Momnesia

Purging my other blog

Sorry for all the food-related posts, but I'm purging my old blog from when I thought I could be a food writer. It got boring after a while, and I haven't posted anything in months. So here's another story.

There's a lot to be said about "beach casual," a state of being where your hair never quite dries, your skin always feels a little tight from sun and salt, and a neverending supply of mysterious and sandy grit remains 'round your nether-regions... which are my favorite regions, by the way.

Something at the beach keeps the smell of fish from being offensive - the briny air? the unending supply of alcohol? sunstroke? Whatever the combination, I always find myself craving Los Frutas del Mar - oysters, shrimp, any kind of fish - although non-shellfish that are also non-salmon don't usually register in my Craving Index.

Perhaps that's the draw of Rhinehart's. The picnic tables, sandy floors and weathered wood takes me back to camping in the Keys - without thieving raccoons rampaging through our tent in the dead of night. Tony's terrified face is forever burned onto my retina.

Anyway, besides the prices (cheap!) and the attire (just cover the nether-regions!), there is a strikingly simplistic menu comprised almost entirely of seafood, with two chicken dishes and one beef dish thrown in. I don't like places like The Cheesecake Factory, where the menus remind me of my $95 college Geology textbook from which I have never recovered and I'm sorry, Dr. Breuer, but everything still looks like granite.

Most everything is fried - it's okay! you're at the beach! you'll swim it off - and that would normally be a turnoff except for the batter they use. It's awesome. I swear, if Rhinehart's served deep-fried balls of crunchy batter, I'd eat a whole plate of it and thank them for the heart attack later. It's an adventure!

Go and get a bucket of beer - real beer, not the schmancy-diet-light-low-carb-crap, and set aside your cariologist's stern recommendations for the evening. Butter won't clog your arteries if it's melted.