OT: Whatcha Eatin?

[VAcaniac]

On the way to Detroit this weekend, my girlfriend and I stopped in Columbus for a three way.

That is the real name for this dish.

One of the only things I like about Cincinnati. My dad's nostalgia wore off on me. Still not a big fan of White Castle's though.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

please do i am a huge gyro fan

Ok CMP, I was able to talk to my ex-NYC cop buddy tonight. The vendor is on 56th and 6th, right across the entrance to the Hilton. He said there are two vendors there and one of them (on the left when facing the Hilton entrance) is much better as he has fresher meat. He said the other guy near the same spot isn't nearly as good, but you can tell the difference by the lines as the "good" guy will have much longer lines, or if you ask someone, they'll tell you which guy is the best.

He said get one with the works.

It was 4-5 years ago that I was there and it was fantastic. There must have been 50 people in line at 2am so that says something.

My buddy said all the cops, taxi cab drivers, etc.. go to this guy.

Good luck.

 

[TheOllieC]

Do you buy the canned stuff or use a recipe? The problem I'm having, at least with the recipe I'm using, is that there's a considerable amount of prep time, then it has to stew for hours, then it has to sit in the fridge overnight, then be reheated before it's really right. And I'm a lazy cook.

They have a few different brands of seasoning packets here that I use most of the time. Just add that to some fresh ground beef and let it cook then throw it on the fries, spaghetti, etc. Tastes exactly the same.

Not sure if they have it where you are but I could probably send you some if you want it.

 

[nobuddy]

Ok CMP, I was able to talk to my ex-NYC cop buddy tonight. The vendor is on 56th and 6th, right across the entrance to the Hilton. He said there are two vendors there and one of them (on the left when facing the Hilton entrance) is much better as he has fresher meat. He said the other guy near the same spot isn't nearly as good, but you can tell the difference by the lines as the "good" guy will have much longer lines, or if you ask someone, they'll tell you which guy is the best.

He said get one with the works.

It was 4-5 years ago that I was there and it was fantastic. There must have been 50 people in line at 2am so that says something.

My buddy said all the cops, taxi cab drivers, etc.. go to this guy.

Good luck.

Fantastic. Thank you so much. I will report back when I complete the mission.

 

[GinoLucia2217]

Enjoying some family recipe homemade porketta sandwiches right now.

Haven't had it in a while. Throw on top some BBQ sauce and it's heaven in a bun.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Ok CMP, I was able to talk to my ex-NYC cop buddy tonight. The vendor is on 56th and 6th, right across the entrance to the Hilton. He said there are two vendors there and one of them (on the left when facing the Hilton entrance) is much better as he has fresher meat. He said the other guy near the same spot isn't nearly as good, but you can tell the difference by the lines as the "good" guy will have much longer lines, or if you ask someone, they'll tell you which guy is the best.

He said get one with the works.

It was 4-5 years ago that I was there and it was fantastic. There must have been 50 people in line at 2am so that says something.

My buddy said all the cops, taxi cab drivers, etc.. go to this guy.

Good luck.

Having stayed at that Hilton for roughly three months of my life and having had *many* meals from that halal cart, I concur with all of this entirely.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Enjoying some family recipe homemade porketta sandwiches right now.

Haven't had it in a while. Throw on top some BBQ sauce and it's heaven in a bun.

Ah..porketta was a staple in my family growing up in the midwest. My italian grandmother and my mom made it often. Fond memories.

Never had it with BBQ sauce though. The juices and spices of the porketta stood on it's own for me.

 

[bleedgreen]

Last Friday night I had fried chicken and waffles, with glazed sweet potatoes and maple syrup for dinner at a place down the street.

The bomb.

 

[GinoLucia2217]

Ah..porketta was a staple in my family growing up in the midwest. My italian grandmother and my mom made it often. Fond memories.

Never had it with BBQ sauce though. The juices and spices of the porketta stood on it's own for me.

Yep us Italians equate love with food!

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

They have a few different brands of seasoning packets here that I use most of the time. Just add that to some fresh ground beef and let it cook then throw it on the fries, spaghetti, etc. Tastes exactly the same.

Not sure if they have it where you are but I could probably send you some if you want it.

Interesting, I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Never trusted the canned stuff, but seasoning packets would make things a bit easier.

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

I'm trying to make more food at home, as opposed to taking stuff home from work/eating out, and burning frozen pizzas.

So in that vein, here is my dinner tonight. Brats from Costco, with red and green peppers, with a bit of red pepper, and pepperjack cheese thrown long enough to melt and be all melty and delicious.

Is very good, considering I went in with absolutely no plan other than "throw all ingredients into frying pan and pray."

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

#innovation

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Looks delicious.

Cooking isn't that complicated. Really just takes following a recipe, especially now with so many recipes online. As you gain more experience though, you'll start to be able to recognize little tweaks to recipes to make them even better or how to make it even when you don't have all the ingredients.

A lot of times, my wife and I will like something that we tried at a restaurant, and then we'll try to find a recipe online for something similar. We'll then try it a couple of times with minor tweaks until we get it to how we like it. A couple of our "go to" recipes were developed this very way.

For instance, I tried Spice Sweet potato cakes this weekend (to go along with some saute'd shrimp) that we had at a restaurant. While the flavor of the cakes was close to what we had, I didn't get the consistency right so they weren't as crispy/firm as I wanted. I know what I'll do differently next time to fix that.

Have fun with it.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

A lot of times, my wife and I will like something that we tried at a restaurant, and then we'll try to find a recipe online for something similar. We'll then try it a couple of times with minor tweaks until we get it to how we like it. A couple of our "go to" recipes were developed this very way.

Good tip, but I recently learned how to screw up doing that.

A couple of years ago, I had a dish in Denver called pastiche. It was so delicious that I still remembered the name after all this time. So when I started cooking more a couple of months ago, I tried to find a recipe. I did not think to actually look at the restaurant's menu to see what was in it (first mistake). Food.com thought I was searching for pastitsio; I thought maybe they were right and that pastiche was just a twist on the traditional Greek word (second mistake). My reasoning was that pastiche tasted somewhat similar to Cincinnati chili, which was invented by Greek immigrants, and since pastitsio is Greek, this pastiche stuff was probably the same thing or a slight variation of it. So I printed a pastitsio recipe and made it on Sunday.

I was wrong. It was nothing like the dish in Denver. Expectations not met. I did like it better when I had leftovers last night because I didn't have the same expectations. I might even make it again, but I'm probably using a different recipe next time because this one was beyond unhealthy and didn't really have the flavor to make it worthwhile.

Also, I motion we merge our two food threads.

Edit: Just for the lulz... menu with pastiche and pastitsio recipe used. Clearly I did not do my research.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Good tip, but I recently learned how to screw up doing that.

A couple of years ago, I had a dish in Denver called pastiche. It was so delicious that I still remembered the name after all this time. So when I started cooking more a couple of months ago, I tried to find a recipe. I did not think to actually look at the restaurant's menu to see what was in it (first mistake). Food.com thought I was searching for pastitsio; I thought maybe they were right and that pastiche was just a twist on the traditional Greek word (second mistake). My reasoning was that pastiche tasted somewhat similar to Cincinnati chili, which was invented by Greek immigrants, and since pastitsio is Greek, this pastiche stuff was probably the same thing or a slight variation of it. So I printed a pastitsio recipe and made it on Sunday.

I was wrong. It was nothing like the dish in Denver. Expectations not met. I did like it better when I had leftovers last night because I didn't have the same expectations. I might even make it again, but I'm probably using a different recipe next time because this one was beyond unhealthy and didn't really have the flavor to make it worthwhile.

Also, I motion we merge our two food threads.

Edit: Just for the lulz... menu with pastiche and pastitsio recipe used. Clearly I did not do my research.

Don't feel bad - things like this happen, especially when there's been cross-cultural exchanges like happened between the Italians and Greeks. A rather infamous example I came across on the Web was someone from Louisiana who went to France and saw andouillettes on a menu. Thinking they'd be little andouille sausages, he ordered them, because hey, andouillette is the diminutive form of andouille, right? Wrong. Andouillettes are basically the French version of chitlins (except done as a sausage). Our Louisianan was not a happy camper.

Anyway, pushing out into baking more because I'm a pretty novice (and nervous) baker - made chocolate chip cookies from scratch the other day and they turned out pretty well. On the savory side, I made my pan-roasted rosemary chicken with mushrooms and lemon-jus pan sauce.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Another tip is to get a crock pot if you don't have one. Not that meals out of a crockpot are anything extraordinary, just that it helps if you run short of time. Knowing that neither my wife, nor I would have time to cook tonight, I threw a chicken stew in the crockpot this morning on low..so by dinner time, all we have to do is serve. You can usually find a decent one at a reasonable price. Soups, Stews, Pot Roasts, Sauces (like cooking meatballs in marinara), etc.. all do very well in a crock pot.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Ok, I don't even know what to say about this. A Krispy Kreme Bacon Hot Dog.

http://www.jrn.com/now-trending/Minor-league-team-to-serve-Krispy-Kreme-bacon-hot-dog-295932851.html

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Ok, I don't even know what to say about this. A Krispy Kreme Bacon Hot Dog.

http://www.jrn.com/now-trending/Minor-league-team-to-serve-Krispy-Kreme-bacon-hot-dog-295932851.html

Oh dear God. I feel my heart seizing up as we speak.

 

[DaveG]

I thought I was sick when I woke up this morning, after seeing that my thoughts have been confirmed.

 

[tomdundo]

Looks pretty healthy...

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Oh dear God. I feel my heart seizing up as we speak.

My thoughts exactly. One of the perils of getting older and having a history of heart disease in my family is I have to closely watch what I eat now. Even if I wanted to (and I don't), I couldn't eat something like this. My view, is that when I'm going to splurge with a food higher in saturated fat / cholesterol, I'm going to treat myself with some pulled pork or a nice steak or a great burger. It's also one of the driving factors into why my wife and I cook so much.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

There's a hot dog niteclub here in Calgary that seeks crazy stuff like that.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

There's a hot dog niteclub here in Calgary that seeks crazy stuff like that.

All I need on my hot dog is mustard. That's why I'm always a fan of the Roast Grill in Raleigh. And how many other places can you say you had your hot dog made by an Albert Einstein lookalike?

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

Great place for 3am food. Also, Dion Phaneuf used to hit on teenagers here.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

Any of you East Coasters try an In-N-Out burger? It's a staple food item in Pacific cuisine