What are your favorite types of potato chips?

I had a tough dilemma today when making lunch this morning. Do I have the Old Dutch sour cream and onion chips, or the sour cream and onion Pringles?

It got me thinking: Are you a regular or ruffled chip fan? What is your favorite flavor? Or do you like Pringles? Or, perhaps kettle chips? Who would have ever imagined there would be so many chip varieties?

Note: Have you ever really looked at a Pringles container? What is up with the picture of the guy on the package? The guy has no ears, and no mouth or nose. He has a little bit of hair on top, eyes and a bushy moustache. But no ears, nose or mouth? Does he even get to eat the Pringles he promotes? Who in the Pringles marketing department said “yeah, that guy looks like a great representation of what we are trying to promote?” Who is he anyway? Does he have a name or is it just “that guy on the Pringles box?”

Anyway…I went with the Pringles today, because I had the regular sour cream and onion yesterday with my Italian BMT from Subway. Today I made a ham sandwich at home, with some potato salad and potato chips. No mashed potatoes, however.

How many of you get just plain regular potato chips? There are so many chip flavors out there (The food guys favorites: Sour cream and onion, cheddar and sour cream, jalapeno cheddar kettle) it can really be a tough decision. But when it comes to plain chips, the only time I ever get them is if get the French onion dip to dip it in. These two together are a great combo. I don’t really like dipping, say, sour cream and onion chips into a French onion dip. It’s kind of like Doritos (they are a separate chip family from the potato chip, but have similar qualities), I don’t like dipping Doritos in salsa, and instead like them plain. I like sour cream and onion chips plain, and not to use with dipping.

I always loved that big huge box at the store that was plain black and white, and just said “Potato Chips” on it. They tasted just like the other chips, they just looked plain.

I do like the fact that Pringles are easy to get out, you don’t have to reach into a loud bag to get them, and they make a good snack when traveling. And, they don’t get crushed, along with the bread, when you pack them in the grocery bag.

Chips are a great addition to any lunch. What are your favorites?

My Experience at Panera Bread

Below is the transcript of my recent experience at Panera Bread. This resulted in getting a coupon for $6 to use at my next visit at Panera:

Topic: My experience at Panera Bread

Comments:

I frequent this Panera quite a bit for breakfast, to get the asiago cheese bagel and sundried tomato cream cheese - very good. I've recently expanded to lunch. I can't be more disappointed with the sandwiches. Where is the meat? Today I had the chicken ceaser sandwich and there was more tomato and lettuce than meat. I had two bites into my half sandwich with no meat. I would have complained at the store but I got it to go and was back at my desk with a meeting in front of me so I couldn't leave.

The other time I got a chicken salad sandwich and it was the same thing- hardly any meat. I ate at the store so I asked for more. If I wantedthe bread and fixings to dominate my sandwich I'd go to Subway. Tomato and lettuce should not look like the main ingredient in a sandwich, unless it's a BLT. I was very disappointed with this and will definitely think twice about getting another Panera sandwich. They are very good, but the meat portions are very poor.

Thanks,

The Food Guy

*****************************************************************

Dear Food Guy,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your visit to our XXXXX location. We sincerely apologize for your disappointing experience with the your sandwich. I forwarded your comments to the District Manager for review.

We always strive to provide a wonderful meal, great service and a welcoming environment for our customers. When we fall short of that goal, we want to know about it. Thanks to feedback like yours, we canaddress problems quickly. Please forward your address, and I will be happy to send you a certificate for a treat on us. Please allow approximately two weeks for delivery.

Thanks again for contacting us.

We appreciate your business and value your comments.

Sincerely,

Isabella
Customer Comment Coordinator

Food or Fireworks and Other Random Musings

Random Musings:

Just ate the new Subway Reuben sandwich. I should have known better. It was luke warm, even after being toasted and I tasted more bun than corned beef and kraut. Worth the try, but won’t eat again. Grade: D

I saw one woman stand in a line of about 10 people for a bag of chips. I wondered if she had lunch back at the office or if she just wanted chips. I pegged her for a vegan, so who knows what she was eating – probably carrots and chips.

While getting a Sports Weekly to read while eating I saw for sale, oxygen. Seriously, does anyone buy this? I think they should market meat in a can. Don’t have time for a burger, get your fix with meat in a can. It could spray out like cheeze whiz or something.

Speaking of meat, you ever noticed chicken gets the shaft? Besides poultry, what else is chicken called? Chicken – that’s it. But with beef there is all kinds of variations including steraks such as ribeye, t-bone, porterhouse, sirloin, or hamburger, etc. For pork there is pork, ham, bacon, etc. For chicken there is just…chicken. No other name. Weak.

The 4^th of July is approaching and to me there is no bigger waste of money than fireworks. I’ve had two people tell me they are having parties where one bought $2,500 of Class A fireworks, another bought $400. Why, I ask? Especially since fireworks haven’t evolved in…ever? Seriously, with technological advances and all the new things out there, how come fireworks never change? They are always the same. Ooohhhh, ahhhhh, blah blah blah. I’d much rather spend the money on food. I’d rather say to my friends, come on over, I got $2,500 of Class A top choice steak ready to fire on the grill. We can all stand around and watch it cook and say “oooohhhh, aaaahhhhhhh.” Or, we could spend $200 on some good food and some good drink, that way when we oooohhh and ahhhhh we can have a tasty buzz and slur our words a bit. I wonder what oooohhhh aaahhh for fireworks sounds like a little slurred? Try it out this weekend and let me know.

Bottom line, fireworks are overrated, and the money is better spent on food and drink.

That’s all, happy Fourth!

PS – I heard that sound the other day, the “tick tick tick tick”…..”tick, tick, tick, tick”….what is it? It’s the sound of the gas grill when you know it is getting low but hope you don’t have to refill just quite yet. Fortunately I didn’t run out of propane – just yet. It's got a few more tick tick ticks left.

EAT!

Birthday Cake or Birthday Steak?

I was at a birthday celebration Sunday and as the candles were blown out, I thought – where did the origin of having a cake for a birthday come from? And, why is it always a birthday cake? Why can’t you have something different for a birthday celebration?

I think it’s time to mix it up.

Therefore, it’s time to replace the traditional birthday cake with a birthday steak!!!

You could put candles in the steak and blow it out. Obviously, you can’t just share one piece of steak, so more are needed. People could share the steak and comment on it "boy that's a good steak, where did you get it at?" Instead of talking about bakery's, you could talk about meat markets. 'I got it from John the butcher, he gave us a great deal."

The question is, what do you pair with the steak? It may sound good, but “steak and ice cream” may not be the best combination. Would it be another item, such as say, potato? Or, shrimp? Or, a veggie? Or maybe people want steak and ice cream, and they can use A-1 steak sauce as the topping, similar to chocolate syrup with cake and ice cream? Give that a try sometime and see how it works for yah!

And imagine if the invites go out.

What: Birthday party
For: Little Johnny
When: July 28
What to Expect: Games, prizes, swimming and steak and ice cream!

WHOA! You can bet the local moms club would be calling about that.

Traditions are good, but sometimes, they need to be refreshed. That’s why I recommend replacing the traditional birthday cake with the birthday steak!

Eat on!!!!!!!!!

Clean out the Fridge Day!

About every other Sunday I spend time cleaning out the fridge. There are many reasons for this. One is to clean out the leftovers from the last week (or week before if a Sunday is missed). Two, it’s to find any missing food items I may have forgot about. And finally, the biggest reason is to keep the fridge neat, tidy and organized. A messy fridge is a hindrance to the eating experience. It’s frustrating to look into the fridge and not know where things are at, if you are out of them, or what you need to get.

For example, One Sunday I cleaned out the fridge and noticed we had, scattered in various places throughout the fridge, three different containers of parmesan cheese. Why in the world would anyone need three containers of parmesan cheese at one time in their fridge?

Thus, a fridge audit can be a very beneficial experience.

(Note - my preferred method of music while doing this is listening to the 70’s channel on the Music Choice channel on cable. Some of the groovy tunes are a perfect fit for cleaning the fridge with the windows open and a nice breeze blowing in. Another note: while doing this I am eating a piece of leftover pizza, and drinking a diet coke. Little Food Gal is chugging some chocolate milk, and Food Gal is out and about getting more food items to put in fridge.)

What else did I find? Here are some items:

* Root beer flavored yogurt - expiration date June 18 - tossed
* Yoplait Light strawberry yogurt container - not with yogurt, but with au jus from roast beef au jus sandwiches earlier in the week - tossed
* Leftover corn in a plastic container; more leftover corn blended in another container, for little food gal - tossed
* Applesauce
* a bottle of wine
* potato salad (week old, contemplating tossing)
* In the bottom crisper: Diet coke and seven Voyageur extra pale ale beers
* In the middle crisper: tomatoes, broccoli, romaine lettuce, a tangerine, green apple (whatever happened to Green Apple Quick Step?), and celery.
* Eggs
* In the top drawer (this appears to be the junk drawer of the fridge, as many items I am not sure I want to keep appear here): Gorgonzola cheese (it‘s not my favorite cheese, but try saying it ten times fast, certainly more difficult than saying Colby ten times fast), two different bags of baby carrots that look they should be tossed; quarter stick of deer sausage, some deli salami that had “sell by 5/24/08“ on it; four pieces of bologna with white spots on one side; half an onion; two pound bag of deli roast beef, with about less than a pound left (still good); provolone cheese; block of sharp cheddar cheese; two flour tortilla’s; a plastic bag of colby/jack cheese slices with no cheese in the package; two limes; a half a block of sharp cheddar cheese; some shredded Mexican style cheese; another package of flour tortillas.
* Next shelf - this is at eye level, where most things get “shoved” with no consideration for the consequences of placing these items here: a small cup of chocolate milk; a Tupperware container with one petit cut no-name steak in it; a container of spaghettio’s; a container of leftover baked beans; a small container of store bought “big yummy caramel turtle brownies." Note: That is what the store labeled it, I would never use the word “yummy” and neither should any other male - ever; Jello, spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, olives, a baked potato all by itself, tucked back in the corner.
* Top shelf: Quite the array of items here - mushroom caps, cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, leftover spaghetti in a blender bowl for LFG, Hershey’s syrup, Amoxicillin for LFG; salsa, grey poupon, cherry’s, garden relish, asian inspired grilling paste, homemade tartar sauce, blueberries, two more jars of salsa

Overall, it wasn’t too bad since there was a recent fridge cleaning. I also cleared the top of the fridge and found some multi-grain wraps that I never knew we had, tossed out some bags of chips that were nearly empty and all broken, and, I also cleaned the freezer, but that’s a whole other story.

Cleaning the fridge is a good thing to do, and produces good results. And most of all you can look in the fridge, get right to it and know what you have or don’t have. When there is eating to be done you don’t want to have to waste time looking through the fridge. The bottom line: Dominate control of your fridge, don’t let the fridge control you.

Happy eating!

Chicken Sandwiches and a Cook Cam

Just got back from an early lunch. Didn’t have much – actually anything, for breakfast, so the hunger pains were striking around 10 a.m. I went to a local diner that has had mixed reviews. I wanted to give it a try for lunch, and I was craving a grilled chicken sandwich.

In my lifetime, I’ve probably ordered a chicken sandwich no more than five times when out to eat. I think it’s because I eat so much chicken at home, I want something else when I am out.

Anyway, down to business:

I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich which comes with fries and cole slaw, and washed it down with a diet coke. I was curious to see how this would turn out. When I got it, the appearance was good, and the slaw was in a separate bowl on the plate, which kept my slaw juice from touching my bread or my fries. Good job by the cook, I don’t like my food touching.

I was a little leery of the chicken sandwich being on bread, I am a bun man with chicken sandwiches. I got the sandwich and opened up one half, and there was barely any chicken on that side. I opened up the other and it was a little better but not great. What was going on was, the bread/tomatoes, and lettuce were the dominating factors of the sandwich. The main part of the sandwich – the meat – should always be what stands out. Not the bread or bun, or other toppings. So, it was disappointing that the chicken breast was so little. They actually could have put one breast on each side of the sandwich, that would have been ideal. It tasted good, just needed more meat. When I was two bites into one half of the sandwich the meat was gone, so I had a tomato, cheese, mayo and lettuce sandwich. I thought, you know, if I had some bacon, this could be a good BLT. So, do I order a side of bacon if I get the chicken sandwich again, and turn it into a chicken and BLT sandwich? Two half sandwiches for one?

It was very slow in the restaurant. After one couple left and another guy got some food to go, I was the only one in the restaurant beside the two cooks and server.

I noticed that immediately after my food was brought out both cooks made a mad dash right to the bathroom. This concerned me – what was going through the cooks mind when making my food? Was he thinking “oh man, I got to hurry up and make this sandwich because I really have to take a dump?” Or. “Oh god, I am going to piss my pants if I don’t get this done.” When I walked in he was sitting in the restaurant on his cell phone. So, in a ten minute span he went from front of the restaurant, to making a sandwich, to who knows what in the bathroom. The other cook, a female, came and went to the bathroom as well, but she seemed obsolete (not because she was female, but because I don’t think she had much to do with my sandwich).

As I was eating I felt the three employees were staring at me – they all looked bored. Then I noticed in the back, the cook had a laptop computer up. I then thought – was he watching video of himself making my food? Maybe there is a “cook cam” hooked up in the kitchen that is used as a method of training for the kitchen workers? Was he watching how he made my sandwich? Could he tell when he moved to the left or right a bit, and that urge to “squeeze back in” whatever it is he had to dispose of in the bathroom started coming on? Was it a camera from a few angles? What did he learn from this sandwich making experience? Did he drop the fries at the right time? Was the timing down? There are all sorts of options or angles that could have developed from a potential cook cam and video review.

Or, was he watching cooking video highlights on You Tube? Or maybe the Food Network, getting some tips and ideas? There was a ton of possibilities.

When it was time to go my server brought me my check and placed it on the table upside down. Why do servers give you your check upside down? Is it like it’s going to be a surprise when you turn it over? I knew my lunch was $6.99 when I ordered, and my soda was $1.85. When I turned it over, sure enough, with tax, it was $9.41. It’s probably just an old habit.

Anyway my lunch experience was overall, a C. I tried something new that I don’t eat much at a place I haven’t ate at much before. The real test will come in the future. I noticed after I ordered they have a hot roast beef and gravy sandwich on the menu. Any restaurant that wants to succeed must make this sandwich successfully. I look forward to going back to give it a try. Hopefully the meat will dominate the bread, not the bread dominating the meat.

Do you like to mix your meats?

I just got on to an elevator, and coming out was a woman whose voice sounded like Chris Farley. Whoa.

Anyway, what’s up with meat? As in, do you like mixing your meats on your pizza?

I’m a one meat at a time kind of guy. For example, many people love the meat pizza with sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger, bacon, etc. Not me. I love eating meat, but, I like the meat I am eating to be the dominant ingredient.

For example, I like Pepperoni pizza and nothing else. I like sausage, mushroom and onion, or sausage, mushroom and green olive. I like plain Canadian Bacon. Notice the trend? I don’t like a combo pizza of sausage and pepperoni. I don’t like the “meat lover’s” pizza because I don't think it’s fair to make meats compete against each other. But some people do - some say the meats complement each other and that’s good for them.

On another subject, I often find that most people are willing to mix sausage with other ingredients, but maybe order Pepperoni separately. I am probably biased because I don’t do it, but you don’t seem to hear people say I want the Pepperoni and onions as much as the sausage and onion or Canadian bacon and pineapple. I’m not much of a fruit guy on my pizza, but why is pineapple the only fruit most people put on or can get on pizza, and why is pineapple only always allowed with Canadian bacon? And what’s up Chorizo, why isn’t that called Mexican bacon? How come the Canadians get to call their form of meat by it’s country name, but Mexican’s can’t? I tell you what, they need better marketing south of the border.

One other thing - I think, unless you are really hungover and just want a junk pizza (junk as in it’s got a lot of junk on it but tastes really good), there should be a three topping rule on pizzas (extra cheese doesn’t count). Any more than three ingredients, and you are starting to expand the capabilities of your ingredients beyond their limitations.

Anyway, I don’t like mixing my meats.

As for you, it’s up to you. Mix and match all you want, I’ll take the plain pepperoni, or the sausage, onion and green olive or mushroom.