29 April 2010 Japanese food, bar food, and live music

29 April 2010 Japanese food, bar food, and live music


Tonight, we will be privileged to see our friend, David Gans, perform live in Asheville.

Any trip to Asheville, about an hour to an hour and a half offers the opportunity to dine at a good restaurant. Asheville has a much more cosmopolitan makeup than does Johnson City. The selection of restaurants is highly superior to that of N.E. TN. So far, we’ve been to a Tapas restaurant, a Mediterranean restaurant, a Japanese restaurant and a noodle shop/Asian restaurant that were worth revisiting. We have also been to an Italian/Greek restaurant that was lacking in quality and a noodle/Asian fusion restaurant that was more about impressing the guests with how smugly superior the waiters are than about food quality, variety, and service. We won’t be returning to the last two.

Tonight we will dine at our regular time on Asian/Asian fusion. Our memory of our last trip to Doc Chey’s, was that we wanted to try more from the menu. Tonight we will.

People with diabetes seem to do best when they eat at regular times rather than not developing a schedule that helps them maintain glucose levels. Gloria and I eat a bit earlier than many people but that allows her to build in light snacks later in the evening, to avoid unwanted spikes and dives. Since we won’t have access to our kitchen tonight, we’ll have to depend upon finding her food at the venue. Supposedly this bar has a good menu and kitchen, how fast the turnaround is may be problematic. But we travel with emergency food for her.

Doc Chey’s doesn’t take reservations. There is some sort of festival going on today that is filling restaurants. We may not be able to get seats at the time we want so we have backup reservations at a good Japanese restaurant as well. Doc Chey’s will be less expensive if we can get seated.

Then the matter of evening snacks should be met at the venue’s kitchen. I’m not at all opposed to some bar burgers if they are available. I’ve been wanting a cheese burger for several days, despite having had one last weekend.

The drive should be a good one. The weather is clear and the nearly full moon will rise at 2200. The drive back should be beautiful. We have no idea how late we’ll stay after the David’s set. If we see him before he plays, we may just leave when the set’s over. If not, we’ll hang around for a bit to say hello and catch up. He’s a very engaging person, highly skilled musician/singer/songwriter. He’s penned some excellent works of social commentary, including American Family; which should have been John Kerry’s campaign song. For that matter, it would be relevant for any candidate opposing a Republican for election this year.


Here’s to a great evening, good food, great music, safe travel, and sleeping in tomorrow!