Can you meet us at the diamond mine? My wife wants to go there and get rich.
Calamari. Always disappointing so I don’t order it anymore. Now usually someone else will order it, not want to finish it, offer it up to the rest of the table and i’ll give it a try again. Nope, still disappointing.
Fried cactus. Not sure what the point i. Hard to bite through, not a pleasant flavor.
Yep. We went to Alan Hales Lobster Barrel, but the kitchen wasnt fully opened yet, so the bar offered us “all you can eat” stone crab. REALLY good. The Skipper even came over to say hello, and tried some of ours. We squeezed lemon and a little drawn butter. yum
Roscoes in Hollywood opened in 1975. I preferred the chicken smother in gravy.
Little taste and the texture of inner tube. Okay in cioppino.
Are In-N-Out burgers actually good, or is the hype due to the toppings?
Fillet Mignon
Yes it is very tender, so what? I am not living in Tudor times where your teeth fell out in your thirties and tenderness was critical(also long before meat grinders were invented and the best “tenderized” beef was gravely ass minced beef).
Tenderness is a ‘nice to have’ but flavor is 100 times better and filet has no fat, and no collagen and no flavor. I have eaten many a t-bone or porterhouse and thought, “ Yes the fillet side is noticeably more tender, but so much worse as thing to eat because there is no real flavor”, and as mentioned I have functioning teeth. I cannot understand all the people so caught up with the pretense and the bullshit of people spending 100$ to try to recreate Gordon Ramsey’s wellington or someone elses chateaubriand, only to be disappointed. You will be disappointed, it is a based on a food that is 100% elite pretense, and 0 % value of time and money. They have to add all kinds of mushrooms and larding because it is a dry tasteless cut.
Seriously, if you have been to a dentist, just buy ground chuck at a small fraction of the price, put some binder knowledge behind it, and you will have a much better tasting “Wellington” for comparative pennies, that is even more tender.
There is nothing unique about the toppings - lettuce, tomato, onions (raw or grilled), French dressing and American cheese if you want it. If you get them “animal style” the patties are fried in mustard and loads of pickles are added. But they’re very standard-issue, thin-patty, even smallish burgers.
What sets them apart is higher-quality meat (nothing frozen, 100% company-ground chuck), cooked to order and high quality control. Because In-N-Out pays better than most fast food joints, they tend to skim the cream of the crop for employees and I have found them to be pretty efficient and highly consistent. But they’re just fairly basic burgers that are simply tastier than most of their competitors. If you want fancy or thicker patties, they are not the place for you. Probably if you hate French dressing, ditto (unless you like your burgers plain, which they’ll accommodate). If you want a varied menu, ditto. It’s just variations on the basic burger, fries, sodas and milkshakes. And many people, including me, don’t like their style of fries.
The classic three-minute Anthony Bourdain video.
FWIW, typically the same people I mentioned who think a steak is the pinnacle of culinary excellence are usually also buying filets.
I don’t get either one. If I have to have a steak, give me a good thick NY or KC strip. But about 90 times out of 100, I’ll order the seafood.
I’ve had a Double Double with grilled onions, so I know how good they are. I just wonder if there are fans who get just a plain burger with maybe nothing more than ketchup or mustard.
Add me to the lobster folk. Ridiculous. It’s virtually tasteless. Crab kicks it around the block and then some.
Most of the things I think of have come from the sea, which reflects my personal bias but I still think I’m right. For instance, caviar. Incredibly salty fish goo. And perhaps it would be better if it wasn’t so freaking salty… They have a choice about how salty they make it, why do they make it so salty?
Overall it’s been my very limited experience that extremely high-end expensive foods that are considered the ultimate are either boring or nasty.
Amen. With you 100%. I actually hate filet… to the extent it has flavor the flavor reminds me of offal.
Oh, no idea. Though apparently you can order like that, I’ve never known anyone who has.
But I should correct myself for those not already in the know - I meant a variant on thousand islands dressing, not French.
Wow! Yummy, yummy, yum, yum! I agree with your position, but I’m very upset because I REALLY want to eat that meal but I’ve never seen “stone crab” on any menu in any restaurant in this region, and I’ve been to a lot of good ones!
I can reach only one sad conclusion: You guys are hogging it all down there and sending none up here to me! Bad Tibby, bad BAD Tibby! LOL
I am indeed a bad cat! But, don’t hate me for wandering down to the dock and grabbing fresh stone crab claws like it’s my personal seafood vending machine—Piña Colada sweating in one hand, mallet in the other, seagulls squabbling while scantily-clad bathing beauties look on. Tough gig, but somebody’s gotta keep Florida honest.
Because I’m a benevolent crustacean overlord, I found you a lifeline: Key Largo Fisheries—Stone Crab Claws. They’ll ship those sweet, briny beauties straight to your door so you can stop shaking your fist at the Gulf Stream.
Enjoy it for me, because next month I’m trading palm trees for rowhouses and cheesesteaks, heading back to Philly after forty years. Soon it’s snow boots instead of flip-flops, and the only claws I’ll see will be on the Eagles’ mascot.
Oh 'm God! You are worthy of worship! Thanks! 
Just pre-ordered 3 lbs! It’s due the 3rd week of October!
Nice pic! I get stone crab claws whenever I visit my sister in Florida. They are very delicious, though I’d put them on par with lobster, not above, myself. And it is pretty cool that they’re live-harvested and grow back. That has to be the only meat where that’s the case, right?
I’m not crazy about the mustard sauce typically served with them, though. To me it’s too overpowering of a flavor. I like just a little melted butter and some lemon wedges.
Stone crab fisheries are a rare model of sustainability: fishers twist off one (sometimes both) claws, toss the crab back, and it regenerates—like a self-reloading seafood buffet. Outside of a few controversial practices, like divers taking a slice of live abalone for sashimi and letting it heal, you won’t find many edible animals with a built-in “refill” feature. Well, except for the three-legged pig in my yard—because you never eat a good pig all at once.
Given the choice between being boiled alive or losing a limb that grows back, I know which box I’m checking.
Good job! I recommend buying or making mustard sauce to dip the claw meat in.
Let us know how you like them.
And, if you’re ever in Miami, go to Joe’s Stone Crab.
I usually don’t like foods with that texture, but when I was in grad school, there was this one restaurant that had an amazing version of this, made with a spicy but not too hot coating. That was fantastic, and I’ve never had the equal anywhere else since.
Just book marked the page. Looking forward to this.