Cafe Rio

I recently had a new dining experience that I just had to blog about...Cafe Rio! It was by accident that I found myself there. It was on a Saturday night, and my fiance and I along, with his family, had just finished visiting Grandma . She is rehabilitating in a care center away from home, so it was like a mini family get-away. Afterwards we did what any Mormon family would want to...go to dinner together! So, we ended up at Cafe Rio because it was close to where we already were. I ordered the chicken burrito, and I was surprised! I didn't think I would like it, just because I have had so much good, authentic Mexican food. Growing up in Southern California, I am very picky about my Mexican. Anyway, I liked it! My fiance got the chicken burrito as well, and he loved it too! In fact, we were so impressed, that on Monday night we went back. I know that sounds kind of bad, but we enjoyed ourselves. It's hard to believe that we went out of our way to enjoy a little Mexican cuisine on a Monday night...but I'm sure stranger things have happened. Maybe Cafe Rio puts some type of addictive substance in their foods, because I have been craving their chicken burrito ever since!

My closest encounter with Japan

This past holiday weekend my fiance and I went to an interesting little restaurant in Lehi called Teppanyaki. It was for my fiance's work party, so there were about twenty of us eating together at the restaurant. The layout is unlike I have ever seen before. You don't just sit there and have your food brought out to you, the chefs actually cook it in front of you! You sit at this large square table, but the middle is cut out, and there is a large teppan in it's place. (I later learned that teppanyaki gets its name from the word "teppan", which means iron plate, and "yaki", which means grilled). The waiter then takes everyone's order, and within minutes a chef emerges with a huge cart. On the cart is all of the food that everyone in your party ordered, and all of the ingredients needed to prepare it. The chefs don't just make your food either, it is an interactive and quite social dinner. The chef that we had did tricks while making our food. He made huge flames on the teppan, as well as an "onion volcano", (as my fiance liked to call it). While he was making the fried rice he cracked three eggs as well. He threw the first two up in the air and caught them with his metal spatulas, and then cracked them without using his hands. Like I said, it was entertaining. Then with the last egg he said "American way", and just cracked it all boringly with his hands. Once he was done with the show, aka cooking our food, then he started throwing shrimp in people's mouths for them to catch. My fiance and I kindly declined to have flying fish thrown at us, but there were others in our party who did not. In fact this one guy that my fiance works with caught 5 in a row! Impressive! When the chefs left and it was time to eat, EVERYTHING was good. I absolutely loved the sushi, fillet mignon, fried rice, and salmon! What made it even better was that we didn't have to pay for any of it! So naturally we got a lot of food, and one plate was actually $22! If I was having to pay I am not sure I would go back just because I will be a poor newlywed college student soon. However, for special occasions I would consider it because it was absolutely enjoyable.

An "Odd" waiter

I enjoy eating at many restaurants so it is hard for me to choose a favorite. However, I think if I had to choose I would go with Olive Garden. I am a sucker for Italian food, and Olive Garden isn’t too expensive. My fiancé and I had an interesting experience at the Olive Garden in West Jordan. We sat down at our table, and the waiter introduced himself as “Odd”. Now not only is his name weird, but his but his disposition was just…well odd.
“Have we been here before?” he asks with his hands folded and an inclined head.

We say yes, and I’m pretty sure our bewildered thoughts showed right through our faces. He was like something from back in time. He said words like "shall" and "thy",and it was quite odd. When he asks what we would like to order I already knew what I wanted to try! I saw a commercial on T.V. for the new chicken lasagna rollatini, and I was dying to try it. I wanted the salad instead of the soup, (I just love their salads), and I specify that I want Italian dressing, not ranch like my fiancé got. When he comes back with the salads he says “ranch” and sets it down in front of me with a wink. It wasn’t ranch thank goodness, but I don’t think he said “ranch” on accident. Then when he brought out my dish, he asked if I wanted cheese. I said yes of course, and when he was shredding the cheese onto my plate, he told me to say "when". So when he reached a good amount, I said "when". He didn't stop, so I said "thats good", but he still didn't stop! SO finally I said it really loud, "THATS GOOD!" He finally stopped, and when he left my fiancé and I laughed. I had a mountian of cheese on my plate. Other than that, he was a great waiter...entertaining as well. Before either of us could finish our drink even halfway, he had a refill on the table waiting. Service is important to me, so I appreciated how on top of things Odd was. Overall it was a great experience...just a little bit odd.

Ramblings of a random college student

Food is good. We all eat it, even if we don't want to. We depend on it. It can be sad really because we can't live without it for very long. Sometimes I wish we could store food up in our bodies for weeks in advance. Like bears. You know like if you go to a really nice restaurant and the food is good, you could just eat as much of it as you want. Eat it all up, and then you don't have to carry around those annoying styrofoam boxes, which you just end up throwing away anyhow once you get them safely in the refrigerator. That way you're filled up for a few good days, and you don't have to worry if all you have is Top Ramen in your cupboard! Remember that wonderful meal you had and your worries are gone! Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to live without food altogether...I like it. It's just that ever since I came to college I haven't had time to eat! Can you believe it?? I go from class to class forgetting to eat because I am too busy looking for my classes (a.k.a getting lost). I am a transfer student from BYU-Idaho so this is my first semester here at BYU. I suppose things will get better with my navigational skills, in fact I can already see that they have. I only got lost once today...but then again it is only 10:30 a.m.