This HRFoodie has done a lot of traveling in the month of October. Different cities, different countries, different coasts.
At the beginning of the month I was in Richmond for a girlfriend’s wedding (I not fondly call it Dickmond after having to endure the starchy city for two years as a resident). With a less than social Friday night planned in Virginia Beach we headed up a night early for a change of scenery. One of my favorite places to eat while living there was Millie’s Diner. The area of Church Hill has evolved a great deal since I lived there almost ten years ago but am pleased to say that Millie’s has pretty much stayed the same. It is a small space with a quant seating capacity. It is amazing what the chefs are able to accomplish in a tiny open kitchen. That night I enjoyed the Thai Spicy Shrimp with asparagus, shiitakes, lime, red cabbage, cilantro (Mmm, cilantro), peanuts and spinach linguine. Oh.My.Gosh. That was a tasty dish, not sure if you will be lucky to get it now as the menu there changes about every three weeks.
I also spent a week in Costa Rica in a small area on the Pacific called Dominical. This area of Costa Rica was a little more rural than I expected and after a few days of less than impressive eating we were sent in search of Citrus in Ojochal, an area about 25 miles south of Dominical. I walked into to a beautifully decorated open-air restaurant that looked and felt clean. (That is a lot to say when you’ve seen cockroaches run across a restaurant floor, one across the dinner table and had a gecko fall from the ceiling and land on your shirt.) This food lover was in heaven! I appreciate good food, spend a few days without and the appreciation is unfathomable.
The food experience in Costa Rica was an adventure (at least for me). Many times I was translating a menu with my poor Spanish. (I did master café con leche.) I did appreciate the consistent use of cilantro (Mmm, cilantro) and will be experimenting more on my own with this favorite herb. I also noticed a lot of Malbec listed on menus and for sale in the mercado (store). This was a nice surprise as many local restaurants simply have just one Malbec option on the menu.
Finally, off on the left coast my man-love was excited to share with me his favorite burger joint. After a LONG, action-packed weekend (with very little time for food – how is that?) I was more than excited to sit down at Rocky’s for an award-winning hunk of meat (shared with my man-love hunk of meat and his hunk of meat buddies). Maybe it was because I hadn’t had anything to eat in twenty hours or that the establishment simply lives up to the only item they offer on the menu. The burger was good. I mean good. I think it speaks for itself when the menu is just either a 1/3 pound or 1/2 pound burger with or without fries and that at high volume people will wait forty minutes for a made to order delight. Cash only my friends. Cash only.
