Pigging Out In Idaho Part II

A rare trip to the mall for me brought me to J.C. Penney's for my uncle's birthday gift. After getting his gift, I hunted down my friend Leslie, who is the seamstress at Penney's, and she said to wait for her, and we could go to lunch.

Where to go? was the question both of us had as we decided where to go. After Leslie and I went to the nearby assisted living facility to get some sewing projects from some of the residents, Leslie suggested Elmer's on Fairview Avenue. "Why not.", I said because I am not really familiar with some of the eateries around the mall.

Leslie and I arrived at Elmer's after the lunch rush, and we were seated almost immediately. Our waitress was at our table right after with water and menus, but gave us enough time to decide what we wanted to eat.

Elmer's has a vast breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu, and it looks like breakfast was served every day, but I was in the mood for a sandwich and fries and ordered the Chicken Chipotle Sandwich with Mesquite Fries and Southwestern Cole Slaw. Leslie was stuck between the BLT and the Super Club Sandwich with Fries. Our waitress suggested Leslie have the Super Club. Leslie and I also ordered Very Vanilla Cafes, which were iced cappuccinos with whipped cream on top. Our first cafes were kind of tart tasting, and both Leslie and I thought our taste buds were playing games with each other. We wound up diluting the tartness with the half and half at our tables.

About 15 minutes after ordering, our food arrived, and our waitress replenished our cafes, and they were much better than the first ones. Leslie's Super Club came cut in quarters with waffle-cut fries while my Chicken Chipotle Sandwich came with fries cut in sticks with mild mesquite seasoning. My sandwich came on a roll with lettuce, tomato, grilled chicken, Monterrey jack cheese, and chipotle mayonnaise. It was very good except more mayo was needed, but I added some of the ranch dressing Leslie and I requested for our fries. The cole slaw had a strong lime flavor that made it different from any other cole slaw I have had. Leslie couldn't finish all of her meal and wound up with a doggie bag, but I finished all of my food.

There was no room for dessert for both of us, and we settled the bill. Both meals cost under $25-plus tip, and we declared the meal a success.

Elmer's is located near the Boise Towne Square Mall in Boise and is right now going under renovations in its vast interior. Usually, Elmer's is decorated with antiques, but today, Leslie and I dined in a room with empty shelves and luckily not that messed up from the construction crew's work. It will be nice to see Elmer's once the renovations are finished in a few months. The service is good, and it the food's home-style.

I had to do some final Christmas shopping near the mall, and I had been wanting to try Romio's since June when they provided most of the food for the Greek Food Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church. Since Dad had given me my Christmas money early, I thought I needed to treat myself to a nice lunch before tackling the crowds at Sport's Authority and Barnes and Noble.

Romio's is located near the Boise Towne Square Mall and Target, and on the Monday before Christmas, the place was booming with shoppers and people on their lunch breaks. I was greeted warmly by one of the waitresses, and she asked if I wanted to sit at the bar since I was alone. I said that was fine since I could read the newspaper and watch CNN on the TV there.

Another waitress gave me a menu and got me the diet Coke that I had ordered quickly. I didn't want something heavy in my tummy while shopping, so I settled for a vegetarian gyro ($5.95) and a Greek salad ($5.95). My salad arrived first and was big enough for two people and was chock full of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, kalmata olives, feta cheese, and a yummy Greek dressing. Halfway through the salad, the nice owner, brought my gyro, which was a huge pita bread stuffed with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and feta cheese. Both dishes also had my favorite peppercinis, and my soda was refilled once it was empty.

Yep! I still had room for dessert after all of that good food, and I ordered a Baklava. It arrived quickly, and WHOA! It was the biggest Baklava portion I ever had, and it was great, not too goopy with syrup and not needing a chainsaw like other baklavas I have eaten in the past.

My check came to just over $18, and I left a decent tip for the waitress before leaving. Romio's is a great place to eat before shopping at the stores on Milwaukee Avenue, and they also have food to go or for delivery. The interior is decorated with Greek artifacts and the hospitality is as warm as the yellow painted walls. I hope to return when I am near the mall again.

At the Home Depot Christmas Party, I had won a couple of movie passes to the Edwards 21 Movie Theater in Boise. So Mom and I decided to catch a movie on one of our days off together, and since we had a little time and were hungry, we decided to look for a bite to eat before going to the movies.

The Edwards' Cinema is located on Overland Road in Boise and also houses several restaurants and shops for people to shop and browze around before and after the movies. Mom and I decided to eat at Yen Ching, a Chinese Restaurant that serves Northern Chinese food at a good price.

It wasn't very busy in Yen Ching, and Mom and I found seats without trouble. You have to order at the counter at Yen Ching, and Mom and I took a couple of minutes to peruse the extensive menu. Mom went with her usual, Cashew Chicken while I went for the Shrimp and Lobster Sauce. Both meals cost us under $15 and Mom and I sat down to wait for our food which came with a small bowl of Egg Drop Soup to tide us over while waiting for the main course.

Our food came within 10 minutes after ordering, and Mom and I weren't disappointed. Both of our dishes came with our main courses and sides of Lo Mein and Steamed Rice. I have had Shrimp and Lobster Sauce at the Rickshaw Inn in Riverside, RI, and it was a thick brown sauce full of shrimp and chopped lobster, but the one at Yen Ching is just as good with a light yellow sauce with shrimp and lobster and a nice ginger flavor.

Mom and I filled our bellies nicely and made our way to see Blood Diamond at Edwards'. Yen Ching is also located in Downtown Boise, and I recommend it highly for the movie crowd any time they visit Edwards' and Boise.

Mom and I like exploring the wineries in the Treasure Valley every year. We have some favorites along with discovering new wineries, and we decided this year to go to the Winery at Eagle Knoll in Eagle, Idaho to see what it had to offer.

On a damp and chilly September Monday, Mom and I arrived at the Winery to check it out. Upon going inside, we were greeted by the Retail Manager, Denise, who went back to a meeting in the back of the winery. No one was at the bar and sampling station, so Mom and I explored the small winery on our own.

The Winery at Eagle Knoll offers several white and red wines and an inexpensive Blush wine that was the cheapest thing available for sale at $6.95. The rest of the wines were $8 and up and were in small bottles that wouldn't last very long in our house.

The interior and exterior of The Winery are nicely kept, and the inside is small with a bar and table for one to sit at. There is also a fire place and area for children to play in while the adults check out the winery. I wasn't very impressed with the winery and the lack of service it had. A young girl showed up at the bar a few minutes after Mom and I came in, but she only was getting wine for the folks participating in the meeting. A loud man in the meeting was talking about being rearended that morning in his rental car. Lovely!

The good things about The Winery at Eagle Knoll was the location and the interior of the place. The bad things were the lack of service, the high prices of the wines, and feeling like you weren't welcome there. I doubt if Mom and I are going to return to the Winery anytime soon.

St. Chapelle Winery is one of our favorite Idaho wineries. Mom and I have visited here on a yearly basis since 2003, and I even wrote about it in my journal Three Hags and A Baby Go Wining in Idaho journal three years ago. I consider St. Chapelle one of my favorite places in Idaho because of its location on a hilltop in Caldwell, Idaho that overlooks the Treasure Valley.

St. Chapelle has never ceases to have the best wines in Idaho. Every year, they come out with great wines that have turned this beer lover into a wine lover. They are inexpensive, but don't taste cheap.

After a disappointing visit to one winery, Mom and I made our way to St. Chapelle. We passed several apple orchards on the way up the hill to St. Chapelle, and I said, "We need an apple raid after we get out of the winery." Mom agreed and visions of homemade apple pie danced in our heads for the rest of the day.

I explored some of the vines located in front of the winery before going inside and took pictures of the scenery. It had gotten kind of chilly outside, and the warmth of the winery shop greeted us when we got inside. After exploring the wines and souvenirs on display, Mom and I were ready to sample some wines, and the lady behind the counter was happy to pour.

Mom and I sampled a couple of white wines, the Chardonnay and the 2005 Gewurztraminer, a dry white wine. St. Chapelle's Chardonnay is also a dry wine and good. Mom and I have not been red wine fans, but the Soft Red wine changed our minds after sampling the sweet, soft nectar.

Sampling done, it was time to pick wines to take home for our consumption. Mom bought a bottle each of the 2004 Soft Red, the 2005 Gewurztraminer, and my favorite, Chenin Blanc, a sweet white wine for under $20. I bought a bottle of Chenin Blanc to share at the get together in Chicago and a bottle of the Soft Red that only cost me $13 for both.

Happy with our wines, Mom and I headed down the hill and filled a grocery bag with some apples from the nearby orchard and went home. And yes, the apple pies were very good!