Category: Food

Ruth’s Chris on the Company Dime

Mrs. Eats’s employer, a venerable and generous company, felt it a good idea to take some employees and their spouses out to a little casual dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse last night. Not being one to turn down a free meal, I gratefully accompanied my beautiful wife.

If you haven’t been to “The Chris” yet and still remember Mace’s restaurant that it replaced, you’ll see many traces of the old place in the new decor. The layout is basically the same (sans the bizarre safari lodge decor and the fake veranda looking out over the Serengeti), but the place is much darker, leaning towards Las Vegas chic rather than Bombay Company classic. But let’s talk about the food:
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Sushi on Aisle 3

Because someone, not sure who anymore, requested it, here’s a quick rundown on all of the grocery store sushi I’ve consumed in the last 4 weeks.
Nugget- Various selections of pre-packaged sushi, all small rolls or shrimp and/or eel ngiri. I went for the spicy combo with spicy tuna, California and unagi rolls. Not bad tasting and well worth the $4 price tag.
Safeway- Hmmmmm, same selection, looks like SW and Nugget buy from the same distributor.
Bel Air- Same selection, see item 1.
Raley’s- See previous selection.
Albertson’s-Ditto
Ralph’s- Oh come on, this is getting silly.
Whole Foods- I hat those assholes; I’m not shopping at their market anymore.
So, it appears that all of the supermarket sushi in town is rolled and packaged by the same company somewhere in the Inland Empire with one of those made up sounding Spanish names like Rancho Santa Dominguez Enchilada Hills or something. I guess it’s all the same no matter where you go. So don’t be choosy. Just grab-n-go and try not to imagine some poor illegal immigrant putting together sushi in East LA for $2 an hour. Instead, think of the poor Chinese laborer who has to works for pennies a day trying to fit a thimble full of soy sauce into those small ketchup sized packets. Eat wisely, my friends.

Burger Bests & Worsts

After 30 years in Sacramento, I have finally eaten my first hamburger from Ford’s Hamburgers in Land Park and I’ll have to say that it may be, in fact, the best burger in Sacramento. I’ve been to myriad burger joints in Sac and think I have a pretty good read on where you, the wily consumer, can best spend your burger bucks. So here’s a rundown:

1. Ford’s-1948 Sutterville Rd, Sacramento. Fantastic burger on a wonderful bun, killer fries and shakes put Ford’s Real Hamburgers in the top spot. Burgers are about $5.
2. Squeeze Inn-7918 Fruitridge Rd, Sacramento. Sidle up to the bar and order the “Squeeze with Cheese” and get ready for a gut-bomb. The “cheese halo” that surrounds every Squeeze burger sets it apart from any other burger you’ll ever have. Fries are pretty good. Call before you go, limited hours and limited seating. Burgers about $5.
3. Bandera- 2232 Fair Oaks Blvd, Sacramento. I know it’s a yuppie haven and mid life crisis pick-up joint, but the $9 ground sirloin burger might just be the best restaurant burger you’ll ever have. Fresh sirloin, ground in-house with a slab of cheddar and crisp cole slaw top this exceptional burger.
4. Hot Rod’s- 2007 K, Sacramento. By far, the best gay burger joint in town. Great meat and hot buns make this burger a heavenly treat that you don’t have to call the next morning.
5. In ‘n Out Burger- Various Locations. OK, despite its proclivity for putting you on the john for a few hours after you eat one, an In ‘n Out burger is a damn good burger, and a great deal for your money. Burgers about $2.

And now, the worst…
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YUMMY WEEKEND EVENTS

This weekend is abuzz with eating and drinking events throughout the area. Please visit some or all of these events for the betterment of your outlook and the worsening of your liver.

SUSHI-FEST: (scroll down to middle of page) The Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce host the 3rd annual Sushi Fest at Mikuni’s in Elk Grove. Event is an “all-day” sushi feast, but website lists hours as only noon-3PM. $75

LODI ZINFEST: Noon-8PM at Lodi lake park, the 2nd annual Zinfest will include live entertainment, cooking demos, wine shopping and, of course, wine tasting for $25 per person. Nothing like being stuck in Lodi with about 100 cases of Zin.

WESTCOAST BREWFEST: At Miller Park (west end of Broadway), $30 for 5 hrs of food, fun and unlimited beer tasting, including my favorite, Moose Drool beer from the Big Sky brewery in Missoula, MT.

BFD: 3rd annual Dad’s Boil & Fry Day. This is where I’ll be on Saturday, supporting the Make-A-Wish foundation with the crew from Dad’s sandwich shop (best sandwiches in town), enjoying unlimited fried fish and crawfish boil with live punk and rockabilly bands and several great microbreweries. On S St. between 13th and 14th. $5 at the door or $25 for all you can eat! Dad is no wimp, he’s going 3PM to 2AM, so go get liquored up at the brewfest then join me for some charity loving fried goodness.

What are you, yellow?

Sacramento County has adopted a variation of the restaurant rating system used in Southern California. Rather than assigning a letter grade to each restaurant, either a red, yellow, or green card will be handed out for display.

Some officials had concerns that while customers will understand the green and red cards, yellow may be too vague and that not enough information will be available about the restaurant’s health issues.

You think? I’m all for inspections and government involvement in the food service industry, but I have to side with the restaurant owners on this one. Doesn’t it seem that a yellow card could falsely label a place unsafe? Currently we have the option to view all the infractions a restaurant received during their inspection and make our own conclusions before deciding to purchase food.

While the restaurant association has said that it is not opposed to the new rating system, I have to wonder as a customer what sort of impact this will have on our city. Sac-eats, will you not try a yellow carded Fish & Chips dive? SinghCity, what if our beloved La Fiesta has a tarjeta amarilla hung on its door?

Food Rumors

Here’s a few things I’ve heard in the past week regarding the local food scene:

1) Most of you may have already heard this, but for those of you that haven’t: Ernesto’s, currently at S and 16th, will be moving to the space currently occupied by Andiamo on 33rd and Folsom. No news as to what will become of the 16th and S site. Andiamo will be closing and not relocating, so get while the getting’s good.

2) Hukilau will be closing its doors and the owners will be changing the space to an informal Italian themed restaurant (think Paesano’s Jr.) that will cater heavily to the Capitol area lunch crowd by offering plenty of gran ‘n go options.

3) The band “Daisy Spot” was recently seen shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die.

4) The Albertson’s supermarket located on the corner of Fair Oaks and Munroe in the Loehman’s shopping center still has the longest and slowest moving check out lines in town. Just in case you were wondering.

Food Related Bits (Your Input is Requested)

1) Took Mrs. Eats to the the Slocum House for her birthday on Thursday. It lived up to all the expectations. It was fantastic, with the best crab cakes I’ve ever had. The service was fantastic and the patio was beautiful. Plus, they’re in the Entertainment Book. Highly recommended for a nice evening out, without being stuffy.

2) I’m starting a petition to get a branch of Fins fish market and restaurant into the recently vacated Men’s Wearhouse at Loehman’s Plaza. Who’s signing?

3) Nominations are currently being accepted for Sacramento’s best waiter/waitress. I nominate “Chuck” at Thai Palms on Howe. He hustles, smiles, and makes dinner enjoyable. By far, the hardest working waiter I’ve ever seen. Let me know who you think deserves the award.

And the winner is… fusion cuisine

Anybody else out there catch Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star“? What I enjoyed most about this show was how positive the producers managed to keep it; the finale episode’s season recap featured only positive comments about each of the departed candidates, even the ones who literally couldn’t julienne a carrot (literally).

Well, apparently it’s news only to me that Guy Fieri, winner of the contest, is a Norcal resident and is opening a restaurant here in Sacto: Tex Wasabi’s, the still under construction fusion restaurant at Howe & Arden in the burned-out remains of another restaurant (I think it was burned-out remains, but you never know with fusion cuisine… they might be going for that burned-out look).

Park It! (Mah Jong’s, Spataro’s & Mason’s)

In the last few months I’ve made a few trips downtown to some of our city’s newest eateries. Amongst the hullabaloo and fanfare, some interesting places have emerged to tickle our palette. (Yeah, I know it’s a mixed metaphor. So what? It’s called poetic license. Get off your high horse, jerkwad!) One of the newest features of the landscape is the “foodplex,” a connected combo of various dining establishments offering differnt types of food and varying levels of ambience. The most notable of these examples is “The Park,” which features Mah Jong’s Asian Diner, Mason’s and peripherally Spataro. Each of these places offers its own style of eats and eating and we’ll go through each one briefly and give you the lowdown.
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