Last night, my husband and I went up to the local Irish pub for dinner. Now that we can sit at the bar again, it’s almost feeling like a normal Friday night! Except for the moveable plastic divider the staff put on either side of us to create more of a physical barrier between patrons…sure it’s weird, but at least we are back at the bar on a Friday night!
Outdoor dining is fabulous in nice, warm weather, but there’s nothing like relaxing at the bar at the end of a long work week, enjoying good beer and burgers and chatting with the bartenders. So I can’t really understand them when they stop to chat because they’re all wearing face masks and there’s a huge plexiglass barrier in between us — but we’re back at the bar!
This week the Irish pub was hosting a pumpkin fest event. They had a good selection of craft pumpkin beers on tab and some fall food specials. They had chicken and pumpkin waffles, a few salads and entrees that featured sweet potatoes, and some pumpkin-themed desserts.
My husband had already started marinating steak tips for Saturday night’s dinner, so I decided to skip my traditional Friday night messy burger and go with one of the specials. It’s Friday, let’s live dangerously!
I picked the sweet potato bowl — this entrée featured grilled chicken, rice, beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, of course sweet potatoes, with a poblano aioli sauce! It sounded yummy, like a fun Mexican dish with sweet potatoes. We ordered our food (my husband went with his old standard — the buffalo chicken sandwich. The bartender told us the kitchen was pretty backed up, but we didn’t mind, we were happy they were busy! Take that, COVID-19 pandemic!
We had another beer and our meals arrived. I was super excited about my bowl — it was packed with pretty much all of my favorite foods (except bacon was missing, oh and cheese, but I was going with something new and maybe a little healthier!). We started eating. I dug in and mixed up all my bowl ingredients and poured the spicy sauce over the top.
My husband looked over at my plate and asked where my pumpkins were.
“Huh?” I asked. “What pumpkins?”
“Wasn’t there supposed to be something orange in there?” he asked.
Why yes, there was supposed to be something orange in there — it’s a sweet potato bowl! And the sweet potatoes were definitely missing!! Look how smart my husband is!
Don’t worry, I told one of the bartenders that my pumpkin fest ingredients were missing from my pumpkin fest meal and they brought me over a big bowl of hot sweet potatoes! Thank goodness, because how can you have a pumpkin fest meal without something orange!
It was absolutely delicious — it was spicy and it was definitely orange!
Notes from a Self Quarantine 