Small Town, Big events

Life in our small town (officially it is a city, with an official population of 900) has always been uneventful and ordinary. That changed officially two weeks back, when we started to have a mini-series of break-ins. First, cars parked on the Main street were broken in to and valuables stolen. Most people do not lock their cars and actually the city police put out a Crime Bulletin that was posted on the local banks, stores and the library warning people about the thefts and to lock the cars!

In what were unrelated incidents, the public library was broken in and a whole bag of DVDs were stolen. The next day, cigarettes were stolen from the food liner and a work area was also vandalized. Though the car incidents were regarded to be carried out by bored out of high-school students, the library, being a federal property as altogether a different issue. There was nothing else to talk about in the town other than these crimes. The culprit was caught within a week with all the stolen DVDs on him (?) and apparently he was not from our town (just someone staying with family in town for a while). What a sigh of relief from everyone that it is not one of our own! By the way, this is the first crime we know of in our town in the last (almost) two years.

Back with the Grand Isle Bananas

The spring semester went by faster than I expected and being at home in the summer, there is so much going on and a post has been long overdue on this blog. Before continuing on with our South Trip, I thought I will ease into writing with recent excitements.

Shankar and I went to Eau Claire (city about 55 miles from where we live), to get the car's oil changed - yes, we have to go that far to get the car serviced and for everything else. We also had plans to get groceries, get Amy groomed professionally and have a nice dinner. There is a local dining guide for the Chippewa Valley and I have noticed that one of the best desserts to get in town is the Grand Isle Bananas from Stella Blues. Stella Blues is a Cajun restaurant & we haven't been there before. I had called once to ask how late they are open to go for dessert, but never made it that far. We always end up in the Mall part of town and hardly make it to Down town, Eau Claire.

The place was a pleasant surprise. On the bar counter was a huge metal 'Ganesh' statue - quite unexpected. We were seated immediately and since we went pretty early (~5.45 pm) and had a whole lot of things to take care in town, we skipped the drinks. We had Sweet Potato Fries, with a chipotle mayo that had the kick of habenaro, a simple Cajun Pasta - vegetables and fettucine in a creamy cajun sauce and ofcourse, the Grand isle Bananas. The Sweet Potato Fries was really good, the pasta was nothing unusual, but twe liked the spices. The dessert was awesome :) Bananas were fried in a cinnamonny - buttery - rum sauce, with a huge portion of what I am going to call a Banana Nut Bread, Vanilla Ice Cream, Whipped cream and caramel drizzled on top. Need I say more!