Granny's

Yesterday we attended a brunch at Granny's in Owings Mills, MD.  They are a southern food specializing restaurant, with their highlight being their chicken and waffles.  As in, fried chicken wings and waffles.  Together.  Yes, I know, it sounds like something somebody dreamed up that would end up on This Is Why You're Fat.  However, it turned out to be a good restaurant, nice atmosphere (not at all what we were expecting given both the title, food, and location).  The outside of the building looked literally like a brick doctor's office that they have converted to other things (and we're guessing that we are entirely correct on this).  The inside had a great mural wall that I wish I had gotten a photo of, maybe next time.  It said something along the lines of:  Grandma, Nana, Nanny, Abuela, Grandmother, Granny no matter how you spell it, it's Love with an entire wall of photos of grandmothers.  It suited the place perfectly.

G was the brave soul who decided to go ahead and try the chicken and waffles.  It came with 4 wings, one brown buttermilk waffle, and sides of potatoes (or grits) and fried apples (or applesauce).  The wings were huge, and the waffle was delightfully fluffy (in fact, K ended up eating 1/4 of it!).  The wings were not only big, but perfectly moist with great flavor.  Others around the table upon trying the wings declared they were the best they had ever tasted.  And the flavor of the waffles and the wings together was a harmonious blend that left you satisfied and smiling.  On the table was their mini corn bread loafs that were the perfect accompaniment and both G and K can admit they might have eaten more than was necessary (though it became a craving that had to be satisfied).  

K chose to order their lump crab meat eggs benedict on a croissant.  Once again, it was huge!  The flavor was amazing, with Old Bay spices thrown in, it had a mild kick.  The crab meats chunks were generous, the eggs cooked perfectly (and the other gentleman who got the same thing concurred with all of this), and the croissant added a decadence that put it over the top.  Her only suggestion would have been to pour the hollandaise on right before bringing it to the table as it was slightly congealed, but everything was hot and we all know how finicky hollandaise sauce can be!  G had considered ordering this so was nice enough to help K in eating it.  

The fried apples were quite good, and surprisingly did not clash at all with either of our plates.  The fried breakfast potatoes were unimpressive, however, even with the added onion and red bell pepper we felt they lacked flavor.  And our biggest complaint would be that we both drink a substantial amount of water, but even when there was no busy-ness to the place, we waited for a long time in between refills.  

Good:  The main dishes were perfectly thought out flavorful delights.  It exceeded our expectations for the restaurant.  The decor and set up was perfect where you had the low noise of various tables conversing, but it did not overpower or make hard to socialize with your own group.  

Bad:  Service was pretty good, but water was never refilled often enough in our opinion.  The breakfast potatoes need some sort of seasoning.  

Final Rating:  9 cups of tea (with no hot water refills)

Coraline

(Image from Amazon.com)

We finally got around to watching Coraline.  Never having read the book (a shock I am sure after the opening post admitting to loving Neil Gaiman) neither of us were quite sure what to expect (though now we must read the book).  Overall it must be said that it was definitely a different sort of children's film, and parts might be a little scary for young children.  


K-- (okay, the button eyes freaked me the hell out)  I thought the film was absolutely delightful, an interesting type of story.  I liked that it might be a good film to remind older children that sometimes their parents are not the worst option.  My only complaint was that when gathering an item up, it was very odd, and much too simple.  The task was not difficult, it was overly simplified, and the voices were strangely repetitive.  I got bored at the point where she is gathering up the missing things that are needed to defeat "the other mother."  In the end, I enjoyed the film enough to want to read the book, though that will be another review altogether.  


G--I've been wanting to see this film for a long while, and K finally put it on to surprise me. I thought the film was too simple for adults, but too scary for kids.  It was overly simplistic in how she went from task to task to task directly, in such a perfectly linear fashion.  There was no breaks, no false trails, no story line.  I felt with the slightly simplistic sound effects and simplistic story line, I felt like I was watching somebody play a children's level video game.  I liked the atmosphere of the film, but it wasn't quite enough to overcome the story line.


Good:  Different idea for a children's film.  The individual characters were interesting, and we both enjoyed the voice acting.  Animation was fantastic, very engaging.  It contributed a lot to the atmosphere, sucking you into the story line.


Bad:  Too simplistic.  There was not enough character explanation (and there were some really weird characters).  


Final Rating: 6 cups of tea (with perhaps a scone thrown in, but sadly, no clotted cream)


(ratings are on a 1 to 10 scale)

At Last

"The time has come," the Walrus said, 

"to talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot--

And whether pigs have wings."

At last a place where we can be as opinionated as we like, about a plethora of things.  We often debate everything from movies and books to political ideals and special interest groups.  So why not have a forum where we can do so separately and together?  At times it will be both of us, but since his tastes in books is complete crap (in my personal opinion, although many would disagree), I won't be reading many of his choices (I will concede that he did introduce me to Neil Gaiman, of which I am forever grateful).  We're even planning on recording debates on topics to use as a transcript for here so that thoughts can be accurately reflected.  And we thoroughly encourage comments and debate, so feel free to chime in!