Sonic, the speed at which you will want to leave.

Hey guys, I'm diverting from my normal post to share this. It's nothing new that I tried, I just wanted to share my thoughts on Sonic.

That’s right, Sonic. We’ve all seen the commercials, which I enjoy. But, when is the last time you were at a Sonic, actually, when is the last time you seen a Sonic?!?! I guess the more appropriate question is, when is the last time you had to go visit your uncle Jimbo in Bakersfield for Thanksgiving, since it’d be too much of a hassle for him to transport his 7 kids and 3 ex-sister-in-laws to a more decent city. (I’m sure there are more than rednecks in Bakersfield) Let’s get back on track.

The actual reason this came about is because I went to Sonic not too long ago, the one in Gilroy, an hour before Warrior Dash. Seeing the signs for this restaurant reminded me of how amazing the commercials are and how good the food looked. Gotta say, I would have been more upset at my visit if it wasn’t for nearly taking out one of those skating servers pulling out of the drive thru. Needless to say…I was less than impressed. I had one of those foot long Coney Chili Dogs with onion, which sounded like heaven. It could have tasted like heaven too, had I been fed Cocker Spaniel food my whole life, (I’m convinced this is why that damn dog throws up all the time). If you want a good hotdog, hit up Costco, $1.50 for a dog and drink??? WINNING! This experience led me to another question; How are they still around?

It only took about 2 minutes to figure out, and it’s very clear. It’s all about exclusivity and the human desire of things they don’t have. Basically, Sonic has mind f*cked us all into thinking they have something desirable by secluding themselves in random po-dunk towns and advertising cool drink combos and servers on magical skates to people elsewhere. I can make cherry limeade too SPOILER ALERT, cherry Kool-Aid + Sprite, blow me. It’s a perfect scheme, especially for the one in Gilroy, for a number of reasons. #1 – who goes to Gilroy other than to shop and eat? #2 – there is always a new batch of unsuspecting travelers making their way to the Bay or LA that have seen the commercials and will be amazed that they actually found a Sonic, #3 – people want what they don’t have (even if that which evades them, is crap food).
So I say, bravo Sonic, for being a survivor in this fast food world. You don’t need to adhere to crazy competitive schemes like a Dollar Menu to attract customers. And in the same breath, shame on you Sonic, for tricking people into eating at your terrible establishment with promises of food. Happy eating.

Bun Bo Wait a Minute (Bun Bo Hue)

Hey hey hey!!

How's it going, you handful of people that read my blog. It has been quite some time, I know. But I haven't been compelled to write about anything until recently. So, there isn't a lack of material, just a lack of dedication on my part, and I apologize for that. That being said, let's get into this unexpected adventure I stumbled into on wednesday at lunch.

Based on my friends that said they like it, the area the restaurant was located in and my inability to pronounce the menu item I ordered, I should have known that I was in for something surprisingly terrible. Strolled into this typical Vietnamese restaurant at lunch time; tons of tables, quick seating and full of middle aged business men, and all this with great expectations. All of this was taken in while sitting down since, before I really have time to assess my surroundings, we were seated.

I really thought I was just going to get some Pho (I was getting over a cold, it'll never be a regular lunch choice). But looking through the menu, I couldn't find it and in my futile search, came across Bun Bo Hue. It must have been the comfort of familiarity that made me order it. Actually, that was the case, as well as the perfectly censored description of my soon to be meal. Tell me this doesn't sound appetizing: Spicy Beef and Pork Rice noodle soup. That sounds like a winner, no matter what type of restaurant I'm in. So, I went for it.

Pretty shortly after ordering, bowl of soup was coming to the table and I was excited about trying something new that I was going to enjoy. That excitement and anticipation ended very abruptly when I laid eyes on my "food". When I saw the contents of the bowl, I thought back to the details of the menu and was supremely upset about the lack of specificity.

Rhetorical Pop Quiz...I guess you can answer if you want, and this counts for 100% of you overall class grade. Topic is, what was in my soup.

1.) Fill in the blank - Pork ______. NOTE - There may be more than one correct answer, (I hated test questions like that)

a. Shoulder

b. Butt

c. Blood

d. Part with skin containing hair follicles still attached

I will admit, they all sound pretty strange, however, if C & D didn't pop out at you as the obvious choice...well, you probably would enjoy Bun Bo Hue, or you don't understand how I write. Either of which is perfectly acceptable.

I tried my best to hide my bewilderment...but my reluctance to try the meat was screaming, "HOLY CRAP, WITH DID I ORDER?!?!" After attempting to mask the flavor that my mind was conjuring with hot sauce, I apologized to my stomach and knew I would go through the rest of the day hungry. Now that my 5 steps of grief were through, I put that pig blood on the spladel, (that is what i call the spoon/ladle that Asian restaurants give you with soup), and powered through. Imagine tofu, slightly more dense. That is what it was like, it wouldn't have been that bad...except for the small fact that I knew it was blood. And I'm sorry, but I couldn't even attempts the meat/hairy skin pork. Couldn't do it.

There you have it folks, Bun Bo Hue caught me like Mayweather after touching gloves. Don't worry, there is more fun to be had, you know why??? Cuz I'm starving. Stay hungry, everyone.

Indian food sure is Explosive

What's going on people who read my shtuff. It has occurred to me that my past few posts have been more on the negative side. Partially my fault, but mostly the fault of the terrible food I was being exposed to. There was a great new experience in the midst of all the madness however, that I have not shared. So here we go.

Growing up in C.V., I was not exposed to many Indians (real Indians, not Native Americans...or I guess Native Mexican in my case). So there weren't many opportunities for me to try this exotic food. The only thing I'd heard about the cuisine was that it was spicy and oily, which made for a fun time later on if you know what I mean. If you've been following, you know I am a fan of spicy, and since I got over my fear of doing the do in public restrooms(that's another story), these warnings really posed no threat to me. So when the opportunity presented itself, I was all for it.

The place was called Sneha. It was actually a buffet, which is perfect, so I could dismiss the stuff that sucked, and gorge on everything good. Honestly, looking at the choices in the trays reminded me of, I mean seemed like I was in prison mess hall. Just masses of items that may very well have been leftovers blended up and served, but smelled amazing. First stop was the naan; basically an Indian version of bread or tortilla. Then typical for Asian foods, so sort of rice dish. After, the meats. Now, what was different about the meat was that it was either bathed in some kind of soup/sauce or marinated and covered with spices...a little different that the fried or grilled with BBQ sauce I'm used to. And finally, the vegetables...always questionable in my book, regardless of the ethnicity of the restaurant. This first time I passed on the veggies, later on however, I did try these deep fried spinach things called Pakora. Surprisingly these were pretty good, as well as Samosas, which is basically a deep fried ball of mashed potatoes. BOMB. Ok, now back to your regularly scheduled meal.

Everything is strategically placed on the tray, Chicken Masala in the bowl with the red sauce, Chili Chicken and Tandoori Chicken on the plate with the rice and naan. I don't know what was used to season anything i ate other than, I'm assuming salt, but i now know why Columbus was looking for India! The taste buds were definitely dancing to a Benny Lava song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVV7e_ZC4w watch and educate yourself). Naan is the best compliment to sauces EVER. Perfect texture and consistency, so you can dip it and it won't get soggy or eat it's flaky goodness as is. The rice had a subtle hint of lime that mixed well with the smokey flavor of the tender tandoori chicken. Considering all the chicken was breast meat, it was all very moist. Now, was there a downside? Yes, but it was only caused by how much I enjoyed the food.

There should be a sign at the front of the buffet line that reads, "Dear New Comers, Take a lot of Naan cuz you will run out, and you will be sad." Dipping naan in the sauces that surrounded my plate was magical. No scooping necessary, a dip was all you needed because the consistency was like paint, coating whatever you felt like consuming next. Within a few minutes of sitting down, naan is gone and my left hand is lonely. And when the plate is clear you can feel it in your arteries that you just had an awesome meal. The kind that causes the rest of the day (if you had it at lunch as I did) to be spent in a blissful stupor.

So a warning to all you who have not experienced Indian yet... Be wary of the time of day you eat it, if you have things you need to accomplish that day, maybe defer the Indian until the following day. You may think dinner is more appropriate than lunch, be prepared to wake in a cold sweat, yea, that sweat. Just clinch and hope the seat is down. Do everyone a favor and light the candles in the house, you'll be glad you did. So far, my favorite new experience. But, I'm still starving. Until next time, stay hungry.

Dim SUm Craaaaazy People

Hey Everyone! I know, I know...it's been quite a while. But you know I've been stayin' hungry. So, I've got a few to feed you this time around. I'm going to start it out with a DOOOOZIE! Enjoy the ride.

Dim sum....UH Uh uh. I thought it only existed in movies, or tastsless asian jokes. But let me tell you folks, it is REAL! I thought Dim Sum was just some asian dish, like egg rolls or fortune cookies (just playin'). Dim Sum is like a freakin society, with a cult following. From my experience, I don't think anyone can be on the fence about this, love it or loathe it. I am going to choose the latter, let me tell you why.

So some my buddies asked if I wanted to go to Dim Sum one day, and I suspect the only reason they invited me was because I started this blog and possibly to get a laugh out of my reactions. So I bit, sure I'll go fellas! If it weren't for the experience, I would regret this decision forever. We show up, already I'm about to have an anxiety attack. It looks like a banquet hall after a large Chinese wedding. Of course I've never been to a chinese wedding, and I'm sure they're lovely, but for my story's purpose, it was like a Chinese reception. No wait time, someone walks us through the maze of tables and chairs, that seem to be on to of each other, to where we will be having our dining experience.

My buddies look pretty pleased, so I'm getting anxious...but where is the waiter. OOOOOHHH there is no waiter or menu; Perfect! The only space between the tables are for carts of food to pass by. So that seems pretty awesome, right? A buffet that you don't have to get out of your seat for! Then it's explained to me, that these people come around and you pick items off of the carts that you want to eat and you're charged accordingly...damn, so not exactly buffet SO CHOOSE WISELY! Problem there is that everything is wrapped in a wet/slimy rice noodle covering and they're not labeled. Okay - just ask what each thing is then, sounds like the logical thing to do, nah. Hunger/dozens of choices/accents/my impatience not going to happen. My only other option is to suck it up, and leave my stomach in my friends hands EFF. They start pointing at stuff and loading up their plates, so I follow suit. Now the fun begins.

I can hold my own with chopsticks, I can even get down with my left hand...I'm no rookie. But at this particular encounter, I seemed to have met my match. I handled the Pho with much more ease, and that's SOUP! I'm going to say it again, it should be illegal to make chopsticks out of plastic, it makes no damn sense... Anyway, I just wanted to eat my food and see what this dim sum was all about. But dang, time after time, I picked up whatever I was trying to eat; got it about 1 cm off the plate, dropped. I could feel the eyes laughing at me from the surrounding tables, and my friends who were all the while enjoying their food. I think there is a video out there somewhere. But once I did get one of those bastards to my mouth, I wasn't sure that I wanted to get better at it! I wasn't exactly sure what I had just eaten. They said it was some kinda chicken or fish or shrimp or gelatenous lump of WTF. There was only so much I could take before my stomach was sayin NO MAS! And not because I wasn't hungry anyone...I just couldn't handle it.

All in all, dim sum was a hell of an experience...a once in a life time experience. That I will continue to keep it at. And I've decided that Dim Sum is a preffix: Dim Sum - Hungry ass people, this is hard to eat oooor Dim Sum - Hungry ass people to be eating this! Dim Sum - strange lookin potstickers. Ok, I'm done. I'm about to jump on a plane, keep an eye out, there's going to be another one coming soon. 'til then my friends, Stay Hungry!

At Least They Had Karaoke

It finally happened. After all the years of holding out and being the oddball ordering a teriaki plate, I gave in to eating sushi. It took place at a very appropriate place for me, Sushi 80's in Fresno. Since Fresno is the place that I was first encouraged to try sushi, I think it was only right that my first sushi experience was there. Another reason this place was especially fitting for the occasion is that Sushi 80's has karaoke after 8 everyday, for those who know me, know I love karaoke. So let's get into it.

The only thing that I was looking for was something with the raw fish but without crab meat...but it seemed like EVERYTHING had crab. So i found something that seemed safe enough, but asked them to leave out the crab. It was an Asuka Roll, it was compsed of Spicy Tuna, Cucumber, Avocado and Crab meat(that i had taken out) with fresh Tuna on top with some kind of sauce...it might have been eel sauce(which sounds kinda nasty when you think about it). That is an actual photo by the way.

I don't know why in the hell people go out to eat this stuff! The best thing about it was the crazy mixture of sauce that I dipped my roll in(Ginger, Soy Sauce, Wasabi). The roll itself had a kick to it from the spicy tuna, but that was about it. I think something that I was concerned about, that most people told me wasn't true about sushi, was the fishy taste. And they were right, it doesn't taste like fish at all, actually you can't taste a damn thing! It was like, hey how about we give you a bunch of stuff that doesn't have taste aaaaand you do something to it to make it taste good. I'll give it to them for the presentation though, sushi is probably one of the coolest looking things you can eat. But unfortunately I base my eating decisions on taste.

I think sushi is going to be one of those foods that I only have once. I don't see myself going out to get another roll anytime soon. I'm glad I did it though, but I'm sticking to teriaki plates guys. Until next time everyone. Stay hungry.

This Just In

I found a drive thru mexican spot!!! I went there for lunch, had a "Super" Carne Asada Burrito. Not bad, very big. I'll have to try a few other things before I draw my final conclusions on it. But there is one here, and I am excited about it.

Big "Pho"kin Deal

I didn't hear about Pho (pronounced FUH) until about junior year of college. I had a good number of Vietnamese friends that constantly told me how great it is. But it seemed too far outside of my comfort zone, so I never went. About month or so ago I fiiiinally went to a place called Pho Queen for lunch. The line to get in was out the door, which is pretty common at most places at lunch time where I work. But the people I was with told me that the lines move fast at pho places. And I found that to be true.

So first off at the table, I noticed there are A LOT of extras that you can put in the soup: garlic flakes, about 3 different kinds of hot peppers, hoisin sauce, soy sauce(regular AND reduced sodium), siracha, salt and pepper. What this said to me was the food was going to be pretty bland. Trying to not let that hinder my decision, I took a gander at the menu. I went for a basic dish, the spicy noodles with flank steak (by the way, this was not spicy, see "Black Thai Affair" for my definition of spicy).

So they brought out a big bowl of boiling broth, big enough to bathe a baby in (Nice use of alliteration, I know) that contained my noodles and meat. Apparently the logic behind the super hot broth is to cook the meat as it is served. You're supposed to order the thin strips of meat medium rare and they will cook more thoroughly in the soup. I found that quite interesting. As to no insult the cooks, I tried my pho without adding anything to it, which you should ALWAYS DO PEOPLE! It's a slap in the face of anyone that prepared you food, to automatically conclude that the food will be bad if you don't add a dash of salt before you partake. So after my test run, I had to hit my pho with this red paste packed with chili peppers, mixed with the hoisin and garlic chips. This gave it a little kick. So I got the taste to where I wanted, then proceeded to dig in.

OK, so I couldn't really dig in. I don't know who said it was a good idea to eat soup with chop sticks, but that person was definitely not hungry or concerned with eating quickly. But I struggled through it and finished about 2 hours later. I kid I kid. But it did take a while, even though they did give a little spoon/bowl to aid in the transfer from bowl to mouth. I felt a little bit lied to/disappointed about the whole thing after all the build up about pho. But hey, they can't all be winners.

Wrap up, pho to me was basically top ramen with meat. It may have received too much hype from people, so my expectations were a little elevated. Maybe a good side dish, if it came in smaller portions, by my standards pho is not a main dish. That's that for my pho experience, it's about lunch time...and I'm starving. Stay hungry.