Posts Tagged Review
BK Stuffed Steakhouse
Based on the appeal of a coupon (with a picture), and possibly a TV ad, I decided to try Burger King’s new BK Stuffed Steakhouse for lunch yesterday. I honestly wasn’t expecting much, apart from 600 calories (not counting the onion rings and sauce that I also had – yikes!).
Here’s how Burger King describes it:
When you take a flame-broiled patty, stuff it with jalapeños and cheddar cheese on the inside, top it with spicy poblano sauce, ripe tomato and crisp iceberg lettuce, and put it all inside a toasted, corn-dusted bun … well, you’ve got yourself a fire hazard. What we’re saying is we had to get the fire marshal’s permission to sell this thing.
Here’s how I describe it:
Yum!
Roaring Fork
I’m sitting in my car watching Bridget Jones’s Diary on my iPad waiting for the buzz from my last margarita to wear off. I just finished enjoying a nice happy hour at The Roaring Fork.
I’m writing this post to praise the Green Chile Pork Stew, which is, in a word, delightful. Spicy and savory, it is served with flour tortillas and I eat it as fajitas. Yum! Happy Hour price is $6 (normally $10) and a portion fills all six tortillas that are served with it.
As the stew was shared among three people, I also had the Tortilla Soup. I was happy to discover that they serve it by pouring the base of the soup over the chicken, avocado, etc. at the table. The soup was also delicious, though I was a flight of three 2-ounce margaritas in at that point, plus a portion of a full-size one, so my opinion could have been slightly suspect. 
Once I have a slight buzz, I think I tend to really enjoy food.
Date Night Movie Reviews
Do to some scheduling changes, Marci and I have suddenly ended up with a free night once a week. This week, I suggested we go see a movie and she upped the ante to a double feature. We saw The Blind Side and The Book of Eli.
The Blind Side
I had completely forgotten that Marci saw this while I was in Vegas. I guess she wanted to see it again, so it’s all good. Given how long this has been out, I’m just going to briefly describe what surprised me.
First, I was never able to reconcile Sanda Bullock’s voice in the movie with her voice in my memory. I found this odd, but it didn’t detract from the movie. In fact, it may have allowed me to better separate actress from character.
Second, I thought the actor playing the younger son stole pretty much every scene he was in. I expect there’s nothing original about this thought, but I hadn’t heard anything about him before seeing the movie. As wonderful as Bullock did, I’m surprised this young actor was more lauded for his performance.
Finally, I honestly had expected more drama. The movie was lighter than I exepcted it to be. This isn’t a complaint as I’m perfectly satisfied with what I got, it just wasn’t quite what I had anticipated. All told, it was a very enjoyable movie, and while it doesn’t jump onto my purchase list, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
The Book of Eli
While I had seen enough previous to have a vague idea of this movie, I really didn’t have a good grasp of what to expect beyond a kick-ass Denzel Washington in some sort of post-apocolyptic world. With a book. And it was.
I thought the movie got off to a bit of a slow start, though that feeling was enhanced by the fact that I had chosen the movie and wasn’t certain how interested Marci really was. However, once it got moving I was never again bothered by the pacing.
Fair warning, it’s a violent movie, well deserving of its R rating. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed the ride of the movie and then the ending stepped things up enough that I definitely want to see this one again. I haven’t decided yet if I want to own it, as I’m not sure I’ll really want more than a second viewing. I suppose the second viewing will be the true test.
(with thanks to kapgar for TUA) I want an iPad and I can’t even really articulate why. Hmm, that’s not quite right. I want one because it looks sleek and fast for what it does and a starting price of $500 is low enough to be tempting (despite the fact that I’ll end up with a more expensive model). What I have yet to determine is when and where I would actually use it. It’s not going to be on my person like my iPhone, so I can’t just use it whenever I have a some time to waste. And if I’m lounging at home, I’m more likely to use my laptop so that I can multitask. (I have Aperture and Quicken running most of the time that I’m doing something else.) Oh well, time will tell. By the time the 3G version is available, something else may have… Squirrel!
Books: The Traveler, City at the End of Time, Enchantment
I’ve recently finished three different books: two physbooks and one ebook. I’m not big on writing book reviews, but I wanted to give a short opinion on each of these. I’ll start with the ebook, though it’s available as a physbook as well, so the format isn’t actually relevant.
City at the End of Time, Greg Bear
I thought this was a very interesting premised, but it never really drew me in. I managed to care a bit about some of the characters, but the story would switch to other settings that I found too esoteric to keep me entertained. I also found the end of the story to be quite anticlimactic. Skip it.
The Traveler, John Twelve Hawks
It took me quite a while to get into this book, and I never really felt like it hit its stride. There was a lot to like about it, but in the end I just found it to be incomplete. In its defence, it is the first book of the Fourth Realm Trilogy. However, I needed a better story arch within this first book to get me interested in continuing. That didn’t happen so I have no intention of reading the other two. That being said, it is entirely possible that the trilogy as a whole is worth reading. Take it or leave it.
Enchantment, Orson Scott Card
I read the first 50 pages of this book during our trip to Toronto, because I was close enough to the end of The Traveler at the time that I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t continue Enchantment until our trip to New York. While both The Traveler and City at the End of Time took me several months to finish, I finished Enchantment in one weekend (discounting the first 50 pages). Don’t miss it.
Perhaps fittingly, the next physbook I’ve started is also by Orson Scott Card — Ender in Exile. Of course, this is part of a long line of books where I’m fully vested in the story. I’m terrible at impartial critiquing in such situations and tend to just enjoy more time with the characters and in the world.
Mini-Movie Reviews
My first video blog post. It’s too long, I’m too lacking in energy and the whole thing is too boring, but here it is anyway:
New Burger: Elevation Burger
I happened to notice a new burger place the other day and decided to give it a try today. I’d never heard of Elevation Burger before, and a little post-lunch research reveals why. They’ve only been in the franchise business since last year and this is their first location that’s not in Virginia or Maryland.
The claim-to-fame of this chain (sorry!) is their organic, grass-fed beef. They also use olive oil to cook their fries and offer two types of veggie burgers. My understanding is that grass-fed beef is less greasy than traditional (well, traditional these days) corn-fed beef.
Upon entering, I was happy to discover that this is one of the apparently trendy burger places where there is a long list of available free toppings. I really like this style as I like to have a bunch of toppings on my burger. For this test, I chose pretty much what I’ve been getting at Five Guys lately, except that sauteed mushrooms were not offered, nor was any hot sauce. Jalapenos were not on the list, but were offered to me and brought out separately.
They also have shakes and malts, with a choice of ingredients that can be added. Depsite the inevitable impact on my diet, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a vanilla shake blended with fresh strawberries. Because of this, I skipped the fries on this visit, though I did try a few of my lunchmate’s fries. I thought there were good and reminded me of old-style McDonald’s fries, though fresher and with less salt.
The burger itself? Quite tatsy. I definitely enjoyed it more than Mooyah, but probably not as much as Five Guys. It certainly seemed like I was eating a healthier burger, though I was unable to find any nutritional information, so I’m not really sure. As with Mooyah, I would credit the toppings more than the burger, but I did try a plain bite of meat and found that it actually had a pretty good flavor.
I really liked the fresh strawberry taste of the shake, but I found it overall to be not very satisfying. I’m hopeful that that’s an indication that the 16 oz. is at least slightly on the lower side calorie-wise. I doubt I’ll get a shake again — certainly next time I’m more likely to get fries.
I’ll definitely try Elevation Burger again some time, and it’s quite a bit closer to work than my still-favorite, Five Guys. Although, Five Guys’ web site indicates that a new location is coming soon, very close to where Elevation Burger is.
New Burger: Freddy’s Frozen Custard
Based on a recommendation from my father, I stopped by the new-to-our-area Freddy’s Frozen Custard to try their burger. I had the Single Steakburger without cheese (still watching my calories). Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. To my surprise, however, it was quite tasty.
I wasn’t in the mood for ice cream at the time, so I didn’t try their Concrete. Plus, the 651 calories advertised on their web site for their Mini Heath Concrete scared me away. Not much “Mini” about that! I will need to try it at some point so that I can add it to my mix-in-ice-cream spectrum, formerly topped by Dairy Queen’s Blizzard until surpassed by Wally’s Wallybanger (local place). Not sure when that will be, as there aren’t many days when I have as many available calories as I did that day, having done 20 miles cycling beforehand. Oh, well.
Anyway, back to the burger. The key to its taste was that the meat patty itself was very good. The rest of the ingredients were fresh and good as well, but it’s the meat that sold the burger. This is in stark contrast to my experience at Mooyah. I wouldn’t put Freddy’s on the same level as Five Guys, but then, Five Guys doesn’t have ice cream….
CinnaMemorLie
Cinna-Graham Honeycomb
I saw this at the store today and decided to give it a try despite the negative review I had read. After all, it was on sale ($2.19 instead of $3.99) and there was a 50-cent coupon (for any Honeycomb cereal).
I had just gone on a run, so I had some calories to spare and decided to go ahead and have a cup of the cereal as a late snack. I am fairly fond of traditional Honeycomb cereal with it’s sweet corn taste. (Honey, perhaps?) This? Has none of that. What it has is a cinnamon smell and taste. It’s not too bad dry, but as Josie mentioned in the review linked above, adding milk quickly washes most of the flavor away. (Though she mentioned that you’re left with plain Honeycomb, I would instead say that you’re left with something far inferior to plain Honeycomb.)
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the rest of this box. Perhaps I’ll add it to some trail mix or something similar.
Found Memory
As I was leaving the grocery store I saw an employee wheeling a basket full of boxes of candy from one check-out aisle to the next. I suddenly flashed to 1988 or so when I worked at a grocery store (same chain, different store). I have many memories from working there, some of which I think of fairly often. But I had completely forgotten the experience of restocking the candy displays on the check-out aisle. It’s such an odd feeling when a forgotten memory suddenly comes back like that.
The Only Thing To Fear Is A Lie
Last Friday I posted three statements about myself, one of which was false.
1. I have never played any version of Grand Theft Auto though I have owned a version for several years.
True. I received the PS2 version as a gift several years ago and just never got around to playing it. In truth, I haven’t played much else on the PS2 since then either, except for Guitar Hero and Rock Band (various versions of each).
2. I have an admittedly irrational fear of squirrels, stemming from the aggressive lunch-stealing squirrels on the campus of the University of Texas.
False. The bit about the lunch-stealing squirrels is true, but the fear is not. I am not aware of having any phobias. I expected that anyone that new me very well would know this was the lie, which turned out to be the case as the two commenters that have known me for years got it right.
3. When I was a kid I won money playing ping-pong against other kids at church camp. After returning to my grandparents’ house, I had to return the money.
True. As “Senior” (my father) implied in the comments, my parents were not involved in this event. After that post, I discussed it with him and he reminded me that when I had told him about this at the time, I really didn’t understand why the other kids should get their money back. For that matter, I still don’t.
Mooyah
I finally got around to making a return visit to the Mooyah Burgers that recently opened in our area. I had been there once, but honestly couldn’t remember what I thought. Plus, it was before my first visit to Five Guys. Along with the local Mighty Fine Burgers (owned by the wonderful Rudy’s “Country Store” and Bar-B-Q), these are apparently fairly direct copies of In-N-Out Burger, though I’ve never been to one of those and none of these have drive-thrus.
Anyway, based on the lack of a memorable first visit, I didn’t have high hopes, but the Mooyah is so much closer to work than the Five Guys, I felt that I needed to make a more direct comparison. Like Five Guys, there is a large list of free toppings from which you can choose (with bacon and cheese being the only extras with a price). I was able to order the same toppings I generally get at Five Guys, so it would be a pretty direct comparison.
The result? Well, the bun is good, the topping fresh and tasty and the fries are fine. But the burger just didn’t quite do it for me. I tasted a bit of the patty alone and confirmed that the problem was there. It was bland. It tasted exactly like the ground beef I fry at home for spaghetti sauce, before adding any seasonings.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t say that I disliked the burger, just that I wasn’t impressed with it. Also, they offer A1 in their topping list, which could make a huge difference. Five Guys is a long way to drive for lunch, so if I’m eating with others that want a not-quite-fast-food burger, I’d be happy to try Mooyah again with some A1 sauce.
On the other hand, I see from their web site that Five Guys is opening another location that is much closer to my office. Happy, happy, joy, joy!
Best Burger
My brother invited me to lunch today. I also needed to get some photography equipment for an appointment tomorrow. Since my brother works south and I work north, and the best photography store is (vaguely) central, we decided to meet at the store.
I got what I needed and we looked at a few other things while we were there and then we headed out to get some lunch — but with no specific destination in mind. There was a burger place that my brother suggested, but it was no longer there. We drove around for a while, near campus, until I saw a place that looked interesting.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries immediately reminded us of local chain, Mighty Fine — enough so that we thought that Mighty Fine probably copied the concept from Five Guys.
I’ve had mixed feelings about Mighty Fine. I like the place well enough, and the fries are good, and they have shakes, but I’ve never been all that impressed with their burgers. My burger at Five Guys, on the other hand, was by far the best burger I’ve had in recent memory. And the fries they have are the exact kind I’ve been craving for a few days, plus they were available with Cajun seasoning (which we got).
It’s been about five-and-a-half hours since I had the burger and I could really go for another one. Too bad it’s over 30 minutes from my house. Just thinking about it is really upping my craving — it was that good.
My GPS Logs- Couch to 10K, Week 2, Day 1 October 11, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 1, Day 2 October 6, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 1, Day 1 October 4, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 3, Day 2 September 29, 2011
- Couch to 10K, Week 3, Day 1 September 27, 2011
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