Friday, April 07, 2006

N. GA Restaurant Review

I keep forgetting to do this - since like December.

Best New Restaurant in N. GA - Thai Dish, Spout Springs Road, Flowery Branch

We just got a little strip shopping center across from the Publix store, and out front for months was a sign saying "Coming Soon: Thai Dish". Now, I have become quite a connoisseur of Thai food in recent years, and we have an excellent one down the road in the Kroger Shopping Center, Green Tea (Patrick Dempsey eats there when he's visiting friends over in Chateau Elan), but hey, two options is always better than one, so I eagerly awaited the opening. Finally, it came; I was next door at the drug store, and I ran over and grabbed a menu to take home, and got a peek around inside. Nice dining room - colored walls, dark tables and chairs with nice accents on the tables (might've been candles - it was 4:00 in the afternoon, and nothing was lit yet). I told the guy at the counter that I wanted a menu, and that I would call as soon as I got home Friday night - I couldn't wait to try it. The guy was very nice.

I got the menu home and spent quite some time looking at it; I couldn't believe how extensive it was. Although, to be fair, I usually get Thai food for lunch, so most of the places I go for my weekly lunch out at work probably have a very limited lunch menu; one place only has 2-3 things that aren't sushi or seafood, and for those of us that don't eat seafood, that's not much variety. So Friday arrived, and after perusing the menu for the 10th time, I decided to try the Himalai - cashew chicken, with the 2-star option for hot level (out of 5). The guy on the phone was very personable, and was happy to answer my questions about the menu, and said "Okay, good, see you in about 10-15 minutes!" I went to pick it up, and it was done right as I walked in the door. They had only been open not even a week yet, so there wasn't much going on in the dining room - you know how it takes a couple of weeks for people to get to a new place. I got the food home, and opened up the little plastic box, and was pleasantly surprised; all of the veggies were julienned, and it was so pretty, and the cashews were huge! I scooped out some rice, and piled some himalai right on top, and sat down to enjoy.

Man, it was absolutely perfect! The veggies had the perfect crispness to them, despite how thin they were cut; the chicken pieces were all tender and had big bits and little bits, and the cashews, well, they were huge! I love cashews! The hot was perfect, too - I hate food so damn hot that you can't taste anything; I like spice for flavor, not with the intent to burn all taste buds beyond recognition. After a few bites, my nose was running, and my lips were burning, but my mouth was in heaven! I went back to the box for seconds, and then the boys walked in; I had to let them have a little, but let me tell you, I wanted to eat the whole thing.

We have been back several times since, and have not been disappointed yet. We have added Thai sweet & sour to our list of favorites, and I've sampled a soup or two - all delish! I want to actually eat in the dining room one night, just for atmosphere, if nothing else. They seem to have a full house now on Friday and Saturday nights - that's good. If I had any complaint, it would be that the portions could be a tiny bit bigger for the $10 price tag on most of the entries, which come with only steamed rice. But that is part of why I want to eat in, to see if the dining room portions are more reasonable; carry-out containers only hold so much, and I'm sure they don't want people complaining about spills and such if the pack them.

So if you find yourself in the Flowery Branch area, and hungry for something different, stop by the Thai Dish - there is sure to be somehting on the menu to please anyone's appetite for adventure!

Rating: 5 Margarita glasses out of 5 (perhaps they should be sake cups?)

Today's Pollen Count: 3120

Not much going on lately - soccer games, end of quarter/end of year fun & games at work, etc. Indoor soccer at the Boys & Girls Club finally ended; we are the Champions, and we didn't get booed this year. The Final game went down to a shootout again, just like last year; man that was a good game. We're glad it's over, though - just too much going on. School soccer will be done this time next week - we have 1 more regular game, Monday, then the school tourney; I bet we'll be out of it pretty quick.

It was pretty embarrassing this past Saturday. We had a game way the hell down in Peachtree City, and I had my usual tag-alongs. Well, they finally won a game, and to celebrate, Monish invited the whole team over to his house to hang out - his dad is an oncologist = cool toys. So Big Kid piles into their van, along with 6-7 others, and there are 3 kids left that won't fit, so I volunteer to haul them back and take them to Mo's. It was my two Mexi kids, plus the Canadian kid. Apparently, I have the Foreign car. Anyway, on the way back, my two regulars I guess have absolutely no fear of being themselves in front of me, so every time we had to come to a stop, and there happened to be another Mexican in a car at the same stop, they would hang out the windows and yell "Hey, Beaner! Beaner, Beaner!" (as well as writing their cell #s on their hands and waving at all the girls). I couldn't believe they were using the word beaner - I haven't heard that since my cousin used to always make beaner and wetback jokes. I guess the Hispanics use that word to each other like black people use the N word. I was trying to not laugh, and I told them not to do anything to get the Driver shot - they said "That beaner ain't got no gun". To which I replied "This is Georgia - everybody has a gun". It was an odd hour and a half. Oh, and the Canadian kid played drums all over the inside of the car on the way back.

I have been getting my Relay for Life orders done and delivered; I did all of the single strand sets (5) and to their owners last week, then got 1 set of Twisters done and delivered this week. I was almost done with the 2nd set of twisters last night, but the margaritas were calling so I stopped; she will be gone all next week. Crap - I should've just finished up and brought them in today, so she'd have them. Oh well, she'll get them when she gets back. As soon as I get those done, then I have 3 multi-strands to do, and Relay for Life orders are complete.

On the stitching front, I haven't really worked on anything except stash enhancement - been beading. I have two of Patricia Allison's Seasonal dragons coming, and 2 Long Dog Samplers, and I joined a silk thread-of-the-month club - I got my first order the other day. I love silk - threads, clothes, whatever. I also joined a hand-dyed fabric-of-the-month club form Silkweavers, and got my first delivery of that - it is the perfect piece of fabric, in shades of blue, to do a dragonfly design I just acquired. I am going to add some of the new DMC Light Effects flosses to it, too. I am seriously considering, now, doing my Scarlet Quince unicorn with DMC floss; I don't have time or energy to drive all over GA, looking for needlework shops that have selection, to do my DMC-to-silk conversions, and the cost would just be so very high. It's nice if I can add silks to these smaller projects, but something this big, especially with my concerns of keeping it clean for the massive amount of time it will take me to complete it; if I do it in DMC, I know I will be able to wash it, with no worry of bleeding, since I have never had one do so yet. And I really just want to start it; the fabric is gridded, just waiting for a frame to put it in and me to kit up the threads. I really need to finish the Castle first, though; maybe once I get this little Dragonflies...Oh My done, I can switch back and forth on the castle and unicorn, until I get the castle done. Depends on how swamped I get with beads this fall. I haven't put in a stitch for 2 weeks because of beads, so this fall might never see me stitching. We shall see.

I have been wrapped up in a couple of Yahoo stitching groups - they are the reason for all of this stash enhancement I have been doing. I cannot believe that I don't know anybody else personally that stitches; at least, thanks to the internet, I can talk to people who are even more obsessed than I am with it. I have this one particular designer, Martina Weber of Chatelaine Designs, whose work I just absolutely love; her designs are so unique. But she uses so many different kinds of specialty fibers and beads (oh, yeah, I need more beads); her kits are $$$$. A couple of the really intricate ones are over $200 for the whole deal - chart, fabric, fibers, beads. I just can't justify spending that much money on something I don't have time to work on. They are beautiful when done, and I will eventually have at least one, but it might have to wait until I'm not having to buy cleats every 12 weeks, and school clothes, and all that. I have also added a Multiply site to my list of web ventures; one of the groups created a Multiply site so we could post pictures of our works all in one place, but I want to get my page together, as well, just so I have another place to put pictures & stuff. Webshots is getting full, and if I ever get my retail site up, a lot of that content will not be anywhere but on the retail site. In my spare time.

As you can tell from the title of this post, Allergy Season Has Arrived. WHOOOPPPIIIEEE! It doesn't bother me too bad, though there was something out there week before last that hasn't been around for several years that had my head totally messed up, and achey and fatigued. It's gone now, whatever it was, but Little Kid's trials with pine pollen are just beginning. Fortunately, it is raining every few days this year, so far, so hopefully we won't break the 6000ppm mark this year, and maybe we can squeak through one more year without him turning into a giant booger with hives. It's hard on the kid that likes to be outside that outside is poisonous to him for 6 weeks out of the year, especially when we make him stay in so he can stand to go to practice or a game. Maybe he'll grow out of it before long - they say people's allergies are constantly changing, so it could happen. Come on May!!!

That's about it for now. A lot going on, but not a lot worth relaying. Soccer, beads, thread, laundry, dishes - SSDD.