Kudzu Recap

Dinner was excellent!! We had lots of fun with the college roommates and my sister - and the male partners of both.

Before we went, husband and I walked around the college campus (me generating three different blisters from my cheap sandals). We ended up at my sister's apartment where I got starving and had an apple. It looked like this!



Then we hit our favorite bar, The Brickhouse. Most of the others got drinks, but I knew I wanted one at dinner and should just hold off a bit. If we'd had an hour to kill, I would have got something, but since we were only there for about 20 minutes, I knew I wouldn't miss a beer. I had a few sips of the husbands and a taste of my friends'.

Dinner started off with ONE GLASS of wine!! GO ME!! I wanted a second when I finished this first but I knew once my entree came I wouldn't notice. I somehow still feel a little dehydrated this morning, but maybe I just didn't drink enough water in general. This is the wine half consumed, but it was a pretty small glass to begin with so I'm counting it as 4 oz.



Had a slice of bread and a half (probably about an oz. equiv.) with some of this amazing sun-dried tomato oil. It tasted like fresh pizza!



The waitress brought us an apertif of a strawberry-creme "soup" with apple and lime in it. It was delicious!



I got a salad to start - strawberries, peaches, candied pecans, crusted goat's cheese with a vanilla-bean vinegarette. Not the best vanilla dressing I've had (one with vanilla oil at Pewter Rose was fabulous - this was yogurt based but still good). But the salad was delicious! I had some help from the husband finishing it.



And just for the record, I had 2 small spoonfuls of husband's southwestern soup. It looked like this!!!!



My entree was pimento-cheese and crab stuffed prawns topped with a corn mixture, all over a cornbread "thing." They were a bit disappointing (the toppings made the cornbread all soggy and I wish the pimento cheese hadn't been so "watered down" with mayo) but I still ate too much!! I had 3 of the 4 shrimp and about 50% of the rest. Husband polished off the leftovers :)



And for dessert.......which I only got because we split it 4 ways :) It was a chocolate layer cake saturated with chocolate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Very small for American portions, but probably for the best : ) It was gone in literally 30 seconds.



Kudzu's food was excellent, but the service was horrible. We waited 10 minutes after sitting down for our menus, the waitress was less than friendly, things were slow, drinks were slow to come out. I think they thought we were a young group who wouldn't tip well, which was probably true after such bad service. Had I just been with the husband I suspect we'd have been treated like king and queen. Very disappointing. I'd still go back though, because the menu and food were very good. I'd give it a B- overall; it would have gotten an A- if the service had improved.

Calorie-wise, I'd give myself an A-. I stuck to one drink, resisted more bread than 1 slice, chose a healthyish salad, and didn't clean my plate (or other people's, which I've been known to do!). I could have chosen a less fattening entree, and of course I could have done without my 3 bites of dessert, but all-in-all, I did pretty well.

Add to the report about 4 oz of beer and some bites of husband's gnocci entree.

Calorie estimate: (This is just ballparked - I hope I remembered everything!) I based the shrimp on Calorie King entries for "crab-stuffed shrimp" but mine could have been more. I have no way of knowing, so I'm going with the following:

Apple	80
Wine	100
Beer sips	50
Bread	75
Dipping oil	40
Apertif	30
Salad fruit	30
Goat's cheese	25
Pecans	70
Dressing	25
Spinach	2
Soup bites	30
Shrimp	250
Cornbread/topping	200
Gnocci bites	50
Cake	150
	1207

For the whole day:

2262 calories
-725 exercise (workout + walking at mall (60 mins slow) + walking over campus (45 mins)

= 1537 net.

Right under my 1600 goal for maintenance.

Off to eat breakfast!