Back to Georgia and Home Again

I've been back to Georgia again, this time for work. The best part of the trip was probably the food at RL's Off the Square. It' s a little New Orleans style restaurant in the middle of Covington. The place was great and had some interesting characters on the wall. Ronald Reagan apparently liked the food there, Stevie Wonder had been there once or twice, and Billy Crystal from City Slickers was there too. The famous New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme was pictured all over the place. The food was great. We ate calamari and fried green tomatoes along with spinach dip as an appetizer. After that I had a shrimp boil. The boil is pronounced without the L and sounds more like "boy" than anything else. It was like a clear stew with corn on the cob, shrimp, andouille, zucchini, potatoes, all spiced up nicely. Apparently a boil down here is like a church supper back home. The meal I had was good but I can see how making 10 or 20 gallons of it would be even better. Now for next subject you have to understand how seriously they take Halloween down here. Somebody got in early here and made this minor event/holiday into a huge deal. There are as many or more decorations here at Halloween as I've seen in some places for Christmas. (Which reminds me I have to go out and get some Christmas decorations before they all sell out! I know it seems early but it's the not a complete exaggeration.) I'll try to post some pictures once I get them off the camera. On Friday night we took Isabelle to the Greenville Zoo for Boo at the Zoo. For $4 you get a bag and get to walk around the zoo and "trick-or-treat". Well when we got the the line-up was about 500 people long. It moved fast enough but was almost as long when we left. The whole zoo was decorated and it took about an hour to walk through. Isabelle enjoyed it and we got to meet some people including a woman who works in my department and her family. There were kids dressed up in all sorts of great costumes-princesses, Spidermen, lots of Star Wars characters, and off course animals. Isabelle went as an elephant but unfortunately the elephants at the zoo were in bed when we went by. We also ate out on Friday at the India Palace. The place was nice enough and certainly felt like a traditional Indian restaurant. The service on the other hand was a little sketchy. We were passed over several times when it came to order and it seemed like our servers had a tenuous grasp of the English language. The food was good, although yet again Jane won (she always picks the best thing on the menu). I had a meat platter with tandori chicken, seekh kabob, chicken tikka, and boti kabob. Don't ask me what it all was but it was good. Jane had the lamb saag which was lamb in spiced spinach. It was better than mine and I don't usually like lamb. The bread basket we ate was also very good. There was naan, prantha, roti, and onion naan (my favorite). In the end, based on my system, I'd say $$ for price, ** for the food, and only one :) since the service was less than average. We'll try the other Indian places next before we go back. On Saturday we met up with some friends to go to another local restaurant. The Bohemian was a neat Little place attached to a classic record shop. The food was from all over the world and the chocolate fudge cake for dessert was excellent. I had steak with beans and rice in a Caribbean jerk sauce. It was spicy and very good. Jane had lamb lasagna (she can't get enough lamb) but I think she was let down. The duck spring rolls we got as an appetizer were nice too and the place also makes their own chips which they serve with blue cheese dressing and spicy cheese crumbs. The whole thing was very nice with a bottle of pinot noir. $$ for price, *** since I liked the food, and :) :) :) since its one of the better places I've been in Greenville yet, although I doubt too many people know about it. The best part was the relatively new friends we went with. I want to get together with them again. It's nice to meet new people who are of the same generation and share common interests. It seems like even after almost six moths here it's still hard to make friends. Its too late now for pictures but I promise more artwork and some shots of our adventures soon. Isabelle is really turning on the creative juices and has been coming home with all sorts of great drawings and paintings. I can't wait to share. We also have some good video of Isabelle signing some of the songs she's learned at school. Keep an eye on the blog for more.