Popcorn Shrimp...foiled again!

River City Grill, Irvington, New York February 16, 2008

I called ahead to make sure they'd have popcorn shrimp, my absolute favorite food at this casual-fancy Irvington eatery. They had it only sometimes - it was a special. No problem - they had it tonight!

The four of us arrived hungry: L & L, S and myself. The waiter's English was not great, and it was not so enjoyable trying to make ourselves understood. One thing was clear - we wanted the popcorn shrimp appetizer...a lot of it! Ten minutes later, he came back with our drinks - I had a dark beer that was pretty good - and the bad news that they were all out of popcorn shrimp. So we changed our appetizer order to salad and fried calamari. It seems every restaurant now has fried calamari.

The appetizers came. Nothing extraordinary, like the shrimp would have been. I was kind of irritated, to be honest. And then once I had the appetizers, I was kind of full. The entres came. I had the pecan encrusted cod. It came on a bed of pureed butternut squash. There were pecans strewn around and on the cod, but I wouldn't call it encrusted. I was too full to more than pick at my entree, but I did enjoy it the next day for lunch. S. had a crab cake sandwich, which he thought was pretty good.

We didn't have dessert - but headed to my house for some homemade ..... nothing!