Chef Leu - You Son of A Bitch

Chef Leu is a master of all trades. He can whip up any Chinese dish you have ever heard of. He can make a wickedly strong drink, and he always serves it in some sort of 'special' glassware. He also happens to be the owner of the weirdest Chinese restaurant I have ever been to.

My husband and I used to frequent Chef Leu's quiet a bit when we lived about a half mile away. Now we live too far and only make the stop when traveling in from the South. I wouldn't recommend driving home after a meal with Leu, because it always consists of a very strong beverage or 3. Unless you are one of those, I'll take a water with my dinner persons. If so, what the hell are you doing at a Chinese restaurant on route 7? Go to fucking Olive Garden with the rest of the peasants.

The reason I refer to it as being so odd, is no matter what time of day you are in there, you are always the one and only table. We were there Tuesday evening and I was surprised to see that there were 2 to 3 tables full of patrons. The polite hostess brought us through the restaurant to a dimly lit booth that smelled of crab rangoons. We immediately opened our menus to the first page which is littered with jovial illustrations of their cocktails. Dear Baby Jesus, I love this place. The waitress came right over with tea and those magical fried goodness that you dip in duck sauce and took our drink order. Now this is where you have to be careful and pay close attention. I always go with the mai thai because it is delicious and could burn the hair off of your arm and the hubs goes with the suffering bastard, maybe because he is, ha. I have strayed from the usual cocktails, the scorpion bowl is eh, the volcano is about the same, lots of juice, but then there is the Zombie. Be sure to have a ride home or a blanket so the Chef can put you up for the night, cause you will be a zombie after a few of these bad boys. As soon as we ordered our drinks, crab rangoons and entrees I looked up and all the patrons were gone. It never fails. The food came out promptly and was delicious as usual. I went with the Kung Pao and hubs went with the General Tso, and we split the pork fried rice which is always great and not super greasy like some places serve it. All and all, the Chef does it right and is worth every penny.
http://www.chefleu.com/

Britt's Donuts - Carolina Beach, NC

Their website says: Don't ask for sprinkles, don't ask for cream filled and for goodness sakes, don't forget to eat as many as you can in the summer because Britt's is only open during the tourist season. This boardwalk doughnut shop (voted second in the nation for small town doughnut shops) located on the boardwalk of Carolina Beach only has one type of doughnut: glazed.  As a doughnut purest, this was great news.  They do one thing and they do it really well.  We ordered a dozen donuts and a round of coffees and watched as the donuts were dropped into a large vat of frying oil and then removed to cool.  After that, they were placed on a large spindle and dipped in Britt's famous doughnut glaze.  From there, they were hung up to dry.  Not long after that they arrived on the counter in a wax paper bag along with sheets of wax paper to use as a utensil while eating.  A big help given the amount of fresh grease on the doughnuts.  Not a bad thing.  The decor was exactly what I expected.  It could have at one time been a gas station or even a car repair garage.  Now, it is a doughnut mecca.  A place of worship for doughnut lovers.  These doughnuts melt in your mouth.  They make Krispy Kreme taste like store bought donuts at best.  I consumed 3 while I was there and now I'm staring at the dozen I bought to take home.  My stomach wants more.  This may be the best doughnut experience I've had to date.  That says a lot given my affinity for doughnuts from a young age.  I highly recommend this place.  It's the best doughnut you'll ever eat in 100 degree heat.  Check them out here:

http://www.carolinabeach.net/britts1.html 

San Sai

We recently checked out this new Japanese spot located across the street from Burlington's waterfront park at 112 Lake Street.  We were across the street waiting for the band Viperhouse to go on stage when we were evacuated for a lightning scare in the tent.  We decided to wait it out at San Sai and grab some food.  I'm not going to lie, we had quite a jag on.  We'd been drinking in the Long Trail VIP tent for a quite a long time before eating.  Given my memory is so strong, I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say that this was a good meal.  The restaurant occupies the location formerly known as Taste.  As far as the decor goes, it still looks pretty much like taste.  From what we noticed, they are focusing on the food and that is a good thing.    They were quite busy when we arrived but they were fairly prompt in keeping us happy and fed.  We're easy guests though, so if you're a pain in the ass, things might be different.  Patience is a virtue.  Anyway, drinks came in a timely manner and the server made sure our glass was never empty.  There's nothing worse than ruining the momentum of someone's buzz.  Luckily she kept us right on track.  We weren't super hungry, so we just ordered a few rolls and an appetizer.  It was some of the best sushi we've ever had in the Burlington area.  We've had much better, but for Burlington, this might be the best.  It tasted very fresh and wasn't dressed up with lots of sauces and other things.  It was all about the fish.  Prices were very reasonable, service was great and the sushi kicked ass.  We'll definitely go back.  Now that I think of it, we actually went back there again a few nights later when we were once again evacuated from the jazz fest tent.  We just had some drinks, but the service was still great.  They had $3 PBR tall boys...what else do I have to say.

I hope this one lasts.  The location could be better.  Taste definitely suffered being so far off Church street.  It's worth the extra few blocks of a drive.  

-H.S. Chompers

You Added Gratuity. Perfect.

You idiot.  That just cost you 2%, unless you were terrible and ignored us.  Let's face it.  The idea behind this blog came up during a week long bender.  Actually it came up multiple times over daytime drinks and now we're finally taking action.  We live in Northern Vermont and like eating.  We like drinking even more.  So much in fact that we might pass up a meal just to fit a few extra cold ones in our stomachs.  If we show up at your restaurant or bar, it could be a blessing or a curse.  It really depends who we are with.  We've been thrown out of places.  We've fallen asleep at the table before the entree was even served (it was New Orleans, stop judging us). We have also sat through 7 course tasting menus with civility and dignity.  We're white trash, but we have credit cards.  Four years ago, we moved up to the Burlington, VT area from Boston.  There was a plethora of great food and pubs down there.  When we got here, it was tough to tell what places were good and what places to stay away from.  It's about time someone got honest around here.  Just because your food is local doesn't mean it's good.  Just because you charged $12 for that drink doesn't mean your bartender knows what they are doing.  We're here to help with that.  We're pros.  If you have a good thing going at your restaurant or bar, look forward to reading this blog.  If you are in the other category, don't worry we've probably only been to your spot once and can't remember because we were drunk.  Cheers!