Julian's

On Easter Sunday we had no special plans after the Easter-basket-loaded, chocolate, candy, gum, smorgasbord of the all-too-early morning. Julie and I (Mom) blobbed around uselessly all day and then decided late afternoon to go out and take pictures for our Thai Cuisine blog entry.

We rode scooters this time instead of bikes (I can't recall why, might've been my idea). Julie took hers, I took MJ's. We put on our bike helmets, which I was quite glad for later as I went head over heels on an uneven gap in the sidewalk and landed right on my head. Low speed, but still would've been a ridiculous injury for such a flimsy small vehicle. I have to say now what an absurd piece of transport a scooter is. Skates make more sense, but unless your riding surface is nice and smooth the whole trip, a bicylce make the most sense. WALKING is a better option than a scooter, as was the way I played out most of our little excursion this day.

Sun was fading and I was hungry and suggested to Julie that we knock off one of our restaurants for our blog. Julie suggested any of the downtown pizza places, but I wanted to save those for times when the whole family might go there. It was evening Easter Sunday so many places were closed anyway. We spied Julian's at 38 Market Street, Potsdam, NY. Julie had eaten here before with her grandmother, but I had never been. They had advertised an Easter buffet and were known for their Sunday breakfast buffet. We were going in late, like 7:30 pm, a half hour before "closing". Boldly and brazenly, we went in anyway. I figured it looked pretty empty and it wasn't the type of place we would likely take MJ or my husband to.

The waitress was kind and friendly explaining that the buffet was over, they were closing soon, but they still had a limited Easter Dinner menu. I can't recall the other options, though there were only a few. We ordered the Roast Duck and Shrimp Cocktail appetizer to split (budget-minded us). Julie got a lemonade. She was very thirsty from scootering around town, as was I who downed several glasses of ice water.

The appetizer consisted of three large shrimp arranged around the edge of a martini glass filled with more cocktail sauce than needed even for all three large shrimp. Also provided was a rather large portion of herbed oil (again too much for the three shrimp, despite their large size) and a tiny cup of solid whipped butter, which I found most peculiar. It was perfectly adequate. Julie and I (Mom) split the three shrimp this way: I ate all the tails (I loooove shrimp tails) and the body of one and a third of the shrimp. We dipped each bite generously into the sauces, fingers and all.

The duck was delicious. I have to say, mostly the only time I have ever eaten duck (with one rare exception) is the kind you get at the Chinese restaurant in a heavily fried and/or battered condition. We have occasionally done Cornish Game Hens for Thanksgiving, but other than so-called "turkey", so-called "chicken" is the extent of Julie's poultry experience.

This was actually a half-duck, properly "billed" as such on the menu description. Julie and I split it between us by me using a fork and butter knife to remove the largest pices of meat and put them on Julie's plate along with a fair share of the yummy roasted potato wedges and sauteed zucchini that were soaking in the brown, sweetish sauce of the basted duck.

And here we draw a flashback to our blog inspiration, the movie "Julie & Julia". "Do you know how to de-bone a duck?" We now understand why a duck is so much more delicious if someone goes through the process of removing the freaking bones and stuffing it. I ended up sucking the meat off the remaining carcass. Oh well, it's Easter. It's Ironic.

Disclaimer: This blog is not a restaurant review or a food critique. It is a personal experience, molded by the parameters of its subjectivity.

Thai Cuisine Restaurant

We are sort of cheating on this one. Though, since we have no rules and no goals to this blog, we can't really cheat. What I mean is that we had actually visited this place the week before we came up with the idea to do this blog, but it was still fresh in our minds. It was a special trip for me (Mom) and my two girls (Julie and her older sister), since I and my husband had been here several times, but the girls had never been.

Lunch is the best deal, so I promised the kids, on a day off from school during spring break, that I would take them. For lunch, the price is lower than dinner entrees as is typical because of a smaller portion, but comes with a small bowl of soup and a fried eggroll. At 29 Maple Street in Potsdam, NY, this is a pleasant stroll through downtown and across the bridges of the Racquette River.

My oldest girl is a finicky eater extraordinaire. She makes Morris the cat seem like an uncritical gourmand. It is with great trepidation that we dare to take her anywhere to eat that is not the most tried and true, bland fare imaginable. Even then, she can decide that there is something wrong with her order. And that is why there could never be an "MJ/Mom Project" in the spirit of this current blog.

MJ ordered the Vegetable Lo Mein, a fairly safe bet since that is what she usually gets from Chinese restaurants (any sort of meat creates a 90% chance of observing her face scrinch up to look like a chicken's behind, as my husband puts it). Julie has a great variety of tastes and even a fair edge to the degree of spiciness she can handle, but I was still looking over the menu trying to figure a good choice for her. The waitress/manager suggested a basic shrimp and broccoli stir fry. Upon hearing that, I asked if it could be spiced up (yes) and ordered it myself while Julie chose the "Crazy Noodle" with beef off the menu, no doubt due to the funny name. Crazy Noodle is a spicy dish and we ordered it mild for Julie, while I asked for as spicy as possible with my own shrimp and broccoli. MJ, needless to say, thinks salt is "hot" and cannot even have the slightest amount of anything as basic as black pepper added to her food.

Our soup came out and surprisingly, Morris, I mean, MJ actually liked it! Maybe she is more like Mikey from the Life cereal commercials... doesn't like anything so we'll test it out on her... she likes it! Anyway, it is a typical southeast asian style clear soup with a few shreds of blanched cabbage and carrot in it, seasoned lightly and with rice vinegar for a subtle tanginess. The vegetable eggroll came with the entree, a small sample with a thin crispy fried wrapper. MJ questioned me later why we did not order the spring rolls, which I had praised before. These are lovely, unfried, larger rolls of cabbage, sprout, carrot, cilantro and other miscellaneous goodness and served with a tangy dipping sauce. I explained that I wasn't going to order something that she would certainly not eat no matter what her sincere earnestness in wanting to try. I suspect Julie might like them, but this was a small experiment for them, not a grand one. Frugality is a lead motto in eating out these days, so maybe some other time.

All of us had at least a few carrot slices in our dishes that were fancifully criss-cut. Mine was excellent served on rice and as spicy hot as I like it without making it inedible. MJ ate all her food, save a very few larger pieces of delicious green bell pepper and onion. Julie's fried noodle dish was slightly spicy and very tasty to her. She gave MJ half of her eggroll. I asked MJ if she wanted mine, but she declined. After we left she declared she was still hungry. She must be going through a growth spirt.

Hot Tamale!

Our first destination in the North Country This Week's Spring Restaurant Guide, as mentioned in our first post, was the "Hot Tamale". We hatched our little idea to blog about all the restaurants in the guide after already stopping here for lunch while out for a bike ride in downtown Potsdam, NY. There is also a "Hot Tamale" in the village of Canton 10 miles to the east. The one in Potsdam is in the heart of downtown at 34 Market Street.

Julie had eaten here a few times before with her father, but I had never been. It is a fast-food, assembly line style place where you order at the counter and watch as your meal is prepared. It is very clean, the ingredients are fresh and the prices kept reasonably low due to the informal dining setting.

Though I was tempted to try the namesake, the tamales are an appetizer and I was quite hungry. I went for the "Sizzling 'Stoners" Fajita Burrito", which was billed as a much more suitable option for my appetite at the time. I chose the steak as my meat, which was "sizzled" ahead of time and not put on a fajita pan in front of me as is the traditional and more expensive way to do it. The meat was seasoned with my choice of a barbecue sauce and put into a flour tortilla with rice, my choice of pepper jack cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, grilled onions and peppers and sour cream. It was very large and hit the spot deliciously.

Julie went with her old standby, the Kid's Meal. She chose the chicken and cheese quesadilla, and sort of changed it up a bit as she has always gotten just cheese quesadilla in the past. It comes with a small drink (diet Coke) and a choice of brownie or small pre-packaged ice cream treat. Julie chose the Chocolate Sundae Bar.

We like this place as a fast, good and inexpensive option. It is open very late on Friday and Saturday nights to accomodate the late night college crowd.

The Beginning

So, after watching the movie "Julie and Julia" obsessively for the past two weeks, my 9 year old daughter and I took a break. It's been over 36 hours since our last viewing. We had to make a conscious effort to not watch. Its a Netflix DVD, so we will have to return it at some point, but I've been waiting for the inspiration to hit me before I can give it up.

Today, Julie (my 9 year old daughter) and I took a bicycle ride downtown to check out the used clothing stores, which I knew would be closed, but we had to get out of the house. We have been sitting around during her spring break from school, watching "Julie and Julia" on almost continuous loop all week. It makes you hungry, so we have been eating along with it. We had to get out of the house.

Downtown for us is the small village of Potsdam in the North Country upstate New York. It was a chilly wind, but we bundled up to stay warm. While we were stopped, looking at the rushing water of the Racquette River going over the hydroelectric power dams, I decided I was hungry. Julie is a big fan of eating out, as am I. Well, we are big fans of eating in general and also share a laziness for preparing our own food. Being the tough economic times that they are, however, we have been trying to be very frugal. My husband, Julie's father, is the cook of the house and does a remarkable job feeding us and fixing a proper dinner nearly every night.

So we ate at "Hot Tamale" because I had never been there, and I decided to treat Julie since her sister had been to a concert the night before and was still away at a fun sleepover at her friend's house. Then it hit me. We could eat our way through the North Country THIS WEEK's Spring Restaurant Guide I had been looking through the night before... and blog about it!

Oh sure, it's not really like "The Julie/Julia Project". It's not going to make us better people. It's not going to teach us any real discipline. But it is something to do and it will be fun. Maybe it will allow us to eventually return the movie DVD to Netflix... now having our own culinary obsession to occupy us. Maybe it will force us to write something regularly, which is an accomplishment in itself.

Anyway, no rules and no goals. No time frames. It is what it is. There are 66 restaurants listed in the Guide, including places such as McDonald's and an asian food market I've never been into to know if there are even prepared foods for take-out. There are also places we have been to several times. Maybe we will go to them, maybe we won't, but we will write about every place and at least why we did not or could not go.

Some are a bit of a drive so we will try to hit those as they are along the way in other travels around the county. We must try to budget the adventure as best we can. The main goal is to write regularly, so we will write up our visits every few days... Hot Tamale and Thai Cuisine Restaurant already down and coming up soon. But now, another viewing of "Julie and Julia" is in order. Bon appetit!