Forty Bottles of Ringboree

The Pub, in Lexington, has a new deal. For $10, you get a passport which lists all 50+ of their beers. Each time you try one of them, you get a stamp in the passport. Fill up the passport, and you get $4 pints for life. Visit all of the seven Pub locations, and you get $3.50 pints for life, and a cool Pub jacket.

So, naturally, we had to get one. We're making fine progress towards our $4 pints.

It's not exactly a great wine, but it has become our house chianti. It is very inexpensive, and goes well with pasta. You're not going to impress your wine snob friends with it, but it's fine for sipping with dinner, and for finishing up after dinner. 25 bottles of Ring Bo Ree.

The kids often ask me, what's your favorite _______? This week, it was, what's my favorite beverage. I can't answer that. I do have a favorite cider, at the moment. It's Strongbow. Nothing else comes close. But favorite beverage? Who can choose? It varies from situation to situation.

I recently discovered the Welsh ESB (Extra Special Bitter), by Thames. It comes in pint bottles, and it is Extra Special.

For those of you not familiar with the terms, a bitter is not necessarily bitter, it's just a categorization of dark ale. This particular bitter, for example, is not bitter. Well, maybe just a little, but not as bitter as, say, something more familiar like Guinness.

The Welsh ESB has a very creamy mouth-feel, and is full of caramel flavors. Very yummy. Good with food. I'll give this a hefty 35 Bottles of Ring Bo Ree. This is my favorite ale, at this particular moment. I'm sure to change my mind next week.

I used to work across the street from a restaurant called Tandoor. Fantastic indian food. I went over there at least once a week, and they recognized me as a regular. I'm very fond of places where I'm recognized as a regular - where they bring me what I want without my having to order it. That's a pretty big deal to me.

Anyways, a few years later, some of the folks who used to work there opened a new place, Masala, closer to home, and we went there a number of times, too.

Last night we went to their new location. It's a much nicer space, both larger and more intimate. The old location is a glass storefront, and this is laid out with a number of rooms containing a few tables.

We had the "Dinner For Two", which was enough for six people, at least, and we have leftovers for the coming two days. Tandoori Chicken, Lamb Rogan Josh, and a variety of other things that I can't now remember. And the mango lhassi was just fantastic. We left there full to the point of discomfort, and had two very full take-away boxes.

If you find yourself in the south Lexington area, and hankering for wonderful Indian food, you should stop by. They haven't updated their website to list the new location but perhaps they will soon. It's where Hot Moon used to be, just south of Fayette Mall.