chileheadmike

My German Potato Salad isn't nearly as good as my Mom's. Geez it's just potatoes, eggs, bacon, onion, apple cider vinegar, and S&P. You'd think I could get it right.

I'm game, I'm OK with ditching Zman anytime we can get away with it. He's juvenile you know.

The episode was more of the same, this time... She cooked a couple giant bone-in ribeyes. Rubbed with salt/sugar and refridgerated for a couple of days. Pommes Chef Ann looked pretty good, thin slices of potato with lots of olive oil and parm. Broccoli rabe with lots/tons of salt in the blanching and shocking water. More grunting. I like her. And the steaks looked great.

Carrots will reduce heat as well.

This might come off as me being a bit of a twit, but I'm really not trying to be: you do realize that, to a degree, at least part of this is your fault, right? I mean, walking out at the point where you're red-faced, after an hour-and-a-freaking-half...that's not mere patience, that's being walked-on to the point of madness. Your mistake was, say, after the initial page of hangman was completed...I'm trying to understand why you didn't flag someone down at that point, considering that your empty coffee cup wasn't magically refilling itself, and your food order wasn't magically appearing on its own. Apparently, your table was in a no-man's-land that day, and when that happens, it's best to politely-yet-firmly "help out" a problematic staff by asserting your own existence. "Hi, we're over there, and my kids and I are really hungry, and I could use a refill...would you be kind enough, as the owner, to see what's happening? I'd hate to think that we've fallen through the cracks, here. Other people that came in after us are eating already..." I realize that it might be a bit embarrassing/condescending to do this, but remember: you're fighting for the right to avoid Olive Garden, for heaven's sake! And that's something that an independent establishment should appreciate! Should you have had to do this? Absolutely not...I'm not really defending the restaurant. I'm trying to understand why, when your wife isn't keen on good culinary experiences, you'd allow something this horrible to continue for 90-odd minutes, knowing full well that the owner is within easy attention-grabbing distance. Sure, your wife might still be annoyed by this, but if you could light a fire under their collective, uh, "patooties", at least you might have had a chance to have your wife acknowledge that, yes: this food is worth going a bit out of our way for. Again: not trying to pour lemon juice into the already-painful wound...just wondering why you allowed such a fiasco to endure for so long without stopping the bleeding by going straight to the owner. If he's glad-handing happy customers, *who cares*? You're not happy, and not only that: since it sounds like it'll be harder for you to return, that's got to make *him* unhappy. Sorry it all went sideways on you...guess you'll be having to spend a couple meals' pennance at the Wasteland of O'Charley's, you poor, poor soul. ← Points well taken. It was Sunday brunch, after church. We were in no particular hurry. As much stuff as we have going on (wife works nitghts, kids in sports and band), it was nice to sit and relax together. Frankly, the time got away from me. It was only after the second page filled up that I even noticed. The wait wasn't really the problem. The killer was, when the food did arrive, it was waaay dead. My wife's eggs had to have been sitting in the window for 30 minutes or more.

OK, I'm a day removed from this. I like Poco's, its a good place and I'll be back. I'm still pissed that after the ordeal we passed Bell Street Momma's, Jerusalem Cafe, Blue Koi, Jazz, etc looking for someplace to eat. My wife declined all of them. We ate at the Applebee's at Rainbow and SWB. So many good places there. Why is it that when a large chain screws things up, its somehow forgivable? We've had things go at least this bad, if not worse in corporate restaurants. But somehow they get a pass. Poco's screws up once, and people like my wife are off of locally owned places for months.

← Tell me about it. Seriously ChefCAG, thank you for the invite.

Those who know me, know that my lovely wife is not much of a foodie. She much prefers Chili's, and On The Boarder to El Taco Nazo or Mariscos Vera Cruz. I can rarely get her out of JoCo for a meal. She agreed to go to Poco's for brunch today. We walked in and waited at the front desk for a couple minutes before the girl who was to be our waitress turned, while in the middle of taking an order, and asked if she could help us. I said 4, she nodded to an empty table. I should have known to run. We get drinks and order. Then wait. And wait. We were playing hangman with the kids and generally having a good time. But when both pages filled up, we looked around. The dining room was almost empty. All the tables that had come in after us were finishing up. I looked at my empty coffee cup. We waited some more. When the food got there my wife said, "This is ice cold, I can't eat it". Her eggs with ham were indeed ice cold. My daughter's grilled veggie sandwich was cold and soggy. The steak in my torta was felt like they had just removed it from the walk-in. My other daughter still had to wait for her chicken strips. Once they got there, bingo hot and fresh. I wasn't into sending it all back and waiting some more. I got up and chased down another waitress, and told her we would pay for our drinks but the food was inedible. She asked me to sit down and she'd have the owner come over to talk to us. After 10 more minutes, I noticed the owner was fawning over another table and their kids. I got up again, tracked down that waitress and said, "That's it, were leaving. We've been here before and we really like this place, but we're leaving. Now". She apologized profusely, offered to buy us our next meal. She was very nice and truly cared. This was the first time we felt like anyone cared, and we were on our way out. We were in there for an hour and a half, oldest daughter said on the way out, "Why is your face all red?" We ended up at Applebee's where I had an overcooked hamburger. But at least it got there on time, and our waitress there was great. So, now I'm doubly pissed. I'll never get my wife out chain restaurants. And I have had to listen to "I told you so's" all day. The kids and I will be back, sadly it won't be with my wife. They have only reinforced her idea that good food can only come from a chain.

Tourburg Gold from a horn?

I went to Mandarinism for lunch. It bills itself as Contemporary Chinese. It’s located at 135 & Roe in Uber-JoCo, which scared me a little. This ain’t the ‘Dotte, and it ain’t Taco Nazzo. Kudos to the ladies next to me who asked if anything was spicy, and then proceeded to order both items and request extra hot. (Salt and Pepper Shrimp and Kung Pao Chicken). Nice place, small, has a full bar with wines, beers, and spirits. The lunch menu included some interesting apps, Peking Duck Eggrolls and an assortment of dumplings. No Crab Rangoon here. I had the slow braised short rib with fried rice and stir fried vegetables. You have your choice of salad or velvety corn soup. I had the soup, which was a little bland. It had good corn flavor and pieces of good ham in it, but lacked salt. Some pepper would have been nice too. Then the main entre came out. It looked like Mom’s roast beef with fried rice subbed for the mashed taters. Stir fried veggies were actually peas and carrots, really good peas and carrots. The short ribs were fantastic, super tender and with sauce that was flavored with ginger and five spice powder. Some grilled green onion and dried chiles were added as well. I took smaller and smaller bites as I finished up so I’d have some left for as long as possible. This was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. The fried rice went perfectly with the meat and sauce. This was like good old fashioned pot roast that took a detour through Beijing. Seriously, seriously good eats. I highly recommend it. Its not cheap at $13 with iced tea and before tip, but its worth every penney. Pitch review here: http://www.pitch.com/2008-08-28/restaurant...d-chinese-food/

I took the kids (8 and 16) there a couple weeks ago. 8 YO had the hot dog and refused to eat it after one bite. I would have finished it, but it was drowned in the ketchup she requsted. My vegetarian 16 YO hated her falafel buger. My bleu cheese buger was OK. Fries were good. Kind of expensive for what it was.

Good question. Without a doubt, my favorite is Steingarten. Least favorite is probably Akiko Katayama, whose main comment about 80% of the dishes is that they are "too oily". Please, find a new criticism! ← Wasn't she a judge for a pork belly contest? That did seem odd.

What? Nothing from last night's Southwest Episode. I told my wife we're roadtrippin to Hatch, NM. She told me to quit obsessing aobut food. No way I'm ording a big unit, much less eating it. Salton Lake in Cali did not look like a fun place to visit. What could be more fun than alchohol and automatic weapons with Ted? No comment on the giant tourist trap steak house. A very enjoyable episode. I was thinking it would be a Route 66 adventure, but that's too easy.

Wow, hope you're ok. I guess the vehicle isn't. Give me a shout when you plan on heading north.

Dang, I thought I was first to see it. Oh well. Congrats on a well deserved review.

My 16 YO daughter now hates him. She turned into a vegetarian a few months ago. His line about weeding out bed-wetters, masterbators, and vegetarians sent her over the edge. I thought it was damn funny. Tony definitely isn't sitting on his laurels. Great episode.

Mine are about as far along as yours. Lots and lots of green tomatoes. Brandywine, Beefsteak, Roma, and Rutgers. Plus a couple volunteers from last year. No idea what those will be. All green.

I have to add: I sprained my knee badly last week playing basketball. While it hurts like hell, its not even in the same league as gout pain.

Really? Apart from the absence of a flamboyant maitre d' I can't tell much difference between the two. ← Are you admitting to eating at a..... chain? The horror.

This reminds me of my first attack. I was at work on a conference call in the VP's office with the Pres and Sales Manager (small company, I wasn't that important). We were going over the spec of our software. It had been sore for a day or two and I was limping around. But it started to hit hard during the meeting. They got me to take my shoe and sock off, and we watched it swell and turn purple during the call. I went to my doc after the meeting. He suspected a clot. He hooked two giant (almost as big as meat injectors) needles up to blood pressure gauges. He said, "You're not going to like this, but I'm going to take blood pressure readings from different areas of your legs. If they're not equal, you have a clot." Well after 3 or 4 really painful sticks, he told me not to move. If I did I could die. He called an ambulance to take me to the ER. The doc there wasn't nearly as freaked out as I was. She hooked up a series of blood pressure cuffs from my groin to my toes, both legs completely mummified by these things. Then she pressurized them all the way down. Weird feeling. She said, "Its gout, that guy's a moron." Take these. Whew.

Sorry to hear that, hopefully you avoided the Arthur Bryant's at the Airport, not the same thing as the original at all.

I feel your pain. Literally. Only I get it in my ankles and once had it in my knee. They swell up, turn purple, and I'm not walking for a while. I get it about once a year. Lasts anywhere from 2 -6 weeks, with the first week being the most painful. I'm alergic to alopurinal (sp) so I can't take that. I've been watching my diet and the last few rounds have been very short, just about a week. But I hear ya and can definitely empathise. Doc says I'm just prone to it.

Not sure if I've posted about this or not. We had a grill at an office I used to work at. The company was moving, and I was told to take that nasty crusty grill down to the car wash and clean it up. OK I threw it in the back of my truck and headed on down the road. I dissasmbled it, loaded the machine with quarters and let fire. It all came right back at me. I was covered in sludge. Nice. Boss wouldn't let me go home to change either.

Not to get too off topic, but mine have set fruit and are going freakin nuts right now. They love the squirelly weather. Chiles too. Edited to fix chilehead's quotes

I like how she got them to taste alligator tail at Bass Pro Shop. There's a restaurant that needed reviewing.