to pay like $200 for a phone that they give away? I called Sprint today and found out that I am eligible for a "rebate" but he is not. I guess switching the little card from the old phone to the new Ebay phone automatically renewed our contract for a year. Did not know that.

These are our options:
1. I get a new phone with a $75 "rebate" (paying the difference!) and give him my old phone. New 2 yr. contracts for everyone!
2. Same as #1, but I make them switch my number back to my phone, in the end my husband gets new phone and I keep mine.
3. Buy him a new phone at full price - we can not buy another Ebay phone because the his little card is gone.
3. Cancel his phone -$150
4. Cancel both of our phones -$300!!!

That's right. We have ONE contract with 2 phones that share minutes, but to cancel our contract (which I REALLY want to do at this point) they charge $150 per phone.

What to do?

Pennsylvania

We left New Jersey Monday morning (July 3rd) and arrived in Connellsville, PA at the Newmyer House in the early evening. We sat in the gazebo and finally got to relax a bit. This is a very small town and a holiday weekend so dinner options were mostly limited to a bar called Bud Murphy's (we at bad pizza both nights we stayed - ha!). This was fine, we were not there to discovery the culinary hot spots of the Laurel Highlands, we were there to discover the architectural ones!
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This was our first ever stay at a B&B and we had no idea what to expect. The house was huge - 10,000 square feet - and had 4 guest rooms and 3 parlors. Our room had more furniture in it than our whole apartment. It was very clean and well taken care of but kinda smelled a bit like the antiques it was filled with. Very nice hosts who are trying to revitalize their little town with art and culture.

Morning one breakfast: yogurt with granola and fresh raspberries from the garden, blueberry waffles, ginger banana bread and cherry chocolate biscotti. Oh, and microwave bacon?
Morning two breakfast: cantaloupe soup, potatoes, goat cheese chive omelet, lemon poppyseed muffins, and almond biscotti. Oh, and more microwave bacon?


The owner/chef is a caterer and everything that came out of the kitchen was hot, fresh and delicious - baked goods were served just out of the oven!

Dear breakfast chef,
Why do you serve
microwave bacon? It really is a sore thumb in your menu.
Curiously yours,
holly

On the 4th we visited Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob and Ohiopyle State Park. They all were amazing and inspirational. It was an absolutely lovely day.
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Friday, July 07, 2006

New Jersey / New York

We got back from vacation on Wednesday. I love only having to work 2 days this week! Here's a little run down of the New Jersey / New York leg of the trip.

We didn't get in till after midnight on Thursday (someone ended up working a half day so we left later than planned). Friday after everyone woke up, showered and got lunch we finally made it to the History Museum around 2:30pm (they close at 5:45 - way to hustle people!). We looked at all kinds of stuffed animals, dioramas, dinosaurs and watched the planetarium Cosmic Collisions show. Robert Redford is the narrarator and I found that his voice made my eye lids very heavy. Well, either his voice or all the walking I did. We also went to Strand Books and strolled through Central Park - admiring all the New Yorkers with either their babies or dogs.
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Saturday we went to Jersey City and went into a bunch of Indian grocery stores. They were really crowded with people so I couldn't get any pictures. Plus, all the fresh produce was covered in fruit flies which made me not want to get very close to any of them. Of course we didn't leave before stuffing ourselves with samosas and dosa (sans bugs) for dinner. Yum!
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Sunday, our last day of visiting, was spent doing more shopping, eating and walking. We went to Chinatown and I fell in love with Pearl Paint - 5 floors of art supplies! Very inspiring. We ate a huge lunch at a restaurant called Il Fornaio located on Mulberry Street in Little Italy.
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I left the city with a few souvenirs - art supplies, something from the Swatch store and a new pair of red and pink Pumas. My husband acquired a few new obsessions for double expressos and bottled sparkling water. Don't feel bad, he got a new pair of shoes too!