For a little dinner break on the way back from Arizona, we stopped in Rancho Mirage to hit up the grandparents for a meal. They thought Chinese food sounded good, so we headed to Lotus Chinese Restaurant to see what they had to offer. The place was pretty full when we arrived, so I assumed it must be pretty good despite being in the middle of a desert. We grabbed our seats and got a look at the menu, which was pretty typical American Chinese fare.

After a short perusal, I decided to get the kung pao chicken. This is definitely an unvegan favorite that rarely seems to have vegetables. This one was a little unique, having water chestnuts in it, which I’ve always thought were awesome (despite not actually being a nut).

Unfortunately, rather than add a new dimension to this dish, these water chestnuts proved to be the undoing of my dinner. Hot damn there were a lot of them. So many, in fact, that they overwhelmed every other ingredient in this dish by at least 2-1. Not only that, the water chestnuts and chicken were cut so similarly it was hard to tell the difference just by looking. I found myself digging for chicken for lengthy periods of time and still coming up shorthanded. Then when I did actually find chicken, I was still disappointed because the sauce just wasn’t very good. It wasn’t very spicy and really had very little flavor aside from some saltiness.

Oh well, I’ve never really thought I could get good Chinese food in the desert and Lotus certainly has not changed my mind.

EDIT: This Mimi’s is gone, but not forgotten. Also, there are other Mimi’s that can drop you an early bird special.

Recently I paid a visit to the desert, aka Rancho Mirage, to visit my grandparents. For dinner one night we headed to Mimi’s Cafe, which is apparently a chain that I had never heard of and was very appropriate for a meal with the grandparents. This was all new to me, though, so I was excited to see an entirely new menu of good food. It was obviously prepared with the health-conscious in mind, since it had its own little healthy section. Some of this section was even unvegan, but I was not in the mood for health. Instead, I found my way to their seasonal menu and their Brie Chicken.

This was some chicken breast with melted brie and served with vegetables and a choice of potato. Being the difficult, yet correct person that I am, I asked if I could sub something in place of the seasonal vegetables. The only option was another potato, so I ended up ordering my chicken with a load of carbs known as french fries and mashed potatoes.

The chicken came pretty quickly, but was missing the mashed potatoes. I let the waitress know and she dashed back to the kitchen to bring me back a full plate of mashed taters. Now I was ready to attack. The chicken was pretty tasty, but a little dry. The brie was a nice touch for flavor, but it kind of seemed like a couple slices of brie had been tossed on the chicken as a sort of afterthought. Fries and mashed potatoes were standard, in a good way.

Mimi’s seemed to be a pretty reliable place for food. It’s not going to bring anything to the table that hasn’t been done before, but it does a good job of serving some decent, standard food.

For my last meal in Rancho Mirage, I headed to The Right Bank. Why it isn’t called the Left Bank boggles my mind, but at least it isn’t called the West Bank.

As I sat down and looked at the menu, I couldn’t get over how expensive the place was, but then my grandparents revealed to me that just about ever night they offer buy one get one free for entrees. This was a pretty good deal, so I didn’t feel so terrible about ordering something decent.

I decided to get the Almond Chicken , which was only said to be topped with cranberry relish, so I figured it was a safe bet. Every dish comes with carrot croquettes, some sort of veggie soup and salad. This was a bit disappointing, as none of these fit into my eating regiment. Nonetheless, I had a real meal to look forward to. When my meal came out, I was actually impressed by the looks of it, at least aside from the vegetable garnishings that would go untouched. The chicken was actually fully encrusted in almonds. I had never seen this with almond chicken before and it was pretty impressive looking. The almost added a nice crunch to the chicken, kind of like shake and bake but much fancier and crunchier.

In the end, my main course left me fully sated. It would have been nice if it had come with something other than vegetables, but I guess when everything is two for one, I can’t offer up too much of a complaint.

One of the nights that I was visiting my grandparents in Rancho Mirage, we went to a restaurant called Thai Smile. There was a 20 minute wait, but I was assured that it would be worth it. Besides, I really had nothing better to do.

While waiting, we checked out the menu so we could order as soon as we got our table. It really took me a long time to decide what to order because the Chicken Spicy Peanut Sauce looked great except that it had green beans and peppers, while I could just create my own dish, but none of the customizable items looked as good as the chicken dish.

When we did eventually take our seats, I asked the waiter if I could get the Chicken

Spicy Peanut Sauce without the vegetables and he told me they couldn’t, because it was already mixed together. This was disheartening, but I took the chance anyway, hoping the vegetables would be big enough to avoid. My risk paid off, and when my food arrived I found it pretty easy to eat without the vegetables.

The chicken tasted really good and had just enough spice in it to make my nose run and my forehead sweat, but didn’t sacrifice any of the peanut flavor to do so.

Through my sweat and semi-runny nose, Thai Smile’s food really did make me smile. I would definitely go back next time I’m in Rancho.

While visiting my grandparents in Rancho Mirage, they took me to a great little breakfast place called Palms Cafe in Palm Desert. Knowing my grandparents would never lead me astray, I was pretty excited.

We took a seat outside and perused the menu. As most cafes go, they had a pretty good collection of food, but I sought out my favorite breakfast food, the omelet. Since I don’t think I had ever seen turkey offered in an omelet before, I ordered one with turkey and cheese. I also got some bacon on the side.

It came out pretty quickly and was one of the most interesting omelets I’ve ever seen. It almost looked like a breakfast burrito aside from the yellowish color the eggs produced. Inside, it was still similar to a burrito, with the ingredients kind of tossed in instead of cooked into the egg. This was actually pretty nice and a unique way of making an omelet. The turkey was good, although a bit salty and in chunks, rather than slices, which was also a nice change.

The best part, though, was the bacon. It was thick-cut and really crispy. It was so thick, actually, that it didn’t curl up like bacon seems to do when it gets really crispy.

I would definitely recommend the Palms Cafe for anyone looking for a good breakfast in Palms Springs. It offers a nice twist on the norm, but delivers it pretty well.

It seems that the only three things to do in The Desert are swim, golf and eat. This is by no means a bad thing, as there is no shortage of good restaurants.

With my father and two grandparents, I went to Piero’s Acqua Pazza, an Italian-ish restaurant. I say “-ish” because they offer much more than traditional Italian food. The night I was there, they had a three-course special, which included a starter, main course and dessert. The price was unbeatable because it included the filet mignon, which actually cost more on the regular menu without the other courses. A true meat-loving family, we all wanted the filet. After making that choice, I checked out the starters, which to my behest, only included vegetable dishes. I scoffed at this and decided it was still worth the three-course meal.

There was still one last hoop to jump through, the filet came with a side of mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley.  Medley is a term that I only wish to apply to music and if this was some sort of vegetable music, I imagine it would have been cacophonous. I asked for it medley-free.

When my food came, the cacophonous medley of vegetables was splayed across my plate. In disgust I sent it back and it returned with a bonus scoop of mashed potatoes. This was nice, but not enough to make me forget. The filet was delicious and had some sort of a peppercorn sauce. It also passed my filet test, which is to take a steak knife and saw it back and forth on top of the filet without applying any pressure. The mashed potatoes also found their way into the inner recesses of my stomach. For dessert, I washed it all down with vanilla ice cream.