New Thing #29: Grill 23 & Bar

My wife and I wanted to go somewhere nice as part of our night out this weekend. But we didn't want to dress nice.

So after our movie on Saturday, we decided we'd check out Grill 23 & Bar, on the corner of Berkeley and Stuart Streets...but because we weren't necessarily dressed for it, we'd sit at the bar.

We ended up not exactly at the bar, but in the bar area - with our backs to the bar sitting sort of at a shelf facing the rest of the restaurant.

That was the extent of the new-ness of the night.

I have a weakness when I look at a menu: if something says "avocado" I have a really hard time not choosing that meal.

That's how I ended up having the scallops with avocado and some other vegetables at the steak house Saturday night. (I did try the steak frites my wife had. The steak was delicious. So were the frites. Next time we go I promise I'll have steak.)

It's not that I would have had a new dish Saturday night anyway - I knew going in just the experience of eating at Grill 23 was going to be the New Thing. (It's one of those places with the really thick disposable hand towels in the bathroom. I'm sure they're terrible for the environment, but man do I feel like I can really get my hands dry with those things.)

The bar area quickly got too crowded...we got there a little before 7 and within a half-hour we would not have found our bar seats, and even worse there were people right on top of us.

I told you the other day my wife and I would be repeating this date experience when the weather was warmer. We might just go back to Grill 23. If we do I'll take the extra step to wear a nicer pair of pants, and we'll make a reservation so we can sit in the dining room. And I'll definitely have the steak.

New Thing #16: Farro

I suppose I see a difference between white rice and brown rice. And I understand different preparations of rice, like mixing in peas or something like that.

But I'm not sure I see the need for different kinds of grains.

As far as I'm concerned, you've had one kind of grain, you've had them all.

Last week my wife made farro with dinner.

It was OK.

It was a new food, so I'm glad we tried it.

But I looked it up further - though it can be eaten by itself it's usually used as an ingredient in salads and soups, which makes sense. I think I've seen it before...and I've probably eaten it somewhere else before in some form.

But that's the thing with grains - who knows? They're so similar.

I'm pretty open to trying anything new the rest of 2013...except, I think, more grains.

New Thing #13: Turkey Sausage Sandwich

Sundays tend to be Dunkin' Donuts days around here. I'll usually partake in a breakfast sandwich and a donut.

I have a few "go-to"'s that I rotate through, but I'll usually try one of their new sandwiches when those come out.

Hence, the turkey sausage sandwich.

The default bread for the turkey sausage sandwich is an English muffin. I might try it out on a bagel or something in the future.

It's fine.

But I don't know why it's any different from a regular sausage sandwich. It might be a little spicier. Is turkey sausage healthier?

I don't really know what sets it apart.

But I'll tell you what I do know: a few years ago Dunkin' Donuts had a maple sausage sandwich on a bagel that might very well have been the greatest sandwich to ever grace this earth. I feel like it's a fall sandwich...but it hasn't been seen since.

I hope they bring that back.

It's better than the turkey sausage sandwich.

New Thing #8: El Diablo Shrimp

Here we go - my first time writing about food. Last Friday night we went to one of the restaurants the girls love - Margarita's, a Mexican restaurant with a number of locations in New England.

I planned on getting something new to me...but along with the menu was a list of "additions" which the restaurant was trying out for future inclusion on the menu.

Jackpot.

I ordered the "El Diablo Shrimp".

Now, time was, all I needed to see was the word "shrimp" to be sold on a menu item. Over the years, I've become less crazy about shrimp - I'm more inclined to be automatically sold on something if it has the word "avocado" in there - but I still love shrimp. So this was kind of a no-brainer decision...it stood out among the other "additions" items. (I imagine this is a dish that exists elsewhere, by the way...for the record, I've never had it before.)  The shrimp was sauteed, covered with cheese, and served on a bed of sauteed spinach. It also came with two tortillas, which I used like bread but also like a wrap, putting some shrimp, spinach, and tortilla together a couple of times to mix things up.

It was a little spicier than I expected (the description said nothing about there being a bite to the meal, but maybe the "diablo" in the title was a hint), but it didn't matter. It was good.

As part of ordering from the "additions" menu, the restaurant also asked me to fill out a little survey, which I was happy to do.

As far as food experiences go, this one featured an item not yet on the menu and a survey after I ate.

I'd say that's about as new as a dining experience can get for me.