On our Cape May girls' weekend, we kept seeing lines waiting outside of George's Place, so we figured it had to be good. We went for brunch on Sunday morning, and started off with fresh fruit smoothies from the next door juice bar (apparently owned by George's son) while waiting in line. A brilliant business idea to keep the line happy and make some dough off of them while they wait. You could get them with or without yogurt, and with either fruit puree or fresh fruit lightly sweetened with honey. When our name was called, they were super nice to seat us and let us wait for our friends (who were still checking out our of hotel down the street).
The food was worth the wait - I got french toast topped with limoncello greek yogurt and fresh blueberries -- beautiful and surprisingly light. My friends also really liked their breakfasts.
George's Place 301 Beach Drive
Cape May, NJ 08204
Over the summer, our local mall, The Princeton MarketFair, shut down their food court to bring in more sit-down eateries, and we were a little wary of what would come. That changed when we found out one of the new places would be Bobby Flay's Burger Palace.
The menu is pretty simple - 10 varieties of burger topping combos which you can get on Angus beef, ground turkey, or chicken breast; two types of grilled cheese; a regular salad, a chopped salad, or a salad with any of the burger varieties on top; fries, sweet potato fries, or onion rings; and 13 flavors of milkshake (include 3 spiked shakes). 
The beef burgers have always come out a perfect medium rare, the meat flavorful, the buns soft and fresh. All in all, a mighty tasty burger.
I couldn't wait to see how the movie would reveal that Jacob had imprinted on Renesme. That scene was even better than I could have hoped, with Bella and Jacob squaring off outside the Cullen house.
The Cullens and their extended vampire family played a major role in this second installment. I loved the two British punk rocker vampires (the one who fell for the blond vamp and the one who didn't even want to be there), played by Lee Pace and John Edward Lee respectively. I also adored the character of Benjamin, who had the ability to play with the elements. Does anyone remember if that character was in the book? Or was he added to the screenplay as a vehicle for his move during the battle scene? I can't remember!
For me, the highlight of the entire movie was the battle scene. In the book, the entire story builds up to the arrival of the Volturi and after hundreds of pages of anticipation, it results in nothing. Though in the movie the battle scene wound up being one of Alice's visions, it was amazing to see! I absolutely loved it. I had my hand over my mouth the entire time, totally scared and whimpering when I thought both Carlisle and Jasper had been killed. They got me good!
There were four of us around the table and we each received a menu and Yuga branded chopsticks. Confession: I don't know how to eat with chopsticks. I've embarrassed myself on many a date pretending that I do, but clearly the jig is up.
To get in the spirit of the evening my dad ordered a Kirin Ichiban beer. You can see him in the photo below being very impatient as I photographed his libation. He really wanted that beer.
Since I was in town for a feast themed weekend, we decided to start it off right and order half of the appetizers on the menu. Our first dish was baby green beans tossed in roasted sesame sauce and garnished with white and black sesame seeds.
The dish was served cold and had the perfect amount of sesame flavor both from the sauce and the crunch from the seeds.
We also ordered the vegetarian spring rolls which were served in rice paper as opposed to the traditional crispy shell. The rolls were stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, avocado, fried tofu, rice noodles and fresh herbs. The rolls arrived on a sea of black bean sauce.
The final plate of round one was the roasted eggplant and tofu salad. No one particularly liked this dish except for my father, so we subtly pushed the dish towards his corner of the table.
For dinner we decided to pick two carnivore dishes and two vegetarian dishes. Though my grandmother is still in complete denial that I don't eat meat, my parents are very accommodating.
Next to arrive were the lemon black bean prawns, which was jumbo shrimp served over chopped asparagus. Our family friend picked out this dish and he said, "The shrimp were cooked very well. They were tasty, but not too spicy and I loved the asparagus."
Then came the ma po tofu, a dish of silken tofu, mushrooms, snow peas and spinach in a spicy bean sauce. I loved the heat in the sauce and the whole dish tasted amazing spooned over brown rice.
Now, I have saved the best dish for last. Our fourth entree choice was the miso ramen. Before this dinner, my only experience with ramen was the kind you buy in bulk in the supermarket and make in your college dorm room in a hot pot.
These noodles were miles long! Our waiter brought us a huge ladle to serve the ramen from the large bowl into personal bowls and you had to lift the ladle at least a solid foot above the bowl to get to the end of even one noodle.
After this incredible Japanese feast, I took a surprise out from my bag and placed it in the center of the table. The night before flying to Miami I picked up my November CSC from EHChocolatier. Rather than devour it myself (as I did with my October share), I decided not to open it and save it for tonight's dinner.
Dinner at Yuga was the perfect way to start my long weekend in Miami. I am now officially on a quest to find new, amazing, ramen places.
Speaking of product placement, what was Neil Lane doing on the show? I like him right where he is supposed to be, on "The Bachelor" franchise.
Did anyone notice the Just Jared blog mention? This entire episode felt like an advertisement.
After a wonderfully successful night, Blair goes to The Empire to find Chuck. He is drinking at the bar and his eyes have that signature Chuck vacancy when he feels defeated and shut down. He says, "We can't be together. I did not fulfill my side of the pact. Just go." Ok, we only have three episodes left and I need them to get back together once and for all. Don't disappoint me, writers!
In a very poetic speech, Dan tells Serena "You've always been the one." Just as I was about to over dose on saccharine, Dan gets a call from Georgina. He quickly whispers into the phone, "I'm writing a Serena chapter." What? Is all of this lovey dovey nonsense with Serena for his book? I feel disgusted by the thought of that.
In previews for next week, it's the Thanksgiving episode. Why are they airing this two weeks past Thanksgiving? Poor planning. A Christmas episode would make more sense.