Birthday yum-yums

Hello and thank you for stopping by! Sorry there's not been much happening at Mari Bébête lately. I was going to say a word or two about Petite's birthday (which happened last week), but it looks like she already covered it pretty well. She didn't say very much about all of the restaurant reverie, though, so let's talk about that...

Petite mentioned Mama's, the Korean place, by name but didn't say much else about it. We got an early start there, kind of a Birthday's Eve celebration. The great thing about the Korean BBQ is that it's fun having the little grill in the table and about 15 sundry sauces, toppings, and condiments. And thanks to my brother who discovered the place (when he was home for the holidays after having spent a couple weeks in South Korea), we know the secret code to get dessert, which is usually only served to actual persons of Korean heritage -- which seems to be about 90% of the clientèle. (But Mari Bébête reveals no such secret codes on the Internet! So don't ask!) For those in-or-near the Bloomington area, Mama's can be found at 10th and the Bypass. Yes, that's the old pet store but we won't belabor that fact...

The day of Petite's birthday, Mari came home early to make lasagna for dinner. It wasn't Mama's, but it wasn't bad. We took a bit of a birthday dining Sabbath on Wednesday, best i can remember, then back to the grind...

We tried a new restaurant with Petite's sisters on day four of her birthday celebration. It is called Mandalay and it serves south-eastern Asian cuisine, specializing in Burmese. We had never had that before, and it seems to be a close relative to Thai, as one might expect. It was a pretty good find. It's located on Fourth Street near all of the other quaint, ethnic eateries. Try the hot tea.

Day six of the birthday festivities found us at Smokin' Jack's Rib Shack, a locally-owned BBQ joint (that's southern BBQ, as opposed to the Korean variety mentioned above). SJ's provides about twice the food for half the cash of Smokey Bones -- as a Kansas City native agreed today while we were extolling the virtues of Smokin' Jack's. It's on 17th Street just west of Walnut. Along with your ribs, may we suggest a side of collard greens, some cornbread salad, and a piece of chocolate-pecan pie? Petite would goes for the "sweet tea", but Mari does not. In fact, we didn't try the pecan pie for really sad but very good reasons, but how can you really go wrong when the words "chocolate", "pecan", and "pie" appear in the same name?

For dinner, we met friends at El Norteño, just north of the square on Walnut, in the old Princess Theater. Tried the Horchata. (A rice milk beverage i believe.) Petite agrees, it tastes like Navidad.


Day seven was Easter in Columbus, where the family gathered for a multi-faceted celebration. Petite's step-dad unfortunately had a near-death experience due to an unidentified allergen -- ostensibly coconut, but none was found on the scene... however, thanks to Benedryl crisis was averted. Petite's aunt outdid herself on the cheesecakes. One chocolate, one lemon... both amazing and each a sight to behold.

That's all for now.