Dining Out

Most birthdays invovle large amounts of birthday cake and possibly some heavy drinking. A guy named Houmer ended his 25th with a 2-pound McDonald's cheeseburger. This monster concoction consisted of eight 1/4-pound patties and eight slices of "cheese". What better way to spend $15 on your 25th birthday?

From flickr.

--Spanno

The Queen of Riblets: "Velvet Hammer" Julia Stewart, CEO of Applebee's and IHOP, talks about rehabilitating her chain restaurants. "'Don't get me started on the mozzarella stick,' she said." [NY Times]

Potluck: Portland Style: Can "meatless, wheat- and dairy-free" food be "lip-smacking good"? Apparently. [The Oregonian]

Anything But Plain: It's a dog-days-of-summer taste test to find the best supermarket vanilla ice cream.  [The Boston Globe]

Southern Living: Dwight Garner has three short-and-sweet "Stray Questions" for Matt and Ted Lee. [Paper Cuts]

Supersize Spirits: Finally, some good news. Cocktails are getting bigger! [The Kansas City Star]

Let's Do Breakfast: Breakfast is making a comeback in restaurants across Los Angeles. [LA Times]

RNC Eats: Staffers, supporters (and the occasional protester) will find plenty of good eats in Minneapolis-St. Paul during the 2008 Republican National Convention. [Chow]

Cheers to You!: Jessica Simpson joins forces with Dallas' Stampede Brewing Co. as the face of Stampede Light Plus, a vitamin-filled beer for people with an "active lifestyle." [E!]

Bruni Beat: It's two stars ("very good") for the East Village trattoria, Perbacco. [NY Times]

--BTP

Meet Mr. Ishii: Takanori Ishii, Marco Pierre White's loyal "friend, PA, confidant" (and chauffeur) is profiled. [The Times]

"There's Even Deep-Fried Pepsi": Deep-fried culture gets its own exhibit at this year's Indiana State Fair. [WTHR]

An Endless Loop of Fish: GQ's Alan Richman weighs in on conveyor-belt sushi. [Forked]

Like Peanut Butter & Jelly (In a Glass): A brief look at the summer classic, the Arnold Palmer. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Bruni Beat: It's one star ("good") for Persimmon, the "new, tiny, relatively un-frenzied restaurant in the East Village." [NY Times]

--BTP

An astute and hot dog-loving Al Dente reader has informed me that I somehow missed a deadly hot dog from my original list. This hot dog is without a doubt the deadliest of all hot dogs. It's known as the "Homewrecker" and it's available at HillBilly Hotdogs in West Virginia.

The Homewrecker is a 3.5-lb. weapon of cardiovascular mass destruction. They start with a deep-fried 15", 1-pound dog and top it with peppers, onions, nacho cheese, chili sauce, jalapenos, mustard, ketchup, coleslaw, tomatoes, lettuce, and shredded cheese. Assured intestinal wreckage will run you $14.99. Finish it in under 12 minutes and you get a free burial t-shirt. Do it in under 4 minutes and your family will have an extra $14.99 for the funeral.

Watch Food Network's Guy Fieri dive into one.

--Spanno

Have you ever been so excited about eating at a new restaurant that you obsess about it for days? You work up the deliciousness in your head to the point that anything less than perfection will result in disappointment. Yesterday it happened to me. And not only was it a disappointment, it was just plain laughable.

I recently discovered a new, small, 3-booth dive in my town (half-hour south of Seattle) that serves Chicago-style Vienna beef hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. I was stoked, picturing something like the Portillo's sandwich on the right. This might not mean much to anyone living east of the Rockies, but for the northwest, Italian beef is a rarity. Most people from the Seattle area have never even heard of Italian beef.

My wife and I excitedly entered the restaurant and didn't even bother looking at the menu. "Italian beef, wet, sweet peppers". My mouth was watering. "Anything to drink?", asked the waitress/owner/cashier. Did I mention this is a small place? The menu lists root beer float in a frosty mug and we couldn't resist. "Do they import Chicago root beer?", I wondered to myself. My mind raced with thoughts of Goose Island root beer bottles.

A few minutes later she sets down a can of A&W with a tall PLASTIC CUP of ice cream. I looked at the menu again just to be sure it really did say "frosty mug". Maybe they were all dirty.

Soon after, the beef arrived. It was the moment I'd been waiting for. Years of Italian beef-less dining and days of anticipation were about to end. Thinly sliced, soaking wet, and topped with sweet pepp...HUH? I took a double-take and saw sliced green BELL pepper on my sandwich. Bell pepper? Seriously? Communists don't even consider them sweet! Maybe they had run out of the sweet peppers.

Despite the pepper surprise, I dug in. "What's that odd taste?", I thought. A unique seasoning? I looked down at the bun and quickly realized it wasn't the standard white crusty bun every other Italian beef joint uses--it was some sort of multi-grain bun with a strong flavor. Ugh. Maybe they were out of the normal bread.

There was a lot of juice so I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I continued to dip the dripping bread, the juice seasoning would mask the overpowering flavor of the bread. That's when I realized this restaurant's ultimate sin--THERE WAS NO SEASONING. It was just au jus! All I could taste was salt. Yes, salt is technically a seasoning, but it shouldn't be the primary, let alone the the lone seasoning in Italian beef.

My mind reeled. They weren't innocently out of frosty mugs, sweet peppers, plain buns, or spices--they just didn't have any of that. You know, THE BASICS. My dreams of finding Chicago-style Italian beef in the northwest were crushed.

When we were paying I asked the waitress/owner/cashier if she and her husband, the "chef", were from Chicago. And here's the kicker. She said they were from Philly, but "they had done a lot of research". I held back my laughter (and tears) until we got back to the car.

--Spanno

Kitchen Envy: With posts like "Haircut Time for the Donkeys!" how could I resist frequent stops by Martha Stewart's blog. This week Martha takes readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Everyday Food test kitchen. [marthastewart.com]

Would You Like Paper or Paper?: Starting in January Seattleites will have to pay 20-cents a bag when they opt for plastic at the grocery store. [Seattle Times]

Break Out the Drawn Butter: Good news on of rising costs of groceries, but bad news for crustaceans--the price of lobster is going down. [The Boston Globe]

Bruni Beat: It's three stars ("excellent") for Scott Conant's Scarpetta. The [NY Times]

--BTP

What, No Sprinkles?: From flavors like Cracker Jack and toppings like extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt, the classic soft serve ice cream has gone decidedly upscale. [NY Times]

How Did My TiVo Miss This?: Last night David Chang sat down for a full-hour interview with Charlie Rose.  [Serious Eats]

In a Pickle: Amy Scattergood takes a look at the inventive pickling going on at many Los Angeles restaurants, where everything from pickled ramps to cherries are hitting the menu. [LA Times]

Hold the Mayo? Never!: Heather McPherson puts the summer spotlight on mayonnaise, "the glue of salads and celebrations"[Chicago Tribune]

Make Mine a Double: This year's Tales of the Cocktail is but a memory, but here are eight favorite recipes from food editor Judy Walker. [Times-Picayune]

The Sweet Life: The great Dorie Greenspan, self-proclaimed president of the Pierre Herme fan club, offers a sweet  behind-the-scenes tour of the kitchen of his eponymous boutique in Paris. [doriegreenspan.com]

Bruni Beat: It's two spicy stars ("very good") for Szechuan Gourmet, "a restaurant on a drab Midtown block that fans of Sichuan cooking should be visiting in greater numbers and with greater frequency than they are, the heat is almost always on, and it comes at you in different ways." [NY Times]

--BTP

Poor Anthony "Cousin Vinny" Angello. When the money from his New York strip club wasn't enough, he tried to run a Subway. When the Subway gave him the boot for not paying his rent, he decided to open his own sub shop, using Subway wrappers, menus, and bags. He was promptly sued by the Subway chain. The kicker? "Cousin Vinny's" was also a part-time strip club.

In a now-infamous flier, he wrote, "During the day, it is an extraordinary 'Subway-style submarine sandwich shop' offering the highest-quality meats. At 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, this seemingly harmless sub shop becomes the wildly exotic and explicit, all-nude private club 'Cousin Vinny's Little Secret.' "

Read more about Vinny's sandwich problems in the New York Post.

--Spanno

I’ll admit it--I have a bike. And it sits too often in the garage (next to the bar), sad, I’m guessing, if bikes have feelings, at its underutilization. I always let things get in the way of my taking it out for a ride through the neighborhood-- work, recipe writing, cheese--and just can’t seem to get motivated for riding. Until now, that is, now that I’ve heard (via an article in the Telegraph online) about the Tour de Donut. This event, which happened recently in Staunton, IL, was a sweet one, as eating doughnuts got minutes taken off your final time, a situation where “prizes were awarded to those who finished with the fastest time, the fastest adjusted time (depending on number of doughnuts eaten) and for most doughnuts eaten.” I’m starting my training this instant for next year’s race. Well, at least the eating doughnuts part.

--A.J. Rathbun

What do you do when you want to realign a multi-billion dollar coffee empire so that each store has a better coffee experience? Introduce a smoothie. That's right, a smoothie. Starbuck's CEO Howard Schultz won't call it a smoothie, claiming it's "so much more than a smoothie". Enter "Vivanno".

The healthier cousin of the Frappuccino, Vivanno, was launched today and it's pretty good. Not the great savior Schultz has been talking about. The Vivanno is a blended mixture of one banana, milk, whey protein, fiber powder, and an optional shot of espresso. It comes in orange mango banana (includes Naked juice) and chocolate banana flavors. I opted for the chocolate banana and espresso shot. Again, I'm not sure why they don't call it a smoothie. I guess it's the same reason Subaru doesn't call the Forrester a "station wagon"--marketing. I'm not sure if this happens with all new menu items, but the baristas had no idea how to A) ring it up and B) make it. Not a great sign, but I was probably only the second person in Seattle to order one.

The Vivanno has two things going for it. One, it doesn't have that gritty texture you sometimes get with smoothies that contain healthy powders, and two, it means bananas can be added to Frappuccinos. Don't get me wrong, the Vivanno is a decent drink--it's just not very Starbucksian. It's not like you can't get the same thing at Emerald Smoothie or Jamba Juice. The Frappuccino is classic Starbucks and two years ago you could get fresh banana with that drink. The banana option lasted only a couple months and I've been craving it ever since.

The bottom line is that Starbuck's now has a decent smoothie. With the powders and the espresso, it has a nice kick without sacrificing flavor and I'd probably order it again.

--Spanno