I tried that and the sriracha ones the other day. The chicken and waffle one tastes kind of like breakfast sausage and maple syrup (unsurprisingly). It doesn’t have a particularly distinctive chicken flavor. I thought it was decent. The sriracha one just tasted like a cross between Flaming Hots and Sour Cream and Onion. Reasonable, as well, but nothing earth shattering. I didn’t get a chance to try the new garlic bread ones.
OK, that last sentence isn’t entirely right. Yes, the vast majority of the large farms are growing stuff like corn and soybeans, but there are a mess of small farms around here that grow a large variety of vegetables, including community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms that have people buy shares of their crops for the season, distributing a mixed selection of veggies each week.
I like CSA farms for a variety of reasons - I came from farmers on both sides of my family and like supporting small farmers; I like buying organic when possible (most CSA farms are organic when possible and reduced pesticide usage otherwise) for the health of my family (including our pet rabbits) and that of the farm workers who go out into the fields; I like the uber-freshness and long “shelf” life of vegetables picked only a couple days prior at most; I like getting a mix of veggies I might not otherwise buy so I can be exposed to new foods.
You’re right that not too many places grow much of anything (legal) inside at this time of year, at least nothing that can be eaten right now. I know of a hydroponic greenhouse in Michigan that will start shipping tomatoes to our area starting maybe in March or April, but just about all of our produce right now isn’t from anywhere around here unless you’re growing it yourself or are very, very persistent in seeking out suppliers.
Wait–what?
The only time I’ve ever been there was after my wife and I had been hiking, so we were already hungry and our standards were low. I ordered what I thought was going to be fish & chips, but was really a pile of flaccid potato scraps scattered next to a paper sack full of sawdust that had been soaked in rancid fish grease and left under a heat lamp for a day or two. The only other person in the restaurant was the manager, who I shit you not wore a button that said “Mr. Happy” and looked like he’d be smiling as he shanked us and dragged our bodies into the back for unspeakable purposes.
There was a bell by the exit that said something like, “Ring if you had a great Long John Silver Experience!” It did not toll.
I’m no fast food snob, but that place was miles worse than any other I’ve ever been to, except maybe the place I went to at 2 am in San Francisco that thought the red stuff on pizza was ketchup.
I don’t even eat vegetables and I want one of each 'cause they’re so darn cute.
This has already been brought up once, but I’d like to ask again… why is there the trend of stacking one’s food? I don’t want to play with my food in a tower, I want to eat it, separate and be able to decide which items I’d like to combine. Jeez. That’s as annoying as fuck.
Obviously, you had a bad experience at one. The ones I’ve been to, and there’s not a heck of a whole lot of them around here, have had piping hot, freshly fried fish. I love their tempura-like batter on their fish and chicken planks. It honestly is one of my favorite fast food chains, but apparently the quality is variable. Maybe it’s something like The Waffle House, where some are really awesome, and others terrible. The only bad experience I ever had at one was years ago when they had the popcorn “lobster” bites (I believe it was langoustine.) Those were not good. But the fish and chicken? Awesome.
It makes it look interesting and hopefully appealing to the eye, plus it makes it obvious that they’ve done more than scoop food out of a bin or pot and plop it on a plate. Someone fussed at least a bit over wanting to impress you from start to finish on the dish - from choice of ingredients to how the food is presented.
You can take their little tower down; that’s fine. It’s up to the diner how they’d like to eat.
About ten years ago, there was a trend where everything made of beef had to be “angus”. I never tasted the difference and to this day I don’t know what an angus is. I worked at Boston Market at the time, and they changed the name we called the meatloaf by on the menu from “Double-Sauced Meatloaf” to “Double-Sauced Angus Meatloaf” without changing anything about the food itself.
Wow, I haven’t heard many complaints about tall food since the mid-90s, when Alan Richman went on a rant about it.
I’m pretty fortunate because I live in the middle of a major agricultural region that includes tree fruits, a lot of truck farming (tomatoes and smaller crops, not grains), and a ton of corn. There are also a lot of dairy operations and small beef and pork producers. So it’s possible to eat very well on a relatively modest budget, especially if you know where to go.
But I’ve got a quibble with this whole “locavore” thing, and that is that some of the food that is brought to market is what you might call “boutique” food, and along with boutique food comes boutique prices. I can understand and appreciate fine pasture-fed beef, but not at the prices that some of the producers charge. So this stuff appeals to foodies, hipsters, and others willing to part with $30 or more for a two-pound steak or five bucks for a half-pint basket of berries. I know that it costs money to grow and raise organic crops and what-not and growers are certainly allowed to make a profit, but that stuff is too expensive to buy on a regular basis.
That’s good to hear. I love me some fried fish, but that experience with them was so revolting that I didn’t see any percentage in giving them a second chance. Now I will.
HEATHEN!!! HERETIC!!! :mad:
I kid, I kid. I have to say I lurve me the molten chocolate lava cake. There is a fancy 5-star Italian place near my home that serves a molten chocolate lava cake that could only be improved by sex with 3 of the 5 people on “my list”. They don’t call it that though, I think they call it a warm chocolate cake. Anyway, I only go there once or twice a year for special occasions because it can be a very expensive dinner with cocktails, wine, appetizers, entree, and THE BEST MOLTEN CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE (with a glass of champagne) EVER.
What you’re describing is no way related to a molten chocolate lava cake that I’ve enjoyed again and again and again. (Hey, where did this fat come from?) Maybe what you’ve described is what comes from a box, or an Applebees or Chilis?
Look at online reviews for particular LJSes. Looking online in my area, the reviews at individual locations really do seem to run the gamut, from ones that average four stars on 12 reviews to ones that have one star on two reviews. So find one with a good reputation if and when you do give them a second chance.
No no no no no! The little towers are silly and pretentious. And just a trend. In another couple of years, some hot young James Beard winner will start doing something different, then this conceit will be a thing of the past and everyone will be doing it the new way and wonder, like 80s fashion, why anyone ever did it the old way. 
How about the mania for “baby” vegetables? I don’t want a 2" carrot on my plate-it takes too long to eat, and most immature veggies are pretty tasteless.
First, I haven’t seen big towers of food–maybe a small stack. But if you do ever find me at an upscale restaurant (which is relatively infrequent), it’s because I want to be surprised and those decisions on what is supposed to be combined made for me. I trust the chef in this case, and that’s what I–personally–pay for. I mean, I don’t order a BLT and then complain that the bacon, lettuce, and tomato are all combined, so why would I complain here?
And it’s fine if you don’t like that. There’s plenty of upscale restaurants that don’t serve their food this way. That’s what’s great. Some days I just want a straight old-school steakhouse. Other days, I want to have fun and discover new tastes and new ways of combining flavors I would never had thought of before. And on other days, some combination of traditional dining with modernist cuisine. It’s all fun; it’s all food; and everyone has different expectations from going out to eat and different reasons for going out to eat.
If you hate towers, you’re really going to hate molecular gastronomy.
Look through the gallery of images here. Make sure you scroll and see the bacon-on-a-swing (or whatever it is) image, second from the end. It’s not the presentation that makes this “molecular gastronomy,” but the plating aesthetic is very modern and is an easy one to make fun of, if you wanted to.
I’m saying they were a silly trend 15 years ago. I haven’t seen anything more stacked than short ribs on mashed potatoes since the turn of the millennium.
Actually, I was commenting on what’s on almost every cooking show that I watch. I’m way too broke to do any fine dining anymore. As to molecular gastronomy, I think it would be fun and I’d love to try it (if it was free and I could eat real food either before or after ;)), just don’t serve me any foam. As adventurous as I am, that doesn’t appeal to me at all. Heh.
I’ve never done it, because it’s just wayyyyy too expensive for me (in that, as much as I love food, I just can’t bring myself to fork over that kind of money), but my brother and his wife have been to Alinea three times, and they’ve always left stuffed. While the courses are all small, 18 of them builds up. I wouldn’t say either of them have small appetites.