The Mammoth Post - Part Two: St.John's/Marystown edition

Randy and I had planned to go into St.John's on Good Friday, but I decided to make a one-day detour to Marystown to see my grandmother. I stopped at Port Blandford along the way and picked up a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread from the gas station. I'm a sucker for gas station sandwiches. I know. Gross, right? I'm not talking about the factory pre-packaged ones (like Smith's Subs) but the ones actually made in store. Spaghetti and sandwiches are two things that I think always taste better when someone else makes them.

I got to Marystown around 2:00 p.m. and grabbed a couple quick snacks before heading up to the nursery home. For supper, Dad treated me and my brother to a three course meal! First, we had an amazing salad Dad had picked up at Costco. I don't have any pictures of this (again, no camera and I probably wouldn't have had time to take a picture anyways considered I pretty much devoured my meal) but it had lettuce, sliced apples, walnuts, and cranberries with balsamic vinaigrette. The main course was pan-fried salmon (with the best salmon I've had in awhile...not too fishy, nice and flaky, and also from Costco) with baked potato and sour cream. For dessert we had a strawberry and rhubarb pie (warmed) with Capuccino Haagen-Dazs (or "Helly Hansen" as Dad called it) ice cream. Delicious! Were the couch not so uncomfortable, I would have taken a blissful fat nap afterwards.

The next morning, my brother and I drove into St.John's...but not before stopping for Mcdonald's breakfast. I got a Sausage Egg McMuffin meal with hashbrowns and a coffee, and Chase got a McGriddle meal with hashbrowns, a coffee, and an orange juice. Mcdonald's breakfast is by far the best McDonald's meal. And it also helps that it's the only meal I can eat from there that doesn't feel like a massive brick in my stomach afterwards.

Since Chase and I left Marystown early, I got to St.John's around 1:00. The Pittsburgh game was on so Randy and I went to the Don Cherry's in Mount Pearl to have some snacks and watch the game. We ordered a pitcher of beer, some Mexican Dip with pita triangles and chips, and Irish Nachos. Super yummy, but later became a pretty big weight in my stomach. Since we snacked on this all day, I didn't really have supper but grabbed a wrap from Marie's Mini-Mart (which was revolting) before going over to my friend's for the night.

On Sunday (Easter Sunday), Randy's mom cooked a big turkey dinner for lunch complete with turnip, salt meat (be jealous now, Pamela), dressing, potatoes, carrots, cranberry sauce, and pea's pudding. I filled my belly quite contentedly and diescovered two new facts:
1. I actually like cranberry sauce. I had always avoided it in years past because I either assumed I didn't like it or didn't like how it looked out of the can. But I was a brave girl and gave it a whirl and whaddya know? Me likey.
2. I like pea's pudding. Never had this before but now I have, and it was good!

After taking a delicious fat nap, I abstained from food for most of the day until later that evening when Randy and I made a last minute decision to go to Jungle Jim's - the main reason being that we had an envelope of fortune and wanted to use it before it expired. Also, we tried two other restaurants before hand - one of which was closed (Don Cherry's) and the other which looked kinda lame (Rustler's). We split a kitchen sink complete with mozza sticks, hot wings (which were unbearably hot), waffle fries, onion rings, and chicken fingers, to name a few. We also had a beer each. It was super tasty, super unhealthy, and we couldn't finish it all. Turns out, our emvelope of fortune was for 10 bucks off our meal so hooray for discounts!

On Monday, we had a turkey sandwich for lunch with the leftover turkey at Randy's parents and that evening, we went to Aqua. Aqua Restaurant and Bar is a fancy restaurant on Water Street which I had bought a Groupon for awhile back and was anxious to get my eat on at. At this point, I had purchased my Iphone so I was able to take some picture of our meal.

We were greeted promptly by our wonderful host and given our choice of seating (we sat by the window...I like watching people go by). I had perused the menu online prior to going and had my mind set on the lobster poutine. However, Dine Around St.John's was on the go until the end of the month meaning that nice restaurants participating offered a three course menu for a reduced price. So for 39 dollars, I could get an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Unfortunately, the lobster poutine was not on the dine around menu, but I figured I could always come back another time to get it.

After we placed our orders, we were given some warm foccacia bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping. Next, complimentary as well, we were given this thing:

I can't remember exactly what was on it because I was mesmerized by the presentation but I think it was a small piece of cod on top of a chip of some sort with a bunch of seasonings. It was bite size, cute, and very tasty.

For an appetizer, Randy ordered the califlower and cumin soup:

The soup had sour cream (that dollop in the middle), chickpeas, parmesan, chili oil, cauliflower and cumin in it. It was really hearty and tasty (I had a mouthful) and almost had an Indian food-type taste. My appetizer was the pear and rocket salad:

It consisted of red onion pickle, candied walnuts, blue cheese, and honey curry dressing. There was a little bit too much blue cheese in my opinion, but I still really enjoyed it.

For Randy's main course, he ordered the braised beef shortribs:

The menu claims these have "screeched-in" bbq sauce, cheddar cauliflower puree, corn, wilted spinach and hickory sticks. Randy really liked the presentation but said the meal itself was nothing special. He said the ribs were thick and very filling but the taste was nothing spectacular. He wasn't a fan of the hickory sticks either which he said tasted like burnt pieces of potato. Not a bad meal, but not great for the price and the atmosphere.

My main course was the Big Mc Caribou burger:

Kind of a bad picture, but I took it on my phone. This burger had bacon, blue cheese mayo, and rocket and tomato jam. It was served with sweet potatoe fries (that came in a little flower pot which I thought was very cute) and homemade bakeapple ketchup with a little spray bottle of malt vinegar. The presentation was very cute and the burger was delicious. No Labrador caribou, but a very tasty burger anyway. The sweet potato fries I was pretty disappointed with. They were pretty cold when they came out. And since our server was so nice, I felt too bad to send them back. So I ate my delicious caribou burger with gusto but nibbled my cold fries a little reluctantly. Burger? Win. Fries? Not so much.

My dessert was called tetley tea pot de creme with local berries and jam jams:

Again, points for presentation! It came out in a mini Mason jar with a Purity jam-jam propped up against it. This dessert was very tasty, not too sweet, and the perfect portion size to give you a sweet fix without being too much.

Our bill (tip and all) came out to about 130 bucks (60 of which were taken off the bill due to the Groupon). My overall assessment of Aqua:

Pros:
- Great service, friendly staff
- Excellent presentation
- Personal hand towels in the bathrooms
- Great tasting desserts!

Cons:
- Hard, uncomfortable wooden chairs
- Cold fries! :(
- Limited wine list
- Long wait times

Shoutouts from the St.John's edition go to: Party Mix, Strawberry Daiquiri Cheesecake, Mini Eggs, Cherry Balls, Red Pepper Jelly

Here's Sebastian loving his Halloween costume: