The Glenn Lakes Clubhouse

Last weekend I met up with some friends from college in Weeki Wachee Florida, right outside of Tampa. We spent the weekend relaxing and catching up on old times. We spent our days kayaking, lounging poolside, beaching it, and of course eating. Over the course of our stay we went to a local hole in the wall, a chain restaurant and the Clubhouse. We were staying in gated community in which there is a clubhouse on the premise that offers a restaurant along with a gym, pool, tennis courts, etc. We went to the Clubhouse Sunday morning for brunch.

We stared our meal off with a shared fruit plate. Even though it was basic fruit plate fare, the fruit was fresh and juicy, the perfect accompaniment to a balmy Florida morning.

Emily, who is generally not a fan of breakfast, ordered a half soup half sandwich combo. Her sandwich being turkey and swiss with lettuce and tomato on wheat; her soup an intriguing combination of cauliflower and lobster melded into a creamy bisque. Emily raved about the bisque, praising it’s “creaminess” above all.


Kelly ordered the “club breakfast” which was composed of white toast, two eggs over easy, bacon and homefries. Kelly enjoyed her breakfast, stating that it’s hard to go wrong with something as basic as eggs and toast.


Natalie and I decided to each order and entrée and then split them. Natalie ordered the belgian waffle with strawberries. I ordered a frittata made with baked egg whites and submerged under a medley of cheese, salsa, and veggies including spinach, julienne tomatoes, onions, broccoli, and red pepper. The frittata came with whole wheat toast and homefries.




After some serious foodie contemplation Natalie and I came to the conclusion that while we loved the fresh strawberries on the waffles, the waffles themselves were a little overcooked, and lacking in fluffiness. They were ok, but not of the high waffle caliber we were expecting. However, we both really enjoyed our frittata. We liked the addition of the salsa whose spiciness gave the frittata a nice kick, and sauciness saved it from being too dry.


We completed our meal with hot chocolates around the table. One can rarely go wrong with hot chocolate, and this whipped cream capped glass of chocolate love was no exception.


Thank you Dad and Mary for financing this lovely brunch!!!!!

Eating In

I love going out to restaurants, but sometimes it’s nice to just stay home and eat in. Whether I’m cooking or eating others cooking, being able to relax and linger at the table as you eat your meal for however long you want can be so satisfying. That said I was grateful that when staying at a cabin in Gerton N.C. two weekends ago, a few friends offered to cook breakfast for everyone before we began our hike. Rudy, Susan, and Nick put together a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, homefries, and biscuits. There was also bacon for the meat eaters, faux sausage patties for the pescetarians (people who don’t eat meat but do eat fish).



I apologize for the lack of sausage patties in my picture, but they were made after everything else and I wanted to eat my other food first, lest it get cold. This breakfast was simple, hearty, and delicious. The eggs were cooked for the perfect amount of time so that they were neither dried out nor runny. The shredded cheddar was a pleasing addition to the eggs and after I sprinkled some pepper atop my egg mound I was a happy camper, as you can see it doesn't take much to make me happy…moving on. The homefries were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, tossed with olive oil and utterly delectable. The biscuit broke apart in soft layers and was a perfect sponge for melted butter. Lastly, the sausage patties; sturdy little patties tasting kind of like meat, kind of not. I’d eat them again.

All in all a marvelous breakfast, a marvelous getaway. Sometimes I think it’s true that the simple things in life really are the best. I’ll leave off with a picture of our quaint cabin.

The Laughing Seed

A few weekends ago Denny and I as well as several of his classmates in the Rec. and Leisure Department at UGA traveled up to Gerton, North Carolina to spend a few days in a rustic cabin. Gerton was beautiful; the tiny mountain town was brimming with fresh air and numerous wooded trials ripe for hiking. Gerton is also quite close to Asheville, home of The Laughing Seed. The Laughing Seed is a vegetarian restaurant that I’d heard great things about, so of course I had to try it.

Denny and I had scanned the menu as we were waiting to be seated, so we were able to order as soon as the waitress came to our table. I decided on the “Low Country Rollups” which is The Laughing Seed’s way of saying whole wheat rollups filled with tofu, a sweet and tangy barbeque sauce, and Monterey Jack cheese all baked together in the oven to perfection. Each rollup had been drizzled with tahini mustard sauce, and was served alongside brown rice and a salad. My salad dressing of choice was the mango-lime vinaigrette.

Words cannot describe how good my dish was. I don’t know what ingredients were used in my sweet yet tangy barbeque sauce, but it was definitely the star of the night. Without it the rollups would have been good, you can’t go too wrong with basic ingredients such as cheese, tofu, and tortillas. The addition of the all-star sauce brought the rollups from the “good” category, into another category of deliciousness epic heights above “good”. It may sound bizarre, but the sauce tasted vaguely of sweet ketchup. I think it was the sweet/salty combo that made the sauce so awesome. The portions of tofu, Montery Jack, and sauce used in the rollups all melded together nicely, no flavour outweighing another. My brown rice and salad were just that; brown rice and salad. The rice wasn’t overcooked or dry; the salad wasn’t wilted and had the perk of being aesthetically pleasing with it's array of colorful veggies. The dressing that I ordered, the mango-lime vinaigrette, was a little too creamy for my taste; I thought it would be more like balsamic vinaigrette, but boasted hints of mango and lime which were recognizable to the palate and not merely an afterthought of taste.

Denny ordered the Tico Burrito, which came stuffed with spiced tofu, mole sauce, brown rice, avocado, and Monterey Jack cheese. The burrito was bogged down underneath a river of salsa and feta cheese cilantro sour cream. Alongside this mammoth creation was lighter fare consisting of blue corn chips and salad.

I had a bite of the burrito and can report back that it tasted strongly of avocado. I only had one bite, so I don’t know if this was the case throughout the entire burrito, but avocado essence aside, it was a good, sturdy burrito. No complaints here, or from Denny who wolfed down the entire thing like it would be his last burrito EVER Denny let me in on a secret though, he liked my roll ups better, I’m telling you, you can’t loose with a sauce that tastes slightly of sweet ketchup. After our meals Denny was still hungry, and I was stuffed, as is usually the case. Letting my excited taste buds control my rational thought process, we decided on splitting an order of vegan chocolate ginger pound cake drizzled with ganache.

This cake did not disappoint. Moist, chocolaty, gingery, and nutty; how could it? Each bite of the cake promised all three aforementioned flavors, and the ganache was heaven; sweet without crossing the line into saccharine. The top of the cake was dotted with pieces of caramelized ginger, a scrumptious dessert I must say.

Would I go back? YES, as soon as I get a chance, the Laughing Seed and I will be reacquainted again. The food is truly delicious, and best of all you’re left with the feeling of being full, but not stuffed, one of the best feelings there is to have.

El Guanaco

I’ve always been curious about Salvadoran food. Is it like Mexican food? Is it spicy? These are questions I’ve always pondered so I thought it was time to investigate for myself. Hopefully, El Guanaco would hold the answers. El Guanaco is a tiny Salvadoran restaurant tucked away in the back corner of a plaza off Lexington Road in Athens. The restaurant is so tiny it’s easy to miss. I myself had to loop around the plaza once before spotting it.
While the interior of the restaurant is small, it’s sparkling clean. Walking into El Guanaco is like walking into a shiny, sterilized world filled with Salvadoran food. As I glanced through the menu, a mild wave of panic swept over me. Now is probably a good time to mention that I’m a pescetarian, which is exactly like a vegetarian except that I eat fish, but absolutely no meat. If you’re a vegetarian pretty much the only choice on the El Guanaco dinner menu would be the veggie quesadillas, which is exactly what I ordered.
Let me tell you, the quesadillas did NOT disappoint. I was skeptical at first because many times when I order veggie quesadillas, they come filled with mostly cheese and maybe a stray onion here and there, but hardly any veggies. However, when my quesadillas arrived I was pleasantly surprised. Each wedge of quesadilla was stuffed with a mixture of veggies, beans, rice and cheese. The different veggies included; carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, and onions. El Guanaco goes heavy on the beans and veggies, light on the cheese and rice, which is a nice combination that I’m not used to experiencing in most South American/Mexican/TexMex restaurants. The quesadillas came served with the traditional side of lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. The tortilla itself was cooked perfectly in my opinion, it was lightly grilled and there wasn’t an ounce of oil to be found on it.
Denny ordered the tacos in corn tortillas filled with chorizo, sour cream, salsa, lettuce and rice.
While I couldn’t try a taste because I don’t eat meat, Denny raved about it. He said he doesn’t usually like chorizo, but that the chorizo used in his taco was sweet yet slightly spicy, equating in a delicious pairing.
El Guanaco serves complimentary tortilla chips and homemade salsa before your meal arrives. Salsa is a food that I don’t normally give much thought to, I mean unless it tastes awful, or out of this world insanely good, it’s all the same to me. The house salsa El Guanaco makes falls into the out of this world insanely good category. It’s spicy enough where it has a kick, but won’t leave you guzzling down glass after glass of water. The diced tomatoes are thick and juicy, and the overall flavor of the salsa is mild and slightly sweet. If you prefer your salsa spicy, I’m sure you could request that the restaurant kick up the spiciness factor a notch. When the bill came to our table Denny and I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. Our meal, which consisted of the quesadillas and the tacos, came to a grand total of around $12.00!! As Denny and I were checking out the dessert options on the menu we noticed that El Guanaco serves breakfast as well as lunch and dinner, ALL DAY!! This was great news for me seeing as breakfast is my favorite meal.
Will I go back? Without a doubt, yes. The food is delicious, cheap, and somewhat healthier than your standard Mexican/South American food. I’m also excited to try their breakfast!!

Brunch at Bischero's

On Easter Sunday Denny, myself, and Denny’s family all went out to Easter brunch at Bischero’s Restaurant. Since coming under new ownership, Easter Sunday was the first day Bischero’s began serving brunch.
Under Bischero’s previous owners, only lunch and dinner were served.While I never ate there for lunch, I ate there many times for dinner and was never disappointed. Bischero’s specialized in Italian food and it was their brick oven pizza that was their trademark. Fresh out of the oven, the crust was always crisp, not burned, and the cheese and toppings light, not weighing down the pizza.
I was curious as to how the restaurant would be under new management, and of course how brunch would be. To begin our meal, Denny and I split an order of roasted red pepper stuffed risotto balls with four cheese fondue.


I usually eat less heavy foods, so this was a rare treat. The risotto balls reminded me of fritters. They were fried on the outside and on the inside were filled with cheesy risotto and tiny shards of roasted red peppers. The little risotto balls were served swimming in a pool of four cheese flavored fondue. The cheese was very mild tasting, and since there were four kinds, they all kind of blended together, making it impossible for me to distinguish any one particular kind over another. It was a very tasty, if somewhat rich appetizer that I would not be opposed to ordering again.
Onto the main course. To add to my carb and cheese extravaganza, I ordered the stuffed french toast.



The french toast came served to the table as four wedges of thick, homemade, lightly grilled bread, filled with a fine layer of strawberry jam and fontina cheese. A light dusting of powdered sugar was sprinkled atop the four wedges of bread. The french toast was definitely tasty. The bread was nice and thick, neither over cooked nor under, and had a light buttery flavor. While the strawberry/cheese filling was an interesting and delicious combination, I found the amount of filling to be slightly lacking for the thickness of the bread. Denny’s Uncle, who also ordered the french toast, found that the lack of extra filling made the french toast so dry that he ordered a side of jam to spread atop it. It should be noted that this dish is not served with syrup or butter. While I didn’t think the french toast was dry, I could have used a little bit extra of the filling. It should also be noted that after we completed our appetizer it took about an hour for our meal to be brought out. According to our waitress, there was a french toast disaster in the kitchen. What that means, I don’t know, and maybe I’m better off that way. She then informed us that since it took so long for our food to come, and since Denny’s Uncle’s french toast was dry, she was not going to charge us for either order of french toast, and she would throw in a free desert of our choice. Sweet!! Denny, his cousin Kate, and I pondered for a while before deciding upon a good old Italian staple, the tiramisu.



The tiramisu didn’t disappoint. It was layered with equal parts cake, equal parts mousse. The cake was moist and spongy textured. The mousse was creamy and infused with a subtle flavor of espresso. Out of all of the dishes I ordered for brunch, the tiramisu ending up being the hit, which is tres convenient because tiramisu can be ordered throughout the day, not only during brunch.

Denny ordered the carbonara with penne.



According to Denny it was “really good”, both creamy and peppery. Although he did think the restaurant should have served a bigger portion. He said he would not have been filled up on the penne alone, but since he had also ordered an appetizer and dessert, he was o.k.



Denny’s Aunt ordered the pancetta filled quiche, which came with a side of fruit and home fries. She enjoyed her meal.

The Pro’s
- The portions aren’t huge; you can easily order one thing and finish it.
- The dishes are rich, but no so rich that you feel sick afterwards.
- Nothing was over or under cooked.

The Con’s
- The wait for our food was really long.
- The restaurant is kind of pricy.

Final Opinion: Overall, I thought brunch was good, but not spectacular enough to justify paying the high price again. I honestly don’t remember the amount our bill came to, but my french toast was around $7.00. Would I go back? Yes, to try their dinner menu, but not for brunch.

Big City Cafe