Mimosa Asian Fusion Restaurant makes its home in an inconspicuous corner of a tiny strip mall in Winchester, Virginia. It appears fairly unimpressive as you pull into a parking spot, but outward appearances are often deceiving.

From the moment you step foot inside the front door, you know you’ve come to the right place. The decor, the friendly smiles, and the warm greeting clue you in to the comfortable experience to come.

The wait staff here is engaged in their work, displaying an easy sense of humor and direct eye contact, rather than simply running out the clock until their shift is over. How refreshing!

But none of those things matter if the food doesn’t live up to its billing. And, oh, does it ever. A blend of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and southeast Asian cuisine, the varied menu includes something for every palate. The lounge and the sushi bar offer even more tempting options.

Our first visit was the result of a great coupon offer, and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to sample lunch a few weeks later. Now after three visits, it’s obvious we’ll be regulars at Mimosa Asian Fusion.

There’s nothing more aggravating than going out and spending money on dinner only to be disappointed in the food and/or the venue. But these folks have got it right. Treat the customers well and serve up delicious food.

And in case you’re wondering, this is a completely spontaneous and uncompensated review. I just like to give credit where credit is due.

For more information visit: Mimosa Asian Fusion Restaurant

Some places have a feel. It’s an intangible that can’t be found in a chain restaurant or big box store. There are places we’ve been and foods we’ve eaten that we remember so fondly, so vividly, that they cannot be duplicated anywhere else and we’re left to wonder if they truly exist the way we remember them.

Back in my home town in northern Rhode Island, there’s a hole-in-the wall restaurant by the name of Ye Olde English Fish ‘n Chips.  It’s the kind of place that, if you were filming a movie about new england, would capture the feel and sense of place you would need to tell your story.

It’s common knowledge in my family that when I’m in town, a visit to Ye Olde English is on the agenda. It’s not a particularly impressive looking place. Show up on a Friday night and you may find yourself standing in line outside, taking in the aroma and listening to your stomach growl. Patrons order at the counter for take out or dining in the casual booths. The air is saturated with the smell of fish and diners are animated.

The fish is deep fried in plenty of batter and the fries are big and meaty. Throw in one of their giant dill pickles, and your taste buds never had it so good. After you’ve eaten the last fry with vinegar, you’ll swear that you’ll never eat again, but you know you’ll be back.

Little has changed since I was a kid. It’s still the same place with the same charm I remember. My family thinks I’m a little over the top about it, but then again, they live there. They can’t fully appreciate the unique character because they are surrounded by it. The slight accents, the sense of community, the things that can’t be forced, but must come naturally.

Every now and then, you can go home again.

We dined at our favorite local Thai restaurant this weekend.  I was reminded, once again, of the importance of ambience.

We are drawn to this particular restaurant for many reasons, not the least of which is the food. But it takes more than good food to keep us coming back for more.

Here, we are greeted with a friendly smile and “welcome back!” The authentic music plays at just the proper level for dining. The color scheme is warm and relaxing. The furniture is not only beautiful to look at, but comfortable to sit in.

We relax as we take in the atmosphere and the aromas. We feel no need to rush either our dinner or our conversation.

It’s not necessary to leave the house to experience fine dining. With the right touches, we can create a wonderful dinner right at our own kitchen table, even with the simplest menu. The evening meal is about more than food. It’s about reconnecting after a busy day.

Last night we ate dinner at our local French restaurant, which served it’s Valentine’s Day menu. Very romantic for our wedding anniversary and we were really feeling the love. The meal lasted two hours, which was perfect for the occasion, except that when my MS is this bad I have trouble sitting up straight for that length of time. I’m still getting better, but it’ll take awhile to get through a day without mountains of effort.

Tonight we didn’t seem to be in high spirits. Still mourning the cat. The work situation. The weekend is here and I’m still in bad shape. The weather is gray. Blah. Life is like that sometimes.

What a lovely dinner we had at our little French restaurant. We invited friends to join us and a good time was had by all. We enjoyed good food, good wine, good friends.

We hadn’t gotten together with them in awhile and had much to catch up on. We don’t go out much, but when we do we we generally make it good.

We had lunch at 2:30 this afternoon at our little French restaurant. It was relaxing and fun and the food was heavenly. Come dinnertime, we just weren’t hungry enough to make the effort. Jim’s been talking about munching on some leftovers and maybe we’ll pop some corn later. Probably when tonight’s episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” runs.

Smokey and Bandit went crazy at 5:00 pm, thinking it was their dinnertime. We feed them at 6:00 pm, but they just aren’t privy to the time change situation. It’s really quite amazing and I’ll be curious to see if they readjust their inner clocks tomorrow.

We cracked open the wine at 6:00, a glass of red for Jim, a glass of white for me, and we’ve been at our respective macs ever since.

Wė decided to go out for a pizza tonight, something we rarely do. It was a mouth-wateringly delicious thin-crust, my half pepperoni, Jim’s sausage. We ate at a local joint, not too impressive, but the pizza is good.

We finished off our dinner by buying one of those scratch off lottery tickets, which, of course, didn’t make us rich. Then we headed off to the grocery store. Wow, we two sure know how to spend a Saturday night! That’s okay, we’re home now, alone with our cats, Smokey and Bandit, comfortable and cozy.

I’ve most definitely overeaten today. We decided to go out to lunch and ended up at “Red Hot & Blue”. There is no way to walk out of that place without feeling overstuffed.

Consequently, I made an extra light dinner. I still wasn’t hungry in the least, but ate anyway. Now why did I go and do that? I just might have to skip the popcorn tonight.

We were both groovin’ to the 70’s station while we ate.

I was rocking in the kitchen tonight! Instead of listening to the evening news and letting my blood pressure rise, I cooked along with the sounds of the 70’s. When Jim came in the room he had a smile on his face and told me that he enjoyed hearing me singing happily in the kitchen. It felt good, too. Guess I’ll try that more often.

We ate lunch today at our local French restaurant and it was superb! Such a wonderful and enjoyable place.

Oh, yeah, Jake’s looking mighty fine tonight.

The setting was our local Italian restaurant. We enjoyed our wine and pasta outside on the patio with the early autumn air and  a slight breeze. Truly, the simplest things in life bring the most pleasure.

Earlier, Jim gave me a bouquet of beautiful red roses for my birthday. It doesn’t get much better than this.

The future is full of promise.

What a dinner! Today is Jim’s birthday and Tuesday is mine, so we decided a joint celebration was in order.  We originally planned to go to The Melting Pot, but they couldn’t take us until 10:00 pm. Cheese fondue at that time of night sounded a little heavy, so we decided to celebrate at our local French restaurant.

We had appetizers, caesar salad, entrees, wine and…yes… we splurged and even had dessert.  Jim had chocolate cake and I had chocolate mousse, which is very difficult for me to pass up. Over coffee, I realized I’d probably eaten too much and now I’m sure of it.  It was a decadent pleasure we don’t indulge very often.

This particular establishment has only been in our town a matter of months. Unlike most restaurants here, the owner and staff bend over backwards to ensure a pleasurable and friendly experience.

What a wonderful dinner and a wonderful way to celebrate “our” birthdays.

Comfort food. That’s what tonight was all about. We ate at Perkin’s Pancake House. We don’t go there very often, the last time being sometime around Thanksgiving after we had unsuccessfully combed every restaurant in town looking for pumpkin pie. Perkin’s was the only place we could go to satisfy our rare cravings for such dessert.

The upshot: dinner was good. People were friendly. What more can you ask for twenty bucks?

We talked mostly about the fact that we were cheating on our normal diet. For the past three years, we have adhered to a low-carb diet. It really works for us. My doctor can’t believe it. He says that I should keep doing whatever it is that I’m doing. There are those, of course, who say it’s going to kill us. I suppose time will tell.

We were out running a few errands, mainly to get ourselves out of the house, when I told Jim that I forgot to defrost anything for tonight’s dinner. We decided to stop in at “Red, Hot and Blue” even though it was only 5:00 o’clock. If you’ve ever eaten at a “Red, Hot and Blue”, you know that it requires a lot of digestion time, so the early hour would work out well. Nothing comes in “small.”We generally follow a low-carb diet, but that’s not the point of this restaurant. By the time you leave you should have an extended belly and watery eyes along with a carb high. Indeed we did.

So who, besides us, goes out on Saturday night and is home by 6:00 p.m., talking about the pay-per-view movie and popcorn?