Bali Village Chinese Restaurant, Wyoming, R.I.

On our way back to Washington Monday, we stopped in Wyoming, Rhode Island, for lunch at Bali Village Chinese Restaurant. This little family-operated place was quite a pleasant surprise. The food, all freshly prepared to order, was quite tasty.

Ryan had the sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. The chicken arrived piled high on a pedestal dish, and was quite pretty with all the different, vibrant colors. I had the spicy chicken with mushrooms. It, also, was good, and there was a very ample quantity of chicken slices in the dish.




If you're ever driving on Interstate 95 through Rhode Island and find yourself around the town of Wyoming, stop in at Bali Village. You'll be surprised at the food.

Hanover Inn, Hanover, N.H.

Immediately after the commencement ceremony at Dartmouth Sunday, we headed across the street to the college-owned Hanover Inn for their graduation buffet, where we were lucky enough to have reservations, as the place is no where near large enough to accommodate everyone at the ceremonies. It was all buffet, with no menu service that day. While $45 per person for a buffet isn't all that unusual for special events in Washington, D.C., I thought it rather expensive for the tiny town of Hanover, and without denigrating the food, I didn't see anything all that special.

Here are a few pictures of their buffet offerings.

Murphy's on the Green, Hanover, N.H.

After picking up Ryan's mother from the airport in Manchester Saturday afternoon, once we got her checked in to the dormitory and everyone freshened up and changed clothes, we all (with Brian) went to a celebratory dinner at Murphy's on the Green in Hanover in the shop area just across the street from the Dartmouth campus.

Murphy's is one of those typical, upscale bars and restaurants that are so frequently seen these days near college campuses, and, as expected, included a lot of Dartmouth memorabilia in their decor. Our booth happened to be located on the narrow passageway alongside the bar and between the front dining room and the kitchen, so there was a lot of traffic back and forth. We also got a good view of the goings-on in the bar through the half-window wall that divided us.

While Ryan's mother and I drank iced tea, Ryan got a glass of Blue Fish Riesling white wine and Brian got the first of his two gin and tonics. Brian made quite a hobby of drinking gin and tonics everywhere we went all weekend long, so he insisted that I take a photograph of his G & T at Murphy's. Amusingly, I don't think he really liked it that much. He's very particular about the proportions of gin and tonic water; when we were packing up Ryan's apartment, Brian was having a fit because he couldn't find a jigger with which to measure whilst he was preparing himself a cocktail.

Anyway, on to the food.....Ryan's mother started with a house salad and Brian started with a Caesar salad.




I had a cup of a nice New England style clam chowder, and Ryan got a big basket of sweet potato fries that he shared with the table.




For our main courses, Ryan picked the shrimp fettucine. It looked okay, but it was definitely the American restaurant version of the dish, not an authentic alfredo sauce.



Ryan's mother had the Angus sirloin steak with a baked potato. It looked good and I could have eaten one myself.



Brian had a very lovely grilled rainbow trout resting on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes that he just raved about. We also had a prolonged argument about his vegetable, him saying they were scallions and me saying they were long green beans. I, of course, was right, and he eventually had to admit that scallions don't split in half and have little bean-shaped seeds inside.



I had the meatloaf and mashed potatoes with the same "scallion-y" green beans. The meatloaf was a nice touch of comfort food.



We opted not to do dessert, as we were headed directly to the Graduation Gala, where there were to be plenty of desserts and other goodies.

The Hop at Dartmouth, Hanover, N.H.

Saturday we had our adventures with campus food. We can't really call it "dorm" food, since, like many schools these days, there is no cafeteria in a dormitory building but rather the students all go to a central eating area or food court. Ryan still had about $150 left on his meal plan for the term, so we decided to try to use it all up before the end of the weekend. We essentially accomplished the task.....he left with a balance of fourteen cents.

After inspecting the menu choices and opportunities, I can see why Ryan, Brian, Riley, and all the others at Dartmouth have slowly been gaining weight. It's a dietician's nightmare. I think everything was either deep fried or covered in cheese or was either beef or pork. Or all of the above. Vegetables and salads were scarce. It's worse than back in Oklahoma!

For breakfast Saturday, Ryan had a wrap with what looked like eggs and the insides of a Philly cheesesteak. The portion size was definitely two or three servings. I had an omelette stuffed with cheese, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and bacon, and then a pistachio muffin that had a raw sugar topping.




At lunch, Brian had a tuna salad sandwich on a sub roll that he didn't really like and Ryan had an enormous sub laden with sliced luncheon meats and cheeses.




I had one of the worst taco salads I think I've ever had (and I've seen more lettuce on a sandwich) served on a greasy (see the shine in the picture below?), over-cooked tortilla shell. This was not one of the more auspicious dining experiences I've ever endured.



Yesterday just before abandoning town, we popped in for more food, though it was much of the same. I had a turkey club that wasn't too bad (if you don't count calories and fat grams) and a little containerful of tuna, pea, and pasta salad. Once everyone had eaten their fill, Ryan filled up bag after bag with chips and junk food to use up the balance of his food account. I just hope he doesn't eat all that junk food this week!

Three Tomatoes Trattoria, Lebanon, N.H.

Friday night, while I was up at Dartmouth College for my nephew's graduation, Brian took Ryan, Riley, Riley's friend Ray, and me to dinner in the nearby town of Lebanon to Three Tomatoes Trattoria. Lebanon, Hanover, and nearby Norwich, Vt., form the cultural oasis in this part of the world, so Three Tomatoes is one of several charming and busy restaurants in the area.

Riley and Ray started with Caesar salads and Brian and I chose the zuppa del giorno, a tomato-bread soup. I thought it nicely flavorful without being too sweet. It didn't have that much bread in it, though, so I ended up "accidentally" dropping little pieces of the crusty bread basket bread in the soup. Meanwhile, Brian drank a couple of gin and tonics, and Ryan drank root beer.




Brian got the chicken parmeggiano on linguine for his dinner and Ray had the chicken saltimbocca. They are both actually similar dishes, though the saltimbocca is topped with sauteed spinach and has a whole bunch more vegetables instead of pasta.




Riley had penne al fruiti di mare, with no shrimp (his request) and more squid, mussels, and clams. It really looked good, and I noticed a lot of baby squid in the dish. Ryan got meatballs on penne.




I made an interesting combination of smaller dishes for my main course. First, I had the beet and arugula salad, with quarters of roasted beets, toasted pecans, and crumbles of feta cheese on a bed of bitter arugula dressed in a lightly sweet balsamic vinaigrette. I thought this was a lovely salad, with a nice balance of flavors and all of the "taste" groups. Next I had their appetizer serving of Prince Edward Island mussels baked with bread crumbs and Italian herbs.




Desserts were fun. Riley and I both had cannoli. Ryan had coconut cake, and Ray had a hazelnut espresso cake.





Brian did a cappuccino (his very first, he said) and a neat little stir-rod with crystalized sugar candy on it.



We really enjoyed Three Tomatoes. It was a busy place, but we had excellent service and the food was quite tasty. If anyone ever makes it to that part of the country, it's well worth a try.

Here's Ray with his Kody Pose™ (Kody's famous, even in New Hampshire!):