Wild Mango

Wild Mango is one of my favorite restaurants in town.  Today, I realized that I hadn't written about it yet since I started this blog.   It's a fusion cuisine place.  They have things like Pepsi Shrimp and liquid pizza as appetizers.  Pictured above is the surf and turf Steve ordered.  It had sweet potato fires, shrimp, spinach, and steak.  It was delicious and just the right amount of food.

Today's complimentary appetizer was chicken clam chowder.  It had some corn in it.  It was creamy, smooth, and tasty.

I really enjoyed my sauteed sea scallops.  That's a creamy crab and tomato risotto in the middle with oyster mushrooms as garnish.   Again, this was just the right amount of food.

I really love Wild Mango, and I think if you're in the Cleveland area, it's worth the visit.  Just be aware that the traffic around the mall  it's in can be really busy.

Introducing People to Indian Food . . .

When I wrote about India Garden last time, I didn't have pictures.   We were introducing my family to Indian food for the first time, so I took the opportunity to get some images.  Pictured above is Saag Chicken, our absolute favorite dish.  We get it every single time we go there.   We always order our dishes at level 2 spicy.  It's just right, the flavor is absolutely perfect!

This is the bread basket.  It comes with plain naan, garlic naan, and Aloo Paratha.
 

This is the mussel curry with its sauce (front), and the sauce for the Tandoori Shrimp pictured below.  We really enjoyed the mussels!

The shrimp was good, but I think I would have enjoyed Tandoori Chicken more. 

A Taste of Cleveland, the B Spot Again

We were at the B Spot again yesterday before the movies, and we tried a couple of different things I hadn't written about before.   Pictured above is the Chocolate Banana Marshmallow shake.  It was tasty!   The Vanilla Bean Apple Pie Bacon shake is still our favorite though.

Pictured here is the Porky, a burger with pulled pork, bacon slaw, and Cleveland barbeque sauce.   Steve really enjoyed it.  Also we split an order of Lola fries, which have the rosemary and sea salt.  Extremely crispy.

I had the French Onion Burger, that comes with bacon, gruyere, griddled onions, shasha sauce and crispy onions.   I really liked it.  Just the right amount of food and extremely delicious. 

The Santaland Diaries

I just got back from seeing the Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris.   It's a one man show, recounting David's experience as an elf at Macy's in 1989.   It's funny, crass, and just well told.  I listened to the NPR recording in previous years, and I was expecting it to be very similar.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how much costumes and a set could do for the monologue. 

I was laughing out loud when David, as Crumpet the Elf, tells the little boy that if he's not good, Santa will take his stuff, at the mother's request.  You should see this show.  It's only an hour long without an intermission, but the laughs are frequent and hearty.  If you can't see it, I recommend searching the Internet for David Sedaris' reading on NPR.  

Wicked

We saw Wicked this afternoon.  I can't believe it's already been on Broadway for a decade!   Steve and I saw it in San Francisco in 2003.  I think I've seen it at least twice more after that, and then today.   The show has changed quite a bit since then, but for the good.   It's an amazing show. 

Two girls meet in the land of Oz in college, with intertwining destinies.  A friendship develops and political intrigue ensues.  You already know these characters from the Wizard of Oz, and this musical really portrays them in a more sympathetic light.

I really do love this show and will probably see it again in the future.   I just couldn't get into the book version.  Probably because I saw the show first, and really wanted the book to be as uplifting as the show.

The music, sets, and costumes are amazing!  I really have nothing bad to say about Wicked.   Just go see it!

Michael Symon's Lolita Restaurant

We went out and had dinner at Lolita tonight.  It had been on our list for a while, and it was nice to finally get to it.   Pictured above is the Crispy Chicken Livers with soft polenta, mushrooms, and bacon that we got for an appetizer.  Yummy.

Bread and olive oil, kinda baguette like.

Steve got the Fusilli pasta with lamb, mushrooms, bread crumbs, and orange agrumato.  It was tasty, and a little crunchy.   It contained three of Steve's favorite foods (pasta, lamb, and mushrooms).

I had the Potato pizza.  It had green olive, white anchovie, mozzarella, and lemon agrumato.  I like anchovies, but I have never had them with a lemony flavor before.  I think I'll be having leftovers for a few days.

I decided that dessert was a good idea.   I really liked this Milk Chocolate and Toffee Pot de Creme.  It was a sort of fancy chocolate mousse with toffee chips, almond financier, and winter melon compote.