The Expatriate Mainer

Chou's Kitchen - Chandler, AZ

2012-01-16T20:45:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday, Tara and her sister went to Tucson to visit with their grandmother before she heads back to Minnesota this week. I was in the mood for something Dim Sum-ish, but going solo to Dim Sum just limits the variety too much. This post in the New Times earlier in the week intrigued me. Hamburger-sized dumplings? Count me in. So I Googled Map-ped Chou's Kitchen and headed down.

Lucky for me I'm very familiar with the Ray/Alma School intersection. There's a Goodwill store there that I've been to many times. Chou's is on the south end of the shopping center. It's a tiny place, with maybe 10 or 12 tables. The basic space's layout reminded me a lot of Acacia Cafe, for those who know the Arcadia spot (a favorite of Tara, btw). When I walked in the door, it was plain that it's popular with the Asian community. Every table was taken or needed to be bussed, as a large group had just left. And I was the sole caucasian in the place, until a couple came in immediately behind me. Generally I take it as a VERY good sign when an Asian restaurant is packed with Asians.

The waitstaff seemed a bit overwhelmed, so I wondered if they saw a upturn in business since the article came out. The other white folks mentioned they'd seen it as well, but some of the patrons were definetly regulars. I'm guessing, since Chinese dialects were literally all I could see and nearly all signs were in Chinese characters as well. Thankfully, the menu had English names as well.

Chou's Kitchen serves mainly dumpling-esque specialties from a northern province of China. Read the New Times article for the exact locations. Nearly all the main dishes are dumplings of some type. The also have some soups, cold dishes, hot pots, and noodles as well. I was targeting the meat pies pictured in the New Times article. I ordered the pork meat pies (three) and fried beef buns (six). Both were $4.98. There was a soda fountain in the corner, but it was either broken or for decoration, as my Pepsi arrived in a can.

The Fried Beef Buns arrived first. They came on a plate upside-down, and had been fried together. The texture of the bun was somewhere between a steamed pork bun and pan-fried dumpling at dim sum. They were sweet, with the filling reminding me a bit of gyoza. They were very good and I initially was going to save some to take home. The pork pies took a LONG time. The table seated before me ordered over a 1/2 dozen dishes. My buns came out just after that table's first few dishes. The pork pies were taking so long I thought they'd been forgotten. I was hungry, so the rest of the beef buns made the ultimate sacrifice. But damn, they were good. There were six in the order. Two just didn't make it into the photo.

Finally, the pork pies arrived. They were screaming hot, so I had to let them cool. There is some broth inside the wrapping, so it's very easily to get scalded if you aren't careful. The wrappers were nicely browned. They are a lot like regular dumpling, just flattened with a broth inside. The meat seasoning is similar as well. Once they'd cooled, I started nibbling carefully and really enjoyed them. They are about the size of hamburger patties, so I only managed to eat one and a half before getting a box for the leftovers.

The other table of non-Asians called the waitress over to ask if their beef pies were forgotten. The waitress let them know that the meat pies take the longest of all their items to cook. The wait is well worth it, though. I've been to my share of Chinese restaurants and many Dim Sum meals, but I've never seen this particular item. The other table hadn't either. It's well worth hunting down Chou's to give them a try.

The service is very friendly, but I think the kitchen is small, so orders can take some time. Don't come in expecting a speedy, Pei Wei-type experience. Come in, relax, and just enjoy something a bit different. Like Dim Sum, coming with a small group so you can order a variety of items is probably your best bet. I believe they are open 7 days, but I can't remembe their exact hours. No website unfortunately.

I definitely plan on going back. There are a lot of items that intrigued me and sounded quite good.

Chou's Kitchen
910 N Alma School Rd, Chandler

Still here

2012-01-03T17:39:00.001-08:00

Wow, nearly six months fallow. How time flies.

I really need to put a bit more effort around here. We'll see how that goes.

My latest deal I found was on a nice Waring Pro waffle maker. It was a display model at Sam's Club and I snagged it for about 1/2 price. I christened it yesterday and it works great. Adjustable browning and alarms to let you know when it's preheated and the waffle is done. Can't wait to get some more use out of it.

Terribly exciting, no? Blame it on the cold currently sapping most of my will to live. Damn relatives from Minnesota must have brought it with them over the holidays. Tara, Theresa, and I are all in various stages of colds/flus/sinus infections/ear infections.

Breakfast/lunch places in Phoenix

2011-07-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

We enjoy our weekends, especially eating a late breakfast or lunch. Our favorite standby is Harlow's in Tempe. I love their chorizo in any number of their dishes, especially the huge Eggs Maximilian. Even the simple chorizo and eggs is a great way to start the day. Their chorizo, for me, has the perfect balance of flavor and heat. We even have a favorite waitress who remembers us, Katrina. Harlow's is one of those places that attracts everyone: college kids from ASU, hipsters, families, bikers, Scottsdale pretty people, and the like.

Sometimes, though, a change is nice.

One of our friends was checking in on Foursquare a lot at a place called Joe's Diner, on 16th Street between Camelback and Indian School. I tried it solo while Tara was out of town and loved it. After several trips, the only thing I didn't love was their sausage patties. They were kinda dry and rubbery and not up to the rest of the food. They are your basic diner, with breakfast, lunch, and a bunch of sandwiches, plus daily specials. Nothing earth-shattering, but everything is done very well. The owners have been there every weekend when we've gone. Joe comes out of the kitchen and chats with customers. On one visit, he asked me about the food, and I told him my dislike of the sausage compared to the rest of the food. In a subsequent visit, the sausage was vastly improved and he confirmed that he'd changed the recipe. The only thing I have problems with now is their chorizo. It's made for him by Carolina's using his own recipe. It's very bland for chorizo, with hardly any flavor and no heat. Luckily they have so much else that is fantastic, it's not really an issue for me. I also like that both Joe and his wife (who always says hi to us when we go) are free to recommend other places to eat. Joe admitted his Italian sandwich is an homage/copy of DeFalco's in Scottsdale. His wife recommended Bertha's in Arcadia, 5th Ave Cafe at 5th Ave and Thomas, and Times Square at I17 and Deer Valley. JK also mentioned that their coffee is great.

Today we were able to try 5th Ave Cafe for a late breakfast. It's a nice space right on the corner with a little bit of parking out front and more in the back. We got there about 1/2 before they closed for lunch. Service was pleasant although there were a few small issues with timing. I also saw another table have an ordering issue/language barrier problem, but they fixed it and several of the staff apologized for the mix-up. They did keep our drinks refilled like troopers, as just about any server who walked by when a glass was empty would immediately ask if we wanted refills. For our meals, Tara got the biscuits and gravy plate, which came with a couple scrambled eggs and red potatoes. They were some excellent biscuits and gravy and Tara loved the herbed potatoes, crunchy outside and creamy inside. I got the Chorizo Cowboy, a skillet scramble of eggs, chorizo, hash browns, and cheese sprinkled on top. I also got a side of sausage. The scramble was really good. It didn't have the nice chorizo flavor of Harlow's, but it was still quite good. The hash browns were very finely grated, so they were very crispy. It all worked. It came with a huge buttered tortilla, so I used 1/2 my skillet to make a breakfast burrito. I stuffed myself and still had some leftover scramble. The only odd thing was when the waitress dropped off some syrup on her first delivery of our meals. Tara and I gave each other an odd look, as we couldn't figure what required syrup. On her second trip, she had my dish and a huge plate with a "short stack" of pancakes, which looked really good. She asked who had them and we said nobody. She later admitted she'd keyed it into our order by mistake. I'd gotten a $10 gift cert from restaurant.com and even with two drinks, our order was still under the $20 min before tax. Not a bad deal. 5th Ave Cafe will definitely be in our rotation now.

On the complete opposite end of the cost spectrum, there's St Francis at Camelback and 1st St. A friend had posted pictures of his brunch there a while back and it looked so good, we had to try it. Along with our friend JK, we went for their Sunday brunch a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, they have a live band and horrible acoustics, so we could barely hear ourselves talk. The food, however, was spectacular.
The Bakers Board, with scones, baguette, rosemary mini-biscuits, a mini-cinnamon bun, and toppings for the breads, was a meal in itself. The scones with creme fraische were incredible. The bread with the butter and jam was also right up there. Tara and JK thought the mini-biscuits were a bit over-kneaded, but I still loved them. The cinnamon bun with homemade caramel sauce was my least favorite. The sauce had too much of a burnt flavor for me.
While waiting for our table, Tara spied a group eating fingerling potatoes that looked too tempting to pass up. Cooked with rosemary, sage, sprinkled with a pecorino cheese, and served with a lemon aioli, they were crazy good.
Tara ordered the House Made Biscuit, with fennel sausage gravy and two fried eggs on top. Hands-down this was the best biscuit and gravy I've had. The gravy had a strong flavor with huge chunks of sausage. The biscuit was easily four inches across. A great dish.
JK had the Wood-Oven Baked Eggs, with red wine braised beef, summer vegetables, tomatoes, and gruyere. I had a tiny taste, yet it had a ton of flavor.
I had the Pork Chile Verde, with cilantro, lime, jack cheese, two sunny side up eggs, and homemade cornbread. I was in love with it. Not quite as good as the dreamy Carne Adovada at Dick's Hideaway, it was still fantastic. Not too much heat from the spices and a great melding of flavors. The only let down was the homemade cornbread. Compared to the other baked goods, it was out of it's league. It didn't help that it was served cold. Warm with some butter would have made a huge difference.
With our drinks, including a couple mimosas, the bill came to $85 for the three of us. Ouch. If you don't go nuts like we did trying so much, and forgo the mimosas, it would be much more manageable. Still, the food was so good, it would be hard to not order some extra dishes.

Zaytoon Kabob Bistro - North Phoenix

2011-03-09T20:16:00.000-08:00

Wow, I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted. Things have been quite hectic. We moved to a new house in February, so January was full of searching, applying, and moving prep. We're finally mostly all settled.

Some of the first mail we got at our new place was a ValuPak of coupons. One was for a local, fairly new Middle Eastern place called Zaytoon Kabob Bistro. They are located in one of the small strip malls on the southwest corner of Greenway and Tatum. Since we moved farther from the large cluster of restaurants at 7th St/Bell, we've been looking for new places that are closer to home.

Zaytoon is a five month old restaurant. You order at the counter and they bring your food out to you. As the name implies, most of their menu is kabobs, either in wraps or entree form. Ground beef, chicken, shrimp, lamb, veggie, and a few others. They also have daily specials. On my first visit, the friendly and helpful girl at the register explained that the owner is Iranian and the specials are all Iranian specialties. They are unique on the menu and not just discounted regular items. I think that's a great idea.

On my first visit, I got the gyro wrap to go, along with an order of hummus. These are my usual measuring sticks for a new Middle Eastern restaurant. The gyro meat is made in-house. The gyros wrap was huge. A large quantity of gyro meat (beef and lamb), along with veggies and sauce, all wrapped in a fresh, house-made tandoori bread. It was very good. The hummus was excellent. There was an added flavor I couldn't identify, but it was obviously made in-house as well. This was evidenced by a few whole or nearly whole chickpeas that escaped processing. Tara and I ranked this as our second favorite hummus after Z's Greek on Thomas near 40th Street.

On my second take-out visit, I got the chicken kabob entree (marinated boneless chicken, breast or thigh), which came with basmati rice and 1/2 a piece of tandoori bread. The chicken was also very good, with a nice marinated flavor. It came with a massive side of rice, easily enough for two or three people. The rice was OK. It was basic basmati rice, nothing special. For that, you head to Eden's Grill just down Tatum at Thunderbird. Their rice is amazing, but a different review.

Tonight, Tara didn't feel like cooking and suggested we go to Zaytoon, as she hadn't tried it yet outside of the hummus. Surprisingly, they were nearly packed on a Wednesday night. They have around 15 tables and most were taken. A huge group was ordering at the register when we arrived, but the owner let his son deal with them and took our order at the other end of the counter. He was incredibly friendly and helpful. Tara got the ground beef kabobs (ground beef mixed with onions and Zaytoon seasonings). I got the daily special: Eggplant Stew (A stew of beef, yellow split peas, and eggplant in a saffron tomato sauce, served with steamed basmati rice.

We also got a hummus appetizer with two extra pieces of tandoori bread. The owner even asked the kitchen to do our order in front of the large group so we wouldn't have to wait for twelve dishes to be done before ours.

The hummus arrived before I even made my way to the table after getting my drink. I let the extremely hot bread cool before dug in, but Tara didn't way as she has a higher pain threshold. The hummus was still as good as we remembered. It was a very large portion and we found we couldn't stop eating it. As we did, we noticed the large group started to get their meals. That was fine, as they were there before us and we had a ton of hummus to keep us very happy.

After about half of the large group had their meals, our came out. Immediately after we got them, the owner came out and apologized for our meals taking longer than normal. This caught us by surprise as it didn't seem to take long at all. We assured him that we didn't even notice and were just finishing the hummus in any case. Sometimes you can't beat the service at a Mom and Pop place.

Tara's ground beef kabobs were excellent. She even went so far as to say there were better than the ones she used to get when we frequented Shish Kabab House in Glendale. High praise indeed.

My stew was very good, although I'm not sure I'd get it again. The saffron tomato sauce had a very interesting flavor, and I'm sure people love it, but it was right on the border of my tastes. I didn't DISlike it, but I'm not sure it's something I'd order again. What I did love is that it DID have a distinct flavor and didn't seem to be too toned-down for the general public.

All the plates and utensils are plastic and the interior is very clean if not too special. All of the staff has been very friendly on all my visits and the owner even more so tonight. The best part is that the most expensive items on the menu (the lamb and the shrimp entrees) top out at $9.99. The generous portion of hummus was only $3.75. My daily special was only $7.99. It's a great alternative to Chili's or other chains down at the Cactus and Tatum area. Judging by the large mid-week crowd and owner greeting many patrons like regulars, they have quite a following already.

Chili Time

2010-12-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the near-abandonment of the blog. My primary computer's web browser doesn't allow me to sign in for some reason so it's a hassle to create new posts.

With the weather getting colder here in Phoenix, I've had a craving for my chili. This isn't an old sacred family recipe. I cobbled this together after some trial and error during my long-ago time in Dallas. It's not even close to an authentic Texas chili recipe. I read dozens of chili recipes online and blogs and threw together the elements that sounded good. Eventually I settled on this and it usually comes out pretty tasty. I try to keep the spice level down, as I'm not a hard-core heat enthusiast. I prefer flavor over incendiary ingredients. I found grocery store generic spices work best for me usually. I tried high-quality spices and chili powders from the awesome Central Market in Plano, and man, I felt like the ill-fated at the end of Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's nothing special and can be modified to one's tastes. I've used both beef and turkey for the meat and both work wonderfully.

Tim's Chili

1 lb ground sirloin
1 lb ground chuck
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2-3 tbl chipotle chili powder
2-3 tbl chili powder
1-2 tbl ground cumin
1-2 tbl onion powder
6-8 cloves fresh minced garlic
1 tbl coriander
1 can refried beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 jalapeno chile, finely chopped
1 Anaheim chile, finely chopped
1 medium to large white onion, diced
1 medium to large red onion, diced
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Kosher salt
4 cups water
2 cans chicken stock

Brown meat and drain fat. In an 8-quart pot (that's what I used), combine meat with the
rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and
simmer for 90 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

A Tale of Two Buffets

2010-09-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend whom we met at Dim Sum posted some pictures of an Indian restaurant he went to, India Oven in Mesa, and said it was great. The pictures, including some delicious looking garlic naan, sold me. A week or so later I was able to try it. I've been back another time as well.

Recently, the Phoenix New Times reviewed Guru Palace Cuisine of India, another Indian restaurant in Mesa, coincidentally also off of Gilbert Road and only .8 mile away. I tried Guru Palace this weekend with a brave Tara (who has had some bad Indian meals).

India Oven's buffet typically has four or five non-vegetarian dishes, four or five vegetarian dishes, salad fixings, dessert, and some other items whose purpose I'm not sure of. On both my visits, they have had a chicken dish (chicken tikka masala both times), a bone-in goat dish (not tried), a lamb dish (lamb vindaloo my first visit), and tandoor chicken.

The chicken tikka masala is excellent. The chicken had the right texture and the spices were perfect for my palate. I had to restrain myself or I would have eaten way too much. I'm typically not a huge lamb fan, but I decided to try it here. I'm glad I did. I loved the lamb vindaloo as well as the lamb dish on my second visit that I can't recall. Both times the lamb was fork tender and the flavors of the dishes were perfect. I recall having another vindaloo dish years ago that was much spicier, but the spice level here was just what I like. I am still shocked at how much I enjoyed the lamb. Garlic naan comes with the buffet and is brought to the table hot from the oven. It, too, was great. The naan was nicely browned without being burnt and the garlic flavor was strong but not overpowering or bitter. For dessert I had some kheer and gulab jamun balls. Kheer is one of my favorite ethnic desserts and this was as good as the rest of the meal. The gulab jamun was good as well, but they do a cold presentation which I'm not a fan of. I like them hot. Service was friendly and attentive and my water and naan were both refilled as needed. I did try some of the vegetarian dishes and they were also quite good, but I forget their names.

Guru Palace has a somewhat larger selection at their buffet. One our visit, they had bone-in chicken curry, boneless chicken tikka masala, a bone-in goat dish, and tandoor chicken for the non-vegetarian selection. Among the vegetarian items were paneer, vegetable korma, some bjahis (sp?) and a few other. They also have a salad area and another area for creating your own filled pastry whose name escapes me. Dessert is there as well.

The chicken curry was surprisingly bland. Nothing really jumped out at me other than the bone-in pieces of chicken were a pain to eat. The chicken tikka masala was good, but the chicken pieces seemed to be dry or something. Oddly, they also had perfectly straight edges where they were cut. The texture wasn't as tender as India Oven's version and it just didn't seem as good to me. I really liked the veggie korma, though. Quite sweet but with a nice flavor. They do give you a choice of plain or garlic naan and we chose garlic. We got about six or seven large pieces and at least half had very burnt/blackened patches that were quite acrid to eat. Some of the garlic had a very bitter flavor like it was fresh and uncooked. The kheer for dessert seemed to have a heavier hand on the spices. It was good, but unbalanced. The gulab jamun, on the other hand, are served warm and were perfect. If I wasn't limiting my sweets, I would of had a lot more.

Service was another story. We were seated right next to where all the staff came and went from the kitchen/prep area. Our waiter, the other waitstaff, and possibly the owner walked by repeatedly without offering to refill Tara's empty soda glass which was right on the edge of the table. I even saw one look right at it and continue without pausing. At one point when our waiter checked on us, I asked for ice (my water was luke-warm) and he said OK and kept going. After watching him cycle through the kitchen a few times without bothering with my ice, I stopped a waitress and asked for some. She dutifully dumped 4 ice cubes into my water and moved on. We could see glasses at other tables full of ice. Needless to say, this didn't make us feel overly welcome.

One thing that really bugged me was that several tables were letting their young kids run rampant around the restaurant. I'm not sure if they were related to the owners or not, as some people who spoke to them went into the back. They were quite unruly and nobody ever tried to get them under control.

India Palace is my obvious favorite of the two. It's got a slightly smaller selection, but it seems more balanced and I enjoyed it more. The service is much more friendly and polished. Their buffet is $7.95.

Guru Palace was full for our 2pm Saturday visit, so they seem to have quite a following. However, for me, the service, kids running around unsupervised, and bitter garlic flavor of the naan didn't do it for me. Their buffet is $8.99.

India Palace will keep my business for now.

My Week With A Toyota Prius

2010-07-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

I've heard a lot of the pros and cons of driving a hybrid car. Some of our friends have a Prius and love it. Other articles I've seen have been very negative of the Official Car of the Green People. Being a person who loves fast, preferably German, cars, I've been more on the side of efficient diesel powered cars than hybrids. Call me a torque whore, but nothing beats that kick in the pants feeling of brute force.

For the last week, we were visiting my relatives in Maine. Since we flew into Boston and always rent a car, my curiosity of the Prius got the better of me when I found I could rent one thorough Herzt for only $15 more than our usual standard/full-size car. I reserved one. Since we would be driving quite a bit, I figured we could easily recoup that extra cost in gas savings.

The first order of business was to go test drive a Prius at one of the local dealers. Since neither of us are petite, especially me, I wanted sure we could fit comfortably in one. A few weeks ago Tara and I were down in Tempe on the weekend, so we stopped by the Toyota dealer down there. A nice older gentleman greeted us and we explained the situation. He showed us their selection and we picked out a pretty blue one the same color as Tara's Camry. It had most options except the solar cell-powered roof vents and remote A/C. The salesman demonstrated how to start/stop, select gears, and park it. I took it on a test drive with Tara up front and him in the back seat. In the mixed loop of highway and side streets, it drove quite well. Tara and I had ample room and I was able to get comfortable behind the wheel. The steering wheel didn't telescope as far out as I'd have liked, but it was certainly doable. After the test drive, Tara admitted that she actually loved the Prius and wanted one. And she hadn't even driven it.

So fast forward a few weeks and we arrived in Boston to the Heat Wave of '10. Humid and miserable with 90s even up in Maine. Our rental Prius was a dark grey 2010 model that was pretty much as stripped as they come. No navigation, solar room, nothing. Still, except for a sunroof, it had the same options as Tara's Camry. It had the proximity key, gentle-touch locking on the driver's door handle, and all the fancy hybrid displays for charging, range, 15-minute graph of mileage, etc. Curiously, it had no remote trunk release, even just a button on the cabin. Just the manual switch above the license plate in the back.

Once I had everything adjusted to my liking and our bags loaded, we were off. The first thing you notice is the engine revving at a constant speed due to the continuously variable transmission. Unlike conventional cars, where the engine noise will get louder as you gain speed, this is constant. You get used to it and it's not a big deal after a while. In the stop-and-go traffic on Route 1A north from Logan, it ran great. The engine shutdown/startup at stops is seamless. For the most part, I didn't notice it happening. While not a stoplight dragster, it has enough power to keep up from stops and accelerate like any other car. More than once in light traffic, I found myself doing 75MPH on 1A before I realized it. So highways speeds weren't a problem at all.

The most annoying thing I found was the visibility out the back hatch. The rear hatch has two panes of glass, the main rear window and a lower section. There's a solid metal bar where they join together and it was right in the middle of my rear view. You get used to it, but visibility was also an issue with Tara, who is about 5' tall.

For all the press it got/gets, the Prius basically drives like a regular car. I've owned a 1978 Chevette, 1984 Oldmobile Firenza wagon, 1995 Saturn SL1, 1999 Saturn SC2, 2002 Audi A4 3.0 Quattro (whom I still miss), 2006 Audi A3 2.o, and my current 2008 VW Passat sedan. Add in various rentals and friends vehicles, I can safely say I've driven a wide variety of cars. The Prius is pretty much middle ground among them. It's not sporty at all, but it handled the twisty roads of my youth in Georgetown at pretty good speeds with no problem. It was an excellent highway car, smooth and pretty stable in crosswinds and rain.

The best part was the mileage. The EPA rates the 2010 Prius at 51 city/48 highway. I had thought I'd read it had a 12.5 gallon gas tank, so when we had fill up after only about 450 miles, I was disappointed. With an indicated range of 7 miles until empty (Tara hadn't noticed the low gas light when she headed into Georgetown), I filled it up at the closest gas station to Georgetown. It took less than 9.5 gallons. This was with it a step away from running on fumes. The trip computer and displays had been indicating upwards of 47 or 48 MPG in our mixed driving. On the highways, I kept at a pretty steady 75 MPH with cruise control. When not stuck behind slow cars into and out of Georgetown, I also kept a bit above posted speeds. We drove roughly 900 miles during our visit and used only 19 or 20 gallons of gas. Overall we averaged between 45-47 MPG and occasionally saw close to 49 MPG. This without any attempt at hyper-miling and with the Power Mode button enabled.

Granted, I was just renting the car. My Palin-loving relatives kept spewing out what I assume was Fox News propaganda about how the Prius is an evil car, blah blah blah. Luckily, I just tune them out. My sister risked divorce and disownment by actually sitting in the car and admitting it seemed pretty neat. My friend Joe gets a bit over 40 MPH in his Mini Cooper and that car is loads more fun to drive. The Mini is rather short on luggage space, though, and not really a practical four-person car. The Prius' trunk isn't a large as the Camry, but it held our huge suitcase and Tara's computer bag fine. Fold down the rear seats, and you'll get a lot more space.

What I came away with is the Prius is a completely practical car despite being a full hybrid. It has plenty of room, even for a large person like myself. It has more than enough power to keep up with or pass most traffic on the highway, and will get nearly 48 MPG doing it. I drove it like I drive our cars and still got over 46 MPG overall. Would we buy one? I'll let you know when Tara decides to trade in her Camry. :) Starting at only $23,o00 or so, it's a very tempting proposition.

Palee's Crown - Mesa, Az

2010-04-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

While our good friend Seth doesn't post as many reviews as he used to, we still pester him for opinions when he tries new restaurants. At a group dim sum recently, he highly recommended Palee's Crown in Mesa. He did warn us that they loved their heat there, so to be careful when ordering spicy items. We're always up for a great Thai restaurant, so we decided to give them a try. As a bonus, the Entertainment 2010 book had a coupon for Palee's.

We arrived at 7pm on a Friday to an empty restaurant. I'm pretty sure they turned on the lights when they saw us walking up to the front door. As Tara stepped into the restaurant, she stopped abruptly and I nearly walked into her. She was reading a sign on the table in front of the door that said they no longer accepted coupons of any kind. Bummer.

The young waitress told us to sit wherever we liked. We took a booth in the corner and looked over the menu. It was the fairly standard Thai menu with all the usual suspects. We ordered curry puffs, fresh rolls, massaman curry with chicken for Tara, and panang curry with chicken for me.

The curry puffs (crispy puff stuffed with chicken, onion, potato, curry powder, and coconut milk served with cucumber salad) sounded a lot like our beloved Osha Golden Pockets at Osha Thai Cafe. Seth has a nice picture the Osha Golden Pockets. Alas, Palee's curry puffs were different. They had a puff pastry shell instead of the crispy wrapper at Osha. The filling reminded me of the texture of baby food, but I did like them. They aren't as good as the Golden Pockets, though. Tara wasn't a huge fan. The pastry shell merely reminded her of the spectacular pork pastries we'd had at the dim sum at Phoenix Palace, which she is still trying to marry once the legal issues can be resolved.

The fresh roll (rice wrapper stuffed with steamed shrimp, lettuce, mint leaves, carrot, cucumber, and angel hair noodle served with hoisin sauce topped crushed peanut) were OK. They seemed poorly wrapped and mostly lettuce. The sauce seemed more like a spicy peanut sauce than hoisin sauce. Tara really liked the sauce and even had a roll herself, which she usually doesn't with fresh spring rolls.

So far, we weren't terribly impressed with Palee. Then the entrees arrived.

Being mindful of Seth's warning, Tara opted for no spice in her massaman curry (potato, onion, carrot, bell pepper, and peanuts with Massaman curry pasted in coconut milk). She loved it. It had excellent flavor but no heat at all. She was extremely happy with her choice. Everything was perfectly done and she glared at me whenever I took a piece. I heeded her warnings and desisted. She even had enough to bring home for a small snack.

My panang curry (rich Panang curry paste in coconut milk with bell pepper) was also top-notch. I asked for it extremely mild, since we'd been warned about the heat levels. Even at "mild", my mouth was burning and my head sweating in short order. I suffered through it, as the sweet flavor of the curry was just what I look for. I'll try it with no spice on our next visit. I managed to polish off all if mine, despite the heat. Definitely a winner.

We passed on dessert. Our bill came to just under $40 after tax. While a couple groups came in after us, there were never more than two tables including our during our whole visit. This is a shame considering how good their food is. We need to go with our friend JK so he can try it pet-pet hot. He's psychotic like that.

Palee's Crown

1245 W. Baseline Rd,

Mesa, AZ 85202

HDTV Experience So Far

2010-04-09T14:35:00.001-07:00

I'm having surprisingly little buyer's remorse over my HDTV purchases after nearly two months.

The Sony HDTV works awesome for a lower-end model. I lucked-out in it having a matte screen finish given that there are windows on the opposite side of the room that can be bright during the say. The picture quality is fantastic and you really notice the extra details in full HDTV shows. Even when I use my old SD TiVo as a source or watch SD channels, it doesn't look too horrible. Even Tara, who is not really impressed with all my toys, admitted that she can see the difference and does like it.

The LG Blu-ray was discontinued literally within a week of my buying it. Luckily it's replacement in the LG lineup only offers a few new things and I don't care about them. I actually like the BDP390's front panel design better. The new BDP570's whole front panel has to be down if you have a USB drive plugged in. My BDP390 has a slot cut-out in the front panel that you just need to remove a small plastic plug to insert the USB drive. Speaking of which, I've downloaded AVI files to the drive and once you plug it in, the Blu-ray player automatically discovers the movies on there and you can play them. A very nice feature. The picture quality is excellent, no matter what source you are using. The built-in wireless N adapter easily streams Netflix programming in high-def. It's a great player all around.

I still only have a Cox Cable HD DVR. I still can't quite afford the new TiVo boxes yet. Picture quality is quite good. I had to install a signal amplifier in order to be able to plug more than just the DVR. This house has horrible cable signal strength. Luckily the amp does the job really well. I lose the On-Demand features as the amp isn't bi-directional, but it's an acceptable trade-off.

The el cheapo HDMI cables continue to do a fine job. I don't see any issues with the signal at all when using them. The Sony TV can actually shut down the DVR when you switch picture sources away from the HDMI port the DVR uses. Quite cool.

I've even plugged my laptop into the TV with a VGA cable to watch Hulu content. Even that was very good. One of these days I hope to either get a laptop with an HDMI port or just build a little Home Theater PC (HTPC) to watch Internet content on it. That's a little ways off, though.

All in all, the HDTV upgrade of the home theater went smoothly and I'm quite satisfied. It's not an end-all be-all, balls-to-the-wall home theater setup, but it looks and sounds great and that's really all I care about.

My old chili recipe

2010-03-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Back when I lived in Dallas, for some reason all the guys I worked with went on a homemade chili binge at one point. We all threw together a recipe and brought it in. This is the one I came up with. The first batch I used cheap supermarket spices and it was perfect for my heat tastes. I made a batch using better spices from Central Market and I couldn't even tolerate a full cup. My boss at the time, a strawberry blond guy from Pennsylvania, loved it. He'd turn bright red, sweat pouring from his face, and just couldn't get enough. The last few batches I made with turkey also tasted pretty good. I haven't made it in years and had to dig through old emails to find it. Not sure how authentic it is, but hey, a white boy from Maine concocted it, so what do you expect? Still, I really like the flavor profile.

Tim's Chili Recipe

1 lb ground sirloin
1 lb ground chuck
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2-3 tbl chipotle chili powder
2-3 tbl chili powder
1-2 tbl ground cumin
1-2 tbl onion powder
6-8 cloves fresh minced garlic
1 tbl coriander
1 can refried beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 jalapeno chile, finely chopped
1 Anaheim chile, finely chopped
1 medium to large white onion, diced
1 medium to large red onion, diced
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Kosher salt
4 cups water
2 cans chicken stock

Brown meat and drain fat. In an 8-quart pot (that's what I used), combine meat with the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 90 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Three Inexpensive Restaurants for Sushi, Greek, and Dim Sum

2010-03-15T09:18:00.001-07:00

One thing I love about living in a fairly large city is that there is usually a wide variety of restaurants for each cuisine. So if you feel like eating on the cheap, but have a craving for something that's usually somewhat expensive, you can usually find a good compromise between cheap and food poisoning. Here are three of my/our go-to favorites when it comes to great, cheap ethic (is Chinese really ethnic nowadays?).

Teharu Sushi
9845 South Priest Drive, Tempe, AZ 85284-3606
(480) 705-9865‎

My love of sushi is well-known. Along with Thai and Vietnamese, I could eat sushi everyday. Generally if you want good sushi, you'll be paying upwards of $30 per person. For me, that's on the low end, as our infrequent trips to Hana Japanese Eatery on 7th Ave/Missouri generally run over $70 before tax and tip. Their food is always amazing, though, and even going once a quarter or so, they always remember us. I'd read about TeHaru Sushi in Tempe and after our good friend The Cosmic Jester mentioned what a great deal it was, I decided to give it a try. I now go at least once every couple of weeks. They have a huge sushi bar, with booths as well, through which a conveyor belt winds it's way. The conveyor belt carries plates with nigiri, maki, desserts, fruits, drinks, and random other items. The price of each item is denoted by the color of the plate it is on. Costs are $1, $1.50, and $2.00. Maki comes in essentially half-rolls with four pieces. The nigiri is generally $1 ($1.50 for more exotic pieces) and comes with two pieces to a plate. You don't get the super-sized pieces of fish some places serve, but I find the fish to rice ratio is pretty good. If I want huge hunks of fish with tiny pieces of rice, I just opt for sashimi instead. The variety is also quite large and the selection varies. On my visit this weekend, they had tuna, yellowtail, red snapper, salmon, surf clam, tamago, krab stick, and some other type of nigiri. The rolls included Hawaiian, Philly, California, Dragon, Caterpillar, tuna, spicy tuna, I Love Salmon, Rainbow, and a few others. The quality isn't what you get at a top sushi joint, but it's still pretty good, especially for the money. I've never spent more than $20 on my solo visits and I've never left hungry.

Z's Greek

4026 East Indian School Road

Phoenix, AZ 85018

(602) 955-7600

Z's Greek is our place for Greek-ish food. Tara usually gets a chicken schwarma sandwich combo and I get the gyro sandwich combo. Z's also has our favorite hummus, so we get an order of that as well. The combos come with either fries or salad and a drink. The fries are average, but the salad is great. It's loaded with feta, which Tara loves, and is big for a side salad. The sandwiches, the meat, tomatoes (which we skip), lettuce, onions, and sauce wrapped in a pita, are quite large. For our standard order, it is about $21 or so. Given the large amount of really good food, it's quite a steal.

China Chan

10227 North Metro Parkway

Phoenix, AZ 85051-1515

(602) 331-1313

I've loved a good Chinese dim sum ever since my college friends introduced it to me in Boston's Chinatown. The hustle and bustle of the old Imperial Tea House with carts rolling everywhere, various Chinese dialects being shouted, and long waits fill my memory. My friend Trang would do the ordering, as she was more familiar and knew what would be good for me and what innocuous looking item would send me running to the bathroom. Pot stickers, shumai, bbq pork buns, and the others soon seduced me to the wonders of dim sum. I've since had dim sum in Montreal, NYC's Chinatown, and Oakland, among others. The dim sum fortunes of various Phoenix restaurants have waxed and waned over the past few years. Our former favorite Golden Buddha suffered a massive decline and our last visits a couple years ago ended in cold food, pitiful selection, and a trip to El Nopalito since we were still hungry. And that visit was a noon on a Saturday. Last year we heard from our friends Jan and Helen of a great dim sum near MetroCenter mall. It was a small place but the dim sum was fresh, hot, and cheap. China Chan is located next to an Olive Garden on MetroCenter Drive just south of Peoria Ave. They don't have cart service and you order your selections off of a menu (they even offer a picture menu). The up side of this is everything arrives hot from the kitchen. The spring rolls are notorious for needing to sit for 15 minutes to cool down before you can eat them. They don't have the huge selection of a Phoenix Palace or Great Wall, but we accept the trade-off for fresh, hot food. Plus they are cheap. $1.88, $2.88, and up for the larger items. That's a lot less than most places and the savings adds up when you stick to the lower cost items. We can stuff ourselves and have leftovers for $20. Even our group outings with 4 or 5 people are laughably cheap.

HDTV Accessories

2010-02-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

As with all technology upgrades, getting an HDTV involves getting new cables and, for me, a new Blu-ray player to take advantage of the higher resolution. Once TiVo announces their new products next month, I'll probably be upgrading to one of those as well. But that's another post.

First, the cables. Currently, everything I own is connected by the ancient S-video cables and RCA for audio. HDTV's latest cable is the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) that does both audio and video. In stores like Fry's and Best Buy, these are hideously expensive. $10, $20, and $30 are common prices. HDTV's dirtiest little secret: They are screwing you on the prices. CNET.COM did testing and recommends buying cheap cables off the Internet. I had several bookmarked in my browser, but last week one of the blogs I follow had a link to a site that sold three cables for $7.50 with free shipping. I jumped on that offer and they arrived a few days ago.

As for Blu-ray, I did lots of research on Cnet and other sites. Most new Blu players meet the Blu-ray Profile 2.0 specs that require an Internet connection. Most players have an ethernet cable port, but many newer ones can used USB wi-fi dongles. Some even include the dongles have have wireless built-in. Since my cable modem and router are in another room and the front door is between the home theater and said room, I wanted a player that could do wi-fi. After going through the reviews and pricing them locally, I decided to get an LG BD390. It got great marks on Cnet and has wi-fi built-in. It also can stream Netflix, another feature I wanted. After looking at other stores, I went back to Fry's and to my intense happiness, they'd dropped the price by $20 since my first visit two days before. That brought the price within the same range as my second place choice, the Samsung BD-P3600, so I splurged and spent the extra few dollars on the LG. I connected it to my existing TV via a composite video jack and within a few minutes, I was watching Dirty Harry in Magnum Force streaming from Netflix. Setup was easy and the picture quality was excellent even with a lowly composite connection.

For DVR, at least for the short-term, I'll probably trade in our Cox SD DVR for a Cox HD DVR. Once I get the TiVo equivalent, I'll just ax the Cox one.

The new TV should be here on Monday. It arrived in Phoenix tonight, though. Wish I could get delivery tomorrow.

Now (almost) in HD

2010-02-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

Being the technowhore that I am, I've been wanting some sort of HDTV setup for years, but haven't had the spare change to piece one together. Finally this year the stars semi-aligned and I got enough money between my State and Federal tax refunds to afford a decent HDTV.

I did my usual research on screen sizes, ratings, prices, brands, ad nauseum. Since I'm replacing my old 35" Sony Behemoth, I mean, Trinitron, I didn't want to give up any size. I found that diagonal screen measurement isn't as important as the height between standard def 4:3 TVs and high def 16:9 TVs. I eventually found the simple ratio that I was looking for to determine the right sized HDTV. Take your old 4:3 TV's diagonal measurement and multiply it by 1.22 to get the equivalent 16:9 HDTV. So for my 35", I'd need a 42" HDTV to keep roughly the same picture height. So I had my minimum desired HDTV size.

Next I started looking at the various brands. I wanted to avoid the lower-end, no-name brands that I've never heard of or the store brand at Best Buy. While they are cheap, that quality usually shows in uneven pictures and early deaths. Out at various restaurants, I'd seen Vizios and Samsungs with great pictures. LG got some really good reviews as well. For slightly lower energy bills, I decided to go with an LCD over Plasma. I wasn't overly concerned with added bells and whistles because honestly, ANY HDTV is going to be an improvement over a 12 year-old CRT-based TV. The Sony still has an awesome picture for it's age and design, but time marches on.

I spent a lot time driving around the area looking at the local stores (Wal-Mart, Ultimate Electronics, Best Buy, and Frys) to get some idea of local pricing and how their pictures looked. I liked the LG sets and they were in my price range, but they lacked S-video inputs. Since ALL my current devices are S-video, this was an unfortunate deal-breaker. Vizio had some sets in my range, but I'm still a bit leary of their longevity. Ultimate had a low-end 46" Sony that had some positive reviews online but the closest store that had it was shown in Chandler. Wal-Mart had the same Sony on sale, but the only store that had it shown in-stock didn't have it when I went to check (it was only 3 miles from my house). After that, I decided to re-evaluate my search.

The biggest problem is that I don't have an SUV or pickup and the TV won't fit in my car. I'd need to rent a truck (uHaul had cheap rates that fit my needs) but the mileage charges to Chandler would be quite high. I decided to search online and see what I could find. I found the same TV online with free shipping and no sales tax, so I just bit the bullet and bought that one. It was shipped earlier today and should be here by early next week.

Finally a new year

2010-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 left on pretty much the same note it carried all year. Tara and I both have nasty colds so no partying for us last night.

Hopefully 2010 will be a better year. Tara goes in for some elective surgery on Thursday that will hopefully make her life a bit better. And no, it's not a boyfriendectomy. Her stepmom and grandmother are flying down next week to help care for her post-op. She's very excited to get this done and to spend time with family.

We're hoping to visit my family in Maine this summer at some point. She's really only visited off-season and hasn't experienced what a true Hell tourist season is for us locals. Plus she really misses being able to see our nephews. We also have to schedule in a visit to Minnesota for the annual 5-year reunion for her family. I haven't been to Minnesota in the summer yet but I'm sure humidity and mosquitoes there are just as fun as in Georgetown.

We'll see how it all turns out. I'll keep you posted.

Twisted Logic

2009-12-06T16:12:00.001-08:00

I found this recipe a while back and I don't think I posted it. I THINK I posted pictures of the pretzels on Facebook after I made them, but it's been nearly a year and a half. SOMEONE has been asking me to make her some for a while now. Why she had a craving just as I'm putting a turkey into the oven late on a Sunday is beyond me...

Anyway, this is a recipe for some nice, sweet soft pretzels, courtesy of someone's blog that I can't remember.

Soft Pretzels

1 1/2 pkgs dry yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups ap flour

1. Sprinkle 1/1/2 pkgs of dry yeast onto 1 1/2 cup of warm water and stir to dissolve

2. Add 2 Tbs brown sugar and 1 tsp salt and stir to dissolve

3. Add in 1 cup of bread flour and 3 cups of all-purpose flour

4. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly oiled bowl and let rise for at least 1/2 hour in a warm place

5. While dough is rising, mix 2 c. of warm water with 2 Tbs of baking soda. Stir until completely dissolved

6. Pinch off a bit of dough and roll to about 12-14 inches long

7. Dip the bretzels into the baking soda/water mixture and shape into pretzels. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with course salt. Bake at 450 deg. for about 10-12 minutes.

Series Madness

2009-11-25T22:33:00.000-08:00

Since tomorrow is officially the "Christmas Season", I thought I'd put my dubious expertise in TV addiction to good use. If you or someone you know likes great TV, I figured I'd recommend some of my favorites that have officially ended so you can purchase the whole damn thing if you want.

Band of Brothers: HBO's awesome 10-part miniseries following Easy Company from D-Day through the end of WWII. Absolutely amazing and addictive. It's also now available on Blu-Ray.

The Wire: For five seasons, HBO's Baltimore-centric series was top of my weekly watching. From the first season that was a cops vs. drug dealers through the last season that focused on the dying newspaper industry, the writing was the best on TV. I think I've done a previous blog on it last year. One of it's great qualities is that major characters in later seasons were present in prior seasons in bit or nearly cameo parts. Second viewings lead to many "Oh look, there's X. Cool." And many of the characters themselves are positively iconic. Omar Little is one of my favorites.

Farscape: Tragically canceled after only four seasons (despite having been renewed for five after season 3), John Crichton's exploits across the galaxy were science fiction at it's finest. Deep mythology, tragically flawed characters, and some of the freakiest Muppets you've seen combined with great writing and humor. It was just recently released in a complete series collection. I want it. Badly.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Yes, it's goofy and cheesy, but it thoroughly kicks the ass of all the recent vampire-related drivel. Season 6 kinda blew despite the brilliant musical episode "Once More, With Feeling". It's one of my few favorite series that actually reached a planned conclusion, so you get a feeling of closure.

Angel: A darker spin0ff of Buffy, it got better as it went along. It's last season was it's best and it's series finale absolutely kicked ass.

Lonesome Dove: I missed this when if first aired back in the late '80s, but when I finally saw it, I loved it. Recently remastered, it still holds up.

Fawlty Towers: The best British comedy series I've ever seen. John Cleese's post-Python hilarity. The Rat episode is a classic and always cracks my mother and myself up.

Black Adder: My second favorite British comedy series. I used to watch these all the time during college on whatever Comedy Central was back in those days. Rowan Atkinson is truly great in all four seasons. The first series isn't my favorite, but it's still quite funny. The subsequent series are much better. Available recently in a complete series set.

The Shield: F/X's rogue cop series was spellbinding from first episode to last. Vic Mackey and his Strike Team of crooked cops in a crime-ridden L.A. district was nigh on Greek tragedy over the course of seven seasons. Once the Armenian money train plot kicks in, all else is tainted by it. The guest roles by Glenn Close, Forest Whitaker, and especially Anthony Anderson made a great drama even more riveting.

In Maine

2009-10-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

I'm on a not-quite-a-vacation trip to Maine this week. I flew up for a Halloween party at a friend's place near Portland and I'm staying the week at my parents' house before flying back on Saturday. Since they FINALLY got high-speed Internet earlier this year, I can work from their house. The weather (except for the rain storm when I flew in) was gorgeous on Sunday and Monday. Sunny, cloudless skies and temps near 60. It's overcast today and 36 deg at this moment.

Unfortunately Tara had to stay back in Phoenix. She has her college courses, work, and is dealing with pneumonia or worse. Hopefully her doctor will be able to give her some antibiotics that work today. She was taking a Z-pak but they didn't help at all.

I played some disc golf in Sabattus yesterday. Given that I was using all disc that I literally found along courses in Dallas over 5 years ago and hadn't played in heavily forested areas in 2 years, I did pretty good. I only played 9 holes since I was running late and had to be home for our 6pm dinner reservations at Solo Bistro in Bath.

Solo Bistro was excellent. I'd read about it a couple years ago but hadn't been back to try it. In the meantime, my sister started working there and has raved about it. I was going to go with her and her husband, but child care proved elusive, so I went with Mom and Dad. We had a great time. Everything we ordered was outstanding.

Beet and cabbage soup

Organic greens salad with balsamic vinegarette

Tomato and cheese tart

Grilled crevaille, ocotupus, and shrimp with carrots and sweet potato/yukon gold potato puree

Grilled flat iron steak with homemade steak sauce, steak fries, and salad

Corn-crusted halibut, cabbage slaw, carrots, and the same potato puree

Warm Maine apple dumpling

Molten mocha cake with candied pecans and caramel

Rustic Cafe - North Phoenix

2009-09-12T21:07:00.001-07:00

Tara didn't finish her bacon.

That should be a clue about how much we enjoyed our first visit to Rustic Cafe, a new restaurant just north of the 101 on Cave Creek Road. A friend let us know about a 90% off sale at Restaurant.Com and I noticed that Rustic Cafe was on there, so I grabbed one so we could give them a try.

Mistake. Big mistake.

It's actually a cute little spot, with around 20 tables or so. Service was very friendly and helpful. The menu is quite extensive. In addition to typical breakfast and lunch items, they also have Lebanese, Italian, and Mexican sections on the menu.

Since we had to order at least $20 to get $10 off, we ordered quite a bit. Tara got biscuits and gravy and a double order of bacon. I ordered corned beef hash, sausage, and a cinnamon roll for us to split. We each got a Coke. Shortly after ordering, our waitress came back and said someone had ordered five cinnamon rolls earlier and they were out. We ended up getting a chocolate muffin instead.

The chocolate muffin seemed pre-fab, like they'd run across the street to the nearby Costco's pastry section. It was exceedingly generic.

Tara's biscuits and gravy was a large serving that looked like it had waited a few minutes before it was brought out. The gravy had already cooled enough to have a skin over it. It had large chunks of sausage in the gravy which Tara liked. The gravy lacked any real flavor, however. Even after liberal seasoning with salt and pepper, it was still very bland. Her double side of bacon was a generous amount, but again, it was flavorless. She didn't finish it and this is a person who plots to steal any leftover bacon she sees restaurants, regardless of whose table it is on.

My "hash" wasn't. I've had corned beef hash all over the country. Generally it's actual hash: corned beef and vegetables that have been run through a meat grinder or chopped up finely and mixed together. Rustic Cafe's "hash" was slices of thin, fatty, and rubbery corned beef, slices of pepper, and slices of onion on top of horrendous home fried potatoes. I even asked the waitress to verify that this was the corned beef hash that I'd ordered. She said it was. It was awful. The potatoes ranged from over-cooked potato chip-like slices to pieces I couldn't get my fork through but still tasted slightly raw. There was no consistency. The corned beef was chewy to the point if being inedible. I eventually just gave up. The two eggs I'd asked for over-medium were just not good. And nothing had any flavor. I'd smelled a t0-go order of the hash as it went by me and it smelled great. The dish I got? It completely lacked any seasoning. The toasted english muffin on the side wasn't bad. The sausage? It had the uniform size and unnaturally smooth edges like it came directly out of a Jimmy Dean package. It also has no flavor and a slightly odd texture.

So yeah, we were thoroughly unimpressed with the food. Which is a shame, as we love Mom and Pop local joints, especially ones this close to home. Tara said that the sandwiches we saw other diners eating all looked really good, and said maybe she'd try those sometime.

That is, until both our stomachs started to feel queasy within 10 minutes of us leaving the restaurant. Mine was unsettled for the rest of the afternoon and Tara's is still not quite kosher. She said she felt like she was going to throw up all afternoon. I wasn't that bad, but I definitely was under the weather.

We still have another $10 gift coupon, due to a snafu when I was ordering them. Luckily it was only $.40.

Expanding the Collection

2009-08-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

I've since added to my Goodwill collection after this past weekend. I had some pretty good luck for the most part. I found a battery for my laptop that gives me more disconnected time than either of my current batteries. I got an Dish network DVR-equipped receiver that I scavenged the 160GB hard drive out of. I did get a very recent DirecTV DVR, but unfortunately it's 320GB drive was DOA, so I returned it. I also grabbed another AS-IS original Xbox for cheap. It's DVD drive didn't work, but swapped it out with the drive from my flaky Xbox and it works great. Very quiet as well. Since I was still within the 14-day return period for the second Xbox I got (after the flaky one died), I returned that for a nice store credit for future visits.

The major bummer of the weekend was when I bought was was supposed to be a wireless network card for a PC, but inside the box was just a crappy modem. That was returned as well. I was very unhappy about that pig-in-a-poke.

As Tara says, I probably have a Goodwill addiction. I'm not sure I can really argue. It's like a Valley-wide treasure hunt. :)

The Goodwill Collection

2009-08-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

I have sort of become a Goodwill addict. Tara I think just humors me on the 1/2 off weekends that the Phoenix stores have. I figured I'd try to go from memory (failing though it be as I approach my fourth decade in a few months) and compile a greatest hits of what we've found there.

Summer of 2000 Indigo iMac (works great)
Memory chips for said iMac
(2) Original Xboxes (I got the second one on Thursday after my other one crapped out. I couldn't leave my Halo game in the middle.)
PS2 video console
Older, but unused, barebones mini-tower with a 2.0 GHz Celeron and 128MB RAM
(2) roller computer bags
HP 6840 Wireless printer
HP 2500 Color Laserjet printer (status unknown, but it was only $5. need a yellow toner cartridge)
4-cup KitchenAid coffee maker
KitchenAid Coffee Grinder
Brother Intellifax 770 fax machine
PS2 controller
Xbox controller
New-in-box waffle iron
Tons of beading supplies for Tara
Lots of clothes (shorts, shirts, jeans, skirts, blouses)
External FireWire drive case
External USB/FireWire DVD burner
Large black Epicurean composite wood cutting board
Hand mixer
Purse for Tara (her old purse actually broke just outside a Goodwill as we were entering)
60 GB laptop hard drive ($5. Awesome deal. I just wish the other two I got with it hadn't been DOA)
Delonghi hot water pot
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
Several loaf pans, both non-stick metal and glass

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. None if it is really cutting edge, but most is quite useful. For instance, the external DVD burner can be used with my ThinkPad to burn DVD images. The standard optical drive only burns CDs. Previously, I had to use one of my desktops (the last of which died months ago due to a bad BIOS upgrade) or Tara's laptop. Now that I found the old/new barebones, I once again have a desktop. I've upgraded the processor to a slightly newer Celeron D CPU (courtesy of Bookman's, my second favorite used computer parts source) and installed more memory (some also from Bookman's. Turns out I had compatible memory but didn't know it.) I just now was able to install Mac OS X 10.5.2 on it, so I've got a working Hackintosh as well. That leaves the status of the iMac in limbo, as the Hackintosh is MUCH faster. It's not as pretty, though. :)

The kitchen stuff has been very helpful. The cutting board is great. The coffee maker doesn't give the coffee a strange taste like our other one . Tara drinks coffee, so I took her word on it. The Delonghi hot pot is awesome. Boils water in 2 minutes. It looked nearly new when I got it. The coffee grinder is perfect for grinding spices.

I've had a few misses, as well. The two SATA laptop drives were toast, which sucked. They were a huge steal at $10. Some clothes didn't fit right. Luckily Goodwill has a great return policy. You get your refund on a Goodwill gift card (at least that's how it is done for the Central AZ Goodwill stores) that is good at any of the Central AZ stores.

I've also seen some deals that I had to pass on for one reason or another. I saw a great little Dell laser printer, but since we already had four printers in the house, not much need for it. I saw three TiVos this weekend that would have fed my TiVo addiction nicely, but I've got nowhere to put them. And I'd be single again if I'd bought them.

Hell, I was already on THIN ice for the Xbox on Thursday...

Highly-recommended Sci-Fi: Torchwood: Children of Earth

2009-07-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of science fiction and growing up in rural coastal Maine in the 70s/80s, it was scarce on TV. The various New England PBS stations did air Doctor Who, and I got hooked on it's cheezy effects and charms.

Fast-forward to 2005 and the BBC re-launches Doctor Who with vastly improved, but still somewhat hokey, effects and some stellar writing and acting. After his great guest shot starting in "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances", Capt. Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) was given his own more adult spin-off, Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who). With far less happy endings and much more moral ambiguity, it had a distinctly different vibe and tone than the generally more fun-loving Doctor Who.

After two seasons, Torchwood was moved to BBC1 ( I guess the more prestigious BBC channel) and given a short, five episode third season. It was aired as a "Five Night Event!" miniseries last week here in the States. And it was amazing. If you are new to Doctor Who and Torchwood, I'd recommend watching at least the DW eps involving Capt. Jack and Torchwood itself prior to watching. Otherwise, given the dense mythology of essentially TWO series, you'll be lost. Once you are up to speed and dive in, you'll be hooked. It's better than the previous two Torchwood series and even most Doctor Who episodes. It grabs you and just doesn't let up. And unlike me, you can watch it all at once on the just-released DVD sets: http://www.amazon.com/Torchwood-Children-Earth-John-Barrowman/dp/B002BVYBJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248801656&sr=8-1

You'll be better off not reading any reviews or recaps of Children of Earth. It's best to see it unspoiled. Suffice it to say, it's probably something that could never have been made for American TV. And that's a very good thing.

Here is the minimum you need to watch for Capt. Jack background. Series 2 of Doctor Who features tons of Torchwood bits, including how it's founded, it's FAR future, and other background that is more or less covered in early Torchwood episodes. I'd recommend watching all the Doctor Who just because it's excellent, although it does have some dud episodes like all shows do.

Doctor Who Series 1 (w/Christopher Ecclestone): "The Empty Child" through "The Parting of the Ways"
Torchwood Season 1
Doctor Who Series 3 (w/David Tennant): "Utopia"/"The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords"
Torchwood Season 2
Doctor Who Series 4 (w/David Tennant): "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End"

"We can't sell computers anymore"

2009-07-27T10:23:00.001-07:00

That is a quote from a worker at a Goodwill we went to this past weekend. It seemed like it was for anti-identity theft purposes. I thought it funny because I bought the iMac a couple months ago and it still had the original owner's fully-functional hard drive with data and I see hard drives all the time at the various GW stores we frequent.

It was even more ironic because at the next store we went to after that one, there was what looked like a brand-new computer tower case. Upon further inspection, I saw that it had a motherboard inside as well. I couldn't figure out how to open the case easily, so I couldn't look inside. This was also the first GW store that had no computer monitors at all, so I couldn't plug it in and see what happened visually. Luckily, I'm a stubborn cuss. I plugged the case in over at the electronics testing bench and heard a successful boot beep. No glaring sounds indicating missing or no memory or anything. Since it was marked at only $17.99, I snagged it. Hell, the case and power supply alone were worth more than that.

Once I got home and plugged it into my monitor and booted it, it came up as a Celeron 2.0GHz with 128MB RAM. Not exactly a powerhouse box, but it did indeed work. I figured out how to pop open the case and it looked pristine. I'm guessing it's about 5 years old judging by the motherboard and BIOS on it. As far I can tell, it's never been used. There's no dust inside, all the metal covers for the drive bays were still in place, and the power supply's cables were still wire-tied together. It just needed drives (which I have in abundance) and more memory. A trip to Bookman's in Mesa later and I had 1GB of RAM for $20. Of course later that night I was grabbing one of my old video cards to install and found that I already had memory that would have worked. D'Oh! So I installed as much memory as I could and started installing operating systems. So far, it runs Windows 7 RC1 and Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackelope" fine. It's got a small wind turbine of a case cooling fan that is quite loud, but otherwise it's a great little box.

They might not sell computers (whatever, dude) but I've had some pretty good luck there. Granted none of it's cutting edge, but it's fine to mess around with for fun.

Project iMac

2009-06-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

My first computer was a brand new Apple Mac SE with a whopping 20MB hard drive for my birthday my senior year of high school. At the time, that hard drive seemed HUGE. Not so much today.

Through most of my college years, I had the trusty SE with it's 9" B&W monitor and massive Imagewriter II printer. I eventually got an accelerator card for it and maxed out it's RAM at 1MB. During one of my "extra" senior years at WPI, I upgraded to a Centris 610 with a huge 13" Sony Trinitron monitor. Many a game of Hellcats over the Pacific with my Gravis mousestick were played.

Soon after graduation, I got a job at a small local computer store in Maine and learned the art of building an IBM-compatible PC. At some point I sold the Centris went fully to the Dark Side as PC user. Since '94 or '95, I haven't had a Mac.

A few weeks ago, I was poking around a Goodwill in Gilbert, AZ, and came across an Indigo iMac. I grabbed a power cord from a nearby rack and plugged it in in the testing area. I booted immediately and everything seemed to work fine. I'd been looking for a project to amuse myself during my spare time, and for $25, I couldn't pass up the little guy.

I found a Mac-compatible keyboard at another Goodwill near home and with one of my old USB mice, I had myself a fully-functioning, Summer of 2000 iMac G3 350Mhz in all it's glory. Mac OS 9.0.4 on it's 7GB hard drive with 192MB of RAM. I researched the latest compatible OS the little G3 could support and it turned out to be OS X 10.3.9. I was able to round up the install discs and after installing a larger hard drive I had hanging around, I got it installed no problem. I found a faster system board on eBay located in Queen Creek, and after verifying it was a compatible board, I bought it. The part number said it was a 450MHz board, but it turned out to be a newer 500Mhz board. The board also added FireWire and had double the onboard video memory. I swapped it out and it runs 10.3.9 pretty well.

I'm still trying to track down some compatible memory to max it out at 1GB of RAM, but it's turning out to be quite an ordeal. The first place I tried to order from "lost" my order, but I later found it wouldn't have worked in any case. A couple days ago, I got a call from my credit card company and the card that I tried to use had a ton of suspicious charges. Go figure. Luckily they rejected most of them and have filed fraud claims on the remaining ones.

The second company I tried to order from (the memory was explicitly listed as Mac-compatible) never charged my card or shipped memory. I tried calling and emailing, but they cancelled the order with no explanation. Great company, huh?

I found some that seemed to fit the bill, but when it arrived, the iMac didn't recognize it. I found a stack of memory chips at a nearby Goodwill yesterday, and was able to marinally increase my memory. I've loaded OS X 10.4 on it, but it runs pretty slow, as it is using all the available physical memory. I'm going to keep looking once I get paid again.

I did get a kick today when I was looking around a nearby pawn shop and found a much older Tangerine iMac marked at $100. Mine is way faster and I haven't spent nearly that much.

Hatteras - The Food

2009-05-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

We didn't eat out much in Hatteras. Mostly because there really wasn't much need to and there aren't a whole lot of places. We had a house full of really good cooks and a ton of groceries. It worked out well. We did venture out a few times though. Here is what I can remember.

Teach's Lair. It was literally across from where we stayed. We ate lunch there a couple times. It's right on the water and is part of a marina. It's the first place we ate in Hatteras, as we met my aunt and uncle there after we hooked up with my parents. We were killing time until we could get the keys into the house. They also had the favorite item of the week. Their snow crab legs were absolutely amazing. At some point in the week, most of us had a plate of them for the meager price of $9.95. It was a steal. Their other food was really good as well. I loved my dirty shrimp and their homemade potato chips were great.

Pop's Raw Bar. This was a definite sleeper. My parents had been told it was really good, but when you first went in, you were greeted with a fairly seedy looking bar with a strong tobacco smoke smell. My brother later told me it's one of the rougher bars later at night. We went for lunch, though, so it was fine. I had some amazing crab cakes that totally belied the rest of the place. Perfectly fried, moist, and incredibly delicious. They also have killer hush puppies. I got a few as part of a lunch combo, but asked for a separate order because they were so good. Mom loved their raw oysters, but I took her word rather than trying them. I'm not a fan. Everyone else like their meals as well.

Dirty Dick's at the Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry Landing. Meh. DD's is a chain along the Outer Banks. The food was ok, but nothing special. I ordered snow crab there as well, but they were pitifully small compared to Teach's Lair and more expensive. We went with my sister, her husband, and our brother for a night out without the kids. My brother and brother-in-law each had a smoked steak that was the nightly special and loved it.

The Jolly Roger in Ocracroke harbor. This was recommended to us by our aunt and uncle who ate here the day before we visited Ocracoke. It was about 30 degress colder with high winds, so it wasn't quite as enjoyable on their semi-enclosed deck. The food, however, was top-knotch. A wide-ranging menu and nothing we had was a miss. Tara had a great sandwich who's makeup I forget, but it had several layers of tastes. Spectacular. Just go on a warm day or dress appropriately.

A lot of places weren't open for the season during our visit. Overall, Teach's Lair and The Jolly Roger were our favorites. I did love the hush puppies at Pop's, but they have a limited menu compared to the others. The harbor-side dining reminded me a bit of Maine, but it definitely has a tropical vibe.

Printer Ressurection

2009-05-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Having had pretty good luck on our Goodwill run a last month, Tara and I decided check out the various stores on the last 50% Saturday. We had a couple things we were looking for. Tara wanted to find a used fax machine instead of being reliant on the local Kinko's. I kinda wanted to look for a waffle iron. Yeah, I dream big.

In one of our first stores, we found a really nice Brother i770 fax machine for $6.50, after the discount. She spent $3 alone just faxing a page or two, so this seemed like a good deal.

We hit several other locations nearby and found a pair of jeans and a book I liked. Most of the waffle irons were either beat up or of questionable electrical standards.

At the Dunlap/7th Street location, we noticed that they seemed to have a ton of late-model HP printers. In looking them over, I noticed one that seemed to be Wi-Fi-enabled, a Deskjet 6840. I did a search of the model on my trusty BlackBerry, and it was indeed a wi-fi printer. There was no power supply, but for $7.50, it was too good for geeky me to pass up.

We ended up going from Happy Valley in N. Phoenix to checking out a few stores we hadn't been to before in Scottsdale and Mesa/Tempe. Tara found a desk she loved for $10, but we had no way to transport it, so she had to pass. Our final tally was the fax, printer, Lonesome Dove novel, two pair of shorts for me and a pair or two of jeans for her.

After we got home, I was able to go online and found a used power supply for $19 including shipping. It arrived on Thursday or Friday. I plugged it in and it came to life immediately. One hurdle down. Now we just had to get some ink cartridges for it. This past Saturday we went around to the various electrionics and office supply stores looking for refilled ink. New cartridges run from $25-$34 and since we weren't sure if the printer worked, I didn't want to spend that much only to find there was a problem. Even the few refills we found were over $20.

On a whim, we stopped into Big Lots and found a refilled color cartridge for only $8. We snagged that and proceeded to look at other Big Lots to see if they have the black one. No luck. We started our search too late to go to the local Cartridge World. They were closed by the time we got there. (They turned out to be nearly as expensive as the big stores) We went to K-Mart and they had a few refills, but no black. I installed the color cartridge when we got home, but all that came out was red ink. So now I didn't know if it was the printer or the cheap cartridge. The next morning I tried again, and it did all three colors for one test sheet, and then only red and yellow. So the printer seemed to work, but the ink seemed bad.

Sunday we tried some stores further away and had no luck either. On a random suggestion from Tara, we stopped into a Walgreens near where we were in Mesa. They actually had cartridges for the best prices so far: $12 for black and $15 for color. I grabbed a black one and we headed home.

I went to install the new cartridge and it didn't fit. Upon close inspection, it was a color cartridge that was in the box of a black one. Since the other color wasn't working right, I put the new one in and got all three colors. It worked great.

Monday I picked up a black cartridge at Walgreens (I checked before I bought it to make sure) and it worked too. After some trial and error, I was able to get the printer to be recognized on our wireless home network and now we can print from anywhere in the house. And for about half the price of a new printer. Not too bad in the current economy.

Oh, and the fax machine worked great from the moment we plugged it in.

Thai Basil - Phoenix location

2009-05-08T21:51:00.001-07:00

We are huge fans of Thai Basil in Tempe. Tara loves their Pra-Ram and they make some great Tom Kha Kai. Service on all our visits has been spotty at best. They are also typically very crowded, as well.

Tonight, we decided to try their outpost at Central and Earll, just north of the Thomas/Central intersection. It's somewhat hard to see and find, but it's there. The location is smaller than the original but has the same decorating theme. Upon entering, a waiter immediately greeted us and showed us to a table. Shortly after that, a waitress brought us glasses of ice water and took our drink order. The menu is the same as the other location (we checked prior to visiting) so Tara got her usual chicken Pra-Ram and I got chicken Panang. We both opted for mild spice levels. We an order of chicken satay for an appetizer.

The satay surprised us. In addition to the four grilled, curried kabobs of chicken, peanut sauce, and the usual cucumber salad, there was a small greens salad with what tasted like sesame peanut dressing. Everything on the platter was excellent and we made short work of it.

My Panang came out next. The bowl had bits of chicken, brocolli, carrots, green beans, green and red peppers, zuchini, and crushed peanuts all in a nice peanut curry sauce. A bowl of jasmine rice came with it. The heat level was on the low side of mild, which suits me fine, and I loved the dish. The sweetness of the coconut milk went great with the mild curry heat. Once I finished the veggies and chicken, I poured the remaining sauce over the bowl of rice. Good curry sauce with rice is like dessert for me. No complaints at all.

Tara's Pra-Ram had a pile of chicken and brocolli covered with a peanut sauce. She also got a bowl of jasmine rice on the side. She loved hers as well. I tried a bite and it was very good, but I enjoyed the extra kick the curry gave the peanut flavor in my curry better.

Service was excellent as well. Water was refilled in before I the glass got below 3/4 full. The waitress checked to make sure everything was going well. Our visits to the Tempe location always require us to flag down a waitperson for refills.

There were only a few other tables when we were there around 8pm. Similarly timed visits to the Tempe location usually find them nearly full. It was nice not being elbow to elbow with other tables.

All-in-all, we really enjoyed our visit to this location and will come here instead of the Tempe location from now on. Service is better, parking is much easier, and the food is as good or better. Plus it's a closer than the other location as well.

Hatteras - Deep sea fishing

2009-05-06T18:37:00.001-07:00

(Click on any of the photos for a larger view)

The one activity we had planned for Hatteras was a day of deep sea fishing off the Outer Banks. I'd never been and was really looking forward to it. My Uncle Bud is a fishing fanatic, and has his own 25-foot or so boat back home in Maine. He always goes deep-sea fishing on his Hatteras visits. For the past decade or so, he's gone on the Sea Creature. He's good friends with the captain/owner.

The Sea Creature is a 58-foot boat, the largest charter that leaves out of Hatteras Harbor Marina. Trust me: you want a large boat when you go 30 miles off-shore, especially in rough seas. My brother, uncle, dad, brother-in-law, and myself were the only ones who went fishing. The prior two days had been incredibly windy and rough off-shore and no boats with any brains went out. It was forecast to be better but still rough, so those of us who hadn't been out in deep water took no chances. We had ample supplies of Dramamine. And we were very happy about it.

We got to the marina a little after 6:15am. 3:15am for someone who was still on Arizona time. It was a gorgeous morning, though. No clouds, the rain was gone, and the wind had died down significantly. We loaded our gear onto the boat, threw our lunch in the fridge, and by 6:30 we were under way.

Hatteras is on the west side of Hatteras Island, facing Pamlico Sound. The Outer Banks shelter the Sound and it's generally fairly smooth water. After leaving the harbor, it was a nice smooth ride. As an added bonus, we got to watch a spectacular sunrise.

The smooth water didn't last, though. To get out to the "blue water", as it's called, where the Gulf Stream is, you need to go through the Cut between Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island to the south. This is a very rough patch of water due to all the tidal flows and can be tricky to navigate. There are tons of barely-covered sand bars all over the place to add to the fun. Luckily Creature knows his way and while rough, it wasn't anything too dramatic. The sea was pretty choppy once we cleared the cut, with 5-10 seas and the occasional larger one.

At this point, let me briefly digress. While getting ready that morning, old age crept up on me and decided to play a practical joke. While brushing my teeth, I bent over and managed to pull a muscle in my back, 20 minutes prior to cast-off. The timing was impeccable. Undaunted (or just stupid), I downed some Ibuprofen and went anyway.

So back to the boat. The trip out to the fishing grounds took about 90 minutes. Sea Creature is a very fast fishing boat. We caught and passed many boats that left before us. We were catching some pretty good height going over waves, and quite frequently we'd crash into the next wave with a very painful jolt. I was seriously regretting my decision at this point. Add in the copious sea spray the wind was swirling around the boat and my lack of rain gear, and it was a truly miserable time.

Why didn't I go inside the large cabin, you ask? Well, if you want to ensure you get seasick, that is apparently the best thing to do. Sitting outside in the fresh air with something to focus on far away is your best bet. And did I mention that the Dramamine makes you wicked drowsy? I was nodding off from time to time and after we got back, I found out that my brother and B-i-L were as well. The night before there'd been large amounts of Cabo Wabo and Don Julio shots and apparently my brother was fighting more than just sea sickness.

This is a little video I shot with my camera. It will give you a little taste of what the sea was like, but this was taken after it had calmed down a little. I'd planned on taking more pictures, but between my pulled muscle and the rocking of the boat, I wasn't too mobile. Running into the cabin to get my camera took some effort and keeping it with me would have probably ruined it.

At around 8am, we arrived to the fishing grounds and they got all the various poles and lines rigged. We had probably 8-10 fishing lines of various sizes trolling behind us on the outriggers. It's kind of hard to tell from these pictures, but the ocean is an incredible blue color out there. I can see why they call it "blue water". You just don't see it close to shore. I grew up in Maine less than a mile from the Atlantic and hadn't witnessed it like that before.

Fishing is all about patience. And boredom. It seemed like forever before we got any bites. In reality, it was about 90 minutes.

Around 9:30, one of the reels started to whiz frantically. Shane, the mate, told someone to get into a chair. My brother took a seat and Shane gave him the rod. Immediately after, a second rod started to play out and my uncle took that rod. After several minutes of reeling, the fish were close enough to the boat for Shane to use the gaff hook to try to land them in. My brother got a nice looking Yellowfin tuna, our first trophy. As fate would have it, my uncle, the most experienced fisherman among us, had his get away just as he got it to the stern of the boat for Shane to gaff. Still, we got a nice tuna, so I was quite happy. I LOVE tuna in all it's forms.

After another wait, two more rods hooked something. I sat in the starboard chair and Shane handed me a rod. B-i-L sat in the port chair and took the other rod.

As I frantically reeled, pulled, lowered, repeat, I was surprised at how much line there was to reel in. Plus the whole time Creature was yelling instructions/directives to each of us from the flying bridge. (I never saw him the whole trip once we cast off. He stayed up there the whole time) It didn't help that I'm a lefty and the handle was on the right side. Eventually, though, I was able to get the fish to the boat and Shane gaffed over another Yellowfin. He tossed it into the fish locker on the stern and then jumped over to help B-i-L land his own Yellowfin. With that, I decided I was done fishing. I got the experience of hauling in a tuna and didn't want to risk hurting my back any worse than it already was.

We weren't alone out there. If you look closely between the two large rods, on the horizon you can see a large container ship. It eventually got fairly close, but I didn't get a shot. It was huge. I guess one of the main shipping lanes was just a few miles from where we were. We saw several large container ships. First part of the day, though, we didn't see any other fishing boats.

Over the course of the day, we caught six dolphins (fish, not mammals). My brother, uncle, and B-i-L rotated rod duty. I really wish I'd been able to get a picture of a dolphin on the hook running beside the boat. They are a cool bluish color underwater.

Near the end of the day, Shane started packing up the gear. We weren't quite done, though. As a surprise, Creature took us over the wreck of the E.M. Clark for some jigging. Unlike the tuna and dolphin, a fish called an Amberjack hangs out at the wreck and are incredibly easy to catch. After literally two jigs of the rod, Shane hooked one. Instead of the chair, you wear a belt that you put the rod in to bring them up. While catching is easy, they are renowned for the huge fight they put up once you start to reel them in. The short, stubby rods used for the AJs bent over double to the point you thought they'd snap. Eventually, we caught five, but released three back.

Once we let the last AJ go, Shane stowed the gear and Creature headed for home. I'd been fighting nodding off all day, so once we got back into smooth waters of the Sound, I went into the cabin and lay down on the bench/couch. Next thing I know, B-i-L was shaking me awake. The boat was docked and they were getting ready to unload the fish. I was told that Dad tried to wake me up first, but I was completely zonked.

Here's the final catch of the day. From left to right, three Yellowfin tuna, six Dolphin, and two Amberjack. Total weight was about 200 lbs and we got 80 lbs of fillets. One boat had over 500 lbs, but our fish were higher quality. My uncle was disappointed we didn't catch a Wahoo, as he and my aunt say they taste better than any of the other fish in the area.

We cooked up some of each fish for dinner. The tuna was very good. The dolphin as well. Surprisingly for all of us, the Amberjack was amazing. None of us, even my avid fisherman uncle, had ever tried it. Lightly seared in some oil, it was great. All of us regretted letting the three that we'd caught go after dinner. My brother has never been a huge fish fan and this was the first time he'd tried fresh tuna. He absolutely loved it, likening it to the best steak he'd ever had. Our bad luck is that Tara and I are in Phoenix, and all the fish are in my uncle's freezer in Maine.

Overall, I'm glad I got to experience deep sea sport fishing. Would I do it again? I'm not sure. Without the pulled muscle, I'm sure it would have been much more enjoyable. Finding out how good Amberjack is was worth it. And catching my own tuna? That was pretty cool. I just wish some of it was it our freezer. :)

Hatteras Vacation, Part One

2009-05-04T21:18:00.001-07:00

We got back a week or so ago from Hatteras, NC. My aunt and uncle have vacationed in Hatteras for nearly 42 years now and my parents have gone a few times with them. This year they rented a huge house and fourteen of us went for part of all of the week. Tara and myself, my parents, my brother, my sister and her family, my aunt and uncle, and their daughter and her boyfriend. Not quite The Waltons, but close.

We haven't been home since Christmas 2007 and this was the first time we have seen any of my immediate family since then. We hadn't met my newest nephew, Jacob, yet, and that was Tara's primary objective. Once she got her hands on him, she was reluctant to let him go. He's just too damn cute.

We flew into Norfolk, VA, on Friday, as it cut $150/ticket off our airfare. We couldn't get into the rental house until Sunday, so we stayed at the Hyatt Place in Chesepeake, VA, until Sunday morning. It was a great place. Each room has a 42" plasma with inputs for computer monitor, external DVD, you name it. The rooms were huge. I'd found a great deal on it, and my sister's brood had a room booked for Saturday night.

Everyone else drove down from Maine. My parents and aunt/uncle drove straight to Hatteras. My sister and her family had planned stops, as you can only drive so far with energetic 8 yo and 6 yo boys and a 14 month toddler. They visited a dinosaur museum near Hartford Friday and we met them at the Virginia Zoo on Saturday afternoon. They had been watching the zoo's various webcams for months and the boys could barely be contained. This was the boys first trip outside of Maine and New Hampshire and it was fun to see them take in things they'd never seen live, like lions, elephants, and fennec foxes. It reminded me of my family's first visit to a zoo when I was about their age. We went to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. After that as your first zoological experience, other places can't quite compare. The boys had a blast and took tons of pictures.

After the zoo, we headed to a restaurant near our hotel for an early dinner. After dinner they all got dressed to use the hotel pool, only to have it be closed just as they got there. Someone got sick in the pool and we decided to skip it, despite it being "cleaned" and reopened a few hours later.

I had some on-call work to do late Sat night/early Sunday morning. Between that, the 3 hour time difference, and incredibly uncomfortable sheets, neither Tara or I got much sleep. Around 6am or so, we decided to just get ready and head down to Hatteras. We grabbed breakfast at the free buffet in the hotel and headed out. For the record, my sister slept fine on the sheets, so we may just be overly picky.

It was a nice relaxing drive. There was very little traffic and the lush green scenery was a nice change from the dessert landscapes in Phoenix. We stopped at a few road-side vegetable stands and generally played tourist. Before we knew it, we hit the long bridge between the mainland and the outer banks. A few more hours, and we'd be down to Hatteras and vacation could officially start.

Goodwill Day 2

2009-04-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

So of course the other ice cream maker ended up being at the one Goodwill store I swore it wasn't at. Literally the last one I checked and the only reason I checked was to prove to myself it WASN'T there. That show myself who's boss.

Well, we all know the answer to that is Tara, right?

At least I found the damn thing.

Goodwill Day

2009-04-12T00:26:00.000-07:00

For today's activities, Tara and I decided to checkout the various Goodwill stores in the area since it was their 50% Sale Saturday. We've been going to them lately looking for some clothes for our upcoming trip to Hatteras, NC. Since Tara got laid-off a couple weeks ago, Goodwill has been a good option.

Last night I'd visited one store and found a couple nice coffee grinders (for grinding whole spices, as I don't actually drink coffee) and a small deep fryer (for doughnut research). I took note so I could visit today.

After another great lunch of dim sum at China Chan near MetroCenter Mall, we headed to the GW at 35th Ave/Northern. It was the southern-most GW on our original itinerary. We didn't find anything of interest, but did see a worker escort out some loser who had tried to shoplift something. From Goodwill. On 50% off day. They didn't call the cops, but warned him not to come back.

Next, we headed to the GW at 19th Ave/Thunderbird, the location of the appliances I had my eye on. Since it was early afternoon, they were long gone. There was a somewhat worse-for-wear lower-end model that I passed on. I did, however, get lucky when one of the workers came into the shorts section and hung up a nice pair of jean shorts exactly my size right in front of me. They barely settled on the rack before I grabbed them. I was happy now.

We hit the 35th Ave/Greenway and 19th Ave/Bell store but didn't find anything. At the 7th St/Union Hills, I bought some jeans and a pair of cargo shorts. From there, we hit Happy Valley but didn't find anything. At 40th St/Thunderbird I found a pyrex loaf pan, perfect for my current bread baking kick. 35th St/Greenway was another goose egg.

The Cactus/Cave Creek Rd store provided one of the deals of the day. While I was looking at jeans and shorts, Tara went into the electronics area. She came over to me bearing a new-looking KitchenAid coffee grinder. At only $4.50 after discount, I was very happy. It was better than the other two I'd seen, so I was quite psyched. I know, it's the little things.

As this was the last of the stores we knew off-hand, I looked at the map of locations I'd printed last night. There was a location at 7th St/Dunlap, just down Cave Creek Rd from where we were, so we headed down the mountain. That store proved to be a treasure trove for us. Two new-looking non-stick loaf pans, a pop-over pan that I saw and Tara had to have, and a Cuisinart ice cream maker. All for only $9.

As we waited to pay, I remembered I'd seen an identical ice cream maker that was missing the paddle at one of the other stores. It would be great for the spare freezer bowl. The problem was, I couldn't remember WHICH store. By this time it was nearly 8pm. We back-tracked to the four most recent stores but it wasn't any of them. It was now 8:50, so we decided to call it a night.

Grand total for it all: $25.
New retail cost of just the grinder and ice cream maker: $80.

That's math that I like.

Gram's Hot Cross Buns recipe

2009-04-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

Growing up, the coming of Easter heralded the arrival of Gram's hot cross buns. She'd start making them in the weeks before Easter and drop a batch off at the house. These are my all-time favorite rolls. I loved the sweetness of the bread and especially the glaze that is drizzled over them. She usually added raisins, but would make at least one batch without as some of us didn't like them. Usually we'd just pick out the raisins after the plain buns vanished.

Once when I was young I helped Gram make them, but it was so long ago I only have vague memories. My Aunt who lives in Tucson mentioned that she'd made some this year, so I asked her for the recipe. This was the first thing I made after the dough hook arrived. They are pretty easy to make and they tasted almost exactly like I remember. Hot out of the oven with butter, they were amazing. They reheat very well in the microwave. I cut them in half and spread butter on top and bottom. Reassemble and nuke for 10-15 seconds. The bun gets warm and the butter melts. Not quite as good as fresh, but still quite yummy.

When I made them, I weighed the dough on my kitchen scales and divided them into balls of approximately equal size. I spread my rolls out so they weren't touching on the sheet pan, but you can put them right next to each other if you wish. I got just under two dozen rolls out of this recipe.

Hot Cross Buns

1 package yeast (I used Active Dry)
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar

Scald milk, let cool to lukewarm (~115 or so) and then dissolve yeast and sugar in milk.

Add:

1 1/2 cups flour to make spongy mixture: beat until smooth, cover let rise about 1 hour.

Cream together and add to mixture:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg

Add:

2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Raisins (optional)

Knead and let rise until double. Shape into balls, place on greased cookie sheet, and let rise again until double. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Frost while warm:

1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons warm water

Traditionally the rolls are frosted in perpendicular lines so that each bun has a cross on it. I prefer more frosting so I tend to cover them liberally. The frosting is somewhat trial and error to get the right consistency for this. If you want a lot of frosting, double the amount. My Aunt uses milk in the frosting instead of water, but I haven’t tried it that way yet.

Weekend Baking - Basic Bread

2009-04-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got the new KitchenAid, I've wanted to make bread. My old KA struggled with the pretzel dough I made a few months ago, so I was afraid to push it with heavier bread doughs. Since the new KA was a demo model, it only came with the whisk attachment. I ordered the paddle shortly after I got the mixer, but only recently did I get the dough hook.

For my first attempt at bread, read through the various lessons at The Fresh Loaf, a web site for amateur bakers and artisan bread enthusiasts I'd stumbled across a while back. Their first lesson includes a basic recipe. They use this as the starting point and later lessons explain how various added ingredients affect your bread. My last foray into bread making involved a bread machine, so I didn't mind starting from square one.

I stuck with the recipe except for increasing the oven to 400 degrees instead of 375. I'd read through the other lessons and one method for crustier loaf is to increase the temp. The loaf came our pretty good. It was very dense and crusty. Not the greatest loaf ever, but good for a starter loaf. As you can see from the picture, it didn't look half bad either. Tara and I made fairly short work of the loaf.

Maxim Restaurant - Phoenix

2009-03-08T23:59:00.001-07:00

In what has become somewhat of a tradition, with Tara out of town on a quick trip home to Minnesota, I decided to get some Vietnamese food for lunch on Saturday. Usually this means Davang or Avina's, but I decided to branch out once again, despite my Scorcese-dialogued lunch the last time. I'd seen Maxim Restaurant mentioned on Chowhound and there was a very positive review in the Republic last week, so I decided to give it a try.

Maxim is located just north of the Osborne/19th Ave intersection in a tiny and somewhat rundown strip mall. They are literally just down the road from Town Talk II BBQ. They were moderately busy for a late Saturday lunch and the friendly staff waved me to an open table and dropped off a menu.

The menu is a mix of Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, with the majority on the Vietnamese side of things. All the staples were there, except for banh mi. I spent so much time looking over the menu a waitress came over and asked if I needed any help with the menu. Very unusual for most Vietnamese places I've been to. I explained that I was just having a hard time narrowing things down. I finally decided on fried shrimp and pork egg rolls, fresh shrimp spring rolls, pho tai soup and a Pepsi.

The spring rolls came out a few minutes later and at first I though they were pre-made. After taking a bite and tasting the still-warm noodles, I realized it was just the thick rice paper that had given me that impression. They were very good and the peanut sauce they came with was as well. I made short work of them.

Next the plate of sprouts, herbs, and lemon wedge to dress my pho was dropped off. Shortly after that my egg rolls came. They were fried to a beautiful golden brown and very hot. I let them cool down for a bit before I tried them. They were excellent. Marginally larger than usual, they were dense and seemed to have some extra ingredients. Dipped into the nuac mam, they were perfect. I've loved the Vietnamese version of fried egg rolls ever since I first tried them back in my later college years. I love that they are mostly meat with a few veggies sparsely mixed in. I think there were some sort of mushroom in these as well. I would have been content with about a dozen of these for my whole lunch.

The bowl of pho followed a few minutes after I scarfed down the last remnants of the egg rolls. It came in a large ceramic bowl instead of the usual generic plastic ones. The thinly sliced pieces of rare beef were mostly cooked, so I separated them and pushed them into the soup to finish cooking. The broth was very rich and I was enjoying it on it's own. Another one of the owners came over and explained that there hot sauce and hoisin sauce on the table were to season the soup to taste. Again, this has never happened before. I thanked him and proceeded to douse my pho liberally with the hoisin. It was funny how my actions were being misread as ignorance as opposed to just taking my time or enjoying things on their own first. I figure most white boys who go there must be really clueless. I added some lemon (although I missed the ususal lime) and some herbs and mixed it all well. The pho was very good and I enjoyed it as much as the other items. Once I'd eaten as much of it as I could, I went to the counter to pay.

And then the weirdness happened.

As I was paying, one of the guys sitting at the table closest to the counter, which consisted of owners/waitstaff from what I could deduce, got up and came over to the counter.

"You have a very nice face," he said. I blinked several times and said, "Um, thanks?"
"No, it's got a very nice shape." he continued. Again, I was a bit nonplussed.
"Very friendly. you look very familar. We were all talking about how much it reminds us of him," he said, pointing to a nearby image of Buddha.
I smiled. "And I've got his body as well, so it's a two-for-one," I said. They all laughed.

Buddha. Really. Usually the diety I'm associated with is from a much hotter climate, so this was a nice change.

Although I did get my clothes ready to head back to the gym tomorrow. I'm taking that as a sign from, well, SOMEONE, that it's time to hit the cardio again.

Shish Kebab House has FINALLY opened their new location!

2009-02-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

(Pardon the picture quality. Low-light and the camera on my BlackBerry don't mix well.)

I decided to drive by Shish's new location today and they had the Grand Opening sign up and the Open sign lit. I went in and ordered a small hummus to go for Tara, as she was enjoying a rest day at home. I talked to the owner and he said they've been open four or five weeks now. The menu is the same as it was at their old location and from what I can tell prices are the same as well.

The new interior looks really nice. It's definitely different than the old location. Only the table and chairs are the same. I was there at about 5pm and there were three or four groups and more arrived while I waited. The hummus tasted the same as it used to, so that's a good sign. We'll probably go back in a few weeks for full meal.

One thing I did notice is there appear to be some waitstaff issues. They are obviously still training and the owner had some semi-harsh words to one of the waitresses while I was waiting. Service has been a recurring issue there for us, but we tend to overlook that because we like the food so much.

The new address is 5158 W. Olive Ave, Glendale, AZ 623-937-8757

You serve customers with that mouth?

2009-02-21T21:57:00.000-08:00

I like to swear. Despite my parents raising me to be a good boy, I can have quite the potty mouth. My grandfather was the real-life inspiration for the Old Man in "A Christmas Story". Well, not actually, but he certainly could have been the dialogue coach on the NC-17 version. If you'd ever heard him, you'd understand. As creative as I can be, I'm still in awe of some of his Richard Pryor/Eddie Murphy/Dennis Leary levels of cursing. We'd have to leave the area because we didn't want to start laughing in front of him.

Anyways, I know there are times to be polite and watch myself. There's a reason I ALWAYS stay on mute during conference calls. Once bitten and all that.

So today I decided to try a different place for Vietnamese food. Tara was off enjoying a girls' day out with some friends, so I was on my own. Traditionally, that means Vietnamese cuisine, her least favorite of my favorites. I decided to try Tudo Vietnamese Restaurant on the SW corner of Northern and 19th Ave.

There were only a couple of other parties when I arrived and I was told I could sit anywhere. The youngish girl who was hostess/waitress/front room person brought me a menu and took my drink order. It's a typical seen better days type of Vietnamese place. Half the space is tables, the other half has a large stage for either bands or karoke.

I ordered fried egg rolls and bun (a bowl of noodles, veggies, and meat) with grilled pork. A little later, my egg rolls came out. Very darkly fried, like the oil was too hot or dirty. They tasted good, though, and reminded me a bit of the ones I had at a Vietnamese friend's house once, only not quite as good. My bun came and had pieces of egg rolls as well as pork, so I thought they gave me the wrong thing. However, when filling up my water, the waitress said they added them since they knew I must like them. A nice touch, as I can eat egg rolls like that all day. The bun was good as well, but nothing special. Avina's and Davang have nothing to fear.

As I was nearly finished, the waitress answered a phone. She spoke in Vietnamese for a while and would shift to English too. She hung up. The phone rang again, picked it up, and she started nearly shouting "What the F&*K is his problem" into the phone, over and over. Eventually a "motherf***er" was thrown in for good measure. Mind you, she's standing behind the counter and CLEARLY audible throughout the restaurant. I was the only customer at that point, so the others missed Little Miss Gangsta Mouth's performance. An older gentleman wandered into the seating area from the kitchen with a bowl of noodles and sat down to eat, blissfully ignoring the girl's tirade.

I can't imagine what would have happened if a group with kids had been in there. And I can't really recommend anyone with children go there. The food was ok, but that kind of extended blue streak isn't fit for a family restaurant. I won't be returning. Avina's always has good service and very friendly staff. Davang, well, it's typical competent but surly Vietnamese service, but at least they don't do this type of outburst.

Bye Bye Bill's

2009-02-07T12:25:00.001-08:00

My brother, who has only called me once EVER and that was a drunk dial a few weeks ago, called me around 7:30 last night. That's 9:30 in Maine, so I was somewhat worried. It didn't start off well. He said he had some really bad news. My stomach clenched, as all of my family is in our small town there. He asked a couple times if I was ready. I said yes.

"Bill's has closed."

While not quite as bad as a family member passing away, Bill's Sandwich Shop (or Bill's Pizza) in Yarmouth, ME, has been an icon for our family for over 30 years. My first memory of it was during a Sunday drive decades ago. I'm not sure if I was even 10 yet. We saw a small sandwich shop along the road and stopped in. All I remember is one of us ordered a crabmeat rolls and instead of the roll being in a hotdog bun, it was on a full-sized italian roll. Pure crabmeat, mayo, salt and pepper, lay atop some lettuce on the roll. And it was beyond over-stuffed. We are all in awe. It was like unwrapping a bar of gold. Trumpets sounded, a heavenly light shone, and all of us were awestruck. Picture Ralphie getting his air rifle for Christmas. From that day, Bill's was a frequent stop whenever we went drove by on the highway. We'd go out of our way to stop in if we were even remotely near Freeport. Dad would drive to Portland for something and he bring home a couple crabmeat rolls so we could share. No place we ever found had anything to compare with Bill's.

But their crabmeat roll wasn't all they had. My brother doesn't eat seafood and he'd always get a Zappa. Cappicola, cheese, and spicy hot mustard. Bill's was one of those shops that has dozens of custom subs with wacky names. I don't know of any place like it in Phoenix or most places I've lived. During college, I'd ALWAYS grab a sandwich on my way by, be it coming or going. When college friends came up for the weekend with me, we'd stop in. To this day, some of them still ask about Bill's. My answer had always been the same: "They are still there and the crabmeat rolls are as good as ever."

Sadly, I now need a new answer.

Busy start of the year

2009-01-19T16:36:00.001-08:00

We are in the process of moving to a new house, so this has been a busy month. Our landlords are letting their current home go into foreclosure and are moving back into this one since it's cheaper. Looking at new rentals, the whole application process, selling blood and gold fillings to come up with the earnest payment, security deposit, first month's rent, and packing has taken most of our time. The bright side is we have found a new place, it's only about a mile directly south as the vulture flies, and we move in next Monday. We have to come up with our own washer and dryer, but we're hoping my tax refund will be here by then so we can get one at a used appliance store not too far from here. One of our friends offered us a great deal on a floor model electric dryer he bought for his new home before he realized he needs a gas model, but even with the smoking deal he'd give us, it's still about double what we want to spend on the whole pair. We figure since it's a rental house, we just need some reliable used ones.

The new place is a few hundred square feet smaller, but we have a great room now that we only use for storage, so it's not a huge loss. The house is 4 or 5 years newer, so it should be more efficient and cheaper to heat/cool. The kitchen has a larger island and more cabinet room, but we lose our walk-in pantry. It's on a cul-de-sac and separated from busy Bell Road by a new condo development. The back yard is huge and has what looks like a sand volleyball court. We actually haven't seen the whole yard in daylight (it was full dark when we looked at the house) so that should be interesting. We really like our current place, but the new one is still nice.

At least we won't have to deal with the damn pig grunting and oinking across our current cul-de-sac. Just make it bacon already.

Last Post Of The Year

2008-12-31T22:16:00.000-08:00

December has been a pretty slow month, food-wise. We haven't really tried any new places for the most part. We did do lunch with some fellow foodies at Indulge Burger at Scottsdale and Shea last weekend and it was pretty good. We're going to try dim sum at Great Wall tomorrow. We tried it there a couple years ago and weren't impressed, but they've gotten some good marks lately, so we're giving it another try.

We found out we need to move out of our rental house at the end of our lease in January. We hate moving, but apparently the owners are moving back in. Luckily Tara still has some realtor contacts from her days in the mortgage business, and one of them is helping us look. We're kinda bummed, because we love the open floor plan of our current house and the quiet set-back cul-de-sac we live in. We're basically looking in the corridor between our current place (UH/Cave Creek Rd) and Tara's work (Raintree/101). Since I work from home, location isn't really an issue for me. We hope to start looking at places this weekend.

Tara's sister arrived in Arizona this past week to start a 2-month internship in Tucson. She's staying with some relatives down there. She spent Christmas with us (AWESOME apple cider-brined turkey) and will probably spend some weekends here as well. She goes to college in Florida so Tara rarely sees her. They are enjoying the bonding time. Theresa seems to have some OCD issues, as she feels the need to rearrange our kitchen cabinets and pantry. We're still looking for some stuff.

My family in Maine is enjoying the brutal winter so far. No power for days after the ice storm in Dec and tons of snow. We're planning on seeing them in Hatteras, NC, in April. My parents and aunt and uncle are renting a beach house. We're looking forward to it.

Hopefully 2009 will be less eventful than 2008 for us. I'm sure we'll find out soon.

Satara Thai Restaurant - Peoria

2008-12-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

Last night we tried Satara Thai in Arrowhead. I had bought a gift certificate for it from Restaurant.Com during their $25 gift cert for $2 sale back in October. They bill themselves as being a higher-end Thai place than normal and their prices reflect that. The quality of the food, however, does not. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

They are located in the restaurant row around 83rd Ave and Bell. They are set back from 83rd Ave south of Bell and are a bit hard to find. We eventually found them and entered. The space is very modern, with black-painted walls, a large section of waterfall glass, wine racks, and a stained glass window. It looks like they also have a patio in the back, but it was hard to see it after dark.

We were seated in the dining room and it was just under 1/3 full. It's not a huge space. We were given menus and wine lists to look over. The prices are almost shockingly high for a Thai restaurant. Tom Kha Gai is $14 and only in a bowl. Noodle dishes range from $13 to $17, salads $10 to $14, entrees $13 to $16, and even the fried rice dishes were $13 to $17.

We eventually settled on an order of chicken satay ($8.95), fried rice with crispy beef and basil ($12.95) for Tara, and musamun gai (chicken in a coconut milk, red curry sauce) ($14.95) for me.

We ordered the satay before we'd decided on our entrees, but it still took a while for it to come out. When it arrived, it was four large pieces of chicken on skewers, with small bowls of peanuts sauce and a sweet/spicy sauce. We each took a piece and dug in. Or tried to. I noticed I had a hard time cutting it. I turned my piece over, and it was solid black on the bottom. I checked the other three pieces, and all were the same. Burnt. For $9, this was unacceptable. We're sure it was no fluke that all the pieces had the nicely grilled side up when it was brought out. This dish should never have been put on our table. Tara said she wouldn't serve something like this at home. I shaved off the burnt bottom and the meat wasn't bad. A bit dried out, as you'd expect. The peanut sauce was really good, but didn't save the dish as a whole. I even turned all the meat I'd cut off so the black side was up, but the server made no mention of it when she took our plates away.

A little while later, our entrees came out. Tara's fried rice had a nice flavor, but the bits of beef seemed small to me. Overall she liked it, but felt it definitely wasn't worth $13.

My chicken was a bit aggravating. The square white plate had a colorful orange sauce covering the chicken, potatoes, carrots, and onions, with whole peanuts sprinkled over the top. The peanuts weren't mentioned on the menu, and I'm glad that while I can't eat them, I'm not actually allergic to them. I was able to eat around them fine. I noticed that the once piece of chicken I could see was a whole drumstick. As I dug in, I realized that ALL the chicken was in drumstick form, as three of them were lined up on the plate. This irritated me, as I felt really ripped off paying $15 for three drumsticks and some paper-thin vegetables. I got it mild and there was some heat to it, but nothing near the full flavors that good Thai and the price should warrant.

Service was ok. For the early part of our meal, a waiter came by, bringing us drinks and checking a few times to see if we were ready to order yet. When we were finally ready, we had to wait and eventually the waitress came over and took care of us for the rest of the meal. This seemed odd, as the waiter was still servicing other tables.

Satara serves their glasses of water with thin slices of cucumber in them. They said it gives them a crisper flavor. To me, it tasted like cucumber water. I like cucumber well enough, but not in my water.

Overall, we found Satara very over-priced and not worth the extra money compared to the alternatives. The burnt satay was completely unacceptable for nearly $10. The other items were good, but certainly nothing special. The bill came to $40, but with our gift certificate, it came to $15 plus tip. I would feel taken advantage of if I had actually paid full price for the meal. Osha, Thai House, Thai Basil, and Thai Pan are much better choices and far better deals.

Chocolate Grand Marnier Balls Recipe

2008-12-01T20:08:00.001-08:00

My first year in Dallas, I found this recipe in the paper. It seemed pretty easy so decided to try them. The first attempt burnt out a brand new Hamilton Beach food processor I grabbed at Wal-Mart. I returned it (love their return policy) and grabbed a Black & Decker model that lasted me nearly a decade before the cover to it's bowl melted in a dishwasher accident. I currently use my nice and brawny, yet slightly homicidal, bright red KitchenAid food pro. Despite the accident with the blade that sliced my finger open and also saved my life, I love it. Tara is scared of it and if you'd seen the amount of blood in the sink and bathroom at my old apartment, you'd understand. But I digress...

This recipe is incredibly easy, but does more or less require a beefy food processor. A direct drive model, nothing with a belt. You basically just mix all the ingredients together, roll them into balls, roll them in powdered sugar, and put them in an air-tight container for 5-7 days. They aren't baked, so the Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur) permeates the balls. They were usually a hit among my coworkers, but productivity declined as consumption increased.

Triple Sec orange liqueur works great in this recipe and is in fact the one I used nearly all the times I've made it. I found that I still had my Grand Marnier bottle, so I used it for this batch.

Chocolate Grand Marnier Balls

One 9 ounce box of chocolate wafers
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup almonds
2 tablespoons Karo
1/2 cup Grande Marnier

In a food processor:
Process wafers and almonds. Add powdered sugar. Add the rest. Mix till
moist mass. Roll into balls and roll in some more powdered sugar. Pack
them lightly in an air-tight container. For best results, let them sit for
5-7 days.

They are getting closer...

2008-11-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

After calling Shish Kebab House a couple weeks ago and getting a live person who said they should be re-opening in November, we drove by today to check the progress. They still aren't open, but there is a real Shish Kebab House lighted sign mounted on the new location and a coming soon sign still in the window. So they are progressing, but apparently aren't quite on their projected schedule.

We made do with a late lunch at Z's Greek on Indian School around 40th Street. We got our usual and it was terrific as always.

Maizie's Cafe

2008-11-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Whenever we dine out with our friend Winedubar, she always, ALWAYS, knows about half the people who come into the restaurant. Our dinner at Noca (mmmmmm Noca.....) was no exception. One of her friends there was Maizie, who Winedubar said runs a great little cafe just south of Camelback on Central. Tara wanted to get out of the house on Sunday, so we headed down to Maizie's Cafe for lunch.

Mazie's is a cute little space on the end of an tiny strip mall. We started to sit outside, but the strong cigarette smoke drove us back inside. The place was mostly full with the lunch crowd, but nearly every party was winding down when we arrived.

The menu has a large selection of sandwiches, salads, burgers, and pizza. It sort of reminded us of Flancer's a little bit, but not quite as funky. The sandwiches are available on a wide choice of breads, and a variety of styles: wrap, sandwich, or panini.

We eventually settled on a couple of sandwiches. Tara got the Pineapple Chicken Salad (toasted slivered almonds, fresh pineapple, and crisp lettuce) on ciabatta. I had the Milano (genia salami, capicolla, smoked ham, provolone cheese, red onion, sliced tomato, pepperoncinis and lettuce drizzled with classic italian dressing) on panini bread panini style. We both chose the hand-cut french fries as our side.

The sandwiches came out a few minutes later. Both looked great. Tara took a bite of hers and declared it was the best chicken salad she's ever had. Mine was grilled nicely. The bread had grill marks and was crunchy. The various meats had great flavor and there was some heat from the pepperoncinis and capicolla. The fries were outstanding. Crunchy on the outside and cooked on the inside. They have an chipotle dipping sauce available that spice-phobic Tara was really enjoying despite the burn.

Service was good. At the start when the restaurant was busy there were understandable lags, but otherwise it was fine.

We really enjoyed our meal. The portions were generous and we both left stuffed. The best part is that even with Tara's Coke, the bill with tax was only $20.85. Given the quality of the food and quantity, it's a screaming deal. They also have a Monday Happy Hour special where you can get a burger for $3. I actually drove down there tonight to try a burger, but they were packed and I didn't see any close parking. It was nice to see them busy, especially in this economy. I should have plenty of time to get back and try their burger.

Noca - Phoenix/Paradise Valley

2008-11-15T22:25:00.000-08:00

One of the most talked about restaurants this year has been Noca. Chowhound has been rife with Noca reviews and they have all been gushing. Our good friend Winedubar has been many times since they opened in September and has regailed us with descriptions of her meals there. She can be evil that way. With all the job issues and related money shortage, we hadn't been able to try them until last week. Winedubar had been for their first "Lobster Roll" night and raved about it. Being a native Mainer and lobster roll lover, I knew I had to try it. It's currently available every Wednesday night. Now that our finances have started to even out, Tara and I decided it was time to try Noca, and picked a Wednesday. Since our friend Seth was still on his honeymoon in beautiful Montreal (or so we thought), we invited Winedubar to join us. She jumped at the chance.

The short review: Wow. Go. Now.

For those needing more verbosity, I'll do my best. I won't be able to do justice without pictures of the dishes we had. Everything was presented perfectly, sometimes playfully. Many were "deconstructed". All were even better on the palate.

Before the meal, we were each .given a palate cleanser. It had pomegranate fruit, a cheese, a balsamic reduction (which I think mine was missing) and something else. It was all served in a big spoon. It was an incredibly intense flavor and did a good job of getting us ready for the meal.

For starters, Tara had the new-to-the-menu Roasted Chestnut soup. Winedubar had the seared fois gras. I had the duck confit. I only had a couple small tastes of Tara's soup, but it was my favorite item of the night. I'm not sure I can even describe it. My taste buds just sighed in delight. My duck confit looked like a meat lolipop. The leg bone stuck out of a flattened hunk of perfectly crispy on the outside, moist on the inside duck. Juicy, salty, with a great crispy flavor. I wanted the rest of the duck. This was my close second for best of the night. Never having had fois gras before, Tara and I were hesitant to sample Winedubar's "meat butter", as she put it. The bites we had essentially converted us. Ultra-rich, it was as good as W desribed it.

For mains, we each ordered the lobster roll. I've been eating lobster since shortly after I learned to breathe. The lobster meat in the rolls was poached perfectly and is the tenderest lobster I've had in a roll. Mixed with various herbs and celery root, it was served on a roll that had been fried in herbed butter. There were lots of flavors going on, but the lobster meat wasn't overpowered. The texture of it all was outstanding. My only complaint is it isn't a huge roll, and I finished it in no time at all. More, please.

The lobster roll was served along with Duck Fat French Fries. You could definitely tell these weren't your ordinary specimens. They had a distinct extra flavor from the duck fat. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not. It was different and I had a hard time processing, as I was still blissed out on the lobster and duck. Tara and Winedubar loved them.

Minor update to the original post: Tara reminded me that I forgot to mention the sour apple cotton candy that was served between the main dishes and dessert. It was a big bowl of light green heaven. It helps that I love cotton candy. :)

Desserts were, for me, the weakest part of the meal, but that isn't to say they were a let down. Tara got the donut holes with three dipping sauces. This was my top dessert. The donut holes reminded me of the homemade ones Mom would make during our Fall cider pressing parties growing up. I'd thought about ordering them myself, but opted for the apple "risotto", I think it was. I'm can't remember all that was in it. It was good. Winedubar had the deconstructed cheesecake. Three round scoops of cheesecake filling, a pineapple puree of sorts, a pile of cinnamon graham cracker "crust" and drizzles of a sauce. It was good as well. I'm VERY particular about my cheesecake due to an idealized flavor and texture I had growing up. This was good, but it wasn't how I like mine. Tara and Winedubar had no such hangups, and both loved it.

Service was excellent. Our server is also happened to be a chef in his own right, just not at Noca. He was extremely funny and offered/threatened to give Tara a table dance, as we were celebrating her birthday. Thankfully, she didn't take him up on the offer. The host stopped by frequently to make sure everything was going ok. The restaurant was a bit noisy for most of the meal, but quieted down after a large party left. The dining room is very nice, with huge mirrors lining the walls.

When all was said and done, our bill came to $165 for the three of us. We had no complaints about the price. We were all stuffed and endorphins were running high.

We pretty much loved everything about Noca. Tara proclaimed it as the best meal she's had since we've been together. I can't really disagree. We ran out of ways to praise the meal on the drive home.

The best part is that we have reservations for their Simple Sunday Dinner next weekend. They are serving the sous chef's grandmother's fried chicken recipe. We've been assured by Winedubar that it's to die for. After having eaten one meal at Noca, we are sure we'd die happy.

Rain!

2008-11-09T14:34:00.001-08:00

Fusion Sushi - Scottsdale

2008-11-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

Last night Tara and I used the second of the three Restaurant.Com gift certificates we bought during their sale. This one was for Fusion Sushi in Scottsdale. It's located in the Target/Albertsons plaza on the SE corner of the 101 and Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a fairly new restaurant that specializes in Chinese and sushi. My main interest is that it is close to Tara's work and would be a good place to have dinner on nights she works late. The cheap gift certificate seemed like the perfect time to try it.

We arrived about 8pm and only a couple tables were occupied. Three or four people were sitting at the sushi bar that ran in an L-shape along the right side in front of open kitchen. Over the course of the dinner, several more tables filled up. We were seated promptly and looked at the menu.

It's a fairly straight forward menu. Lots of Chinese dishes, some specialty dishes that were house sauces with your choice of meat, some standard fried rice variations, and a long sushi menu. We started out by ordering the Chef''s appetizer combo (2 crab puffs, 2 vegetable egg rolls, and two steamed dumplings) while we decided on our main dishes as Tara was starved. We also got a Pepsi and a Sierra Mist for Tara and myself.

The app combo came out pretty quick, before we had actually decided on the rest. Our waiter dropped it off and let us have time to look the menu over some more. We decided on walnut prawns for Tara and I got a couple maki rolls, the Shrimp Crunch (shrimp tempura roll with crunchys on top) and a Sakura roll (tuna, salmon, white tuna, crab meat, albacore wrapped in cucumber). We set our menus on the outer edge of the table, ate the combo, and waited for our waiter to come back.

He was standing in the entry to the kitchen chatting with the waitress. He looked up, saw us eating with the menus set aside, and kept talking. He walked by our table, made eye contact with me, and went to the host stand to hang around. He then seemed like he was going to stop by, only to go and start talking to a girl sitting at the sushi bar about checking out apartments in the complex she worked in nearby. She gave him her card, and he then walked by us again to the front of the restaurant and chatted with the host, showing him the business card. Eventually he appeared to remember he was at work and decided to stop by and see if we were ready to order yet. He took our order and left.

The appetizer combo was good. The items all tasted fine and there were three sauces (mustard, duck sauce, and dumpling sauce) to dip in. We liked them, but Super Dragon has better ones for less.

Once we finished, they cleared the plates and our meals came out shortly after. Tara's walnut prawns were a deceptively small looking dish. A mound of shimp covered in candied walnuts were in the middle of the plate, with brocolli arrayed along the ends. I tried a shrimp and they were really good. Tara didn't think they'd fill her up, but in the end, she gave up with four shrimp left. She like them as well, although there might have been just a bit too sweet for her savory tastes.

My rolls came out a few minutes later. The Sakura roll was five pieces arrayed around a small bowl of some kind of sauce. It was never explained what kind of sauce it was. Small plastic swords (think garnishes for polynesian fruity drinks) were stuck through each piece to hold it together, a nice touch. Small dabs of different colored roe topped each piece. The roll was good, but the cucumber flavor and watery texture overpowered the fish flavors. Everything tasted fresh, but I think I would have preferred a regular nori wrapping. The Shrimp crunch roll came on a long, narrow dish. It was cut into 8 or 10 pieces, liberally sprinkled with crunchies and drizzled with eel sauce. It also was somewhat cold, like the sushi rice or eel sauce had been chilled. Or that it had been sitting under the a/c vent. The shrimp inside was warm, but the outer temperature seemed way too low. It tasted really good, but would have been much better at a normal temperature.

Overall, our meal wasn't bad. Service was somewhat lackluster. There was nothing wrong with the food. The bill came to $44 before the $25 gift certificate. We both felt it wasn't worth $44. At $26 after tip, it seemed like an ok value. We can stuff ourselves at Super Dragon with better tasting food for $26. The sushi rolls were nothing special and for similiar sushi prices, we can go to Hana and get fabulous sushi. Tara said she might stop in for their lunch specials, but we won't be back for a full-priced dinner.

My sister's worst nightmare...

2008-11-05T18:22:00.001-08:00

Decision '08

2008-11-04T12:03:00.001-08:00

Well, there should be a Widget here...

Go

2008-11-03T21:16:00.000-08:00

If you don't, you've got no right to bitch later about who won.

A little from column A, a little from column B

2008-11-02T17:55:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a month since I updated. Bad, Tim. Here are some stream of thought updates...

First, a fond farewell to my sister's awesome standard poodle, Chattee. After 13 years, my sister had to put her to sleep a couple weeks ago. Everybody's friend, she was about all anyone could ever want in a dog. Shes was always friendly and just happy to be around people. We played many hours of fetch and I'm gonna miss that. I'm not going to miss her chronic, as Jen put it, "dragon breath".

Urban Campfire in Tempe reopened in a slightly renovated form, but the food has suffered. The menu is more compact, some of the nice extras are gone, and you can tell that Robert has left the building. Tara had some sliders and I tried a burger. Tara enjoyed her sliders. I've never had a worse burger in a restaurant, let alone one the specializes in grilled meats. They even tried to make me a second one, but it was only marginally better. They both had a horrible burned, acrid taste. They did bring me a free beef slider while I was waiting for the second burger that was good, but overall Tara and I won't be back. There are better burgers around and better bbq to be had not too far. We are sorry we only visited the original incarnation a few times.

Restaurant.com was having a special where you could get $25 gift certificates for only $2. While there weren't a ton of places we were interested in, we snagged a few. The first one was for Il Posto at 7th St and Mountain View in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix. We got therre after 8 and it was kinda slow. The staff was great and we ordered the stuffed mushroom appetizer, lobster ravioli for Tara, and their white pizza with added pepperoni for tomato-phobic me. The mushrooms were way overpriced at $7.99. Four small button mushrooms were in a huge serving dish that was about 5 times too large. They were not really memorable. We only got it to fulfill the $35 min for the gift cert. Tara loved her lobster ravioli and I tried some as well. It definitely had lobster in it. I adored my white pizza. Four cheeses, fresh garlic, and I think some herbs, along with the extra pepperoni, made for a great meal. It was just as good cold the next morning, part of my criteria for great pizza. The crust was crunchy and chewy with a nice flavor. They also didn't skimp on the garlic. They had a free bread and pesto that were very tasty as well. So except for the mushrooms, we really enjoyed our visit and will be back.

Some great news for fans of Shish Kebab House in Glendale. Friday night, Tara was lamenting their absence of late as their move to a new location appeared to be stalled. The last time we saw their new location, it was basically white walls and nothing really done. That lasted for a few random scoutings since they closed in February. We'd given them up for dead. Just for fun, I called their number to see if the answering machine had any updates. I was SHOCKED when a real voice answered at 8pm. I thought it was the wrong number. It was the correct one, and the gentleman who answered said they should be open sometime in November (aka this month). We were very happy to hear that.

For lunch today, Tara suggested Mr Greek. We stopped in, only to find it's been renamed "Z's Greek". Luckily, it appears to be the same owner and nothing else is different. We had our usual and it was awesome as always. We're both still stuffed. I did opt for a small greek salad instead of fries, and got a nice sized salad loaded with feta crumbles. Tara loved the cheese and kept taking bites.

Last but not least, many happy wishes to our good friend Seth, who finally tied the knot with his beloved J yesterday. We were unable to travel to SoCal for the wedding, but it seems to have gone off without any major hitches. We aren't sure if they headed to Montreal for the honeymoon yet or not, but we are very jealous of that. We can't wait to hear the wedding stories, as Seth's friends and family are usually quite entertaining.

"Thier Back!"

2008-10-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

Tara and I went to dinner at a new place for us, Taylor's Chowder House, near Thunderbird and 35th Ave. We got there and were looking at the specials on a dry erase board. After a few minutes, Tara had a disgusted look in her face and told me to read the bottom of it. I did and saw the problem.

Tara is somewhat of a stickler for spelling and grammar. The bottom line proclaimed "Thier Back!" I forgot exactly WHAT was back, but the fact that they used the wrong "their/there/they're" option AND spelled it incorrectly, was really bothering her. It was all she could do not to grab the dry erase marker off the hostesss stand and correct it.

She thought I'd be bothered too, but I just found it really amusing that they got it about as incorrect as possible. Choosing the wrong word, OK. It happens to the best of us. But selecting the wrong word and also misspelling it? I found that just too comical.

Eventually she mellowed and saw the overall humor of the situation and her mood improved immensely. The fact that the food was pretty darn tasty didn't hurt either. :)

Seriously

2008-09-28T15:53:00.001-07:00

How cute is this kid? At this point, Tara's greatest ambition is life is just to squeeze Jacob's cheeks. My sister is lucky we live so far away.

Yes, Tara IS alive

2008-09-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

I've had at least one query, so I wanted you folks to know that, yes, Tara is still alive. I haven't buried her in some convenient plot of saguaro-covered landscape. She's been crazy busy at her new job. Between her regular work and "projects", she put in nearly 60 hours this week alone, including working yesterday. I have duly chastised her for letting her blog suffer. :)

Some Twisted Fun

2008-09-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Tara came across a recipe for soft pretzels. She sent me this recipe courtesy of Ramblings of a Frantic Home Cook. It looked really good, so I saved it for later.

I was in the mood for a snack this afternoon, and since the recipe is very simple, I decided to give it a try. Luckily my little KitchenAid mixer was up to the task (or at least it didn't burn out).

Soft Pretzels

1 1/2 pkgs dry yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups all-purpose flour

1. Sprinkle 1/1/2 pkgs of dry yeast onto 1 1/2 cup of warm water and stir to dissolve
2. Add 2 Tbs brown sugar and 1 tsp salt and stir to dissolve
3. Add in 1 cup of bread flour and 3 cups of all-purpose flour
4. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly oiled bowl and let rise for at least 1/2 hour in a warm place
5. While dough is rising, mix 2 c. of warm water with 2 Tbs of baking soda. Stir until completely dissolved
6. Pinch off a bit of dough and roll to about 12-14 inches long
7. Dip the pretzels into the baking soda/water mixture and shape into pretzels. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with course salt. Bake at 450 deg. for about 10-12 minutes

I made a few to sample and they tasted really good. I had some errands to run, so I let the rest of the dough rise for a few more hours. When I got home I rolled out the rest of the dough.
As you can see, I'm not a professional. :) Still after baking for 13 minutes, they looked pretty tasty.

Somehow I managed to miss the salt on three of them. Still, they taste pretty good. Tara sampled some of the first batch and they met her approval. Nice and crispy on the outside with a soft, chewy interior. If I'd thought, I would have sprinkled some of Tara's bacon salt on a few. :) Oh well. Maybe next time.

Teriyaki Chicken

2008-09-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, after a beef-tastic week, we are finally going to cook some chicken. I decided to use a slightly modified version of the grilled tuna teriyaki I made a few months back. I substituted 4 tbs each of mirin and sake for the Jack Daniels, as well as adding some grated orange zest from an orange we've had hanging around. I mixed the marinade in my blender and put the chicken into a Ziploc to soak overnight. Tomorrow night I'll fire up the grill and see how it comes out. I've used this recipe recently on more tuna, but only soaked it for an hour or two. Hopefully more flavor will infuse into the meat with the much longer soak time.

How to get Tara really excited

2008-09-05T22:37:00.001-07:00

We stopped into Sweet Republic after dinner tonight and Tara started jumping up and down and grabbed my arm when she saw this flavor. We sampled it and she really liked it. She wanted to get Sugar n Spice ice cream, but I gently reminded her how badly she felt after out last visit, so she got Peachy Keen sorbet instead. I got Real Mint Chip. Very good.

We ended up chatting with the owners for quite a while. They are much younger than we expected. They are very friendly and discussed everything from where to get good bacon, what kind of ice cream flavors we enjoy, to Chinese and Thai food in the Valley. I introduced myself because I'd responded to a deleted thread one of them posted on Chowhound. It turns out that Sweet Republic is quite the CH gathering place. She knows quite a few of them now from their repeat visits. :) Or from the fact that one has always shown up wearing kilt... What's THAT about? :-D

Then again, you can't get this in Georgetown...

2008-08-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

While I dearly miss my beloved hometown, some things just aren't available without an hour or so drive to Portland. Unless the culinary landscape has changed since my last visit, Vietnamese still isn't very common in Mid-Coast Maine. Sure, they are a dime a dozen in Boston, Worcester and thereabouts, but not so much in Sagadahoc County.

I never really got into Vietnamese until I finished college. Despite having a ton of Vietnamese friends in college, the one time we went for it I nearly gagged. I was the only white guy among a group of two Vietnamese girls, an Indonesian guy, and our Atlanta native white girl friend. My meal came out a full half-hour after they got their food and every piece of "chicken" was apparently joint-meat. It put me off for years.

Then came one of my visits to Montreal for the F1 race. I went with one of my Vietnamese college friends, T, and a coworker of hers. We ate lunch at a little Vietnamese place somewhere in Montreal and I loved it. Perfectly cooked, subtle flavors. Yum.

When I moved to Dallas in '95, I met said friend's family, who lived in a Dallas suburb. By that point, I'd known her and her sister, L, who went to BU, for six years. Memorial Day of '96, L was visiting her family and they invited me to lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. This was my first exposure to pho. They showed me how to use the various sauces and fresh herbs to season it. I was more or less addicted to pho from that point. There was a great pho place near my longtime home in Carrollton, TX, that I went to so often they recognized my voice on the phone before I'd even order. :) Dallas has a huge Vietnamese population among it's sprawlburbs, and I tried so many places I lost count.

Jump ahead to my move to Phoenix. While there are some great restaurants here, there just isn't the volume that I was spoiled with in Dallas. One place I've been to many times is Pho Avina. Tara went into work today, so I had the day to myself. Since I was going to be on that side of town anyways, I stopped in for lunch. They don't serve their banh mi on weekends, so I got the grilled pork with egg roll bun I snapped a picture of above. The grilled pork was nice and sweet. I love their egg rolls. The barely visible plate in the upper right is what's left of my appetizer order of them. All in all, the meal hit the spot. Speaking of spots, my poor white shirt took a beating, as my somewhat rusty chopstick skills tended to splatter the nuac mum just a bit. Well worth it, though.

Not that I wouldn't kill for fresh lobsters right now. You have to pick your battles. :)

Why my sister is evil...

2008-08-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Because she posts pictures like this on her blog. She and Mom aren't very subtle about wanting Tara and I to visit more often.

Evil, I tell ya. :)

Sweet Republic Ice Cream - Scottsdale

2008-08-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

Our good friend and uber-food blogger Seth posted a review of Sweet Republic on his site a couple days ago. Being avowed ice cream lovers and having read their flavor menu online, we knew we had to try it sooner rather than later. We were in the neighborhood this afternoon, so we dropped in.

Sweet Republic is in the small strip mall on the northwest corner of Shea and 91st Street in Scottsdale. Due to the shape the mall and the Bank of America on the corner, it's hard to see from the road. I'd looked up the address ahead of time so knew which nook to look in.

We were the only to patrons when we entered. They have a typical ice cream shop layout. The display with their daily selection of ice cream faces the door. They had eight or ten varieties of ice cream and then another ten in a separate freezer with their selection of sorbet and yogurt. They are happy to let you sample as many as you like. We tried nearly all the ice cream and a few of the sorbets/yogurts before we left.

Tara got a scoop of their Sugar 'n Spice- "molasses sugar cookies meet cinnamon spiced ice cream". It was outstanding. Strong cinnamon flavor and a great grainy texture with bits of cookies, sugar and spices. We both loved it.

I got Belgian Chocolate- "made with extra-rich, smooth Belgian chocolate". Compared to their other very flavorful creations, this was rather plain, but still a great ice cream. It had an incredibly smooth texture and a nice chocolate flavor. I really enjoyed it.

After we'd finished, we looked over the flavors again. The lady behind the counter asked if there were any other flavors we wanted to try before we left. So of course, we went nuts. I loved the Real Mint Chip- "fresh mint leaves & rich flakes of chocolate - pure minty goodness". The flavors came in waves. First the ice cream, then the strong, natural mint flavors, and then the chocolate. It's hard to describe the fullness of the mint flavor. The use of mint leaves brought on different stages of mint flavor for me. This is on the top of my list on the next visit.

Tara had a similar experience with the Peachy Keen Sorbet- "ripe yellow peaches – a pure juicy bite of summer". She said it had an extremely pure peach flavor and was probably her favorite of all we tried. In all, we sampled twelve different flavors of frozen goodness. If you like coffee ice cream, try the Sumatra Espresso Shot- "made with locally roasted bold, full-bodied Sumatran espresso beans (More Than Fair trade)". It had a great, strong coffee/expresso flavor.

They rotate their flavors, so every time you go, it will be different. The flavors Seth and J had weren't available when we went. We hope they are able to do good business in their location, as they have great product.

One word of warning: If you are lactose-intolerant, stick to the sorbets or yogurts. Trust us on this one. The richness of the ice cream will wreak havoc with you. If you are like some lactose-intolerant, ice cream-loving people I know, you might consider it worth it. Just be prepared to pay the Piper afterward.

The Omnivore’s Hundred

2008-08-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

This list has been ALL over the lately. It's a list of 100 things every good omnivore should try at least once. This list was developed on a blog called Very Good Taste. Here's a link to his original post. Tara and I both saw it and counted how many we've tried. I had to revise my count after I'd looked up some items I didn't know. Turns out, I'd actually eaten them. Is it just me, or is that kinda scary? :) Looks like 42 is my magic number.

And as all true Geeks know, 42 is a great number. :)

Here's what to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. I just did them in red.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho (Love pho)

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart (Brud’s in Boothbay Harbor)

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns (a staple at any dim sum I go to)

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava (another favorite of mine)

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam Chowder in Soudough Bowl

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted Cream Tea

38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala (one of my favorite Indian dishes)

48. Eel (unagi from Hana in Phoenix is like candy for me)

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (way over-rated)

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang Souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum (I prefer Tom Ka, but Tom Yum also good)

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a Michelin 3-star restaurant

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

Temptation and Torture

2008-08-16T23:15:00.001-07:00

Tara worked some of today to get caught up at work and have a co-worker help her with an Access database. I hit the gym, a rare occurrence for me on a Saturday. When she got home mid-afternoon, we wanted to get out of the house so we took drive. She got hungry around 5pm and got her yearly pizza craving. She only wanted a slice or so, and since I can't do tomato sauce pizza, we swung by Luna Pizza in Deer Valley at the 101 and I17 intersection. I used to go there for lunch when I worked across the street and knew that had good pizza by the slice.

Tara got their special (2 slices of two-topping pizza and a drink) and garlic knots. I got two pepperoni rolls, hoping they were sans-marinara and a drink. We each helped ourselves to a Pepsi at the soda fountain and waited for our meals.

After 10 or 15 minutes, Tara's slices were dropped off. Two woefully out-classed, thin paper plates were overloaded with her to large, greasy (in a good way) slices of pepperoni and garlic pizza. They smelled so good. They were fresh out of the oven and extremely hot. I was all but drooling. A minute or two later, the garlic knots and my pepperoni rolls were dropped off. Thankfully, the marinara sauce was on the side. They looked like two cinnamon rolls, except made with pizza dough with chopped pepperoni instead of cinnamon.

Once they'd cooled down, I took a bite, They were really good. Nicely browned and the pepperoni grease flavored the dough nicely. They didn't have the nice crust that the pizza had, but they were a pretty good substitute. Tara liked her slices (she's normally not a pizza person), but she was only able to finish one. Between the size and grease, she had to stop. I scavenged the pepperoni and crust from it. I really wanted to scarf the whole slice down, but I knew there would be very bad repercussions if I did. I was THIS CLOSE to just giving in. I love the high-quality gourmet pizzas from PB and Humble Pie, but there's a lot to be said about the simple perfection of a greasy, NYC-style slice.

After we finished, we headed home so Tara could change shirts (did I mention the abundance of dripping grease?). We watched some incredibly boring covering of the women's Olympic marathon for a while and I decided I wanted something for dessert. We eventually decided to go to Mary Coyle's on 7th Ave just north of Missouri. Across the street from my beloved Hana (more temptation...).

Tara got a small sundae and I got a regular one. They were both pretty good. Unfortunately, being Asian, Tara is extremely lactose-intolerant and Mary Coyle's ice cream hits her hard and fast. We hadn't been there in ages, so we'd forgotten. So we headed home and she retired to the bedroom until her stomach decided to relent.

I'd just gone into the bedroom to finish reading one of my Dresden Files novels when I got a call from the support team on one of my accounts. I forgot that they were patching servers this weekend, so I get to stay up until the Intel team finishes so I can verify my servers are running normally. So much fun... I just want to sleep.

My current pizza methodology

2008-08-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been buying F&E pizza dough and experimenting with it. I've tried making my own dough, but my aging KitchenAid isn't what it used to be.

I cut the dough into two balls, roughly 8 oz. each. I preheat the oven to 450 and put our 12" Lodge Logic cast iron skillet on medium-low. I put 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil (or any convenient oil) in the skillet before heating and use a pastry brush to spread it evenly. I roll out the dough until it will just about take up the whole bottom of the skillet. Once the skillet is up to temp (350 or so), I put the dough into it. I then brush the top of the dough with more olive oil. Once the bottom has gotten a bit of a crisp and browned, I use tongs to flip it over.

I then top it. Since I can't have tomato products of late, I've used pepperoni, ham w/pineapple, and/or mushrooms. I've also used pesto instead of tomato sauce with good results. I sprinkle liberally with mozzarella and then bake it for 10-12 minutes, until the cheese is nicely browned.

I take it out and let it cool on a rack for a few minutes. I usually get a nicely crispy (although with occasional small burnt spots on the bottom if I'm not careful) pizza. The top gets a nice crust from the initial crisping so the toppings don't get it mushy. The pizza is even good cold, which is one of my benchmarks for good pizza.

Uber-Geek + Romance =

2008-08-05T22:28:00.001-07:00

You've gotta hand it to our friend Michael. After being chastised for being too low-key in his first proposal, he bribes a few of his fellow Google-rs and comes up with this. See his full site for it here:

http://www.marrymeleslie.com/

Geeks in love. Be very afraid.

Eden's Grill

2008-08-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

Friday, much to my surprise, Tara let me know she's been craving Eden's Grill for weeks now. She never mentioned it until then. Apparently, the beef she had on our first visit was so good that she was like Odysseus with the Sirens. So we headed over for dinner.

Tara ordered a small bowl of their curried lentil soup and the Beef Kebab dinner. She got her rice with almonds, but without raisins. I got a small Fattuchee salad (Romaine lettuce, cucumber, and parsley topped with deep fried pita bread and house dressing, hold the tomatoes) and the Chicken and Gyros dinner. I got my rice without raisins or almonds. Both of us stuck with water with lemon for our drinks.

Tara's soup was really good. She usually doesn't do curry, but the friendly waitress assured us it was for flavor, not heat. She nearly licked the bowl clean. The small tastes I got I liked. My salad was very good. It was very large, split nearly equally between romaine and cucumbers. The deep fried pitas added a strong crunch. The flavor is hard to describe, but I enjoyed it. I really liked the many layers of crunchiness.

Tara loved her meal. The beef was perfectly cooked to her tastes and the rice/almond combo was superb. Mine was equally good. The chicken had a nice flavor from being marinated. The gyros were sliced in long, thin strips, perfectly cooked. The rice at Eden's is amazing. A deep yellow color, it's full of flavor.

You get a huge amount of food, and Tara and I both took home enough for another meal each. We had to force ourselves to stop eating. We knew we were full, but it was so good we just wanted to keep eating. I think that's a sign of really good food. All told, with tax and tip it came to about $51. Considering we got a second meal from our leftovers, it's a really good deal.

Does your Samsung SGH-A707 SYNC keep restarting itself?

2008-07-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Tara and I consolidated our cell phones onto my AT&T account last year. We both got Samsung SYNCs, identical blue ones, for free. Lately, they will spontaneously reboot AT THE SAME TIME multiple times a day. What the hell is going on? I know they can get OTA firmware upgrades, but this is more than that. They've rebooted three times each in the past few hours alone. Is is AT&T's way of getting us to switch to an iPhone?

A photo tour of Arizona Apple Stores (or "What to do when you have too much free time.")

2008-07-27T19:37:00.001-07:00

Well, for no particular reason, I decided to visit all five of the Arizona Apple Stores this weekend. Since the Tucson store was the farthest, and we drove there anyway this weekend, I started there:
It's located in the La Encantada shopping mall. It's a pretty mall, like a cross between Biltmore and Kierland. Walking around in the 100+ degree heat and high humidity, we both wondered why they don't enclose more malls in AZ.

Next, we hit the two southern Valley Apple Stores. First was the one in the Chandler Fashion Center:
It's located in the basement of the mall, so the "hot" new 3G iPhone only gets EDGE reception, thus they can't demo the new higher speed data rate. Brilliant.

Barely ten miles east in San Tan Marketplace is the Gilbert store:
Why they need two stores so close is a mystery. It's a brand new mall and the Gilbert area really needed the new retail options. It's a sprawling complex, similar to the new one near us at Happy Valley and the 17.

We hit the first Apple Store in the Valley next in the Biltmore:
The Biltmore mall puzzles us. Unless they've changed, nearly every store closes at 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. We went there the week before Christmas a couple years ago at 4:15pm and like 4 stores were open. The Apple store was open to 6pm I think.

Lastly, we stopped by the newest Valley store in Glendale today. It opened yesterday:
This is another store in a mall basement with no 3G signal. Granted this only affects one product in their range, but still.

All the stores are running together for me at this point. I'm not really sure what possessed me to go to all of them. Just weird, I guess. Hopefully within a few months I'll be able to visit one and pick up a nice new iPhone. Or a new iPod, to replace my long-gone Nano. We'll see.

Tucson Day Trip

2008-07-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

For no real reason, we decided to drive to Tucson yesterday. I kinda wanted to take my car on a long highway trip to see how it does for highway mileage. So a little after noon, we gassed up the Passat and headed south. My Passat drives better than my old Audis on the highway. It has that European "gee, we're just dawdling along" feel at fairly high speeds. If felt like I was going slow but as I went to go by the car in front of me, I look down and we're doing, well, let's just say a tad above the speed limit. My Audis always felt like they were going fast. The Passat is just serene. It's similar to the feel my parents' Peugeots from the 80s had. Unlike most Peugeot traits, that's a good thing.

The trip down was uneventful. We got there a bit before 2pm and made a pit stop at the Wal-Mart at Cortaro Rd/I10 for batteries for my camera and nature breaks. We used to take Cortaro Rd to the Omni Tucson when we did weekend trips to Tucson for a few years. Really nice resort with great customer service. We were upgraded to better rooms on two of of our three stays due to fairly minor problems. Hopefully we can visit again this year or next.

After Wally World, we headed east on Ina to La Endantada shopping mall. I felt like visiting the Apple Store. We looked longingly at the iPod Touches and 3G iPhone (they were sold out, btw). We were both hungry, so I hijacked a MacBook Air and perused Chowhound for a place to eat. We settled on the Wildcat House at 1801 N Stone. One person said it had good burgers and was cheap. I checked its website and the menu looked good, so we headed down.

Wildcat House is a huge bar that I'm guessing caters to UofA crowd. It was described as "cavernous" in the thread I saw and that's very apt. We ordered a 1/2 lb burger for me and a tri-tip sandwich for Tara, each with fries, at the window for $14. You order your drinks from the long bar in the back. We got two huge glasses of Coke for $2/each and waited for our name to be called. We took a seat at one of the massive wooden picnic tables on the large tiled dance floor and passed the time watching the Red Sox take it deep from the Yankees. It was painful.

After what seemed like a somewhat long wait, our order was up. I dressed my burger at the topping station and Tara scrounged a couple plastic ramekins for ketchup and Thousand Island dressing (she like TI on her fries). My burger was really good. Nicely charred but cooked to my medium-well order. The fries was beefsteakish, thick cut and nicely crispy on the outside, soft, but cooked, on the inside. Way better than a fast-food burger combo. Tara really liked her tri-tip sandwich. The only downside was they had a huge breeze blowing that cooled us nicely, but also chilled our meals faster than normal. Not a huge deal. We really enjoyed the food and for only $18, it was a definite bargain.

We hit a Marshalls on the way out. I'd found some shirts that I liked at the ones around Phoenix and wanted to see if the Tucson store had any. They didn't, so we headed back to the highway. I wanted to grab a drink from our cooler in the trunk, so I happened to stop in the parking lot of a donut shop. We'd passed it on the way in and thought it was closed, but it was actually open. I hadn't planned on going inside, but the smells were too tempting. Tara and I went in. She didn't want anything except a Coke. I got a couple glazed donuts, a glazed twist, and a maple long john. At which point Tara decided she wanted a plain croissant. The lady behind the counter got all that and then took the bag to the far end of the counter and put something else in it. She came back and told us she'd put some glazed donut holes in. I tried one and it was like glazed crack. Perfectly cooked, great texture, and the perfect amount of glaze. She gave us ten and they were gone before we hit the city limits. The place is called the Donut Wheel, and it's on Ina just east of the I10, next to a Circle K. The other items were nearly equally good. It's a definite to-go place on our next visit.

On our way back we stopped at the new shopping mall in Casa Grande. The Marshalls there had several shirts my size on clearance, so I snagged a polo and two tshirts. After that, we made our way back to the Valley. All in all, it was a fun little trip with the added bonus of finding some pretty good food.

Payson Bacon Update

2008-07-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

The bacon we got at Charlie's in Payson last week was divided evenly into two distinctly different sizes. Last weekend we cooked the seven larger slices and they were good, but overly salty. This morning I cooked up the remaining seven slices that were smaller, maybe 1/2 the size of the first batch. I took a bite and gave Tara the remaing half of the piece I sampled. We both agreed this time it was fantastic. It was perfectly salted and I managed to cook it to a nice crispness. It had a great meaty bacon flavor unspoiled by excess salt. This seemed to come from another batch. This bacon is a solid third, possibly second on a good day, on our list. Vonhanson's still is top, but this gives The Pork Shop bacon a good run for it's money. We need to hit TPS when they reopen in September.

I guess it will come down to consistency. VH's bacon varies in sweetness, but is always great. We've had TPS bacon once, and it was very, very good. Others also love VH and TPS bacon, so consistency seems pretty good. Since we just have the one experience with Charlie's bacon, and no other annecdotal evidence, it's hard to say which might be their "typical" bacon. At $4.50/lb, if you are in the area, it's certainly not that bad a gamble. Not worth a special trip at this point, but if the batch we had today is typical, it's pretty close to being worthy.

New Beginnings

2008-07-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Tara finally got her job offer today from the company she's been interviewing with for nearly a month. We're both very excited. She finally gets to go back to work and we can both breathe a little easier about our finances. It'll be a few weeks before she gets her first check, but at least the light is at the end of the tunnel. She's got much better benefits, too. Three weeks paid vacation, the company pays 90% of her health insurance, and they don't take 10% off the top of her paycheck like her old company. They also just moved to a brand new office two weeks ago. Another bonus is they are within spitting distance of Ice Tango, which is one of Tara's new vices. :)

Today is also our 4th anniversary together. We had dinner at the then-new, now-closed original location of Blue Wasabi, followed by watching Fahrenheit 9/11. Nothing like sushi and Bush-bashing on a first date. :)

Bacon Tasting

2008-07-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

I cooked the bacon from Charlie's this morning using my normal oven bake procedure. It was pretty good, but overly salty. Even Tara, who has a much higher salt tolerance then I do, found it too salty. It's a very thick-cut bacon, so trying to get it to my preferred crispiness would have rendered it into burnt sticks. I was able to get a good balance, though. We each had a slice and a half. We used the rest in bacon and egg sandwiches. The saltiness wasn't as noticeable in that application.

It's possible the saltiness was just an errant batch. If we're ever up in Payson again, we'll probably grab some more just to see. As it stands now, Vonhansons still wins. Saltiness aside, we'd rank Charlies about fourth, behind VH, The Pork Shop, and Midwestern Meats. Given it's $4.49/lb price, without the saltiness it would be a great deal. It's head and shoulders above most pre-packaged bacon that costs more as it is.

Saturday Road Trip

2008-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Last night around 12:30am, my sweet, still-unemployed-but-the-end-might-be-in-sight, slightly insomniac girlfriend, who hadn't left the house in a day or so, asked if we could drive somewhere. Like Litchfield Park. Flagstaff. Tuscon. San Francisco. Right then. With me half-asleep. Luckily I was still aware enough to decline.

Today after I got back from seeing "The Dark Knight" (absolutely brilliant by the way), she said she needed to go somewhere. Initially I thought about going to a place with a huge chicken out front that our friend Seth had mentioned in Apache Junction, but we didn't know the name. I texted him, but didn't get a response in the short time we had. On our way to AJ, I vaguely remembered that there might be construction this weekend on the 60. Actually, it was the 202, but we didn't find out until we got back. Since we were coming up to the Shea exit on the 101, we decided to head towards Fountain Hills.

When we hit the east end of Shea, we took AZ87 north. I decided to go to Payson for no particular reason except I hadn't been there before. Except for a metal wheelbarrow flying over the 6' tall cement median and landing about 300' in front of us in the fast lane, it was an uneventful trip up.

While driving up the main drag in Payson, we noticed a shop in a small strip mall with a sign advertising "Old Fashioned Sausage & Fresh Meats". Since we were in need of a pit stop first, we stopped into a convenient fast food restaurant. When we came out, it was at least 10 degrees cooler and blowing a gale. We could see dark clouds off to the east that appeared to be coming our way.

We got back on 87 and drove north through Payson to see what was there. We saw a couple little shops that looked interesting and we stopped in after pulling a u-turn at the north end of town.

The shops turned out to be nothing special. The typical touristy, over-priced stuff. Disappointed, we headed to the meat market, Charlie's Old Fashioned Sausage & Fresh Meats, we saw on the way in.

We entered the small store to the strong smell of smoking meat. They were smoking fresh jerky as well as getting ready to close down for the weekend. It was 5pm, and they aren't open Sunday or Monday. A large glass-doored freezer held dozens of varieties of homemade sausages. Their item sheet boasts 35 varieties of homemade sausages.

Their meat cooler was bare as they were in the process of moving the meats into the larger fridge in the back. They did still have slab double-smoked bacon out front. For only $4.49, we had to grab a pound to try. It looked really good, extra-thick cut and meaty. The owner told us he gets it smoked, peels off the layer of fat, and hickory smokes it again himself in the store. He warned us not to try to cook until crispy as that will render out a lot of the good flavor.

He also gave us the sheet of available meats and bundles he has available. It's very extensive. We told him we're from Phoenix and he said if we call ahead, he can have it ready to pickup with a few days advanced notice. We thanked him and left with our booty.

At this point, we are scared that we might really like the bacon. We are going to have it for breakfast tomorrow. We currently drive 80 miles round trip for our beloved Vonhanson's bacon. A 184 mile round trip would be a bit much, even for us. We'd need to rent a uHaul truck and by a MASSIVE quantity to make it worthwhile.

After a few more random stops and exploration, we headed back to the Valley. I'll post an update tomorrow on how the bacon turns out.

Charlie's is located at 405 S. Beeline Hwy Ste. A, Payson, AZ 85541 (928) 474-2085

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Some now, some later

2008-07-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

I love chocolate chip cookie dough. I also make some really good cooked cookies as well. Over the years, I've pretty much perfected my method. I use a slightly modified Tollhouse recipe. The only problem is we usually can't eat four dozen cookies at time. Now that I work from home and Tara is unemployed, we have no place to get rid of the extras before they become hockey pucks.

I'd tried freezing leftover batter once before, with not very good results. I did some Google-ing, and saw that a lot of people freeze the dough after spooning it into cookie-sized portions. That way, they can just take out the number they want, cook them up, and always have fresh cookies on hand. I tried this and it worked really well. My problem was that dishing out by hand, while nice and rustic, didn't lend itself packing in plastic containers.

I'm a huge Good Eats fan. I love the off-beat, scientific approach Alton uses. Most of his recipes I've tried have been good. He uses an ice cream scoop to portion his cookies. I hit up the local restaurant supply stores a few weeks ago and got myself a #40 scoop. It looked to be the right size for my usual cookie portions. It turned out to be perfect.

I now get uniform cookies and they are very easy to pack into our various Rubbermaid/Glad/Tupperware containers. I just line the container with parchment paper or wax paper and then seal them up. I generally make a dozen and a half right after I mix up the batter.

To use the frozen nuggets, I take out the number I want to bake and set them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. This weekend we were way over in Mesa and stopped into the tiny outlet mall off of Power and the 60. There's a Kitchen Collection shop in there and they had a two-pack of silicone mats for $5. I tried one last night and it worked really well. Once on the sheet, I let them sit out for anywhere from 15-45 min so they can thaw a bit. Some people put them directly into the oven frozen, but I tried that to not good results. Others use their toaster oven, but again, I had bad results. I stick to the regular oven with perfect results.

The ones I made last night tasted just as good as the ones I made from the same batch several weeks ago. I like my cookies either raw (it's a sickness, I know) or fresh out of the oven while the chocolate is still somewhat molten. Now, I can have them either way just about any time I want. :)

Fourth weekend activities

2008-07-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

We had a good long weekend. Thursday we caught an early show of Wall-E. I really liked it. Not quite as good as The Incredibles, but animation is amazing and the story is very desolate for a long time. I'm sure I'll be seeing it again sometime soon. After the movie, we hit Osha Thai. They were open (but were closing for the rest of the weekend) and we had a great meal, as always. I love their panang, even if it was a tad spicier this time than normal. The important thing is it had FLAVOR as well as a bit of heat.

Friday we did a late-ish lunch at Stacy's Smokehouse. The last time we tried to go, two days after the good review on the Republic, they were closed. Turns out Stacy had a trip to Vegas already planned and didn't want to be open without him so soon after the article. Tara got a beef sandwich and I got a pork sandwich, both with mild sauce. The sauce was sweet and vaguely Sloppy Joe-tasting. The meat was amazing as usual. We tried the deep-fried corn on the cob, onion rings, and fried pickles. The rings were the winner. The pickles were good, but very salty to me. The deep-fried corn on the cob didn't have much flavor. It was battered in a cornmeal batter that Tara like separately, but not with the corn. Still, if you stick to the meats, you can't go wrong at Stacy's.

We tried Ice Tango after Stacy's at Frank Lloyd Wright and the 101. We both got their tangy tart yogurt with different mixins. It's really good and tastes like real yogurt. It was a bit too tart for me to finish all of it, but still outstanding. Tara loved hers with granola and fresh strawberries. Definitely will go back for more.

Friday night we decided to catch some fireworks. We eventually decided to watch the Tempe Town Lake show from Tempe Marketplace. It was close enough to see the fireworks and hear them after a bit of a delay, but no drunks or cover charge. A ton of folks were doing the same thing. Tara got to play with a little eight year old girl who was watching them next to us with her older sister. We could see five different shows from where we were. Tempe, Mesa, possibly Indian Steele Park, and two to the northwest in N Scottsdale or so. It was fun.

Saturday we stopped into Wicked Bakery on Cave Creek Rd south of Greenway to check them out. Man, they've got some good stuff there. We left with a whoopie pie, a slice of deep-dish Dutch apple pie, a double-stack brownie, and a piece of carrot cake. All were really good. The whoopie pie wasn't quite like the ones I used to have growing up in Maine, but pretty close. The apple pie was very yummy. It would be better heated, but I didn't have the patience. Tara loved the carrot cake, but eventually it was too sweet for her to finish, so I did. :) She had her brownie today and it was very chocolatey. We'll definitely be back.

Saturday evening we decided to take a road trip to Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert. Thankfully it wasn't mobbed like the last time we attempted to eat there. Tara had a burger with gruyere and sweet potato fries. I had a double hot dog basket with regular fries. My dogs were great and the fries were very crispy and good. Tara's burger had great flavor in the small bite I had. Her sweet potato fries were very crispy, but she thought they lacked a good sweet potato flavor. I could taste the flavor, but it was very subdued.

Sunday we lazed around the house. We made homemade buttermilk pancakes for a late breakfast. We found an awesome recipe a while back. Very fluffy and nice flavor. I really need to get a new electric griddle. Our current one looks like it should be in a greasy spoon somewhere. Still does the job for now, though.

For the food and science geek crowd

2008-06-29T18:36:00.001-07:00

Tara sent me this link referring to the above product. This is such an out of left field name, yet so perfect. I remember Avogadro from high school chemistry and my engineering classes in college.

Too bad I don't like guac.

No karma tonight at all

2008-06-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

So Tara and I are trying to figure out where to eat tonight. Eventually she IM's me via Yahoo (I was in the living room, she was in the bedroom) suggesting Stacy's Smokehouse. It's about 8pm and I thought they close at 9pm. So I get my outside clothes on and go and tell her we probably need to hurry. She wasn't worried, because the New Times review said they are open until 11pm on Sat. Cool.

So we get there at about 8:45pm and there's not a soul or car anywhere near Stacy's. Parking lot is empty, all the lights are off, and all we need were some tumbleweeds to pound the point into our heads. It seemed very odd they'd be closed on a Saturday, especially since only a few days ago they got a rave review in the AZ Republic. So I drive west down Indian School while we ponder our options. I suggest Chompie's in the PV mall, since we've been there well after 9pm before. Tara agrees and we head up.

We arrive at 9:06pm to watch someone locking the doors below the ironically flashing neon "OPEN" sign. The hours on the window confirm they now close at 9pm. So now we're starved and 0-2. I wonder if PV mall made them standardize their house to coincide with mall hours or if they have shorter hours during the summer months. Either way, we're screwed and I'm starting to feel like I'm back home in backwoods Maine again where you can't eat out after the sun sets.

Eventually we end up at CPK in Desert Ridge. They are open till 11pm. I had a half Miso Salad and Tara had a penne pasta dish. We both can't wait until she gets a full-time job again so we could go to the places we really like that are open past 9, like Hana or Benihana (no relation). Or, as our dinner rambling suggested, Capital Grill, Binkley's, Kai...

My other can't wait movie this summer...

2008-06-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

I love the post-80s, noirish Batman ushered in by Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns". The early 90s B:TAS had a great visual look (prior to it's WB-ization) and it actually introduced future villains into it's continuity prior to their turn to evil. "Almost Got Him" is one of my favorite episodes.

I loved "Batman Begins". Now comes the first review of "The Dark Knight" from Rolling Stone.

Iron Man (awesome), Wall*E, and TDK.

It's turning out to be a great summer.

Grilled Marinated Chicken breast (and a bit)

2008-06-24T21:08:00.001-07:00

I few days ago I stumbled across some food videos on AZcentral.com's Dining area. One of them showed how to make a simple vinaigrette marinade. Apparently vinaigrette's are always a 3:1 ratio of oil to vinegar, plus whatever herbs and spices. Their recipe was for balsamic, oil, garlic, dried thyme and dried basil. Put them all into a blender and mix well. Here is what I used:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic (our fresh garlic wasn't so much anymore)

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend well. I meant to marinate two chicken breasts, but the ones I took out of the freezer ended up being a full-sized boneless breast and one that was barely a tender. I tossed them into a Ziploc and poured enough marinade over them to cover. I still have enough leftover marinade for a second run once the other breasts thaw. I let them soak for about six hours. The video only marinated for 30 minutes, but I like to do it longer.

I fired up the grill, oiled the grate, and put the chicken on. The "tender" cooked in about 7 or so minutes. I took it off and it we tried it. It was really good. The larger piece took about 12-15 min. It ended up very moist and good flavor. Tara made some orzo to go with it. I'll probably try it again tomorrow night (if Tara doesn't mind and the chicken is thawed) or Thursday.

Sneaky Buggers

2008-06-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

During my post-gym F&E visit, I was nearly run-down by one of their employees when he grabbed a cart and bee-lined towards their front meat cooler. I did a quick scan and didn't see any 1/2 price stickers, so I started to look at their main meat cooler. As I did, I noticed him rummaging around in the front cooler. In the far back, under a few other packages, he took a 1/2 priced 12-pack of hamburgers. I jokingly commented that they stash the good ones. He then grabbed a SECOND one from back there and said he had been "saving" it for a coworker, but I could have that one. So I got 3lbs of burgers for only $4.51. Not too bad. Tara wrapped them and stashed them in our freezer for future use. :)

Wall*E opens Friday. I can't wait.

2008-06-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

I love most of Pixar's movies. While Cars and A Bug's Life are technically (given their respective releases) impressive, their stories didn't enthrall me. The Incredibles is probably my favorite, with the Toy Stories, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and Ratatouille close behind. For kids, you can't go wrong with any of them. My nephews love Cars.

I always look forward to the new Pixar movie. They are masters at the art of trailers. They frequently create exclusive footage for them, like The Incredibles' teaser with Mr Incredible hilariously and heroically strugging with his belt buckle. The Wall*E trailers have done a great job of slowly building up Wall*E's personality first and then expanding the movie's perceived world from Earth to a whole galaxy. Yet I still don't feel like I've seen the whole movie from the trailers, which is frequently the case with most other films.

We probably won't see it opening weekend. I shudder to imagine the crowds of screaming kids who are going to mob the theaters. We'll probably do a late show July 4th weekend or something. The little kid/sci-fi geek/movie buff in me are all chomping at the bit.

Plus Tara's getting sick of me giggling every time I see a clip or hear his name. :)

"As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

2008-06-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Somehow I only found out today that Bill Dial died earlier this month. Not a name I'd know, except he wrote one of funniest episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Turkeys Away". TV was pretty desolate in the late 70s, but WKRP was and is one of my favorite TV shows ever. WGN recently ran a slew of episodes on their 70's Night on Sundays, and that was one of the eps. From Les's Hindenburg-inspired narration to Mr. Carlson and Herb battered and covered in feathers, it's a classic. Unfortunately all the great music in the show has been replaced on the DVD sets with generic music, otherwise I'd have them in my collection.

Bill Dial also was involved with "Simon and Simon" and various Star Trek series. Still, I always laugh to myself (usually out loud) when I think about "Turkeys Away".

Grilled Teriyaki Albacore steaks

2008-06-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

I love a good teriyaki-marinated piece of tuna, so I decided to find a simple marinade for the albacore I got yesterday at F&E. I found this one at Cooks.com. It's nice and basic:

1 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely minced
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 cup soy sauce *I used Kikkoman Light Soy*
1 cup sugar *I used dark brown sugar*
2 oz Jack Daniels (or other whiskey or rum) *I used Jim Beam*

I ended up with way too much marinade, but that happens. Luckily we had all the ingredients (the Jim Beam was purchased for a chicken marinade a couple years ago that we loved, but can't find the recipe anymore) so I mixed them up this morning in one of our big glass bowls. The albacore pieces only totaled about 1/2 a pound, so I could probably have cut the recipe in half or more. I put them in the marinade for about two hours, turning them halfway through.

At lunch, I turned the gas grill on low and once it was up to temp, I cooked the first piece for 3 min/side. It came out really good. I was still hungry, so I cooked the smaller second piece for 2 1/2 min/side. It was sorta wedge shaped and the thickest part was still just a tad less-cooked, but for a sushi person like me, it was fine. They were cooked all the way through, so this wasn't a sear at all. They had a nice sweet flavor, but not overly strong. We have a piece of frozen tuna in the freezer that will probably be great cooked this way. I can't wait.

GO CELTICS!!!

2008-06-17T20:55:00.001-07:00

What a dominant victory. I love it. 22 years is a long time but that just makes it all the sweeter. :)

Today's cheap finds

2008-06-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

I hit F&E after the gym today. They had some wild caught albacore, cheese tortellini, chicken ravioli, ground pork, and pineapple slices all for 1/2 off. We'll see how they work out. We'll do the pasta with some Alfredo sauce tomorrow night. I'm thinking of doing a simple teriyaki marinade for the albacore and then grilling it on our electric grill. The pork went into the freezer.

I got some 1/2 off unpasteurized OJ there last week and it was really, really good. It's fun hitting them after my workout and seeing what they have. It's fun trying to plan a meal with what they have on special.

GRRRRR

2008-06-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

I go out to light the grill tonight so we can cook some burgers. As I open the lid, I notice that the far left burner was left on. And I hadn't closed the valve on the take like I usually do. So my less than two week old tank of gas was now probably over Eastern Canada...

I grabbed a new one at the supermarket down the road and a few more hamburger buns as well. Still, I'm not happy when I do stupid stuff like that.

Rib Results

2008-06-11T21:36:00.001-07:00

Well, they didn't come out good. I cooked them for about 3 hours and they probably could have used another 30 min to an hour. They were a bit tough and quite fatty. It could just be the cut we got. They seemed to taste OK, but I have a thing against eating fat (can't stand the texture) so I didn't eat much. Luckily Tara spiced up some baked beans and that made a good dinner along with the cole slaw.

A Rib For All Seasons aka Pork Fiction

2008-06-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

Last week before I went to sleep, Good Eats repeated it's pork ribs episode, A Rib For All Seasons. They looked really good, but with Tara still looking for a job, we decided to wait until she finds one to try them. Today after my first day back at the gym since before we hit triple-digits, I stopped by Fresh & Easy. They actually has a couple slabs of baby back ribs 1/2 off, so I snagged one. I wanted to get two, but in case they come out badly, I didn't want to risk it. So I printed out the recipe and mixed up some rub. I deviated from Alton's rub since we lacked some of the ingredients. Instead of cayenne pepper, jalapeno seasoning, and Old Bay, I used ground mustard, barbeque seasoning, and Mrs. Dash. He said you could cater to your own whims for the remaining 1 of the 8:3:1:1 ration anyways. I just finished applying the rub and stashing them in the chill chest for the night. I've never done ribs before at home, so this should be interesting. The recipe looks really simple, so it'll be interesting to see if it's a keeper or not. I'll post an update tomorrow night.

Oh, and if you left comments recently and haven't seen them appear, it's because I completely forgot I was moderating comments on here... Sorry. :) They should be on here now. :) Thanks Geggie and Andy for your patronage. :) We really need to hook up sometime for dinner (A) or when you're in town (G). I know Geggie and Tara can compare their Camrys. Andy and I could probably trade Audi North Scottsdale service horror stories. :) I'm still baffled as to how they broke your windshield installing a TCU...

Little Saigon Restaurant - Glendale

2008-06-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

Vietnamese is one of my favorite cuisines. It's not very flashy, like Thai or sushi can be, but there are some solid dishes that I love. Pho goes without saying. It's one of my favorite soups. The Vietnamese version of egg rolls, when done right, are like crack for me. Ditto for fresh spring rolls. I also like the bun dishes with pork, both shredded and roasted. And of course banh mi. I used to be able to get them for $2 at a place near my last job in Dallas (technically Carrollton).

Unfortunately, Tara had a bad experience at Avina's old location once when she went without me and generally has a hard time finding something she will eat at most Vietnamese places. Usually I'll go by myself at lunch or if she's got other plans on a weekend day, I'll try to plan something. She was working on Saturday, so I decided to get me some good old VN food. I was torn between hitting Davang's and getting a banh mi or trying someplace new. Fellow blogger and Audi-phile Andy has had many positive posts about Little Saigon in Glendale. I've seen it the few times I've been in Old Town Glendale but have never been. Since I had nothing else planned, I decided to make the trek.

It's about a 20 mile trip one-way and when I got to the 19.7 mile mark, I realized my wallet was somewhere still at home. So I headed home, found it, and headed back. Luckily gas is cheap...

When I finally made it, I parked across the street and entered the restaurant. I was directed to sit anywhere, so I sat in the room with the main counter and kitchen. I looked over the menu. I had looked at it online before I left and knew they didn't have banh mi. I thought about getting an order of deep-fried egg rolls, but at six to an order, I wasn't sure if I could finish them all. Instead, I got fresh spring rolls (grilled pork, shrimp, rice noodles) and a rice vermicelli bowl with grilled pork and pieces of Viet egg roll. I stuck with water for a drink.

My spring rolls came out so fast I thought they'd been pre-made, but they were very fresh. The rice noodles were still warm. I really enjoyed them. They came with the usual peanut sauce and hit the spot.

My bun bowl came out in a few more minutes. Due to a server miscue, I got two of small bowls of sweet fish sauce (nuac mum, I believe), which is fine with me. I love the stuff. I tried one of the egg roll pieces and immediately wished I gotten them for an appetizer. Dipped in the fish sauce, they were perfect. The pieces of grilled pork were sweet, again something I love. It may have been the two helpings of fish sauce I dumped over it, but it was all nice and sweet. Exactly how I like my bowls.

Service was good. It was basically just me in the one room and I could hear another party or two in the other room. The owner(?) waited on me and checked in often by basically talking to me from behind the counter.

I really liked my meal and hope I can make it back in the near future.

Little Saigon is at 7016 N 57th Ave. It's just north of the Glendale Ave/57th Ave intersection, on the west side.

Back To The Grill

2008-06-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

After procrastinating for months and months, I finally got around to refilling the propane tank for our gas grill. I managed to miss all the great Winter and Spring grilling weather, although the first night we used it was unseasonably cold, around 50 degrees. Still, you can't beat the taste of hot dogs on the grill. Unless it's Jordan's natural casing hot dogs cooked on sharpened sticks over a bonfire on a frozen lake in the middle of Maine, but I digress...

We've slowly ramped up our outdoor cooking. I started simply with hot dogs and hamburgers to get my grill legs back. I grabbed Tara a couple 1/2 off New York steaks at F&E last week with mixed results. The first one was good, the other very gristly. This past weekend I was down at VonHanson's and grabbed some cooked brats for only $2/lb, since they were out of their awesome hot dogs. I also got Tara a ribeye steak. We hadn't tried their ribeyes yet, so this was a leap of faith. The previous ribeyes I'd gotten at MidWestern Meats and they were very good. I'd planned on stopping by there, but they were still closed for Memorial Day week. So it was VH for ribeye, brats, and a little over 2lbs of their meat candy (aka double-smoked bacon).

I cooked up some of the brats for me tonight and the ribeye for Tara. It was nice not having to boil the brats first and just slap them on the grill. I used some of our leftover VH store-baked hot dog buns and they were really good with just a little honey mustard. I cooked Tara's steak on each side for six minutes and it came out perfect. She seasons her steak with a good dose of salt for 1/2 hour before washing that off and applying fresh-ground pepper. The steak had great flavor. I'm not a huge beef fan, but this was some really good moo flesh. Tara was in heaven.

I need to find some more grill recipes to branch out a bit, but I still love the basics.

F&E, take two

2008-05-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Tara picked up some Fresh & Easy Hummus, along with a package of their garlic naan to have it on. It turns out that we really like it. There might be just a touch more tahini in it than we'd prefer, but overall, it doesn't last long. It's only $1.99 for a 10 oz container, and it's the best store hummus we've found. With our two favorite restaurants to get hummus (Shish Kebab House in Peoria and Mr. Greek on Indian School in Phoenix) not exactly close, this is especially a boon. We grabbed some more today, along with a 1/2 off pork loin (for some more root beer pulled pork) and 1/2 off shrimp that Tara's got some plans for.

Another fun fact. I grabbed some relish there last week for $1.18. The exact same bottle at AJ's at Central and Camelback? $2.40.

Scott's Generation Deli - Phoenix

2008-05-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Tara and I were trying to decide where we wanted to go for lunch today. After lots of head-scratching, I suggested trying a place our fellow CHer AZHotdish had mentioned in a thread about where to find the best corned beef sandwich and matzoh ball soup. He mentioned a place called "Scott's". We had to look at the thread to find the full name and location: Scott's Generation Deli, located in the shopping center on the NE corner of 7th Street and Missouri.

The restaurant is a huge seating area divided into two long, narrow rooms. They were slow at 3pm, so we were seated in a large booth in the main room. We ordered a couple of Cokes while we looked over the fairly extensive menu. It took us quite a while to decide what to get, as there were a huge number of items that all looked equally tempting.

We ended up each getting an item from their Specialty Sandwiches section. Tara got the "James Cagney": Brisket of beef, melted swiss cheese, grilled onions, served on a toasted garlic onion roll. I got "Scott's Own Monte Cristo": Batter diped egg bread stuffed with grilled, imported ham, fresh roasted turkey breast and imported swiss cheese. Both sandwiches were served with a small dish of cole slaw, fries, and pickles.

After a very short wait, they sandwiches arrived. Each came on a large oval dish, over-stuffed with meat, topped with a huge mound of American-cut fries. The small bowl of slaw and three pickle spears were also under the mound of fries. I asked for a couple of small plates so we could off-load the fries to make room to maneuver our sandwiches.

My Monte Cristo was excellent. The sweet egg bread had been grilled perfectly and had a great sweet flavor that contrasted nicely with the saltiness of the very thin-cut meats. The amount of meat on the sandwich was daunting and I could only finish one half of it. The fries were nicely fried as well, of various sizes, and great taste. I put a pretty good dent in the huge pile that came with my meal, but was unable to finish them all. The slaw was served in a very small portion, but was quite good. It was on the sweet side, which is how I like it.

Tara really enjoyed her sandwich as well. She loved the grilled onions and strongly flavored bun. The brisket was very good. Like me, she was also unable to finish the whole thing.

We really liked Scott's and plan to return. There are so many other things we really want to try. I have my eye on the Hash Mash skillet scramble, among others. After sampling the bread on my sandwich, their version of American Toast (read French Toast) has me intrigued as well.

Our waitress told us that a lot of people will split a sandwich and we can certainly understand why. We both left stuffed, but still managed to stop by Karsh's Bakery a couple doors down. :)

One way to lose weight

2008-05-19T16:51:00.001-07:00

Last weekend (the weekend of the 9th), Tara and I tried a host of new places. All of them were quite good. Sunday afternoon, however, we both started feeling a bit off. Upset stomachs and associated symptoms. Tara got over hers by Wednesday, but I was still out of commission through this past weekend. I was living off toast, Gatorade, ginger ale, and on a good day, some chicken noodle soup. My system seems close to normal today. I weighed myself and I'm a good 13lbs less than I was the last time I checked a few weeks ago. Luckily as Homer put it, "I'm drought and famine resistant." It's not a diet I'd recommend.

How much is gas where you are?

2008-05-12T11:43:00.001-07:00

While calling home yesterday, Mom told me that they paying $4.66/gal in Mid-Coast Maine. We paid $3.42 on Saturday. I'm just curious what the three or four people who read my blog outside of AZ are paying. :)

Fresh & Easy

2008-05-06T19:26:00.001-07:00

The Fresh & Easy supermarket chain has invaded the Valley in a big way. One opened across the street from my gym (stop laughing) and I usually stop in after my workout to see if they have anything good marked down. They have a very aggressive freshness policy, and in the afternoon, they mark items expiring on that day half-off. One day last week, Tara and I didn't have any ideas for dinner, so I hit F&E to check what they had. I scored two sushi rolls (spicy tuna and california rolls) cheap, as well as a chicken salad sandwich.

The maki was actually pretty good. I generally don't like supermarket rolls, since the chilled rice can get rather hard, but at $2 and $2.25, I figured why not. Tara really liked the chicken salad sandwich, which was a big bonus.

I grabbed some hamburger buns tonight for Tara's homemade sloppy joes and they were quite good.

I've also tried their huge Belgian milk chocolate bar. VERY good. Their organic milk chocolate, not so much.

Recent Eats

2008-04-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty slow past few food weeks, but here are some highlights...

Culver's has opened a couple stores recently in the Valley. One is somewhere in Mesa and the other is in our neck of the woods, at Deer Valley Rd and 19th Ave. So far I've been twice. Once on their opening last Thursday and again on Sunday with Tara. Service Thursday was laughable and about what you'd expect on opening day. The counter staff couldn't run the ordering system without their trainers and I could order stuff (relish) that they didn't actually have yet. Still, my burger wasn't bad. The fries ranged from floppy to a couple crispy ones. Definitely nothing remotely special. I got a concrete (frozen chocolate custard with a couple mix-ins) but that was a bad idea after the double burger. I barely ate half of it.

On Sunday, Tara and I stopped in. The original plan was for her to get a burger and some fried cheese curds (it's a Minnesota thing). After that, we were going to go to the new Lee Lee Supermarket in Glendale and I planned on getting something at a Vietnamese place called Pho-Licious across the street. Well, her bacon burger arrived with no bacon but an extra meat patty. I took it back and the manager said he couldn't take it back, but he'd get me some bacon, OR he'd make the correct burger and we could keep the wrong one as well. I opted for the second choice, since it would be a waste just to toss a perfectly good burger. So I got a free meal, just not what we'd planned. Tara liked the burger, but the cheese curds were breaded, so not the ideal way she likes them . The GOOD fried cheese curds at the Minnesota State Fair have more of a tempura-like batter. These were more like the fried cheese you'd get as an appetizer at an Italian joint or something. Not bad, but not the good stuff. They also didn't come with any type of sauce, which they needed.

After lunch, we headed to the new Lee Lee's at 75th Ave and Cactus. The long-time Chandler favorite opened the West Valley outpost on Thursday. It's in an old Albertsons (and you can recognize the layout as such) but it's definitely an Asian market. It doesn't seem quite as extensive as the original location, but it's still a great addition to the West Valley food scene. The shelves aren't quite fully stocked yet, but it's coming along. The in-store restaurant is still being finished but a small snack bar is open. Even though it's about 13 miles closer, we rarely find ourselves on the West Side, so we'll still make the trek to Chandler. The original location is only a few miles from Vonhanson's Meat Market, where we go all the time. Tara liked the new store, but I prefer the original for some intangible reason.

Even though I wasn't very hungry, we crossed Cactus so I could try Pho-Licious. The restaurant has a very nice interior, with granite table tops and a cool ceiling. Tara really like the interior treatment. She wasn't hungry and also isn't a fan of Vietnamese food, so I just opted to get an order each of spring rolls and egg rolls. Like a lot of Vietnamese places, service is somewhat brusque, but unlike most of them, it was also not very good. We weren't given any plates or utensils to eat with, despite one of the waiters just sitting in a booth zoning out and a waitress cleaning the table and floor near us but not noticing. I ended up going over and basically grabbing them myself. I did enjoy the food, though. The basic shrimp and pork spring rolls were fresh and had good flavor. The egg rolls were fried to a dark brown and once cooled, were very good as well. I wished they had a bit more filling, though. Still, they met my craving and for $7.00, the various rolls made a good snack.

Does Little Rangoon deserve a second chance?

2008-04-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Howard Seftel reviewed Little Rangoon today. After reading it, it might offer a good guide on what and how to order. Tara ordered the garlic noodles and found the garlic flavor lacking, while Howard seemed to have some that had strong flavor. And now that someone has clarified they spicy levels relative to a cuisine I'm intimately familiar with (Thai), we can be more confident in taking a chance and possibly getting some actual flavor.

EO(WE)

2008-04-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

What a great way to end the weekend. The Red Sox are playing the Yankees on ESPN. And winning. :-D

Weekend Eats

2008-04-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

This has been somewhat of a slow weekend. Tara's been in severe pain with cramps, so she's been very immobile this weekend. Yesterday she spent in bed, so I went to find something to eat. I thought about going to Stacy's, but I had a feeling she'd be VERY unhappy if I went alone. After some thought, I decided to try Humble Pie again. Tara's not a pizza fan, so she could care less if I went alone.

I got there about 4pm and they were pretty empty. One table of four, four or five people sitting at the bar seats, and some people seated outside. When the hostess asked how many and I said one, she pointed to the bar, but I asked for one of the four-seat high-tops. She said they were only for groups of four. I looked at the empty restaurant and said "You're kidding." She looked around and mumbled something about it not being busy so I could sit there if I wanted. Gee, thanks. Service was kind of slow but eventually I ordered the pistachios, roasted leek, shaved red onion, and parmesan pizza and a half Romaine and celery hearts Caesar with torn grilled sourdough croutons.

The salad arrived after a short wait. It was absolutely covered in finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano and that added a great flavor. It was perfectly dressed. Each piece was liberally covered in dressing, but not swimming with it. A cheesecloth-wrapped lemon wedge was on the side. I squeezed a bit of lemon juice and dove in. It was a really good salad. The dressing, cheese, and lemon all combined to form a flavor that really hit home. The lettuce and celery was chilled and crisp. A really good Caesar, although how traditional it is, I don't know. I do know I enjoyed it. That's all that matters, right? :)

The pizza was very similar in description of Pizzeria Bianco's Rosa: Red Onion, Parmigiano Reggiano, Rosemary, AZ Pistachios. I could see it sitting near the oven for quite a while before it was brought to my table. Considering how slow it was, it was a good guess it was mine. Despite the wait, it was still too hot to eat, so it's not a big deal. It, too, was very good. The crust was a bit blackened in spots, but that's not unusual for the fired pizzas. It wasn't as good as the Rosa. The primary reason seems to be that Reggiano wasn't used. The Rosa's cheese was nicely crisped, so it had that amazing flavor that Reggiano gets when baked. This pizza was missing that. It still had very good flavor and I finished the whole thing, but my hopes of finding a good Rosa substitute were dashed.

Overall, it was definitely a good meal. The pizza only suffers if compared to the PB version, but then, most do. I still enjoy the pizza and if I have other Tara-free days, it's certainly on my list of options.

Since Tara was homebound, I decided to be a nice boyfriend and stopped by Mr. Greek to grab her some hummus and a couple pitas. I'm happy to say it was still excellent and possibly the equal to Shish Kebab House's version. Tara made short work of it.

Today she was feeling better so we headed to JP Pancake. We hadn't been there since the unfortunate incident when she got her new car back in December. We got there just before noon and noticed they had a sign saying they were closing early today at noon. Tara and I debated trying to eat, but I went in and Rachel told me we were good to go. The other waitress said we were "grandfathered" in. It's good to be known by the waitstaff I guess. :)

Tara had their cinnamon French Toast with bacon and I had the Sunrise Breakfast (two pancakes, two eggs, and sausage). As usual, it was great and we were both happy. The table next to us had three soccer mom types at it who were (scarily) probably my age. They were talking about iTunes, iPods, burning LPs to CDs on their Bang & Olufsen (must be nice) stereo. It just seemed very funny to me to hear them speaking geek. At one point, the word "blowjob" was very audible, but unfortunately neither Tara or I caught the rest of that particular discussion thread.

The highlight of the weekend was my visit to Target before going to Humble Pie. I was waiting for them to fill a prescription and all of a sudden I heard shouting and fighting near the entrance. Along with most people, I headed that way and saw some guys attempting to subdue someone just outside the doors. The plainclothes security guy eventually got the very unwilling guy into some handcuffs. He apparently tried leave the store with a 22" Westinghouse TV and a large quantity of two-piece women's bathing suits. It seemed like a very daring choice of wardrobe for a somewhat scary looking, disheveled individual. I'm pretty sure he won't need to worry about a TV for a while.

Time Flies

2008-04-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

Today is the fourth anniversary of my arrival in Phoenix. It seems like just yesterday that 100 seemed like it was unbearably hot and I didn't know how to pronounce "saguaro". I've lived in five different apartments/condos/houses, had three different cars (Tara still has one up on me on that count), four cellphones, but only one girlfriend. At least something is stable. Ish.

I still find myself missing Dallas. Of course, some things there I don't miss. My ex-girlfriend emailed me on Friday telling me that the apartment building we lived in together was damaged by a tornado that rolled through the area on Wednesday. She still lives in the same complex, but about 300 feet from that building. She said she can do without that type of excitement ever again. I never had the pleasure of experiencing a tornado during my time there.

I still compare the restaurants here to the ones I frequented in Texas. For the most part I've found at least one great restaurant for each of the cuisines I love. Hana, Osha, and Da Vang hold up nicely to Kampai Grill, Chow Thai, and Saigon Pho. What Phoenix seems to lack is the depth of field of restaurants. I had half a dozen regular Thai restaurants, easily twice that number of sushi places, and more Vietnamese restaurants than you could shake a stick at.

The Dallas area (and Texas in general) was also very disc golf friendly. There are more courses in the DFW area than all of Arizona. I spent many months playing disc golf in the summer of 2003. I was laid off and job hunting only took up so much of the day. Disc golf was cheap and gave me something to do. There was a fairly regular group of us who'd play. Teachers with the summer off, guys who worked nights, and others who were out of work like me. The Lake Lewisville course is still burned into my memory. Bear Creek DGC with all its poison ivy and water moccasins. Getting stuck in the creek at Jimmy Porter trying to recover a lost disc. Playing disc golf at midnite in early December with the temps in the 70s and getting the crap scared out of me when I stumbled upon a huge beaver on the beach at Lake Lewisville.

Phoenix has several courses, but most are at multipurpose parks and most people don't like getting a 175g piece of plastic upside the head. From first-hand experience, it's not fun. Plus trying to get up early on weekends before it's horribly hot is getting hard in my dotage. Worrying about getting bitten by a surly diamondback if I play the course that's a mile from home isn't a pleasant way to spend the morning. I usually play at either Conocido N Phoenix or Vista Del Camino in Scottsdale. VDC is a haul, but it's a bit more varied and generally better moving scenery.

I still consider Maine home, but having spent essentially the last 20 years in other states between college and jobs, it's not quite home home anymore. My summer visits remind me of what I love about it. The gorgeous scenery, plentiful seafood, and cool temps are a godsend after a few spring/summer months here. Then the winter visits remind me why I like living in the southern half of the country during those months.

Well, enough of memory lane.

Stacy's Smokehouse

2008-04-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ever the slaves to mass media, Tara and I decided to try Stacy's Smokehouse Friday night. Michelle Laudig gave it a really good review in the current New Times and it sounded too good to pass up. Stacy's is located on the NW corner of Indian School and 17th St. We nearly missed it and had to turn quick before I drove past. The tiny parking lot was full and I had to squeeze Tara's Camry between the curb and a sweet Audi Cabriolet.

We entered the bright purple building from the rear entrance and were immediately hit by the saliva-inducing aroma of good smoked BBQ. A bunch of people were sitting in plastic chairs that lined the short hallway, waiting for their to-go orders. The main room is somewhat small, with five tables (four four-tops and a very wobbly two-top) and all but the two-top were taken. You order at the counter and the menu is written on a large chalkboard above the entry to the open kitchen area. The very busy but friendly lady at the counter also pointed out paper copies of the menu that definitely saved us some neck pain.

Judging by the aromas, I figured it would be hard to go wrong. After looking over the extensive menu, I decided to get a half-rack of pork ribs, a piece of white meat fried chicken, onion rings, and an Orange Crush. Tara got rib tips, beans, cornbread, and a Coke. As I was paying, an older guy looked like he was going to take the last table, so had Tara scurry over and snag it. Our order came to about $27. The lady handed me the drinks and I sat down at the two-top with Tara to wait.

It was quite chilly in the dining room and Tara was turning a bit blue as we were sitting under a ceiling fan going about 200 mph. I leaned on the table and nearly catapulted Tara's Coke into her. The table top was loosely secured to the base by four small nails that weren't pounded all the way in. Eventually a couple at a table near us left and after it was bussed, we jumped over to it.

Our food seemed to be taking quite a while, but we also noticed a constant stream of to-go orders coming out. After about 1/2 an hour, a table that was there before us got their food and ours came out immediately after.

First out was Tara's rib tips, cornbread, and beans, along with my onion rings topped with a great-looking piece of fried chicken. Tara's tips were good, but she said the little white cartilage pieces grossed her out. The beans were ok. They reminded me of canned baked beans. She really liked the cornbread. She thinks the rib tips were probably really good for what they are, but that she just ordered badly. Rib tip fans will probably love them.

The fried chicken was excellent. Moist, perfectly fried, and a bit crunchy. I was able to take a nice big bite and loved it. Tara tried it and wished she'd gotten a few pieces instead of her tips. The onion rings were very sweet but not too crunchy. They were good, but I wished for a bit more crunch.

A few minutes after the first food arrived, the lady came out with large styrofoam container holding the "half-rack" of ribs, cut into single ribs for convenience. I'm not sure if this is a different cut or what, but they filled the container and were covered in what turned out to be an outstanding bbq sauce. Since there was no way I was going to eat the ribs with the provided plastic utensils, I dove in with my hands. Luckily the lady also put a huge stack napkins. I took a bite of the ribs and they were amazing. Fall-off-the-bone tender with a great smoky flavor. I was able to eat three of the seven or eight ribs before I had to give up. Despite being cut with more fat then I like, these are my favorite ribs in the Valley. I ended up eating the leftovers cold and they were still great.

Between the fried chicken and ribs, we'll definitely be going back. According to Michelle's review, the chicken is only available after 3pm. I didn't see anything saying that in the restaurant, but I might have missed it. It's a true Mom-and-Pop place and the long wait for food might put some off, but after sampling the goods, we both think it's well worth any service quirks. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. I had polished off my first bottle of Crush and after our food was delivered, the lady asked if there was anything else. I said I needed a Crush, but I'd wait until the crowd at the counter died down. She grabbed another one for me and brought it out. After our meal was done, I went up to pay, but she refused. She said we'd be back and that was good enough for her.

And we'll definitely be back.

An Asian Comfort Food Weekend

2008-03-31T19:27:00.001-07:00

With the minor windfall burning a hole in our pockets, we headed out to Osha Thai in Scottsdale. We arrived at around 7:30 and the place was about 3/4 full. We took last free booth and eventually Adella came by and dropped off menus and took our drink order. We settled on vegetarian egg rolls, Osha Golden Pockets, Gaeng Kari (yellow curry, carrots, potatoes, onions and chicken) for me and their garlic beef for Tara.

While I prefer some meat in my egg rolls, these were pretty good. Nicely fried and burning hot when they were served. All the veggies tasted very fresh. The Golden Pockets were outstanding as usual. Minced chicken, veggies, and some yellow curry. Yum. My Gaeng Kari comes with bell peppers, but I had them hold those. It had a really good curry flavor, but since I got mild, no heat, which is fine by me. I'm in it for the flavor. The carrots were sliced a bit thick and weren't quite soft, but still good. Tara loved her garlic beef and was in a very blissful mood when we ordered dessert. She loves their sticky rice with coconut milk and I decided to try their homemade green tea ice cream. Tara polished the sticky rice. Their green tea ice cream had the strongest green tea flavor I'd ever tasted in ice cream. It was excellent. Apparently it comes out yellow and they add blue food coloring to turn it green. Just one of the fun facts Maybelline told us. I could probably eat at Osha every day and not get sick of it.

Sunday night we have a kind of started a tradition where we go to Super Dragon before we do our weekly shopping. We started with our usual bowls of wonton soup, hot and sour soup, and crab puffs. For entrees, Tara got the House Chicken and I decided to try the Ginger Shrimp. The soups were very good and the crab puffs have been very addictive to us lately. Tara loved her House Chicken, which seems to be about 3 chicken breasts worth of meat. My shrimp, ordered mild, still had a burn to them. The sauce seemed like a spicy sweet and sour sauce that I really enjoyed. I had water chestnuts for a nice crunch too. I'll definitely order it again.

Bad Service

2008-03-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

While we were eating at Osha last night, Tara and I tried to think of the best and worst service we've had in restaurants. Some of the list:

Chili's, last week, Bell and 7th Street - We were seated and no one ever came the table. at least ten servers walked by our table of the course of ten minutes. The final straw came when a table seated right next to us, ten minutes after we sat down, was immediately greeted by a waiter. We got up and left.

My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, Tatum and Shea - We were seated and for fifteen minutes watched the staff meander through the nearly deserted restaurant, often glancing at our table and even making eye contact, but never coming over. As we got up and left, several waitresses and the hostess watched us leave without a word.

Benihana, Tuscon - We were seated at one of the grill tables with a couple parties already there and drunk. We waited for nearly 1/2 hour before a waiter noticed the table seemed to be without a server. He offered to get us drinks and we ordered. He brought them and told us our server would be there soon. After another fifteen, Tara and I walked to the hostess stand and asked to speak to a manager. He wasn't happy to hear what happened and the waiter who had brought us drinks saw we were leaving so he had come over. He explained to the manager that the new guy was assigned to our table, but was swamped. The manager asked that guy if he could take our table and to get us to stay, offered to comp our whole meal. Good customer service this time to keep customers somewhat happy.

Chanpen, 51st Ave and Thunderbird - Not all the time, but on occasion the older staff can be downright surly if you aren't a regular. Both by myself and with Tara, we've had incredibly unfriendly service, but at the same time, watched them be totally fawning with other tables who obviously go there a lot. It's mostly because of this that we don't go here regularly. Tara loves their garlic dish (with it's pile of crushed roasted garlic chips) and satay, but the hit-or-miss attitude of the service doesn't make up for it.

Corbin's Bar & Grill, N. Central just south of Dunlap - Ranging from distracted during a very slow Saturday afternoon to all but ignoring us in favor of larger groups at dinner, it certainly wasn't the attitude and service we expected from a supposedly friendly neighborhood restaurant. From no one wanting to wait on our table or even knowing who should, it just went south from there.

Oregano's, Camelback and 10th Street location - Normally we have great service at any of the Oregano's we visit, but one time Tara and I went and were seated. Again, servers would just blithely walk by for long periods of time. Finally, we overheard one waitress ask another waiter if he was serving us, and he said we weren't in his section. She finally TOLD him to help us and for the rest of the night suffered through a sulky service experience. Rule number one, you don't argue within earshot of the customers.

China Max, San Diego - We went for dim sum and ended up in the Phantom Zone. Servers wouldn't come to our table. The would approach and then veer away like we were like-charged magnets. This happened for ages. Finally someone pointed at our table and a waiter came over to reluctantly take our order.

Pinky's Cafe, 7th Street and Thunderbird - Brain-dead hostess, waitresses who think making fun of how long our food took to arrive will help cut the tension with obviously pissed customers, and watching the staff take shots of maple syrup. Never again.

Yupha's Thai Kitchen, Tempe - Waitstaff gabbing at the soda fountain, completly ignoring that we are waiting to give our order. Same thing happened during the entire meal. Finally we were the last table and STILL our waiter didn't come by to give us the check. Instead, he started cleaning the bar. Eventually he sent the bus boy over to give us our check and the bus girl had to take it, because the waiter couldn't be bothered. Another thing is that all three times we visited, Yupha herself has visited nearly every table in the place and asking how the food was, but never once stopped by our table. She once went from the booth in front of us to the booth behind us, skipping our table. And it wasn't like she was only visiting regulars. We could hear her asking how other tables had heard about the place. Not the way to make us feel welcome.

Thai Hut, 1st Street and McDowell - Worst service we've had. Several times the wrong order was brought to our table, our apps being brought to the wrong table, and the capper. Our entrees dropped-off at another table, where the people told them they hadn't ordered them. Leaving the dishes there, the waitress left for several minutes, checked the orders, took the plates back, and tried to give them to us. We sent them back, after arguing with the waitress, asking for new ones. When our "new" ones arrived, they were lukewarm and obviously the same dishes just brought back after a few minutes. Never again.

And to end on a positive note, the best service we've had:

Capital Grille, Scottsdale Rd and Frank Lloyd Wright - Outstanding service. Gracious, knowledgable, and any mis-step they thought they did, they would make up for it. My lobster bisque wasn't served at the same time as Tara's salad, so they comped it when they realized it. We waited for our table and to make up for that wait, they gave us a free appetizer. Drinks were filled up exactly when needed. Dishes removed and new ones were brought. They visibly synchronized it so that our main courses were put in front of us at the exact same instant. Amazing. And the food was great, too.