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All-Purpose Food Thread


Kyle Casey

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I help out on a blog called Burger Weekly, mostly handling Long Island reviews, but also hitting up joints while on vacation in other states. I had an awesome burger on a pretzel bun in LA at a joint called the Hole In The Wall Burger Joint. If you dig burgers, you should most definitely check out Burger Weekly:

 

http://www.burgerweekly.com/

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I have flirted with learning to cook over the past couple of years but I am making a concerted effort to be come a master home chef. I bought James Peterson's book Cooking to learn the basics. First dish I made was a simple Leak and Potato soup. I added extra potatoes and used heavy cream to thicken it as opposed to adding a slice of butter to a bowl of soup. It turned out fantastic and even my oldest kids liked it. I prefer to cook straight through the book which will have me making a lot of soup for the foreseeable future.

 

Also bought a good chef's knife for $15 from TJ Maxx. God Bless TJ Maxx!

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I second the love for Culver's. I've tried the Wendy's pretzel burger and it was okay, what was better was the pretzel bun hot dog at Sonic, though it would be a lot better with shredded cheese instead of the industrial looking nacho cheese sauce.

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I have flirted with learning to cook over the past couple of years but I am making a concerted effort to be come a master home chef. I bought James Peterson's book Cooking to learn the basics. First dish I made was a simple Leak and Potato soup. I added extra potatoes and used heavy cream to thicken it as opposed to adding a slice of butter to a bowl of soup. It turned out fantastic and even my oldest kids liked it. I prefer to cook straight through the book which will have me making a lot of soup for the foreseeable future.

 

That looks like a blog in the making.

 

Rather thank cooking straight through, you can cook straight through each section so you don't have to do all the soups first, but when you want to cook soup you do whichever soup is next, which works when you want to have soup and chicken and a vegetable side dish and a dessert.

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I've been working tech on on a play for one of the local theater groups in Toledo (for a dying city, Toledo has an overabundance of community theater). We have a local bar/grill called Nick & Jimmy's and they honestly have one of the BEST burgers I've ever had in my life. I had cheddar, bacon and sauteed mushrooms along with the usual lettuce onion and tomatoes... it was the perfect way to break the Yom Kippur fast! 

 

On a separate note: My Dad still lives in NYC and keeps me abreast of some of my childhood favorite restaurants. Sadly, the Yorkville part of Manhattan has been slowly dying for the last 2 decades or so and I only recently found out my favorite restaurant of all time  Mocca on 2nd ave of 82nd street closed back in like 03. This made me very nostalgic and sad. Easily the best restaurant I've eaten at. Small and friendly run by a Hungarian family that always kept it affordable with HUGE portions. I'm equally disturbed to to discover almost all my former local pizza joints are long dead as well!

 

James

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A Whole Food's opened up in the area a few months ago and a few weeks ago I decided to stop in and check it out. I can see how people refer to it as "Whole Paycheck". I picked up some rice(mostly basmati and jasmine) and some meat. Their hamburger might be the best I've ever had. I'm not sure if it is an 80/20 mix or what but when cooked the burgers gave off a lot of grease but they were extremely juicy and delicious. Even after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days and being reheated they were tremendous.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Trying to hit that impossible menu balance of taste, nutrition, being-filling, and affordability on a limited budget.  Already favor Aldi over Shop 'N' Save and generic over name-brand if I can help it, but what are some good rules of thumb for this mindset?

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Trying to hit that impossible menu balance of taste, nutrition, being-filling, and affordability on a limited budget.  Already favor Aldi over Shop 'N' Save and generic over name-brand if I can help it, but what are some good rules of thumb for this mindset?

Really the best thing you can do is learn how to effectively use herbs and spices. Find farmers markets in your area. Cheaper than buying processed boxed foods and have better taste. For meats you can get cheaper cuts that require braising. There are tons of helpful videos for how to get the most out of those cuts on youtube. You could probably do a full culinary school style course just from youtube videos. Learning how to use spices is a great starting point though since they can elevate anything to great when used properly. Indian spices in particular have been elevating vegetarian dishes for a long time now. Also the usual suspects, pasta is usually cheap and goes a long way. Same with eggs for protein, chicken thighs and legs. Below average ingredients with great technique beats poor technique and good ingredients.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a dude who stocks frozen foods on the daily, I try new things from time to time. The new Old El Paso shredded beef burritos are freaking awesome. Spicy and delicious...well worth the six bucks they ask for.

 

Also, I've gotten hooked on making 12 layer taco salads lately. Very awesome.

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Newest Aldi discovery for me has been the microwavable chicken and cheese chimichangas.  Probably terrible for me, but I like them way more than the burritos they carry.

 

Wish I'd get over my laziness because I CAN cook stuff but I usually just get things that are easy to prepare(as in, microwave and done).

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I keep forgetting to make this post, but I tried those McDonald's Mighty Wings a week or two ago, so I'd figure I'd give a little review of it.

 

First off, the wings themselves are huge compared to, say, Buffalo Wild Wings and some other sports bar chains that feature wings prominently. Where I was, it was a 3-piece for $2.99, so about $1 per wing, which also matches up favorably with other wings. No sauce, so it was kind of like the KFC wings in that regard, but they came with a sauce for dipping. As for taste, it was surprisingly good. A decent amount of heat that didn't overpower the flavor of the wings, and it was nice and crunchy, which is how I like my wings.

 

Overall, I'd say this was about as good as you could expect them to be, coming from McDonald's and all. I wouldn't go out of my way for them, but if you're going to McDonald's anyway, you could definitely do worse.

 

Solid B+

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  • 1 month later...

Trying to hit that impossible menu balance of taste, nutrition, being-filling, and affordability on a limited budget.  Already favor Aldi over Shop 'N' Save and generic over name-brand if I can help it, but what are some good rules of thumb for this mindset?

 

Something that's great for either the novice or the lazy pro are the Kikkoman mixes for various Chinese dishes. They are like .99 a packet and with a bit of soy sauce and other stuff that you likely have on hand you can make restaurant quality General Tso's Chicken, Mongolian Beef, and numerous other tasty goodies. Needless to say, boneless thighs are usually pretty damn cheap and I find them much more flavorful than breast meat (which is also way expensive).

 

You can also make good Pad Thai from scratch and a big ol' pot goes a long ways...

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So cupcakes have become a thing in our little neck of the woods in the last couple years. There are two places near us that won Cupcake Wars; one in East Haven (Sugar), and one in downtown Milford (Suzie Cakes, which is now called Sweet Cupcasions for whatever reason). But we have one that is literally a 10-15 minute walk from our house, called Taste and See, that blows both of those away. Literally the best cupcakes I've ever had, full stop.

 

How about you guys? Any good cupcakes to be had in your neck of the woods?

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