The Food Critic

Today I went to lunch with two friends at The Whistling Kettle in Ballston Spa. I kind of wasn't looking forward to it for a variety of reasons. First, I haven't much felt like going anywhere. Second, one of my friends looks really great in that she's slender, in shape, has an attractive hairstyle, and she and her boyfriend live in two homes, Cambridge in summer and Florida in winter. Third, the route to the restaurant involves three traffic rotaries. "Take the first right at the first rotary, the third exit of the second rotary and then right at first exit of the third rotary." I hate most rotaries, especially unfamiliar ones, when I don't know which lane to be in. The GPS would be helpful, but have you ever have it impulsively steer you wrong? It can be helpful but occasionally fickle. But I truly enjoy seeing my old friends, we're all more or less in the same boat. and I wore black pants that didn't make me feel too bulgy. Best of all, we found a simple route that avoided all rotaries and didn't even get lost enroute.
The restaurant is centrally located, has options of dining inside or outside. We chose to be seated inside----we wanted to be able to see each other and the glare of the sun and elder eyes are not such a happy pairing. Inside was crowded, as was the outside area. They take reservations there even for lunch, but we were seated and served right away. Because the decor is mostly wood and bricks, and because the room was full, it was very noisy, so we had to repeat some of our conversation, not that there's anything wrong with our hearing, of course. So many different teas: I chose the daily special, some kind of iced fruity blend. I'm not much of a tea drinker, but it was okay. The others had the special tea and a coffee in its own little pot. The friend who had been there before and had recommended the place had the quiche, as did my other friend. Neither particularly enjoyed their meal, commenting it was rather dry. Both ate it all though, I noticed. Their philosophy is if they pay for it, they're going to eat it. I went out on a limb and had the special of the day 's panini sandwich. It contained cheese, and both ham and bacon and what made it really yummy, apricots. To my surprise I really liked it, and ate it all. The only bad thing about that was they had dessert and I had to skip that part of the meal. But when I got home I ate all the Mr. Goodbar's out of the bag of Hershey's Miniatures stashed in the kitchen cabinet.