On Tuesday, Barbara and I went to dinner at A.W. Shucks, a local seafood restaurant we had not been to before. We think it’s a great value - good food at good prices with good service. It seemed to be very popular, too. They don’t have a Web site, though. But here’s what we had:

• Barbara: fish ‘n chips. The fish was tilapia; looked good and the fries were great You get two sides - the other one she ordered (as did I) was the tomato-feta salad. What a great idea! It was a hit with both of us.
• Kim: fried shrimp, with mashed potatoes and tomato-feta salad. The shrimp were a bit overdone, and I would have preferred a traditional cocktail sauce. It came with a slightly spicy, thin sauce that was okay, but I guess I’m a bit of a traditionalist about some things

Last Tuesday, my dinner group went to Bangkok Garden, our favorite local Thai restaurant. I love the back room, with its beautiful wood-carved walls and life-size Buddha statues, as well as the elephant statues. But this time, we sat in the front room, which was bright and sunny from the large windows.

I love Thai food, but I always have difficulty determining what to order when I want to try something new. The menus don’t say anything about the seasonings included in any sauces, they just list the meat and vegetable ingredients, and the staff, most of whom are Thai immigrants, usually don’t communicate in English very well. Last week, though, our server, one who had served us before, spoke better English, so I thought it would work out better. She had advised me to ask for a teaspoon of spice, so the dish would be a little spicy but not overpowering. That evening, it didn’t work out, unfortunately. It was too hot for me to eat, so I took it home for Dan.

Luckily, Barbara had ordered Pad Thai, because her usual curried seafood special was not on the menu that night, so she shared it with me. It was quite good - so good, I printed out a recipe for Pad Thai from the Food Network. I’m going to try it tonight. We’ll see how it goes

I’ve been remiss in posting about my weekly dinners with friends. Last week, we went to the No Frill Grill. During the entire month of April, they’re having a special where, for every appetizer and dessert ordered, they will donate $1 to the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters.

So I went with four friends and we ordered five appetizers and two desserts. It was great, we all got plenty to eat, and did some good for the children’s hospital. The No Frill Grill is always a good value, but especially so this month. Dig in!

Last Wednesday, my dinner group went to the new 21st Street Fish House & Oyster Bar at 123 21st Street in Norfolk. It’s in the space that used to house Cafe Rosso before it burned, and Fellini’s prior to that.

The food was quite good, and the prices were very reasonable for a seafood place - mid to upper teens for a fish dinner, higher for a few specialties. There were 7 or 8 catch-of-the-day options; you could choose one of those and then decide how you wanted it cooked - pan-seared, baked, grilled, blackened or broiled - and select a sauce to be served with it. The dinners are served with a choice of two sides. There were also some specials. Here’s what we chose:

• I had the grouper, pan-seared with lemon beurre blanc sauce. It was excellent, although the fish wasn’t browned as I would have expected from pan-searing.
• Barbara had the special - monk fish topped with lump crab meat and Hollandaise sauce. She enjoyed it very much.
• And Keith also had grouper, but his was grilled and he chose the peach (I think) chutney as a topping. He thoroughly enjoyed his as well.

The only thing I found odd was that the mashed potatoes I selected as a side were served with a red wine-mushroom sauce, which I thought was a bit heavy for a seafood accompaniment. It was good, just not a good companion for fish.

I would definitely recommend the 21st Street Fish House, though. Give it a try

Last Wednesday, Barbara and I had dinner at Fahrenheit, a new restaurant at 437 Granby Street in downtown Norfolk. It was quite good - I had a salad with grilled portobello and a honey-balsamic drizzle and penne with tomato sauce. Barbara had chicken marsala, which was served on mashed potatoes rather than the usual noodles. She enjoyed it.

Oddly, we were the only people in the restaurant. It’s only been open for a few months, so maybe it needs to find a following. The server told us that the chef used to be the chef at Velvet 25. So check it out - it was very good.

I’m a little behind on my restaurant reviews. On Wednesday, Aug. 24, my dinner group had dinner at Sirena Cucina Italiana on Granby Street in Norfolk. Sirena is Italian for mermaid and mermaids are the symbol Norfolk has adopted, so the owner used that for the name of the restaurant. Cute

So here’s how it went:

• Keith ordered caprese salad for us all to share. I love caprese salad, and they do it right at Sirena.
• I had Veal Parmigiana (veal breaded and sauteed, covered with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce and broiled) - it was wonderful. Came with spaghetti with marinara sauce and was enough for me to bring half home for Dan.
• Keith had the mushroom tagliatelle special (wild mushroom sauce over tagliatelle pasta) and it was great. He said the caprese salad was good and the tiramisu was fresh and tasty.
• Barbara had Pollo (Chicken) Marsala (lightly coated chicken breasts braised with Marsala wine and mushrooms); she said it was great, and was a generous portion.
• Karen had Pasta Pomodoro (linguine with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil) - she really enjoyed it, and it too was a generous portion.
• I think Susan also had the mushroom tagliatelle and enjoyed it.

During dinner, we were talking about pasta shapes and how there are so many. I went looking for a pasta shape glossary, and found this: pasta shapes

Forgot to mention, about our dinner at Azar’s:

• I don’t really care for the salad dressing there. They call it Mama Lina’s - it’s a mustard-based dressing, not a vinaigrette, as I would expect in a Mediterranean place. They have very good hummus, though. In fact, it’s sold in grocery stores around here.
• We had tiramisu for dessert - it’s not classically prepared, but it was excellent nonetheless.

Tonight the TNT dinner group gathered at Azar’s Natural Foods and Mediterranean Specialties, a local Middle Eastern restaurant/market in the Ghent area of Norfolk. It’s a nice little restaurant with a small market in the front where you can buy Middle Eastern spices, olives, cheeses, desserts, hummus, coffees, and lots of other goods. The staff is always friendly and the portions ample.

• I had a combination platter - kibbi, kefta and lamb kebab with rice, grilled vegetables and yogurt garlic spread. It was quite good, and was more than I could eat in one sitting. I usually get a kefta sandwich on pita when I come here for lunch.
• Corey had a seafood linguine with tomato sauce - she ended up trading it with Susan because Susan’s choice, the salmon stuffed with spinach and feta, was too salty for her taste. Both enjoyed the plates they ended up with
• Barbara had the lamb shank with curried rice/vermicelli pilaf, which was also very good.
• Karen had the vegetarian platter, which included a great tabouli salad, three grape leaves and a wrap, with pita bread and olives. She says it was excellent and the price was reasonable.

Kibbee is something new for me. When we were visiting Dan’s brother Eric and his wife Jennifer in Michigan a few weeks ago, they gave me a Lebanese cookbook from a local Lebanese restaurant that catered a celebration party for their son’s christening, and it has a recipe for kibbi (spelled kibbee in the cookbook). So here’s the recipe for kibbee:

Raw Kibbee (kibbee nayee)

2 cups fine bulghur
1 medium onion
1 1/2 teaspoons kibbee spice (below)
5 teaspoons salt
2 lbs. finely ground beef or lamb

Kibbee Spice

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tbsp. dried mint, crushed
1 1/2 tsp. pepper

Rinse the bulghur twice in cold water, drain and cover to 1/2 inch with fresh water to soak. Grind the onion in a blender or food processor until fine, add kibbee spice and salt, stir to blend. Add the mixture to the ground meat and knead thoroughly by hand.

Squeeze any unabsorbed water from the bulghur and add the wheat to the meat. Knead until well blended, adding ice water as necessary to keep a very soft consistency.

To Serve

Place raw kibbee on a plate and shape into a round with a slightly flat top. Drizzle with butter or olive oil. Spread on yogurt or kibbee filling (housie) as an appetizer (mezza) with pita triangles or crackers, green onions, and olives.

No, I didn’t eat raw kibbee I ate baked kibbee, as follows:

Kibbee meat filling (housie)

1 large onion
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 lb. lean beef or lamb, coarsely ground
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. each allspice and cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

1 recipe raw kibbee

Dice the onion and saute with the pine nuts in butter until onion is tender and nuts are golden brown. Add ground meat and cook until no longer pink, stirring and mashing to remove lumps. Add pepper, allspice, cinnamon and salt. Taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside to cool.

Divide raw kibbee in half. Pat one portion evenly in the bottom of a buttered 8×12 pan; layer the housie over it. Shape the remaining half of the raw kibbee into thin patties (hamburger style) and place these next to one another over the filling. Press the edges together, using a little water, to make a smooth top layer.

Cut into squares of two or three inches and score the top of each with an X from corner to corner. Dot with butter and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until bottom is done and top is browned. Serve with hot baked chicken and Lebanese salad.

Both kibbee recipes from “Kibbee ‘n’ Spice and Everything Nice” by Janet Kalush

I forgot to mention that last Wednesday, at the No Frill Bar & Grill​, we had the chocolate bourbon cake for dessert. It was wonderful - intense chocolate flavor, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. Definitely worth the calories.

On Wednesday, Aug. 10, my TNT weekly dinner group went to the No Frill Bar & Grill for dinner. Everyone liked what they ordered. The No Frill has been there for several years - I’ve been there many times, and always enjoyed the food. We are all glad they installed the noise-diminishing panels on the walls - it helps a lot when you want to actually talk to each other.

So here’s what we had:

• I had a pork BBQ sandwich with cole slaw on top and corn and black bean salsa on the side - yummy
• Barbara had fried catfish with pasta salad and potato salad. She ate it all, so it must have been good. Barbara has tried catfish everywhere around here, so if you’re looking for some good catfish, she’s the one to ask.
• Susan had the pita quesadilla with a side of spinach. She really liked the quesadilla but was disappointed in the spinach - she thought it was overcooked.
• Keith had, I believe, the smoked turkey and pastrami sandwich on sourdough bread, also with a side of spinach. He enjoyed it thoroughly and thought the spinach was just right. So you might like it, or you might not.
• Karen had a small salad and the portabello mushroom appetizer. The appetizer was huge - the two together were more than enough for her. They looked great and tasted just as good, according to Karen.

So there you have it - except for one side, we all enjoyed everything. They do it right, which is why they’re always busy.