jhlurie

I was going to ask "Is that Carl Sr." but that's a silly question, especially after about 10 seconds of web surfing to verify. Carl Jr., if not Karcher himself, is probably his version of Dave Thomas' daughter "Wendy", right? A name. Okay, I checked and yes... I recall his name somehow connected with "Hardees"--a chain which used to have some penetration around here, but I rarely see it anymore. So are the Hardee's stores part of this 1000 or no? EDIT: apparently not. http://www.carlsjr.com/home/ And Hardees is a recent buy for CKE. That spotty memory of mine didn't provide that. Carl was long gone, no doubt. VERY long gone, right? Hey... Look at this (click here).

Holly. Rules. That is all! Signing off.

Well, that's all well and good... ...but do they have "Jambalaua Chicken"? BTW: to clear this up... Jambalaua is NOT a typo or printing mistake on their part. It was not only on multiple generations of menus, but also on a handwritten sign on the wall. Hmmm... "Chinese Taco" is a funny combination of words. I may wind up using it next time I need a user name or email account somewhere.

Years ago, when he was actually popular, I remember a comedy album Billy Crystal released. Long story made short, there was one skit where a really dumb teenaged guy is horny and knocking on his girlfriend's door (knocking in an unusual fashion--don't ask--it was a crappy joke) and (in a dumb, but desperate voice) he says "its meeee.... Cahhhhhhl." In a vacuum of information on Carl Jr., I'm imagining that he is that dumb guy grown up.

No "Jambalaua Chicken"?

For those of us from the Northeast, someone please explain Carl Jr.'s--the food, the ads, the niche, the neighborhoods its in. Oh yeah... and the color scheme.

Also present in most vaguely named "in Brown Sauce" entries.

Ah... Branson. Home of culture and refinement. Where family fun and Yakov Smirnoff intersect, Andy Williams stills sells out the house, and "Osmond" is never used as a swear word. And Dolly wants to bring a little of Branson to all of us. Bless her little heart. Assuming you can, er...

You misunderstand. I'm talking about dumping additional starch into the food. Not naturally starchy items. With chinese food sometimes they "thicken" it by dumping starch into it (a hallmark of the "bad" stuff is that it always comes out gloppy). The chinese who run the "cajun" places in the malls do this to the food there too, and it makes it suck even worse. The chinese mexican places don't seem to do this. Then again, most of the food isn't condusive to it. And yes, most cultures have dishes with sauce they add thickener to. Its just that the cheap chinese takeout places do it for no apparent reason. In recent years, I think I've seen this a lot less. But until a few years ago I saw it everywhere. So there is plenty of starch. Just not glop.

Let me point out that I'm not talking about places in a mall. The Chinese-Cajun mall places are an abomination. And I'm assuming that a Chinese-Mexican place in a mall would be too. The key element in the horror: steam trays and gloppy sauces. Its not even the fact that they cut up and season the Cajun food like Chinese food--I could accept that if it tasted good. That's why I think the better Chinese Mexican is at least interesting, if not excellent. There still seem to be "Chinese" things about it, but at least not always the worst of it, like in ANY of those mall booths. Jason: I was getting my car looked at in Fairview, NJ. It's a place across Fairview Ave. from that big diner. White Castle is also... like 50 feet away. "New Taco Bank" is the name of it. An older set of menus reveal it used to be called "Taco Bank". Who would have thunk? I'm more interested in the idea of them than the actuality.

One of the odder (but perhaps logical) developments in New York City in the past twenty years or so is the growth of cheap mexican fast food... sold by Chinese people. I'm not sure if this has penetrated to other parts of the country (although I know they exist in New Jersey, since I just ate in one). I was tempted to put this topic in the New York forum, but figured it might qualify as "Adventurous" enough for wider distribution. I'm hardly an expert in evaluating Chinese-made Mexican food. I've only eaten at a handful of them and had mixed reactions--ranging from slightly dismayed to mildly enthusiastic. But you can notice a trend: -The emphasis is on mass quantities and cheap prices -Its not nearly as bad as you'd think it is -No starch. This must seem bizarre to some of the chinese grill cooks, but for the most part they seem to be pretty good about this. -They haven't really figured out how to use the cheese correctly (and probably won't ever). -Its often located EXACTLY two doors down from a fast-food Chinese take-out restaurant. Why the distance is usually exactly two stores down, I don't know. But it is. -The fajitas aren't very authentic, but they are usally the best thing at these places -They often feature oddball items which are neither Mexican or Chinese. The one I ate at today (probably one of the better ones I've ever been to) had "Jambalaua Chicken" (their spelling), "Parmagiana Chicken" (their spelling), "Chicken Finger", "Thin Louis sandwich", "Curry Chicken" and much more in this vein. And... as Eric Cartman says "tacos and burritos", as well as the rest of the usual assortment of fast foodish mexican items. -The items are "fresh", at least to the extent that nothing comes out of a steam tray, like at a mall. 80% of it is grilled. -You are offered roughly a million options. Every possible combination of meat/fish, cheese, wrapper, black beans, guacamole, etc. has its own menu entry. -The customer base is often hispanic, although not often Mexican. But that's probably because there aren't terribly many Mexicans in the areas I've seen these places. Also: remember that Mexican food--of any caliber--is much rarer in the Northeast than elsewhere in the country. The one exception I'll make in my analysis here is that I HAVE seen Chinese owned "Cajun" booths at shopping malls (and they are consistently horrible), so I suspect there might be Chinese owned Mexican mall booths too. And I'm not sure the ones at the malls will necessarily follow these patterns, since they all use steam trays and produce mans tons of gloppy results. The one other thing I'll say about Chinese Mexican is that at least, in small ways, I wonder if its carving out its own identity. Even though the results have varied between places I've been, I've noticed some basic similarities throughout. Are these just inevitable results of Chinese cooking adapted to Mexican food or is there more to it? So what do you think of Chinese Mexican? As an idea, or as a reality, depending on your exposure.

Same idea as as the IPA thread here. Brown Ales are a favorite of mine, for some reason. I've just always liked the nutty flavors and the caramel taste. But I'm a wimp. I've already admitted to not being a hop head. And yes, I'm sure the term is damn unscientific and unspecific. Although hey... Michael Jackson seems to think its okay... If so, tell me why, I guess. Otherwise, lets just throw down some names. These guys list some guidlines. Are they right? Here's a bit: This seems quite wide. But I seem to know one when I'm drinking it. Or do I? Are a lot of beers mislabeled as Brown Ales? Here's another very short take on Brown Ales, really just this bit:

Wondee's has definitely never rushed me out the door, although perhaps in part its because they recognize me. Bangkok Garden is fine. The fact that Wondee's may be better, doesn't make them "not good". Quite the reverse. I'm guessing that with a blind friend the "ambience" angle is limited to how the place sounds and smells. I will say that I HAVE been rushed out the door at Bangkok Garden on a Saturday, although they were nice enough about it. If an informal (read "crappy looking") environment makes no difference, and its just being left alone and reasonably good food you care about, then the old stand-by of Korean may work, unless you are sick of it. Obviously BBQ would be a bit harder for a blind person, but something like that dumpling place in the Hahn Ah Reum shopping center does a lot of other stuff without big fires, and its never packed, although it gets consistent business. And the Koreans EXPECT you to sit there and talk for an extra hour, at least until you start waving at them for the check. The downside is all of those little bowls. How would a blind person manage? Italian restaurants tend to apply subtle pressure for you to get out. I can't think of one, off-hand, which is worth it which wouldn't. Kebabs? Greek food? Or Lebanese? They are nice enough at Bennies. And its very much "finger food" if you get the right thing. Parking is tough, though. Kinara--Indian food in Edgewater--is a bit further, but if you sit in the quiet upstairs dining room (as opposed to the noisy downstairs one), I'll bet they'd let you stay for as long as you want. I'm guessing that "quiet" is a nice bonus when you eat if you can't hear. Also, craploads of handicap parking in that lot, and the stairs in the place don't come into play if you enter through the upper entrance. Pubby food? There are better authorities on that here. But they are all noisy, even if they don't rush you.

Well we can all agree on that. Is there anywhere where liquor control/licensing is completely above board? Not horribly corrupt, or somehow messed up by politicians? For pity's sake, look at New Jersey. Organized crime, million dollar paydays, mysteriously quick approvals for every TGIF...

Well, what that fact adds to the mix was a need for two things: 1.) Some kind of grandfather clause, as long as you can prove your operation was well under way before this ban. 2.) Some change in the approval process (presumably they may let more licenses trickle through in small doses in the future and then cut them off again), so that you enter some kind of preliminary application before you get the building and its honored as long as you fulfill the requirements. I suppose I'm confused. If you are supposed to have a completed facility before you apply for the license... did it really mean that formerly NOBODY was turned down? Could it really have worked that way? Also, the requirements for a liquor license for a bar and one for a wine/liquor store HAVE to be different in some fashion. With a bar, you've got all kinds of requirments that a store wouldn't (especially a wine store--which unlike a full "liquor store" might not need refrigeration). A wine store can be a box with a roof and sprinklers. Surely, the extra steps make a lot more sense for a bar, because likely as not (at least for bars in this part of the world) they are going to serve food anyway.

Its all based on who is most corrupt, of course.

So the Hello Kitty Kitcat is for the famous 13-year old girl market in Japan? I'm not sure how I feel about Berry in Kitkat. You are going to have to buy one and report on it at some point. It could just be... I don't know... weird. Banana flavored Kitkat never made it west, as far as I can tell.

I dunno. Maybe there's part of this story I'm not seeing, but as bad as I feel for the guy my sympathy is someone limited for someone who goes out, takes a lease on a store, buys lots of stuff to fill the store with, spends all kind of money on renovation, all BEFORE he's secured the liquor license. Was getting one really considered so inevitable before this "ban" that making sure you have the license in-hand first wasn't a good way to use a few watts of brainpower? Is the missing part of the story perhaps that he actually was well into the process of approval and was just waiting for a physical piece of paper or something? It might temper my scorn a bit if he actually thought he had the license, except for the dead tree. EDIT to say: Well, at least he hadn't gone ahead and bought the wine (is the license needed in-hand to deal with distributors?). If he had, I'm sorry... my sympathy would have been even more strained. It just doesn't wash with me--"hey, I'm going to open a wine store, so I'll put together my store and THEN make sure I'm allowed to sell wine." Sorry, if this makes me sound like a bad person.

resubmitted: "It was hot, so hot that the sweat ran off their bodies into the soup; the chef wasn't displeased, however--he liked it salty."

"Joey despaired, and looked longingly into his cereal. Pink Hearts! Orange Stars! Blue Diamonds! Yellow Moons! Green Clovers! So many choices."

"Food poisoning" is such a loaded term (as you rightfully know, I think, from the use of quotes). As far as I'm concerned, I've only really had it twice in my life--both times from poorly run Taco Bell locations (Taco Bell sworn off forever, regardless of apparent cleanliness of ANY given location, from the time of the second occurance). In general I was really only seriously ill for about 48 hours. In contrast, lesser "gastro" problems I've had never really lasted more than 15 or 16 hours. Its possible that even my "two times" weren't really actual food poisoning. Then again, I've always had a cast-iron stomach in general, and its possible I recover quicker because of it. I guess, my point is that different people probably need to be treated differently. We've all got different tolerances, different stomach linings and different pH levels, and probably also different recovery times. Given that my recovery time was so short, and I didn't feel much like eating at all either time, I think I may have indeed abstained from anything that wasn't liquid, or close to it. I agree that "fiber" was the last thing I wanted. At the end of the second day I was ravenous. It was like a light switch going on. Slept a lot and finally woke at one point and ate everything in sight.

Tough, seeing as how I haven't read that book yet. But I'm sure, like me, Tony had his tongue firmly in his cheek. Cliche can be your friend with the right attitude, not your enemy. Of course this is a problem I hadn't forseen. Sometimes you can go so far around the bend with irony that it becomes good instead of merely trite.

You want to dare me, eh? -------------------------------------------------- It was a dark and stormy night; but nobody in the restaurant noticed--all they could see, all they could focus on, was the chef's knife sticking out of the chest of that very same chef. He'd stumbled into the dining room a moment before--lurching like a drunk man--and now lay dead at their feet. "Check, please", I said, as the sound of thunder and a string of curses from the general direction of the kitchen added to the din. I didn't really mean to rabbit. But, my friends, can you imagine my horror at being present at the site of a murder--me being on the lam and all. You pass a few bad checks its no big deal. But when you've got both the Mob AND the Feds on your tail, you don't want to be Johnny-on-the-Spot when Pierre gets a knife in his gut.

"It was hot. So hot that the sweat ran off their bodies into the soup. The chef wasn't displeased, however. He liked it salty."

And now I feel like such a bastard for encrypting mine. And I'm in a place where its pretty unlikely that anyone WOULD piggyback on me anyway.