eatin' round town

Back in December, I went to pick up some items from the home of a jeweler. To my surprise, her house was filled with the smell of baking loaves. All my life, I have been accustomed to the smell of my grandmother and aunts' homemade rolls, but there was something different about this smell. The smell assaulted my nose and I couldn't help asking a few questions. I found that these loaves were sourdough, and had been baked not with store-bought yeast, but with starter. Before leaving, I was gifted with my very own loaf and promised some starter in the future. She told me that she has had the starter since her teenage daughter was a baby, and that you have to "feed" it every week, even if you're not baking. Since receiving my starter, I have kept it alive and baked bread several times. Each cup makes three loaves. Here is the loaf D gave me in December.

I wrote a few posts back about how S and I went to the Ship's Cabin in Ocean View after the East Beach open house in December. We had some of the best bread w/olive oil and parmesan and homemade blue cheese dressing. We were given some dressing to go, and I used mine the next day on a salmon salad. Um um.

Two posts back, I wrote about how I'd eaten the same meal at Food for Thought in Williamsburg twice in the past year. I was mistaken: it was three times - twice last spring, and once this past winter when I got carry out. I think those are cheese grits along with the squash casserole. The original combo is still the best.

I think I wrote about the variety of nuts at the Smithfield Ham Shoppe in February. The wasabi nuts are awesome.

As are the Hot Southern Nuts.



M and I went to the Queen's Way Soul Cafe in downtown Hampton in March. I had heard they had good drinks, but had never eaten there, except for the fish sampler served at Wilson's Landing last September. M told me that they have awesome grilled shrimp, and I agree. She had hers with greens and cabbage, and I had mine on a salad. Very good.



On to sushi...
A few weeks ago, I was in Norfolk to hold open Widgeon Point townhouses - 0 down, 3.25% interest - and drove down to MacArthur mall afterwards for a quick stop at MAC. (hey, even frugal folks have their indulgences). On the way home, I drove past Domo and thought, man I need to check them out. A few days later, S and I were at Widgeon Point. We had been talking about going for sushi for weeks, so we headed over to Domo. Oh my goodness, what a menu. Domo has the most extensive, creative sushi menu I have ever seen. I satiated myself with reading it, and ended up choosing a fairly tame spicy tuna roll. The twist? It included cilantro. As it turns out, I couldn't taste the cilantro. S got a specialty roll. Can't say I was too much into it - didn't like the sweetness - but I have picked out several specialty rolls to try in the future. And my tuna roll was excellent.
Just a few days later, we were at Musasi in Hampton having lunch. I prefer Musasi's salad dressing to Domo's. Less sweet, more peanuty. My salmon lunchbox was close to perfect. I was disappointed with my rolls though. I expected the standard California roll, with roe! Everything else was excellent, as usual.