SECRET DINER

By Bill Roseberry

Dinner and a show

You can’t go wrong when it comes to a hibachi grill in my opinion and this spot in central Madison County makes for a fun atmosphere to accompany the delicious food.

I recently visited with my mom and dad to celebrate dad’s birthday and it didn’t disappoint.

This is a newer restaurant in the community, sitting in a small strip of businesses along a major road through town. It’s a chain restaurant but the only of its kind in Madison County and it is locally owned.

You enter into a small paved parking lot with limited spaces. The name of the establishment is prominently displayed and easy to find.

You can see it well from the road.

Overall: ranch and carries items such as feed and horse tack. The phone number for the Breese location is 618-577-2502.

Store hours for the Alton and Breese locations are Monday through Friday from 7am until 6pm, Saturday from 7:30am until 5pm and Sunday from 10am until 3pm. Store hours for the Edwardsville location are the same except for opening at 7:30am on weekdays. Complete information about all store locations along with details on products and services can be found online at stpetershardware.com. Store information is also available on Facebook. 3 stpetershardware.com

Walk inside through a large vestibule and huge brown wooden doors open into the large front dining room. There is a large Buddha display near the host/hostess station.

Lots of tables and booths fill the front of the building with a fish tank also on display showcasing large koi fish. A small bar sits to the right of the front dining room, too. While there is sushi and much more available in the front dining room, we were all about the full experience on our visit. In the middle of that front dining room is a large opening which feeds into the hibachi portion of the building.

Four large tables with two flat grills at each one fill the room. It’s set up where people share the tables to enjoy the entertainment from the chefs.

That’s the allure, it’s as much about the entertainment as it is the food. It’s a big produc- tion built around the cooking of your meal.

Our chef was super friendly and funny. Once he found out it was dad’s birthday he broke out some saki in a squeeze bottle and started squirting generous portions into dad’s mouth. On top of that he was flipping eggs into his tall paper hat, flipping his spatula around and using it to toss vegetables into our mouths once he began cooking. It’s super neat to watch the food prepared directly in front of you. It makes you wish you had one of those large flat cook surfaces in your home the way they make it look so easy. But as cool as the show is, the food is still the main event and it lives up to its top billing.

I ordered a combination of steak, shrimp and scallops, mom ordered the chicken and the birthday boy got the shrimp.

The hibachi orders are accompanied by onion soup, salad with ginger dressing, grilled veggies and fried rice.

The onion soup is such a great comfort food, featuring clear beef broth full of fried onions, scallions and mushrooms. It’s the perfect starter for a big meal, with a great Earthy and hearty flavor.

Cleanliness:

Service:

Food:

Price:

Any idea of the name of this restaurant? Check the puzzle solutions to see if you are right.

While you’re devouring all that you get to watch the chef work his magic with the veggies, rice and meat. The veggies included onion, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms and carrots, while the fried rice featured a healthy portion of egg with it.

The char marks on the gargantuan chunks of zucchini were a standout, as was the teriyaki flavor absorbed into my steak. The plump shrimp were the standout of my meat trio though.

The secret ingredient providing the cherry on top is the yum yum sauce. It is indeed a yummy bonus with its sweet blast of flavor. Make sure to ask for that. 3 lets

Buffalo Chicken

Pizza Specials

MON FREE Cinnamon sticks with pizza purchase

TUE FREE 2 liter of soda with pizza purchase

WED Specialty pizzas $12

THU Buy one pizza, get one half off

FRI FREE cheesy garlic bread with pizza purchase

SAT One topping pizza $10

SUN Purchase two pizzas, get one FREE

Weekly Pizza Winners

•Debi Bowman•Ron Bellitto

•Kim Bell•Amber Hill

Weekly Gas Winners

•Earl Nixon•Dick Langley

•James Morgan•Mattie Shelton

AMERICAN MADE LOCALLY OWNED 10904 Route 111, Medora 618-729-9999

Strange But True

By Lucie Winborne

• Seventy-five percent of all sesame seeds grown in Mexico wind up on McDonald’s hamburger buns.

• In 1998, a British man faked his own death by leaving his clothes on the beach and hiding to make his wife realize how much she missed him. Unfortunately, the prank backfired, as she divorced him after learning about it.

• Earthworms in the northern part of North America are a non-native, invasive species and a major factor in forest deterioration.

Flashback

By Mick Harper

1. Which group released “Where Were You When I Needed You”?

2. Who was Mr. Bojangles in the song by Jerry Jeff Walker?

3. Name the Bangles song that appeared in the 1987 film “Less Than Zero.”

4. Which artist wrote and released “She Bop”?

5. Name the song that contains these lyrics: “When you’re all alone in your lonely room, And there’s nothing but the smell of her perfume.”

Americanisms

By Fifi Rodriguez

1. TELEVISION: Which drama focuses on the inhabitants of Wisteria Lane?

2. GEOGRAPHY: The Aswan Dam is located on which river?

3. LANGUAGE: What is the only word in the English language that ends in “mt”?

4. MOVIES: What is the name of Ryan Reynolds’ Alaskan hometown in “The Proposal”?

5. U.S. CITIES: How many buildings in New York City have their own ZIP codes, including the Empire State Building?

6. SCIENCE: Entomology is the scientific study of what?

7. CHEMISTRY: Which natural element is the most unstable?

8. FOOD & DRINK: What is the condiment tahini made of?

9. LITERATURE: What is the setting for John Kennedy Toole’s novel “A Confederacy of Dunces”?

10. ANATOMY: How many lobes are in the human brain? (answers in puzzle solutions) by Donna Pettman

• Michael Bay, producer of “Friday the 13th,” walked out of the film’s screening because it contained too much sex.

Did you hear about the guy that got caught stealing a calendar?

He got twelve months.

What type of doctor is Dr. Pepper?

He’s a fizzician.

YouTube keeps showing me videos of a former vice president dancing. Must be the Al Gore rhythm.

I caught my son chewing on electrical cords, so I had to ground him. He’s doing better currently and trying to conduct himself properly.