I put this on a burger tonight





SO FUCKING GOOD

I’m back in the real world. NC was wonderful, the weather was warm but it did rain a few days. On those days I just laid around and read which was great since I was staying in the woods on a mountain. My sister was there for the weekend which was fantastic since I rarely see her and miss her. Overall it was a very relaxing vacation which I really needed. I did learn something on the trip though.

On Sunday we all went to a ramp festival. Ramps are a wild onion that grows in the mountains of NC. It tastes like a cross between onion and garlic, only much stronger. Since I love both onions and garlic I thought this was going to be great: Like a taste of MN only everything will have ramps in it. Sadly it wasn’t like that at all, it was being put on by the local VFW and the food was powdered eggs with ramps, canned potatoes with ramps, and some very questionable meatloaf with ramps; it all tasted terrible (although through the bad food I could taste the ramps which did taste interesting). They were selling ramps at the festival so I bought a bunch thinking I would take them home and try cooking with them.

I put them in a plastic bag inside a zip lock bag and held them in the fridge until I packed yesterday, then I put them in another zip lock bag and put them in my carry on backpack and off I went to head home. Woe is thee who underestimates the power of the ramp.

About half way to Detroit, which is where I had to switch planes, I start smelling them. They smell like they taste: a combination of onion and garlic that has been put on steroids. I figure one of my zip locks has come loose a bit, I bit the bullet, it wasn’t a sold out flight and I wasn’t surrounded by people and figure I’ll fix it in Detroit. I get to Detroit open up my back pack and re-zip everything (after having to step back a few feet from the smell) The next flight is sold out, it’s a big plane and of course I am in a middle seat. This time I start smelling them about 10 minutes into the flight – uh oh, this is going to be a long plane ride. About half way into the fight everyone around me is looking around trying to figure out what the smell was. What could I do at this point, so I just looked around like everyone with a puzzled look on my face. I felt really bad for the guy sitting in front of me who had my back pack right underneath him. I had brief flashing of the entire plane rising up and grabbing my backpack, or me (or both) and flinging us off the plane at 30 thousand feet.

Eventually I did make it home and they didn’t kick me out of the plane for smelling so bad. Now I have to cook something great with these things to make the whole ordeal worth it.

I found the greatest and worst web site ever!

ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com/


Care for a hot beef sunday?



Or how about some Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburgers



There is so much more goodness/badness on the site it's overwelming

Now for my DJ friends.

CanYouPlayThatOneSong.com/

A collection of the worst song request story's!

Like this:

blondie: Hi do you have anything we can dance to?
steve: can't you dance to this? (while playing James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag)
blonde: me and my friends don't dance to this country music.
steve: but it's James Brown!
blondie: (looks confused)
steve: have you never heard of James Brown?
blondie: I've heard of Bobby Brown

Restaurant Week  is coming up in a few weeks:

How It Works 

Participating restaurants (which are many of the best restaurants in town) will present specially priced meals (lunch, dinner, or both) that will give you a hint of what defines and distinguishes their culinary offerings in the local dining scene. Click on the link above to view restaurants and menus.

Lunch fare will include two courses and is either $10 or $20.
Dinners will include three courses and is either $15 or $30.

YUM!

In other news, tonight is open DJ night and it looks like we are all booked up already.  I have six, yes count them SIX DJ's who will all be playing their hearts out for you tonight.


DJ Flashy
DJ Xavier
DJ Big Kev
DJ Spleen (all the way from Knoxville)
DJ Charlie
DJ Robbie Rob

(Actually Charlie and Rob didn't tell me their DJ names)

The front started serving food today, and I thought I would check it out.


It was actually very very good. They have found quite a good chef, he is from Costa Rica and he adds a very nice Latin twist to his dishes. They had free appetizers for people to try today so I tasted most of them. All of them were way above average, although looking at the menu the apps seem a little pricey. The main courses are pretty well priced; most between $7 - $15, and quite good. (They even have handmade veggie burgers)

I give the place a thumbs up, although honestly it's going to be tough for them to make it. Right now is not the best time to open a restaurant.

PS I seem to not be getting any email updates from LJ Grrrr

There is a little restaurant called Signature Café (I've written about it before) that is owned by a really cool couple. The woman is the head chef and used to work for the Clinton administration. She is also a big Obama supporter, so anytime they are in town doing a fundraiser she volunteers to provide food and to cook.

A few months ago after a big event Obama went back in the kitchen and helped her with the dishes. There were no cameras or reporters around so he wasn’t trying to get any publicity out of it, he was just wanted to help, pretty cool stuff. If you ever go, ask her about it and she will tell you the story in much greater detail then I did.

PS she also has a fantastic story about how pissed off Bill Clinton became with her when he found out she was supporting Obama instead of Hillary

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives just did a two segment piece on Psycho Suzis. They did a very good job on the segment; they showed a good mix of the atmosphere, the drinks and the food. I think the host Guy Fieri may have gotten a bit buzzed on all the yummy Tiki drinks. (He also seemed have a crush on the owner)

I made some great Fajitas last night.

First thing I did was put tequila, lime juice, Emeril's essence, salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder on some chicken then grilled the chicken on my little George Foreman grill thingy.

At the same time I sautéed onions, red and green peppers in a pan with some tequila and lime juice. I did throw a bit of cayenne in at some point.

Then just wrapped them in tortilla's with lettuce, cheese, salsa and Cholula Hot Sauce

Washed down with a margarita - so so good.


Note - if you substituted mock duck for the chicken and soy cheese for the cheese I bet they would be good vegan fajitas.

Us Minnesotans are huge dorks when it comes to state pride. I think it's a way for us to tell ourselves we aren't crazy for living in a state that is colder then a well diggers butt in January for 4 months out of the year.

Last night Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern was all about Minnesota (He lives here you know.) Pretty good show, he had a segment about the crazy Norwegians and their horrible dish Lutefisk. He did a segment about meat raffles (yes they are big in MN), a State Fair segment, a bit on native Indian cuisine in northern MN and a segment about one of my favorite restaurants in town: Heartland

• 14:53 I've been twitterless today. To much to do trying to download information from a leaving workmate #
• 16:04 Two Client '08 plans are locked, loaded and put to bed #
• 16:46 Going to Signature Cafe tonight for dinner, Mmmmmmm www.signaturecafe.net/ #

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Here is a video of Christopher Walken cooking chicken with pears. He is very serious in this video, it's like he's trying out for the food network or something. One thing is for sure; he really likes his salt. Plus he doesn't use any herbs at all, WTF.

Oh and it's definitely Walken

Homemade Salsa
Tomato
Red Onion
Green Bell Pepper
Lime
Garlic
Tabasco (I don't have any hot peppers on hand)
Salt
Olive oil


Fajitas
Grilled Chicken
Lime
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
Grilled Onions
Grilled Red and Green Bell Peppers
Cheese
Sour Cream

Margaritas
Sauza Tres Generaciones Tequila
Cointreau
Fresh lime, orange and lemon juice

Mmmmmmmm

I ate at India Palace today, oh my was it yummy. I highly recommend the place.

I am a luck bitch this week; Tuesday I get to have dinner at Fogo De Chao with Google and then Wednesday I'm having dinner at Le Bel Vie with Heavy.com. Yay for good food.

You have to see this meal!!

This person ate at L'Enclume in Cartmel England. It was an "Underground Menu", advertised as "No holds barred, no deviations" and running to as many as 26 courses. The chef Simon Rogan is a master of molecular gastronomy.


These courses are incredible.

Look, see, drool

Here is the final quote from the author:

"I don't think there's a more exciting meal than this anywhere in the whole world, even in Roses. This was 24 flawless brilliant courses by a chef who is not just "at the top of his game", but somewhere out in front of his rivals."

As a late birthday present, a fathers day gift and goodbye meal (he's leaving for his annual 6 months in South Africa) I'm planning making quite the dinner for my dad tonight.

Menu is:

Cheese tray appetizer, cheeses will include a gouda, bree, goat and an aged cheddar with a number of different types of crackers.

The main course will be:

Seared spicy grouper with a mango, pineapple and papaya chutney.
Either sunchoke creamed spinach or mashed sunchokes
Roasted white and green asparagus.

I haven't figured out the dessert yet.

For wines I'm thinking about a Chardonnay or a Pinot Noir and maybe a Gewurztraminer for dessert.

He better like it.

So in celebration of the new job we wanted to go out for a very nice dinner. K suggested places like Manny's or Ruth's, but I wanted some really good food from a really good chef, not just a good steak. I remembered spikenheimer talking about the restaurant five. It also recently won a "Best of" award in City Pages. So that's where we headed.

( Review of Five )

Tomorrow I will put up a review of a much cheaper place that is also very very good.

It started with the night of 1000 shots. I went out for a very good meal on Thursday. Then on Friday DJ Oxygen, Bartender Lexi and a cast of thousands met at Psycho Suzie's for drinks and food. After many a yummy tiki drink and some good food (I tried vegan pizza for the first time - it was very good.) I went to Corrosion to get my dance on. I had very nice conversations with djnoise and solo10 among others, then Noise had a killer set that kept me dancing until I couldn't take it any more (I am out of shape.)

Last night I checked out the new club Level in downtown minneapolis. Those of you who remember the club Rogue will feel right at home at Level. They haven't changed much of the décor at all, the dancefloor is still small and sunken down in the middle of the room, the walls are still stone, the ceiling still has piping running all over it. The music was fantastic all night, I was very happy with the tunes and danced my ass off. The crowd pretty much sucked though. A ton of jocky, strippy shirt guys and many many 21-24 year old girls who don't really care about anything except for strippy shirt guys and/or getting into the VIP areas. It was hard to tell how much the NCAA Tournament effected the crowd, you could tell that there was quite a few out of towner's there (I forgot that the tournament was in town.) They also let in far to many people, by 1:00 it was so packed you could barley move - which was my que to leave. I still liked the place because of the music and the atmosphere, I will definitely go back.

Tonight I am filling in for George at the Saloon. Sundays are their retro night and I am actually pretty nervous about it. If it was a darksider retro night I could do it with my eyes closed, but this will be a 18+, mostly gay boy, retro night. I am foreseeing a lot of Madonna, Abba and Donna Summer in my future. The good thing is George left all of his vinyl at the club so I will have a few hundred vintage records to play with tonight. They also have an armature shower contest every Sunday, so if any of you like to see armature guys get fully naked and dance in a shower feel free to come down.

If I had a birthday every week I would be dead in about a month.

Let me start by saying I am a HUGE fan of really good food. Last night for my birthday we went to Kincaids for the first time. K had gotten a $100 gift certificate to the place and we have been looking for an excuse to go, my b day seemed like a good excuse so off we went.

I had a honey and peppercorn coated Salmon filet and K had the filet mignon. My Salmon was fantastic, but the sides were very uninspired. It came with roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes, the veggies were roasted in olive oil with a little salt on them, and the potatoes were very plain. K’s filet was very, very good and it came with a gratin potatoes and asparagus. The potatoes were ok, but the asparagus was a little over cooked. (I made better asparagus at home the night before – I love asparagus season {except for the pee smelling part}) We also had coconut shrimp for an appetizer which was ok but nothing special. As a little bonus they gave me a free crème Brulée for my b day. The custard in the crème Brulée was fantastic but the crust was a tiny bit over done. Our total bill came to $140 with tip. I would say it’s not worth the price. I would recommend Jax café or Mannys if you are looking for a high end steak house. (As a warning, Manny's jumps up another big notch when it comes to price.)

In general, for higher end places, I really like the new breed of restaurants that have popped up in the last 10 years. Small places that are owned and run by very good chefs who have left big restaurants to open their own place. These places usually have very small menus that tend to change a lot. Some examples of great places like this are the 112 Eatery, Solera, Alma and The Signature Cafe (Part of the Signature’s charm are the owners, one of whom worked with Wellstone, who will happily talk politics with you.)

So I had a hankering for Piña Colada's today... The first two batches were made with Malibu Piña Colada mix and mountgay rum, they were pretty good. Then I decided I wanted to try real ones. So I went and bought some coconut milk, pineapple juice and a pineapple. Those batches were SO GOOD! The recipe that I settled on was:
Put in Blender
2 parts coconut milk
3 parts rum
2 - 2 1/2 parts pineapple juice
a good size chunk of pineapple cut up
A bunch of ice
Blend

HMmmmmmmmm Now you must remember that by the time I settled on this recipe I had already indulged in 3 other batches of colada's, so I don't know how accurate my taste buds were.



For anyone who cares, I have the late shift tomorrow at HM.