A couple of weeks ago, my husband, his elderly aunt and I went over to Senor Pan on Fullerton. I have never had yuca and mojo worse than the one I had there. It was literraly doused in vinegar and salt and nothing else. No garlic flavor for the mojo which is supposed to have a nice garlic flavor and just no real flavor at all. Husband and his aunt's steak tasted exactly the same: salty and vinegary. Blech.

This weekend the honor goes to Corner Bakery's three cheese mac and cheese. It was so thin and tasteless, that I am not even sure this mac and cheese even had a single cheese in it.

Tonight's dinner:

Fried Louisiana Alligator tossed with Crystal Hot Sauce
Cajun slaw
Pan fried chicken
Potato Salad
Corn Macque Choux
Corn muffins and biscuits

Sounds like a great meal ... and for what I paid ($48 incl tip and a root beer , it should have been.

The fried chicken came out almost black. I did not appreciate how black until I brought some of it out to the car. It was a shame as the chicken was the juiciest that I have had in a long time.

The alligator was really good .... but came out unsalted AND there was no salt on it. And there was no salt and pepper shaker on the table.
The potato salad was good but for some reason, there was hot sauce in it.
The muffins were good BUT the butter was frozen.
The Cajun slaw lacked dressing of any sort.

Service was such that you had to ask twice for everything. And it was not crowded at 4 pm.


French Quarter New Orleans Kitchen
44 Yorktown Ctr
Lombard, IL 60148

Pizza at Beggar's Pizza in Lansing, Il . Was it inedible ? No ,but why invest in a business that does't try harder with a decent recipe especially for the thin crust. Should have known better. This one is on me.

trudie wrote:Pizza at Beggar's Pizza in Lansing, Il . Was it inedible ? No ,but why invest in a business that does't try harder with a decent recipe especially for the thin crust. Should have known better. This one is on me.

Best thin crust in the area. Delivery and Carryout only
Rico's Pizza
3651 Ridge Rd
Lansing, IL 60438
(708) 895-2630

Leine's Summer Shandy. Mmm! Beer and Pledge!

And definitely not the worst thing, but after having some really delicious key lime pie from Costco, their red velvet cake is subpar. The cake tasted like nothing although the texture was great, and the frosting was sugar, cream cheese and sugar and overwhelmed the cake.

Leinies is better than most, but still part of Miller so sub-par. There was a Texas brewery that did a berry beer that I loved that went straight down when Miller bought them. However, the family still seems to do a decent job promoting Wisconsin. Please do not get me started on how Pabst raped over their reitrees and even though it is under a different owner I will NEVER buy any brand owned by them. I love how Miller who does contract brewing for them FORCED Pabst to pay what they owed into the common union retiree fund before they did anything.

There was a local Pho place (not giving the name) that was just awful two days ago. I read in the news that they had a kitchen fire and were closing for a couple of weeks. This was a branch of a well respected Pho eatery. I knew something was wrong to begin with when the wait staff were more interested in drinking than serving, very loud music was blaring from the kitchen, etc. I was in the mood for it and tried to overlook. I did call the owner to say I was sorry and was told "Wife's relatives suck. all fired. Much better when we re-open".

exvaxman wrote:There was a Texas brewery that did a berry beer that I loved that went straight down when Miller bought them.

That was Celis. Its assets were acquired by Michigan Brewing, which went bankrupt last month. Some of the equipment was purchased by Miller, but the trademarks went back to the Celis family in Texas.

Yes, that was Celis. I really enjoyed that beer. My mistake, I thought that Miller had destroyed them.
For quite some time it was unavailable in Milwaukee due to a distributer fight.

I felt like a traitor drinking Texas beer here in Wisconsin

As of today, I had to laugh. The teenager was grocery shopping with me and say that Roma pizza was on sale for $1.50. He wanted to stock up. I relayed the story about how when I first moved to Milwaukee, there was a pizza that was on sale at the local grocery outside of my temporary apartment. 15 pizzas for $10. I think that the name was "tradewinds". I got the fifteen. I tried one before the wife arrived before a house hunting trip. The freezer was dumped. These were not even worth my adding the "to be thrown out" stuff in the fridge on top of to make the garbage pizzas of my college days. My wife arrived, saw the stack in the trash, ripped me a new one, put the stack into the freezer with the exception of the one she heated up for herself. The next morning I saw that she had two bites and that all of the remaining ones were in the trash. I did not have the guts to comment. However, today the kid and I bought two Roma pizzas. I have a pizza cooker that has a stone insert so that the bottoms are crisp. The kid ate the first one we bought, said to throw out the other one, and asked me to remind him repeatedly about how awful they were until he is out on his own working for a living.

I did not even want to try this one that I heard on streaming radio from npr, a newish show that I think is called "answers answers". They had a visiting guest that said as a kid she would mix doritos and miracle whip. My kid looked at me and started laughing saying that it looked like I was going to be sick.
He was not kidding. I had just finished a smoked eel and was very happy with life when this was put on the air.

exvaxman wrote:I did not even want to try this one that I heard on streaming radio from npr, a newish show that I think is called "answers answers". They had a visiting guest that said as a kid she would mix doritos and miracle whip. My kid looked at me and started laughing saying that it looked like I was going to be sick.
He was not kidding. I had just finished a smoked eel and was very happy with life when this was put on the air.

First off....I never tried it so I don't know but my first reaction was just like yours...wtf??? but then think about it? Doritos = Corn , Cheese, Peppers...Miracle Whip = Mayo ...what you esentially have is a typical mexican street snack (Esquites)

Redhot Ranch this afternoon around 4. Double dogs and Polish were washed out, flavorless...with no snap whatsoever. Fried were overcooked in comparison to what they generally serve. A total loss.

Uncharacteristic of their typical high quality dogs.

exvaxman wrote:As of today, I had to laugh. The teenager was grocery shopping with me and say that Roma pizza was on sale for $1.50. He wanted to stock up. I relayed the story about how when I first moved to Milwaukee, there was a pizza that was on sale at the local grocery outside of my temporary apartment. 15 pizzas for $10. I think that the name was "tradewinds". I got the fifteen. I tried one before the wife arrived before a house hunting trip. The freezer was dumped. These were not even worth my adding the "to be thrown out" stuff in the fridge on top of to make the garbage pizzas of my college days. My wife arrived, saw the stack in the trash, ripped me a new one, put the stack into the freezer with the exception of the one she heated up for herself. The next morning I saw that she had two bites and that all of the remaining ones were in the trash. I did not have the guts to comment. However, today the kid and I bought two Roma pizzas. I have a pizza cooker that has a stone insert so that the bottoms are crisp. The kid ate the first one we bought, said to throw out the other one, and asked me to remind him repeatedly about how awful they were until he is out on his own working for a living.

Just curious, why didn't you just return the pizzas instead of throwing them away? I mean I have two packs of a Hillshire farms that I just did not care for after trying them. Still got the other pack sitting in the freezer I'd eat eventually for something quick. I think my husband ended up throwing it away after it expired.

I didn't return the pizzas in both cases due to time and money. In the first case the wife had flown in for a whirlwind househunting trip and i did not have the time. maybe 18 years ago at this point.
The current case it would have cost me more in gas to drive back to the store where we bought the two pizzas.

I also sort of look at both as learning experiences. I now know for sure that the cheap brand was actually awful.

Pie Lady wrote:Leine's Summer Shandy. Mmm! Beer and Pledge!

I like Summer Shandy. I don't see the Pledge comparison at all. But to each her own I guess. But this comment made me think of going out last weekend.

A friend and I went to Mitchell's Tap in Bridgeport. Friend hates beer but she had a Groupon and with it came a choice of draft beer. So I picked Summer Shandy for her because it doesn't have that taste of beer that she loathes and she liked it well enough. She drank her whole glass which I think is a first for her. Meanwhile, I had Guinness and gave her a sip and she said it tasted like someone died in it.

Grilled tilapia tacos at Hackney's on Dearborn. Too much fish relative to the cabbage and the tortillas. Served with quinoa and mediocre black beans. I know, I know, I should've had a burger. But my friend who did wasn't impressed by it either. Even the onion loaf was nothing but dull empty calories. Blah.

Yesterday we were heading to Elmwood Park. it was hot and I was feening for Italian ice but my go to Italian ice lady (Bonnie's Deli at Narragansett and Cornelia) has been AWOL for a couple of months. Everytime I pass by no matter what day it is it's closed. She is a wonderful Polish woman who makes amazing Italian ice and I hope nothing has happened to her. Everything still appears as normal inside the store, but no one is manning it. So not knowing where else to go, my husband decides between Connie's and Bacci on Grand which both serve Italian ice. We chose Bacci. They had four flavors available: lemon, cherry, mango and something else. My husband's a mango guy so he got that and I got the cherry. Picked it up and left and we both realized that calling it godawful crap is actually a compliment.

I kid you not, this had to be the single worst Italian ice ever. I have had some bad and mediocre ice but even the stuff I didn't like was not nearly this bad. It didn't have the texture of Italian ice. it had a gelato like texture that could be best described as sticky goo. No fruit chunks, just godawful bright red and yellow coloring. At first i thought they used food coloring. Mine didn't even taste like cherry. My husband's resembled somewhat like mango but when he's had the mango at Bonnie's, her coloring is much more natural to the fruit and she uses fruit chunks. I saw no fruit chunks in either of our cups. Then my husband made this remark that it was as if they took some industrial syrup and doused it over something that resembles ice. I think he nailed it. It seemed like it was something to the effect of mass produced garbage. On the ride back home, we had about a third each and let the cups sit there in the heat. It turns out that as hot as it was, the radioactive Italian ice wasn't even melting. It just got shinier.

Never again.

Generally, I try to avoid Costco's pizza. However, when I approached the counter, a pepperoni pizza had just come out and it looked good. The employee wrapped the pizza for me. What I got was not the new pizza but some old pizza that had a huge layer of grease on top. I should have bought a pizza at Woodman's and baked it off at home.

=========================================

What does it say about me that I prefer the old, long-heatlamped costco pizza slices to fresh slices?

What does it say about me that I even have a preference? Ugh.

gleam wrote:What does it say about me that I prefer the old, long-heatlamped costco pizza slices to fresh slices?

What does it say about me that I even have a preference? Ugh.

It says that you're among the lucky of us to have cast-iron stomaches.

Keep eating!

I like heatlamped pizza better, too.

Costco pizza, no opinion, except that my kid likes it (and he's no gourmet).

"Grilled" (in the sense that there might have been a grill somewhere in the kitchen used to prepare it) chicken and vegetables on American flight 1386.

I do get the pleasure(?) of dining at cafe American Airlines somewhat regularly, so my expectations were quite low - this was airplane food, after all. The fare is never anything most would call good, but is usually edible. This abomination, though, managed to set a new benchmark against which to measure bad food. Dry tasteless chicken with rubber skin with a side of limp, drab veg from a can and sad, microwaved pasta with tasteless cream sauce.

The lesson - shell out for 1st class to maintain circulation in your legs, not for the food.

The Hubs and I stopped at a fast food chain on the way home from the drive-in Sunday morning for an iced coffee. Being 1am, it was dark. The iced coffee was too sweet but not awful. I nursed it, then sucked up something that I figured was an ice shard. Hmmm, I thought...what's an ice shard doing in a cup with solid cubes?
When we got home, I noticed there was a fly floating in the 1/2 inch or so of remaining coffee in one of the cups. I am pretty sure that cup was mine.

Pie Lady wrote:The Hubs and I stopped at a fast food chain on the way home from the drive-in Sunday morning for an iced coffee. Being 1am, it was dark. The iced coffee was too sweet but not awful. I nursed it, then sucked up something that I figured was an ice shard. Hmmm, I thought...what's an ice shard doing in a cup with solid cubes?
When we got home, I noticed there was a fly floating in the 1/2 inch or so of remaining coffee in one of the cups. I am pretty sure that cup was mine.

What's worse than finding a fly in your iced coffee?

Finding half a fly. Ba-dum-bum.

Thank you, thank you--I'll be here all week.

Pie Lady wrote:The Hubs and I stopped at a fast food chain on the way home from the drive-in Sunday morning for an iced coffee. Being 1am, it was dark. The iced coffee was too sweet but not awful. I nursed it, then sucked up something that I figured was an ice shard. Hmmm, I thought...what's an ice shard doing in a cup with solid cubes?
When we got home, I noticed there was a fly floating in the 1/2 inch or so of remaining coffee in one of the cups. I am pretty sure that cup was mine.

Coolest trick ever ( for some:)
If the fly did actually meet its demise by drowning, cover it with a pile of salt, and watch what happens. Might take a few-ten minutes or so. Awesome party trick.

This sounds gruesome.

But my curiosity must be sated...I assume the poor bastard explodes. PM me!

Pie Lady wrote:This sounds gruesome.

But my curiosity must be sated...I assume the poor bastard explodes. PM me!

Answer here--for those who care to peek :

http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/DeadFly.html

I'm afraid that link doesn't work.

Hmmmmm.... it worked just fine when I just tried it....
Just Google "dead fly salt, " and you'll get 2 million hits--literally.

The spot on North Ave that was Pannenkoeken, then Yuca Cafe, is now The Lazy Parrot. Home sick without anything of interest in the fridge (except way too much ham), I decided to try a cubano at The Lazy Parrot. Big mistake. First came out my side of maduros, which appeared to be precooked and then reheated - chewy, greasy, unpleasant. The cubano itself was overstuffed, with an unfortunate mix of dry shredded pork*, cheap waffle-cut pickles, bargain basement ham, and slices of a third, unidentifiable meat-like substance.

Will not repeat.

The Lazy Parrot of the Caribbean
2257 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

-Dan

* dry, with the notable exception of one giant chunk of fat