This card comes all the way from Pinsk, Belarus. It took 8 days and traveled 4,975 miles.

For those not in the know, like me, Belarus has two national languages: Russian and Belarussian.

Also, for you food lovers looking for something to try, the national Belarussian dish is draniki. I had to look it up of course. It’s a meat stuffed potato and it looks freaking delicious! I’ll be booking my flight tomorrow just so I can eat it. Oh, how I was I could do such a thing. Since I can’t obviously do that, it seems fairly easy to make and the internet has provided me with a recipe. I know what I’m having tonight. Yum.

One day, though, that person on the postcard is going to be me again. One. Day.

As I wait for more rejection letters, I figured I’d write about a restaurant I recently visited in Matthews, the town I moved to a little over a week ago.

So, I started craving cheap seafood.  For some reason, cheap seafood makes me happy.  I’d rather go to a place like Captain’s Galley than say, Red Lobster or something like it.  I know, I’m weird.  What can I say?  I suppose restaurants like Captain’s Galley just make me feel like I get more for my money and the food tastes just as good in my opinion.  Plus, I’m not into “fancy” restaurants.  I’m too much of a tomboy for fine china and real silver.

Phil and I got there around 8 P.M. We were both starved and Phil was parched from working under the house all day.  We were seated quickly and given menus.  As we perused our options, a waitress brought out a bowl of hush puppies(with butter).  We told her we needed a minute.  It didn’t take us very long to figure out what we wanted.  Phil immediately knew he wanted one of those huge fried platters.  Me, I like fried, but it always makes me feel sick afterwards, so I went with broiled jumbo shrimp.  As we waited for the waitress to return, I noticed that a lot of the other tables had pitchers of sweet tea sitting on them.  This made me happy.  I love sweet tea and I hate waiting to have my glass refilled.  I drink more than eat sometimes.

The waitress came back, we placed our order, and in a short minute, she brought our pitcher of tea and requested dipping sauces.  I LOVE honey mustard, specifically Duke’s honey mustard.  I gobbled down several of the hush puppies.  I thought they could have been a pinch sweeter, but they were still good.  I had to make sure to pace myself, or else I wouldn’t be able to eat my shrimp, salad or baked potato.

The salad was good, and had darker greens in it with large tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.  We had to wait a little on our food, but not too long.  Phil must have already had three glasses of tea by this point.  This is a lot for Phil because he barely ever drinks one glass of anything when he eats.

Our food was tasty and very filling.  Phil actually said he enjoyed the food more so than Harbor Inn, another cheap seafood place I like to frequent.  There was dessert on the menu, but we had no room for it.  Plus, I had a strawberry pie waiting in the refrigerator at home.

With a nice tip, our total was about $40.  It was more than I was expecting for “cheap” seafood for two, but Phil had left overs and our bellies were more than full.

Will I go back, yes.  Perhaps on a Sunday when they have their all-you-can-eat crab legs for $27.99.

On an arbitrary scale of five stars, I’d give this place three.

Phil gave me an Edible Arrangements bouquet some years back, for a dating anniversary, I think.  I tried eating it all, but it was so big.  It was very pretty, though.

Basil seed drink . . .

This is a dragon fruit.  There are two types – one white, one pink.  They taste about the same.  If you pick the right one it will be sweet, but I usually end up getting ones that are sorta bland.  It’s a cool looking fruit if nothing else, and easy to eat.

Hrm . . . reminds of the many times friends have eaten something, told me it was awful, and then asked me to give it a try.

I made the cookie cake and Phil decorated it.  I guess that is a person falling into a vortex, but God only knows.

Nothing make me say yum like smoked and spiced duck tongues!  I’ll take two bags, please.  Can you hear my sarcasm?

Xinjiang style food(Muslim) is my favorite kind of food to eat in China.  Lamb is awesome.  And so is their yogurt.  Somehow the three of us were able to eat all this food.  This picture was taken after we had started, so imagine that the plates were fuller.

Never eaten here, but I thought it was a cool name for a restaurant.