Lao Laan-Xang

This is one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants. My fav is #27 the Pineapple Squash Curry with Chicken. Yum. There are 2 of these restaurants in the area. Our favorite is the one on Atwood next to the Barrymore Theater. They do not appear to have a website but here is a good review from Eating in Madison A to Z. If you like Laotian food I don't think you will be disappointed.

Ha Long Bay

Saturday as we started out to do errands we dropped by Ha Long Bay for a quick lunch. This was our first time dining there and we were pleased. As the sign says it is a Vietnamese and Thai Bistro. There are also some Laotian specialties on the menu. We split an order of egg rolls and a chicken curry. Both were very good.

I noticed that they have 10 versions of Pho... we saw big, steaming bowls of it delivered to a nearby table. Looked good.

Ha Long Bay is at 1353 Williamson Street. Another good addition to the neighborhood restaurants. Decor is fun in a rusty orange and lime color palette.

My only negative comment was that it took somewhere between a 40-45 minutes to get our entree. Too long for a quick lunch on a busy Saturday. But we will try them again and hope this is not the norm. They were doing a brisk business and I hope that continues.

La Brioche True Food

Y ears ago before I lived here I had gotten pastries at La Brioche. The baked goods and soup were outstanding but the space was a bit underwhelming.

Well that has most certainly changed. This new large space looks as good as the food tastes. Plus they have full breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner menus. The new location is 2862 University Avenue here in Madison. The picture above shows mismatched upholstered chairs.

Lots of great, unusual wallpaper. Lots of pattern which all works really well together.

This little lamp was on our table. Everything is very cozy. And the food is good. I had cod cakes with greens and Jane and I split a piece of chocolate cake since this was my birthday lunch.


All in all quite charming. Plus there are bakery cases up front. So you can take things to go. In fact you can take everything to go if you want. But I can't imagine why you would want to.

Eldorado Grill

Y um... The Eldorado Grill is in our neighborhood. We are lucky to have so many good restaurants nearby. We went there a couple weeks ago for brunch. It has a cowboy feel in music and decor. Everyone loved their meal and each was was more attractive then the next.

Best Burger in Town

Rae: John thinks that the Blue Moon here in Madison has the best burger in town. John likes burgers and eats a lot of them. He likes his with blue cheese and bacon. He is a connoisseur of burgers and pizza (and malts). John: The last time I had a bacon and blue cheese burger at the Blue Moon, I decided it was the cheese. Oh sure, the meat is great and the bun doesn't overwhelm, but the blue cheese used is a taste bud assault! Now, I know, many immature taste buds haven't acquired blue cheese appreciation. For me however, the Blue Moon blue cheese, perfectly compliments and draws out the flavor of the burger. It's so good, they might as well have a one item menu.

Breakfast at the Blue Plate

We biked over to the Blue Plate Diner this morning for breakfast. I was surprised that it is only 2 miles from where we live. It is in the quaint Atwood neighborhood. Food is alway good at the Blue Plate. I had the zuchinni potato pancakes and I decided I am a purist about my potato pancakes. Their desserts always look so good. I really should have had one for breakfast instead.

That is my yellow bike with the new basket, seat and bell. The bell is from my new friend Chris. Chris and I have not yet met and are only e pals. What is so amusing about her sending me this bell is that anyone who knows me well would have pick THIS bell. When we got our bikes about 10 years ago I wanted a bell just like this. I must have ordered one from somewhere and it was not as nice as this one. That meant that when I rode over bumps it sort of rang which I didn't like so I gave it away. This bell makes the very best ding • dong sound. This is the same sound the bell on my trike made.

Our bikes are about 10 years old but in good shape (due largely to lack of use). Perfect for bikes that we need to park in the underground garage and lock up. Not flashy or cool enough to be stolen-hopefully. When we bought these bikes the store in Rochester carried only this brand of bike 'Specialized'. So for 10 years I have thought that our bikes we some generic off-brand of bike because I had no idea that 'Specialized' was an actual brand. And I won't even get started on how much it bugs me when people some up with a word(s) to name their company that has nothing to do with the company. I won't, I really won't go on about that. If anyone is that interested you can call John he had to listen for a long time.