Had a weird meal at the newly-opened Donut Villa this past Tuesday.
Here’s the setup: Stoopid-a$$ me at the beginning of the school year signed up to provide first Wednesday of the month staff lunch at Spring Onion’s tiny school, thinking “oh this might be fun.” Usually 2 people sign up but not for my week, so it was all me for the 1 March lunch, with my work piling on top of my head. B tried to support but just tssked. The staff is small (~20) but I’ve never cooked for that many people by myself. I wanted to do Korean and have a menu that would accommodate dietary stuff (sometimes I wish we were all cavepeople and ate everything). And then we had an unanticipated effing snow day on Tuesday for no good reason, which meant work/Spring Onion entertaining/staff lunch.
I made bibimbap and japchae gluten-free/vegan, dishes which are both PITAs due to lots of separate ingredients cooked separately. So, by Tuesday dinnertime, I was DONE. We walked to our local pub, Heights Pub, only to find that it was closed for a private event. I remembered reading about Donut Villa in the Globe so, although we were trying to avoid the car, we drove down to Arlington Center. This is what we found: not many tables occupied (not surprising for a wet Tuesday), contractor still working inside (which didn’t bother us), annoying lighting (LED recessed lighting that were too bright and white), earnest but a little clueless service (B ordered a Lone Pine Oh-J draft beer and received the Lone Pine beer that was on draft alongside a glass of orange juice). He got and enjoyed a fried chicken sandwich, SO had a French toast/bacon/scrambled eggs/toast dinner (his first time eating and enjoying bacon). My vegan breakfast bowl-thingy with veggie sausage and veggies was an abomination. There was some weird gloop all over the whole thing that I couldn’t get past. I brought it home, with the thought of re-purposing or at the very least, composting. We’ll wait a while before we return. The server was very nice and appropriately apologetic. No photos because it was just a weird, sad dinner and taking photos would’ve heightened that mood, ya know?
I’m taking advantage of a slow work day today by making a vat of veggie chili whilst listening to De La Soul.