An Immovable Feast

Fast Food Review: Wienerschnitzel Junkyard Dog

2012-01-30T07:45:00.000-08:00

Years ago, a friend passed on a link to the website Dead Wrestlers. It would not be accurate to say that professional wrestling was a big part of my childhood, but there was about a year and a half when I was addicted to it. I would watch as much as I possibly could. It had been more than fifteen years since I'd even thought about professional wrestling, so it's not like I would have noticed, but seeing all the names of dead wrestlers - most of whom died in their 30s and 40s - I'd once spent a lot of time watching was sobering.

Why do I bring this up? Because one of them was the Junkyard Dog. He was never one of my favorites, but I liked the way he entered the ring: with a chain attached to a dog collar around his neck, Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" blasting on the sound system.

So I thought it was really cool to learn that Wienerschnitzel named their newest hot dog after him.

Okay, I have to admit, that's probably not how they came up with the name. But when I heard about the dog, topped with chili, cheese, grilled onions, fries and mustard, he was the first thing I thought of. My next thought was: I have to eat one. Soon.

But that proved hard to do. I went by three different Wienerschnitzels and none had the hot dog. Yesterday I said to Elizabeth "Let's go for a drive and not stop until we find that hot dog." She said sure. As it turned out, they had it at the first location we stopped by. I ordered one Junkyard Dog, $1.99 plus tax.

I saw two things wrong with the dog at first glance. I didn't see any chili - although I imagined it was probably buried somewhere under there - and the onions were not exactly grilled. (They were diced and slick with oil, so it's possible they were thrown on a grill for a minute, but they were a far cry from the soft, grilled onions that appear in the promotional picture for the hot dog.)

The chili was there, spread along the wiener, but there wasn't very much of it. And I couldn't tell if there was any cheese. Should I complain too much about a hot dog that only cost $1.99? I suppose not.

It was still decent. The fries didn't really add anything, but they didn't detract from the overall flavor. It's just a simple, slightly chili-tasting hot dog.

I gave Elizabeth a bite. She agreed with me. "It's not bad," she said. "It's better than it looks."

I like Wienerschnitzel's angus hot dogs; if they offered the Junkyard Dog with one of those thick wieners and added more toppings, this could be a great dog. The one I had, however, was just okay. The idea sounds better than the actual execution.

Breakfast

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

A fried chicken biscuit with French garlic sausage/caramelized onion pepper gravy. A little decadent? Perhaps. But oh so tasty.

Building My Latest Burger

2012-01-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth was going out for one of her after-work events - drinks at Red O, some art gallery opening - so I was left to fend for myself. I went for the three Bs: burger, beer, basketball. I cooked a ground beef patty on the grill pan, melting white cheddar on top and adding some onions that I had caramelized in the afternoon.

And then for a contrast of onion textures, I added some garlic-pepper crispy onion strips. The piquant, salty taste of those played nicely off the buttery sweetness of the caramelized onions.

And because one cannot have too many onions, particularly when dining solo, I added a couple of onion rings to the collection.

Years ago I had a burger at Firefly in South Pasadena, one of their Thursday night "Burgers, Beer & Blues" evenings, and it came with A.1. aioli. I'm not sure I would have come up with that on my own, but it's delicious, and every once in a while I make it for a burger. Like this one.

You didn't think we were done, did you? I added cole slaw as well.

Now this... this is a burger for me.

On a soft potato roll.

The burger rocked. The beer was cold. The Lakers didn't lose. (True, they weren't playing, but still...)

Fast Food Review: Popeyes Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've never been terribly observant. Years ago I sat in the New Orleans airport with my friends Hatcher and Carla, paying particular attention to Billy Blanks - he of Tae Bo fame - who was walking around the terminal in his Tae Bo jacket. Carla nudged me and asked me if I recognized the guy sitting immediately across from me. I did not. "It's Robbie Robertson," she said. One of the great musicians and guitar players of the 20th century and I never would have noticed if not for Carla pointing him out.

A couple of years ago I was living in an apartment building in South Pasadena and a nice kid lived downstairs. But he was a dozen years younger than I and we didn't have much in common, so it turned out I spent more time talking to his dad, Chris, whenever he stopped by to see his son. Chris was very friendly and we talked about football, music, life in Pasadena and various other things. Over the course of a year I probably spent an hour talking to him and he never once mentioned that he was a musician. A couple of months after his son moved out, the owner of the building told me: "You know who that was, right? Christopher Cross." Oh. The guy has an Oscar and a bunch of Grammys; no wonder he wasn't impressed when I told him I write a food blog about McNuggets that is viewed by for almost nineteen readers every day.

So yesterday afternoon I was waiting in traffic to turn right on Lake Ave off of Mountain - a pedestrian was crossing the street, talking on his cell phone and walking with all the urgency of a condemned man being marched to the chamber - and staring at a sign on the window of Popeyes. The only words to which I was paying attention were "Garlic Pepper." It wasn't until I turned the corner and saw another sign that I realized what I had been looking at the whole time: "Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken with Garlic Parmesan DIPPING SAUCE."

It's not like I sit around all day reading trade publications to find out about upcoming fast food promotions. (Well, yes it is, but just roll with me here.) But I still usually hear about things before they come out, whether it's an email from a restaurant/fast food chain, or one of the great websites I have linked on the right of the page, especially The Impulsive Buy and Grub Grade.

So it's very rare for me to find out about a product after it comes out. To be honest with you I don't remember the last time it happened. Before yesterday.

Did I drive around the block and go back to get some? You know that I did.

I ordered the combo: the Wicked Chicken with fries and a drink, $5.42 with tax. I was surprised, almost shocked that they had the dipping sauce. (Lately it seems that Popeyes releases most of their promotions without the dipping sauce that they claim accompanies the product.) I asked if I could have another and she gave me one for free.

It has been said by others and echoed by me that the quantity of product in Popeyes' promotions continues to get smaller as each year passes. (The diminishing number of crawfish in my beloved crawfish po' boy that comes back into my life every October, an annual event I anticipate as much as anything save Opening Day, is a prime example of this.) And this was no exception. There were seven pieces of chicken. I can't really say I felt ripped off by a lunch combo that cost five bucks, but I felt like there should have been a little bit more chicken here.

But I'll be honest: it was still awesome. (Besides, there are quite a few fast food chains that skimp on portions. I've had the largest size Chicken McBites twice now, and both times McDonald's hasn't come close to filling up the box... and those McBites are nowhere near as good as this chicken.) The pieces were so hot that I slightly burned my tongue on one of them, even though, after I'd carried the food to my car and then taken a bunch of pictures, it was several minutes removed from the oil.

Now, the garlic pepper flavor? Well, the chicken had spice to it, but not very prominently. Popeyes advertises this chicken as being marinated in "roasted garlic and cracked pepper." I'm not entirely sure how true that is. It tasted salty more than either of those two flavors, although they were both still there in part.

The Garlic Parmesan dipping sauce definitely had garlic flavor, though. It was creamy, like a buttermilk sauce, but the Parmesan flavor was there, too. I didn't think it had enough garlic flavor, but you have probably guessed by now that I say that about everything. (I once put chopped garlic on bastrurma; I once put Zankou garlic sauce on a f**king donut.)

I have written this before but I will write it again because it bears repeating: more than any other fast food chain - with the possible but not definite exception of Del Taco - Popeyes releases great promotions. The Garlic Pepper Wicked Chicken is yet another one.

Hong Kong Express

2012-01-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

Up in the shopping center on the corner of Fair Oaks & Orange Grove, I have noticed the big red letters reading "Chinese Food" for years. I have a policy not to eat at restaurants that feature their style of cuisine more prominently than their name. Okay, that's not really true, I just made that up. But it seems like something that should be good advice. At any rate, I never considered going to this restaurant.

Until recently. I was up in that part of town and couldn't figure out what I wanted. (Well, actually I wanted to try the Church's spicy Southern-style chicken sandwich across the street, but as I've written, they are incapable of ever giving me the correct sandwich.) So I figured "Why not?" I love Chinese food and I even really like Americanized Chinese food a lot of the time.

The place was packed when I walked in. Many of the customers had giant plates of food in front of them. This place seemed indistinguishable from La Mein, which I called the worst Chinese food I have ever had.

I ordered a two-item combo with rice, a chicken and shrimp egg roll, and a soda. The total was eight bucks and change. I said thank you, was completely ignored, and took the box of food to my car. It weighed at least four pounds.

Yep, this is pretty much exactly what I was expecting: a box piled high with rice and chicken, the top of the container seemingly bulging.

The orange chicken was not good. There was no discernible flavor to the sauce and the chicken was rubbery. There might as well not have been any batter on it, because there was no crunch to it. Now, it could have been a lot worse - it wasn't too sugary like that sludge at La Mein, and I appreciate that it was white meat chicken - but it was obvious Hong Kong Express is concerned with giving you quantity, not quality.

My second option, the spicy chicken, was pretty good. I suppose it's possible I just thought it was good because it was so much better than the orange chicken, but whatever. This chicken was not rubbery like the orange chicken, and the sauce was actually a little spicy. There was only half as much of this as their was of the orange chicken. I wish it had been the other way around.

The rice was awful. I thought that with how busy Hong Kong Express was, at least they would have been turning over the rice. This tasted like it had been sitting around for days. I ate two spoonfuls and no more. (I actually only ate about a quarter of the food in the styrofoam box and left it sitting on a low wall. Hopefully someone found it and enjoyed the food more than I did.)

The shrimp and chicken egg rolls came two to an order and were easily the highlight of the meal. I bet they were delicious when they were fresh out of the fryer. I don't know how long ago that was, though. They weren't very crisp. But the contents were pretty tasty.

And went well with a dunking in the Trappey's hot sauce that I keep in the car.

Although I didn't think much of Hong Kong Express, it's not like I can call the place disappointing. It is what it is, and you know exactly what it is when you walk in: an inexpensive joint serving massive portions of food.

Subway

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ah, Subway. You may not know this, but I really like the place. Just by using the Google search on the right-hand side of this blog, I notice that I have never really said anything in praise of the place, just mentioned it a few times in relation to other places (often saying that Subway is better and cheaper).

But I have been eating there for more than two decades. When I was a kid, maybe 11 years old or so, I would often accompany my parents to the Rose Bowl for UCLA games. (This is back when UCLA was in the top-20 every year and games were actually fun.) They would load up on things at Bristol Farms for a pregame picnic outside the stadium: fancy cheeses, pâté, cold cuts; all things that sound great to me now but repulsive then. So we would always go by Subway and get a sandwich (or two; I was a growing boy) for me.

When my friend Tom and I drove around the country together almost a decade ago, a trip I have referenced here many times, we decided in advance that whenever we were in the middle of nowhere and hungry and fast food was our only option, we would eat at Subway instead of any other fast food chain. (We only violated that once - a McDonald's outside Cooperstown. Somewhere in my closest I have a list of every meal I ate on that trip.)

These days, Elizabeth and I go there about once a month. It's never something we decide too far in advance, it's just always a great option when we can't decide on anything else. It's never great but it's almost always good, it's half a mile away, and dinner for the two of us - always two footlongs, usually a couple bags of chips and frequently a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie - is thirteen bucks and change. You can't really beat that. Here are some of the sandwiches we've had:

Elizabeth's Sandwich

I often vary what I get, but this is what Elizabeth orders 100% of the time (it's also the top picture of this post): turkey, American cheese, lettuce, cucumbers, red onion, olives and honey mustard on honey oat bread.

My Most Frequent Sandwich

This is the sandwich I have eaten more than any other by a wide margin: the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. Sometimes I get it on wheat, sometimes white. And always with the chicken, red onion, lettuce, cilantro, banana peppers and a little bit more of the sweet onion sauce than is necessary.

I have eaten this sandwich in many states, and dozens of Subways, and with only one exception (a Subway in the middle of Utah that had just opened and was obviously using not-terribly-fresh stuff leftover from the day before) it has been great.

Chipotle Chicken

It seems like Subway is often promoting their chipotle chicken sub. (Maybe it's only once a year, but it sure feels like a lot more than that.) So I decided to try it once, on flatbread instead of a roll. I received heated chicken and asked for cilantro, banana peppers and red onion. The girl assembling my sandwich put on a tiny squirt of chipotle sauce and I asked for a little more. She then squeezed a deluge of sauce onto the sandwich. That'll teach me.

But even with way too much sauce, I still enjoyed the flavors.

Buffalo Chicken

Another promotion that looked good was the Buffalo chicken sandwich. I again requested it on the flatbread. It has nothing to do eating healthier - shocking, I know; at any rate Subway isn't exactly upfront with the caloric info on the flatbreads, so I'm betting it's no healthier than their rolls - but I think flatbread complements some of the sandwiches better than rolls.

I got the spicy chicken backed with jalapenos, red onion, lettuce, bell peppers, and extra buffalo sauce. It was surprisingly spicy. No, it wasn't like eating a taco from my nearby taco truck with the "extra spicy" hot sauce, but for a fast food sandwich, I was impressed with the heat. Both the chipotle chicken and buffalo chicken sandwiches were nice, but I did not like them anywhere near as much as my usual Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki.

Intermission #1

Sometimes I get these chips at Subway, and sometimes a few even make their way into my sanwiches.

Pastrami Sandwich

I'm not going to lie: I have very low expectations for Subway's pastrami sandwich. I can't think of a pastrami sandwich I have ever purchased for five bucks that was any good, and this was certainly no exception. The pastrami was flavorless. I wish I'd asked for extra pickles and onions. Even though there was a fair amount of mustard, I would have liked even more. I ate half of this and stuck the rest in the fridge, neither sure nor caring if I would eat the rest.

The next day, however, I baked it in the oven for five minutes and added cole slaw and Russian dressing. Was it better? Yeah. Barely.

Intermission #2:

"Give me some of that Subway sandwich!"

"Thank you!"

Oven Crisp Chicken

Subway introduced their oven-crispy chicken sub with a tagline along the lines of "experience deep-fried flavor without the deep-frying." It's not true, but then again I didn't expect it to be. I ordered the sub with banana peppers, lettuce, red onion and chipotle sauce. And overall it was fine. I mean, it tasted like chicken.

But there was nothing crispy about it, so the breading was unnecessary. There is no reason I would ever get this again instead of just having turkey, which I like much more than chicken anyway.

Turkey and Salami

I was pretty hungry on my last trip to Subway so I decided to double up on the meat. I ordered oven roasted turkey and asked the girl to add salami, as well as my usual assortment of veggies (plus pickles). This is close to the sandwiches I used to get when I was a kid (although I would have gotten almost no veggies on it and probably plenty of cheese) and I loved it.

With the exception of the pastrami, I liked all the sandwiches here, although I think the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki will always be my favorite.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

2012-01-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

One of the most fun meals of my adult life was Chinese New Year ten years ago (it was in February that year). My friend Zach's grandmother took her whole family out for dinner and I was invited along. (I don't remember the name of the restaurant, just that the food was fantastic and I was the only white person in the massive room.)

Since today is Chinese New Year, I thought I would give you a rundown of some Chinese meals I have eaten lately. None of them are as authentic as that New Year's dinner was a decade ago, but most of these were good.

Golden China

Do I write about Golden China too much? Perhaps. Especially considering I don't think the food is really anything special. But it's half a mile away, they are always friendly and fast, and the lunch specials cannot be beat. (Lots of places in town offer similar specials, but at Golden China I like all of the components: the soup, rice, salad and spring roll. I can't say that for anyplace else.)

Not long ago I was out for a walk and decided to get a haircut at Supercuts in the same shopping center as Golden China. I didn't think it was supposed to rain until much later in the day, but as I sat in the barber's chair it started pouring. Oh well, I thought when I was done with my haircut, I'll duck into Golden China and get lunch and hopefully the rain will pass. (It didn't.)

The pot of tea was set down before I took my seat.

Nothing you haven't seen here before many times, right?

On this occasion I got the shredded pork in garlic sauce. If I ranked all the entrees I have had at Golden China, this would fall almost exactly in the middle. I won't be getting it again, but I had no complaints.

Especially when I got the bill. $6.80 for all that food. And a place to sit and stay dry.

China Express

China Express offers massive to-go containers of food for about the same price as Golden China. Their soup is good but their rice is not, and the spring rolls and fried wontons can either be great or terrible. On the above trip I got the orange chicken. I was not a fan. The orange sauce was too bitter and the chicken was too tough.

On another trip to China Express, however, I order the Hot Szechwan Chicken. This was much better: tender chicken in a spicy sauce. I would get this again.

Pickup Stix

It seems weird to say that there was a time when I was infatuated with Pickup Stix. I mean, the nearest one to me was an hour round-trip but I would go at least once a week. These days? I might make it there once a year. Sure, I still think it's much better than Panda Express - although that's not saying much - but I realize now that it's really not that good most of the time. And, of the more than one dozen Pickup Stix locations I have been to, the Alhambra unit is unquestionably my least favorite. The proteins always come out much too oily.

This occasion was no different. I ordered the House Special Chicken. The flavors were nice - a caramelized sauce of wine, soy and green onion. But the rubbery chicken killed the dish for me.

The single spring roll that came with my lunch combo was good, though.

Ralph's Asian-Inspired Family Favorites

Well, why not, right? Ralph's had this General Tsao's tempura chicken on sale and I decided to give it a try. I cooked the chicken in the oven for about twenty-five minutes and tossed it with the packet of sauce, then placed it on a plate with rice and broccoli.

I liked it. I wish I could be more effusive than that, but it wasn't anything special. The sauce wasn't as sweet as I was expecting but it didn't have any real spice to it. The chicken was fine, but when you factor in that these bags are a few dollars more than the similar tempura chicken at Trader Joe's, I don't see any reason for me to ever get these again.

Well, after this one, I mean.

Take everything I wrote about the General Tsao's chicken above, only this sweet & sour sauce was much too sweet.

Tyson Chicken Breast Chunks With Spicy Sweet & Sour Sauce

This sauce actually wasn't bad, especially with a little cracked pepper and chili flakes on top, but the chicken was terrible. I mean, just terrible: dried-out, flavorless chicken. I thought I might break a tooth on some of the pieces. I don't know if I expected anything else, but this is not something I can recommend.

Trader Joe's Tempura Chicken

After writing the about the above frozen chicken products and realizing how much better Trader Joe's is, I decided to have it for dinner last night. I also decided to split it in two and add two different sauces. But, as I have written here before, the sweet & sour sauce they provide is much too sweet. So I added some Tabasco Sweet & Spicy sauce and a couple of drops of hot sauce.

To the second batch of chicken I added Buffalo Wild Wings "Asian Zing" sauce. This was much spicier than the other chicken, although by no means was it too spicy. And both of these were much better than the Ralph's brand or Tyson chicken.

Golden China #2

90% of my trips to Golden China are for lunch, but every once in a while we go for dinner, too. Elizabeth gets her sizzling pepper steak and I get a couple of appetizers. On this occasion I ordered the potstickers.

I was really impressed with them: big, juicy, meaty and flavorful. These are some of the better potstickers I have had in a while.

I liked them with the provided dipping sauce, but I LOVED them with hot mustard and sweet & sour sauce.

I hope you have a nice day, even if you aren't celebrating New Year.

Another One Bites The Dust: The Trader Joe's Pizza Piadina

2012-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth came to Trader Joe's much later in life than I did, so I've tried to prepare her for this day. It's an inescapable fact that the things you love most at Trader Joe's often disappear.

I thought the Pizza Piadina was fine, nothing special, but she really loved it. The last three visits to TJ's it was not only gone - not unusual, especially when you visit the store on a Sunday afternoon/evening - but the tag for the item on the shelf was missing.

I had a bad feeling about it and thus I was not surprised at the response the other day when I asked asked an employee if they were discontinuing the Piadina.

"No," she said, "we just got some in... I think." She ran off to the back room, returning a minute later.

"It's being discontinued, isn't it?" I asked.

"We're making room for other items," she replied.

"Which means...." I left the sentence hanging.

"It's being discontinued," she added.

I've been through this before, many times, so I took it in stride, but I did not look forward to telling Elizabeth. Her response was predictable:

"Why would they get rid of it! Everyone likes it, half the time it's sold out!"

"I know," I said. "That's Trader Joe's for you."

It got me thinking about all the things I've loved over the years that have disappeared off the TJ's shelves. Undoubtedly this list is incomplete:

1) Goat cheese empanadas. I have had better empanadas at a couple of restaurants over the years, but in terms of store-bought, nothing comes close to these. It came with some kind of a sauce - in my mind it was marinara, but I admit that may not be it - that seemed like it would not complement it, but complemented it perfectly.

2) Chimichurri sauce. Unlike the above item, I have never even had chimichurri sauce in a restaurant that was the equal of Trader Joe's refrigerated chimichurri sauce. Not only did it have ample amounts of cilantro and parsley, but there were lots of little chunks of garlic in the sauce. I would tear up pieces of a mini baguette and dunk them in the sauce, and if I finished the bread it was not uncommon for me to eat a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce by itself. If I could have one TJ's item back, it would be this one.

3) Asian-style "chicken for lettuce wraps." I used to make chicken lettuce wraps from scratch all the time until I discovered these. They came in a plastic container separated into two compartments: the chicken and veggies (which you microwaved), and crispy noodles (which you didn't). There were also packets of a ginger sauce that would have been popular if sold in bottles. I often put the chicken into lettuce wraps, as the name indicates, but sometimes I just ate it with a spoon, it was that good.

4) Pizza Formaggio di Capra. This was probably my favorite TJ's frozen pizza of all time. There were five big slabs of goat cheese on the pizza. (And four olives which I always picked off.) I would bake it in the oven and drizzle it with olive oil. For some reason TJ's has decided to carry both the three-cheese and four-cheese pizzas, but they got rid of this one. I love you Trader Joe's, but sometimes I really hate you.

5) Wasabi mayo. Unlike most flavored mayos I have tried over the years, this one was actually spicy.

6) Curry simmer sauce. I could make Indian food at home that was actually good and really easy with this sauce.

7) Chicken chile verde. They still have burritos with chicken chile verde, but it's not the same as the frozen stew that they used to carry.

8) Tequila lime jalapeno breaded shrimp. I mentioned last month that in my entire life I have only found one kind of shrimp that I thought acceptable when baked in the oven (as opposed to fried). This was it. Damn these things were so delicious. They actually got crispy in the oven and there were pieces of jalapeno inside the shrimp. (They were curiously devoid of heat, but they still tasted great.)

And there are several other things whose names are lost to me (some little pigs-in-a-blanket frozen snack with sweet & sour sauce, a garlic-aioli mustard, ready-made cornmeal pizza crust) but this list is enough for now.

McDonald's Hot Habanero Sauce

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

I know I said yesterday there would be a big post today, but the discovery of McDonald's new "Hot Habanero Sauce" has caused me to postpone it. I've been looking for this sauce for over a week, since my brother told me about finding a sign - but not the sauce - at a McDonald's in Glendora. I won't say how many times I went by McDonald's hoping to find the sauce - it stopped being funny and starting leaning towards pathetic at a certain point - but yesterday I went by a different Pasadena McDonald's - actually the first time I have ever visited it. (Before Eliazabeth moved here four years ago, I had never visited a McDonald's in Pasadena in my adult life.)

"Do you have the new habanero sauce?" I asked the girl behind the register.

"Yes," she replied, "and it's spicy."

That was good to hear, but I'm not going to lie: I doubted it. Can you really see a fast food chain - let alone McDonald's - releasing a sauce that actually has a fair amount of habanero in it? I don't know if you've ever taken a bite of even the tiniest piece of habanero, but those little guys are painful. When mixed into a sauce they still provide a very large amount of heat. I've had some at restaurants that are exactly what I want: extremely hot sauce. But I've also had a bad run of luck when it comes to fast food items using the name "habanero" for their product.

Carl's Jr.'s habanero bacon cheeseburger had zero heat to it. I drove down to Orange County just to try the thing and, though I forgot to order a drink with it, it turned out I did not need one sip of any beverage.

Likewise, Domino's sweet mango habanero sauce tasted only of of a sickeningly sweet corn syrup. Their buffalo sauce is several times hotter.

7-Eleven's boneless wings with "Asian habanero" sauce actually had a little bit of heat on the back end of each bite, but up front was a sugary, gooey paste that destroyed the spice. And the wings were atrocious.

On the other hand, I find McDonald's buffalo sauce to be quite tasty and surprisingly spicy, so I felt this new sauce at least deserved a try.

Four of the first five ingredients on the Hot Habanero sauce are the same as the ranch sauce; soybean oil, water, vinegar, buttermilk. (By contrast, the buffalo sauce that I just mentioned lists "cayenne pepper sauce" as its first ingredient.) You can see how far down habanero is listed on the ingredients, which did not give me hope that this sauce was going to be anything spicy.

It looks like a ranch sauce with spices thrown in. And the initial taste was very similar to the creamy, rich taste of ranch, a sauce I don't much like. But the spiciness was noticeable quickly. Was it overpowering? Of course not. But it was spicier than I expected it to be. There was none of the extreme heat of a habanero and none of the citrus flavor, but unlike the three items I named above, the heat was most definitely there.

The employee had told me I "have to order a drink" or I would be sorry. I did not. Partly because I didn't think I would need one and partly because I don't like being told what I "have" to order. And it turned out I did not need one.

Like the Chicken McBites themselves, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the habanero sauce. Now, my expectations for McDonald's are usually quite low, so it doesn't take a whole lot to pleasantly surprise me, but still, this is the first habanero-named fast food item I have ever had that I enjoyed.

I sent Elizabeth a picture message of the sauce and she said it looked good. I told her it was. When it was time for dinner she said she wanted McBites. So back to McDonald's for my second helping of McBites of the day. We split the "shareable" size McBites.

"This is spicy," she said, "but good."

I also decided to try the habanero sauce on a McDouble. I added some garlic-pepper onion strings, a few extra pickles, and half a container of the sauce. It was good, but the sauce definitely complements fried chicken better than burgers.

On Wine and Wednesday

2012-01-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

As everyone knows, there are two acceptable occasions to open a 1975 Mouton Rothschild: 1) When eating a McRib, and 2) Any Wednesday that you feel like it. Tracie and I joined Tim for the latter.

We talked about the relatively low alcohol percentage. Tim explained: "People don't understand Bordeaux because their palates are f****d up from drinking big California wines." (He then went on to share his thoughts on Robert Parker's "burned-out palate" and how it has influenced the entire world of wine.)

See, this... this is why we call Tim the Cork Whisperer. I make a bigger mess opening a screw-cap bottle of wine than he did with this Bordeaux that was older than I am.

The wine was good. Very good.

Following up the Mouton with an 11 year-old Treana sounded like it would be an unavoidable disappointment, but it was not.

We had three kinds of cheese with the wines. You will read more about these two soon.

Some of the others we sampled.

This post is pretty short, I know. There will be a big one tomorrow.

Wistaria Restaurant & Bar

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

For those of you who do not know me, I grew up in Sierra Madre. For those of you who are not from Southern California, Sierra Madre is a small town in Los Angeles County, wedged up against the San Gabriel Mountains. There are only 10,000 residents and the city takes up less than three square miles. There is not a single traffic signal in town. It has the only volunteer fire department in the Greater Los Angeles area.

The town is also home to the largest blossoming plant in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records: a 117 year-old wisteria vine. Even Huell Howser has done an episode on it. So when a new restaurant opened up in town last year, it was not much of a surprise to see it take the name Wistaria. (There are two accepted spellings of the word.) For months I did not go, but several people I know - including my parents - went and enjoyed it very much.

Like many restaurants in Sierra Madre, Wistaria offers sidewalk tables with views of the mountains. On a recent warm afternoon, Elizabeth and I stopped by for lunch. It was an easy call to sit outside. Wistaria is owned by the same people who own Mike & Anne's in South Pasadena, a restaurant for which I do not much care. Fortunately, Wistaria retains all the things I like about Mike & Anne's (meaning the food) but the vibe is nowhere near as cold.

The menu during the day contains both breakfast and lunch items. The breakfast quesadilla in particular looked good to me, but I was in more of a lunch mood.

The iced tea was outstanding: unsweetened, dark, flavorful.

The mint lemonade is the same drink Elizabeth had at Mike & Anne's a few years ago that she loved. (You better really like mint to enjoy this lemonade.)

I opted for the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich. The pork was moist and flavorful and the slaw had a wonderful vinegary kick to it. I wish it had been served on a bun, or more to the point I wish they had told me that it comes on toasted bread. The bread wasn't bad but it was distracting, which is unfortunate because the quality of the ingredients deserved to be enhanced by a bun that gets out of the way. I don't mind toast when it's enveloping melted cheese; when the contents are pork and slaw, I want to taste those, not bread.

That being said, I ate half the sandwich and really enjoyed it. I could feel myself getting full - more on that in one second - and took the rest of it home with me. After the bread got a little soggy in the fridge, I enjoyed the second half of the sandwich even more.

The reason I only ate half my sandwich at the restaurant was that Wistaria's fries are the ultra-shoestring variety that I love, especially when they are hot and crispy. Which these were. There was a very generous portion of fries and I ate them all, then helped Elizabeth finish hers.

Elizabeth ordered the Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich. It was big: juicy pieces of chicken surrounded by a crunchy batter. I took a big bite and really enjoyed it. (She, too, could only eat half her sandwich - well, minus the bite I took - however this did not fare as well in the fridge, not surprisingly. But the leftovers were still pretty good.)

Towards the end of our meal, a couple at a table close to us each received hamburgers. The burgers were piled high on golden buns and I had two thoughts: 1) Damn, I wish my pork sandwich had been served on one of those buns, and 2) I have to get one of those burgers soon.

Which I will.

Tuesday For My Friends (3 of 3): Beer Vs. Beer Vs. Beer

2012-01-17T07:02:00.000-08:00

My friend Nick has started a great new blog: Beer Vs. Beer Vs. Beer. Nick is a beer lover who believes good beer complements food every bit as much as fine wine, and he intends to explore the world of pairing beer with food. He will be cooking dinners and experimenting with three different styles of beer to determine which goes best with the meal.

If you love beer like I do, or even if you just think these pairings sound interesting, please check out his blog.

Tuesday For My Friends (2 of 3): My Condiments

2012-01-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

A reader emailed me and mentioned that I often seem to use different condiments, and wanted to know how many I had in my fridge. So I took them all out and took a picture. The short answer? 35. Would you like to know what they all are? Okay.

1) Ralph's brand Thousand Island
2) Rudy's BBQ "sause"
3) Bull's Eye Carolina-style BBQ sauce
4) E. Waldo Ward mustard relish
5) Guy Fieri Carolina #6 sauce (I hate to admit it, but Guy has made an awesome sauce here)
6) Famous Dave's Sweet & Zesty barbecue sauce
7) Crosse & Blackwell zesty shrimps sauce
8) Ralph's bold & spicy steak sauce (Tastes exactly like A.1. but less than half the price)
9) Pio Pica hot sauce
10) Buffalo Wild Wings Caribbean Jerk
11) Buffalo Wild Wings Spicy Garlic
12) Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing
13) Some Dude's Fry Sauce
14) Sarayo
15) Best Food real mayonnaise
16) Best Foods olive oil reduced- fat mayonnaise ("It tastes the same and my pants fit better!")
17) Ralph's cocktail sauce
18) Trader Joe's garlic chipotle salsa
19) Brianna's honey mustard
20) Trader Joe's champagne vinaigrette
21) Lea & Perrin's thick Worcestershire sauce
22) The Salt Lick original recipe barbecue sauce
23) Gates original barbecue sauce
24) Jack Daniel's original #7 barbecue sauce (Like Gates, only the exact opposite)
25) BBQ Fight Club Kickin' Chicken White Sauce
26) Kraft Seven Seas Green Goddess dressing (I'm pretty sure we've had this since 2008)
27) Trader Joe's corn and chile tomato-less salsa
28) Fresh & Easy orange peel simmer sauce
29) E. Waldo Ward tartar sauce
30) Wild Thymes thai chile roasted garlic dipping sauce
31) Taco Bell bold & creamy chipotle sauce
32) Sir Kensington's gourmet scooping ketchup
33) Bolani sweet jalalpeno sauce
34) Grey Poupon
35) Tiger Sauce

Tuesday For My Friends (1 of 3): Wines of 2011

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

The other evening, Tracie was saying that she can't remember all the wines we drank in 2011 but that she can always just go back and look at my blog.

So I put this collage together for you, kid: all the wines I drank last year (well, all the ones of which I took a picture - which is at least 90% of them). You weren't there for all of them, but you were there for most.

Three Day Weekend Eats, Part 5: Pastrami Sandwich from The Habit

2012-01-16T14:38:00.000-08:00

We were over on the east side of Pasadena doing some errands. I had decided every meal of the weekend up to that point and asked Elizabeth to come up with a suggestion. She said burgers. I knew it had been over a year since she'd been to a Habit Burger so we went there.

But, even though every burger I have had from the Habit has been good, I decided to try something new: the pastrami sandwich.

I like the way they construct the sandwich, with caramelized onions, cheese, mustard, pastrami and pickles. (I ordered it without tomatoes.) I was given my choice of bread and I chose sourdough.

I did not like the sandwich at all. There were two main reasons, one of which was my fault and one of which was not. First, the mea culpa: we got the food to go. True, we were only in the car 90 seconds (we took it back to my parents' house half a mile away) but that's all it takes sometimes. Just in that short trip the bread had gotten completely soggy. The sandwich fell apart with each bite.

Now the part that was The Habit's fault: the pastrami was fatty and flavorless. It was impossible to bite through; I had to tear each bite by hand.

Maybe this sandwich was an aberration but I'll never know, because I won't ever be ordering one of these again. I've had about eight burgers from The Habit and they've all been great. I've had this one pastrami sandwich and it was bad. I will only be ordering burgers from now on.

One piece of good news, though. When I wrote about the Pasadena Habit not long after it opened and mentioned that the fries are boring, a reader left a comment that I should get the onion rings. So I did. I really liked them. They were crunchy and full of onion flavor, which are really the only two things I ever ask from onion rings.

So from now on I will be getting a Charburger with a side of onion rings on every trip to The Habit.

Three Day Weekend Eats, Part 4: Pizza For Murph

2012-01-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

My friend Murph lives in a beautiful condo in Old Town, with a great kitchen, but I think that in the three years he has lived there he has only used the kitchen once. Most nights he gets a slice of pizza from one of two places. One of them is just not good pizza; the other is decent, nothing special, and laughably overpriced.

I wanted to show him that he could get keep a few Trader Joe's frozen pizzas in the freezer - it's not like there's anything else in there - and cook them up whenever he feels like. So I invited him over last night to join me, Elizabeth and Tim for dinner.

I cooked four of my favorite TJ's pizzas, all of which you have seen here before: the Tarte D' Alsace, with caramelized onions and ham, the arugula pizza, the Margherita, and the Pizza Parlanno.

Murph thought they were all very good, as did Tim. (I don't think Tim had ever eaten TJ's frozen pizzas before either, but he is fully capable of cooking himself dinner, so this little experiment wasn't about him.)

I didn't ask whatever everyone's favorite was, but the Pizza Parlanno (my favorite) was the only pizza of which every slice disappeared.

Three Day Weekend Eats, Part 3: Golden China

2012-01-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Have we been spoiled this winter? Perhaps a little. Saturday morning was overcast and cool and we were both disappointed. I mean, sure, it's the middle of January, but the run of weather we've had for the last three weeks has been pretty spectacular. I love the cold as much as anyone, but when it's a sunny, 80-degree January afternoon, it's hard not to be pleased.

So we decided to head to Golden China for some cold weather food. We got there only a couple of minutes after noon, which is when they open on the weekends. There were already several other tables occupied.

I've had the hot & sour soup dozens of times at Golden China, and it's almost always good, but this was the best I have ever had. (I gave Elizabeth a taste and she agreed.) Maybe they make it fresh in the morning so that's when it's at its best? I dunno. But this was so good I thought about ordering more. But did not.

If you've been a reader for a while, you know that all lunch specials at Golden China are preceded by the soup and a plate of rice, salad and an egg roll. All of them good, although the salad was curiously devoid of dressing on this occasion.

I opted to get the sweet & sour chicken: crunchy, battered pieces of white meat chicken that are very tasty. The sauce, as usually happens with this dish, was all sweet and no sour, but kissed with Golden China's hot mustard they are much better.

Elizabeth's favorite dish at Golden China isn't available as a lunch special, but she gets it anyway: the sizzling steak with black pepper. The steak and veggies are brought out in a bowl and then unceremoniously dumped onto a sizzling hot plate. Hence the name. The above picture isn't very good but I'll tell you why: when the beef is added to the plate it hisses like a cornered cat and the steam rises all over the place. Every table within 25 feet turns to look. I was trying to be inconspicuous with my photo-taking, which is hard to do when everyone is looking at your table.

Once the steak cools down a little - the plate never does - the aroma of meat and black pepper is intoxicating.

And the flavor of the black pepper is wonderful. The sauce is a little too sweet for me to love it, I wish there was some more spice to it, but I suppose it does a good job of staying out of the way to allow the black pepper to shine through.

She also gets some egg rolls to supplement her meal, which is fine by me, since she can't eat four of them so I always gets another egg roll, sometimes two. Golden China's egg rolls aren't anything fantastic, but they are always hot, which means they are always acceptable. I like to drag them through the hot mustard, duck sauce and sweet & sour all at once.

As usual, there were enough leftovers to serve as dinner.

Three Day Weekend Eats, Part 2: In Search of McDonald's Hot Habanero Sauce

2012-01-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

After reading about Chicken McBites the other day on this blog, my brother stopped by McDonald's to try them for himself. He called me and reported that the one he went to (in Glendora) had a sign for a new habanero sauce. He had enthusiastically asked for it but the employee told him they did not have it yet.

This excited me greatly, as I am always after a new fast food sauce that promises heat. (Even though 90%+ of the time I am disappointed.) So I went to the McDonald's closest to me and asked if they have the sauce.

"Not yet," the kid said. "We were supposed to have it already but they keep delaying our delivery."

So it sounds like the sauce exists, and I promise you I will have a review of it as soon as it appears. In the meantime, I tried the Chicken McBites with buffalo sauce on this occasion, and thought it was a nice complement to the fried chicken bits.

Three Day Weekend Eats, Part 1: The BLP

2012-01-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth said she would like BLTs for dinner. This is kind of misleading - in all the times I've made them, I've never once added tomato, unless we count the time I used Sir Kensington's. (Which I don't.) There is nothing wrong with a bacon and lettuce sandwich, but I was thinking it could use something else. And then I noticed a package of Trader Joe's pancetta in the fridge.

It's not against the rules to double up on bacon, is it?

So I sauteed the pancetta and set it aside, then cooked the bacon, and placed them both on white bread with mayo and lettuce.

It was, obviously, fantastic.

Pasadena Cheeseburger Week: My 10 Favorite Pasadena Cheeseburgers

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Legend holds that the cheeseburger was invented in Pasadena in 1922. I don't know if this is an established fact, and to be honest I don't really care. (Curiously, a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky claims to have invented the cheeseburger a full twelve years later. I realize media back then was primitive by today's standards, but isn't this something that can be verified? It's not like we're talking about twelve hours later.) At any rate, Pasadena Cheeseburger Week starts Sunday and, for some reason, runs for six days.

Since I have eaten several hundred cheeseburgers in Pasadena, I thought I would give you a rundown of my ten favorite.

I have only two rules. 1) It has to be a regular-size burger with cheese. So something like the duck sliders at Kings Row don't make the cut, even though they are being featured by the restaurant as part of Pasadena Cheeseburger Week. Whatever, it's my blog so these are my rules. (Also my beloved turkey burger from Fatburger can't be included, as it doesn't come with cheese.) And 2) It has to be in Pasadena. Even a city as close by as South Pasadena doesn't count.

10) The Charburger at The Habit Burger Grill

This is the new kid on the block - The Habit opened less than two months ago in Pasadena, but I'm already willing to place it on the list. (I bumped the Kobe burger at Cafe 140 South from the list to make room for this newcomer.)

9) Chili Cheeseburger at Original Tommy's

I like to order my Tommy's burger with extra chili and extra pickles. It is messy - the messiest chili burger I have ever had. But it's so good I don't mind.

8) Bobby's Place

For my whole life, until last summer, Bobby's Place was known as Rick's. But that's the only thing that has changed. It was bought by some of the employees so all the same people work there and they still serve the same food for the same reasonable prices. And hell, everyone I know still refers to it as Rick's.

The burger at Rick's is a classic greasy fast-food burger. The total here is greater than the sum of its parts: the meat is fresh - Rick's is usually busy so you don't have to worry about them not turning over their ingredients - and the lettuce, pickles and cheese all work together perfectly. (By the way, I just realized I wrote those last two sentences still calling the place Rick's. I thought about changing them but decided that proves my point about everyone still calling it Rick's.) The $5.95 burger, fries and drink combo remains one of the better deals in town.

I don't get the burger here anywhere near as much as I used to (well, I don't eat here nearly as much as I used to, and their tacos are my standard order these days) but every once in a while I grab one and I remember how much I enjoy it.

7) Dry Aged Burger at King's Row Gastropub

King's Row serves a ribeye burger, thick and almost always cooked the way I order it (medium-rare) on a fresh bun that is one of my favorite buns in the city. The meat is topped with St. Agur blue cheese and Tillamook extra sharp cheddar. King's Row has changed their prices - in the 9 months they've been open - more frequently than any restaurant I have ever seen, so I can't be completely sure what it costs now, but on my last visit it was still less than ten bucks during happy hour.

6) Kobe Bistro Burger at Original Tops

Original Tops is a fast food joint but their Kobe burger is the equal of most restaurants in town and only costs half as much. It's a 1/2 pound of American Kobe beef with smoked mozzarella, caramelized onions, tomato, mixed greens and herb mayonnaise. I try to order it without the mayo, which overpowers the taste of the beef and onions, but even when I forget it's still delicious.

5) Holy Aioli at Dog Haus Biergarten

The original Dog Haus has been open on Hill for more than a year but in all of my trips there I never tried anything but the hot dogs. They're that good. But when they opened their Old Town location - the Biergarten - I tried a burger for the first time. It was magnificent: in addition to the patty there is melted, gooey American cheese, crisp bacon, caramelized onions and aioli. I gave Elizabeth a bite of my burger on this occasion and now that's all she gets at Dog Haus.

4) Pie n Burger

There are plenty of pretentious places in town where you can get 14-dollar burgers and the servers will pretend like it's fine dining. That is not what Pie n Burger is. It is a lunch counter with curt service and a simple burger, a little sloppy and deliciously juicy.

3) Sirloin Swiss Burger at Jack in the Box

Nah, I'm just fucking with you.

3) Double-Double Animal Style at In-N-Out

There is no burger on the list - including the two choices ranked higher - which I have eaten more than this. If you're interested enough in burgers to read the post down to this point, I seriously doubt I can tell you anything about a Double-Double that you don't already know.

2) The G.S.T. Burger at Green Street Tavern

Green Street Tavern is the restaurant in town that makes a burger closest to the idealized "perfect burger" that I am always trying to make at home. To start, they use a telera roll, my favorite burger bun. They use ground Black Angus beef, homemade bacon, aioli, arugula, and a Roquefort-gruyere fondue, more than is probably necessary. I have had this burger many times over the years and not once has it been anything but fantastic.

1) Hutch's

I don't want to give the impression that I think Hutch's burger is necessarily the best of this list, because the beef is not in the top half of these burgers I've written about. And the slice of yellow cheese is pretty bland. But the whole thing just works together: the relish, the always-crisp lettuce, the lightly-grilled bun, and the delicious barbecue sauce. I have been eating these burgers for literally as long as I can remember. There is not another burger in Pasadena - there is not another burger I have had anywhere in the world - that I love more.

AKA (An American Bistro)

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

The courtyard at One Colorado - specifically Gordon Biersch, when it was there - has long been one of my favorite places to dine in Old Town. I started eating at Gordon Biersch when I was a teenager, it's the only place in Old Town where I ever had a drink before I turned 21, and, in my memory, it was the place I had my first legal beer on my 21st birthday. But it's been gone for a few years now.

AKA (An American Bistro) opened up in the space about a year ago. Their menu looked interesting but I never went. I saw photos of the interior and it did not look anywhere near as inviting and relaxed as Gordon Biersch had been. Recently, on my dad's birthday, my mom suggested we all go there for lunch.

The menu claims to be inspired by the flavors of California wine country, and many dishes did sound like they'd be nicely complemented by a glass of wine. (The restaurant's wine list has some of my favorites on it.)

But it was the middle of a warm December day and I wasn't in the mood for anything stronger than iced tea.

My mom, who had been to AKA before, informed me that we had to try the portobello fries. I'm not a big fan of portobellos, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I wasn't impressed. The batter was crispy and there were several large pieces of portobello on top, but beneath them were a bunch of pieces of batter with no mushrooms. At least a quarter of the cup was just batter.

The truffle aioli, however, was fantastic.

My dad started with a cup of soup which was, literally, a small coffee cup. He said it was fine.

My mom had the charcuterie plate, with a few scattered pieces of meat and some pickled vegetables. I did not think it looked very appetizing, but she loved it.

My dad ordered the pulled pork sandwich. He only took a couple of bites and announced that he didn't like it, especially the sauce. I had some and thought it was fine. Not very good, but not bad. (Though certainly not a 13-dollar sandwich.)

I liked my Reuben more than the pulled pork but was astonished at the size of it. No, I wasn't expecting it to be like one of the mammoth sandwiches from New York Deli, but I was hoping that each half of the sandwich would be more than three bites or so. (It's hard to gauge the size of the sandwich from the picture because the plate it came on was pretty small.) The components of the sandwich were good - especially the house-made pickles, but it tasted no different than dozens of coffee shop Reubens I have eaten in my life.

The steak fries were the same kind I purchase in bags for two dollars at Ralph's. They are fine as long as they are hot and crispy, which these were.

I was underwhelmed by AKA Bistro. There was nothing really wrong with the food but nothing was very good (other than the aioli and pickles). And then we got the bill. With tax and tip it ended up being ninety dollars. That blew me away.

(I sent a text to a friend of mine, someone who knows the Pasadena dining scene better than anyone else I know, detailing that lunch for three without alcohol was ninety bucks. His reply: "That's a [owner] Robert Simon production, all right!")

While my dad felt the same way I did ("Next year for my birthday let's just get tacos") my mom still really likes the place. What I found stuffy and pretentious, I suppose someone else might find romantic and gourmet. But it isn't for me.

McDonald's Chicken McBites

2012-01-11T07:00:00.001-08:00

I first heard of McDonald's Chicken McBites back in the fall of 2010 when they were being served in Australia. They looked pretty good but I put them out of my mind; most items from fast food chains that appear in other countries never make it to America. Then last spring I read a story that Chicken McBites were being tested in Detroit and would eventually be released all over the country. Yesterday was the day they came to my town and I had to try them.

I've liked popcorn chicken for more than twenty years. The first I ever remember having were at KFC back when it was actually called Kentucky Fried Chicken. Those were basically just breaded and fried pieces of chicken skin with very little actual meat on them. I loved them. Since then I've had popcorn chicken at dozens of places, some better than others. I was curious to see how McDonald's handled it.

The McBites are offered in three sizes: snack, regular and shareable. I ordered the latter, figuring Elizabeth would like to share them with me when I got home.

I paid for the McBites at the first window and, when asked what kind of sauce I wanted, replied "hot mustard." At the second window I was given the snack-size box. "I paid five bucks and change," I said, "I definitely should be getting a bigger size than this."

She asked for my receipt and then disappeared for a few minutes before returning with the proper size. And sweet 'n sour sauce.

Whatever. That's why I keep a strategic reserve of McDonald's sauces at home.

The box was only about 75% full. Not that I was surprised by this.

I'm not sure how necessary the directions are.

I elected to use the sweet 'n sour and hot mustard sauces, since a reader shared with me a few months ago that mixing the two with McNuggets is a nice flavor combination.

The pieces range in size from tiny crumbs at the bottom of the container to larger pieces about half the size of a McNugget. And they were surprisingly good. Certainly better than McNuggets, because almost all of the pieces were crispy and had plenty of crunch to them. These are light years ahead of KFC's popcorn chicken and just as good as the popcorn chicken at Popeyes. (I did not expect to ever have an item at McDonald's that was even half as good as a comparable item at Popeyes.)

The two of us finished the container. Not surprisingly, I preferred the McBites with the hot mustard sauce.

These are the best thing I can ever remember having from McDonald's. True, that's not really a hard list to top, but still, these Chicken McBites were worth the wait.

Take Me Back

2012-01-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

I started this blog in the summer of 2008, but I'd been taking pictures of my food for a lot longer. I received my first digital camera as a Christmas present in 2004. (I used a cheap little 35mm camera and quite a few disposable cameras up to that point, but two months earlier I had been to New England in October, taken hundreds of pictures of the foliage and other things, and Rite Aid destroyed almost all of them during development. So my parents bought me a digital camera.)

In the spring of 2005 I went to Memphis with some friends for Memphis In May. I'd originally planned to take pictures of the barbecue, but really I started taking pictures of everything I ate. (Although, to be honest, 90% of what I ate was barbecue.) Within a year I was taking pictures of all my food everywhere I went, even though it would be years before I started a blog.

The other day I was looking through an old hard drive for some files, and I came across a bunch of pictures I took years ago. I'm borrowing the title of one of my five favorite Van Morrison songs to show you some of the things I ate on vacations back before there was a blog.

Mountain Mike's Pizza (Sacramento)

More than once (probably more than a dozen times) I have mentioned my longing for King Arthur's Pizza in Arcadia. It disappeared a long time ago but I have not forgotten the taste, and I've chased down many pizzas in the years since when I've read descriptions and seen pictures that reminded me of the King.

I hadn't heard of Mountain Mike's but I was in Sacramento in October of '05 and staying at a motel. I wandered across the street to Mountain Mike's simply because it was the nearest restaurant with a television and I wanted to watch the Angels vs. Yankees ALDS game in HD. I ordered a pizza to accompany my pitcher of beer and was shocked to discover the closest pizza I have ever found to King Arthur's. The sauce was tangy, the crust was cornmeal-spiked, and the pepperoni was thick and delicious.

The next night I ordered a 20" "Mountain" sized pizza. (Check out my sunglasses or the Rough Guide on the table for comparison.) The menu claims that it serves 6-8. I didn't quite eat it all myself, but I put a pretty big dent in it.

A year later my brother had to go up to Sacramento to take a swiftwater rescue class on the American River. Did I go with him for the sole reason of having more of this pizza? I sure did. The day we left we picked up another one of these massive pies to eat the whole way home, though I think we finished it by the time we got to Stockton.

Horse Brass Pub (Portland)

I had some friends who moved up to Portland in 2005 and I visited them several times. On many occasions we stopped by the Horse Brass (where one of them worked briefly) for a beer, but on this occasion four of us ate there. The plate on the right is a Scotch egg: a cooked egg wrapped in sausage and deep fried. I'd never seen that before but I didn't take a bite. The fish and chips on the left were mine and they were quite tasty.

Cracked Crab (Pismo Beach)

I've been going to the Cracked Crab for over a decade now. I don't make it there like I used to - the prices keep going up, which is acceptable, but the portions keep going down, which is not - but years ago I used to visit Pismo Beach at least a couple of times per year for a bucket of seafood dumped on the table. On this occasion I started the meal with a crab stuffed poblano chile. It was gooey, a little spicy, and full of crab flavor. (A year later I tried another one and it hardly had any crab in it, and I have never tried another.)

Bistro Le Steak (New York City)

I flew to New York in the summer of '06 and it turned into one of those nightmare stories. I won't go into all the details but after landing we sat on the runway for five hours before they let us off the plane. It's been more than five years and I can still feel the heat and humidity of the recycled air and I can still hear the groan en masse when the flight attendant announced that the toilets were at 100% capacity so we should only use them "if it's an emergency."

By the time I got into the city it was 8 in the morning and I had not slept in over 24 hours. I crashed for a few hours and woke up in the afternoon. I went for a walk. The previous evening's scenario was a conflation of several things - a terrorist alert, union laws, a sporting event, weather, and probably other things I've blocked from my memory. The storm had been massive. But it had passed through and now suddenly it was an early-August afternoon in Manhattan with perfect blue skies and zero humidity.

I was making my first pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium that night to see my beloved Angels take on the Yankees. So I had to catch the train in a couple of hours. But first I needed some lunch. I stopped in Bistro Le Steak and sat at a sidewalk table. I had mussels and a turkey burger. I wasn't a big fan of the former but the latter was delicious, one of the better turkey burgers I have ever had.

White Castle (New York City)

On that same trip I had to try White Castle for the first time. So I went by the one in the Bronx. Years later I learned this is the closest one to Fordham University and Elizabeth went here many times. I got some crinkle cut fries, which were pretty good, and a slider, which was not. The frozen White Castle burgers I sometimes cook in the microwave are just as good.

I didn't dislike White Castle but I think I was expecting it to be something really special and it was not. If there was a location in Pasadena I imagine I would go there once or twice a year, but it couldn't compete with In-N-Out, Del Taco, or Popeyes as my go-to fast food joints.

John's of Bleecker Street (New York City)

Before my trip, a friend told me his favorite pizza in New York is at John's, so I made a point of going there. (It turned out the best pizza I had was at Tottono's, though.) It was certainly outstanding pizza. The crust was perfectly singed in spots and the toppings were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I wish I had taken better pictures, but my camera in those days was not as good as the one I have now.

The Sink (Boulder, CO)

So after that flight to New York, I didn't want to get back on a plane for some time. So I rented a car and drove back to Pasadena. Why not? As badly at the airline had behaved while we sat on the ground for hours and they refused to give us any information about what was happening (I won't say which airline but let's just say it ryhmes with "pet poo") they were very nice after the fact. They refunded me for that flight and then refunded the return flight when I told them I did not want to get back on an airplane.

On the trip back I stopped in Denver to see one of my high school friends and his fiance (now wife). In the afternoon I headed up to Boulder to have a beer at the Dark Horse, my single favorite bar in America, and get a pizza at The Sink. I ordered the BBQ Chicken Pizza: chicken, barbecue sauce, red onion and cilantro. It was really good.

When I lived in Boulder a dozen years ago, I thought the Sink served one of the best pizzas I had ever had. As years go by and I try more and more pizzas (and my tastes change), I realize it is not the amazing pizza that I thought it was. But it's certainly above-average pizza and I do miss their house barbecue sauce.

Paesano's (Sacramento)

I haven't been to Sacramento for many years but there was a time when I went there several times per year. And every time I did, I liked it a little bit more. Sure, the traffic was horrendous in the city and in the summer it was brutally hot, but in the autumn the weather was ideal and a 45-minute drive east would take you to some of the most beautiful scenery in the state. And I was impressed with the dining scene. Not blown away, but impressed - it was a far cry from the provincial cuisine I'd been told was there.

I enjoyed taking the light-rail to Midtown and walking around, seeing some of the sites, and stopping somewhere to eat. On this occasion I stopped at Paesanos and ordered a Spicy Chicken Pizza: tequila-lime chicken, pasilla chiles, roasted green chiles, jalapenos, cheese and cilantro. I loved it. I wished there had been a little more of the jalapenos, but with a few shakes of dried chili flakes it was spicy enough for me.

The Forge in the Forest (Carmel, CA)

I rarely ever order calamari. Far too frequently I find it rubbery and flavorless. But this calamari was probably the best I have ever had. So good that I ate almost all of it before I remembered to take a picture.

Montecito Deli (Montecito, CA)

My friend Murph is a great guy and one of my very best friends, but he is more prone to culinary hyperbole than anyone I have ever met. When a new restaurant opens in Old Town he will most likely try it, and if the food isn't terrible he will inevitably call it "amazing" and eat there repeatedly for days, sometimes weeks. To his credit, when the place isn't all that good, he will certainly admit that eventually and say something along the lines of "Why do I get so carried away with these things? It's absurd." So it's not like he's clueless.

Which is why, in 2007, when the two of us were on our way up to Santa Barbara to meet up with some friends for a wine tasting weekend - the weekend I met Elizabeth, by the way - and he said we had to stop by Montecito Deli to get sandwiches because "they make the best sandwiches in the world," I did not get my hopes up too high. I ordered a chicken sandwich with honey mustard, provolone cheese, red onion and roasted peppers.

The sandwich was fine. The bread-to-ingredients ratio was much too high for my liking, but at least the bread was fresh. As were the ingredients. I liked it but I did not love it and I told Murph so. "Yeah," he said, "now that I think about it, I can think of several sandwiches I like more." They really did break the mold after they made him.

Gladstone Street Pub (Portland)

Now, for a sandwich I really did love.

Those friends I mentioned earlier with whom I ate at the Horse Brass in 2005 had moved into a house in Southeast Portland by the summer of 2007 when I went up there for several days for my friend Tom's wedding. Just a couple of blocks away was the Gladstone Street Pub, where they spent a lot of time. And after my first lunch there I understood why. We sat on the sidewalk for hours while I drank pints of Deschutes Twilight Summer Ale for $2.75 each.

When it was time to eat I ordered "The Grubber," a sandwich I was assured was awesome. And it was: Black Forest ham, smoked turkey, Swiss, cheddar, roasted red peppers and lettuce on grilled sourdough bread. There are very few sandwiches I have had in America that I have enjoyed more.

Rogue Public House (Portland)

Another year later and back in Portland. What can I say, I used to go there a lot. My brother was going kayaking in the San Juan Islands so I tagged along with him and had him drop me off in Portland for a few days. I wrote about many of those meals a few years back, but I never included this picture of my popcorn shrimp at Rogue.

To be honest, I have no memory of how they were. Looking at them, I'm guessing they were good but there was nothing special about them.

The Coast Starlight

For a long time I'd wanted to take the Coast Starlight, so after that Portland trip I decided to do it; I got myself a sleeping car, fell asleep in the middle of Oregon, and woke up in Northern California. This is how I spent the entire afternoon: in the Pacfic Parlour lounge, nursing Sierra Nevada Pale Ales and watching the California coast go by. The sun set when we were just north of Santa Barbara.

Thanks for letting me reminisce.

Weekend Eats

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

JUSTIN THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Lean Cuisine garlic chicken spring rolls and a mix of Zankou garlic sauce and the Cajun Power spicy garlic sauce that Tracie gave me last fall.

I have never eaten something and said "This has too much garlic flavor".... but this is as close as I will ever get.

Aaay!

After doing a lot of errands Saturday morning, it was time for lunch. It was a nice day - not in the 80s like it has been lately, but a very pleasant, sunny day. I suggested sitting on the patio at Dog Haus Biergarten, and Elizabeth said that was fine with her. She wanted an RC Cola but the guy there told me they discontinued RC in glass bottles. So we got a Mexican Coke and a Dublin Dr Pepper.

And I ordered "The Fonz" - a spicy Italian sausage on a French roll, topped with pastrami and melted mozzarella. I certainly liked it, but it was probably my least favorite thing I have ever had at Dog Haus. Unlike most of their dogs (and all of their burgers), I could easily replicate this at home. Still, I ate almost all of it and was quite happy.

Too Lazy To Cook Breakfast

I had my first McSkillet Burrito yesterday: sausage, eggs, cheese, and potatoes. It was... well, exactly what you'd expect. Nothing very good or flavorful, but it was much more filling than I expected, and the addition of Sir Kensington's provided some extra flavor to tie it all together.

Football Time

For the first time in months - actually, probably all season - I set aside a Sunday afternoon to watch an NFL game. I've certainly watched entire games this season, I'm just saying I haven't planned in advance to watch one. But I had a hunch the Denver-Pittsburgh game was going to be a good game. (Although I won't lie to you: I didn't think it would be that good, and I did not see any way whatsoever that Denver would win.)

I got some Ragin' Cajun Pringles at the store and made myself an onion dip. It was fine. Pretty boring, actually. I guess I don't go all-out to make snacks for exciting NFL games (like this one) like I do for boring college games (like every single UCLA game).

This Is For My Homies Who Ain't Here

The other day I was emailing with a good friend of mine, describing (well, whining might be a more apt verb) four meals I have had in the last month at restaurants in Old Town. All four meals were disappointing and all were at restaurants that opened in 2011. I lamented those days when I used to be able to choose between La Fornaretta, Kuala Lumpur and Breadcrumbs, three of my ten favorite restaurants that I ever encountered in Pasadena.

I baked a frozen pepperoni pizza for dinner and decided to make it an homage to La Fornaretta and Breadcrumbs. (I couldn't do anything with Kuala Lumpur, as they did not serve pizza and at any rate I did have any mee goreng or leek dumplings lying around the house.) La Fornaretta served my favorite pizza I have ever had in Pasadena, the Mt. Etna: pepperoni and green onion. Breadcrumbs had a "french fry pizza" that was much better than it sounds, with fries and prosciutto on it.

I certainly preferred the green onion half of this pizza.

The Oinkster

2012-01-06T07:15:00.000-08:00

Man it was hot Wednesday. I think it was 86 in South Pasadena. According to the Times it was 91 in nearby San Gabriel. I went over to Eagle Rock with Tim to pick up supplies for his next batch of home brew - this one will have an even better name than the Henry Porter, but it won't be ready for a few weeks - and we decided to get lunch someplace where we could sit outside. The Oinkster is just around the corner from the homebrew shop.

I hadn't been to Oinkster in just over a year. I was disappointed with the place on my last trip but that hardly seems fair; it was so crowded that I should have just gone elsewhere. It was December 30th and lots of people had the day off, to say nothing of all the fans of Wisconsin and TCU who were there, no doubt having heard about it on Food Network or one of the other places where it has been featured. It took 40 minutes to get my food that day and the food was not up to its usual quality (or at least the quality I remembered from the old days when it opened and I used to go there much more frequently.) So I knew that wasn't the best day to judge it and I was happy to try it again.

It was again crowded, but at least it was manageable and we were able to take seats outside.

I ordered right before Tim. I was number 36; he was number 30. Whatever, as long as they get it right. It took exactly 20 minutes to receive my food. By no means is this a ridiculous wait, but it was obvious from looking at the cooks and the runners that they could have used a couple more employees on this day. (Long before Guy Fieri - the 43 year-old guy with bleached hair and a sweatband on his elbow - featured the place on Food Network or Bill Simmons - the 42 year-old guy who peppers his writing with 90210 analogies - called Oinkster the best sandwiches in L.A., the lines weren't nearly as long. I used to order, receive my food, eat and be out of there in less than 30 minutes.)

In 90 percent of my trips here I have gotten the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich, and this time was no exception. The pork is served on a roll with red cabbage slaw, caramelized onions, and sauce. Every once in a while you get a sandwich that is dry - although when that happens I just add more vinegar sauce to it - but this time the sandwich was amazing.

I get the large order of fries. Always too much food - but that's the point, it ensures that I will only eat half my sandwich. And Oinkster's sandwiches taste better after a night - or sometimes just a few hours - in the fridge. Most times (like this one) there are quite a few fries to take home, too. They reheat beautifully in the oven, but they are also the only fries I can remember eating that I enjoy cold as well.

Aioli, housemade ketchup, chipotle ketchup, and Carolina barbecue sauce. All delicious.

Tim had the chili burger and he said it hit the spot.

This trip to Oinkster was good enough to confirm that my last, disappointing trip there was probably an aberration. I will try to return more frequently.

Gus's Barbeque

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Gus's Barbeque has been around for a long time, but a few years ago they re-opened with renovations and a more barbecue-focused menu. I went there in 2008 and, while I really liked the sliders I had as an appetizer - and Elizabeth loved her fried chicken - I thought my pulled pork sandwich was rather pathetic. I doubted it was real barbecue - it had all the markings of being cooked in an oven - and it was served on a ciabatta bun. (I won't go into a rant but simply say that in scores of barbecue meals in the South, I have never once seen ciabatta bread.)

Last week my friend Zach and I met up to go out to lunch. I didn't want to stray too far from home that day so I suggested we try Gus's. While I prefer Southern, pork-intensive barbecue, Zach is more of a fan of the Texas, beef-heavy stuff. I figured we could try both and see how they stack up.

We got there at 11:45. There were only two other tables occupied. By the time we left, about 45 minutes later, it was packed.

The menu pictures - well, all the pictures here, really - aren't great, I know. It's really dark inside Gus's. And I didn't want to use the flash.

There were three sauces on the table: Memphis Style Original BBQ Sauce, Kansas City Style Spicy BBQ Sauce, and Red Pepper Vinegar Sauce. The first two taste pretty similar - there is nothing spicy about the Kansas City sauce, but the red pepper vinegar sauce was outstanding.

Zach had the brisket plate, with fries and creamed corn. He gave me a piece and I really liked it - it was tender and tasty. I didn't detect any smoke flavor and certainly wished I could have tried a bite without sauce on it, but it was better than the pork I had on my previous visit and, as it turned out, better than the pork I had on this visit, too.

I had the pulled pork plate with fries and slaw. It was again mediocre. There were a few strands that were moist and flavorful, but overall it was dry, and there were just far too many pieces of fat. Whoever pulled this pork did not take very much care with it.

The red pepper vinegar sauce certainly helped, though. I love vinegar sauce with pork.

But neither of the ketchup-based sauces complemented the pork.

I did not think either of my sides were very good, however a mix of the "spicy" barbecue sauce and vinegar sauce went well with the fries.

I can understand why people like Gus's. The service was very good and it's welcoming and attractive inside. And three of the four entrees I have tried while dining there on two occasions - the brisket, sliders, and fried chicken - were all very good. But the pork has not been good either time. I'm not opposed to returning to Gus's (although I won't be surprised if I never do), but I won't be getting their barbecue again.

Pierre Drive Thru Bacon Cheeseburger

2012-01-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, it wasn't very good.

A Whole Bunch Of Holiday Eats

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

I suggested my parents get some cheese for Christmas Eve. They went a little overboard.

But apparently they did not remember that I wrote about these Whole Foods pork buns just a couple of weeks ago, calling them the worst pork buns I have ever had. They got a package of four. I cooked them and all four of us tried them. All four of us hated them. These are really just awful.

To get the taste of the pork buns out of my mouth, I cooked a bag of mini egg rolls. It comes with a sweet & sour sauce and I made some hot mustard (out of mustard powder, vinegar and water) and a green onion soy sauce. These egg rolls were nothing too special, but they weren't bad.

My brother wanted to have shabu-shabu for Christmas Eve, but instead of going to one of the Japanese markets like my parents usually do, they went to Taylor's and got several pounds of top sirloin steak and asked the butcher to slice it very thin.

The accoutrements.

Even though there were only four of us, my brother decided he wanted to have two burners going on the table. Whatever.

The meat still wasn't as thin as shabu-shabu beef normally is, but it was still pretty.

I have no idea what this is. I assume some kind of dipping sauce. But it was pretty so I took a picture.

My dad's tofu. He mentioned something about tofu staving off brain decline and promoting a healthy prostate, but to be honest I wasn't really listening.

Beer makes it easier to watch the Lakers, so that's my health food.

Shabu-shabu is fun to cook, no doubt about that.

And it's colorful.

And delicious.

In one of our stockings were gummy bears made with agave. I had a few of them; they were quite tasty.

For Christmas dinner it was again just the four of us, so we decided to make homemade pizza. Nothing too fancy. The above pie I made with sweet Italian sausage and roasted garlic.

This was cheese and roasted garlic.

There was only a small amount of dough left after making those two pies, so I made a mini pizza with pepperoni.

Something in my stocking: a root beer candy cane. It's hard to tell from the picture but it was almost a foot long.

In October, I wrote that I was no longer going to visit the Church's Chicken in Pasadena, that they never get my order correct. In that post I wrote about attempting to try the Spicy Southern Style Chicken Sandwich and, even though I told the employee what I wanted four times, she gave me the wrong sandwich, one covered in buffalo sauce.

But the other day I was talking with an acquaintance who told me I had to try the version of the sandwich with the spicy mayo on it. And I didn't feel like driving to Monrovia - especially since at the time I was only about five blocks away from the Pasadena location. So I went there.

"I want the spicy sandwich," I said, pointing at the poster of it, "with this spicy mayo. I do not want the sandwich with buffalo sauce on it. I want this sandwich here. With the spicy mayo."

"Oh, we don't even have buffalo sauce right now," the woman told me.

So I waited six minutes, received my sandwich, and took it to the car. It had buffalo sauce on it. Of course it did. I mean... I can't even get mad, right? I know they are incapable of giving me what I order and yet I still went back. Fool me ten times, shame on me.

I met up with Murph for a late lunch at Bar Celona. He got his usual flatbread but I opted for the short rib sandwich. It was a little greasy but overall I thought it was pretty good. I didn't have my camera with me so I used my phone.

I went to lunch with my friend Zach the other day. He'd just been in Texas and he brought me back this 32-ounce bottle of Rudy's barbecue "sause." I am unable to decide whether this or Gates is my favorite tomato-based barbecue sauce in America, but it's definitely one of the two. However, unlike Gates, I do not know of any stores around here that sell Rudy's. So I had not had any in at least a couple of years.

The other evening while some friends were over at my place drinking wine, I heated up some of the Rudy's sauce and put in in this mini fondue pot. We dunked barbecue-flavor potato chips into the sauce, annihilating the entire bag within just a few minutes.

When I heard that Taco Bell was coming out with their 99-cent Beefy Crunch Burritos once again, I had to get another. It had the consistency of baby food with the crunch of Fritos, it didn't have a whole lot of flavor and it looked weird.... but I still enjoyed it.

Sometimes you eat something that is neither overpriced nor a good deal. You say "You know, that costs exactly what it should." This $1 pizza from Ralph's fits right into that category.

On the afternoon of New Year's Eve I went over to my parents' to watch the UCLA bowl game. I cooked some of Taylor's meatloaf - the best I have ever had - in the oven for just over an hour.

The Humboldt Fog from Christmas Eve was still in the fridge.

So I topped each piece of meatloaf with a dollop of the cheese.

Supermarket mustard potato salad and "baked" potato salad. Perfectly acceptable, nothing special.

Some of Taylor's beef and pork meatballs, dusted with parmesan.

After the meatloaf pieces with cheese had been in the oven for a few extra minutes, I removed them and added pickled red onion and arugula.

And placed them on white dinner rolls.

They were awesome, if I do say so myself. To one of them I added some Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scooping Ketchup, which took it to another level. UCLA lost the game, but that's no surprise.

"Maybe this is why teams with losing records shouldn't be allowed in bowl games?" I wondered aloud.

I hope you all had a nice time over the holidays.

My Top 20 For 2011

2011-12-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

I was going to do a list of my ten favorite things I ate in 2011, like I did a year ago for 2010, but when going through the photos - thousands of them - I decided to expand the list to twenty. The same rules apply as last year: only items that I tried for the first time in 2011 are eligible. So no Crab Cooker lobster, Green Street Tavern angus burger, La Cabanita mole, or anything else that I've been eating for years, even though those are certainly as good as anything else I ate this year.

Without further ado:

#20: BBQ Turkey Meatballs at Mama Claire's

I may have had better meatballs in my life, but never better turkey meatballs.

#19: Roasted Chiles at Baja Mar Fish Taco

Free roasted chiles with salt and pepper. I could have eaten 50 of these.

#18: Catfish Strips at Pasadena Fish Market

I'd tried the fried shrimp at Pasadena Fish Market many times, but the first time I tried the catfish I realized they were even better.

#17: Steak and Eggs at Green Street Taven

The best steak and eggs of my life, better than any I have ever made myself. The steak was buttery-soft and the jalapeno jam was the perfect complement.

#16 Kathmandu Sekuwa at Tibet Nepal House

Chicken marinated in mint, cilantro, and Himalayan spices. Great at the restaurant, even better the next day.

#15 Holy Aioli Burger at Dog Haus Biergarten

After many hot dogs and sausages over the last year at Dog Haus - and its newest location, the Biergarten in Old Town - I finally tried one of their burgers: beef, crispy bacon, cheese, caramelized onions and aioli on four connected King's Hawaiian buns. Wow this was good. I thought at the time I may not ever go back to one of their hot dogs. But of course I did on my next trip.

#14 Andouille Sausage Lavash with Irish Porter Cheese

When my buddy Phil - always an ardent supporter of this blog - visited Wisconsin early in the year, he brought me back some andouille sausage. I sliced it up, added it to lavash with Irish cheddar mixed with porter, fresh basil, and olive oil. A few minutes in the oven and it was perhaps the best lavash I have ever had.

#13 Fettunta

At a barbecue over the summer, an Italian acquaintance made fettunta: grilled bread, rubbed with a clove of garlic, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. I have eaten enough slices of garlic bread in my life to form a loop around the Rose Bowl. This was, without any question whatsoever, the best I have ever had.

#12 Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwich

For the first time I slow-cooked a pork butt with a bottle of root beer. When it was ready after several hours, I "pulled it" - this is a joke; all I had to do was drop it onto a cutting board from six inches and it fell apart into shreds - and placed it on a soft bun with deli pickle slices, red cabbage slaw and a healthy dose of vinegar sauce.

#11 Al Pastor Quesadilla at El Taquito Mexicano

After many years of eating tacos at El Taquito - to say nothing of their taco truck - I decided to try a quesadilla with al pastor. It was better than I ever could have imagined: tender pork, gooey cheese, and a firm tortilla. When I'm hungry - these quesadillas are huge - this has replaced tacos as my go-to at El Taquito.

#10 Duck Sliders at Kings Row

I never wrote about King's Row. I tried it several times when it opened and I liked a lot of the food, but there were many things about the place that I absolutely hated. I couldn't figure out how to write the review so I put it aside, intending to go back and try the place at a later date and do a proper post on it. But I never did.

Regardless, their duck sliders were frequently delicious, and on this occasion, a happy hour session on the patio with my friend Bryce, the sliders were perfect: ground duck meat, shitake mushrooms, hoisin sauce and spicy mustard.

#9 Chili

Okay, yeah, I've been making chili for years, but this was the first time I ever made two particular modifications: I used Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scooping Kethcup in place of tomato sauce or Heinz ketchup, and I used Grafton 3-year aged cheddar. It was the best chili I have ever made.

#8 Asian Turducken Pizza

My friend Zach and I have been creating culinary adventures for half our lives now, whether it was ordering five-by-fives at In-N-Out, making tacos out of quail that he blasted with a shotgun, or taking everything out of the fridge we shared, mashing it into a ball and frying it. But when we created this pizza for the Carmageddon Pizza Party at Tyler's (Zach's brother) house, we created our magnum opus. We picked up roasted chicken and duck from a Chinese restaurant and cooked Trader Joe's turkey meatballs in a pot of chili paste and Hite lager. We cooked the whole thing on a base of oyster-and-chili sauce. It was the hit of the party.

#7 Turkey and Pastrami Sandwich

I was craving a sandwich so I decided to go all-out. I bought some pastrami and peppered turkey from the deli, as well as Jarlsberg Swiss and cole slaw. I put everything but the slaw on sourdough bread, toasted it in the oven for five minutes, then added the slaw and some Russian dressing. It was the best sandwich I have made in years.

#6 Spicy Southwest Shrimp Taco at Del Taco

I didn't want to put this so high. Really, I didn't. A freaking fast food item was one of the top five things I ate this year? That can't be right. But I assure you, it was. I would rather have another one of these tacos than any of the 14 things you've just read about. The shrimp were crunchy and meaty - I'm not sure there is another restaurant in Pasadena that makes popcorn shrimp as well as Del Taco - the cabbage was crisp and cool, the corn was charred and sweet, and the chipotle sauce is the standard by which all other fast food chipotle sauces should be measured. Del Taco's promotions are almost always good, and this was the best yet.

#5 Crawfish and Caliente Sausage Pizza

A year and a half ago, a reader asked me to try Two Boots Pizza when I was in New York, spefically the "Mr. Pink." So I did. But while there I noticed a slice of pie with crawfish and andouille sausage on it. I don't know why it took me more than a year to make this pizza at home, but it did. When I finally did make it, with crawfish, grilled corn, chives and "Sierra Madre Caliente" sausage from Taylor's Ol' Fashioned Meat Market, it was amazing.

#4 Meatloaf Sliders

Taylor's meatloaf. Mini potato rolls. Sir Kensington's ketchup, goat cheese, fresh arugula, pickled red onions. No explanation needed, right?

#3 Fish Taco at Taco Fiesta

This is kind of a hard one for me to write. Because I have had the fish taco at Taco Fiesta about a half-dozen times now, and each time it has gotten worse. The portions have gotten smaller, the batter has been less crispy, there is no telling what ratio of sauce-to-fish-to-salsa-to-cabbage you will receive on any given day. The last fish taco I had there a couple of weeks ago is not even in the top two hundred things I have eaten this year.

But that first fish taco I had there... it was special. It was one of the best fish tacos I have ever had. The fish was plump and fresh, the batter was golden brown and crispy, the cabbage was fresh and the salsa was tangy. It was two and a half dollars and I would gladly pay four times that amount to have another one this good, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen again at Taco Fiesta.

#2 Flat Iron Steak with Mustard-Cognac Sauce

Not long after our friend Tim moved in just around the corner from us, he had Elizabeth and me over for dinner one night. We drank a ten year-old Napa cab and ate some cheese, but the real star of the evening was dinner. Tim had picked up a large flat iron steak from Taylor's and he cooked it in a pan, just to the rare side of medium, then whipped up a mustard-cognac sauce. The steak was amazing by itself but the sauce pushed it to another level. I was stuffed by the time I finished my plate but I won't lie: I was going back into the kitchen repeatedly and dipping torn pieces of bread and leftover potato pieces into the pot of sauce drippings. I had this meal in February and even at the time I was pretty sure I was not going to have a better meal in 2011.

As it turned out, only one thing topped it:

#1 Wild Boar Meatloaf Sandwich at Green Street Tavern

On the Friday of 4th of July weekend, with the temperature in the high 90s, Elizabeth and I sat down for lunch at our favorite table at Green Street Tavern, shaded from the heat as always by a giant tree, a tree that unfortunately is no longer standing. And I had a wild boar meatloaf sandwich on a telera roll with boar bacon, spinach, spicy honey mustard, pickled relish and Provolone cheese. I cannot describe just how good this sandwich tasted, and I would like to encourage you to go try it yourself, but I can't. Because it too is no longer around. In a move I can't quite understand, it is no longer offered on the menu. There's no way that giant tree will ever return, but hopefully the sandwich will, because it was the best thing I ate all year.

That's all for this year. I hope you have a great New Year's and I'll be back in 2012.

- Justin

Christmas Dinner #1

2011-12-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth flies back to New York for Christmas every year on the morning of Christmas Eve. The last three years we have celebrated with my family on the night of the 23rd by going out for dinner. But the last two years - Robin's BBQ and Gale's - were not enjoyable. At both meals we were shoved into the corner of the restaurant and service was not good. (The restaurants were absolutely packed both nights.) So this year when my mom asked if we wanted to go out for dinner I said "No chance. I'll make dinner."

All of the stockings were hung by the fire. Dad, Mom, Brother, Me, Elizabeth, Joey, Shayla.

I picked up a tri-tip from Taylor's, already marinated in Burgundy wine and herbs.

While the tri-tip was cooking I turned my attention to making an appetizer. At Ralph's a couple of days earlier, I had noticed this container of frozen shrimp. I love panko-breaded shrimp and these were on sale, so I grabbed it.

The directions called for baking the shrimp in the oven, but come on. In my entire life I can think of exactly ONE frozen, breaded shrimp that cooked well in the oven. (Trader Joe's Tequila-lime jalapeno breaded shrimp, which were awesome and, of course, discontinued.) So I wasn't about to do that. I pan fried them.

They were great, even better than I expected: crispy on the outside, tender and juicy inside. And the sauces were tasty, too, especially the orange sauce. We demolished these.

Not surprisingly, the tri-tip was wonderful as well.

I had picked up two and a half pounds of crab legs at Ralph's as well and I served them with the beef, along with spinach sauteed with garlic and some crispy onion rings.

I also made the honey mustard sauce that my mom and Elizabeth love.

Between the start of dinner and the end, my mom's Christmas present from my dad arrived via UPS: a Canon Rebel T3i. Did I beg her to open it so I could take a picture of the funfetti cake with it? You know that I did.

Five Christmas Traditions

2011-12-26T07:00:00.001-08:00

1) It's a warm day and I wear a t shirt and drink a beer:

2) Watch the Lakers lose (since Kobe joined the Lakers, they have a 63% overall winning percentage, yet only 36% [5-9] on Christmas Day):

3) Watch the greatest Christmas movie of them all, Die Hard:

4) Read A Child's Christmas In Wales, my second-favorite book. This is a first edition copy that Elizabeth gave me for Christmas four years ago, one of the best presents I've ever received:

5) Make spring rolls with my brother:

Let's go into this one a little more.

While I cooked some ground pork in a pan, my brother set about making the vegetable mix. Here is an action shot of him grating carrots, for you lovers of the action shot.

He did all the hard work.

I mixed up three sauces: hot mustard, a sweet & sour sauce made with Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scooping Ketchup, red wine vinegar and hot sauce, and a vinegar & sweet chili sauce with pickled ginger.

I fried up the rolls and plated them, with some slivered green onion and pickled ginger, for Christmas colors. They were good. They were very good.

My favorite of the sauces was the sweet chili/ginger sauce. I could have eaten a dozen of these.

Actually, I think I did.

A Burger & A Merry Christmas To You

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

I had to do something to get that Jack in the Box burger out of my mind. So, not surprisingly, I went by Taylor's and got some ground beef, seasoned it with pepper and a touch of garlic salt, and cooked it in a skillet.

I put it on a potato bun with dill pickle slices, Sir Kensington's ketchup, and lettuce. I know the burger looks like it was about six inches high. That's because it was.

And damn was it delicious.

I hope you all have a fun, safe, happy holiday.

Fast Food Review: Jack in the Box's "Improved" Sourdough Jack

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

In almost 800 posts, I've only written about Jack in the Box's burgers once, a sirloin steak & Swiss burger I had back in August. There is a reason for that: I've never liked their burgers. I've had them a few times over the last couple of decades, and I can't remember one ever being any good.

But recently Jack decided to upgrade its burgers, promising "improved taste, texture and juiciness." So I figured I would give them one more try. I went to a Jack in the Box with a big banner advertising "Better Burgers" and featuring a picture of three burgers. I selected the one that seemed the least-offensive: the Sourdough Jack. It looked fine when I unwrapped it.

It did not look good when I pulled off the bun, however. The meat looked like the same gray, freezer-burned stuff that is as much a part of Jack in the Box as Jack the spokesperson.

Still, I tried it. The new burgers are supposed to be seasoned as they cook. At least that's what the banner proclaimed. But after one bite I knew exactly what that means: they just dump a lot of salt on the patties. It was the saltiest burger I think I have ever eaten. I could not eat more than a couple of bites.

I don't mind Jack in the Box (well, as long as they keep serving those egg rolls), but I've never liked their burgers. And now that I've tried their "new" burgers, I can assure you that my feelings have not changed one bit.

A New Yorker at New York Deli

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth still had some Christmas shopping to finish on Saturday afternoon, so I went to Old Town with her. But first we needed some food. A Reuben sandwich sounded great to me, so I suggested New York Deli. Plus, since the first time I ate there, I have wanted to get Elizabeth's opinion on whether or not it is worthy of the name.

She definitely liked the way it was decorated.

From our table in the window on Raymond I could see the building Tracie works in and the building my dad works in.

Elizabeth ordered the tuna salad pita sandwich. The waiter warned her that a lot of people don't like it because it's too sweet, and he brought her a little bit to try. It was definitely sweet, but we both liked it.

I decided to order the turkey Reuben, on sourdough instead of rye, with potato salad.

As usual at New York Deli, the sandwiches were massive. (We both only ate half of our food.)

I added a little bit of pickle and some deli mustard to a few bites of my sandwich.

I took some of the tuna salad - the first I have had in probably two decades - and enjoyed it.

The potato salad was slightly different from the last time I had it - not as sweet. Which is a good thing.

Elizabeth had the cucumber salad with her sandwich, and she let me take a bite. I'm not a huge cucumber fan, but this was delicious.

So the final verdict? Yes, she thought it was good enough to use the name New York, though she offered that, while it would not be out of place in New York, it certainly would not be regarded as anything too special.

I really like the place, but I can't argue with that. For many reasons.

Crab & Corn Chowder

2011-12-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that I often repeat my father's maxim about never making assumptions, I am going to make one here: I assume all of you have been under the weather at some point in your life. And - since I doubt you're reading this for my charm or writing skills - it's probably a safe bet that you like food. So I'm guessing that when you've felt poorly, at least once or twice you've thought of a food that would hit the spot perfectly.

Maybe it's a steaming, spicy bowl of pho. Maybe it's a Philippe's French dip sandwich. Or a slice of pizza. You know what I'm talking about. Yesterday I felt like crap, as poorly as I've felt in months if not longer. My body ached all over (which I can deal with) and my throat burned (which I can't). As the day wore on and I did not have much appetite, I started thinking about dinner. A crab bisque sounded great to me.

So I went to Whole Foods to pick up a container of the chipotle corn bisque that I have eaten and enjoyed in the past. They didn't have any. But they did have these containers of "poblano corn chowder." I decided that would do and I picked up two of them.

And I also got a container of jumbo lump crab meat. It's not cheap, but when crab bisque (or, I guess, chowder) is calling out to me, I only want the best. (The only larger pieces than jumbo lump are graded as "colossal," which I don't believe Whole Foods carries.)

It's not much to look at before it's cooked.

But a few minutes in the wok, with the crab meat added and some sprinkles of fresh cilantro, now we're talking.

I really enjoyed the chowder. Not as much as the bisque, but it had a nice amount of spice to it.

I also felt like something a little more, so I sauteed some shrimp and crab cakes, too, serving it with a remoulade. They were good, but not as good as the bisque.

Hopefully I'll write more tomorrow if I feel better.

Yang Chow

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

What if you had to choose five foods from restaurants in the area in which you live, and those would be the only things you could ever eat again while dining out? You could still make whatever you want at home, but when going out for the rest of your life, you could only have one of those five items.

I thought about this one for a while. (I won't say how long, it's slightly embarrassing.) Although I make pretty good burgers at home, there is no way I could leave the Hutch's hamburger off the list. I could forsake the Double-Double, and thanks to Green Street Tavern inexplicably removing the wild boar burger from its menu I don't have to worry about that, but I can't imagine living without a Hutch's hamburger. I once had my jawed wired shut for several weeks and that burger was all I could think about.

The Philippe's turkey french dip would also make the cut. And, since I'm rarely able to make proper Belgian fries at home, I would have to choose a place that makes them well. I will go with Oinkster. (The first time I had Wurstkuche's fries they were the best I'd ever had but the second time they were terrible, so they don't make the cut.)

I'm tempted to pick a pizza place but I won't for two reasons: there are some really good pizza joints nearby, but none that I would call great. And I make pretty good pizza at home (not to mention my friend Tyler's amazing outdoor pizza oven); I could do without pizza at any restaurant. So my fourth pick will be something that I never seem to be able to make properly, the crispy beef at Yujean Kang's. And I'm pretty sure I know what my fifth selection would be as well. But we'll get to that in a second.

I've written about Yang Chow a couple of times before, though not for two years. When I was a teenager I used to eat at Yang Chow every so often with my family. In my 20s such meals became less frequent, especially as I discovered the joys of taking the metro down to Chinatown and having dim sum with friends at Empress Pavilion. These days I probably only eat at Yang Chow once every couple of years.

The other day I was over at my parents' house, cleaning patio furniture and moving around some things in preparation for a dinner my mom was hosting the next day. As thanks, my mom offered to take me out to lunch and asked me to pick three places. I selected The Oinkster, El Patron and Yang Chow. She said the last one sounded best to her.

We got there just after they opened, were the first customers, and took our choice of booths.

There is a small lunch menu with a few items on it, but none that sounded good to me. However, I love some of Yang Chow's appetizers - particularly the Minced Chicken Soon. But I did not order that on this day, my mom and I decided to share some spring rolls.

I'm not entirely sure that any of the above pics ad to the experience, but I was really hungry and just trying to keep busy while waiting for food.

The spring rolls were adequate. They were very hot and crispy, but unfortunately they didn't have much flavor. As usually is the case at Chinese restaurants, the sweet & sour sauce was only sweet, no sour. So I requested some hot mustard and it was outstanding: nostril-flaring, tear-inducing hot.

The chicken salad at Yang Chow is my favorite Chinese Chicken Salad I have ever had. The dressing is both sweet and spicy. I could drink it, and indeed I pick up every single morsel of food off the plate so that I can soak up the dressing.

My mom ordered "dry sauteed string beans with minced pork." I'm sure I've had these before but I do not remember them. They were outstanding.

And here we have Yang Chow's Slippery Shrimp, one of the five things that I would choose to eat for the rest of my life. There is nothing particularly revolutionary about them: they are rock shrimp tossed in corn starch and fried, then tossed in a sauce consisting of ingredients that most people have in their pantry. It is quite sweet, which normally I would loathe, but something about the combination of ingredients here just works. The shrimp are always cooked perfectly and the pleasant taste of ginger is abundant.

I always feel relatively full by the time the shrimp come around (after eating all the appetizers) and usually after half a dozen shrimp I am full. But I still keep eating. There are very few things I have ever eaten that I have found more addictive than these. (But I always leave a few to take home; once they are cooled down in the fridge they are just as good and in some ways better.)

I do not visit Yang Chow nearly as much as I used to, but I still find myself there once every year or so with a strong craving for the slippery shrimp. I don't see that ever changing.

An Answer For Jessica

2011-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

This one: Trader Joe's caramelized onion dip and McDonald's Chipotle BBQ sauce.

Friday 3 of 3: 11 McDoubles

2011-12-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

1) EXTRA KETCHUP, EXTRA PICKLES

2) SPICY GARLIC SAUCE, EXTRA PICKLES

3) FRY SAUCE, EXTRA PICKLES

4) TABASCO SWEET & SPICY SAUCE, EXTRA PICKLES

5) GATES BBQ SAUCE, EXTRA PICKLES

6) CHOLULA CHILI GARLIC SAUCE

7) MCDONALD'S HOT MUSTARD, PEPPERONCINI

8) SWEET JALAPENO JAM, PEPPERONCINI

9) E. WALDO WARD MUSTARD RELISH, EXTRA PICKLES

10) PORT WINE CHEDDAR, EXTRA PICKLES

11) MCDONALD'S HOT MUSTARD AND SWEET & SOUR SAUCE

Friday 2 of 3: Sir Kensington's BLT

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth and I were emailing yesterday afternoon about what to have for dinner. She said BLTs sounded good to her. (This is kind of misleading; whenever we make them we leave out tomato, as I hate tomatoes and she doesn't really care if they're in the BLT or not.) I said that was fine.

Then I was thinking, as I was assembling the sandwiches: tomatoes creep me out, but that's because of their texture and appearance, not their flavor. And I love Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scooping Ketchup. What if I added that?

Elizabeth saw what I was doing. "Did you just add ketchup to your sandwich?" she asked.

"No," I said, "I added Sir Kensington's."

It was good. But I don't think I'm going to make a regular habit out of it.

Friday 1 of 3: My Sauce Drawer

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

When Elizabeth's parents stayed with us last month, her mom got a big kick out of my drawer of sauces - extras I have collected over the years. I'm not sure how many are actually in there - maybe a couple hundred, but when she asked me how many different kinds I had, I ventured a guess: "I dunno... maybe thirty?"

I took them out last night to check. Turns out I made a pretty good guess.

Snack Time

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Just a rundown of some of the things I've been snacking on in the last month:

Do you have get a craving for something and need to make it for dinner? And sometimes - as in this case - it's something you've never even made before. One day I got a craving for a lobster quesadilla, with the corn and chile (tomato-less) salsa from Trader Joe's. I got some Maine lobster tail meat, Toscano cheese, spincach, and the salsa, put it all in a tortilla, and baked it in the oven for a few minutes.

An al pastor taco with pickled jalapenos and radish slices.

I didn't order these bar nachos, a friend of mine did, but I helped her eat them, so they belong here.

A piece of fried chicken on a roll with remoulade.

Pretty much anything is better when it's grilled in a panini press. I made myself an English muffin sandwich with salami, ham, goat cheese, pickles and mustard.

McNuggets and Popeyes horseradish sauce are such a nice match, it's a shame you can't order them that way.

I decided to try these chips because they were on sale for $1.68 at Whole Foods. The flavor promised to be "buffalo" but it was not. Still good, though.

I thought if I added Buffalo Wild Wings "Caribbean Jerk" sauce to a McChicken sandwich it would taste like a really good Jamaican jerk-style sandwich. I now see the flaw in my logic.

Am I the only one who enjoys Thanksgiving leftovers - in a sandwich the next day - more than I do Thanksgiving dinner? This sandwich was turkey, ham, red cabbage slaw, corn salad, and stuffing on white bread.

When I was kid I remember eating Lemonheads (well, I still do), Skittles, Starburst, gummy bears, and a few other things that I really liked... but never anything as cool as this: a "plunger" pop that you lick and dip in a toilet bowl full of watermelon powder. Crazy.

I found this dim sum sampler at Whole Foods and figured Why not? The dumplings and shu mai were passable, but the pork bun was - and I am not exaggerating here - the worst bun I have ever had.

Rotini with roasted garlic tomato sauce and arugula.

Elizabeth and I found this giant sandwich on sale at Ralph's and decided to split it. I cooked it on the panini press for a few minutes first, then added pickles and mustard to my half.

Trader Joe's barbecued brisket on a potato bun with slaw.

Whole Foods chicken salad was the first one I ever had that I loved, and I still do. I had this one for lunch just yesterday.

Mama Claire's Restaurant

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes all it takes is a little gesture to make everything all right. I will return to this thought.

Perdue's BBQ has been gone since the beginning of the year. In all but one of my trips there I really liked my food, even loving it a couple of times. But the service was about as bad as it gets - on more than one occasion I waited an hour to receive a pulled pork sandwich and fries. And I heard from some people that this could be considered a short wait. So I was slightly disappointed but not at all surprised to learn that they had gone out of business.

A couple of months ago, when driving past the vacated Perdue's location on Orange Grove just east of Los Robles, I saw a sign reading "Coming Soon: Mama Claire's Southern Food." I made a promise to try it soon, although I wanted to let at least a month go by before I stopped in. A couple of Saturdays ago, after tagging along with Elizabeth while she went shopping at several stores that held nothing for me (DSW, J Crew, H&M, and the MAC store, which I was disappointed to learn was cosmetics and not computers) she told me we could go anywhere for lunch that I wanted. (This is not to be confused with this past Saturday, when the exact same thing, including some of the same stores, occurred.) It was a chilly day and I'd had a very light dinner the night before. Southern food sounded perfect.

There was only one other table occupied. The walls and decorations are very sparse; hopefully they will add a few more touches as time goes by. (The Negro Leagues memorabilia on the walls at Perdue's were some of the best 'cue joint decorations I have ever seen.)

The menu is two pages long and several of the items looked delicious. I ordered the shrimp po' boy. Any restaurant that can do that sandwich correctly immediately endears itself to me. Ten minutes later the waitress returned and informed me that they were out of shrimp. I wasn't devastated because plenty of other things looked good, although I was curious as to why it took her ten minutes to tell me.

I selected the hot links with fries and cole slaw (I was going to order potato salad and slaw, but she told me that the fries are much more popular than the potato salad). Elizabeth ordered the chicken fingers, and we each asked for iced tea.

I disliked the tea - it was sugary and tasted strongly of lemon. If I'd known it wasn't going to be unsweetened, I would not have ordered it.

We sat around for half an hour without receiving any food. I was hungry and my mood was worsening by the minute. (I can be one of the most patient people you have ever met, but I can also be an insufferable ass when I am hungry.) I was worried that this place was too similar to Perdue's for me to make it a regular destination. The waitress apologized for the delay without explanation. Our food arrived five minutes later, 35 minutes after we'd ordered it.

Now the first of the good news: the food was really good. The chicken was tender and juicy and nicely spiced. Sometimes you get chicken tenders so overly-breaded and fried that you can barely taste the poultry, all you taste is breading. These were great, as was the honey mustard that accompanied them.

And the hot link was phenomenal. I cannot think of a better hot link I have ever had in Pasadena. Just outstanding.

Then came the second piece of good news: a woman came out from the kitchen and introduced herself to us as Mama Claire, thanked us for coming an apologized for how long the food took.

"I am supposed to have two other people here cooking with me today and they didn't show up. It's only me."

She seemed genuinely sorry that our food had taken so long and all was immediately forgiven. I have had many, many friends who have worked as servers, cooks and bartenders, and I know that sometimes it only takes the slightest thing to screw up a service. (If you were to read through the 793 posts I have written, I'm not sure how many times you would read me write about bad service, but I bet it would be less than 10.) And expecting two employees to show up who don't is certainly one of those things.

We chatted for a minute about how she learned to make this food as well as some of the dishes on the menu and she mentioned that her favorite item is the appetizer of turkey meatballs in barbecue sauce.

"That sounds excellent," I said.

I prefer my slaw without raisins, but I've had enough slaws in the South containing raisins that I don't mind it anymore. This cabbage (and carrots) was fresh and crunchy, with just a light mayo-based dressing. It was very good.

The fries were good, too: crinkle cut, fried crisp, covered with spices. And they served as a great vehicle for eating the house-made barbecue sauce. After trying the sauce on the hot links I requested some extra. And Elizabeth agreed with me; there are very few barbecue sauces that she likes but she really liked this one.

And the final piece of good news: as further apology for our long wait, Mama Claire sent us each small ramekins containing two of the aforementioned meatballs. They were simply some of the best meatballs I have ever had. It is a constant joke amongst my friends how good my balls are - partly because they are that good, if I do say so myself, but mostly because it's fun to see that ball jokes can still make us laugh in our 30s - but these meatballs are better than mine.

I will absolutely be returning to Mama Claire's. They are friendly and reasonably priced, and I can tell they care about what they are doing, something that could not be said for the previous restaurant here. I need to try the shrimp po 'boy, but I also want to try the catfish and the meatloaf. And get an entire order of those meatballs.

54 Photos and a Few Notes on Panda Inn

2011-12-12T08:10:00.000-08:00

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Panda Inn, though I must confess its incredible popularity surprises me every time I'm there. In dozens of trips growing up, it was always crowded, and on my recent Saturday-night visit there was not a single empty able at 7 PM, and a line of people waiting as I exited the restaurant. If I were going for that ain't-I-hip kind of thing, I would describe the crowd and ponder whether they have ever ventured a few miles away to try more "authentic" Chinese food, but even this snarky hypothetical feels wrong: I doubt the crowds who patronize Panda Inn have any illusions about what they are eating. This is not challenging food and I don't think anyone cares. Americanized does not mean inferior, it means Americanized. Our meal was bookended by two anecdotes that I think perfectly sum up the kind of place Panda Inn is: at the start we had to ask for chopsticks because they only provided us forks; at the end we were served a plate of fortune cookies dipped in white chocolate.

But if you, like me, think that taste is all that matters, I promise you will find many things at Panda Inn that taste very good (though nothing that is the best of its kind in town; probably nothing that cracks a top ten list.)

For those of you who live elsewhere and have not heard of Panda Inn, it is the Chinese restaurant, opened in Pasadena in 1973, from which sprang Panda Express, the fast-casual joint with 1300+ locations in shopping malls, airports, and baseball stadiums across the country.

Recently I started a review of the worst Chinese restaurant I have ever been to with an anecdote of a meal on the Central Coast a dozen years ago with my cousins. Those cousins were in town over the weekend and, as happens every year or two, they wanted to take us all out for a huge meal at Panda Inn.

A side note: I rarely get to see my teenage cousins anymore, so there was no way I was going to miss this dinner. Would you like proof of that? Okay. Here is a photo from the other event I was invited to that evening:

Pigapalooza 2011. Seriously. My friends Tyler and Zach were roasting an entire pig. Jesus, 51 Saturdays per year I watch sports on the couch and drink beer on the patio. Of course the one Saturday of the year that I was invited to a pig roast, my favorite cousins were going to be in town. Still, it wasn't a difficult decision.

They gave us our own room with a large round table. There were 11 of us in total, my cousin Ed's wife, June, being the only Asian at the table. (Meaning, of course, that we were one of the more diversified tables at Panda Inn this evening.) She asked me what my favorite things are at Panda Inn and I replied that I don't really have any. She asked what my favorite Chinese foods are overall and I mentioned a few items at Chinese restaurants scattered around the San Gabriel Valley and she got a smile on her face.

"Oh," she said, "you like those kind of Chinese restaurants! Ed won't go to those with me."

There are quite a few familiar items on the menu. Once upon a time my favorite dish here was the "sweet & pungent" shrimp, but they are gone. A few years back I tried the "sweet & aromatic" version, hoping they'd be the same. They were not.

With the large group, we ordered several of the family-portion entrees.

Emma had a Shirley Temple.

Jonas had a Roy Rogers.

I had a Tsingtao.

We started with some minced chicken lettuce cups: chicken, almonds, and oyster sauce in leaves of lettuce, with sides of hoisin sauce and hot mustard. There was nothing to distinguish these from dozens of other chicken lettuce wraps I have had, but they were still tasty.

The spring rolls would have been better if hot, but they were served only lukewarm. Still, I ate two of them.

The potstickers were my favorite of the appetizers: pork dumplings with soy sauce, although I used more hot mustard on them than soy.

Jonas and Emma really like the spare ribs, so there were three plates of them, but I'm not a big fan of ribs and did not have any.

Action shot #1: Emma grabbing a potsticker.

I had a second Tsingtao.

There was plenty of white rice, and a plate of asparagus, but I did not have any of either.

Every time we have dinner at Panda Inn (which as I wrote is maybe once every couple of years) there is a dish that surprises me. This time around it was the first thing I tried: the kung pao shrimp. These were spicy and the shrimp were perfectly cooked. I would gladly get these again at Panda Inn.

What has traditionally been my go-to dish at Panda is the sweet & aromatic chicken. Think orange chicken but with a less-sweet, more subtle sauce, with plenty of minced ginger. (I didn't get a picture of the whole plate because every time I tried to take one, someone spun the Lazy Susan to get the plate closer to them.) These were once again good... but not as good as I remembered.

I don't remember ever having the "Panda Rice" before, but I enjoyed it: scallops, shrimp and rice in a "garlic ginger oyster sauce."

Emma (and, it turns out, Elizabeth) loves the Lo Mein, but I didn't have any. Well, that's not entirely true: I ate the water chestnuts off of Elizabeth's plate. She hates them, I love them.

Action shot #2: Emma grabbing some Lo Mein.

The Panda Beef is cripsy beef with ginger and garlic in a peppercorn sauce. I used to think it was on par with Yujean Kang's crispy beef, but this dish certainly wasn't. It was good, and I had at least two helpings of it, but it was not what I would call great.

The honey walnut shrimp was also a surprise: there was no sweet flavor to it (Unlike Panda Express's take on the dish); it was a muted flavor, and the shrimp were crispy and tender.

My dad's favorite dish at Panda Inn is the Tea Smoked Duck, piled in buns. I didn't try any but he obviously enjoyed them.

Action shot #3: Derrick grabbing some Panda Beef.

As is our tradition, there was way too much food. We could have ordered at least two fewer entrees and been fine. Possibly four fewer.

The aforementioned white chocolate fortune cookies. I can't lie: they were very good.

Emma crumpled up her wrapper, shoved it down into her water glass, and spun it around. It was hypnotically attractive.

Our leftovers couldn't fit into one bag. Or two.

My cousins were driving three hours back up to the Central Coast and did not want to take any Chinese food with them to perfume their car on the ride. I understood. My parents told Elizabeth and I to take it all. So we did. I had it for lunch. And another dinner. And another lunch. And there is still some left.

I will close this with the same words I used when I wrote about a dinner at Panda Inn with these exact same people in July of 2010:

"It was a fun meal at Panda Inn, but that had more to do with the company and the family-style eating than anything relating to the quality of the cuisine. It was certainly fun to see my young cousins enjoy the food like my brother and I did when we were that age. If I'm invited to another dinner with them next summer, I will be glad to attend."

Weekend Eats Through My Cell Phone

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

I met up with my friend Dave to go out to lunch for the first time in a few months. I asked what he was in the mood for and he said anything, preferably someplace informal where we could relax and talk. I suggested Dog Haus Biergarten. He had not yet been and he said that sounded awesome. He was even more impressed when he learned they still had the bar from red white + bluezz. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we got ourselves two pints of Bitburger.

This was Dave's first time at either Dog Haus and he ordered the El Mariachi: a hot dog with white American cheese, grilled onions, pickled jalapenos and red bell pepper. He absolutely loved it, proclaiming at the end of the meal it was probably the best hot dog he has ever had.

I went for the special dog of the day: a kielbasa with fries, slaw, and spicy barbecue sauce on a french roll.

This was fantastic. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't eat enough sandwiches with fries inside them. The sauce was spicy and it played beautifully off the creamy slaw. Even though I was quite hungry, there was no way I could finish this thing. (Elizabeth helped me finish it when she got home from work, and she thought it was great, too.)

I did some Christmas shopping of my own in the afternoon and needed a beer. I stopped by Bar Celona for a Dos Equis, which hit the spot.

I was all set to head home but I got a text from a friend of mine (whom I have not seen in weeks) that he was going to stop by Congregation Ale House for a beer. Since it was on my way home - and I was walking - I figured there was no harm in popping in for a pint or two. The Guinness there is good but the main reason I am including this picture is the discs they have inlaid in the bar that keep your beer cold. Sometimes I feel like I'm a stranger in this world.

Speaking of Congregation, the next day my friend Carla sent me a text that she had the day off and asked if I wanted to have lunch there. I said of course. I had another pint of Guinness while she had a Scaldis Noel.

Carla had a pork and goat cheese sausage on flatbread with grilled peppers and onions. She said it was very tasty.

I had some fries, this time selecting chipotle mayo and rosemary garlic mayo as my dips. Both were delicious and the fries were again great.

I also had a flatbread with prosciutto, Parmesan and arugula. It was quite tasty although I could not finish it after I devoured the fries.

I went shopping with Elizabeth to one of my least favorite stores (DSW) in my least favorite mall (Paseo Colorado) around. Then we went to Sephora. Then Urban Outfitters. Then Forever 21. Believe it or not, those were all stores she wanted to go to, not I. But afterwards she told me we could go anywhere I wanted for lunch. So, not being in an original mood, I suggested Dog Haus. It was the middle of December and 73 degrees out; I wanted to sit outside. And she agreed quickly: she's been wanting to try one of their burgers for a while. She ordered the Holy Aioli and loved it. (But she could only eat half. Later in the day we went by my parents' house and gave my dad the second half, and he liked it as well.)

I ordered the Ruben's Cube: pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss and Thousand Island on Hawaiian buns. This sandwich was delicious but massive.

We got an order of fries to share - with spicy basil aioli and curry ketchup - but we couldn't even eat a quarter of them together.

At the mall in Arcadia while doing some Christmas shopping, I stopped into Famima for a bottle of water. Just for old time's sake I got a pork bun: bulgogi. The filling was all right but the bun was horrible. I ate about half of it and threw the rest away.

After shopping and getting out more Christmas decorations than I have ever seen in any place not named Stats, I needed some food. So I went by Taco Fiesta and got some carne asada nachos, al pastor and carnitas tacos, and those fish tacos that I love so much. Well, loved so much. When I first had them, they were the equal of almost any fish taco I have ever had. Each successive time they have gotten worse. This time they were not the slightest bit crunchy and they were almost bland. They weren't bad exactly, but they were barely what I would call average. I think I'm over Taco Fiesta now.

Not surprisingly, I was not hungry for dinner on Sunday evening. I heated up some leftovers but only ate a couple bites.

Chili & Longoria Blues Cuvee

2011-12-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was one of the most exciting days I've had all year.

As is my routine, I woke up and turned on ESPN, only to find within five minutes a report that the Angels had signed Albert Pujols, perhaps the best right-handed hitter of the last 80 years.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

The Lakers traded for Chris Paul, landing a truly great point guard for the first time in two decades. (The trade was later vetoed, although I don't think we've heard the last of this one.)

But that's not it either.

No, when I was at Whole Foods, I found this:

A bottle of Longoria Blues Cuvee.

In the summer of 2008, Elizabeth and I went up to the Central Coast with our friends Dave and Min the weekend before my 30th birthday. We visited several wineries, had a picnic with some food we picked up from the Los Olivos Grocery, played a little bocce ball at Laetitia - as relaxing a location as I have ever found in America - and had dinner in Morro Bay on the water. A list of the five best days of my life would include that one.

We stopped at Longoria in Los Olivos. We were all carded - in scores of winery visits, the only time that has happened to me - and we strolled out to the gardens to sip wine. A jazz guitarist was playing, the flowers smelled like summer (I have no fewer than a half dozen photos of Elizabeth smelling them, though it has been made clear to me that publication of any of them would not be a good idea) and we lingered for quite a while.

Our favorite of the wines was the Blues Cuvee. It tasted delicious, of course, but even cooler were the labels: each year an artist is commissioned to create a label indicative of an old-time blues musician. The label we had that day was called "Cry the Blues."

In 2009 I was back up in the area for a wedding. Elizabeth was the maid of honor, staying with the bride the night before the wedding, so I had the whole morning to myself. I went back to Longoria. It was closed, hosting a party, perhaps a wedding.

In 2010, we returned with Dave and Min to the area, this time for Elizabeth's 30th birthday. Longoria was one of our top destinations. Again, closed for a private party.

Since then, I've looked in many places for the wine, even calling a few. I could not find it anywhere in the Pasadena area. Then yesterday, while my phone was exploding all day with texts messages from friends wanting my opinion of the Angels' acquisitions (I won't go into them here), I went for a walk. I had already put the chili in the slow cooker and decided to go by Whole Foods to find a really good cheddar to accompany the finished product. Just for the fun of it I looked at some of the wines. And there it was.

I briefly explained the situation to the bagger when he asked me if the wine was any good.

"It's kind of expensive, isn't it?" the clerk asked me. (I got a kick out of a Whole Foods employee claiming something was expensive. For the record, it was $31.99, by no means cheap, but this is a store that sells tiny bags of beef jerky for ten dollars. Hell, the cheese I bought, a five-month aged cheddar, was twenty dollars per pound. 32 bucks for a bottle of wine doesn't seem terribly over-the-top, especially when I consider I haven't had any in three years and, thanks to my friend and neighbor Tim, I haven't paid for a bottle of wine at home in all of 2011.)

First, let's get back to the chili: I made it in my usual way. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you can check it out here.) But with one new wrinkle.

In addition to the ground beef, I diced up a tri tip strip steak that I picked up at Taylor's and added that, just for some extra beefy flavor.

After about eight hours in the slow cooker I added the aged cheddar and some diced green onions. It was fantastic. Tracie was over and she said she didn't want any. (She has co-workers coming into town for her office Christmas party and she claimed her eating chili would not be good for them... actually, she was much more descriptive than that, and she told me I could repeat her words on the blog, but I will not.) But when I brought out my bowl and gave her a bite she said "Wow, that's the best chili you've ever made." And she had several more spoonfuls.

I ate two bowls, and I might just have another for breakfast.

Little Britain

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Back in 2003, a guy came into my work wearing a t shirt that read "Brits: Warm Beer, Lousy Food." I laughed and asked about it; he said it was a new English pub-style restaurant on Colorado Blvd and that the beer was cold and the food was great. Not long after I stopped by and had a good laugh: there wasn't actually a bar. It was just a restaurant. But I had the fish & chips and they were very tasty.

A few months later I stopped in again because I'd heard they'd built a bar. And indeed they had. But there was no Guinness. I considered having food again but back in those days I was quite loyal to Guinness and couldn't imagine having fish & chips without. (Nor, I suppose, could I imagine having fish & chips without beer.) So I went elsewhere. And I don't think I ever went back.

Last year, Brits closed. But in August they opened up again as Little Britain on the corner of Allen and Villa. (For years I remember lettering on the flesh-clored building that read "Armenian Palace," though I never once stopped by, having always been satisfied with the basturma just up the street at Garo's.) Tim - who was a loyal patron of Brits - and I stopped by the other day for lunch. There was no one else in the place. They again do not have a bar - or even a beer/wine license. The owner told us we could duck into the liquor store next door and pick up a beer to go with our lunch, but neither of us were in a mood for alcohol. (Rare, but it happens.)

I'd never heard of Sarson's malt vinegar, but there was a bottle of it on every table. Apparently it's a vinegar created in the 18th century in London. You learn something new every day.

The menu at Little Britain is larger than I remembered the Brits menu being. (But I could be wrong - it had been many years.) The "cajun fish spread" appetizer caught both of our attentions: blackened cod in a cream and goat cheese spread. We decided to start with that.

It was a really interesting dish. Around the edges of the fish spread, it was a little bland, resembling tuna salad. But once you got into the center of the spread, the cajun flavors really kicked in. There was a wonderful spice to it and we both loved it. The crusty bread pieces were the perfect vehicle for delivering the spread.

Tim decided he felt like a curry, so he got the chicken curry and he said it hit the spot.

But there was no question I was going to be having the fish & chips. I'd been craving fish & chips for a couple of weeks but hadn't gotten around to having any. The chips were very good: hot, crispy wedges of potato.

The peas were... well, peas. I like peas, but I certainly understand people who don't. In a setting like this, I douse them with malt vinegar, and sometimes a drop or two of HP Sauce.

But the real star here is the fish. I don't order fish & chips much anymore, because far too often I am served a disappointing, soggy, greasy hunk of fish. This fish was beautiful: moist and flaky cod enveloped by a light, crispy batter. I'm not sure how they make the batter but it binds to the fish as gently as any batter I have ever had. It doesn't interfere with the taste of the cod but provides a light crunch in every bite.

It was a very nice lunch. There are a few items on the menu I look forward to trying in the future, although it will be hard not to order the fish & chips every time I return.

The Habit Burger Grill

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

With the exception of the fried food at the Pasadena Fish Market, I don't like any of the seafood options in Pasadena. There is no reliable barbecue; Robin's is sometimes awesome but more frequently it resembles the sloppy, sauce-drenched sandwiches of Denny's. 95% of the pizza joints are just average. (Though I admit that average pizza is still better than almost any other food.)

But when it comes to burgers I have always felt very lucky growing up in this town. There is In-N-Out Burger, of course - the oldest existing In-N-Out Burger, actually, is the Pasadena unit. For the last year there has been a Fatburger. There is Hutch's, my favorite burger in the world, and there is Green Street Tavern, whose burger I admit is superior to Hutch's, even if I don't love it as much. There are the gloriously simple, course-ground burgers at Pie 'n Burger and the easily-customizable burgers at Wolfe Burgers, where you can sit on the patio on a warm winter afternoon and down a cold Pacifico with your burger. The Kobe Bistro burger at Tops, the chili burger at Original Tommy's, the patty melt at Wonder Burgers, the Kobe burger topped with prosciutto at Cafe 140 South (née Crocodile Cafe), the Holy Aioli at Dog Haus.... I have known and loved them all.

And now there is a Habit Burger.

I've written about The Habit a couple of times: once in the fall of 2010 and once in the summer of 2009. Both times I wrote that if a Habit Burger opened in Pasadena I would gladly add it to my burger rotation. Well, a few weeks ago I learned that a Habit would be opening soon in Pasadena, taking over the space occupied by a closed Boston Market in Hastings Ranch.

I had planned to go for a soft opening fundraiser they were having. I ducked into Supercuts next door to get a haircut, but by the time I was finished (in grand Supercuts tradition the wait was twice as long as I'd been told) I was running late and did not have time. (This was the day Elizabeth's parents came into town and I was running errands from 7 AM until the time we picked them up at 10 PM.)

Last Thursday, after the epic windstorms had taken out the power at my parents' house and Elizabeth and I had driven over to rescue some items from the freezer, I suggested the two of us stop by The Habit. What I didn't realize at the time was the extent of the blackouts in that area. Apparently a lot of people had the same idea of going out for dinner that night. The line was out the door, maybe 50 people deep. We picked up sandwiches at the store on the way home.

So the other day I found myself in that part of town - I was taking out all of my parents' trash cans for them; there are at least a dozen all filled with yard debris - and stopped by for a burger. I had planned to eat it there but there was literally not a single available seat, so I opted for takeout (my parents live less than one mile away). As has happened on other occasions at The Habit, the lines moved quickly and the service was extremely friendly. I don't know how The Habit trains their staff, but pretty much every fast food company - even In-N-Out - can learn something from them.

There were several people ahead of me in line but I had my burger and fries within five minutes.

I opted for a Double Charburger and fries. (I could have made it a combo and gotten a drink for less than a buck extra, but since I'd decided to go to my parents', I figured I'd just drink iced tea there.)

This is only the fourth or maybe fifth Habit burger I have had, but just like all the rest it was great. The term "Charburger" is perfect: there is a taste of smoky char, and a surprising amount of juiciness considering how thin the patties are. (Although when you use fresh ground beef and cook it over an open flame, you're going to be pretty far ahead of the game when it comes to fast food.)

The Habit Burger's fries are fine. These were kind of limp but that is 100% my fault: when you put fries in a to-go bag - even if it's just for a 90 second drive - you steam them and their quality suffers. When The Habit's fries are eaten fresh they are hot and crispy, but, in my opinion, kind of boring. I can't help think how much better crinkle-cut or waffle fries would be with these burgers. But The Habit has a condiment bar with A.1. Sauce and Worcestershire, and plenty of lemon wedges, so I'm always able to mix up a tasty dipping sauce or two.

You know, I just realized something: in that sampling of burgers I listed in the second paragraph, only one of them is on the east side of Pasadena. All the rest are in (or closer to) the west side of town. The Habit Burger is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. I've now been by it three times, and each time it was packed. As long as their quality remains, I'm sure it will be be busy for a long time.

Congregation Ale House

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

There are not many restaurants I have looked forward to opening in Pasadena as much as Congregation Ale House. If you've been reading for any amount of time, you surely know that I like beer, burgers, sandwiches, and Belgian fries. I'd seen pictures of all of those things at the Long Beach location (or "chapter," as they call it) and they all looked good.

Congregation had its grand opening on Sunday in the old Crown City Brewery space on the corner of Del Mar and Raymond. Half a decade ago I would often end my evenings at Crown City, huddled around a table with some friends splitting a few appetizers. I didn't love the place but it was just far enough away from the craziness of Colorado Blvd, the appetizers were usually good (especially the smoked chicken and bacon lavash) and the Red Stripe was cold.

The space had been vacant for more than three years, but now Congregation is open. My friend Bryce and I (and his daughter Lucy) stopped by for lunch yesterday.

The interior only takes up about half the space that Crown City did. It's much more intimate than I expected.

The beers are listed on a chalkboard because "they're going to change frequently." It was a nice selection, but it was 11:45 in the morning and I didn't need a beer.

As the tabletop display says, you order and pay at the counter; they pour your beer and hand it to you right then and give you a number. A server brings the food when it's ready. If you think you might be having more than one beer, you can start a tab when you place your order.

I chatted with the owner for a couple of minutes. I know him casually from another bar he managed in town a few years back. He told me the jukebox is free during lunch, there were 200 credits in it, and I "should play something because it's too quiet in here." I selected Velvet Underground, Tom Petty, Dylan, and Chrissie Hynde, then wandered out to the patio to take a seat.

It was a cool day but sunny, and we had the patio all to ourselves. (It also worked out great because every time the Gold Line roared by, Lucy was able to exclaim "Choo choo!" with a giant smile on her face.)

I said "I didn't need a beer." Technically this was true. But I wanted one, especially when I saw the Allagash Black on tap. It's a Belgian-style stout, tasting slightly of coffee and smoke.

Bryce had a Stone Vertical Epic Ale 11.11.11.

Orders of fries come with a choice of two dipping sauces. I selected rosemary-garlic mayo and curry ketchup. The latter was fine but the former was outstanding. I'm not sure I've ever had rosemary in an aioli before, but I like it. The fries themselves were fantastic, some of the best in town.

I ordered the "brandy pulled pork sandwich," which came on a roll with brie and caramelized onions. This isn't barbecue, but man was it delicious. Perhaps a little sweeter than I normally like my sandwiches, but that's a small complaint, particularly when I was washing it down with a black ale.

Bryce had the "rib eye and white cheddar burger," on a roll with tomato, onions, arugula and mayo. He had ordered it medium and it was pretty much well done, but he said it was still good. I certainly intend to try one at some point.

I liked Congregation Ale House as much as I expected to. (True, I am sure there will be some nights when the place is completely packed and I would hate it, but that has more to do with me than the place.) The food was very tasty and there are plenty of deals to be had, too. Happy hour is 3-7 PM Tuesday-Friday, and all day on Monday. My sandwich, fries and beer only added up to $15.70. (I can't find my receipt to figure out what deal I got, but it must have been something, because adding those things up based on their website prices it comes to $18 pre-tax.)

I will absolutely be returning. Having a beer and some Belgian fries on the patio on a warm afternoon, maybe sharing a sausage platter with some friends, looking out on the mountains, is a pleasant thought indeed.