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Hard to Please Resteraunt Review Mexican Soul Food: Cocina Mexicana May 16, 2008 Growing up in southern California, the family Please made countless trips across the border to visit our sunny neighbors to the south in mah-velous Mexico. We had a couple of avocado trees in the back yard from which Mommy Please (who grew up on the California side of the border) would tie a birthday pinata for me and little Brother Please to whack. Our casa was the neighborhood's casa when Mommy Please whipped up her delicious guacamole with our tree ripened avocados. Even as recently as a few years ago, your gifted food taster spent most of a year in a small fishing village in the southern state of Oaxaca. The culture, weather, and beauty of the country are amazing, and the cuisine is among my very favorites. I had heard about and wanted to try Cocina Mexicana on Prince Street in downtown Lancaster and treated myself to a wide sampling of their food. Authentic is a word too loosely tossed about in the restaurant business, but is happily and aptly applied in the case of this little restaurant across the street from the newly renovated Pennsylvania Academy of Music. Lucila Gomez, originally from Puebla, Mexico, understands that you don't fool around with what works, and her basic menu of Mexican staples pass any authenticity test. (Click to read more) The Cove May 9, 2008 Let's clear this from the table. Mrs. Fussy Please will not be accompanying your dedicated and under-appreciated reviewer in the foreseeable future. We discovered it isn't the best thing for our union -- to eat and talk about food. Relief. Onward. This week, Daddy Please drove up from his suburban Washington home and asked me to select a restaurant. I chose the Cove Fishery & Grill in Eden, off the New Holland Pike, just off 30. (Daddy Please regularly stays at the Eden Resort, so this was convenient for him -- a scant 10 minute easy drive door-to-door.) It was a comfy early Saturday evening when father and scribe arrived at our reserved table with a lovely view of the gentle Conestoga. It was warm enough to sit outdoors on the ample, open deck, but we dined inside. The main dining room was alive, upbeat, and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. That usually indicates the food is pretty good. People aren't usually laughing if the cuisine is bad. (Click to read more) Iron Hill Brewery May 2, 2008 I realize it can't be easy to be married to me. Mrs. Please - Fussy - suffers more than the average domestic partner. I know this. Food criticism is an inherently tyrannical avocation, and sometimes there is spillover. I am usually sorry for my part, but sometimes the apologies come too late, and the Fussy one simply won't dine with me. Such was the circumstance this day. You needn't know particulars. Still, a restaurant needed a review. Although I often prefer dining alone (Sorry, dear; it's true), it looks weird ordering two of everything and leaving a bunch of half-eaten plates. So, after Fussy and I disagreed on a non-food matter, I found myself without her company for dinner. Last week's dining mate, Finicky, was not available, so I called Fastidious. Love me some Fastidious. Best artist in the county, and she, like the other two, knows her food. She agreed to eat with me on the Post's tab. We'd heard and seen about all the development of the northwest portion of the city (Lancaster) and I wanted to try the Iron Hill Brewery on Harrisburg Pike, across the street from Franklin & Marshall College. (Click to read more) Sukhothai With admitted reluctance, your talented scribe must grudge credit to his coarse editors who, alas, have confessed utter ignorance with respect to cuisine, and realize that your humble food taster has more sensitivity in a single bud than is in the entire genetic history's of their respective family's tongues ... combined. Fine. Dispensed. Now can we get on to evaluating food? Thank you. Our stop this week is Sukhothai, a Thai restaurant off Columbia Avenue in Mountville. Fussy, my regular dining companion, was unable to join me on this day, so her friend, Finicky, was my tablemate. Just like my own hellacious jalapeno, Finicky didn't get her name by accident. I am saying the gal has taste, and if I say that, she does. (She also has a Ph.D. and knows more about politics than 99% of university professors in the state. So we had other things to talk about besides food. That was nice.) On this late weekday afternoon, the restaurant was sparsely crowded, so Finicky and I got to choose our table. We were seated, and charmed, by the owner, Khamphong Chanthongthip. (Click to read more) El Serrano Restaurantes OK, so one of the brilliant Post editors barks, "You're going to El Serrano for the first review! You will love it!" With airtight logic like that, how could I go wrong? Guess that's why they're paid the big bucks. On the appointed evening, I informed Mrs. Please, "Fussy" to you and me, that we were going to Latin America for dinner. Fussy is my regular dining companion. She was the only one in the whole college with any level of food discrimination. Plus, she was as hot as a Mexican jalapeno. Ole! El Serrano is not hard to find. It's located on Columbia Avenue, just west of Roherstown Road, and it is enormous and it is beautiful. (Click to read more)

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