By nando, on November 24th, 2010%
I’m a bacon lover and firmly believe that bacon makes everything taste better. I’ve probably tried every brand of commercial bacon sold in most supermarkets and have found that Pederson’s is the best, by far. It’s not a thick-cut bacon, but it’s not paper thin, either. It’s just the right size to achieve the ultimate balance between crispiness and chewiness when pan fried or baked (DO NOT microwave this bacon, it doesn’t lend itself well to being cooked this way).
One of the best things is that it’s uncured and doesn’t have any added nitrites or nitrates. I’ve noticed that regular cured bacon (which does have those as additives) has a more processed taste and is normally saltier than Pederson’s bacon, so I try to avoid them whenever possible.
If you can’t find it in your normal grocery store, you can order it online from their website: Pederson’s . . . → Read More: Best. Bacon. Ever.
By nando, on September 26th, 2010%
I lived in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for over six years, so I know the area quite well. Yet, out of all the restaurants that I came to love over that time, there was only one that I had to patronize during my weekend visit: El Pollo Rico.
El Pollo Rico (known as Dirty Bird in my household) is a Peruvian chicken joint located in the Clarendon area of Arlington, VA, and has the best tasting rotisserie chicken I’ve ever had. The chicken is cooked on a spit over charcoal and is marinated in a number of secret Peruvian spices that they are just not willing to divulge. I know that cumin is one of the primary spices as you can smell it when you walk in the door and it’s the strongest flavor profile when you actually bite into the bird, but I couldn’t tell you what else they use if my life depended on it. They serve the chicken with two sides (coleslaw and french fries) and two sauces – one green and one yellow.
The sauces play a huge role in the Dirty Bird experience. The yellow sauce is the mild option and consists . . . → Read More: Review: El Pollo Rico
By nando, on September 17th, 2010%
Ok, maybe I’m overreaching a bit. An egg is an egg is an egg, right? The difference, and what I refer to in the title, is how good or bad an egg is for you. Most of us can remember the days when eggs were bad for us and were told to avoid them; others might remember when they were the centerpiece of a healthy breakfast. The science has come around a few times on the benefits (or lack thereof) of the incredible, edible egg, just as it has for other things like salt and fats. The fact still remains that eggs pack a lot of nutrients into a small, low-calorie package (assuming you pick the right egg) and most studies now say that you can eat one egg a day without affecting your cholesterol levels.
I’m sure most people reading this post have read (or heard) about Pollan’s books The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, or seen the movies King Corn, Food, Inc., or even Supersize Me. I’d read, heard, and seen movies/documentaries about the deficiencies in our food chain before, but it wasn’t until my wife and I traveled to Spain in the spring of 2007 that I . . . → Read More: Why an Egg isn’t Always an Egg
By nando, on September 14th, 2010%
I had to go up to Baltimore for business last week and decided to check out a restaurant I’d heard a few people talk about: DuClaw. It’s more of a brewery but their food had been talked up by a few people so I went to explore the menu and have a few beers. DuClaw is a local chain, with four restaurants in the Baltimore area; the closest to my hotel was the Arundel Mills location, so that’s the one I went to. The restaurant is located right inside the mall, between the movie theaters and a Chevy’s, but I wasn’t going to hold that against them and I still expected good food despite being located in a mall.
I arrived right at 7pm and sat at the bar, where I was immediately waited on by one of the bartenders. Since I had looked at the menu online, I told him I knew exactly what I wanted: a Venom beer and a Kobe burger with caramelized onions and Swiss and Gruyere cheeses. I asked if they could cook it medium rare and he said it shouldn’t be a problem. After about 30 minutes of waiting for my burger, I asked the bartender . . . → Read More: Review: DuClaw Brewing Company
By nando, on August 27th, 2010%
I went down to South Carolina to see my brother last weekend and I started getting a bit hungry on my drive back home to Durham, NC. Being that it was 3pm, and that I had not eaten anything since breakfast, I thought a quick $1 value menu fix was in order. I debated long and hard about what fast food restaurant I really wanted and ended up pulling into a Wendy’s in Aberdeen, NC. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed this sign:
I was planning on just grabbing a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and a 5-piece crispy chicken nuggets but I just couldn’t resist a chili burger. I looked on the menu and found it to be priced the same as the 1/4 pound single hamburger (the combos were the same price, too) so I figured it would be too much food and that I wouldn’t be hungry for dinner if I got the combo so I just got the sandwich (and a glass of water, of course). Total price, including tax: $3.58.
This is what it looked like when I sat down:
Wendy’s uses the same bun and patty as you would find in the 1/4 pound single, probably to . . . → Read More: Review: Wendy’s Classic Carolina Burger
By nando, on August 18th, 2010%
My wife and I normally stay at my in-laws house when we visit Las Vegas but since the wedding reception was taking place there we figured we could use the retreat so we booked a hotel room at the South Point hotel. I found a great rate online and paid about $50 a night, including taxes, for our room. The room was nice and was much bigger than what we expected for the price. There was a king size bed, a love seat, a 46″ plasma TV, and the bathroom was one of the nicest we’ve seen in a 4-star hotel. We also got two coupon books when we checked in that included two free breakfast or lunch buffets.
We had a bit of a problem adjusting to the time zone and we kept waking up around 3:45-4am local time (around 7am back east). We woke up around that time on our first night and decided to go eat breakfast a little later, around 6:30 local time. When we arrived at the Coronado Cafe inside the hotel, we noticed that, had we been about 30 minutes earlier, we could have enjoyed their Cab Driver’s special (nothing over $3.95). We did make it . . . → Read More: Las Vegas Trip (Part IV) – The South Point Hotel
By nando, on August 17th, 2010%
The hotel is located south of the Las Vegas Strip and it takes about 20 minutes to get here from any of the strip hotels. Some people might consider it being out in the boonies, but it’s worth the drive. There are rumors of the M Resort not doing so well and that they are either considering filing for bankruptcy or selling the hotel to a different corporation, but those are just rumors right now (heard mostly from dealers at the casinos where I played during my stay). If it’s true, it probably has something to do with the location, since most travelers to Las Vegas are looking to stay “on the strip” and be able to roam, from hotel to hotel and from club to club, looking for the “Vegas experience” that they have heard is supposed to be so great and that stays in Vegas after they leave. The M resort does have just about everything you would ever need on vacation, though, and I can see them catering to a more adult and mature crowd who come to town to gamble and be pampered rather than to run around drunk their entire trip.
The M definitely had the best lunch . . . → Read More: Las Vegas Trip (Part III) – The M Resort
By nando, on August 13th, 2010%
As I stated in my previous post, we were in Las Vegas this past weekend for my sister-in-law’s wedding. She got married at the Chapel in the Mandalay Bay hotel on Saturday morning and most of those present at the wedding were invited to have lunch at the Bayside Buffet inside the hotel. I might’ve been a bit biased about the food because I was starving (lunch was at 12:45 and we had breakfast around 5am) and due to the halo effect from such a beautiful ceremony, so I’ll try to keep that in mind when reviewing the buffet. Hunger makes for the best sauce but I think that my review here is pretty accurate.
Please excuse the quality of the pictures but I used my iPhone 4 to take them as I didn’t have our Nikon DSLR with us on the trip.
Mandalay Bay – Bayside Buffet – Cost: $16.50 for lunch
As nice as the Mandalay Bay hotel is, the Bayside Buffet looked like any other Vegas buffet; the tables, chairs, and place settings are exactly what you would expect from any one of the dozens of buffets in town. The room itself was expansive and made you feel like you were . . . → Read More: Las Vegas Trip (Part II) – The Mandalay Bay
By nando, on August 12th, 2010%
My wife and I were in Las Vegas over the weekend for her sister’s wedding. She arrived on Tuesday afternoon in order to help prepare for all the festivities while I arrived Thursday evening, just in time to make it to my in-laws house for dinner. I won’t be reviewing a home-cooked meal so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say it was tasty. I did get to go out for lunch with my wife on Friday afternoon and so I went to the place that I had been planning on returning to ever since the first minute I found out I was going back to Las Vegas: In-N-Out.
If you’ve never lived/visited the west coast, In-N-Out Burger is a family-owned, non-franchised restaurant chain that is famous for their burgers, shakes, and fries (and they don’t really do much else); it’s a California institution but they can be found in AZ, NV, and UT. Their expansion has been slow due to their philosophy of never freezing the meat and, as such, each location must be within a day’s drive of their commissary in Los Angeles, CA. It’s bad for us consumers who don’t live on the west coast, . . . → Read More: Las Vegas Trip (Part I) – In-N-Out Burger
By nando, on July 24th, 2010%
It’s Saturday, so we went down to the Durham Farmers Market again this morning, this time with an ulterior motive. Sure, we planned on walking the market and purchasing some produce, meat, and cheeses for our enjoyment during the rest of the week, but we also wanted to try Only Burger‘s breakfast burger. The breakfast special is a fried green tomato, pimento cheese, and fried egg burger and he gets his ingredients straight from the farmers market (why not, it’s only 50 feet away). Although I’ve been following them on Twitter for a while (@onlyburger) and stop by about twice a month for my burger fix, I had never had the pleasure of trying this particular special.
As far as I can tell, mostly from reading local articles about them, co-owners Brian Bottger and Tom Ferguson decided to open a restaurant but wanted to make it simple, due to the downturn in the economy. They decided that a burger truck was a good idea and their success and cult-like following has proven them right. The owners are planning on opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the near future, but their plans have been delayed and pushed back several times and are now expecting . . . → Read More: Review: Only Burger
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