Is It So Hard To Serve a Warm Hotdog?

After a visit to Hot Dog King in Orem today we had a discussion about the apparent difficulty in serving a warm hot dog because you guessed it, my hot dog was stone cold. Thankfully Mat, being on his best husband duties and very hungry we traded and I ate his much warmer hot dog and he gobbled down my cold one. Hot Dog King has been open for six years, or so the hyper active elderly cooking man told us. He was very shocked we had not been in before and expressed the sadness of the fact we could have been eating his hot dogs for 6 whole years. Consequently I will not be eating them for another 6 years....or 12, hopefully. They are "gourmet" hot dogs which added up to being a 3 fold menu of different hot dogs piled high with toppings, usually quiet similar and it was very confusing to read the almost exact same ingredients over and over and decide what you want. It could be simplified and still offer a wide selection. Perhaps with a simpler menu they could actually remember what Mat ordered and bring him the right one instead of whatever they brought, it was good, just not what he ordered. We left with the desire to still eat something good and reminisced on our visit to The Pizzaria, (yes it was actually misspelled and should have been The Pizzeria) This little number we found in Duchesne, Utah on our way to Vernal. Walking in was scary upon arrival, but this is the risk you run when you take to the unknown to eat. There was no one around, a hole in the ceiling with a giant garbage can under it to catch dripping water. After a min or two a very young boy came out to take our order. It was like walking onto and episode of the X-Files or Twilight Zone. He seemed VERY hillbilly, hair slicked straight back, overalls (ok, maybe not but that's how I remember it) and buck teeth (yes for real) He looked like he should of been in school but stayed home to help run the family business. The chairs at the counter were old, cloth covered, office chairs. Like someone had replaced all the chairs in an office building and these were snatched out of the dumpster. The young boy took to his computer to take our order. Mat ordered a chili dog and two waters and the young boy repeated that, four times "Ok, two waters and a chili dog, two waters and a chili dog, two waters and a chili dog, two waters and a chili dog" each time picking up the computer mouse and setting it back down. It was like he was a robot that got a glitch from the leaky ceiling. I wanted to smack his head to bring him back to us, but he finally came around and I ordered a small pizza. We waited and waited and at one point the a 3 year older version of the young boy walked out and then a 18 year old version of the young boy. Seriously they all looked EXACTLY the same, awkwardly slicked back hair and all. I ventured to the bathroom and it was a good thing I had my rain boots on as the carpet leading up to the bathroom door squished under my feet and I walked in to find the toilet in the middle of the room with its open sewage hole in the corner where the toilet belonged. I rushed back to Mat, we got our food. A doughy pizza and a cold hot dog.....WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SERVE A WARM HOT DOG?!?! I can asses your restaurant, Pizzaria and Hot Dog King, are no chain high earning eateries, however a hot dog is the EASIEST food item in the world to cook. A 1 year old can do it. So why oh why is it so hard to zap the damn thing in the microwave for 20 seconds before you bring it to me....especially when its ALL YOUR RESTAURANT SERVES!!!(I'm talking to you Hot Dog King) I understand hot dogs are one of the least desirable food items to go out to a sit down place and order, but they can be delicious. I.E. J Dawgs...down by BYU and now off University Parkway by Rumbi Grill. THAT is a good hot dog, and always warm...as for Pizzaria and Hot Dog King, I dethrone you both. Next time I want to eat a nasty cold dog, well that's the problem I NEVER want nasty cold Hot Dog's. Officially on our DO NOT RETURN list.
The pictures are proof that The Pizzaria is very, very real.

Settebello

Tonight I had a hot date. He took me to this great little authentic Italian pizzeria, Settebello. I went here for the first time a year or so ago with a roommate and have been thinking about it ever since. It. Is. Delicious. I am a self proclaimed Pizza Guru. I love all kinds. Thick crust, think crust, stuffed crust. I love a piled high with meat, supreme with all the veggies too. Cheap .99 cent Totino's freezer pizza to taco pizza with re fried bean, lettuce and chips on it. I love it all. I can't even think about a kind of pizza I don't like. This makes it difficult to emphasize how much I like THIS pizza. It is a step above the rest. Like I mentioned it is authentic Italian. That means instead of marinara sauce its just crushed tomatoes for sauce. The toppings are very simple, mozzarella cheese, basil, goat cheese etc. The crust...ah the crust the crust the crust. It is very thin and flavorful and baked in a fire oven and it is so good!!We each brought home half our pizza and it didn't make it to the morning. We already ate the other halves...The appetizers are very very good too. I'll spare the awkward Italian words to describe our appetizer. It was greens and goat cheese wrapped in Italian cured ham with balsamic vinegar. It was really simple and good! That's what I like about this place, it keeps it simple and that is what keeps it good. Oh and the best part is afterward you can walk across the hall and get some delicious Gelato! Next time you are downtown Sal latke, go there!

Barff on the 8

This tale comes to you from our Honeymoon. It is an experience Mat and I swore we wouldn't talk about for years...but here we are. With his permission I tell this story of bravery and humiliation. Consider yourself warned that the following (as shown in the title) contains material not for the weak of stomach.

This was very near the end of our honeymoon. We had eaten a lot of great food, played hard in the sun all the while having really bad colds. Perhaps we had overdone it...
On this night after a day of Sea World we headed to downtown San Diego. I was grumpy and argued I didn't want to find someplace downtown but Mat promised I would like it. We found this great little Italian place. I don't remember what it was called, but I took lots of pictures. It was a very nice environment and very reasonably priced. They brought out a little basket of assorted breads, I loved them. We ordered spinach and cheese ravioli in Alfredo sauce
and it had peppers and pine nuts in the sauce. We shared a plate of it on account we had been eating so much and didn't want to totally stuff ourselves for dinner. IT was very very good. We gobbled it all up and were on our way. In the car on the way home just as we were getting ready to switch freeway's Mat coughed....and then started throwing up. There was no way to pull of the highway so like an expert he managed to continue to drive. It just kept coming and coming. I was horrified, worried about him and laughing all at the same time. During the whole ordeal he managed to make our freeway switch and pull off the road. Luckily we had left one of the suitcases in the trunk and got things pretty cleaned up. The side of the road clean up was like something from a nightmare, we were both heaving and Mat even threw up more and we left all items caught in the fire were left behind on the side of the road. All it all it was a hilarious. Mat was so embarrassed. I tried to make him see the bright side, like no matter what happened from here on out throwing up all over yourself on your honeymoon can't be topped, so it was only up from there. Really its true. The best part was that we were in a rental car. Mat took great lengths to clean it the best he
could. We drove from San Diego to Vegas the next day and I made seat covers out of plastic bags and towels and once in awhile smell would float up
so to prevent ever smelling it I put my mint lip gloss
in my nose holes so that was all I would smell. We dropped off the car and felt very accomplished that they passed it off without requiring further cleaning fee as was our goal. It was a great unforgettable experience. The biggest downfall is that I would give the food 5 stars, but I could never eat that meal again because of the lingering mental images.....I've just been able to see the pictures again.

Rice King Noodle, or RKN as I like to call it

Rice King Noodle. It's all in the name! This little Viatnamese joint on Provo Center St. It was a hard pick this night because of all the choices on that St but fate led us here. I walked in and recognized it. I had been there the year before, only it was a burger joint with nocturnal forest scenes painted on the walls and cutesy little pine trees and bears as decor. The Viatnamese owners did not bother painting over this which felt a little weird. Kind of like the Fong's near my hospital that used to be a 50's style diner. They didn't change anything, you are in this classic 50's style Diner eating sticky rice with chopsticks....more on that another day. SO we talk to the very friendly waiter about food choices. Mat decided on the Pho (pronounce FU) which is a soup type thing with all kinds of meat including but not limited to meat balls, tripe, flank steak etc. I got some sort of chicken and we got some egg rolls. Side note: one thing I am learning is to not always order the chicken because it never tastes all that different from place to place! So we set out to eat this food. It was A LOT of food as you can see. We kept eating and eating at Mat's and we were both stuffed and left a good portion in the bowl when we left. I loved the fresh veggies on mine and the chicken was good too. Nothing outstanding and too exotic. I did LOVE the egg/spring rolls, whatever they were they had a delicious sauce. So we enjoyed our meal. I really liked the place as we left. We took a nice summery walk down Center St. gazing in the shops and into each others eyes then we stopped in the Covey Art's Center to play a rousing game of "Guess My Favorite Painting" when mid-way through Mat excused himself to the restroom. I waited and waited and waited. Finally I figured something must be wrong and sure enough he emerged to reveal gastronomical distress. We didn't think too much of this and headed home. Shortly after my stomach pain started. My pain was not so quickly resolved however. We came home to clean and organize and my stomach got worse and worse. I was trying to be brave, laugh it off so I said to Mat "It feels like Vietnam is waging war between the North and South and I don't know who will win!" so he say's "That seems a little dramatic" that was it. I ripped his head off "You don't even know! Don't tell me how I feel!" and went and laid down. I later apologized to Mat, he went home. I will spare the details of the rest of my night, but I will say it was a long night. So my final take on Rice King Noodle....I don't know. It was good, but you know how getting sick after eating something taint's your memories.

The Skinny Man Syndrome

From a teenager to my early twenties I suffered from what I would call the skinny man syndrome. Eat-and-eat, and never gain weight. It was a tragedy that would haunt my dreams, and cause me to engage many a midnight milk shake. I couldn't wait for the day when my butt was rounder than my knuckles and my chin grew into two.

Now that has all changed and with quick succeeding years I enjoy a rounder, more “jolly” belly and fuller face. Having been cured from skinny man syndrome gives me a new look on life. I can see the effects of the food I eat and the joyous results that befall a man after a plump hamburger or simmering piece of pie. Albeit I have much to discover in the future years, our adventures of the gastrononimcal kind this year has brought us to such a place that embraces this foodological effect.

Chubby's Cafe, diagonally across from Macy's in Pleasant Grove, invests in all things chub. They serve out an assortment of foods. Hamburgers, chicken and soul inspired cuisine rounds the menu into a full service diner. Pearl and I ventured to this place after Pearl had noticed how run down the exterior looked. We were surprised to see that inside was much cleaner and neater. The cashier was cordial and as I peered in the back I caught a glimpse of the chef. He was not suffering from skinny man syndrome. We scanned the menu. Pearl ordered the jalapeno ranch burger, she is on a kick of spicy things lately, and had an order of fries on the side. I took on the cheese steak as recommended by the cashier, and couldn't resist the choice of jambalaya as a side dish.

The meal was as advertised. Flavorful, messy, and juicy. I really enjoyed the fries and fry sauce and I liked Pearl's hamburger better than my cheese steak sandwich. The burger had just the right tang to it and left my mouth watering. The jambalaya was ok. I felt the rice was a little dry and the taste was not as carefully crafted as jambalaya deserves. The cheese steak was good in flavor and served it purpose of filling my belly with delight. I sometimes think about this restaurant and long for next year when I can return and rejoice as a graduate from skinnyness.

-Mat

Thai Villiage

This little place in American Fork we went to on a very cold day in December. It was JUST before we started the once a year thing. It's very quaint with a pioneer handcart out front tho I'm unsure about what that has to do with Thailand but a few months later on Mat's birthday it's where I tied a balloon in part of his memory lane treasure hunt. I remember it was very cold because I was very cold in there. We ordered our food. I had yellow curry. it was very good. Mat ordered Pad Tai noodles and he liked it, he said he could taste the long fingernailed women of Thailand (I don't know, don't ask) It took awhile for our food because we had an extensive conversation about my mood ring which led to the great idea of hiding it in one of the decor basket's to see if it was still there when we returned. The food really was very good. I remember because when we started talking about not going back to the same place for a year I was sad about not going back to Thai Village, but alas it has no drive in window so in another 4 months we can return. Also a must for Thai Village is the sticky mango rice. It is very sweet and very sticky rice with coconut milk and sliced up mango on top. A really tasty dessert. Mat actually recreated this at home some months later and it was very very good the second time as well. Thai Village yummy.

The Comfort Zone

One thing I always noticed is how people like to go to the same restaurant's. My family gets together its Fong's. When we order out at work it's Cafe Rio. With this person its this place that person that place. If you go to this town its the same place all the time. Don't even get me started on chain places.

Steak = Texas Roadhouse

Chinese = Panda Express

Mexican = Cafe Rio

Pizza = Papa Johns

Italian = Olive Garden

I like trying new places!! Most of the time its difficult to convince people to try new and unknown places to eat. A fact Mat and I talked about on our first date (extremely ironically this conversation took place in a Starbucks) and I found it an attractive quality that he also likes trying new and obscure places to eat. Further more two consecutive family eatings at Mi Ranchito where we ended up in intestinal pain and turmoil both times lead us to start eating at the same restaurant only once in a year. This excludes places with a drive in window, hey we have to make it easy on ourselves somehow! So far it has been great fun. Only 1 and 1/2 food poisonings with I'm sure more to follow! So here we are to share our adventures thoughts and amateur food critic opinions and maybe to inspire a few people to try the unknown.