Tuesday, April 3, 2012

As Seen on Triple D: Zydeco's

Justin:  So we eat a lot.  Triple D (Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) is one of our favorite shows.  We watch it all the time.  Over the course of watching it, we decided that if we could, we would visit at least one Triple D recommended restaurant whenever we can...mostly during vacation hot spots.  We've been to so many since, we thought we'd start a new segment on our blog entitled, As Seen on Triple D. Keep in mind we are not professional food critics...just fans of the show and lovers of eating food.  So we won't get all fancy and talk about the amount of paprika in something or whatever.  Just sharing another thing we love to do as couple.





NAME: Zydeco's


LOCATION: Mooresville, Indiana


WHAT WE HAD: White beans and rice, garlic soup, gumbo,  black cat, baronne street shrimp, bourbon pecan pie and a gator whiz shot to top it off.








WAS IT GOOD:  
Nicole:  Ohhhhhh yeah, it was. I haven't tried much in the New Orleans cuisine, but this shit was the bomb!

Justin:  I think this was the first out of Illinois restaurant we went to and the first time we thought that going to one of these on trips or on the way to other places would be a great road trip/vacation tradition.

N: This restaurant is in a very little town in Indiana.  When we got there and saw the sign, I knew it was going to be fun.  They even had flower seeds outside with little baggies for you to take home.  The seating in the main room is not very large and it had fun decor.  Lawn umbrellas and fun lights strung up everywhere. Along with your fork and knife they have a set of mardi gras beads at your place.  The waitress came up, told us we needed to put the beads on and took our drink order - Gator Whizz!  It was an odd name, but it was good!  I will definitely have more Gator Whizz in my life.

J:  The decor and food was amazing.  In our last post we talked about having a shot partya and I think Gator Whizz would definitely be on that list.  The seafood was great and it had a lot of flavor.  The white beans and rice felt like a dish I would eat every day.  Actual my dad makes something similar so it felt like home cooking.  

N:  Being that I haven't tried very many New Orleans style dishes, we each got a few different things to try, and everything was just awesome.  I dream about going there for more spicy shrimp dishes and gumbo.  We couldn't get enough of each others dishes and even though we were stuffed, we had to get the bourbon pecan pie to try.  It was delicious!

J:  I would recommend this place to anyone who loves seafood and N'awlins style cooking!


Monday, April 2, 2012

Good Irish Times!

Nicole: Hey There!  I'm about half Irish and Justin is none, but we live on the south side of Chicago so you GOTTA celebrate St. Patrick's day!  St. Patty's day is one of my favorite holidays, you wear green (my fave color), attend parades, drink, and everyone is in a jolly mood.  It doesn't get any better.

This year to celebrate we met up with our fave twosome and headed out to Irish Times Pub.  We had awesome (all you can eat) fish fry, tasty Guinness, and great company.  There were even bagpipers!  It was an all around good time and a great way to celebrate the Irish heritage.


Justin:  I love pubs.  I don't drink a lot but I love going to pubs.  It's something about the atmosphere that just makes me really enjoy being in a cozy, warm place with good food and great friends.  Jeff and Aireen are great friends.  Aireen and I used to go to the same grammar school and we rekindled our friendship a few short years ago.  It's been a blessing and honor ever since getting to know them.  Whenever we think of some place to go we always call these two.  We seriously wish we were neighbors.  Nicole ALSO forgot to mention the car bombs!  That's my drink/shot or whatever.  I think I downed four that night...which I needed after the hellish weeks I've been having.  We actually talked about shots quite a lot as we plan on having an epic shot party in San Diego in a few weeks!



We topped the night off with a viewing of 21 Jump Street.  HILARIOUS.  Nicole fell asleep but it's all good she'd seen it already and she knew how much I wanted to. 


N: The next day we headed down to central Illinois for my friend Kristie's big 3-0 celebration.  We took our time getting there and stopped for lunch and a letterbox on the way.  It was a cemetery box and one of the easiest letterboxes we have ever found. It was a great start to our letterboxing season.

All my Girls Weekend girls were in attendance, it was so great to see them so soon after our official girls weekend, I felt spoiled!  Kristie's husband Jeffrey grilled out for all of us and he even made an awesome cake for her.  Sadly, we couldn't take any pictures because we left the camera at our lunch stop...

J:  ... Yeah I was pretty upset about that since we got our first letterbox of 2012 and we wanted it documented.  My camera fell out of my vest when I took it off.  Luckily I called the place (yeah it was a Pizza Hut so what!?) and they kept it for us til we could pick it up the next day.

N: We had a late night of game playing and chatting and then it was to bed for everyone and up the next morning for breakfast before we all went our separate ways.  I already can't wait for the next girls weekend that we already have in the works!