stephanie's = fail.

at least on the chicken pot pie front. well, also on the onion ring front.

chicken pot pie vital statistics:
price: $17.95 (too much)
you get: a bowl of cream stew with a few chunks of chicken, a couple pearl onions, a couple pieces of carrot, and some canned peas, covered with puff pastry (only on top)
my rating (1-10): 5
restaurant itself: unoriginal. kind of loud. had modern art on the wall (-5 points.)

so we can definitely infer from this some things that chicken pot pie should have (from things this one did not):

• seasonings: sticking a spirg of sage in the center of the crust like a flag does not entail "flavor" in the sauce and chicken have not been cooked with said herb. also, sage-flag-ness does not mean you get to call your crummy puff pastry a "sage crust" when it has no flavor either.


• real crust. I realize this is partially a time issue, but freezer puff pastry does not cut it. make your own damn pie crust, have the chicken filling pre-cooked, slap it together and bake. not that hard.


• enough crust. this is what you use to wipe up the sauce; it needs to be substantial enough to do so.


• chicken. I could count the chicken chunks on one hand. and they were not big chicken chunks.


• onions, corn, carrots, potatoes, something with that something NOT being canned peas, which are unholy in God's sight.

try again, dear Stephanie's. but not with my money, because I'm not going back there.


* * *


other things I am thinking about:

• nakameguro. the neighborhood where I will be working over the summer.


• the people screaming at each other in the back alley. wth?


• awa odori dancing festival. will I be able to go? we will see.


• norwegian wood, by haruki marukami. will I ever manage to finish this book, or will it fall into my pile of unread wonders of unplumbed depths? we shall see.


• the north end, hanover street. I walked by at least four restaurants I want to try. and flowering trees.


• the boston marathon. God preserve me from tourists. please.


• new red nylon bag to replace the plastic shopping bag my gym stuff normally goes in.