We’ve driven to Tunica several times to go to the Hollywood Casino’s Epic Buffet. On Friday nights they have all you can eat whole lobster. It isn’t the best buffet in the world, but well worth its value. For about $45 2 people can eat all the lobster, shrimp, crab, salmon, etc that you can stuff down. Naturally, this means you need to get there early as the line can get rather lengthy if you arrive late. Also, it gets the touristy environment. It definitley isn’t fine dining. The waitstaff also seem a bit overworked. Still, the value is outstanding considering that you can eat way more than $22 worth of lobster before getting full.

We’ve gone to Texas de Brazil at Peabody Place in Memphis several times over the last few years.  It is quite a good restaurant.  It’s quite a bit different than most restaurants one might go to.  You come in and decide what level of eating you are willing to pay for.  The first level is a quality buffet.  It is nice.  The size of the buffet isn’t large (at least in my measure), but the quality of the food available is quite good.  There are is a wide variety of flavors.  I enjoy the salad bar and lobster bisque the most.  The second level includes the buffet and a round cardboard “dot” (my word choice).  This “dot” is two-sided, one side red, the other side green.  Basically, roaming around the restaurant floor is a plethora of servers carrying a wide variety of meats.  If they see you’ve turned your dot to show the green color, they come by and offer whatever meat they have.  Think dim-sum with only meat and you display whether or not the servers stop at your table.  The variety of meats they offer is quite good.  It ranges from rack of lamb, to filet mignon, to free-range chicken.  All are superbly cooked and the flavors are wonderful.  The ambiance of the restaurant itself is also quite good.  The decor is stylish and tasteful.  The uniforms of the wait staff is neat.  The tables are set nicely with perfectly white table cloths and the lights are very dim.  Each table gets a candle for extra light.  If you aren’t stuffed when you walk out of there something is wrong with you.  The only real drawback is the price.  It isn’t cheap, but then again I’d rate the value as quite high considering the quality and variety of the meats that are available.  The waitstaff is also quite good.  I highly recommend it for anyone looking to try something new (and has some extra bucks).

In the big ice storm of December 2004, we went to Isaac Hayes Nightclub and Restaurant. This really isn’t the place to detail this, but Memphis basically has no cold weather road conditioning. Memphis so rarely sees harsh winter weather that they don’t have the setup to handle it. Well, near the end of December 2004 Memphis was hit with a really cold winter spell that put a lot of ice down on the roads. We didn’t have much to do (or eat) at home so we headed out to Peabody Place. It’s just a couple miles away (direct line), and we thought that they were the closest place that would be open for sure. After slipping and sliding there on the couple inches of ice covering the roads we caught a movie and then decided to eat at Isaac Hayes Nightclub & Restaurant. Shinta had never eaten any soul food, and this was as good a time as any. Well, when we entered it was obvious that it was not a busy night. We were seated in one of the booths and the place was desolate. Talking with the waiter we found out that several of the staff hadn’t even made it in to work, much less customers. Seems like a nice place, friendly staff, nice layout, good value. I don’t remember exactly what we ordered, but it was good. The cornbread was outstanding. I recommend it to anybody coming through Memphis that will be around the Peabody.

In February 2006 we went to Houston’s in Memphis, TN. Several of Shinta’s co-workers had recommended that we try it out sometime. We went for an early dinner. Upon arriving we put our name on the waiting list. We were a bit surprised that there would be a waiting list so early. Anyway, we waited in the growing crowd for about 15 minutes for a table to become available. The ambiance was quite nice. All the servers are dressed in black. The color of the carpet and furniture were dark. I’d say black, but I don’t recall for sure. The lighting was very very low. To the point that I’d suggest that the only real lights were on each table. The net effect is that as the servers move around they almost appear to come out of nowhere. Neat. As we were seated we ordered our drinks. Another server appeared quickly to tell us about the specials and ask if we were wanting any appetizers. When the server came back around for our order I ordered their New York Strip special, and Shinta had the Swordfish steak. We also go Caesar salads. The Caesar was okay. It was certainly a lot better than many places, but for me there was something that it was missing, I just don’t know what. Shinta seemed to like it quite a bit. When the main course arrived they were well prepared. The steaks were both large and well presented. My New York Strip was fine. It was cooked about right (I ordered it “medium”). The quality of the meat was very good. It was quite lean and the cooking was pretty even. The taste was great. Shinta gave me a piece of her Swordfish. It was quite good. I tend to want steaks more than fish, but I would have been plenty happy ordering either dish. Then came the only negative — the ticket. The cost was rather high, without dessert we spent about $85. I’d rate Houston’s about on par with what Steak and Ale used to be several years ago, but with a significantly higher price. In terms of value, I’m not so sure Houston’s stands up to the mark, but I can’t denigrate the quality of their food and service.

Moving sucks.  I have never really ever liked moving, but spending 3 days moving again was not fun.  It was sort of amazing to see my stuff fill up a 10 foot moving truck, but I wasn’t exactly surprised.  I’m not looking forward to the next time I have to do it.

The best place for sushi in Stillwater, Oklahoma is Kyoto Japanese Restaurant. Well, that’s not saying much. There’s only three places I know of that even have sushi in Stillwater. Still, Kyoto is very good and is better than any other sushi place I’ve been. I first tried the restaurant sometime in 2002 and have been back probably over a dozen times since. If you’re coming through town and you have a hankering for sushi, give’em a try. On the weekends be sure to call in for a reservation or arrive early, because they will completely fill up. On my most recent trip the wait was 40 minutes, so we just got seats at the bar (which subsequently filled up too). For those that aren’t quite sure about sushi yet, I highly recommend one of their Kamikaze dinner plates. It comes in several choices of cooked meat, tempura, sushi, and includes soup, salad, and ice cream.

Here is their Kamikaze Beef:

On December 21, 2005 we ate at the Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill inside the Venetian. It is an open air restaurant located near the KA theater. The restaurant is separated from the casino floor only by glass dividers (not walls, they don’t go from floor to ceiling). The decor itself is modern. We came in at just the right time as the restaurant was emptying out for another showing of KA. We were seated at a table next to the glass divider, which was nice, because we weren’t completely surrounded by other guests. The host/waiter was slightly annoying, but he did his job. He brought us our menus and answered any questions we had. The menus were rather interesting.

This is quite evidently not a fine dining establishment, but it carries the Wolfgang Puck name and so we had high expectations. For starters I ordered a Caesar salad, and Shinta ordered some sort of fried seafood sampler.


The Caesar salad was okay. Nothing to write home about. The seafood sampler (I forget the actual name) was quite good. It was too much food for Shinta to eat, so she got a box for it and we finished it off at the airport the next morning. I recall fried calamari and fish. I’m not sure what else was in there, but I really liked it.

For the main course, I ordered a simple small steak that came with fries. Shinta ordered some sort of muscle dish.


The steak was okay. The quality of the meat was high, and the grilling was done well. It did not lack for quality, but it wasn’t anything special. I don’t know how good the muscle dish was, but Shinta seemed to enjoy it.

Happy New Year! It’s 2006. I still have trouble with the 200x on dates I write, so I think I officially have a problem. Maybe I’ll get it right before 2010. Best of luck to everyone in the new year.

It must seem pretty obvious by now that I enjoy both aircraft and photography (especially combined). I followed a link on a forum to a neat writeup on an airshow with great pictures. In looking around the guy’s site I came across a nice “Airshow Photography” guide. Take a look.

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Photography/Airshows/index.html

Who left the door open and let in all the cold air? As I sit here, the wind chill outside is 3F and the forecast is for it to get down to -11F tonight. We got some snow today too. We’re far from the predicted 5 inches, but we had enough to be significant. Walking home from dinner it helped cause me some excitement. I’m starting to cross a crosswalk and this idiot in a Jeep decided that he wants to get through the crosswalk before I got to that side instead of stopping. Well, he guns the engine, loses traction and promptly rotates his car 90 degrees relative to the path he’s traveling before coming to a stop 6 feet directly in front of me with the grill pointed at me (perpendicular to the direction of the road). That was just great. Dude just laughed and drove off.