Just a bunch of...

TV Time
There is no shortage of chef competitions on TV this summer. I count 3. That I am watching anyhow. The classiest is Top Chef but the most entertaining is Hell’s Kitchen. How many times can Gordan “Mr. Grouchy” Ramsey scream the “F-word”? Falling somewhere in between is the Next Food Network Star. I could probably skip that one. But I won’t.

If you missed Hell’s Kitchen, be sure to watch next week. They have assembled a prime bunch of trembling foods. Slack jawed yokels even. I don’t see any potential winners yet like the girl that won last year.

And don’t miss the winner of the last Food Network Star, Guy Fieri in his newest show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. He’s the latest they have roped in to eating his way across the country.

Red Pearl Kitchen
Eh. It was okay. I’ve read better things about it but we weren't overly impressed with what we had: Strawberry-Cinnamon Ribs (they weren’t exactly hot, temperature-wise), Black Pepper-Caramel Shrimp (not bad but with that brown goopy sauce that isn’t that great but there were lots of shrimp and they were huge) and the Spicy Chicken Drunk Man Noodle (drunken noodles – we’ve had much better). One minor highlight if you like the place is that you can bring back your stamped receipt the next Monday night for half off your food bill. (Walking by The Oceanaire, I really want to get down there for that ballpark special 3 course $30 menu available 5 pm – 7pm weeknights as the menu looked great that night.)

Market
We splurged on the tasting menu (4 courses) with wine pairing a few weeks ago at Carl Schroeder's Market Restaurant. Yum. I’ll just provide the menu (see photo) and let you fill in the rest since I didn’t take pictures (I hardly ever do) and I’m terrible at describing meals. Service was great: he explained the highlights of the menu in detail before we ordered and seemed quite knowledgeable about each wine, explaining each one when he brought it out and why it worked with the course. Yea, probably BS but still an experience – one that we haven’t quite taken part in. The most memorable were the tender braised beef ribs.

It was probably a 2 ½ hour meal – the timing was just right, never too long of a wait. The menu is perfect for a table of 2 since there are 2 menu options for each course. All in all, a great night and I wasn’t even embarrassed to valet my 3 year old Lexus.