Sweet & Savory - Mother's Day Brunch 5/11/08

Sweet and Savory always gets my vote for breakfast!  The wife and I took her mother for a mother's day brunch and were seated within probably ten minutes or so.  The place was as busy as I figured it would be, as Sweet and Savory's breakfasts aren't exactly a hidden secret in Wilmington.  The service was very good as always, impressive as the placed was jammed to capacity.  Try as I might, I couldn't seem to get to the bottom of my cup of coffee.  

I've never strayed away from the omelet selections, namely the Olympian, but for some reason the Messy Marvin was speaking to me.  I asked the waitress her thoughts and she claimed the Marvin was her favorite sandwich.  Sold!  I was quickly brought a fresh baked croissant with two over-easy eggs, country ham and havarti cheese.  Messy indeed;  I ended up eating it with a fork and knife.  It was delicious.  The eggs were nice and runny, the cheese perfectly melted, the croissant was fluffy and light and the ham had just enough salt to tie everything together.  Perhaps I need to stray away from the omelets more often.  As with all the breakfasts, it was served with hash browns and fresh fruit making it a nice filling breakfast.  Filling as it was, I couldn't leave without splitting a side order of Wrightsville Beach Toast (french toast made on their cinnamon raisin bread) with my wife.  My only criticism was the fact that our cinnamon raisin bread was lacking raisins!  It was still good, but I'm a big raisin fan, so a bit disappointing.  

The wife ordered the California Dixie sandwich, which is her favorite.  It was good as always with ham, avocado, pico de gallo, havarti and scrambled eggs on tomato basil bread.  Her mother ordered the Meatless Masterpiece omelet made with, ahem, three eggs.  I'm not sure if they're using chicken eggs or ostrich eggs, as my three egg omelets are just a tad bit smaller when I make them at home.  Plenty of onions, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.  Though the idea of an omelet without meat is frightening to me, she definitely enjoyed it.  She swapped out her hash browns for cinnamon raisin toast instead and only ended up with two raisins.  Bring back the raisins!  

We finished off our coffee, and left with a loaf of marbled rye bread and a biscotti for the mother, her favorite.  Sweet and Savory has never disappointed and this time was no different.  The best breakfast in Wilmington.  Total bill was just over $30 including the loaf of bread.  You can't beat it!

Stuffed,

-W

Flaming Amy's Bowl - Lunch 5/8/08

Ah, Flaming Amy's Bowl.  Being a huge fan of Flaming Amy's Burrito Barn, I've been anxiously awaiting the opening of their second restaurant since hearing of the idea a few months ago.  The idea is a simple one, take the numerous ingredients Flaming Amy's uses, and turn it into a Mongolian Grillish type restaurant.  When you're seated you're given a bowl (hey, that's the name of the restaurant!) into which you pile your ingredients to give to one of the three cooks manning the flat top grills.  My favorite part?  The endless possibilities!  Choices include around 30 vegetables (roasted garlic!  eggplant!  edamame!) a half dozen or so proteins (tilapia, beef, pork, shrimp, bacon, chicken, tofu) and then the choice of ten different sauces to incorporate into your creation.  Between the wife and I we were able to test drive the General Mux, Thai Peanut, Sesame Ginger, and Creole sauces, all of which we enjoyed.  You're also given a choice of whole wheat or regular linguini noodles, brown and white rice, and some finishing items, such as parmesan cheese, peanuts, red pepper flakes, and so on.  Any math majors out there want to come up with the exact number of possible combinations?  My favorite combination was the Thai Peanut with shrimp, although with all the different possible combinations, it may take a long time to come up with the perfect bowl.  I'm perfectly willing to try.

Stuffed,

-W