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Dressing for Dinner

I've become one of "those" women. The ones that look at their sweetheart before going out on a dinner date and make some veiled critical comments about what they're wearing. "Oh, are you going to wear those sneakers?" I said. We all know what the really translates into--"Omigosh, you are NOT going out to dinner wearing those crappy sneakers ARE you????!!!"

But in my defense, he didn't know the place we were going for his birthday. He didn't know it was a sort of urban chic spot and that while jeans and a nice shirt were fine, grubby sneakers just would have made him feel uncomfortable. I gently suggested his black cowboy boots and he was glad I did. So maybe it's a part of my job as "the girlfriend" to help him gauge what to wear out to dinner.

Let me tell you who could have used some help. The table next to us. Three couples, the dudes all on one side, the ladies on the other. All the guys had the same short haircut, some variation on a blue button down shirt and dockers. I looked at my sweetheart with his goatee and tousled hair and I realized I was so thankful that he is an "individual" in his dress that he could have worn his sneakers if he wanted. That would have been just fine.

Posted by rforrest at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)

Me and my Super Market

I live in Exeter, the town that has nothing of some things and too may of others. We have plenty of car dealerships and pizza joints but we have no cool dining like in Portsmouth (Bonta in Hampton or Zampa in Epping is the closest) and no cool martini bars with music. All folks can talk about is the Margaritas opening in the Spring in the Globe strip mall. But since the opening of the Super Stop n' Shop we now have three supermarkets in a one mile strip. Tonight I'm going to make a wish upon a star that when I wake up in the morning the S N' S will have magically disappeared....and be replaced with....

...a Whole Foods or a Wegman's or a Wild Oats or come on!--a Trader Joe's! This huge expanse of supermarket space has been used up for something that's not even as good as the Shaw's (also pretty new) a stone's throw away.

Now, I don't live near Philbrick's Fresh Market (which I love) so I only get to go when I'm down in that area, and I prefer to buy from local shops for stuff like wine and cheese and produce and meat, but that's a drive too, so often Shaw's it is. At least they have a decent ethnic food section with more than just Chinese duck sauce and some taco shells, they actually have exotic stuff!

True story---my friend went to the grand opening of the Stop n' Shop last week and the managers or "suits" by the "international section" told her that the reason they don't carry a lot of ethnic ingredients is that they did demographic studies and found that in our area there aren't a lot of diversity or numbers ethnic populations---you know, not many Japanese or Thai people or Spanish. DUH! But that doesn't mean we don't COOK with ethnic ingredients!!! What, we live in New England so all we can cook is baked beans and clam chowder? I think not, oh ignorant marketing guys at Super S n' S!

Believe you me, the ethnic foods section and the health food section and the wine section at Shaws or Market Basket now look really good right about now.

So thanks, Exeter planning board, for giving us something else we don't need. Oh and while you're at it--take one of those dozen or so gas stations every 1/4 mile and put up a White Castle burger place.

Posted by rforrest at 02:39 PM | Comments (1)

I'm the worst blogger in the world!

In an age where food and drink bloggers are actually getting book and movie deals here I am just so infrequently blogging on my nice Wine Me Dine Me blog--it's getting to be irresponsible. I'd like a book deal too!

Finding the time to blog is tough for me. I have columns to write, restaurants to review, a child to raise and feed and well, that new boyfriend who is ever surprising me with his culinary knowledge. (I never had Chex Mix until I met YOU, Eric...sigh..eyelash batting. Crunch, crunch.) Although I had been thinking that his obsession with Chex Mix might be a red flag but now I'm past the two month mark--that's a big milestone for me.

At any rate, at the moment I'm planning a trip to Vegas so if anyone can tell me what restaurants they've been to that they loved there post me an entry or two.

And don't forget--it's Winter Wine Festival at the Wentworth and Attrezzi until Feb. 16th. Tomorrow Susan and I will be broadcasting our WSCA-FM Portsmouth Community Radio show from the event at 6 pm! Or just come down to see us!

Posted by rforrest at 06:52 PM | Comments (3)