Hyper Gumbo » food

Excess Food Day

Don — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:24:31 +0000

Today is going to be a bad day at our office, for anyone on a diet. We’ve already had bagels and fruit for breakfast, plus the VP wandering around the office with a little red cart full of donuts, and there’s still lunch and the 3pm party yet to go.

I’m glad I did an extra set of crunches this morning. Not enough to make a difference, really, but still a feel-good-exercise =p

WTF BBQ

Don — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:47:20 +0000

OK, they actually say they serve “burger, ice cream, and more”, but the phrase isn’t “wtf bicm”.
I say “say they serve”, because, despite having an open sign up and two people there, this new restaurant on a barge that opened up near work didn’t seem to be interested in actually selling anything. They had the gate to board closed, and when I started to ask the woman moving tables around, how to get on, she just turned her back on me and walked off.

It’s an annoying pity, since burger choices have been limited in their neighborhood for a while now. I guess I’m still going to be making the longer walk to Blue Moon Burgers.

Tom Douglas Done Good

Don — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:22:56 +0000

Finally, a Tom Douglas creation I can get behind, Dahlia Workshop. At least in the morning when they are serving biscuits I’m happy. I’ve only tried the Fried Chicken biscuit, without egg-extra, so far, but I have tried it twice. =p

The biscuit is very tasty despite it’s square shape; nicely browned on top, creamy bready goodness on the inside. Add on a healthy chunk of fried chicken, and smother it all in spicy gravy, and you have the best breakfast I’ve had in Seattle for quite some time.

If there’s any complaint it’s how inconvenient the hours are, at least for an early riser like myself. They don’t start serving till 7am on weekdays, and 9am on weekends, which is 2-4 hours after I’ve gotten up most days, making it 1-3 hours too late for me to wait for breakfast.

The sausage biscuit looks very tasty as well, must go back and try it too. There was somebody there this morning that ordered one that was neither the chicken nor the sausage, looked to be some sort of hoity-toity northwest veggie-grilled-concoction, so worry not foody-snobs, there’s still some more Tom Douglas-y fare available as well. =p

Starbucks Cake Pop

Don — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:19:26 +0000

For April’s Fools Day, someone put a joke card on my kanban, “Get Coffee”. Today as I was getting ready to pull the card from my WIP, our group lead stopped me and said we were going to make it a real card and our manager was taking out out for coffee.
When we got to the nearest Starbucks, I was wondering what I would order, given the lack of decent hot chocolate at Starbucks now, when I noticed 3 little lollipop looking things in the food case. On inspection, it turned out they were something called “Cake Pops”, presumably a tiny bit of cake on a stick, covered in a frosting/candy shell. I got one of the tiramisu, and it was pretty much as expected. Very sweet, and the cake was on the underdone side. It was OK for free-to-me, but not as a paid-for item.

Julia’s Wallingford, meh

Don — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:22:37 +0000

I wanted to get some food in me before I picked up yet another lusciouliscious Europa from Chocolati, so stopped by Julia’s Wallingford. I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t get a lunch menu, even though it was after 11am, but whatever, I’ll try the Chicken Fried Steak, I think.

small mistake

I would have been happier leaving and finding someplace else to eat, I think. The meat is low-grade, pounded paper thin, and covered in a mediocre breading, underneath a lackluster gravy, with nary a taste of spice to be found. The potatoes looked pretty, but were similarly under tasty. Don’t get me wrong, everything was cooked properly, just to a different level of taste than I like in my food.

Impossible Chocolate ‘Pie’

Don — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:38:53 +0000

I don’t like coconut. I don’t mind coconut flavor, but the real deal icks me out on a textural basis I can’t get beyond. So, I took the Betty Crocker approved Chocolate-Coconut pie, and replaced the coconut. Attempt one, I just replaced coconut with regular flour. Things turned out a little less chocolatey, and a little less sweet than I would like. It was very dense and moist, more pudding than cake. Second attempt, I’m using bisquik as 1-to-1 replacement for the requested coconut. I upped the sugar by a quarter cup, and the chocolate by an extra tablespoon, plus some cinnamon and nutmeg just to change things around. We’ll see how it turns out…

2	cups milk
1/4	cup butter or margarine, softened
3	oz unsweetened baking chocolate –I used 10 tablespoons cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons veggie oil
1	cup coconut –I used 1 additional cup of bisquik
3/4	cup sugar –Upped to a full cup
1/2	cup Original Bisquick® mix
1 1/2	teaspoons vanilla
3	eggs, slightly beaten

Oven to 350, grease the pie dish.
Over a medium-low heat, mix the milk, butter, and chocolate, until melted, then remove from heat.
Mix into remaining ingredients with whisk or fork, until smooth. Pour into pie dish.
Bake 40 to 45 minutes or knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool approx 30 minutes, can be eaten warm, or chilled in fridge to serve cold later.

UPDATE: Using all bisquik made for a more cakey outcome. I think I like the denser version. I will have to continue to experiment with the ratios.

Cornbread Hamburger Pie Mark I

Don — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:41:44 +0000

Starting with the recipe from Sparks, I made a few changes, mostly due to lack of ingredient rather than considered planning.

I’d left out the green pepper and tomato soup, added some garlic and pepper. In retrospect, while leaving the soup out works fine, you do need the extra mass of some more veggies. I think I’ll try next time with some peas, carrots, and corn blended in with the meat and onions. I also should have been more careful about evenly applying the cornbread mix. Live and learn, it all turned out tasty enough, just heavy on the bread side of things.

Return of Rhodies BBQ

Don — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:36:32 +0000

In one of those moments that make you question your sanity, just a little for a sec, I’m on my way to have lunch at my cheap chinese favorite, when I see signs for Rhodies BBQ. This is confusing because a couple years ago, they closed up shop without much notice, saying they were still open out in marysville North Bend, and available for catering. Someone else eventually moved into the space, but their BBQ wasn’t as good. I had to try it out, so I stopped by. The menu is definitely the Rhodies I remember, but the guy behind the counter wasn’t recognizable. The food tastes right; certainly better than the not-Rhodies that was there for a while.

Nom Nom.

Lunch Today – deep fried pepper burger

Don — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:46:00 +0000

Lunch today was the deep fried pepper burger at Zayda Buddy’s, with tater tots. It was quite tasty. They only deep fry the patty part, the bun is just toasted =p It was massive, and the tater tots (an extra $2 seems a bit excessive, but whatever) were the properly done that gets them nice and crunchy on the outside, while still moist and delicious on the inside. Still so many things to try on that menu, and not a single one of them ‘healthy’.

Zadya Buddy’s does a good mac and cheese

Don — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:47:04 +0000

I’m quite intrigued at the notion of a mac and cheese pizza, but didn’t try it on the first visit, getting the ‘hot dish’ mac and cheese instead. It was quite tasty. Lots of cheesy goodness, crumbly crunchy bread bits on top that weren’t overdone, and a portion size that left me with something on my plate even after I felt properly stuffed. All in all a good meal was had.