Brunch at the Shaminad

Our good friend Andy treated us to brunch at the Shamisen – I mean Shaminad (that mistake wasn’t on purpose). So at 10:30, he pulled into our driveway and Pa and I took the very very back seats. We remembered to take our shoes ’cause it’s a very fancy place. We were worried that we might not fit the dress code. I wasn’t too worried ’cause I had my super-cool modded jacket. Wowee! The place is one big thing! I mean it’s not just resturaunt. It had a spa (which we probably needed after the brunch) and whirlpool, tennis etc. When we pulled up to the door to the resturaunt, the valet asked if we wanted them to take our car free of charge. Obviously, they aren’t taking tax & tip into consideration. We politely said we’d shuttle our car to it’s parking spot. After parking, we walked to the building. It was a nice walk ’cause we could see all the the fancy people, their cars and also the view and the nice smelling plants along the way.

I’ll say again, it was fan-cee! Somebody showed us to our table outide. It was real nice outside and the view was magnificent. We’ve been waiting a long time to have brunch with him ’cause we’ve been waiting for good weather. There was orange juice and people kept coming by refreshing our champagne/martinellis glasses! After they settled us in, we got some plates and went to the buffet room. Oh by the way, I knew we fit the dress code ’cause I saw one guy who was dressed raggedier than Papa.

Boy, the buffet room was quite a sight. I was a veritable culinary feast for the senses. There was one of those ice sculptures made out of %100 water! People were constintely refilling the pots and there was somebody making fresh omlets on site. Before I saw all that, I saw little cuossonts (or however that’s spelled. It’s those french crab-looking breads) and salami. Since I didn’t look at anything else, I decided to get that. That was, of course, before I saw the stuffed french toast, sausages, bacon, waffles, wrapped peach things, etc. I got all of that stuff too but I had a rather small plate so all of that was piled really high which was a tad embarrasing but hey, I’m young and my stomach can get away with overeating (though apparently that’s not true of most kids anymore).

I felt a little obliged to eat everything on my plate before getting more ’cause I didn’t really want to waste space on salami. What I realized is that you aren’t expected to eat everything ’cause they come by saying, “may I get you a clean fresh plate?” when you are almost done eating. I realized that after I finished all of that plate. Fortunately and curiously, it wasn’t very filling and I had lots of room in my churn. I also realized that before I put anything or at least more-than-one-thing on my plate, I should look at everything first. So, I went back for a Belgian waf

fle with some syrup. There were three syrups there. I wanted to smell them but I couldn’t really lean in ’cause there glass partway over it (enough room to get your hand in). I couldn’t take the spoon over to smell ’cause it was very drippy. I just pulled out what I knew was maple.

After that, I was comfortably full but I knew that this might be a once in a lifetime thing so I didn’t stop there. Since I had quite a sweet few plates (waffle, french toast with a cream puff on the side [I forgot to mention that earlier]), I decided to go for a more savory dish this time so I stopped by the omelet maker. I pointed out for a slice of prime rib and he cut that for me but he wanted me to wait for my omelet ’cause he had all his pans going. It looked very stressful but probably fun if cookin

g fast was your thing. After a while, I gave him my order: One omelet. . . with green onion, ham, mushroom, cheese and pepper. There were so many choices. I waited while he cooked them all with he was thankful for ’cause everybody else was leering around him waiting. After he gave me the omelet, I went to the the ice cream section (where they had chocolate, nuts and jelly beans). I figured since I don’t have jelly beans very often, I got out an ice cream bowl and filled that sucker with lots of them beans! I went outside feeling successful!

Luke came out with a work of art. I don’t know how I can describe it. I guess I’ll put on a picture. Let’s just say it would’ve made Emril proud.

I only ate a few bites of the omelet and steak before going back in for my last course. I saw the chocolate flan. I’ve seen it soooo many times on the Food Channel so I just had to have a piece of it. I got one piece of that, a few cream puffs, and macoroon thingy and Ice cream loaded with butterscotch syrup. When I got out, we all tried the cream puffs. They were delicious but we were absolutely certain they came from costco. We say that ’cause we have a box of them in our freezer. The

y just dip ‘em in chocolate and they are delicious! I barely finished any of it before I felt that bathroom urge. I walked there and there was a line! Well, there wasn’t a line but the people on the cans sure took there time! After five minutes, I got my chance. Whew! It helped but I still felt overly stuffed. I went back and reeled in my chair. I now know why they asked if they wanted the valet service! After chatting a bit, we went back to the car. OF course, before I left, I managed to pour the jelly beans in my pocket. As we were leaving, Mama wanted to take a picture of us in front of the view. I wanted to make Phillis (Luke’s girlfriend) jealous so I gave him a big hug.

At home, we crumbled on the ground.

AHhh!!!!! The wonderful feeling of eating ’till every pore in your body is filled with sour cream and baco

n! (I’m being sarcastic of course. It’s really like a hangover)