11/16/2021, The Ale House, Patuxent River, MD

What do you do when you get when you get 8 supervisors at the same site and you're all on per diem? Sightsee? I think not. You eat! And that's what we did when we arrived at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. The first place we decided to try was The Ale House which is pretty much right next to our hotel. We were no disappointed, either. The only *tiny* gripe was that they stuck us in a U shaped booth and it was kind of a tight fit, but whatever. We could have said no, but nobody did, so there we sat. It was Candace, David, Robert, Josh and myself on this one, which is more than we usually have at one place at one time. There was Cajun Pasta, Shepherd's Pie, whatever Josh had, and this concoction called the Voodoo Chicken sandwich, which David and I both ordered.

Let me tell you about this thing. It was a big slab of fried chicken breast, with all the toppings, including an entire andouille sausage. It was completely fantastic. And big. And messy, which is how a sandwich should be. If you don't have to wipe your forearms regularly, did you really even have a true sandwich? I didn't even make it to the fries, and even though the thing lost structural integrity before I finished, it was just as good with a fork. It is pictured below, in case you thought I was exaggerating about the hugeness. Speaking of huge, pretty much all of the serving sizes were designed to challenge your choice of belt holes, and for less money than one might expect. Remember that, Voodoo Chicken sandwich. You dont want to miss that one.

 

07/23/2021, Base Bowl, Washington DC

 

To be fair, I went to this place about 10 times. Its really good and I was determined to find out if EVERYTHING on the menu was as good as the last. (Spoiler: It was)

So I grabbed Ezer, who had recently returned from the Spy Museum and had just learned what a Dead Drop was, among other tidbits of information that the govt deemed allowable for release to the public. Hence the shirt he wearing in the pic. As you can see, he was starving, so I had to hurry and get pics of the fried chicken (Ume Karaage), Green Curry Ramen (Strike Out), and the over the top appetizer that we got that was awesome but don't remember the name of it. We went to this place so often that the waitress knew us by name after the third visit, and was visibly disappointed when we walked past on our way to Mission yesterday. We felt bad, but we didn't want to get worn out on such great food!

Following are pics of the food, and none of it was even close to average. As in, we would eat here, and then look at the menu to plan what we were going to get next time. When Justin and Kaila came with me, they got the Super Basebowl, which was a gigantic bowl of ramen that included an 8 oz ribeye steak, among other things that definitely made it "for two" as the menu stated clearly. It would be a challenge to eat it by yourself, what with the half pound of beef right on top and probably two more pounds of food underneath that.

Over all food is 4, service was a stellar 5 (out of 5) and I will definitely be going back if I get the chance!

07/22/2021, Mission Navy Yard, Washington DC

 

What do you do in Washington DC when you have seen all the sights that you want to see? Well....you eat. Having been assigned to the Navy Yard, and getting the see the Naval Gunnery Museum plus the place where Special Agent Gibbs of NCIS hangs out was kind of cool. But DC has so much more to offer, like food. And this isn't a TV or museum blog, after all. So Justin and I collected a former tech of mine that works at the Navy Yard (Kaila) and headed out to Mission - Navy Yard, which is right across the street from the Nationals stadium. That's them in the pic over there. Justin is the one with the beard. Kaila is the one that is really, REALLY happy with the food. Which, I mean, isn't really that bad of a reaction considering that the food was really REALLY good.

In any case, we all got something, I got a double mushroom swiss burger, Justin got a burger of some kind and Kaila got some sort of chicken. If it seems like I am lacking detail, its because I am. Full disclosure, I took a bite of my burger before the pics were taken and really couldn't remember what they ordered. Yes, it was THAT good. Kind of like a bowl of French onion soup with meat in it. 

There was also about 200 beers there and I tried a few since we were walking. It was only about three blocks from the hotel Justin and I were both staying at. This was the Homewood Suites which "said" it was 4 stars but ehhhhh I'm in the solid 2.5 range for that place. Might have had something to do with the cigarette burns on the carpet. Maybe.

Back to the drinks, in addition to the beer that had a pretty good wine selection which Kaila sampled and declared all of them quite good. Justin hit the IPAs and I had a few of those as well. 

All in all solid 4 stars for both food and service.

10/15/2020, Chickie and Pete's, Philadelphia, PA

 This was one of the first places I went when COVID restrictions started to relax. By "relax" I mean they were replaced with other, equally ridiculous restrictions that made even less sense. Like the one for indoor dining at restaurants. Instead of wearing a mask while you ate, you now had to wear a mask while waiting and walking to your table. Once you were seated, the mask restriction vanished and suddenly you and everyone around you was immune from COVID! So apparently the virus isn't interested in you if you are seated. Only when you're standing up. Got it.

So Joey and I set out to meet my uncle Richard at Chickie and Pete's. Just a short drive down to Packer Ave from the Navy Yard area where we were staying. Uncle Richard was in to process of selling the business he built and retiring, mostly due to the failed economic and social policies of the local Philly govt. Bottom line is that his business didn't get burned to the ground like many others, so I guess he's one of the lucky ones. 

But were here to eat, not bitch about useless governments! Uncle Richard had chicken strips (allegedly the best around) and Joey had an Italian sausage hoagie. I had a Blue Crab Caesar salad.

Actually, before i go on, the biggest scam on the east coast concerning seafood is the Blue Crab. Sure they taste good, but they are TINY. I mean, you have to get 8-10 of them just to get a good amount of meat to cover, say, a salad. Don't get me wrong there was a LOT of crab on this salad, but you gotta wonder how may crabs they had to shell to get it. Now, on the west coast we have this crab called the Dungeness, which is HUGE compared to the Blue. One Dungy could beat up at least 6 Blues no problem. Additionally, you can catch 5 of these a day in Washington and the license costs $11. Play your crabbing trips right and your gear, your license and probably your boat gas are paid for in less than one season. Plus they are big and easy to clean, and they taste WAY better than a Blue. East coast people, you have been bamboozled!!

The food was really good. You can screw up a salad too badly, but Joey said his hoagie was probably the best ever. I mean, we were in Philly, probably the best place for a sandwich, ever. The service was also really good and our waitress made us feel like we were the only ones in the place. and they had about 200 TVs with every conceivable sporting event (the ones that were allowed to play that is). The important things are that Joey got to see his Great Uncle and spend some time with cousins in New Jersey as well. 

Some new places, Finally.

Since we are now closing in on Year Two of "two weeks to flatten the curve", we have seen some restrictions lifted, some not, and others try to "out-ridiculous" the former restrictions. Thankfully, most places have lifted most, if not all restrictions and we can finally go out to eat again! 

In 2020 I was considered "essential" and went to several places. However, these were all places that had the most stringent restrictions, and the best you could do was Grubhub or DoorDash, and even then a LOT of places werent doing that. I went to California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida.

One of the things I noticed in Pennsylvania: in the city you had to practically wear a mask to bed. In the rural areas, nobody cared what you did. I went to a winery in Somerset with my cousin, and there was no forced masking at all at the winery, because it was private property and they set their own rules. Apparently that doesnt matter in Philadelphia, however.

In any case, there will be new stories coming out about the places I was able to go during the lockdown, and the new places Im going now, since most places have finally come to their senses.