Night on Grand

Last night I stood in line for ice cream at the Grand Ole Creamery on Grand Ave in St. Paul. I suppose by Minnesota standards it was a rather balmy night (somewhere in the high 30's). It's funny to me that we (Minnesota people) would do that. We didn't wait a long time outside the store, maybe 10 minutes, but you can see inside the big front plate glass window and the scent had the good manners to greet you on the sidewalk. Fresh waffle cones are continually coming off of the hot griddle while friendly employees scoop ice cream and recommend favorites. One popular choice is to share a 5 scoop dish mixing your favorites of the 31 flavors. I couldn't see past the mint chocolate chip to do any sharing. Interestingly when someone orders two scoops of different flavors the scoop girl asks which one they want on top. Apparently that matters to people.

Although there was no line outside Huong Sen's the Vietnamese Restaurant on Grand Ave., the food was fantastic. We started off with Imperial egg rolls and curry cream cheese wontons, which were sinfully good – to me the dipping sauces are what make them irresistible. I had a couple of glasses of shiraz and the curried chicken and look forward to going back to try the hundreds of others items on the menu that looked good. The waiter tried to explain ‘lemon grass’ to me, a common ingredient listed on many items – but I’ll have to go back to try the lemon grass chicken with cashews before I get it.