If you are near Ann Arbor, join us for a Grex Walk!
Every Saturday morning, between 10:15-10:30 am, a bunch of Grexers gather
for a 75-90 minute walk, followed by lunch at a local eatery.
Newcomers are most eagerly welcome; this is an opportunity to meet
and socialize with other Grex folks and get some exercise in the
bargain. Not all the walkers are Grex users: we have regular
attendance from friends, children and pets, and sometimes complete
strangers join us from our Event listing in the Observer.
Summer: see the plants, feel the heat. Bring a hat and
sunscreen, and maybe a water bottle and sunglasses.
Some of the after-walk lunches will be outdoors.
> Summer walks with small children are taking about 90 minutes,
> about 20 minutes longer than usual, so people usually make it
> to the lunch debriefing between 12:15 and 12:45.
Feel free to come to the walk but not lunch, or the lunch but not
to the walk. Everything's very informal.
Currently we pick a different place for lunch each week. Watch this
item and make suggestions if you have a favorite place that we could
visit. With few exceptions, any restaurant that receives a nomination
and a second will be put on the list for a future debriefing.
The upcoming lunch schedule can be seen with the !lunch command,
or on the web at
http://www.cyberspace.org/~krj/lunch.txt
On most Saturdays -- all except FIRST SATURDAYS -- the walk
starts in Gallup Park, and we gather by the parking lot near the
entrance on Fuller Road. Directions for how to find us are in
response #1 ( resp:1 ) of this item.
On the FIRST SATURDAY of each month, the walk is held at
Bird Hills Park.
Those dates will be: Saturday, July 5
Saturday, August 2
Saturday, September 6
Directions for how to find us in Bird Hills Park are in
response #2 ( resp:2 ) of this item.
Note: the walkers leave the gathering spots at 10:30 am SHARP.
163 responses total.
Gallup Park directions, for most Saturdays:
Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth Saturdays:
We meet in the parking lot just off Fuller Road, opposite Huron High
School, just west of Huron Parkway. In Mapquest, enter the address
3000 Fuller Road, Ann Arbor, MI
Here's a closeup map of the Gallup Park entrance area:
\ -----
\ F \ | HHS | | H |
| \ u \ ----- | u |
| | \ l \ | r |
| | \ l \ | o |
Furstenburg \ e \ | n |
Park __ \ r \ | |
/..\ | \ \ | P |
/.....\ | | \ | k |
/......| / \ \ | w |\
\...../ | | | y | \
|.....| | | | |\ \
\....| | | /--\ | | \
|....| | *| |..| | | \
|....| | | |..| | |
|....| | | |..| | |
|....| \ / /...\| |
-------/.....\--|-|-/.....\---
....Huron River.| |...........
----------------|-|-----------
Gallup Park
Grexers meet in the parking lot near where the "*" is.
Please NOTE: we meet by the FIRST parking lot, before the bridge over
the river. If you need to drive over the bridge to find a parking
space, you'll have to backtrack to meet us.
(Gallup Park Grexwalk directions originally by Mark Conger (aruba))
For FIRST SATURDAYS, at Bird Hills Park,
Mapquest will get you close to our meeting place if you type in this address:
1900 Newport Rd, Ann Arbor, MI
Here's an ASCII text description of how to meet us in Bird Hills Park:
(credit: Jan Wolter)
Jackson Dexter \\\/ NORTH =>
Road Road \X\
| / /\\\ Maple Road
---|----/-----------/--\\\----------------
| / / \\\
| / / \\\ M-14
| / Miller / \\\
|/ Road / \\\
| / \\\
| / school ||| Newport Road
| /---------------------,------------------
| 7th / ||| --' |
----|-------/ ||| Park Here |
| / ||| | Bird
Huron | / Miller ||| | Road
| | Road ||| |
Downtown | ___|||___________________|___
Ann --------------------'-. ||| Huron River Drive
Arbor Main \|||
|||
So you want Newport road, just where it crosses the M-14 highway.
Just a wee bit north of the bridge is a little dirt road that slopes
down to a little parking lot. The walk meets there. If you are
coming from the highway, note that there is no exit at Newport, just
at Main Street and at Maple and Miller. Getting from Main to Huron
River Drive is a bit tricky. Be alert. Amateurs may do better
approaching Newport Road from Miller Road. Occasionally the parking
lot gate is left locked. Park at the school and walk across the
bridge.
Last Saturday's lunch, a carryout from Jefferson Market to Wurster Park nearby, was a big success, so this will become an annual event. Attending were, in approximate order of arrival: krj, janc, valerie, arlo, kendra, kaplan, chanur, Ross, Mutsie and Barney, scott, aruba, Carol, bru, anderyn, Rhiannon, Rhiannon's fiance Brad and friend Karen, and Griffin. For once the canine members of the party were allowed to hang out with us while we ate. Thanks to aruba and Carol for thinking this up!
Don't know if I'll make it --- i usually go to Habitat for Humanity in Ypsi on Saturdays. But if I don't go there, i'll probably be at the Walk !
How many people on average walk?
How many are carried? How many are led along on leashes?
There are between 4 and 12 on the average walk.
Went to the debrief yesterday but not the walk. Good turnout at Paesano's: krj, krokus, aruba, Carol, valerie, janc, Arlo, Kendra, mary, Carlos, remmers. Hope I didn't forget anybody.
Sorry I missed it. Eskarina & I will try to be there next week. . . .
The walk was fun, and was cool to watch the deer across the river. I thought it was something to just watch it be busy being a deer, and not being very worried about the audience it had. I much prefer watching them that way, then trying to figure if they're going to end up in front of whatever I'm driving at the time. :)
This week's walk is at Bird Hills Park. I kinda doubt I'll be there, though.
Another reason to want to live in the States. This isn't fair. Stop it, people! :P
Michigan, more than the States. I live in Ohio, US, and have never made it to a GrexWalk.
The report I heard was that only kaplan, Mutsie and Barney did the Bird Hills circuit on Saturday. Other folks made it as far as the parking lot, looked out at the rain and decided they did not want to get wet. Attendance for lunch at the Golden Chef, in approximate order of arrival: bookie, janc, valerie, arlo, kendra, Carol, kaplan, krj, eskarina, dcat, their friend Inga. A new restaurant was nominated for a future lunch, seconded, and in fact met with general acclaim, due to the sign in the window offering "101 Vegetarian Specialties!" The restaurant is Madras Masala, 328 Maynard, a new Indian restaurant in the former Sharayar space. I think we'll go there this week while it's still new and exciting, OK? (Also, previously nominated by Carol and seconded by me: Aladdin's, the new middle eastern restaurant in the former Main Street Coney Island store front, on Main St. near Sabor Latino.
I'll be curious to see what you folks think of Madras Masala. Two friends have both dined there and walked away underwhelmed. I asked one if it was anything like Shehan Shah and she said, "Worse, if you can believe it." I don't think I do. ;-)
Depends on what you get. The South Indian appetizers we had were good. The main dishes were uninteresting (and similar to each other). The Naan is good.
((oops, I omitted krokus from the list of this week's lunchfolks in resp:14 so we had an even dozen there.))
I'm looking forward to hearing what folks thought of the restaurant. It would be nice to have another good Indian food restaurant in Ann Arbor. There is supposed to be an extraordinary one somewhere in Bloomfield Hills or Franklin (those suburbs all look alike to me), but I don't recall the name or location.
I thought it was pretty good. It was a little expensive though-- lunch buffet was $9.50 after tax, but I thought well worth it.
Re #18: Possibly Priya, which is in one of the Bloomfields. I can get you
the location if you want.
Carol liked it a whole lot, and I liked it too.
Re: #20 I don't think that's the restaurant my Indian friend was raving about but I'm going to email her and ask. Thanks for the offer and I'd like to know where Priya is located.
Priya Restaurant & Bar - Phone: 248-6157700 36600 Grand River Ave, MI, 48335 I'd be interested in whatever restaurant your friend is talking about if it isn't Priya.
9.50 for a lunch buffet is pretty reasonable, especially since it was the weeken. In Columbus, a decent Indian lunch buffet on a weekend is usually $12.50, excluding tax
I wasn't inclined to comment on the price initially, but others present thought it was a lot.
That's about right by DC standards - and Indian food is pricey, so I usually don't mind dropping the cash.
resp:24 highway robbery-- *never* paid that in Bellevue or Yakima. More like 3/4 - 1/2 that.
Isn't Raja Rani's lunch buffet still $7.00? Not that it's huge/fancy/ fabulously presented, but it was good last i was there (Feb03).
Dunno, but I had a chicken vindaloo from RR last night that was so thin it bordered on watery. (It was, i believe, abt $8.)
I've been to one Indian restaurant in AA. Can't remember if it was Raja Rani. Left me sorely disappointed. It's funny that Indian food is so pricey. Don't see any reason for it to be. It's not like the ingredients are any more expensive than ingredients for other cuisines. That's why I never have India a la carte. Buffets or not at all.
I like both Shalimar and Raji Rani, but I think I've only been to about four or five Indian restaurants, total, and all within the last ten years. In general I think the portions at Indian restaurants are more in line with what's healthy and reasonable than what you'll get served at say, Outback. If you order a meat dish you get a little meat (maybe 4 or five small pieces) in a moderate amount of sauce. At first I too thought of the sauce more as spicy gravy but now I like the way it's much thinner than that. It's not something you serve on top of rice but rather a highly seasoned liquid that is absorbed by the accompanying rice. There is a difference. Too, the service is often slower at Indian restaurants. I've come to appreciate that as forcing you to dine over time as opposed to flushing it down. I'm also charmed by the somewhat less friendly waitstaff. It's not outright rude but it's not, "Hi, guys. I'm Bambie and I'll be serving you tonight." Indian waitstaff aren't Bambies. I was exposed to Indian food by my son, who found it while attending MSU. So I consider the cuisine an unanticipated dividend, if you will, of a $60,000 growth and development fund. ;-)
Raja Rani is the Chi Chi's of Indian food.
mmmm I like Raja Rani! But then, I like Chi Chi's too ;)
resp:31 I think I understand-- I'm not sure I'd say 'less friendly'-- maybe 'more subdued'. At least, this has been my experience. Works for me. I tend to love quiet, cozy restaurants that aren't too crowded and if the staff is rather calm and less... intense, it's rather nice.
Shalimar lunch buffet. Dig it.
I think it was Shalimar I went to. They're ras malais are a shame, not what ras malai should be. The food was sub-standard. Not the worst I've had, but pretty close
no, the restaurant was shahenshah, or something like it.
I've noticed that Indian food from restaurants in Michigan doesn't seem to be as spicy as I'd normally expect it to be. Maybe a concession to Midwestern palates, which are used to blander food?
Well, that's quite depressing.
Probably Shehan Shah - which we happen to like a lot. But then, I'm not really that fond of Indian food. It's OK. Nice to have once in a while. I even cook some vaguely Indian dishes. But eating Indian food three days running is more than I can stand. I much prefer Mexican, Chinese, Ethiopean or most anything else. So I'm probably a poor judge of Indian food. We only eat a few things at Shehan Shah - Dal Makne, Palak Paneer, and Chana Masala (probably all misspelled). We hardly have to order anymore. We've known the staff a long time.
Hmmm...I guess there are three restaurants where we go often enough so that the staff are sure to recognize us, know our kids names, and our seating and food preferences: Chia Chang, Shehan Shan, and Banditos. We probably go to Seva as often, but it's not the kind of place where they remember you.
I think it was Shalimar (the one on Main, anyway) where my father questioned if 'lamb' was still the right word for the meat he'd received. . . .
<chuckle> "Mutton" will do.
resp:38 I still find that funny. It reminds me of old discussions here of Mexican food-- some people here really do like it milder. Me, I love spicy stuff. Curries and chiles, oh my. Jalapenos, serranos-- it's the habaneros that give me problems. I really haven't been to a restaurant yet where they served it too spicy.
I visited a Pakistani family once for a few days and could not eat anything they cooked because it all had hot peppers. They ended up feeding me nothing but fried eggs and bread. Are there any areas of India where the food is not all painful?
rotflmao
I went back to the Indian buffet on Maynard, and it was again very good, I thought.
You thought. Until it came back :: THE OTHER DIRECTION!!! AHaha.
There may be a few dishs that aren't spicy, but on the whole the food is spicier than most. Food from the northern part of the country tends to be less spicy than that from the south. But not bland enough for some American palates (sp?) As for Ethiopian, it amazes me at how similar it is to Indian food. Fro the injera whih is basially a thicker, not as cooked dosa to the lentil dishes to the meat fair, it's basically the same. Hell, the "samboosa" is just a name-variant of the Indian samosa - it's exactly the same. Speaking of similar foods, it surprised me to order "sambusa" from a chinese place in Manhattan, and be served with hot crisp samosas that I had at home.
Only half of the food at the local Ethiopian restaurant had hot peppers in it - I could eat all the vegetables and the lentils. Other than bread and salad and desserts, what other Indian foods don't have hot peppers?
A lot of lentil preparations are made bland. Dishes from Kashmir tend to be more sweet than hot. You can make any dish with a lot less hot peppers than is traditionally used, which a lot of Indian restaurants will do, and I suspect the Ethiopians ones too. The amount of hot peppers used is usually dependant on what the family is used to. Families up north use a lot less than the southerners. My family for one use very little, with our food bordering on bland
Does anyone cook without any hot peppers at all?
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Sindi, if you actually derive pleasure out of eating what your dietary restrictions leave available to you, I'll be amazed. Frankly, the more variety in my diet, the more I enjoy living.
Re #52: Swedes?
Hot pepper hurts - how would I possibly enjoy it? (Re 54). I would hate to have to eat what the average American eats.
Hot peppers hurt, but also end up getting the body to produce endorphins which feel quite nice...
whats depressing is the fact that we can never again eat at la pinata. i cry
I share Julie's pain, we miss La Pinata too.
I don't share Sindi's pain, but then she's a statistical outlier.
A friend explained to me that he had talked to... I think it was some Mexicans at length. The hot peppers are added not so much for the heat, but for the distinctive flavor. Indeed, the chiles (and other spices for that matter) have varying flavors as well as heat. I understand some cannot tolerate capsins well-- understandable, since they are *supposed* to irritate mucuous membranes. They're used as shark repellant behind boat rigs (island natives, I think) and rodent repellant in bird sanctuaries. But I like the heat and the particular flavor they provide. Sindi is just a little more particular and unusual in not being able to handle it-- well, if I remember right, Jim thinks peppercorns are spicy.
The peppers destroy nerves or something - you need to get used to them gradually while they are doing their damage, which is permanent. The capsaicin is used by arthritics.
Fucking bullshit.
Feh. La Pinata was too salty for me.
Re #62: You habituate to capsaicin, but it isn't permanent at all. If you
go off hot peppers, you will eventually lose your tolerance for
them and have to build it back up. I've seen it happen to people
I know well. (It's happened to me; I still eat very hot food, but
not as hot as I was for a while, back when La Casita De Lupe was
doing special pepper dishes. I could get there again, but it
would take time.) One person can't order dishes at "hot" in a
lot of restaurants now, even though she used to, because she
didn't for a while.
Arthritics use capsaicin, but it doesn't affect them permanently
either.
I like the flavor of hot peppers more than the heat. I like my food hot, but not so hot that it overwhelms the flavors. Of course, how hot is "too hot" depends on how much hot food I've been eating in the last few weeks.
Keesan, I sometimes cook without hot peppers if I've run out of them. It may reduce the flavor a little, but not so much that I still don't enjoy the food. However, I seem to be isolated in my opinion, but I've always been able to enjoy subtler flavors (that may be described as bland, by some Indians) than the average Indian does. What I'm trying to get at is if you can't tolerate hot peppers at all, leave them out of the recipe. It might taste slightly different, but there are a whole lot of other flavors that you can enjoy. (Personally I think some people use too much chili, it kills the original flavor. Extra hot does not mean extra delicious)
Hi mynxcat!
On the few occasions that I eat there, "La Pinata" seemed to represent to me the perfect embodiment of "Mich-Mex" cooking. If a traveling Brit had described Mexican food to an unimaginative German hausfrau, and she had decided to make some, that's approximately what you would get.
Hi janc!
Hi polytarp!
Re #69: Sounds like "Los Dos Amigos" in Houghton. What they cooked *looked* like Mexican food, but had the blandness of your typical Cornish pasty. I went there exactly once in the four and a half years I was going to Michigan Tech. Most bars made better burritos than that place.
I guess I don't see your average Cornish pasty as "bland". Grin. Actually, my personal trouble with Indian food is that something in the spicing does not agree with my stomach. I am not sure what it is, so I can't ask them to leave it out, but every time I've eaten at Raja Ranee or other Indian restaraunts, I've felt ill afterwards. (And I'm sure the food was fine, since it was only me.) I don't particularly like hot peppers as such, but I do like hot things, in moderation, and I can eat a large chunk of wasabi and not mind. Too much.
Wasabi (horseradish) and mustard have a different chemical from red or black pepper. Garlic is also different. The one pasty I tried to eat was full of black pepper, so I ate a bit of the crust and gave it to Jim. There was black pepper in the spinach pie I tried to eat, and Seva puts black pepper in all its tomato sauce. You would think they could let people add it later.
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I don't mind black pepper or white pepper, either. I pepper my potatoes. I don't mind green, red, or yellow/orange peppers. They aren't "hot" the way that jalapeno or habanero peppers are, for example. And I do add hot pepper oil to the recipes that ask for it, if I am in the mood for them.
Regarding overweight children, I could gave 50 pounds without being overweight, which means there are a lot of chubby kids around not classified as overweight by the tables. Another thing that makes some restaurant food inedible is heavy salting. Tios was so bad I needed a cup of water per bite. I gave up after 2 bites. Again, they could let the eater put it in. The Chinese buffet west of town is also really salty. The buffet includes strawberries (not salted) so every other bite was a strawberry. Or grape, or orange, or melon. I was thinking of washing the food in a bowl of water.
I love hot peppers. The burn isn't painful until it gets extreme; until then, it is both flavorful and addictive (as in endorphins).
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Some parts of China are really fond of salt. A friend of ours was renting out rooms in his large house to students and they all took turns cooking. One of them salted the food so heavily that nobody but him could eat it. I had a Szechuan housemate one year. Even with the door to the kitchen open, the rest of us would cough when going near the kitchen if he was cooking. The northern Chinese student sharing the room with him cooking lots of bland cabbage and noodles.
resp:62 The capsins, in particular, seem to improve blood circulation. This is the purpose of cayenne supplements. resp:74 and resp:76 You'll have to be more specific. Black pepper is the peppercorn, which when picked in its unripened state makes black pepper. When it is fully ripe, it is white, and ground for 'white pepper', which has less bite to it. You're speaking of the bell peppers, Twila? (I call them all chiles as the Mexicans do to avoid confusion with the peppercorn.) Yes, those are sweet. The chiles of heat are of many a variety-- from the fairly mild: anaheim, poblano, Hungarian wax, banana wax, peppercini, ancho; to the moderately hot: Cascabel, chilaca, pasilla, tabasco, chipotle, jalape o; to the really hot: cayenne, serrano (no joke), Thai, Penqu n; to the extremely hot: habenero and Scotch bonnet. (Thanks to http://www.allrecipes.com/cb/w2m/weeklyspecials/chilepeppers/default.as p) I'm sure this is not a completely exhaustive list, but it's pretty close.
Oh. The list says there are 200 varieties, so not even close.
I really like freshly-ground black pepper. World of difference from stuff in a shaker, almost a different spice.
Hi scott!
Re #83: I agree. Tons of flavor.
Black pepper goes on almost everything I eat. In winter, I take daily doses of cayenne, starting with 1/8 teaspoon and working my way up to around 1/2 or 3/4 teaspoon. I've found that now I can tolerate spicy food a lot more than I used to, and that I notice the flavors a lot more than the heat.
(keesan) et al. might like China Gate, from which I just returned. The Kung
Pao Chicken ("chef's spicy peanut sauce") was almost entirely un-spicy.
I was on dinner break (from the UGLi) and Steve's Lunch was closed --- I'd
forgotten they close at 8 now instead of 9 --- or else I probably would never
have gone there. In any case, I won't be back. Steve's isn't always as spicy
as I'd like, but at least it tastes like more than just slightly flavoured
meat.
Three years after leaving Ann Arbor, China Gate continues to be my favorite or second favorite chinese restaurant in the world. Eating there is always high on the priority list when I visit. I'm sorry you didn't like it.
When dining at China Gate and wanting hot, you have to tell them that you really mean that you want it hot. We seldom have a problem. When Jan is cooking, and STeve is with me, it can be too hot. Jan knows our tastes and it has been a challange for him to get it hot enough for STeve and still not too hot for me to eat. When STeve is alone, all bets are off. He has made it almost too hot for STeve once. STeve says he was actually in tears, but managed to finish the dish, Kong Pao Shrimp, if I remember correctly.
Re #80: Smoking is also very common in China. That may be one reason for salty food, since putting lots of salt on things is about the only way a heavy smoker can taste it.
We had a nice walk yesterday. Walkers were valerie, janc, arlo, kendra, kaplan, chanur, mutsie, barney, danr, krokus, aruba, and special guest walker, my Mom. A beautiful morning/afternoon (we didn't finish until 1). We meant to come to lunch, but it didn't work out. My Mom asked me to say goodbye to "all those nice people" for her.
Re #89: I want to back Glenda up on this one. If you ask for it extra hot,
it will be. The default level is really mild, though.
Hi Saul!
ok. I tried to ask for spicy, but I don't think she heard me. When I've asked for spicy in the past, though, i haven't noticed a difference.
"Very, very hot please."
Hi Saul!
resp:95 - it is true that when we go to Sze-chuan West, my mother asks for "so spicy it makes tears run down my face." And then it's *almost* hot enough.
"I want it to ignite my chopsticks, when I stick them in." :)
Hi krokus!
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The northern Chinese preserve just about everything for the winter, which might be why they got used to the salt. White pepper is made from black pepper with the skins removed.
resp:100 yes, of course. resp:101 That is not completely accurate. Joy of Cooking, p. 576 (2nd ed.)-- "The white is made from the fully ripe berry from which the dark outer shell is buffed before the berry is ground... Black pepper is obtained from the *underripe, fermented, sun-dried whole berries.* (emphasis mine)"
Looks like we are both right, then. Thanks for looking this up.
Not just the Chinese did preservation for the winter, the Koreans have Kimchi from that as well. Ok, now I want some Korean food...
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Where's the debrief this week?
Rumour Central says "Jerusalem Garden".
re 105 No, not kegogi. Not even bulgogi... :P
Had a half-triple walk today: kaplan, mutsie and barney started nearly punctually. aruba, danr, and myself about 5-10 minutes later. some point thereafter, valerie, janc, arlo and kendra arrived, and went the other way. we all met at the dam, and walked back together along what I'm told is 'the normal route' (counter-clockwise). Krokus arrived at some rather later point, had his own adventure in the forest, then retreated to the parking lot to wait for us all. Ken will do the lunch, because there were several people I can't remember the names of. . .
(I want to hear more about krokus's adventure in the forest. Did it involve bows and arrows and a band of merry men?)
Did he come across a big, green oger and a donkey?
Heffalumps maybe?
Don't know what krokus found last week, but apparently it moved to Gallup this week and ate everyone. Arrived shortly after 1030; saw no-one. Waited till about 1110, walked up to Geddes Rd, which I reached by 1140; still saw nobody. Left at 1205. . . .
We've got Valerie's sister & kids visiting this weekend. We could have walked, but it would have been three parents to four assorted infants and toddlers in strollers, and we lacked the gumption.
re 110-112 No meery men, bows, arrows, ogres, donkeys, nor Heffalumps. Only Woozles. And a really cute Husky puppy.
Almost forgot to mention, I was going to be at the walk, but I turned off my alarm clock, instead of hitting "snooze" Whoops. I won't be around the next couple of weekends, gotta go work for your tax money. :)
dcat and sgsk and I had lunch at Gourmet Garden on Saturday.
I was contemplating showing up for the debrief but got involved in other stuff.
I was working Saturday.
I live too far away. :-(
This Saturday will be my last walk and lunch.
<remmers sobs uncontrollably> Oh wait... You're just going away to school, right?
yep, definitely some good shit painkiller-wise. :)
resp:109 :: dcat asked me to fill in the lunch attendance from two weeks ago at Jersalem Garden's porch. dcat, krokus, kendra, valerie, janc, arlo, aruba, Carol, Paul (friend of aruba and Carol), and krj. Paul was just back from an extended stay in Japan and so we talked about Japanese music and culture a lot. This week: oops, Ayse's Turkish Cafe was closed -- not due to the blackout, but for a month-long summer vacation. My bad. I taped a note to the door and we relocated to Cafe Marie. Attending were, in approximate order of arrival: mary, scott, arabella, krj, anderyn, bru, dcat, valerie, janc, arlo, kendra. This was dcat's last visit with us for a while, since he's on his way out of Ann Arbor this week. (Cafe Marie was the site of arabella's last lunch before she left for Bulgaria in June, and it turns out to have been her first lunch back as well. Heh.) The Mates-Wolter Collective were the only reported walkers.
I'd enjoy going to Cafe Marie monthly, actually.
Caren and I will be joining the walkers on Saturday.
So how did that work out? I'd hoped to be at lunch at Mysore Woodlands this Saturday, but I might have to work.
BTW, I would like to nominate Zingerman's Roadhouse on Jackson Road (where the former Bill Knapp's was) for lunch, preferably on September 13, the weekend it opens for business.
(unsolicited comment: opening weekend could be a mess.)
Would there be any support for debriefing at Dominick's some fall weekend? Just for really old time's sake?
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(Which park? The Commie yard?)
Sculpture Park (where the south tip of Detroit St. used to be, out front of PFC) when i wandered by. The downsides of my quick & dirty plan to get real exercise were becoming obvious about then (30-pound bookpack full of produce from the farmer's market, shoes ill-suited to serious walking, and several miles to hike home), so i just watched the kids as i passed. Wandering by the restaurant earlier, they still weren't open at noon (in spite of posted "11AM" opening time) and had signs up to the effect of "help *really* wanted". Wonder if that's why the late opening & slowness?
Scheduling notes: arabella & krj second mary's suggestion of Dominick's in resp:130. Should we book that while weather still might allow dining outside? Valerie had nominated Roadrunner Cafe near Briarwood; krj seconds. Carol had nominated Aladdin's on Main Street (the former Main Street Coney Island). krj seconds. Bruin in resp:128 :: Unless a lot of other people want to try Zingerman's Roadhouse on its opening weekend, I'm going to suggest we wait awhile. Sept 13 is a home football game against Notre Dame with a 3:30 pm start; although the Roadhouse is not downtown, I expect it will be jammed with football game traffic that afternoon. Here are the remaining U.Michigan home football games: Sept 6 Houston Noon Sept 13 Notre Dame 3:30 Sept 27 Indiana start time TBA Oct 18 Illinois Noon, Homecoming Oct 25 Purdue start time TBA Nov 22 Ohio State Noon Sept 27 might be the weekend to pick for the Dexter Cider Mill trip, not certain yet.
I'm hoping to attend the Dominick's debrief but the next Saturday I have free is October 4th. Is that too far off?
Though eating lunch in the "park" outside the People's Food Coop was nice from the point of view of allowing the kids to play without disturbing the adults too much, the fact that the chairs are all nailed down, with no more than four in a cluster, makes it hard for a large group to eat sociably.
Did someone (lynne?) have a request for a date for the Dexter Cider Mill trip?
Oops, I think when I mentioned that, Ken, I was thinking of Mary's #135, which is unrelated to the Dexter trip. Sorry.
(I request that it be during autumn.) :^)
This week's walk and lunch ran in shifts. The first shift consisted of Bird Hills walkers aruba, krokus, scott, plus an unnamed guest who found the Grex Walk listed in the Ann Arbor Observer. The unnamed guest didn't go to lunch; the remaining three proceeded to Sabor Latino a bit before noon. Leslie and I arrived at Sabor Latino around 12:40, figuring that people would be as late as they were last week. :/ The last shift started with janc, valerie, kendra, arlo, chanur, kaplan and ross, they had done a Children's Walk on the Gallup Park playground loop. They were joined by polygon, sgsk and mjg. So, the total lunch crowd was 15, though not everyone was there at once. Sabor Latino was very accomodating about moving tables around with all the late arrivals. Most of us left around 2 pm.
The unnamed walker was Bruce.
Bruce who?
We didn't get his last name, I'm afraid. But he was not a Grexer, and therefore was not Bruce Price.
One of these days, I'll actually make the regular walk at Bird Hills.
Eh? I thought you did make the walk at Bird Hills on Saturday.
Heh. I usually have a request this time of year for the cider mill trip, but I think I'm going to cheat on Dexter--we have halfassed plans to go to a different cider mill with Don's parents on the lone appropriate weekend I'll be in town. Thanks for thinking of me!
OK, I'm probably going to set the Cider Mill trip for Sept. 27 then, as that is a football saturday.
re 145 I've been there for walks, but never made it on time to walk with everyone else. Thusly, I go wander amongst the trees for awhile, then come back and wait for everyone else.
I had a pretty good sandwitch at a new place in Depot Town last week. (Well, new to me any way. I'm not sure how long it's been in business.) I think it would be a good spot for a grex walk lunch. Schramm's Deli & Grill "Where good food disappears" 42 E. Cross Street
Schrams has been around for years although at a diffferent location.
Haven't been to Zingerman's Roadhouse myself, but another stagehand reported some serious sticker shock. "$20 for a chicken dinner!"
A workmate went, said that there was an hour and a half wait for a table, and that it was $17.50 for gravy and biscuits and $11.50 for mac and cheese. I think I'd definitely never eat there.
I'd expect the wait times to drop as they get fully staffed, but I can't imagine the prices going down.
Places usually have long wait times when they first open, due to staffing issues and higher traffic. Sounds way too rich for my blood, though.
I am going there tomorrow. If we can get a table anyways.
We had a team lunch there today, it was pricey, the service was pretty good considering it's the first week, but my food was disapointing. I (in hindsight foolishly) paid $11.50 for the mac and cheese. My other team members liked their food, but we all commented that the prices were too steep. Maybe it's because it had the ghost of Bill Knapp....;-)
Sorry I missed everyone at Roadrunner Diner today. Either I was too late or too early; I was there from 12:40 to 1:10.
I think Zingermans is just to full of themselves.
kaplan, ross, mutsie, barney, aruba, and Carol walked today. We started pretty late and finished later, and apparently missed Ken at the Road Runner. (We got there about 1:15.) It was a beautiful day for a walk.
Zingerman's has generally found that customers will line up outside their door & down the street no matter how high their prices are. They've reacted to this like rational business people, and are very generous with local charity.
Hey, lining up for food is part of the Deli Experience. People have come to expect it. :)
Sorry about that, Ken. Not only did I arrive late, but I was unable to park the car right away because a tow truck was blocking the driveway as it was working to get a car out of a parking space. With Ross in the backpack and Mark and Carol helping with the dog leashes, much of the walk proceeded at a normal pace. But I turned Ross lose a copule of times and he had a lot of exploring to do! ;-)
I've been to Zingerman's Roadhouse too. The crab cakes were great, their bread is as good as you expect, and while $11 for a burger is insane, $22 for a big sirloin steak doesn't seem quite as wacky. Neither did $17 for their smoked beef brisket, which rules.
You have several choices: