Playing Post Office. And croquettes!

Thursday, February 25

I’m going to vent about a frustrating place in Lansdale where I spend money.  But wait!  Isn’t this supposed to be an upbeat blog about shopping in Lansdale?  To entice others to shop in Lansdale?  Shouldn’t I refrain from negativity?

Sometimes you gotta call it like you see it.

This is an airmail stamp.
Something the Lansdale Post Office
has been out of for weeks.

And the entity I’m about to complain about is one you hear a lot of gripes about.  All over the country.  The United States Post Office.

Now don’t take this to be a complaint about the people.  They are nice and hard working.  I’m complaining about the postal service itself.

You may remember a few weeks ago I was on some errands for my mom.  And she wanted air mail stamps.  And the post office was out of air mail stamps.  Well, she needs more.  This lady writes a lot of letters to overseas destinations, let me tell you!

The post office is still out of air mail stamps.

To me, that just seems silly.  Sure, you can cobble together two different denominations to make up the $1.20 postage.  But how hard can it be to provide the post offices with the items they need to sell?

I was, however, quite happy when I went into the post office, and there was no line.  No one waiting at all.  Perhaps a little less happy when I noticed there was no one behind the counter, either.  She eventually came back.

Does anyone remember the kid’s game – Post Office?  It involved kissing?  Why would anyone name a kissing game after the post office?  Most probably the most inefficient way to get kissed there is.

Vintage post card

Lansdale Shopping Score:  1

Mom’s second chore?  She needed a few bottles of white wine.  Because if you go visit my mom, you will be offered lots of food, and a nice glass of wine.  That’s the way she rolls.

Not overly fancy wine.  But good enough wine.  So a trip to the State Store in the Hillcrest Shopping Center.  Still not as good as the one on Valley Forge Road, but good enough for today’s purpose.

I did see an interesting display of something called Charmsoju.  $4.19 a bottle (375 ml).    The guy at the checkout says it sells like hotcakes.  But didn’t really know much about it.  So I looked it up – "Korea's most popular alcoholic beverage" and the top selling alcohol in the world,according to Wikipedia.  Might have to try a bottle!  Not for mom.  For me.

Lansdale Shopping Score:  2

And then we get to the highlight of my Shopping Lansdale day.  I fulfilled my chicken croquette desire.

We had dinner for the first time at the KoffeeKorner on North Broad Street.  I was a little nervous, because I’m picky about my chicken croquettes.  I had high hopes, and didn’t want them to be dashed.

Simple dinner menu.  Ten items.  But I was there for just one.  The chicken croquettes.  The best deal is the full meal, which includes a soup or salad.  I had the French onion soup.  Hot, tasty, and covered in lots of cheese.  So far, so good.

Good, attentive service.  A light crowd (we were the only ones there when we got there).

And then dinner came.  A perfect plate of American comfort food.  Just like grandma would have served you in the sixties.  Bonus points for the fact that all of the food items came in separate dishes – a huge thing for folks who don’t like their foods to touch.

A bowl of mixed veggies on one side, and the required mashed potatoes and gravy on the other.  And the mashed potatoes had just a few small lumps in them – just like grandma’s – to let you know they were homemade.

But the proof is in the pudding.  Or in this case, the proof was in the chicken croquettes.  But that makes for a weird cliché.

Would the croquettes be croquetty?  And by that I mean they need to be cone shaped, have a crispy, deep-fried breaded crust, and have a perfectly seasoned, smooth, yet with a few chunks of chicken filling to let you know it was made with real chicken, and covered, but not swimming in chicken gravy.

And the verdict?  They were croquetty.  Up to my high standards croquetty.  Very good and satisfying croquetty.  Worth going to Koffee Korner for dinner croquetty.

Now if I could only convince Microsoft Word that croquetty is a word.  Enough with the squiggly red line!

So – go to the Koffee Korner for dinner!  It’s worth the trip for simple yet satisfying comfort food at great prices.

Lansdale Shopping Score:  3

So the recap:

THREE opportunities to shop/eat in Lansdale met.

Let’s see what today brings!