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Happy Birthday to Me

/ Shane / 1 Comment

And I am gracious enough to share my birthday with several lesser known celebrities:

           

And a couple of people not quite as smart as me:

For my birthday we went over to Dixie Kitchen.  I mentioned that we have tried to go there several times but it was always too busy, so we went elsewhere.  So we figured we better get in there before the episode aired, or else we’d never have a chance.

The food was really good, well worth a birthday meal.  They give you complimentary johnny cakes on your table, which was unique and they were pretty good.  We had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer and I was really impressed with them. I don’t think I have ever had them and these were just perfect.  Slightly spicy.  I thought they would have some sort of sauce, but they didn’t.  The cornbread muffins were really good too.  They actually had little pieces of jalapeno in them.  I knew it was a southern place but I didn’t know it was a specifically a Nawlins place.  I had catfish, mashed potatoes and red beans and rice and Sara had blackened chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and greens.  I thought it was better than Calypso, but Sara said she still prefers Calypso.  Oh, and did I mention it was pretty cheap?  Anyway, Mr. Obama has good taste and I will definitely be back some time!

Bacon Salt – Aces 10

/ Shane / 4 Comments

As reported earlier, there exists a seasoning (or magical fairy dust) that can add bacon flavoring to anything.  Proving what a good idea it is to include statements like “So, if you are looking for an early Christmas present for me, look no further” in your blog, I received said Bacon Salt as a Christmas present from (who else?) NBH.  Just to jog your memory, these guys started a company with the winnings they earned from America’s Funniest Home Videos, which is clearly the best way to start a company.

I actually received a number of items: Original, Hickory flavored, Peppered and a jar of “Baconnaise”, which is obviously bacon flavored mayonnaise.  I also received a bumper sticker.

I decided to try the orginal flavor first to get a baseline.  It sort of smelled like bacos rather than real bacon, but I’m okay with that.  I guess it has to since it is vegtarian friendly (Rachael, you can try it next time you are here)  I decided to try it on bean soup seeing as that has bacon in it already.  Fantastic.  I don’t know that it tasted more bacon-y per say, but it hands down tasted more delicious-y.  Absolute improvement.

The next night we had burgers.  Naturally I wanted to add some Bacon Salt as part of my normal burger seasonings.  Sara wouldn’t let me  and insisted I season them normally and then add Bacon Salt on mine at the end if I so wanted.  Clearly that just isn’t the same, but anyway I decided it was the perfect time to try out the Baconnaise.  Another success!  The bacon flavor was kind of mild, but there was no doubt that the flavor of the burger was improved.

I guess, in general, that is the only downside to this stuff; you really need to pour it on to get good bacon flavoring.  Now maybe I’m just a bacon maniac, but I would assume that anybody that would go so far as to buy this stuff probably is as well.  However, that is a small price to pay for bacon deliciousness on every piece of food you consume.

I was going to ask for suggestions on what to try it on next, but as I thought about it I realized, virtually anything!  It would be much easier to list the things you SHOULDN’T eat it on.  The possibilities are endless and my supply should last me a long, long time.

Weasel Puke Coffee

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Once again, ThinkGeek comes up with a stellar product.  In this case, it is Weasel Puke Coffee, and it is no joke!  Basically, these weasels eat the best beans off the plant, but the beans irritate their stomach causing them to vomit.  Somehow their stomach acid affects the beans which are harvested by Vietnamese people and brewed into a drink which is treated as a delicacy.

 

There are weirder symbiotic relationships in nature.  I suppose they probably could have come up with a better name that is a little less descriptive.  Maybe it is lost in translation or something.

Update:

After posting this story, many people have mentioned to me that there is also Weasle Poop Coffee, which is definitely more disguting but, unfortunately, not for sale.

Forked

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I think I’m going to go ahead and say this is the finest acappella band ever to come out of Finland.

I give you Fork.

Everybody loves an acappella band.  When they are really good it is just amazing to think that the sounds you are hearing are coming only from someone’s mouth.  Fork is especially interesting because usually an acappella group consists of a lot of people and they are only four.

They have some of their own music as well as covers anywhere from Queen to Bon Jovi to U2.  Some are funny and some are so haunting they send chills down my spine:

So continue to look here, your source for all Finnish acappella bands!

Cupcake Traitor

/ Shane / 3 Comments

As readers of this blog are well aware, I am a fan of Molly’s Cupcakes.  Well, over the weekend, my loyalty was tested by another Chicago cupcake joint, Sweet Mandy B’s. (Sorry, I couldn’t find an actual website for them)

I was a little nervous that the place would actually be good and then it would test my loyalty.  As we were walking in I said, “Best case for me, this place totally sucks.”  Unfortunately (or fortunately) the place did not in fact totally suck.  Quite the opposite actually, it was quite delicious!

It is really hard to compare the two places though.  They had slightly different vibes.  Sweet Mandy B’s was busier, with less seating and with a lot of other options besides cupcakes (like cookies for example).  I don’t think you can make your own cupcakes like you can at Molly’s.  They didn’t have swings either.  As far as I could tell they don’t really put any frosting or filling inside the cupcake the way they do at Molly’s.  It did seem to be a little cheaper, which isn’t anything to scoff at.  The strangest thing that made it hard to compare the two was that there was actually very little overlap in the cupcakes they offered!  Both places have maybe 10 types of cupcakes so you would think they would overlap significantly, but they really didn’t.

The first cupcake I tried was the Turtle because it looked the most similar to the Ron Bennington.  But in actuality they were nothing alike because the Turtle doesn’t have any peanut butter, which is the main ingredient in the Ron Bennington.  However, I have to say, I may have preferred the Turtle!  That is only due to the fact that I am not as much of a peanut butter fan as some people may be.  So I’m not saying the Turtle is a better cupcake, I’m only saying that I personally (may) prefer it.

You know, this brings up another point.  It is hard to compare cupcakes because whatever cupcake you are currently eating is automatically the most delicious cupcake ever.  So the reality of the current cupcake competes with the faded memory of the past cupcake, which isn’t really a fair comparison.  That is why I can’t say whether the only cupcake I tried that is actually found at both places (Red Velvet) was better or worse at Sweet Mandy B’s.  It was delicious, but so was the one at Molly’s.

Anyway, I also really liked the Snickerdoodle and Sara declared that the Cherry Almond cupcake was the greatest cupcake EVAR.  It was extremely tasty.  The only disappointment was the regular vanilla cupcake. With all the other choices you have, I’d say don’t bother.

So, unfortunately, I now no longer have a go-to cupcake place.  I still have a special place in my heart for Molly’s; you never forget your first love.  Choosing between delicious cupcake places…my life is hard. 😦

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In addition to Sweet Molly B’s, we went to another Chicago restaurant, Minnies.  Their gimmick is that they have tiny sandwichs.  So instead of ordering one sandwich, you order maybe three.  My favorite was the Pesto Chicken.  I also tried the Reuben and the Club.  The Club was pretty good, but about what you would expect.  The Reuben was decidedly blah.  The BBQ Pulled Pork was actually really good.  It was sweeter than I expected, but still good.  

While there I saw on the menu that they had Dublin Dr. Pepper.  For those not in the know, that is the only Dr. Pepper bottling plant that still uses the original Dr. Pepper recipe with real sugar. Being a Dr. Pepper fan, of course I had to try that.  At first I was worried that it would just taste the same and be lame.  When I drank it I thought it tasted different, but only later did I realize it was probably because it was regular and I am used to diet!  So maybe there is no difference, I don’t know.

So, all in all, the restaurant was okay, but it was kind of expensive for what you got (that Dr. Pepper was $5). 

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Contrast that with the May Street Cafe where I had I think the best prepared fish I have ever tasted in my entire life.  Salmon, delicious and perfectly cooked.  I would absolutely recommend this place to anybody.  We got there right when they opened so nobody was around at all.  In fact, we were the only customers the entire time we were there.  I hope they get busy later because it would be sad if a great little place like that closed down because they never got any customers.  Out around the parking lot they grow flowers to put on the tables and they even have a little herb garden to grow some of the ingredients.  The one knock against the place was that they didn’t have a highchair (it was kind of a fancy place).  However, it turns out they had something better!

Keep in mind this is not the first time this has happened.  Whenever we go to a Mexican restaurant, everybody is quick to fall in love with Evie.  (Okay, whenever we go anywhere)  Because it is a very family oriented culture, they just love to make a big deal over babies.  So what you have to do is go really early when the restaurant first opens so that there are no other customers.  Then the staff is happy to take your baby and carry her all around the restaurant and introduce her to people and show her all the pictures, etc. leaving you to eat in peace!  I’m telling you, the first time it happened it kind of freaked me out, but now I love it.  They are so nice and they kept her occupied the entire time, even though that meant showing her the picture of the fishy like 20 times and giving her little boxes of Chiclets to use as maracas.

So, two thumbs up to the May Street Cafe, one for food and one for service!

Quite the foodie weekend!