A New Year and a Quest

As 2011 began (with a great Caps win in the NHL Winter Classic!, Thanks Dave Steckel - you hockey fans know what I am referring to!) I really began with a mission, get to Hawaii in December with a party of number 150, but I was sitting at 102, so I had some places to try.  Last may Guy was in the DC area and visited 5 or 6 places so I figured it was time to "go local"!  My friend Amy asked when I would be going to a place near her home in Silver Spring, MD and ironically Guy visited a place just a mile or so from her home called "The General Store".  I met Amy at her home and we made the drive over to the restaurant.  The restaurant is located in an old General Store located next to a historic Post Office, that now operates as, well, I am not really sure.  The small building is home ot some really good food and presented in a unique manner.  The menu changes from day to day and if you went there on a Sunday night they presented a fixed menu.  The specialty there is their Fried Chicken, but they also make some really good sides and a very unique Orange Glazed Brie and Turkey Turnovers.  The owner-chef is Gillian Clark opened the place just a few years ago after coming to the area from her native Denver.  She had a good time on the DDD episode with Guy.  Since then she beat Bobby Flay on his Food Network show "Throwdown with Bobby Flay"  beating him in a Fried Chicken Throwdown.  Both Amy and I got the Fried Chicken dinner which was fabulous, maybe the best Fried Chicken I have ever had, with a side of mac and cheese, which was very good and great cornbread (and I like cornbread but not a favorite).  I also got a Brie Turkey trunove and it was really good, too.  It was a great fun have a wonderful meal and sharing it with a super friend!  I knew that I wanted to go back,especially since it is so close.  I did return a few weeks later and tried the Chicken and Waffles on a Sunday morning and it was also very good.  The General Store has since closed, not due to lack of patronage but over a dispute over rent, I really hope that Gillian opens up in a new location. 

I met up with another high school friend, Charlie, t0 visit a classic diner in Arlington, VA named the "Metro 29 Diner".  This is a classic Jersey style Diner, form what was revealed on the DDD episode, the diner is 12,000 square feet, 6000 on the upper customer level and 6000 on the lower lever where they prep all the great meals and bake all their own bread and pastries.  They make their own Halal Bread for the French Toast.  Charlie and I met up there on a Sunday night and I got the classic "Sunday Greek Lamb Dinner".  It was featured on the show and this is the type of meal that Greeks have on a Sunday afternoon.  It featured soup, salad a nice portion of lamb and two veggies.  the meal was very good and I am looking forward to going back to try more of their great food.

One of my "new" traditions is to take a cruise during the Super Bowl and this year my friend Jeanne and I planned for a cruise on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas for the big game and we met up a day before the ship sailed in South Florida.  Now this was a big time for Jeanne as it was not only the Super Bowl, but her hometown team the Green Bay Packers were playing the game, so she got me some packers stuff to wear during the game, I am not a big fan of Green Bay but since they were playing the Steelers, who I REALLY don't like, I became a huge Pack fan for the game!  In two other trips to the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area there was one DDD location that for some reason I could not find, the GPS would send me to the middle of the road near some swamps, and it became my mission to find the "Blue Marlin Fish House".  Barry and I had tried but failed, I had tried on my own and failed so I was hoping that the third time would be the charm!  I picked up Jeanne off of her Frontier flight from Milwaukee and away we went in search of what seemed impossible to find!  I followed the GPSand it seemed like, here we go again!  But as we made the same turns, the GPS read turn left and Jeanne looked to the right and saw a small sign reading "Blue Marlin Fish House", "Thee it is!"  I had to make a u-turn and turn into what looked to be a small state or local park and the Blue Marlin is like an outdoor lunch shack.  Jeanne was a bit less adventurous and got a burger that she said was great.  We shared the Grouper Fish Spread and I got a Shell Fish sandwich that was very good.  The Blue Marlin, despite being hard to find is worth the time and attempts that it takes to find it.

The cruise was great!  The Packers won!  What could be better!