Thursday, January 26, 2012

Something a bit different the book "The Longest War".


This is a little bit different than my normal postings, but I'm helping out a fellow veteran, so please go check this book out at http://www.longestwar.com/


 
The Longest War: Stories from the Battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, told by those who lived it.


About the book:
This book is a collection of 45 stories told by the men and women who have lived through the war. Some are soldiers, some are civilians. All have been affected in one way or another, for better or worse. These tales will bring you to the front line in Americas’ longest war. Each is written by the person who lived it, with little editing.
Every war has a voice. Everyone in a war has a story. These are their voices, these are their stories. Their stories, their voices.



About the Authors: 40 different persons contributed to this book. Some are soldiers, ranging from Privates to Sergeants to Officers. Some are civilians who have been caught up in the war. The editor, Sergeant First Class John Holmes, is himself a 20 year soldier and an Iraq War Veteran.

 25 % of all profit goes to Veterans’ Charities. Available in Paperback and all major E-book formats through Amazon.com starting in February 2012.  ISBN 978-1-934209-88-2
Order online now at: World Audience Publishers 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

John G's Manalapan, FL

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit John G's new location.  The restaurant is now located in the shopping center on the Southwest corner of Ocean Ave and A1A.  It's right across the street from the Ritz-Carlton hotel and the Lantana Beach .  One thing you'll note right away though, is that John G's no longer has that signature view over the ocean, it's now surrounded on all sides by Trees and other buildings.

We arrived around 9am and the "traditional" line had already started forming.  I should add that for this trip, we had a fairly large party, 5 adults and our 2 little ones.  Due to this, we had to wait till one of the larger tables was available and we didn't get seated till around 10am.inside of the restaurant.  The new facility is very nice, it's a lot more open than the old restaurant, and significantly brighter too.  They must have moved some of the old furnishings and wall decor because they still had the wood paneling along the kitchen, The prep area also was still decorated with those old fashion "flip chart style" menu's that announced the specials of the day, which I don't believe had been changed in 30 years.

Although they were extremely busy, the server came back after a few minutes and with our drinks and took our food orders.

The menu though not too large, does still have a good selection of items. 

The food overall was good, and we enjoyed our meal.  I'm not going to go into what everybody ordered because, quite frankly I don't remember :).  However I ordered the # 5 which is 2 Eggs to order(scrambled), Hash browns or Grits (Grits), toast and fruit cup or juice. I also chose the side of ham at additional cost.

Despite how good everything was, this outing was missing something.  I don't know exactly what it is, the food was like it always has been, and the restaurant was clean and the staff friendly.  I don't know if it is the change of location that was throwing me off, but not being able to look out on the water might have had something to do with it.  Hopefully I'll be able to get used to the change.  That being said, one of the good things about the new location is free parking.  So not having to worry about getting a parking ticket while waiting in line is definitely a plus.
Also for those who don't know John G's is only open from 7:00am to 3:00pm and they still do not accept credit cards.  Though they do have an ATM on site.

Scores:
Food:  B+
Portion Size: A
Service: A

Friday, January 20, 2012

Duffy's, West Palm Beach, Fl

Wow, it sure has been a while since we've done a review.  Seems like it might be time for another.

Tonight the wife and I went out on a very much needed date night.  We thought we might hit up Longhorn, as we didn't think it would be that busy at 6:30 (ish) on a Thursday night.  This turned out to not to be the case.  The wait for 2 was 35-45 minutes and unfortunately we just didn't want to wait that long.  Luckily though there was a Duffy's right across the parking lot, so we figured we might as well check and see what the wait time would be.  Lo and behold, no wait, sounds like we had a winner!

The first thing we noticed as we walked in was a little "DJ" style booth with a lady sitting in it.  As we were walking by, she announced to the crowd "Welcome to Thursday night Trivia"!  We got to our seats and the hostess reminded us that it was 2-4-1 drinks till closing.  So far, Duffy's was on the right track with us. :)

The menu, though not very large size-wise, has a pretty good selection of items.  You've got some pretty standard appetizers, along with your normal Burgers & wings type of offerings.  We started with the appetizer sampler, which comes with Boneless (or bone-in) wings and your choice of sauce, Tex-Mex egg rolls and Friend mozzarella.  The sampler had fairly small portions of each item (to be expected though) but everything was very flavorful.  The fried cheese had what tasted like a homemade batter, the wings were very meaty and about half a size bigger than "bite size", and the surprise for me were the egg rolls.  These had a really good flavor with little bits of chicken, cheese and corn all mixed in.  Next time we might just get an order of these by themselves.

For the main course, the wifey ordered the Rodeo Burger which comes with cheese, BBQ sauce and a literal tower of onion rings.  She said the flavor was ok, and it was a big burger, but it's not something she would order again.  I had the Churrasco Steak, which is an 8oz skirt steak w/ Chimichurri and comes with Black beans, rice and plantains.  Portion size was great, they gave a whole mess of the beans and rice, and the steak was a pretty good size also.  As for the flavor, all I can say is.... WOW!  This is probably one of the most flavor meals I've had in a very long time.  The steak was cooked to perfection and the rice and bean combo was outstanding.  I was tempted to order another one, just so I could take it with me and have it for lunch at work.  I really can't say enough about it, if you like the Latin style of steak, then you'll probably love this.

The service was pretty average, not really outstanding, but nothing to complain about either.  One thing to note though, is that it was most definitely NOT a quiet place, what with the TVs playing and the Trivia game going on, along with the regular restaurant & Bar crowd, the sound level was pretty loud. 

All-in-all, this was a good night out and surprisingly pleasant.  We would definitely go back, and next time we might even bring some friends.  Here is a link to the Menu.  They also have a gluten free selection for those that may need it.

Service: C
Food: A
Portion Size: A

Overall: A-