Make Me Nuts!

 

(This picture was taken outside one evening in front of the infamous sign Make Me Nuts.  We are trying too look like we are going nuts (if you can't already tell..)  Not all my relatives were willing to pose..

When I was vacationing in the lovely island of Terceira, Azores, I heard a lot about a certain restaurant that had just opened on the island.  The name of the place was, and no, I'm not kidding:  Make Me Nuts.  Not only did my cousins talk about it, but I saw advertisements all over town, as well as billboards advertising this new place.  I asked my cousin, Manny what was up with the name, and this was his reply:

"It's called Make Me Nuts because they make donuts there, but they always run out of donuts, so it drives people nuts." 

Okay, I guess that was an acceptable explanation.  I can understand why people would be nuts for donuts, because there really isn't any other place besides the  Air Force Base stationed on the island that knows how to make donuts--American Style.  Portuguese donuts are definitely different.  I'm not saying they don't taste any better or worse, just different--more cake tasting than what we are accustomed to. 

Well, any ways, naturally, I had the desire to visit this new place, and of course my cousins took me there.  And of course, they were out of donuts.  They tend to sell out before 11 each day, and they don't make any more until the next morning.  But, they do sell more stuff than just donuts. 

They have many other items on the menu.  Soups, sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken,..etc..  All of it is served "American Style"; but, not really.  Even their Portuguese food was "different."  My cousin Adelaide decided to get a nice Caldo Verde soup (kale soup) for he son Miguel.  Well, instead of getting a nice kale soup, with potatoes, his soup was so foggy, it looked more like water with mashed potatoes.  I ordered what I thought was going to be egg and bacon sandwich.  Oh dear..  The bacon was so fatty, I couldn't even bear to look at it.  My cousin sent the soup back, and I hid my bacon under a napkin. 

(Look closely at this picture.  Yes, it's my son Andrew posing at Make Me Nuts, but look to the left at that woman sitting there in the striped shirt.  Dig that underwear.  Come on lady..  You JUST HAVE TO KNOW you are exposed.  Pretty nasty; I just had to take a picture.)

Although the food is sometimes bad, the place is always busy.  This is very odd, because the service is so slow, you would think there would be other places people would want to go to; especially if there were no donuts.  I ate a donut there--it was actually pretty good.  I also had breakfast there with the kids and my cousin Manny.  My car rental for some odd reason was not at the airport, and we had to wait two hours  (long story), anyway, we had a few hours to kill, so against our better judgement we went to Make Me Nuts.  We decided to have omelettes--vegetarian ones.  It was on the menu, so why not?  Well, although it was on the menu, the cook didn't know how to make them.  I guess it was the first time someone had actually ordered a veggie omelette.  The person at the cash register took the order, with a confused look on her face.  She then called the cook out of the kitchen.  The cook looked quite puzzled. 

"Do you want peas and corn in your omelette?"  asked the cook.

Ewww.. 

We explained we wanted eggs, peppers, onions, etc..  She nodded her head and went back into the kitchen, as if she was on a mission.  Manny said he suspected she went straight to the computer and did a GOOGLE.  10 minutes later, our juice and toast was ready to pick up.  Ding, ding..the cashier called for us to pick up our trays.  We didn't pick them up right away, and she seemd quite annoyed with us.  Five minutes later she rang the bell again, and asked us to "Please pick up your toast." A half hour later, still no omelette.  I am not kidding it took another 40 minutes to get the omelettes.  Our toast was cold, and our juice was almost gone.  Of course it took this long because we had ordered "something that was not on the menu" explained the cashier.  Manny and I both looked at eachother and laughed as pointed to the item on the menu.  And of course instead of 3 veggie omelettes, she gave us 4..  I ordered one with potatoes, but got salad.  "You didn't order potatoes."  The cashier lady explained. "Yes, I did.."  I showed the receipt.  All I got was silence.  "I can only order what I'm told.."  I was fuming.  Meanwhile Nicholas went to the ice cream display and took an ice cream.  I didn't care at that point.  No, I didn't pay for it either.  We were there for one hour and a half.  My voice was so hoarse, I think I the cashier thought I was going to cry when I pleaded with her to get me my potatoes.  I'm not kidding when I tell you the place was making me nuts. 

I will say that the omelettes were pretty damn delicious though.  The wait was almost worth it.  The place also had a very cute little play area for kids to play.  Nicholas had fun, but of course I hit my head really hard on the door because I didn't bend down enough when walking through.  Don't you hate that when that happens?