according to jeff

For pretty much most of the past ten years, my typical Friday has included lunch out with my Laridian associates. Since Laridian doesn’t have a central office, Laridian staff all work from home offices. Those of us located in the Cedar Rapids area met at a local restaurant around 11:30 for a weekly social session and staff meeting. We tried all kinds of restaurants, found some that we’d return to, and found a few for which once was enough. I often blogged about our lunch experience and may have introduced you to some possibilities that you might not have been aware of otherwise.

Alas, however, after ten years or so, the era of Friday Lunch has come to a close. Oh, I’ll still be eating lunch on Friday, but it won’t be the same Laridian Friday Lunch. It will just be lunch. And, as such, it might be just a tad less interesting to you than before. Somehow,

“Today’s Friday Lunch consisted of a turkey sandwich and a peach.”

just doesn’t seem as mesmerizing. (Let me know if you disagree.)

Many life transitions are bittersweet, and this is one. I’ll miss the Friday Lunch, but am enjoying the new era: the coffee shop era.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. Today’s choice was HuHot Mongolian Grill.

HuHot is new to Cedar Rapids, occupying the space formerly used by Bennigans at Lindale Mall. My son, Matt, and his friend Michael have been fans of HuHot in Coralville, but today was my first HuHot experience.

Similar to Ghengis Grill, HuHot is a pick-your-food-and-watch-it-get-grilled restaurant. Start by picking a meat (or two or three), noodles, and veggies. Then add a sauce or sauces (5 to 6 ladles recommended) and then an oil (an additional 1 to 2 ladles). Then it’s off to the grill. After the food is grilled and served to you on a plate, some additional toppings (such as crunchy chow mein noodles) can be added.

How does it compare to Ghengis Grill? The choices are similar, but different. The most notable difference, though, was that the raw food at HuHot was cold. I’m not sure if the meat was frozen, but if it wasn’t, it was close. My impression is that the raw food at HuHot is kept colder than at Ghengis Grill. I don’t know if this is scientifically significant, but it is significant to me.

Today, I had Jeff’s Surprise: beef, noodles, cabbage, carrots, onions, green beans, Mongol mustard, sesame oil, and then crunchy chow mein noodles. Today, Jeff’s Surprise wasn’t a bad choice.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. Yesterday’s choice was Jiamen Innovative Asian Cuisine.

Jiamen (prounounced “zha-men”) is a newer, upscale restaurant located near my home office. I wouldn’t describe it as an Asian restaurant; that is, it doesn’t offer the “staples” such as cashew chicken and egg rolls. Instead, it offers what is described as Asian-inspired food.

The atmosphere at Jiamen is very nice. The table service, decor, automated piano, and lighting all presented an elegant, yet relaxing, atmosphere.

I chose the Black Pepper Beef Asian Style, which was (surprise) thinly sliced black pepper beep served over noodles, with a side of steamed broccoli and what I’d describe as a fruit eggroll. The fruit eggroll was particularly interesting. It had a vague pear flavor, but wasn’t as sweet as I’d anticipated. (It wasn’t at all like a McDonald’s apple pie, which could be described as a bigger fruit eggroll.) The black pepper beef was good, but not as spicy (or peppery) as I had expected. While it was good, I’ll try something else the next time that I try it out.

One of my associates had already been to Jiamen, and was anticipating Friday’s soup of the day: pumpkin and spinach. (I, on the other hand, don’t find that at all tempting.) Unfortunately, Friday’s soup of the day wasn’t available, and we found out later that the soup of the day is not offered at lunch.

The dessert menu included various European desserts. Most everything on the dessert sample tray looked like something worth sampling.

Inexplicably, unexplainably, and disappointingly, however, Jiamen doesn’t serve coffee. We were assured by both our waiter and the manager that everyone wanted to serve coffee, except for one of the owners, who drinks tea instead of coffee. As one of my associates put it: “Serving coffee with chocolate dessert is one of the undeniable laws of the universe.” Except, apparently, at Jiamen. If a cup of coffee with your European dessert is what will make your meal, then Jiamen isn’t the place for you.

Items on the lunch menu were priced from around $12 to $15, and dinner entrees were in the $25-$30 range.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. However, yesterday I was in Oklahoma, far from my Laridian associates.

Did I let it get me down?

What do you think?

For some reason unknown to me, I have fond memories of Taco Bueno. Nothing can beat back the no-lunch-with-Laridian-blues like the opportunity to eat at a childhood favorite.

So, where did we eat?

At El Chico, of course.

And let me tell you, it was awesome. Our waitress offered us hot flour or corn tortillas (I chose corn, of course) while we perused the menu. I opted for The Juarez (cheese & onion enchilada with chili con carne, soft cheese taco with chili con queso, and a crispy beef taco. With rice and refried beans. 10.99). I was confused at first, as we didn’t have the customary chips and salsa. After a brief wait, however, my confusion was resolved when the chips and salsa lady brought us not only chips and salsa, but also cheese dip.

I managed to avoid the “I ate so many chips I’m not hungry” pitfall, and when our meals arrived, I was ready. The taco was standard fare, but the enchiladas were exceptional. Technically, one “enchilada” was a “taco”, but trust me, it was an enchilada at heart.

So, when you have a chance to eat at a Taco Bueno, check to see if an El Chico is also available. If so, don’t pass it up. But if not, try the Taco Bueno and let me know what you think.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. Today, only one associate could join me. Even though this was the associate that would usually enjoy the Flying Weenie with me, due to time constraints, we went to Sonic.

However, since you all already know how wonderful Sonic is, I’m going to write about last week’s lunch choice, La Ziz.

La Ziz is a fairly new restaurant in Hiawatha, located north of Boyson Road on Center Point Road. Based on the name, I probably wouldn’t guess that this is a Mediterranean restaurant, but it is. La Ziz is a step-up from a fast food restaurant, but not a full service sit-down restaurant. Orders are placed at the counter and delivered to the table when complete. Thankfully, a number wasn’t required.

I chose the cabbage rolls, which included two fresh cabbage rolls served on a bed of rice, some flat bread, and hummus. It was a wonderful choice. This is the kind of food that I could enjoy more, bur rarely think of enjoying it.

If you think of enjoying it, or haven’t yet given it a try, then I encourage you to try La Ziz.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. This past Friday, our choice was Mulligans.

Mulligans is located on Old Marion Road, close the Kool Moo and the former location of Wildlife Habitat. Several restaurants have occupied this space, and Mulligans is the newest incarnation.

The decor is “television warehouse,” meaning that there are lots of televisions and open ductwork. Unfortunately, most of the TVs were tuned to Judge Judy look-alike shows. I’d expected more sporting or news channels. One feature that I liked is the tall tables; these give me a rare opportunity for my feet to dangle!

The menu is pretty standard fare — appetizers, sandwiches, wraps, burgers. I opted for the Guiness BBQ Burger (or something like that), and it was pretty standard fare, too. In pretty much every aspect, this was a typical lunch experience.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. This past Friday, our choice was the newly remodeled Thai Moon.

A recent renovation has been completed, and Thai Moon is open once again. The new interior is a little more elegant, and includes a sushi bar. The only drawback to the new decor is the cabling for the on-wall televisions. Hopefully, this part of the remodeling just isn’t quite complete yet.

Regular readers may recall that I’ve previously stated that the Thai Moon is one of the top Asian restaurants in our area. Since the Thai Moon lunch menu didn’t change with the decor, this is still the case. I often have the “Evil Jungle Prince” or the “Mongolian Beef” or the “Lemon Grass Chicken” — all of which are excellent — but decided to try something new: Pork with Long Beans. This spicy dish wasn’t disappointing, and I would happily try it again.

I’d suggested Thai Moon to a friend looking for a nice restaurant for his daughter’s birthday dinner, but, alas, Thai Moon was being remodeled then. I’ll have to let him know that he can try it out, now!

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. This past Friday, our choice was Dry Heat BBQ.

Located on C Street Southwest, south of Highway 30, Dry Heat BBQ recently opened and offers the area another choice in BBQ.

The menu includes the standard staples, such as pulled pork, beef brisket, and ribs. The daily special also offered sausage and country (boneless) ribs. A variety of sides are also available. My choice was the pulled pork sandwich, with cole slaw and baked beans.

As suggested by the name, the barbecue meat is served dry (without sauce), but seasoned. Three different sauces — Memphis, Kansas City and Texas — are available at the table. I cut my sandwich in half so that I could try both the Memphis and the Kansas City sauces. Both were good — good enough that I don’t know which I preferred.

The baked beans were tasty. An associate thought that they were too hot, though I would have described them as spicy instead of hot. It was suggested that perhaps I’d already burned out my taste buds and could no longer distinguish “hot”, so, when you go there, try the beans and let me know if you’d describe them as “spicy” or “hot”!

I spent a lot of evenings in Iowa City this past week and enjoyed a downtown ice cream shop: Whitey’s. Not just once, but, um, four times.

• Thursday: White Chocolate Raspberry
• Friday: White Tiger Paws
• Saturday: Praline Pecan
• Sunday: Mississippi Mud Revel

Whitey’s ice cream is soft and creamy, making it eminently lickable. It was easy to keep up and avoid the dreaded melt-down-onto-the-fingers problem that plagues many ice cream cones.

When you find yourself near a Whitey’s Ice Cream, do yourself a favor and stop in. Then let me know what you thought!