Grandpa Gotta Eat—Olive Garden: Finally!

I can't say I've eaten meals from every country in the world, but the ones I have, I pretty much like. There are favorites of course—it's good I like Mexican food since my wife is from there and cooks wonderful Mexican dishes—and among them, I find strangely enough, is Italian food.

Why is it strange? I don't know. I have no Italian blood in my family (most are from Denmark, England and then Poland), and although my mother made homemade pizza and spaghetti, that was basically the end of the Italian fare.

But the more I try, the more I like it, and the more, of course, I gain.

Those of you who have been following my blog, at least for the last month or so, will know that we've been trying to celebrate our youngest son's birthday for a couple of weeks now. The first attempt was a no-go because my oldest grandson (oldest son's son) had to go to the children's hospital in Portland to get his small intestine untelescoped. (Who knew, right?)

Well, last Saturday was the next target, but guess what? What? The oldest grandchild got sick! She started vomiting around 4:30 AM or so, and continued throughout the day into the late afternoon.

However, lest you think that history was repeating itself, she didn't have the abdominal pain, or fever, and she was pretty much okay other than the throwing up. So, her parents kept her hydrated, offered her some simple things to eat later in the day, and she turned out to be fine.

Unfortunately, that meant kiboshing the family dinner out again. We didn't want to invite the rest of the family over, either, in the event she was infectious.

Well, I've commented that it's been a long time since I've been to Olive Garden, and I've also chronicled my attempts to get there since. This time, come heck or high water, I wasn't going to be denied.

So, what did I do?

I got permission to take my youngest with me to the restaurant, eat there, and bring back food for my wife and his wife. Where'd I get the permission from? My wife and his wife.

Since it was the second time we were going to go, members of the household began to say that Olive Garden was cursed, and shouldn't even be mentioned. I, on the other hand, thought if anything was cursed, it was celebrating my son's birthday, but I kept my mouth shut.

The Olive Garden closest to us is always packed with people. No matter what time from the moment they open until they close. We went got there a little after 4pm to avoid the larger crowds and still didn't get seated immediately. Fortunately, it was only a wait of a few minutes, but still. Annoying! Nowhere else we go has such problems.

I guess I'm not the only one who likes Italian food. Or what passes for mass produced Italian food in the U.S.

I didn't know what I was going to have for an entree, so I had to pick that after looking over the menu. I did know what I wanted before it—with an option of soup or salad, I went for soup. What kind? Chicken and Gnocchi.

I really like the broth and the dumplings. Very delicious. I've noticed though, that I usually get more dumplings the first time around, and more chicken and less dumplings the second time around. Third time, if I get that far, mostly broth.

I probably should have just gone for the unlimited soup and salad and that would have sufficed, because I really like the soup and probably could have downed three our four bowls of it.

Instead, I opted for an entree with the soup, and ended up with two bowls before my main course arrived.

What was it? I'm glad you asked. It's called Lasagna Mia, and as the name might suggest to those who know Spanish, Italian or some other Romance language, it means My Lasagna. As in, I got to pick the sauce and whether any meat went with it.

I chose Alfredo for the sauce, and braised beef for the meat. The lasagna, though, wasn't the typical squared variety, but what they refer to as a four cheese lasagna rollata. To me, it tasted like fettuccini that had been rolled up and layered, with at least ricotta cheese in between.

When it came to the table, it looked like a stack of pancakes.

That's where the similarities ended, as far as taste. It was good, though, really good, and had I known entirely what it was going to taste like, I would have gone with a traditional meat sauce instead and called it good. While I like all the major ingredients separately or in different variations, it was not the best version. That didn't stop me from vacuuming my plate (mainly because the waiter took my bowl away after the second helping of soup).

In addition to the soup and main course, I also imbibed raspberry lemonade, with free refill. I usually like to get some flavor of Italian soda, but I didn't see it on the menu.

Meanwhile, my son also ate Chicken and Gnocchi soup and ordered the cheese ravioli with meat sauce. He normally gets the stuffed chicken marsalla, which he really likes, but wanted to branch out a little bit. He wishes he would have eaten the other, but I think he still liked the ravioli.

He wasn't able to eat all of his along with the soup, so he brought his home.

The girls got spaghetti from the taken home menu. Basically, they have food ready to go when you order it.

With all the trouble that it took to get to Olive Garden, not one untoward thing happened to us whatsoever. We had a pleasant time, our waiter was good and timely, the food was delicious, we got up and back without any problems, and the granddaughter got better on her own.

So, lesson learned?

Just do it!

Go eat! Leave the rest of the family at home. Don't wait.

That's what I got out of it.

_{Images courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen}

Grandpa Gotta Eat is published in conjunction with Food Fight Friday, a weekly contest for food lovers everywhere. If you'd like to participate and possibly win some SBI, merely do all of the following: write about food, post it on Friday (your time), use the fff tag, and then be sure to go read and comment on other posts. I'm sure the authors would appreciate an upvote or resteem, too, if you see fit to do so. You will also get a chance to pick the winner by voting in the comments on a Food Fight Friday post. Enjoy!