First off, Mayberry's coffee is amazing. It's strong! Like the kind of strong that smacks you in the face. But not bitter. It's so good, hence why I had three cups and almost went for a fourth, but was too full.
I usually go for the french toast at Mayberry, but I was craving something a bit savory. So, Antoine and I decided to say "screw it" our diets and go all out. We shared an order of rosemary biscuits and gravy, an order of their tasty tater tot casserole (because really, at this point, we can't go there and not get it...it's that good), and a Monte Cristo.
Now, I had never in my life had a Monte Cristo before, but after reading the description for Mayberry's Monte Cristo I had to get it: fresh pineapple, ham, bacon, and brie with fruit compote. It wasn't in the description but there was definitely fresh sliced turkey as well. Wow, just wow! After having this Monte Cristo I can't imagine having anyone else's version of the sandwich. It was so delicious, and the fresh pineapple really cut the richness of the brie, ham and bacon. And the fruit compote, which I think might have been peach, was AMAZING!! And the dressing on the side salad that accompanied the Monte Cristo was very good, though I'm not sure what it was exactly.
After brunch, which we couldn't even finish, we were so full, but had decided ahead of time to swing past Spring Grove Cemetery to see if any of their flowers or trees were blooming. Unfortunately, while the day was gorgeous, absolutely nothing was blooming yet. I was kind of bummed, because I was in the mood to take pictures, but I decided to hold out until things start popping up. It's been several years since I've been to Spring Grove when the magnolias were in bloom, this year I'm not going to miss it!
After a quick drive through Spring Grove we decided to head over to Krohn Conservatory, because they were having their annual orchid show this weekend (which I have, surprisingly, never been to). Unfortunately by the time we got their it was almost mid-afternoon and the place was so packed that after circling around several times we couldn't even find parking. So, we scrapped the Krohn idea and decided to proceed to the next thing on our list, Jungle Jim's.
This was one of the few times we've been to Jungle Jim's and not bought a bunch of needless stuff. We had a regular grocery list, plus a couple of extra specialty items (including boba or tapioca peals for bubble tea), and we pretty much stuck to it!
Sunday we had intentions to head back to Krohn and try again, but both of us woke up with headaches and really we just wanted to stay home. So, we spent the day vegging out. We made breakfast and I forced Antoine to watch one of the worst movies ever, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Then I prepped stuff for my first attempt at bubble tea. This involved making a simple syrup, brewing and chilling some oolong tea and boiling some boba, or tapioca pearls.
I made two different kinds, a strawberry smoothie (pictured above) for Antoine and a milk tea (chilled tea, milk, ice and simple syrup, not pictured) for myself. Antoine's was definitely the tastiest, but mine was good too. If you've never had or heard of bubble tea, it's a Taiwanese drink with tapioca pearls, also called boba, at the bottom (that's the black stuff at the bottom of the glass). The tapioca is boiled and soaked in simple syrup. They're kind of soft and chewy. Normally you'd use a wide straw to drink up the tea or smoothie and suck up the tapioca, but I couldn't find jumbo straws anywhere so ended up having to order some online, and I'm waiting on them to arrive.
After bubble tea we watched Life of Pi, which was gorgeous. A couple people had told me they thought the film was beautiful but boring. I don't agree. Yes, I thought the graphics were exquisite, but I also really enjoyed the story. And the lead, Suraj Sharma, was excellent. I'd definitely recommend it.
So, that was my weekend. Things didn't work out as planned, but in the end it was a pretty good weekend! How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? Or did you have fun doing nothing?
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