2011 Mar 24 - Good Friends Chinese Buffet

2011 Mar 24 - Good Friends Chinese Buffet
Valley Springs, CA

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Today is not an official Gobo's Lunch Bunch event, but our school mate Pat wanted to try the Chinese Buffet. So as a last minute thing I mentioned at the last Lunch Bunch to see if anyone wanted to join the party. Miles and Ora, Patti and Elsa and her Mom decided to meet up in Valley Springs.
Ora, Pat and Miles as Miles and Ora are the first to arrive

Elsa, her Mom and Patti arrive about 5 minutes after Pat and I got there.
Ora, Miles, Elsa, Mom and Patti


Since it is a buffet we started in shortly after everyone arrived.
Elsa getting her Sweet and Sour Soup


It was cold, windy and rainy today so everyone but me started with soup.
Everyone else had a bowl of soup but my plate is full of food


Elsa's Mom and Elsa



Somebody's first plate of food



Another person's plate


Still one more different plate



This is my second plateful of food


Eating and talking


Talking and eating


The sushi is pretty good for a buffet and a Chinese Buffet at that


They even have 6 different 5 gallon tubs of real ice cream and sherbet for dessert.
I use a soup bowl for my toasted almond ice cream and a couple of small Jin Dui's.


I think almost everyone had a scoop of ice cream.
The regular ice cream dish and some cake


After eating for some time we sat around and shot the breeze for a good long time.


Pat and Patti and I were suppose to ride to Valley Springs and back, but Elsa happened to be close to Patti's home leaving Stockton. So Patti had ridden to Valley Springs with Elsa and Elsa's Mom.

Heading back home though Patti is riding with me but she wants to stop in Lockeford at a grocery store that has a Deli that sells great Garlic Chicken. So we stop at the store in Lockeford when Patti finally remembers that the name of the grocery store with the Garlic Chicken is named Rinaldi's. She realizes that we are not in the correct store. But I know that Rinaldi's Market is in Linden and not Lockeford. So we wind through the back way into Linden and the Deli inside Rinaldi's before heading home.


~end .

2011 March 10 - Cariba Carribean Restaurant

2011 March 10 - Cariba Caribbean Restaurant
Stockton, CA

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Today we do not wander far since we are meeting at a relatively new Caribbean Restaurant in Stockton. We will be eating at Cariba Caribbean Cuisine.
The front of the restaurant


Although it says open 6 days a week they are open from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Sunday so they are open seven days a week.
They are open 7 days a week

Hours:

Mon - Fri: 10AM - 9PM
Sat: 10AM - 10PM
Sun: 2 PM - 8PM

The restaurant has an airy feeling as the tables are not crowded together. There are a couple of different sections to the seating also.
One section of the restaurant


I go outside to phone Linda and Patti as they are now fashionably late. I find that they are just running a bit behind schedule.
Here are Linda and Patti who are normally quite punctual


Today we have a special guest joining Gobo's Lunch Bunch, Ron who I found quite accidentally on Facebook. He was a classmate of many of the Lunch Bunch in 1952-1953. We have not seen him in person in over 57 years. Grant School was shut down in June of 2009.
Click on the picture to view it in a bigger size. That is Ron standing next to Ken. Grandma could not make today's lunch.


We are all here and getting ready to order.
Ron, Gobo with the cap, Patti, Ora - Miles, my empty seat, Linda and Ken seated clockwise from the left.


More talking than ordering, since it has been awhile since some of us had seen each other


Ron, Gobo, Patti and Ora


Although they are listed separately all Dinner items can be ordered at lunch time.
This is the menu


The Conch Fritters are not listed

Then the food comes out. But first are the salads for those that ordered a Dinner.
Nice fresh salad



The braised ox tails with rice and peas Very good I had a bite or two


The jerk chicken dinner also very good



Braised short ribs with rice and peas



Crab cakes served over a very spicy hot sauce


The roast beef melt with fries



The jerk chicken sandwich


It was about 1:00 PM when we ordered and some of us were here shortly before 12:30 PM.
I checked the clock in my car when the last 6 of us left and it was almost 4:00 PM. And the wait for the food was not very long. We just sat around and BS'ed for a long time.
Just finishing up eating



The plates are pretty empty


But then Ken decides to have dessert. He has the Banana Foster which he said was delicious.
Boy that looked good but I was too full to try one

As I said above we hung out in the back section for a couple of hours just visiting. The owners, Ian and Ayesha Paige never asked us to hurry up and leave.

Another good lunch for Gobo's Lunch Bunch.

~end
.