I’m on a roll lately.  Unfortunately, it’s a roll of shitty meals.  We’re not talking average, moderate, unremarkable meals, but ranging instead from rotten to atrocious.  And it’s not like I’ve been eating at shady unlicensed joints hoping to find a gem in amongst the filth.  We’re talking about long-standing, reputable places here that have failed, and failed huge.

Meal #1- 33rd Street Bistro- Last week I attended a private event at 33rd Street and couldn’t have been more ticked off at the food situation.  There were six tables at the event, and only food enough for three or four of them. And what food there was was sad, limp, underseasoned chicken parts, a green salad, and roasted vegetables. It was depressing and tasteless. I had to go to Del Taco after I left just to have something for my bile to work on other than my continued rage at the Haines brothers. Continue reading “Three Rather Off-putting Meals” »

I played “Rock Band” for the first time last night (with our own The Game Guy, natch). If you have not played “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band,” you must know that they are probably the most fun things invented in a long time. They are like a video game you would invent inside a dream (like the giant fighting robot holographic gladiator game I dreamt of once). I rocked the drums on “Wanted Dead or Alive” and aped Jagger on “Gimme Shelter” (which was semi challenging as the game made me also sing the female backup vocal).

One of the unlock-able “bonus” songs in the hottest new video game around is “Time We Had,” a track off the latest release by The Mother Hips, a Chico-based California rock band who has rocked the Sacramento area since the early 90s. It got me thinking…what would an all-Sacto “Rock Band” set list look like?

Continue reading “Local connection for “Rock Band”” »

Introducing Placeblogger, the hottest new thing in blogs dedicated to specific cities. FauxPaws pointed this out to me a few months ago but now it has launched, complete with major financial backing.

Placeblogs are sometimes called “hyperlocal sites” because some of them focus on news events and items that cover a particular neighborhood in great detail — and in particular, places that might be too physically small or sparsely populated to attract much traditional media coverage.

Sounds right up our alley. Here are the Sacramento placeblogs. Now with 33% McClatchy meat!! (Ours is in the queue.) Continue reading “Placeblogger, putting the L in URL” »

Here we are, almost at the end of another year, when Christmas songs and sleigh bells fill the air, kindness to strangers and love for our families fills our hearts and year-end best-of lists fill every medium you see. Well, we at the Rag would like to get a jumpstart on the trend and start putting out a few lists of our own. Today’s list: Best Spicy Meals in Sacramento. Get the water ready and your gringo mouth warmed up, here’s some of the best ways to obliterate your taste buds any time of year:

5. Chicken Larb (Thai Cottage, Howe Ave)- Oh larb, how you taunt us, sounding so funny but tasting so good. This traditional Thai salad of ground chicken, ground chilies, soy sauce, mint, cilantro, lettuce and lime juice is one of the best scorching salty dishes around. Almost every Thai restaurant has larb on the menu, but few are better than the Thai Cottage.
Continue reading “Let the Year End Lists Begin, Extra Spicy” »

Perfect summer evening for baseball, and so on impulse I rounded up some friends last night and headed for Raley Field to watch the RiverCats play the Salt Lake City Bees. Maybe it’s me, but … where did the fun go?

To be sure, you couldn’t fault the weather, Sacramento’s best: just a hint of summer warmth with an overlay of classic Delta breeze. Raley Field still looks as adorable as ever, with its center field neon and center-right view of the Tower Bridge lit artfully by both nature and SMUD power. The field itself is crisp and clean, with sharp white chalk lines as always striking against the dark valley loam. The food was great (no sense complaining about ballpark prices — they are what they are), the play was good and the ‘Cats beat the Bees, thanks to a lovely grandslam midway through.

So what was the problem?
Continue reading “Going, going, gone …” »

There’s a lot going these days with the iPod. From lawsuits both good and bad to increases in crime, the portable digital media player has brought Apple the highest revenue and earnings in the company’s history. As a frustrated iPod owner myself (the battery life on the Mini? Come on, last likes 2 hours at best) I thought I’d drop a few “did you know” links for users in the Sacramento area.

There’s an Apple Store at Arden Fair Mall which offers free workshops on using Apple products. And if you sign up here you can reserve a time to meet with someone for a little one on one support (if you’ve ever been to this location you’ll know what a fuster cluck it is, so I’d go this route if I were you).

Apple Sacramento (Elk Grove, really) houses their Operations, Telesales, AppleCare, Service Dist Center groups. Is their outdoor basketball court REALLY that popular? You EG locals might help to shed some light on this.

The real point of this post, however, is to share this site with you…
Continue reading “iPod, Sacramento, etc.” »

Let’s hear from the people–where was the place to be on New Years’ Eve 2005? In my house, the place to be was the couch, where the main attraction was a good chunk of “Arrested Development” Season 2. I’m aware that there may have been other things going on outside my house, but did any of the town’s hottest parties have spicy club sauce? Well, probably.

This last Saturday, I had the opportunity to check out the hottest ticket in Stockton – at least for Saturday. The Stockton Thunder, the city’s new ECHL hockey franchise (equivalent to AA baseball, I suppose), played their first game in their new arena, conveniently called the Stockton Arena.

As a hockey fan who has been to many an NHL arena, I must admit that this new venue proves itself to be a great place to watch a hockey game. And, aside from a couple of glitches during the night, the entertainment value is high. The 10,000 seat arena has great sight lines, and for $15, our seats were almost ice level. Being the home opener and first game in this building, the atmosphere was electric: the fans were LOUD, rabid and boisterous. The hockey is obviously not NHL or AHL level, but certainly very competitive. Hopefully, the city continues to support the pucking sport in their city the way they did on Saturday. It does make you wonder, though, why Sacramento never got in on this action – but that’s a post for another time.

Everything was well done, save one item. The Stockton Thunder’s mascot, Thor, was a bit of a joke. The dude couldn’t skate, and came out in the second intermission wearing boots on the ice instead of skates. And he’s hokey too – looks like something some kids made during arts and crafts camp. ThunderPeople, please, do something with that thing.

All in all, it was great hockey to watch for a low price, with great fans too. If you’re ever looking for something to do, check out a Thunder game.