BAI THONG

We gave this Thai restaurant on Speedway near Swan another chance. We  have quit going there (culinary boycott) twice because of the quality of their food and the toughness of their meat. And each time we have come back, the first meal was pretty good and then we go back again; uh oh, back to a chewing marathon and picking out gristle from the chicken which is not all white meat.

So i think we are again going to have to separate from this place and take it off our restaurant list.

We ordered pad woon sen vegetarian (the veggies were plentiful and perfectly cooked) but it tasted like the sauce was a can of Campbell tomato soup.

The yellow curry with chicken?? Well, let me just say i let bill eat all the chicken after i wrestled with my first piece and just doused the rice with the curry sauce and potatoes. The sauce was tasty and just spiced enough.

However, overall, the meal just wasn't real satisfying.

BROOKLYN

This is a10+ movie. Gleamingly filmed in New York and in Ireland with excellent acting, great dialogue with a lot of sharp witty humor, a story flow that was exquisite and characters that were believable.

I wasn't expecting much. This film was a 'fill-in' choice because i had rejected CAROL due to a friend's telling me it was painfully slow, I had also rejected HATEFUL EIGHT due to some reviews and the almost 3 hour running time and YOUTH (with michael caine and harvey keitel) that i did want to see was not in the theater at the Loft with stadium seating. SOOOOOOOOOO

I was amazingly grateful for my cinematic choice.

A young adult leaves her small Irish village to go to
America. The movie superbly showed the adjustments and transitions from leaving a birth home and landing in a totally opposite environment knowing no one. Her homesickness could be felt through the screen.

However, then she meets a young fella and she successfully completes some schooling and gets better at her sales job and things start to happen. Until she gets a call that necessitates a return trip home.

I don't want to say anything more because it will ruin the delightful and poignant twists and unexpected turns of the story.

And the ending was superb.

THIS is why i love going to movies.

DOLCE VITA

excellent Italian restaurant right next to sprouts on the  nw corner of broadway and pantano. It was not crowded and therefore, not noisy.  Lots of tables well spread out and no booths.

Our service was wonderful. Just enough attention.

The olive oil dip for the bread was very good but the bread itself was similar to a dollar loaf of french bread at Safeway; very doughy with hardly any crust.

 Each entree came with soup or salad. We had a salad; very fresh. I had feta garlic dressing.  Also a plate of bowtie pasta with peas in a very light vinaigrette as  an appetizer for the table. This didn't have much flavor which did NOT stop me from eating it.

Bill had chicken piccata which came with his choice of pasta and sauce. He picked angel hair with a garlic butter. He was very very happy and said the chicken had the best flavor and was so tender he didn't even need a knife. I had cheese ravioli with meat sauce which was a 10.

Both of us have leftovers for lunch today. Their desserts looked wonderful but i had made a chocolate magic flan cake so we passed on the sweets.

Oh and the bathroom was painted  the most striking combination of a lilac and mauve. Beautiful.

We will be back.

THE DANISH GIRL

I have decided i don't like Eddie Redmayne. His role in this movie seemed to me to be a Stephen Hawking in drag performance.

The movie was sooooooooo slow and everyone talked in whispers and amazingly in British accents even though the movie takes place in Copenhagen. There was no suspense or  tension and i couldn't identify with any of the characters; they all seemed unreal and like they had just stepped out of the book Pride and Prejudice (a 'silly sisters' sort of land) with restrained and muted facial expressions and speech.

There was an excess of skin self-love; lots and lots of stroking and tears? you wanna see tears? a schooner filled with brimming drops.

Summary: Man has penis
Man doesn't want penis
 but Wife wants  him to keep his penis.

EL MOLINITO

First time at this Mexican restaurant. Its so close that on a warm summer's evening we could walk to it; on the corner of Wrightstown Rd. and Pantano.

Its a really large place and has several rooms; some of the rooms are stark and too bright with no decorations at all but other rooms are filled with murals and wall hangings.

This is a mixed review because the prices were good; portions large and the food was ok. However, the bathroom was horrid; very dirty and one toilet was spewing a steady drip of water. and the service was desultory and slow (we waited about 20 minutes before our food came out; usually at Mexican restaurants the entree arrives almost as soon as you say LADA; like in enchiLADA.) and even then it wasn't all our food because our waitress said they had no ground beef to put in my chimi so i had to pick something else. which i did; chicken which was quite tasty and i have some left over for lunch too.

Also bill's order was incorrect and the beans were a lukewarm soupy swirl of beige; totally unappetizing.

However, (back to the positives), bill liked his tamales and the guacamole and as i said, my chicken was good. uh oh, another negative; the chips were cold and stale.

But we will be back maybe in 6 months.?? there are a couple more Mexican places we want to try that are close to us now that we are east-siders.!