Bonjour and Buongiorno!!

Happy Bastille day! That being said, all i have to report today is a quick recap of Sunday's visit to Momma Lucia's up in Dunkirk. Senses dulled from the Saturday road trip I left my sunglasses in my friend's car which returned to DC. So, after retrieving MFO from BWI we diverted slightly to meet up with him at Momma's to get said glasses.

I think i talked about the place before, as well as the offspring in Prince Frederick, neither being very positive (culinary) experiences and this one didn't change my mind. Even though it was reasonably early (~5:45) on Sunday night, they were fairly busy, with lots of families and young couples. I gotta get some DFD cards made up. For clarity, when I admonish "Dress For Dinner", I don't mean you have to have jacket and tie all the time, but dress appropriately for the place you're in. Informal? fine, a golf shirt and wash pants (do they still call them that?); local bar? clean Levi's okay, maybe a snappy T-shirt; fine(r) dining? now we're into a collared shirt and slacks, up to that tie and jacket. Harmony, honor the food. Anyway, in Momma's there were families with dad in a muscle shirt and ball cap that remained welded to his head, and son was a dirty T-shirt with another ball cap (apples/trees). Another pair had on rather filthy cargo pants with about 15 pockets and another grubby T-shirt. To be sure there were also people appropriately dressed, but it makes for a not very pleasant atmosphere. At least the wide screen TV was on closed caption.

The server was pert, and didn't share her name, and pretty much did a good job. I still don't like the "can i get an appetizer started for ya?" as a second greeting, but i understand the thought. Anyway I got what turned out to be one of the worst glasses of Pinot Grigio I've had lately (after it warmed from it's frozen serving temperature and i could taste it). After thrashing about the menu for a while, MFO ordered some "stuffed shells" and our friend got a "grilled chicken salad" and I meekly ordered the veal piccata again. Ours came with a side salad, and while I usually complain about too little dressing, this time the the salad was covered with a thick blue cheese like dressing that pretty much obliterated any chance to taste the greens which was probably okay. MFO's french dressing was delivered as slathered honey mustard which she accepted when the server said "oh, that was supposed to be French (about my only homage to Bastille Day i guess). When the food arrived, I got three gray little rounds of protein that had some odd texture that was sort of bumpy/grainy with a gooey coating. All this over a mound of spaghetti that no normal human should/could consume. MFO’s shells were good enough and the grilled salad wasn’t as dressed and was also pretty well received. I think maybe the lesson was to not only dress appropriately for an establishment, but also order what might be an appropriate dish. Don’t challenge the kitchen.

We’ll be attending the Bastille Day dinner over at Café Des Artistes tonight. Then tomorrow is MFO’s hand surgery and I’ll don the whites as cook and bottle washer for a while. That should produce some good material (if not food)..

Think, then
DFD