Category: Food

McRib and the Aloha Gag Reflex

Just a couple of quick morsels, I really need to get back to the “What’s Happening?” marathon on TV Land. Right now the episode where Rerun bootlegs the Doobie Brothers concert is about to come on:

1) As Sacramento was chosen as one of the fist cities in the country for the McRib farewell tour, I thought it only right to go and try one. I’m not the biggest McD’s fan and have never tried the cult favorite boneless rib sandwich. So, I tried one. It reminded me of eating a barbecued kangaroo anus…actually no, not even barbecued, just smothered in barbecue sauce. It was if a marsupial’s lower GI had been ground up, pressed into a lumpy sponge shaped patty and served with breath rottening onions. Yeehaw, why had I never tried this before? Oh, that’s right, it’s disgusting. Farewell McRib and don’t pull a Michael Jordan and come out of retirement. Hang it up and keep it up.

2) There’s a Hawaiian bbq place on the corner of Hurley and Howe, right next to the defunct Ocean Lounge. It sounded intriguing. I tried it. I felt ill. The “chicken” I was served was prison grade at best and the “sauce” on the “chicken” was, if not an identical twin, at least a very close DNA match to ketchup. Do not go there if you have a fragile constitution or any taste buds left after that horrible lawn tractor accident.

OK, gotta go, Rog and Duane are about to blow the lid on the bootlegging team with the help of Dee and Shirley. Take it slow, good readers.

Kasbah Lounge

Last night, after taking in the show at Arco Arena…What show you say? Well, Disney on Ice of course, duh. Anyway, after experiencing that cultural blitzkrieg, my lovely companion and I needed something more mellow. How bout Tapas? How bout Ink? Wait, wait, I know, let’s try that Kasbah lounge, we haven’t been there yet? So we went.

Let me just give you a quick summation of my internal thoughts as we spent an hour at the Kasbah:
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Cafe Rolle

For those of you old-school suburbanites who reside in the narrowly defined neighborhood known as East-Sac (which encompasses an area roughly one block square staring and ending on H St and a fixed point on a graph defined by a the equation X+Y=Elvas) you already know about Café Rolle. But, for those of you that don’t know of its allure, you have truly been missing out on some hot “joie-de-vive” action.

Café Rolle, in its simplest incarnation, is French food with panache. (For those of you who are not Francophones, “rolle” is French for “what a ball does when you throw it down a hill,” and “panache” is French for “panache.”) I had always heard of Rolle referenced as a lunch place, which seemed odd to me since French cooking and lunchtime eating usually don’t go together in my mind. Mais oui! (But yes) This place is a luncheon fantasy of good smells, great visuals and above all, indulgently delicious food that is luncheriffique (made-up word).
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CHICK-FIL-A OPENED THIS WEEKEND

If you’re not from the East Coast or certain southern states you have no idea what good news this is. Chick-Fil-A has opened in Roseville. Chick-Fil-A is a fast-food delight made famous by its original chicken sandwhich, which consists solely of a perfectly-battered peppery-buttery chicken breast, two pickle slices and a white bread bun. With crinkle fries and a dr. pepper you’ve had the Chick-Fil-A experience. My husband and I stopped in Roseville Friday night on our way out of town to see if the rumored Chick-Fil-A had arrived. As we approached we saw spotlights and joked that they might be for the opening. They were! When we got there the lines made In&Out seem like nothing. There were police patrols to manage the crowds in the parking lot. Serious business, people. Anyway, check it out when you’re up there. Some ground rules, though: A) YES, they only serve chicken. We heard people complaining about this in line and B) they are closed on Sundays.

Unofficial Apple Hill Guide

NOTE: For an updated 2007 Apple Hill Guide, click here. (Don’t worry, it’s not link to another website.)

Fall is in the air, and on the calendar, and in the malls, but nowhere more omnipresent than up highway 50 at Apple Hill. I’ve had a few shocks in my life, including that time when I missed two straight periods (turned out to just be work stress), but none more jarring that finding out that several good friends and close acquaintances had never been to Apple Hill. Hating to think that those unfamiliar with the joys of the hill might not want to venture east because of the alien nature of the trip, I’ve concocted my own little visitor’s guide. The following are just suggestions, mind you, and please feel free to let me know if there is anything that I missed, but more than anything, I provide this little guide because I don’t want to hear anyone say that they didn’t head up the hill this year because they “didn’t know where to go, what to do, my kids were sick, I had a flesh eating virus, I’m a big puss-puss, etc.”
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Dinner at the Dump

Taking the back entrance into Tahoe Park, where the CoolDMZ clan resides, my wife and I keep noticing the banner advertising the Power Inn Business & Transportation Association’s self proclaimed “unique and lively event” Dinner at the Dump. Why work so hard to convince people not to conjure up the smell of a landfill when sampling your catered surf and turf? Why not just have a tour of the dump and let everybody have a free grab at some of the many usable items others have discarded but are usually protected against scavenging? Why not just put Jack Gallagher on top of a pile of concrete waste and have him do jokes?

Speaking of scavenging, big trash pick up day in my neck of the woods was last week, and my wife reported that while walking home with the kids, she came upon a woman scavenging somebody’s pile of garbage. Now, hey, we’ll all been there. One man’s broken chair is another man’s broken chair. But this woman fended off Mrs. CoolDMZ’s friendly smile with the following: “Back off! I got kids of my own.” Which reinforced my wife’s theory that ghosts of the Gold Rush still walk the streets of Sacto. Mostly the streets around the downtown bus station.

(On a side note, check out the redesign of CBS13/UPN31’s site. It’s a pretty good design, many notches above UPN 31’s previous one.)

Oktoberfest

My German blood warms at the thought of Weisswurst, Oompah bands and an overflowing stein. Everyone is German during Oktoberfest, so come out and help drain the tanks!

Fair Oaks’toberfest is this Saturday from 1-5pm at Fair Oaks Park. More than 25 breweries will bring their Autumnal favorites for local charities, with celebrity tap handlers. Well, me.

I will also be attending Capitol Public Radio’s Oktoberfest at Pavilions Shopping Plaza on Sunday, October 2 from Noon-3pm. The Carntoa Schuhplattler will lead drunken revelers in German folk dancing.

Sacramento’s Turn Verein Soccer Club will hold their 36th annual Oktoberfest on October 7 & 8.

Prost!

Bali Wine Bar & Grill

If you’ve kept your ears open, you’ll notice that Bali Wine Bar & Grill has gotten a lot of press lately. Recent reviews in the Bee, the News & Review and Pravda have given this place a good deal of visibility and no small amount of buzz. All of the buzz, however, is not necessarily aimed at Bali’s food, but rather the fact that it’s a nice restaurant on Broadway. Broadway, usually known for its divey ethnic joints and the iconic but rather shady Pancake Circus, is undergoing a bit of a culinary renaissance. With the renovation of several restaurants, including Sweetfinger’s Jamaican Restaurant (see previous review), and a new cookie cutter complex containing a Starbucks and Jamba Juice, the Broadway corridor is getting its urban gentrification on right in front of our eyes. So, is Bali an usher of things to come? Let’s hope not. Unless, of course, high prices and mediocre food are the hallmarks of an elite neighborhood.
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Elk Grove Gut Bomb

I don’t know anyone who lives in Elk Grove, so I don’t know who to tell about my latest eating experience. If you know someone in Elk Grove, tell them to go and sup full at Todo un Poco. First of all, the atmosphere is cute and dark and candle lit and does not at all suggest the stucco stripmall in which it actually resides. The service was efficient and polite and the portions make Claim Jumper look like a haven for anorexics. My pasta putanesca, (literally translated (no kidding) whore’s pasta)), was fantastic, with slow roasted meats and plenty of veggies in the hearty sauce. My beautiful companion went for a salmon dish with great flavors and a beautiful presentation.

The hallmark of Todo un Poco though, was its bread.
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