Ohmahgawd, I'm fat

On Wednesday, Shawn and I didn't care for what was in the cafeteria, so he suggested ordering pizza for lunch. His Dad, Mike wasn't too keen on his sandwich, so he liked that idea. So, I went with the old standby in this situation, the $10 pizza box from Pizza Hut:

Now, I usually end up getting this from a different PH location, as I usually order this for game night. But, I must say, even though they were about 5 minutes late, it was still nice and hot when it got here. Plus it was in the middle of lunch rush, so I wasn't too upset. The pizza was really good, the cheese sticks were just barely good. They had some cheese on them, but not a lot and it had been done longer than the pizza had, so they tried to cover up the fact by dousing it in their herbed parmesan mix. The cinnamon sticks were outstanding.

On the way home, I felt like a burger, so I stopped off at Sonic:

I went with the usual Super Sonic (only ketchup, which they put cheese on, so she had to take it back and fix it) and tater tots. It was good (once it was fixed) and seemed a lot bigger than usual. I managed to eat all the sandwich and tots, and felt around the same size as Jabba the Hutt afterwards. The coke was a really good mix between the syrup and carbonated water.

Pork and Beef

On Monday, the 30th of July, I went with the least evil (taste wise) from the cafeteria, which was their pork tenderloin and some mashed potatoes:

The pork loin was nice and tender, and fairly juicy, but it just didn't have any flavor. The mashed potatoes, were pretty good though, and the gravy just helped it all.

For dinner, I had a burger craving, so I stopped in at Sonic:

I went with a Super Sonic (double burger) and an order of onion rings. They were very well salted, so I dumped them into the main bag and tried to gently open the salt package they gave me, and it fairly well exploded into the bag. I shook the bag up to help distribute the salt as evenly as possible, but they were pretty much coated. Luckily, I had a ton of coke to help wash them down.

Sunday Burger and Rice

On Sunday, I went to lunch with Mom and Sis. Mom wanted to get a burger from Tops BBQ, and as a fan of burgers, I didn't have a problem with that.

 

As you can see, I forgot to take a picture before digging in. And as I didn't think that this shot gave you a full appreciation on how big this burger is, I took this one to drive it home:

That is a big burger. And I ate it all. It was really good, as you can see in there they salt and peppered it while it was cooking and they don't skimp on the ketchup when you order it on the burger.

I was so stuffed from this lunch, I didn't get hungry till around 9 that night, so I went with the quick and easy fried rice:

Tossed it in the rice cooker, then once it was done in the skillet with some olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, some butter, and soy sauce. Fried it up while stirring / flipping it a lot, then cracked an egg into it and scrambled it all together while adding in a little salt and a lot of pepper. It was nice and tasty, a good late night dinner to watch The Newsroom with.

Wendy's

On Monday the 16th, I headed over to Wendy's to get some take out lunch:

I went with the usual for me, the #2 combo (double burger, ketchup only), and fries. The burger was really good, they got it right on the first try (a lot of places insist on putting cheese on my HAMBURGERS, especially when I emphasize no cheese) and they actually put ketchup on both buns. The fries were tasty and not too crunchy, which is how I like them.

Junk Food Day

After church, I stopped in at Burger King, as I had a craving for a Whopper. I went with the usual ketchup only, and onion rings instead of fries. I got a coke AND a frozen coke (I can almost never resist those):

What's missing from this? The "challonge" that was thrown at me by Tab, the bacon sundae. I had completely and utterly forgot about trying it. I picked this up on the way to my parents' house and stayed over there for a few hours. It was after that and on the way home before I realized that I forgot about the sundae. Sorry Tab, it'll have to come some other time (assuming I can still get it, they were advertising Memphis style BBQ on the screens up there, which is the main reason I forgot about it.) Anyway, the burger was pretty good, the onion rings were only ok. Their coke mix is outstanding though, and the frozen coke was really good too.

I wasn't too hungry that evening, so I snacked on some chips and Pancho's nacho cheese dip for dinner:

I like to toast the chips in the oven for a few minutes to warm them up and give it a more authentic feel.

Picture-less Tuesday

Tuesday didn't have anything that looked particularly appetizing in the cafeteria, so I went with some microwavable chicken and biscuits for a lunch time snack. I'll get a pic of them next time I eat them. They were ok, considering they were microwavable chicken and biscuits.

For dinner, I stopped off at 5 Guys to pick up burgers and fries for Jesse and myself. I went with the usual bacon burger. And as normal for them, the burger was outstanding and the fries were really good also.

A Sunday Cookout

On Sunday, I hung out with the parents for most of the day. That evening Dad cooked some burgers and hot dogs on the grill:

You may be asking, "Where's the beef?!" I assure you, there's some in there. It was a very dense patty, but was pretty good. The hot dog was a bit more charred than I care for, but was still tasty. The fries were perfectly cooked.

The decline continues

On Tuesday, I just threw out all pretenses and went with what sounded good:

Corn dog and fries for lunch. It was pretty tasty, nice and warm, the cornmeal wasn't too done, but wasn't gooey, and the hot dog in there was nice and warm. Their fries are never salty enough, but unlike the upcoming dinner fries, you can actually get salt to stick to them.

For dinner, I met Jody and Jesse at Huey's, cause I wanted a Huey Burger:

I went with just bacon and ketchup for the toppings (If I hadn't give up for the day I'd have added some lettuce and onion) and fries for the side dish. Huey's has some great steak fries, but the downside of them is the inability to get salt to stick to them. They're just too dry (on the outside). I'm wondering if I could get them to salt mine as soon as they yank them out of the fryer.

Burger time

I think I'm about burgered out. On Tuesday, the cafeteria didn't have anything that floated my boat, so I went with 5 Guys for dinner that night. Here's my usual bacon burger and fries from them (double bacon burger to most other places):

As usual, the burger and fries were outstanding.

The day after

For breakfast, we hit up the local Cracker Barrel. I went with the "Country Fried Breakfast" which in my case was the chicken fried chicken (big surprise), scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy. And I forgot to take a picture of it.

After that, the gang broke up and most headed back home. I hung out with Tab, Furey and their kids as I was heading back on Monday (12 hr drive wasn't happening after the day had started). So, we hung out in the pool for most of the afternoon.

For dinner, we had some hamburgers, corn, and finished off the crab that had been leftover from the party:

Yep, look at that, I tried to healthy up my usual fare. Went with corn for the side dish and tossed a couple of leaves of spinach on there. It was pretty tasty, and the spinach added a nice texture without being too bitter (last few times I've tried spinach on salads or such it had been really bitter).

And there were 3 blue crabs left over (yes, they really had a blue hue pre cooking) and a couple of clumps of snow crab legs, so we dealt with them. And they were tasty.

And for dessert? Key Lime Pie:

Very tasty, sweet with a little bite of tart.

What? A burger?

Over the past weekend, I went down to Ormond Beach (just north of Daytona Beach, FL) to visit some friends. Friday was my drive day down there. I stopped off in Alabama to have something we don't get too often, as they don't have a franchise in my neck of the woods, Whataburger:

I went with the double burger, ketchup only and regular fries and a Coke. Burger was outstanding, as usual, and their fries were really good too. I still prefer McD's skinny fries over theirs, but W's is probably second on the skinny fry list.

Memorial Day Cookout

The gang did a Memorial Day cookout, but we did it on Sunday evening. There were hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, fries, potato salad, home made burger buns, and a lot of dessert. I went with a couple of burgers, a hotdog and some fries for my breakfast / lunch /dinner combo:

They were very well cooked, and I managed to not get enough ketchup on the burgers, and then too much. Oh well, they were still tasty.

As for the desserts, here what they looked like:

Kevin brought the pie, I made the yellow cake with chocolate frosting, Dave brought the chocolate pudding cake (in the plastic cover) and Greg brought the super brownie. As for which was on my plate? I went with my own cake.

Fried Chicken and Five Guys

Tuesdays are Fried Chicken days in the cafeteria. Unfortunately, they NEVER have the proper side dish for fried chicken, which here in the South, is mashed potatoes and gravy. They have rice and gravy, and some kind of au gratin potatoes or something else that just doesn't go well with it, so I usually skip the chicken. However, I was fairly hungry on this Tuesday (see the Dump Day post for my lack of a filling dinner), so I went with a white meat portion, which is a breast and wing. All connected like:

It might not look that great in the pic, but they usually do a pretty good job on their chicken. The breading/crust is VERY flavorful and tasty, and if you get there fairly early, you've got about a 70/30 chance of the meat having gotten the flavor into it, where as if you go later in the afternoon it's more of a 30/70 chance. I was on the upper end of luck today, the meat was just about as tasty as the crust.

Not a very nutritious lunch, I know, but I was treating it more like a snack, as I was going to be having a burger and fries from 5 Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner that night. And not only did I plan to, but I actually stuck with it.

You can make an account on their website and then order early and schedule your pickup, and pay for it online, thereby skipping the (sometimes really long) line. They also have an app for both Android and iDevices. I downloaded that bad boy and tested it out, and I'm happy to report that it worked like a champ. Burgers (picked one up for Jesse also) were ready when I got there and just had to wait a minute or two on the fries to get done, which gave me plenty of time to get the drinks ready. And, as I alluded to in the previous post, I forgot to get pictures of the delicious Bacon Burger and fries. But I assure you, it looked good and tasted even better.

Burger and Tots and Leftovers

For lunch today, I had some left over pork tenderloin and a few rolls (made little sammiches out of them). Still tasted outstanding:

For dinner, I had intended on finishing off, or attempting to, the left over pizza from yesterday. BUT, on the way home, I got hit with a burger craving, so I stopped in at "The Dip". Tonight's order was a bacon burger and tater tots, with a small hot fudge shake for dessert. Once at home, I added an IBC Root Beer to top it off:

That mountain of tater tots was obscene, and you all should know how I feel about potatoes by now. I barely made a dent in it, but I did manage to finish that monster of a burger off. I will be in a meat coma in about an hour, I think.

Tuesday fail

Tuesdays, how annoying you are. I once again forgot to get a pic of mah food. I stopped in at 5 Guys Burgers and got a double bacon burger and a regular order of fries. The burger was, as usual, outstanding, and they always give you more fries than you can eat. Seriously, if you have a 5 Guys within an hour of you, go eat there.

Sunday FEAST!

Well, for Sunday, I took it easy throughout the day, didn't do much but watch tv and play some video games. Somewhere in the middle of that, I had a lunch of the uber nutritious chicken nuggets and french fries:

They weren't that good, but it was filling at least. Later that evening, I went to church, and on the way home, I stopped in at Krystal's and got a #1 combo (4 krystal burgers, fries and a drink) and as I ate it on the way home, I didn't get a picture of it.

For those of you not in this neck of the woods, you may be wondering what Krystal's are. They're kind of a Southern version of White Castles, but I'm told not as tasty. As the only White Castles I've got access to are the frozen variety in the grocer's freezer, I'm waiting till I can actually try a fresh one for comparison.

A night out

Saturday night's dinner was a night out at the Kooky Canuk. It's a Canadian themed restaurant in Downtown Memphis. It was featured on Man vs. Food (for a huge hamburger challenge) when it was under another name, I think the Bigfoot Lodge. Apparently there was another place that had that name, they sued and the Memphis location lost. Now they're the Kooky Canuk. We hit this place up in celebration of Kim's birthday, which was earlier this week. And, for this post, I'll have a couple of things that weren't technically on my plate, but were close enough and impressive enough, to be included.

First up, Dave's root beer float:

He said it was pretty good. You're not really getting the full effect, so I want you to realize that mug is HUGE.

Next up were some appetizers. I went with the standard mozzarella cheese sticks, here they're called Cheese Logs:

 

They were pretty good, cheese had a good flavor, wasn't too hot or cold, but the breading was a bit salty. And that red sauce isn't marinara, it's actually a "strawberry jalapeno bbq sauce". It was a bit warm for my tastes, but Kevin said it had a really good flavor behind that heat. I usually have my cheese sticks with either marinara or honey mustard, the latter of which the waiter was kind enough to provide.

Dave's appetizer was the poutine. For those not "in the know" this Canadian ... delicacy... is a plate of french fries, doused in cheese curds and gravy (although less authentic versions will just have cheese drizzled over them ala cheese fries and then pour gravy over that).

As I'm super picky about my cheese intake, I skipped the curds and just went with gravy drenched french fries. I'm happy to report, it's as tasty as I had hoped, but this dish ultimately hinges on the gravy. If it's not good, or rather, to your taste, then no fry on the planet can save it. Luckily, I really liked the gravy they used.

And for the main dish, I went with one of their burgers. I had them add some bacon to it, then added ketchup. Yep, only thing I like on my burgers is ketchup, and sometimes (ok, usually) bacon.

Pretty good burger, not the best I've had, but more than serviceable. I couldn't eat it all, after the appetizers and 2 glasses of sweet tea, but I got through about 3/4 of it, and maybe 1/4 of the fries.

Abbay's Road(house)

I couldn't resist making some kind of pun for the title. I had dinner at Abbay's (fast food version of Cracker Barrel) with some friends. I went with the hamburger steak & gravy with mashed potatoes & gravy and fried okra.

It was good. The steak was very tender, almost more like a meatloaf than hamburger steak. The potatoes were well mashed & the gravy was very tasty. Okra could've been a bit more done, but I prefer it pretty crunchy. Overall, the best meal I've had from there.

The Dip

John Mellencamp once sang about Jack and Diane. What am I bringing up a classic American singer/songwriter in a food blog for? In that particular song, he told us about that young couple hanging out, outside the Tasty Freeze. For those of you not familiar with what a Tasty Freeze is, imagine Sonic, but not as a franchise, just a little "Mom and Pop" type shop. That's not to say it couldn't be as big and flashy as the Sonics usually are, just that it's usually not a chain. They offer all kinds of hamburgers, fries, hot / corn dogs and a wealth of frozen drinks and desserts.

Hernando has such a shop. And calling it a shop is really a disservice. It's become an institution. It is named Velvet Cream, but it is known as The Dip (warning, facebook page link).

This place is Sonic on crack. In a good way.

As proof, here is a typical dinner from there, a large burger, onion rings and a hot fudge shake. I'm pretty sure it's a vanilla shake, with a few pumps of hot fudge. It's not as heavy as a regular chocolate shake is, and has that extra sweetness of the hot fudge with the mellowness of vanilla. I dig it.