Thursday, July 14, 2011

Taste of Dallas 2011

The family got an invitation to attend Taste of Dallas this weekend. We were given free tickets so it was worth trying something we may not otherwise have done. The price on the ticket was $8.00 but I read a few minutes ago that you could get them at Albertsons (which when there I surmised was a major sponsor because of the all their banners) for $5.00.

We decided to go at open (11:00 a.m.) because it wouldn't be so hot. Luckily, Saturday morning started out breezy and slightly overcast. Once we got to Fair Park, we quickly found out that parking was not included. Friday night when thinking about going to Taste of Dallas I thought about taking the DART rail because it's convenient and cheap. But when we left Saturday morning, I had forgotten. So did the wife. Because of this, we ended up paying $12.00 for parking. Fucking $12.00! We figured it was better than paying $12 on top of $32 but that would have never happened anyway because I'm a cheap ass! So, we parked and walked in to the fair grounds.

Initially, we just walked around to see what all was offered and to get a gauge on the price for "tastes." We also were heading for a specific booth because my oldest was helping a friend and her mother for the restaurant the mother works for. While walking around, we found that there were a lot of restaurants we've never even heard of. We aren't dining out that often but when we do, we typically stick to a few places we know and like with once in a blue moon trying some place new. With two kids, it's tough to go "new" because if they don't like it then we waste some money.

Everything was priced from $1 to $5. I don't think I saw any of the food items at each booth higher than $5. They did sell beer, soda and water but I don't recall seeing the price of beer. Soda and water were like $5.

So, let me see if I can remember the break down of the booths/foods I tried.

Celebration Restaurant was the booth of that my oldest's friend's mother worked for. They had a chicken kabob for $3, a tomato and basil salad for $4 and fresh cantaloupe or watermelon slices for $1. The friend's mother gave us samples for free. We tried to pay but she refused. We weren't there to mooch but she said that she doesn't mind because they bargain with all the other vendors all the time so it's no big deal. We thanked her and enjoyed the kabob and a few slices each of cantaloupe and watermelon. The fruit was refreshing on a warm, overcast day.

Asador was selling $3 brisket sliders. They were pretty good. There wasn't a lot of brisket in them and I don't know how much they cost or if the meat is more at the restaurant. The brisket was flavorful and served on ciabatta bread. I've never heard of this restaurant so I asked where they were located. The girl in the booth said it was located inside the Dallas Renaissance Hotel which I don't think I've ever been in or will ever find the need to be in.

Afghan Grill had a variety of dishes to taste. We went with the Kofta Chalao which is sauteed meatballs in some kind of sauce and they served it over rice. It too was $3. The wife and I shared it and we both thought it was fairly tasty.

I didn't have any but we bought one each for my kids and the friend of cake balls from The Cake Ball Company. I've had cake balls before but I was not looking for dessert on a day like this or with the food vendors available to taste. I didn't want to fill up too soon. The kids said they loved the cake balls though.

Hedary's was next to the Celebration booth. I tried their sirloin on a stick for $3. It wasn't too bad though it wasn't memorable either. It tasted just like any ordinary steak you might cook on a grill or skillet without using spices or flavoring. They were bragging that it was "top sirloin" and they may have been but it wasn't anything special. Again, it tasted fine but it wasn't something I have to say you need to experience.

Longhorn BBQ was offering pulled pork sliders for $3. I ordered one and added the nondescript barbecue sauce they provided. The sauce was tasty and added to the flavor of the pulled pork which taste very heavily of the wood they used to smoke it, I guess. It wasn't bad it just wasn't spiced or flavored. Overall the pulled pork slider was good but I'm not sure if I'd make a drive from North Dallas to Cedar Hill for their barbecue. I'll stick with the all-you-can-eat at North Main BBQ

Texas de Brazil is a restaurant I've seen/heard of before but never had the desire to try. I still don't have that desire. They were offering bacon-wrapped chicken with a roll for $3. They offered other things like steak but I went for the chicken since I had already had quite a bit of steak from other booths. The bacon-wrapped chicken was pretty good. I'm a big bacon fan and so is my youngest. The chicken was pretty good too but I think they could have wrapped a slightly thinner piece of chicken. Once you got past the bacon and initial layer of chicken, the rest of it just tasted like grilled chicken. The roll was very, very disappointing and someone should lose their job in the "promotional" department because of it. The roll seemed like it was bought from the grocery store and heated in the oven...and whoever did it didn't do a good job AT ALL. The roll was dry and seemed like it was sitting in the open for some time before it was placed on my plate. I mean there was no butter, not flavoring, no nothing on the roll. Hell, I've made better rolls that were bought from the grocery store.

McDonald's had a booth and I think they did it right out of all the booths. They weren't selling samples of their food items but they were giving away samples of their new fruit smoothie, mango pineapple, and then a strawberry smoothie (which I don't know if it was new or not). They were giving freebies out left and right for the 3 hours we were there. They had lines of people waiting for the samples. All for FREE mind you.

I think the other vendors may have to rethink their approach to the way they want people to sample their food. I think they should give it away free or mostly free. I think they should build in an expected loss and let people flavor their foods because if the people like it, they will visit the restaurant and pay full price for it. I saw so many people pass on the foods at Celebration Restaurant, Asador, Lockhart Barbecue, and other vendors because of the price comparison they would do in their minds like "how much will I get for my $3 and is it worth it?" I can tell you that I would have preferred free or half-price for many of the foods I tasted. They were all fairly good but they weren't wowing me or many others. The vendors were too worried about giving to much filling in each slider, or sandwich or whatever. That in turn made the product smaller, lamer and much less inticing to the customer. It's just poor marketing on weekend that should have been all about the marketing. I know they have a budget but if they are really business people running these businesses, they would have been able to create a projected profit/loss forecast and decided what was feasible or not. Personally, for my first time, I really didn't see many people carrying around or purchasing a lot of the samples from any of the booths. I saw a lot of people carrying McDonald's smoothies, Scope and even that nasty Yakult drink becaue they were FREE.

I guess that's about it for the food and beverage vendors.

There was this guy doing on-the-spot Krylon spray paint "paintings." (inset)

He was quick, good and very creative for a cosmic artist. That's what he was called, "The Cosmic Artist." He mainly, or only, did space or cosmic paintings. They were pretty darn cool and the high you can get from the spray paint was awesome. LOL!

He even had his little black car (like a Miata I think) with his personalized designs on the hood, trunk...hell, almost all over it but in a tactful way. I don't how lasting they would be on a vehicle's paint job but a framed picture would be cool. I'm just too much of a cheap ass. :-)

Anyway, Taste of Dallas was an interesting experience for us. I don't think I'll ever feel the need to attend it again although if someone gave me free tickets again and I remember to take the DART (for free because of my job) then I might consider it. It wasn't a bad experience. It just wasn't one of those "Damn, I've been missing out" moments.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

In the news 07/13/2011

From the Star-Telegram:
Widow of pizza deliveryman who was fatally beaten sues Domino's

Borchardt [widow's attorney] said the teens' phony pizza order was made on a prepaid cellphone and involved an uninhabited address to which Domino's had never delivered a pizza. "They should have known this was going to be an unsafe delivery at that point," he said.

Click here for the article while it lasts.
Domino's should have known this was coming. This freaking attorney is an ambulance chaser-type. This is going to be a waste of tax payer money. It should be shot down before it even goes to jury selection or whatever.

Number 1: How is someone calling in on a prepaid cellphone a flag for "unsafe delivery?" I know tons of people that have prepaid cellphones. Hell, my father-in-law is on a prepaid cellphone. WTF, idiot attorney!?

Number 2: Is money really going to help this widow with her grieving? Well, hell yes...especially if it's a lot! But seriously, it wasn't Domino's that beat the crap out of this guy. Granted they may have unsafe areas but what areas these days aren't unsafe in some form or fashion?

I think Domino's should have stepped up and given a lump sum of money to the widow. It should be a policy. He got injured, killed, on the job out of no fault of his own and they should have "donated" something to the widow. I think $10,000 is what the government deems as the worth of a human. Domino's could have doubled that and been done with it. Every business should have an "in case of death on the job" fund.

Unfortunately, businesses typically don't give a rat's ass about their employees until they are no longer producing revenue for said business.


Saturday, July 09, 2011

Red Dawn...remake?

Can they really be making a remake of Red Dawn?

Apparently so.

There's just no replacement for Patrick Swayze for Jed, Charlie Sheen for Matt, Lea Thompson for Erica, C. Thomas Howell for Robert and Powers Boothe for Lt. Col. Tanner.

Some movies just shouldn't be remade. Footloose. Bad News Bears. Clash of the Titans. The Hitcher. Anyway...

WOLVERINES!


Monday, July 04, 2011

In-N-Out Burger in Dallas

Drive-thruWent for a drive today looking for an idea on dinner. Chipotle was closed for the 4th...I'm not sure if they closed early but they were closed when I swung by around 5pm. I pulled out of the Chipotle parking lot onto the US75 service road and saw the cones for the new In-N-Out Burger.

The youngest and I decided to take a chance and see what the traffic there was like. It didn't look too busy but that was before I entered the drive-thru/parking lot area. Turns out they had four lanes of cars where they were taking orders before you get to enter the actual drive-thru (pic 1).

I ordered two Double-Double Meals for me and the child and a Cheeseburger Meal for the wife. They quoted a tab to me of $18.89.

About 30 minutes later, I got my order. I could wait 30 minutes for food. I've done it in sit-down restaurants before and we weren't in any hurry today. More than 30 minutes for fast food, and I would have driven away.

So, I paid and then got my food. This is what the burgers looked like (pic 2). It was interesting to see how I got my order to-go and yet the burgers aren't entirely wrapped. Know what I mean? I guess they don't expect the burgers to set too long. This time, they were right. I got home in about 5-10 minutes and they were quickly removed from the bag.

My youngest tasted the fries on the way home and said they weren't bad. I think "I like them" was the actual words used. The wife had the same initial response to the fries but later used "eh, they were alright." My initial reaction was "What's the big deal? I think Burger House fries are better and McDonald's has always been a favorite of mine." I felt the fries seemed a bit limp and flavorless other than quite a bit of salt on top. The youngest was digging the salt which is what was liked more than the fries themselves, I thinks.

Anyway, the wife and I stood around the kitchen counter so we could take a bite of our individual burgers and give an assessment. She bit first into her cheeseburger and her initial reaction was, "That's pretty good." I took a bite of my double-double and thought, "Not bad but what does the taste remind me of? Burger House. Sort of."

Without knowing how they actually cook the patties, I would say they have the taste and texture of hamburger meat that has been cooked on a flat grill (like the one you see in just about all restaurants: fast food and sit-down)...not like flame broiled. Know what I mean? Anyway, my burger came plenty loaded with Iceberg lettuce, two big slices of tomato and plenty cheesy.

I would have to say the burger was good but I wouldn't say it was anything exciting or something to yearn for. I wouldn't wait more than the 30 minutes it took to line up, order, enter the drive-thru, pay, and then pick up my order. I even think that 30 minutes is way too long especially when I can get a comparable, if not better burger, in half the time from places like Sonic, Burger House, Wendys, Keller's Hamburgers and yes, even McDonald's. I waited the 30 minutes this time and only this time because this place was new and I wanted to see what all the hooplah was about.

After having it, I'm still wondering what the hell all the hooplah is about!


UPDATE: Went to Keller's today for lunch. I got the #5 Double-Meat "Special" for $2.49, tator tots for $1.25, and a medium drink for $1.19. That's about $4.93 plus tax. The order was taken and delivered within 10-12 minutes. I would have to say that after having In-N-Out yesterday and Keller's today that I can make a better assessment in a taste test with the conclusion being Keller's burger was much better and is overall a better bang for your buck.

The Double-Double meal at In-N-Out is $4.99 plus tax which is also the same price if you buy the items in the meal separately ($2.75 for the double-double, $1.09 for fries, and $1.15 for a medium drink) according to the guy that took my order. My thought was that the meal was supposed to be more of a value (even though it's not advertised as a 'value meal') because you are ordering more than just a single item. But, I guess that's why the state of California is bankrupt because they aren't very smart with finances. Or maybe they are since they get people to pay the same price for a la carte items as they would if it's sold as a meal.

In conclusion, I'll stick with my local choices here versus returning to In-N-Out for my burgers and fries. I will return to see how their shakes match up to other local shake/malt providers but I just don't have that desire for their burgers and fries.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

2011 Wimbledon Championship

Congratulations to Novak Djokovic for beating Rafael Nadal for the 2011 Wimbledon Men's Championship. He is well-deserving but for some reason I still dislike him somewhat. I can't pinpoint why but he just isn't someone I want to win. Maybe that will change in the future.


Also, congratulations to Petra Kvitova for beating (and shutting up) Maria Sharapova for the 2011 Wimbledon Women's Championship. She is well-deserving too. I don't know if I could handle "the screamer" winning another tournament. Sharapova is a very good player but her screeching takes away from enjoying her skills and the match in general. Please! Please! Someone do something about the screaming/yelling from the women players of the WTA!