Black Tea: The new caffeine of choice?

Black tea. Have you tried it? It's flat out delicious. My personal favorite is Tetley black tea. It has natural ingredients and none of the sugars or chemicals that come in some other popular brand name teas. What's best about Black Tea? Well, the health benefits, and the CAFFEINE. YES I AM SHOUTING. I'VE HAD A LOT OF BLACK TEA AND AM HYPER. In all seriousness, who doesn't like a caffeine boost in the morning, afternoon or even evening? I know The Food Guy does, but I don't want to drink soda all day and don't like coffee. I've tried coffee but just can't acquire the test for it. I wish I was one of those eaters who could sit and think about coffee all day. On a side note, I woke up and read Facebook the other day and one guy posted how his week was complete because of these things "Coffee, family and the people in his life." That's what I don't get, people who love coffee LOVE coffee. I mean, they focus their entire day or life around it. I know one woman very well who if she doesn't get her coffee in the morning she gets quite cranky (no name listed here to protect this blogger). But people who love coffee post about it, Tweet about it and live for it. But for me, it's black tea that does the trick. It's a great pick me up for the morning. I won't be posting on Facebook or Tweeting about it, but then again I blogged about it, so maybe some day I will. I recommend adding some stevia for flavor, serving chilled over ice and maybe adding lemon. Try some today. YOU WILL LOVE WHAT IT DOES FOR YOU!

Black olives vs. Green olives

I’ve been a big fan of black olives on my sub sandwiches lately. This morning I was eating a footlong roast beef sub and it was tasty with black olives. Why doesn’t Subway have green olives available?

Do you like the whole olives or the cut olives? Pimento in or pimento out?

I like black olives on my sub, but on pizza I prefer green olives. Food gal loves green olives. Her favorite pizza is sausage, onion and green olive. I am more of a sausage, onion and mushroom kind of guy but that’s another story.

So, when it comes down to it, what is better the black olive or the green olive? Do you ever combine the two, say in a cold pasta salad? Do you ever get both olives on your pizza?

And what’s up with olive oil, why is it green? How come black olive oil isn’t made? Are their racial tensions in the world of olives, discrimination against the “black” olive?

Both have their pluses and minuses – which do you prefer?

Who buys grapes with seeds in them anyways?

I made the mistake of buying grapes with seeds in them the other day at the store. They were the dark purple ones, the big fat juicy ones. For some reason I thought they were seedless, but oh was I wrong.

My question is why in the hell would anyone buy grapes with seeds in them? How enjoyable is it to bite into a grape and pluck seeds out, no matter how juicy and tasty they are? In my opinion they shouldn’t even sell grapes with seeds in them. You can’t put them in salads, and they are work to eat. I ate three and tossed the remaining 8 or so I had in the bag in the garbage.

It was my fault, but why even sell them?

Share charges suck

I've never done it myself - share a plate at a restaurant. You know, one couple order one meal and share it. But it happens, I suppose.

Anyway, why can some restaurants get away with charging a $3 share charge for example? If one wants to go to a restaurant and order one menu item and share it, so be it. What if one was eating by themself? It's no different if two people are eating one meal.

I really don't think it costs them $3 to bring out an extra plate and for the dishwasher to wash it, so it's a bogus charge.

The simple solution is to both order a meal. But, in some cases - with people I don't know - there may be a need to share a meal. Maybe you ate earlier and want to eat again and just want to share some food, I understand that. But it's not right for a restaurant to charge a share charge for sharing a plate. We are the customer and we decide what we eat and how we eat it.

So, EAT!

Subway Lies in its TV Commercials! FALSE ADVERTISING

I can't help but get that Subway commercial stuck in my head: Five dollar, five dollar footlongs. It's catchy. I am not saying it's good, but it's catchy.

However, I've had it with Subway's misleading advertising. Next time you watch a Subway commercial, take a good close look at the Subs they show. They are piled high with meat - and they put the meat on top. COME ON! That is a blatant false advertisement! Subway never ever ever ever puts the meat on top of the vegetables when you fold the sandwich over. It's always on the bottom - and there is barely any meat to be seen.

Look here, I've ate Subway at 19 of the 50 states in the contintental U.S. and I have never ever ever had one sub that is loaded with meat on the top.

That's why it's false advertising. They show you one thing, then make another. It's the classic bait and switch. They put more meat on those subs in the commercial than they ever do on any sub - even if it's double meat.

Therefore, I am gathering a special blue ribbon, fact-finding committee (kind of like in Revenge of the Nerds when Stan Gable and Betty Childs form a committee to help the nerds in their quest for admission to the fraternity) who will help in pursuing a class-action lawsuit against Subway. The false advertising has got to stop - or else they need to start adding more meat to our subs!

They can take their five dollar, five dollar footlong and shove it....well, you can finish the rest.

EAT!

Corn Dogs: Odd or Even?

I bought some corn dogs at the store the other day. The state fair kind – they are a great easy snack/meal supplement.

I was perplexed though, the same brand had one box with 6 corn dogs, and another box with 5 corn dogs. Why would they have such similar options? Why not a 6 and an 8? Or a 4, 8 or 10? I don’t think there should be any odd number packages though. Who eats just one corn dog at a time? I suppose there could be a time when you don’t want two, but want three so if you eat two, and later down the road, in a week or two, get the corn dog crave, you eat two, then you want one more, you have that extra one?

But why a 5-pack and a 6-pack?

As I was reading the heating instructions (corn dogs must be cooked in the oven, the microwave just makes it soggy), it said “heat for 16-20” minutes.

It got me thinking – are you a 16 minute heater or a 20-minute heater? Do you check at 16 minutes or do you wait the entire 20 minutes? I usually flip at about 8 minutes, and then check at 16. It’s better to be undercooked, than overcooked. But does anyone really check at the 17th, 18th or 19th minute, for example?

Why is the package odd numbers (5), but the heating instructions even (16-20)? And, do they have a team that tests them? One group does the 15-19 minute tests, the other does the 16-20 minute test? And the winner gets a dinner at a fancy restaurant while the others are voted off?

I like my corn dogs with ketchup and mustard. I like to eat them by dipping my corn dog into ketchup and mustard. I don’t like squirting the ketchup or mustard on the corn dog, there is too much potential for disaster (such as a ketchup or mustard stain on a white shirt). It’s acceptable at the state fair, but when at home, I like to dip.

That’s all – time to eat those corn dogs. Heaven on a stick.

Wanted: Something Good to Eat!

Sometimes, it’s just hard to find what the heck you want to eat. I just ate a turkey sandwich but couldn’t decided if I wanted that or leftover tacos. The turkey sandwich wasn’t enough and I wanted more. I am just utterly confused at what I want to eat next. The main thing is, I don’t want to cook.

I just opened the cupboard and looked at some minestrone soup, cans of tuna and green beans. Not doing it. I then opened the freezer and was staring at some pot pies while craving hot dogs.

You see, when you look through the cupboards, fridge or the freezer when you are not sure what you want to eat – and you don’t really have anything appealing to eat - it’s like being in the desert when you are dehydrated. Your mind starts playing games on you. You start hallucinating. We all do it, we keep looking in the fridge, freezer or cupboards – the same one’s over and over – thinking there is suddenly going to be something new in there to eat. Then you realize half the stuff in there is stuff you don’t really want to eat anyway, that’s why it’s still in there.

Oh, there is plenty in the freezer I want to eat – steak, pizza rolls, chicken patties (by gosh, maybe I’ll have a chicken patty now that I think about it) but they just weren’t what I really really wanted. You know how it is, you open it up and spot it right away, kind like a woman seeing a great deal on a clearance item at the local clothing store. Oh yeah, all over it.

I pulled out some basmati rice and opened the package, then thought “do I really want to make rice at 12:24 on a Saturday?” So far, no.

I ate my turkey sandwich solo – meaning without a partner, like chips – and a diet coke. While looking through one cupboard I found some Triscuits. Of course as is the case anytime with Triscuits, the bag wasn’t shut properly in the box, therefore the Triscuits were stale. Two things: Is there anything worse than a stale Triscuit? And, does anyone actually ever shut the plastic in the box properly so Triscuits can last over time? Really, Triscuits should be a refrigerated food because they seem to spoil so fast. Or else they need better packaging because no one ever shuts the plastic properly anyway.

Anyway, today is one of those days when I don’t know what to eat. But don’t despair, I’ll still eat – just not sure what quite yet. It’s time to go back and stare into the cupboards, fridge and freezer some more to see what suddenly shows up.