pickles do not go with BBQ!

The other day I was at a BBQ place in Pine Bluff, trying it for the first time.  It was one of those great and turrible* experiences all wrapped into one.  I ordered a BBQ sandwich, but they put pickles on it!  Nowhere on the menu did it say pickles were included on it, nor did the waitress mention it.  I’ve ranted (numerous times) about having no tolerance of pickles, so I won’t rant on that again.  But they should tell you about such things!  They should warn you before exposing you to pickles!  I don’t know if they were trying to ruin my day or just completely ignorant of how much some people detest pickles.

Fortunately, the pickles had yet to soil the meat or bread with their evilness, so they were discarded with no harm done.  That’s a good thing, or the whole plate would’ve been returned.  (I’m not normally one to make a fuss at restaurants, but I have to draw the line at pickles.)  At least the food was great, so that was the bright spot on the trip.

There was another bad spot, though — the waitress never came back.  I finally had to ask for a refill of sweet tea, and they never brought a ticket.  Paying took a long time because they had to match people’s orders with a pile of tickets containing only codes.  I hope that type of service isn’t the norm.

Anyway, just thought I’d rant.  It’s my soapbox, and I can rant if I want to.  🙂  If you’re expecting a moral of the story, it’s that pickles should not be served at restaurants.  If I owned a restaurant…

* turrible is the worse form of terrible, and try to say it like Charles Barkley does, for full effect.

the most fattening meal ever

Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we’ve had a number of Buffet o’ Bacon nights, where we create original bacon dishes.  These have been wildly popular, and many people have desired to participate.  (We have talked of having one open to the public, so hang in there.)   (FYI, if you aren’t familiar with these outings, they are all documented on this blog.  The search box is at the top right of the sidebar.)

Our bacon creations have been great for the most part, although there was the gut-bomb incident…   Since then, we have decided to draw the line on some things.  Call that philosophy what you will, but we don’t want to die today.  If someone wanted to reject all sense of healthiness and longevity of life, it’s not that hard to do — just add bacon to everything and let the bacon grease cook into all the other ingredients.   Of course, people have done this.  We have written on the bacon explosion before, which is over-the-top in how fattening it is (and probably in how good it would taste).   But some people have to keep taking things farther.

The following video is by a group called Epic Meal Time, and they do create epic meals (as well as slick video productions).  Just so you know what you’re getting into, the TurBaconEpic they invented uses 10 packages of bacon and six (6) pounds of butter, as well as a whole pig.  They keep a running total on calories and fat grams, and it will blow your mind.  This is the most fattening meal I have ever heard of.  All in all, their meal had 79,046 calories and 6,892g of fat.   Just try to consider that in context with your daily recommended allowance…

All that said, here’s the video.  Are you ready?

I wish they would keep their episodes free from crude language.  So watch more of their episodes at your own risk.

I’m including this post in the Food Critic series.  It’s not a picture, but you can comment on the food creation from the video.

a fishy epiphany

The other night I had an epiphany, and, not surprisingly, it had to do with food.  (I tell ya, if I ever opened a restaurant, it would be the greatest thing since sliced bread… or even greater.  But I digress…)

It all started when I was baking some tortilla-encrusted Alaskan cod.  I like fish, and it’s good for you, too, with its Omega-3 fatty acids (whatever those are).  My wife sometimes eats some microwave meal (Healthy Request?) that is tortilla-encrusted fish.  It’s not bad, as far as low-fat, healthy microwave meals go.

Anyway, back to non-microwave-ready fish.  This fish was encrusted with crumbled-up tortillas, cornmeal, and jalapeños.  It was good, but of course, it could be even better.  The most obvious way would be to add bacon, but that’s not an epiphany — that’s just common sense.  I was thinking of different breadcrumb / encrusting options, and I had the idea of making Cheetos-encrusted fish (or chicken).  Would that not be awesome?  It’s time for some research!

burger challenge at Cheeburger

Last week the Buffet o’ Blog staff and a few friends met at Cheeburger Cheeburger in Little Rock, AR, to conquer their so-called burger challenge.  Their “challenge” is called “Our Famous Pounder”, and it starts with 20 oz. of beef plus whatever toppings you want.  It doesn’t sound too intimidating to me! If you eat it, they take your picture and put it on the wall with the other “Wall of Famers”.

Two of the guys in our group attempted and both conquered the burger, plus some fries and/or onion rings, and a regular milkshake.  While it’s an achievement worthy of recognition (hence the post), one of them requested his secret identity remain secret (probably so his wife wouldn’t know he ate the whole thing).

Of course more pictures could’ve been taken, but I had food of my own to eat, so this is all you get.  Besides, it’s not that much of a challenge.  I’ve eaten meals larger than that before.

About the food — the burgers tasted great.  There are many choices of toppings, including peanut butter.   None of us tried that, but one guy put pepperoni on his and recommended it.  We all added bacon to our cheeseburgers, which was good, but there were the usual comments of “needs more bacon”.  (For those not in the know, that is a recurring phrase on this blog. Just about any food could be made better with more bacon.)

The fries were average to me, but the onion rings left something to be desired.   (Maybe it was an off-night — I don’t know; this was my first time to this restaurant.)

The milkshakes were excellent!  Mine was chocolate with brownie batter, peanut butter, and Oreos.  They have a LOT of choices for milkshakes and malts — looks like around 70 options.  Someone at the table suggested a huge conglomeration of toppings, but it got to the point where there wouldn’t have been room for ice cream.  I suppose a line has to be drawn somewhere, unless they keep making the glass bigger as you add more toppings.

All in all, it was a great time.  It was a great choice for a guys’ night out.  Highly recommended!