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An A-choir-ed Taste

We had a tasty chicken curry for lunch today. We used a pre-made sauce from Trader Joe's. My son Liam was complaining that it was too hot.

Me: I think you need to just eat some of it. Sometimes we like things better after eating them for a little while. It's called developing an acquired taste.

Liam: But there's no choir here.

Main Courses: Eating Out

These are my favorite dishes from various restaurants I enjoy going to:

Chicken Madeira at Cheesecake Factory
Sauteed Chicken Breast Topped with Fresh Asparagus and Melted Mozzarella Cheese, Covered with Fresh Mushroom Madeira Sauce.  Served with Mashed Potatoes.

Pasta with Pesto, Chicken, and Mushrooms at Cheesecake Factory
Spaghettini Tossed with Fresh Basil Sauce, Mushrooms, Oven-Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic and Cream. Topped with Grilled Chicken, Parmesan and Pine Nuts.

Flame-Grilled Ribeye at Chili's
12 oz. ribeye steak with our own special seasonings and topped with garlic butter and roasted herb jus. Served with your choice of two sides and garlic toast. I like to add mushrooms.

Queensland Chicken 'N Shrimp at Outback
Seasoned and grilled, over fettuccine Alfredo, topped with a light lemon sauce.

Baja Tacos at El Paso Cantina (in Torrance, CA)
I love to order these when I go to work on Wednesday nights. It's marinated steak in a tortilla with cheese and avacado. Served with black beans and rice.

Bacon Avacado Cheeseburger at Amy's Fast Food (in Pasadena, CA)
This place is across the street from Fuller Seminary. This burger is tasty and, unlike most fast food places, the bacon is actually good. I just looked at some reviews and realized I need to try some more of their dishes. People love this place, but some argue that Rick's, which is just down the street, is better.

Appetizers

I'm really into food and I thought I'd do a couple posts on my favorite dishes. This one focuses on my favorite restaurant appetizers. These are not in any particular order:

Fried Macaroni and Cheese at Cheesecake Factory
Macaroni and cheese coated with a breading and shaped into a ball. They serve it with a pink sauce. Mm-mm-good.

Chili Fries at Johnny Rockets
Not a fabulous place to eat, but the chili cheese fries are great. The other night I declared to my family that if I weren't already married I would probably marry these cheese fries.

Skillet Queso at Chili's
Served hot with fresh chips. Good stuff.

Bloomin' Onion at Outback Steakhouse
An old standard, but a good one nonetheless. I'm a big fan of sauces and that one is wonderful.

Aussie Cheese Fries at Outback Steakhouse
We hardly ever get these because of the Bloomin' Onion, but they are really good. The fries are topped with monterey jack, cheddar, and bacon. The ranch that they serve with it is very good, also.

Steak Fries at The Cavalier
You probably haven't heard of this place in Lynchburg, VA. The fries there are amazing and I hope to get back there one day just to eat them! I just mapquested them and the drive would only take 36 hours and 23 minutes. Too bad I have class tonight.

So what are your favorites?

Mamma's Brick Oven

Our family has finally found a decent Italian restaurant/pizza place in the area. It's called Mama's Brick Oven. They have no website to link to. Believe me, my wife Valerie is hard to please when it comes to pizza, so it's a good sign if she likes it. I had a couple slices of pizza and a stromboli, which was a little strange because it had onions and peppers in it. We were told that their garlic knots are good, but we didn't try them this time around. I was dismayed to watch a woman at the table next to us throw out two perfectly good garlic knots, by the way! There should be a law against such things.

Anyway, if you live in the Pasadena or South Pasadena area, go check them out. They are at 710 S. Fair Oaks Ave.

Now we need to find a good Chinese place. Anyone got any leads?

The WB Diet

Tonight I drove over to Paseo Colorado, a local outdoor mall, to participate in a training run for Nike's "Run Hit Wonder."  I ran with a group that did a 3 mile route.  We were supposed to be running between 9:00 and 9:30 per mile, but ended up going faster if you don't count all the stoplights we came to. 

The coolest part was that we got free wings and a beer at the end of the run!  If everybody were promised free wings and a beer at the end of a workout, I'm sure we would have a much healthier nation!

Sheer Bravery

Just to show you all what a man I am, I ate a fish taco tonight.  We kept seeing signs for them everywhere and laughing about it.  Maybe that doesn't sound weird to you, but having lived on the East Coast all my life I had never even guessed that such a thing would exist.

The verdict: not bad!  The strangest thing about it was that it had coleslaw on it.  I don't normally eat coleslaw as it is, so yes, this was truly a brave thing that I did tonight!

Daphne's Greek Cafe

This afternoon we had a great lunch at Daphne's Greek Cafe, which I highly recommend.  Apparently there are a whole bunch of them in the Southern California area, a few in N. California and one in Scottsdale, AZ. 

It was a clean, well-lit place with Greek music playing at a comfortable level over the sound system.  I don't like it when I go into an ethnic restaurant and they're playing American pop music.  The menus were colorful and clean.  That might seem like a silly thing to comment on, but my wife made point that she hates when menus have dried food on them or are just plain dirty.

We started off with a "Feta Fire Zesta" with chicken.  This consisted of a spicy feta mixture in fried pita, served with regular pita and hummus.  For my main dish I had a gyro platter, which came with a Greek salad and rice.  The meat was good and there was actually a little too much for one sandwich. 

Overall, it was a great experience and I expect to visit there often.

Ronald Really Cares!

On Wednesdays I mentor a 16 year old named Chris.  We used to go to McDonald's as part of our routine.  We shared a love for McDonald's honey mustard sauce—not the kind in the little tub, I'm talking about the kind that comes in a little packet.  Well, we haven't been there in quite awhile because McDonald's stopped serving the sauce!

I wrote them an e-mail.  This was maybe a month ago.  Well, today I received a response:

Hello William:

Thank you for contacting McDonald's. Customer feedback is very important to us, and I'm sorry to hear that you're disappointed with our Honey Mustard.

Be assured that at McDonald's, we continually review our menu to ensure that we serve the products that our customers will enjoy most. As appropriate, our Menu Management team makes changes or enhancements to our menu based on customer feedback. We strive to satisfy the tastes of the 47 million people we serve each day.

Since it's ultimately our customers who decide what products are offered at McDonald's, your comments are especially important to us. I've shared them with our Menu Management team for their ongoing evaluation of our menu.

Again, thank you for contacting McDonald's. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.

Roger
McDonald's Customer Response Center

Will I end up eating at McDonald's again someday, even if they don't bring back the sauce?  Probably.  They still make good fries, I don't care what you health freaks think.  In the meantime, it's just good to know the big, goofy, floppy-footed, red-head really cares!