An Out of Body Tot Experience

The Lower Depths Tap Room - Boston, MA

http://thelowerdepths.com/

     I had an out of body experience with tater tots. After making average at Senior Trials and working on weight for months on end, it was to be expected... in my opinion. 

Heaven's Food. Really. Chili Cheese Tots

What?

      I've been wanting to go to the Lower Depths Tap Room forever. It's this little semi-subterranean restaurant on Comm Ave just past Kenmore. Jim and Audrey were in town visiting, so Meldrim and I got them together with Audrey's friend Libby, Jimmy and Karl and we headed out. The Lower Depths is a tiny little place with an absolutely hilarious menu. It's rather rude and mildly vulgar, but hilarious. They have a section dedicated to tater tots. I was so glad Jimmy was on board. We ordered the Chili Cheese Tots: Coffeehouse Porter Chili, beer cheese and scallions. I think I weird-ed Audrey and Libby out with the moment I had with these tots. The chili had big hunks of meat in it and was chunkier than most chilis. A lot of chili you get on things like nachos and chili cheese fries is a bit more liquidy and ends up making everything soggy. This didn't. I would almost not qualify it as chili. It was more hunks of meat and sweet black beans. It was incredible. The tots themselves were absolutely perfect. Lightly crispy on the outside, piping hot and soft on the inside. Then the beer cheese wasn't really all that beer-y, but it was so melty and delicious. It was a real cheese sauce with pieces of peppers in it. Not that fake nacho cheese. This was on a whole other level. Jimmy and I made a deal to make sure we come back and try all of the varieties. I can't wait.

 

Tropical Steakhouse Burger

For my meal I ordered the Tropical Steakhouse Burger with bacon, cheddar, mango chutney, habanero aioli, lettuce, tomato and onion on a toasted bun. There are many things to note. On the downside, you couldn't really taste the mango chutney (I think there just needed to be more) and the slice of tomato and onion needed to be bigger. They just kept sliding off and weren't nearly large enough for the burg itself. These are minor issues however. On the plus side, the burger was perfectly plump and cooked just as I like it. I love when you can tell a burger patty is homemade because it plumps up in a way that makes it almost impossible to eat. Oh and the melty cheese and bacon? Shoot me. The habanero aioli (basically a spicy mayo) was very light and thin but really added an awesome flavor to the whole burger. I didn't really notice the heat in the mayo until after I killed the burger and my mouth was burning o-so lightly. OH and it's worth mentioning... the lettuce. I don't care how insignificant it may seem, but this lettuce was great. It was perfect. It was one big, darkly colored romaine leaf and was full of flavor. And it was the fatter part of the leaf, so you didn't have to deal with the stiffer core part of the leaf. Yes I notice these things.

   

Red Skies at Night

Another added bonus: The Lower Depths has 160-180 different bottles and 17 rotating drafts. I had one called Red Skies at Night by Heavy Seas. Upon further investigation, it has hints of banana, apricot, clove, allspice and honey making it a slightly herbaceous beer. It was cask conditioned, which I learned means that it is unfiltered and unpasteurized and served from a barrel without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. Neat. It was delicious. I feel educated.












PJ's Pancake House - Princeton, NJ
http://pancakes.com/

Blueberry, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, S'mores

     Mary and I had another "maybe they haven't eaten in a while" caliber eating event post trials. The
moment is generally filled with extended silence, followed by laughter and repeated "oh my gosh it's so delicious" comments, followed by more laughter, silence, shock and awe, shock and awe, heavy eyelids and elation. We finally made it to PJ's Pancake House in the heart of Princeton and it may have been the best decision we had ever made in our lives. It's a cute little place, and we sat outside on their little patio. It was lovely. We decided we wanted to split a savory dish and a sweet dish. We work so well together when we eat out. We really maximize our exposure to what restaurants have to offer. Anyway...pancakes were on the menu and making a decision on which kind we wanted was a chore. I feel like writing about this is useless because it is absolutely impossible to describe just how incredible and different these pancakes were. Ok.... I'm just going to write it as I'm thinking about it in my head. They were more dense than normal pancakes. But not an uncomfortable I-feel-like-I'm-eating-bricks dense (like buckwheat pancakes seem like sometimes). Like a this is a hearty pancake that can't possibly be just empty calories. They were also more yellow than normal pancakes. Maybe they use cornmeal? I'm so confused. I don't care. The consistence, texture and bounce-back was just unlike anything I have ever had before in my 25 years of existence.

So much happy

     Ok, now that I've done a terrible job explaining the texture... the flavors. We got the sampler and got 3 different kinds. One was a blueberry pancake; classic but above and beyond your standard blueberry pancake based on their pancake mix recipe I just explained. Soaked in syrup with a little

    The savory dish we got was just an english muffin, 2 eggs, 2 sausage links and a glob of their homemade hash browns. I know these things seem insignificant and standard, but the hash browns were chocked full of pieces of peppers and onions and were just delicious. The best part was the sausage. Being on the lightweight diet, you forget was such a flavor punch a sausage link packs. Meat. Salt. Spices. Mmmmmm.

    PJ's trumped the Princetonian a gazillion times over. I cannot wait to go back and try some of the other pancake varieties. Oreo pancakes? Yes please.
whipped butter? Woah. The second one we got was a peanut butter chocolate chip pancake. It had chocolate chips AND peanut butter chips. The combination of the two melty chips was to die for. And PJ didn't skimp out on the chips. Those cakes were loaded. The third kind that we got was s'mores. I know. I know. Hunks of chocolate, melty marshmallow, and graham cracker crumbles. This may be the best invention anyone has ever had... ever. Tasted like the world's best s'more infused in the world's best pancake.