The Friday Five, 8/18/23: 5 things I've been up to this week

There are honestly too many delicious food photos to choose from this week, to post only two here, but I have chosen one from each of the places I visited: Vigilante Kitchen (Detroit) and Madam (Birmingham). Vigilante Kitchen invited me to try them, as an influencer, and Madam had been on my list for quite a while to try.

Another busy weekend upcoming: heading to the Michigan RenFest tomorrow, having lunch with a friend on Sunday, and also seeing the Beach Boys at Meadowbrook on Sunday night.

Rapini pesto dish (half portion), Madam, Birmingham
Rapini pesto dish (half portion), Madam, Birmingham

What I've been up to this week:
  1. Having some fabulous dining experiences. On Sunday night, my boyfriend and I tried out Vigilante Kitchen, in Midtown (Detroit)—see my reel here. The restaurant had reached out to me via my Instagram to try them out, and all of the dishes we ate were very good; the standouts for me were the Nashville hot chicken bao buns (and not too spicy, either) and the chocolate hazelnut shaved ice we had for dessert, which was a work of art. 
    On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of meeting a friend at Madam, in Birmingham—it had been on my list for forever to try, and she was coming from Shelby Twp. and I was coming from Farmington Hills so Bham was kind of midway between us. Let's just say there's a reason it won the 2023 Best New Restaurant award from Hour Detroit—everything was exquisite. If I could give a restaurant 6 out of 5 stars I would. Service was perfect, food was delicious (and yes, a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for), and I am hoping to be back at some point for an influencer visit. Standouts were EVERYTHING, pretty much, but if I had to pick a few things, I'd say the steak frites that my friend and I split (plus the rapini pesto dish, pictured above) and the "five shades of chocolate" dessert. They also make everything in-house, from that chocolate dish I just mentioned down to the sourdough bread and seasonal butter starter, which on Tuesday was a cheddar and chives butter. I was very, very impressed with this restaurant overall. 
  2. Attending a "going away" party. A friend of mine is moving to Taiwan for 11 months to work there, and she had a get-together on Saturday for us all to come and say goodbye (for now). We had sushi and Buddy's Pizza and also played some UNO Flip, one of my favorite UNO variations. 
  3. Seeing movies. Last night I saw Strays in the theater and unfortunately I can't recommend it ... it was too over-the-top and raunchy for me (and for context, I enjoy movies like Bridesmaids, The Hangover, and the more recent Good Boys). Yesterday I also watched Someone I Used to Know on Prime, with Alison Brie, and it was really good; I'd give it 4/5 or maybe even 4.5/5, and it's not your "usual" rom-com. During my infusion on Saturday I also checked out Red, White, and Royal Blue on Prime, and that was cute too, I'd probably give it 4/5 stars. 
  4. Watching TV shows. Only Murders in the Building is back, on Hulu, but I watch it with my parents, so I had to wait to watch it with them; Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd are in it this season, too. Physical (AppleTV) is also another show I watch, with my mom, and I didn't even recognize Zooey Deschanel in it—they made her blonde and she looks like a completely different person. Today is the season finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty (Prime) so I'll be watching that, and I binge-watched Dead Ringers on Prime, which was disturbing but really good; Rachel Weisz deserves some sort of award for it. I followed that up with the Dead Ringers movie, too (1988, Jeremy Irons) and although I enjoyed both, the TV series is more memorable, IMO. 
  5. Cooking meals. We had Dinnerly this week and will have Dinnerly next week, too, since they've been sending me a lot of good deals recently. On Wed. night we were going to cook a Pork Vindaloo meal from them but decided to be lazy, since it was already 8pm, and made a Gino's East frozen deep dish pizza instead, from Meijer, which was pretty delicious; we will make the pork recipe on Monday instead. 
Chocolate hazelnut shaved ice with Rice Krispies, Vigilante Kitchen, Detroit
Chocolate hazelnut shaved ice with Rice Krispies, Vigilante Kitchen, Detroit

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