What I Had For LINNER: Beef on flavored skewers

Hey hey hey! It's faaaaaat Sunny!!! And I'm gonna sing a song for youuuuuuu .... I've been cooped up eatin' a thing or two-ooooo.

Teeheehee ... a lil ode to Fat Albert. I've been cooking all weekend just getting some recipes together and then of course feeding myself. So, here's what I decided on for linner ... I marinated some beef chunks in balsamic with garlic, olive oil, cilantro, lime, salt, pepper and a tap of cayenne. Then well, you can kinda see the rest, some jalapenos, red bell pepper, pineapple and red onion. I got the flavored grill sticks from my local cooking store ... real neat. I actually wasn't trusting the infusing of the flavors promise on the package, but out of the two flavors I used I could really taste one of them. I used the Honey Bourbon and the Citrus Rosemary. I could really taste the latter, the other not so much. I think my marinade could have over powered the honey bourbon, but all was still yummy. On the side I made some orzo with a light cream sauce, broccoli and parm. That's it ... and I'm back to work on some palmiers. Hope you are having a great weekend, I can't wait to watch NFNS tonight. The weather in NYC is crazy this weekend, sunshine, then rain, then thunder, then more rain. Can't wait to start the week. Check in tomorrow and I hopefully will have some news one various places I'll pop up in the next week or so to promote the new shows. I'm so excited! Ok, if you catch NFNS tonight, check the website for the FN Dish viewing party with me and Adam Roberts. Again ... Linner for a recipe developin' chick on a Sunday early evening ....

Fast food from my youth ...

Hey all! I'm on the road again shooting the new show that starts in liiiiike 2 weeks? July 7th, but I did see somewhere an email about there being a July 6th showing ... like a sneak peek. I'll let you know as the date rolls near.

Anywhoo ... this week the crew and I are down south and chillin in the heat. lol ... yeah right, chillin'. I think I sweat off about 10 pounds in a tomato field somewhere west of Charleston, SC. Ok, lemme tell you the neat thing about the traveling ... I've lived so many places and been so many places that I'm getting to see people and places I don't normally get to see. So, the first stop this week as I mentioned was South Carolina. Well, my grand-daddy and actually one half of my fam is from there. At first I got really excited to know I'd be close to relatives and then I looked at the schedule and realized there would be no way I could squeeze time to trek out to the sticks to see them. So you ready for this??? Between locations we had to catch lunch on the go because the next part of the shoot, the tomato factory, was like a jillion miles away and we had only one day to do the farm and the factory. At first, we pulled into here ...


Now, I wanted to try this out cuz boy did it have the look of a place that knew how to make a bangin' meal. But one quick trip inside by one of the crew turned the almost "hit" into a miss ... it was more of a relaxing meal spot and not an on the go meal spot. I coulda said that right as we pulled into the parking lot, but really if there is new food available I almost never find a downside lol, so I kept my mouth shut and hoped it would fit in the schedule. It didn't.

So we got back on the road and no sooner did we start to scope for a new faster spot to eat at, did I see a logo I hadn't seen in years. Then, the craziest thing is, I was jusssst talking about this fast food place not 2 weeks ago when I was in Hawaii. I was chatting with the cocoa farm owners who were from South Carolina and all we talked about was what we missed. They moved down to Hawaii 12 years ago and didn't look back, a real cool husband and wife team that chose to spend the rest of their life making chocolate and having wine at sunset everyday. So, just 2 weeks ago we were talking about South Carolina hash, South of the Border, the people, the weather and BOJANGLES!!!! I brought it up to them and when I did their eyes lit up and the wife sez to me "that's just about the only thing he misses, Bojangles". I thought, these are my kind of people!!! I only got to see my grandparents in North and South Carolina a teeny bit growing up, so I tend to repeat the visits in my head alot and one thing I remember was Bojangles. Look, I remember much more poignant things, but we're talkin' food on this one. This place was always colorful growing up, with decorations n stuff and I think that was mostly the allure as a kid, check the pallette of colors and this is just the counter menu view.


Ok, so anyway back to Bojangles, really neat to be pining for it just 2 weeks ago and now I see a sign for it from the highway. We pulled off the highway and the sign at the off ramp said 7 miles to the little town my family is from. I instantly started to get a bit emotional. It has been forever since I've visited and mostly my fault as an adult, lemme tell ya I worked really hard for the last 15 years and barely made time for life. Things are different now and I'm making changes here n there to actually live and take time to enjoy it. Ok, so knowing a 7 mile detour so I can see some family is out of the question. I am really just happy to be in the vicinity and repeat it to myself as a mantra to try to not break down and completely cry. I get inside and order my lunch with the crew and begin to chat up the girl at the counter ... turns out she knows ALLLLLLL of my family!! We were just dropping names and stuff, talking about the church behind my grand dad's place she goes to that our family goes to as well, my aunt was married there. Crazy. I started to cry. Just felt so good to meet someone that had just seen my cousin last week at church. Small world and crazy coincidences. What makes me open my mouth and say to the farmers I missed Bojangles, then 2 weeks later to see a sign for my family hometown and know I can't go, but to pull into a Bojangles and meet someone that sits next to and with my family on a regular basis????? Man, was I a happy and teary eyed chick. I wear my heart on my sleeve proudly and cried a happy and sad cry at the same time. Well, there was just enough time to order, chat, exchange numbers, cry and jet. Here's my lap of a tabletop cradling a biiiiig biscuit, grilled chicken nuggets, and a container of mash n gravy.


Ahhh eatin on the run, some may complain about having to eat fast food on the run while pulling a long, hot day of work, but for me it returned me to my youth and visiting family we didn't get to see on a regular basis due to my dad being in the Army.
Ok, If you read my blog regularly, a coupla weeks ago I promised a post about the brains behind many of the plates, bowls, spoons, etc you see me using on Cooking for Real .... it's still on the way. Also, real soon there's some stuff I'll be doing to promote the new episodes and as soon as I can Iet ya know where to catch me on the tube, stands, airwaves and blogs, I will. BTW Jacob, just a blog-public thanks for everything, you've been so honest and supportive. I had such a good time chatting in close quarters of my fave teeny bistro spot and glad we shared a sugar high in the heat/rain/heat of NYC. :-)

What I Had For LINNER: Wings 3 ways

So, this started out as a wing purchase to go with the NBA finals on Sunday. Then, I made such a big lunch, that by the time dinner rolled around, the wings were put off for another day ... which was yesterday. Different day, same dish plan. I just got back from Hawaii and while I was there I did two neat things, harvest cacao pods and pull bee hives for processing. This is all in connection with the new prime time show for Food Network I have on the way called "How'd That Get On My Plate?". I follow ingredients from the rawest form to the finished product. More on that later ... 

One of the finished products I went to Hawaii for was honey.

I packed up 4 jars of the honey we packaged at the plant and brought them home ... 1 for me and 3 for friends. The one I kept was a more honey spread consistency. That is unique to the type of nectar the flower gave off for the bees to extract. Anyway, I just wanted a honey that looked different and the Macadamia Nut Honey I harvested looked like the regular typical honey. I like to play with food and new undiscovered food is even more fun! For honey that came straight from the hive just last week, I guess you'd think I should use it in an intelligent dish teeheehee, and I'm sure I will in the next coupla days, but for now let's dumb it down with some wangs! :-) Gooooooo (your nba fave here)!! I don't care much who wins, I just like game-time eats! Ok ...

For the wings, I prepped them like I usually prep, but I finished them off different. The first set were like I did on Emeril a few years back, my standby recipe. I used fresh oregano this time cuz it was in the fridge, but dry oregano is good too. The second set of wings was a mix of lemon and lime zest, plus salt and pepper ... I sprinkled it on right after pulling the wings from the oil and they were pretty yummy. And the 3rd set of wings were coated with a new recipe I put together for Honey BBQ sauce courtesy of my Hawaiian honey harvest!!! Some ketchup, lots of garlic, dark brown sugar, some ill spices (i'll give up the recipe/blend soon, but turmeric ... it's in there) and the very honey I brought back from Hawaii. It turned out yummy and really, they were just wings, but breaking up the 24 wings into 3rds made it seeeeem fancy ... neat home cookin' trick lol. I also made a gorgonzola dipping sauce, with just lemon, sour cream, buttermilk, lots of gorgonzola and salt n pep. That was some yummy stuff too ... so much so, this is all I have left from the meal ... I present ...

The Honey BBQ Plate ....

I'm Lau Lau, Lomi and Poi'd out!!!

Aloha for the final time from the Big Island! Today is my last day in Hawaii and I've spent most of it working online and making calls. All the shooting was done yesterday and I fly out tonight. I ran into a little hotel suite party last night, equipped with a DJ no less! So finally this morning I slept in regardless of the time difference. Yeah, 6 hours behind Brooklyn here, so I was getting up at like 3am every day, when I didn't have to be ready for the shoot until 6am. Werd. Then we'd finish around 6ish 7, so that was like 1am for me ... crazy, but we did it and had fun doing it!

Here's me playing with bees ....


And one farm we went to was like an animal refuge, there were turkeys and dogs, cats, geckos, and a peacock ... just chillin' ... so I snapped away...


Pretty colors, huh? It was chilling in the shade beneath a tray of cocoa beans roasting in the sun. A real pretty sight, even peacocks knew the heat was oppressive!

Yesterday I was determined to get some local fare, we'd worked so hard that at the end of taping days, all we really wanted to do was retire to our rooms for sleep. So, with work done the crew and I all headed out to eat together. I did a lil word of mouth poll around the hotel of the natives and narrowed it down to a spot that seemed what I was looking for. Not fancy, but a real home-cooked authentic Hawaiian cooking spot in a town 15 miles south of us called Honaunau. The place is called Super J's and it added up to all expectations. It was described to me as basically a house on the road that a family lives in and serves people food as well. YEEEEEEEAHHHH!!! Ok, so anyway, here's some pics below. But first ... the Poi Guard. Look, I'd rather call her something reminiscent of a popular Seinfeld episode about soup, feel me? But thing is she was rather sweet, just very serious about her poi and who ate it. Here's what happened ... first we pull up and it looks like it should, a small place without frills, I was thrilled and the guys seemed to be thrilled as well. We waltz in and looks like daddy is chillin' reading the paper on a plastic fold table, this would be our table. Once he realized we were staying to eat, he picked up his paper he was reading and quickly began clearing off the table for us. As he began to shuffle we began to order from Ms. Super J herself at the counter! I went first and said my Alohas and such and then started to ask for the chicken lau lau and she recommended I try the pork instead because it was better. I was like ok, no biggie. Then I ordered something I'd never had before salmon lomi. She said it was yummy and I'd love it, it had tomatoes and salmon and green onions, salt and pepper. Like a salmon salsa. Then ... came the trouble with the Poi Guard! I said, yeah and I'll get the poi. Super J was says to me as if to qualify me "well, do you like it?!". It caught me off guard because I'm thinking what? Food? Yes, I like any food, but I clarified and said "poi? yes of course I like it". Then she was like "well how much do you want? Just a little bit like this?(makes a hand gesture to show a circle about the size of one of those tiny plastic take out cups, the ones they put the jalapenos, lemon wedges or whatever in. Like 1/4 cup capacity). I frowned and said, "no, more than that" and just that quickly, she turned from the Guard to the Lady! She smiled with approval and moved on to the next which was Tony, camera man extraordinaire :-). She put him through the same thing, but it was much shorter because he watched me go through my dialogue to get the poi, now here's the funny part ... up next was Bruner- sound man of the year :-). He steps up to order and this is EXACTLY HOW THE EXCHANGE WENT DOWN

Miss Super J aka "Poi Guard": What would you like?

Bruner aka sound man of the year: Uhhh, yeah I'll have the lau lau and the poi.? (notice the period, then question mark? cuz that's kinda how he said it, well she smelled fear in his voice and then asked him the next fateful question)

Miss Super J aka "Poi Guard" : Have you ever had it?

Bruner aka sound man of the year: No, uh what's in it? (and it was over)

Miss Super J aka "Poi Guard": Oh no, uh-eh (shaking head) YOU GET NO POI!

We all just burst out laughing, and she smiled with pride. She said in not so many words, she wasn't gonna waste her poi on him. I mean it was hilarious, and you know what? She really didn't give him any poi! Scott, our producer went after Bruner and played it safe and didn't even ask for poi teeheehee. I shared mine with him, but I say all this to say, just like that similar Seinfeld episode the food was being "guarded" for good reason, it was exceptional. amazing. yummy. all of that.
Here we are all outside right after ordering ...


Then we sat down to eat after getting drinks from the fridge ...


Sorry no food close ups, it smelled so good, I was 3 digs into the tender salty pork wrapped in the taro root leaf (the lau lau) before I noticed I forgot to snap a shot. The lau lau was perfect and I was very happy I took her advice and went with pork. Now, have you ever had salmon lomi? I hadn't either. Ooooooowwweeeee it was good, I poured it all over my rice and then because I liked it so much she gave me extra and some juices from the mixing bowl! YAAAY!! Look, it was goooood and the Hawaiian tomatoes escaped the recall we had in the continental states last week. It was salty and sweet due to the tomatoes, plus salmon is kinda sweet on my tongue too. It was like salsa with no fire. The poi was light, and the perfect consistency. Fresh is the word. Turns out according to Miss Super J, the farmers don't like harvesting it these days, so there's a teeny shortage which is why she prefers to feed it only to someone that she knows will eat it all. I get it. Totally. Here's Miss Super J tending to the dishes n such. She seemed too shy to ask for a photo, so I caught a candid...


We sat there for about an hour and just enjoyed the meal. A cute little girl was running around barefoot and carefree and she caught all our attention, just so cute. I mean, this was relaxing and enjoyable, a perfect ending to this trip. If you ever make it to Kona, Hawaii, I'd make a run to Honaunau and take in all that is Super J's, and if you want to try the poi, based on my experience, act like ya know!!! Alright, I'm headed back to the mainland ... here's a Hawaiian sunset, enjoy the weekend and I hope ya catch Cooking for Real and NFNS Sunday, then the webisode :-)

New NFNS vid up ...

Aloha from Hawai'i ... if you are a Next Food Network Star watcher, check on Food Network for the show page, there are interviews with the cast after they leave and everything. Pretty neat, plus there's a weekly webisode with me and Adam Roberts yakkin it up about the week's episode. This week, I brought along my "brother" Du. Now, I call him my brother, but really he isn't. Basically, we are so close, we don't need people thinking we are dating, so we call each other brother and sis ... His mom is not my mommy, but boy has she been there for me. Du has also been there for me just like a brother. He gives me advice about boys and career and life ... we hang out and just really act like family. I love him :-) .... ok, oh hey also, coincidentally if you ever go on my Cooking for Real page on Food Network's website, you'll see a video about my best kitchen moment and I tell a story about Du and my fried chicken .. check it out, but first check out what all 3 of us, Adam, me and Du had to say about this week's NFNS ...



Hip Hop heads may recognize Du as "do it all" from Lords of the Underground, he's also done plenty of television and film work, so he may look familiar to you ...keep an eye out.... he's got some things on the way.

Saturdays at Coney Island!

This past weekend we had a waft of heat hit us in the tri-state area ... more specifically, Broooooklyn!!! which is where I now live and love so much. I mean I live 7 train stops from the beach!!! Not just any beach, Coney Island! I grew up seeing hints of the Wonder Wheel or the Cyclone in various TV shows and movies. Then, when I moved to brooklyn a coupla years ago, I caught a documentary about Coney Island and came to understand it's history more. Every year it threatens to shut down and every year it get's bailed out. I don't think it's goin' anywhere, but there are changes happening slowly that some locals fight about, I ain't in to fightin' about it, I'm into enjoying it while it's here (forever, i tell ya).

One of the great things about Coney Island is it has some personal significance for many generations of New Yorkers and visitors all the same. People fall in love there, go on first dates there, skip school and hang out there :-), enjoy family time there. Me and my dude, we fall in that category without giving away too much of our biz teeheehee, so we've talked about waiting for the weather to break to go back to one of our special places we share with millions of others. Finally, we got some beach and boardwalk weather predictions and allll week we talked about going ... when we'd get up, what we'd wear, how to clear our schedules and most importantly we plotted out our plan of destruction re: the food!!!! plus, I had a week of traveling ahead and boy do we enjoy our time together, so we had to get in some quality time. Everything that has happened with work for me has been a bit all at once, so it's nice to still take time for personal happiness, something that eluded me in my previous radio career. I'm sure plenty of chicks have done it, career first and boys 2nd lol ... finally I'm working on both equally and boy does it feel good when you have the right match. ok, lemme get off the mushy mushy ....

The food!!!
Ok, first I had to get some funnel cake ... I'd show ya a pic, but 1. it was gone in a hurry and 2. it wasn't the creme de la creme of Coney Island funnel cakes. There are about 5 vendors that make it, an unofficial count, but really there's only like 2 places that make it fresh. yeah, I bet you are like what kind of "not-fresh" funnel cake is there??? Well, it was fresh at one point, it's premade there I presume in bulk and then they put my precious cake in an oven meant to reheat pizza, right next to a slice!!! ... anyway, as soon as I saw the set up and couldn't see a deep fryer in sight behind the counter, I got a little anxious about the taste. Let's say it was ok, but not a winner, I still ate it :-).

Then we headed to Nathan's, of course! I wanted a corn dog and cheese fries. I'd get the chili on the fries too, but I'm a no bean person and Nathan's rocks the beans. Lemme tell ya, that cheese sauce was sooooo hot, I burned my tongue and didn't notice until much later. Ok, no picture of that as well cuz my cheese sauce rendered my fingers inoperable. the hardest thing about Coney Island and the Nathan's on the boardwalk is -- where do ya sit???? I always get a bit anxious when in line, I'm lookin over my shoulder at the benches wondering where I'll be able to plop down and massacre my food. I always get a bit panicked after I make the purchase ..... it's kinda funny in hind-sight how anxious I get about it. All I can say is my dude is an excellent bench spotter. Found one about 1 second before I was just gonna sit right down on the ground and eat ... I mean cheese sauce has a few minutes before it is more like a cheese cloak than a sauce. Hey Nathan's, c'mon get us some more benches!! lol .... aww heck, there is a whole sandy beach out there to chill on, who am I to complain? Here's me pre-cheese sauce, corn dog & beer, post-funnel cake ....



Then we took a trip on the ol Wonder Wheel .. what a ride!! We got on a swinging one, there's a choice between still and swinging ... same ride, two different experiences. I'd say, don't swing if you just ate and you have a light tummy. Basically, the swinging baskets have a track they run on and when the wheel turns and the right angle or height is reached, the weight of the basket makes it follow the tracks and "swing" in mid-air ... the other baskets are a normal ride. Here's a pic from up top ... 



What a hot day it was. Then on the boardwalk we saw this lady with two dudes making something and stopped. Turns out the lady had the two guys dunking strawberries in hot melted chocolate fondue style. I mean brand new fondue sets, boxes freshly discarded in the trash next to her kiosk. I was alllll ready to buy one when she snapped and told me we had to wait for them to "cool" ... COOL??? lol it was 80+ degrees out there and she thought the chocolate was gonna go rock-hard like a chocolate covered strawberry ... she also had marshmallows as well. So, anyway, not to educate her about chocolate we just kept it movin', but walking past her again we saw others just like us wanting the gloppy hot mess of chocolate on the berries, but she was shooing them all away ... I wonder if she ever made a buck Saturday. I mean it was hot, no way that chocolate was gonna chill ... she had it in the shade too, like that was helping and it wasn't ... so when we got home, courtesy of my shopping earlier in the week, we already had strawberries (nostalgia shopping after the strawberry story in cali, i guess) and my pantry always has chocolate of various flavors and forms .... so here we have some homemade chocolate covered strawberries ... 



I used semi-sweet ... after a quick chill in the fridge we tore em up in like saaaaay 15 minutes??? Prosecco and juice to accompany ... okay, I just landed in Hawaii ... yup, tha big island ... I'm not here for a tan though ... born with that :-) ... I'm here for more How'd That Get On My Plate? work ... this time, I'm focusing on honey and and speaking of chocolate? Cocoa. They harvest both here. I'll take pics and post when I can ... here for 4 days and already got a taste of some local "VOG" ... fog that is not fog, it's really volcanic dust that looks foggy ... 

NFNS Webisodes up every week!

Hi All!

Well, my new buddy Adam Roberts of the FN Dish and Amateur Gourmet, has invited me along every week to watch and chat about Food Network's Next Food Network Star. Plenty of links for one sentence huh? teeheehee ... Okay, anyway every week he's invited me to his place and we watch the show together, then chat about it and comment on the contestants. We even talk about the person voted off. It was plenty of fun last week. Check it out below ...

So watch the show Sundays at 10PM/9C and then right after, click here and check for our commentary. This year is interesting so far ... I already have my faves and my not so faves ... feels weird because what if I meet one of them in the future and there I am talking about them on the webisode? Well, you've got my word I'll be honest and as constructive as possible, but I'm also gonna have fun with it. It's a fun show, plenty of different personalities and culinary points of view. I totally got the "Holmes" part of my Lisa Garza comment from a funny post on Jacob's blog here ... alright, hope you enjoy em and if you don't or do agree with my comments, it's cool to say it ... it's an open forum, just don't get too crazy I've seen some angry posts about contestants floating around. :-)  Btw ... the popcorn you catch a glimpse of was from my new 13 episodes ... fresh popped and drizzled with bad stuff, more details when the show runs. We had beers and popcorn while watching, Adam is my kinda guy! Next week, I'm bringing by a close friend to hang out and watch.

Denver Dinin' and Sunnyvale's Shinin' - the marathon post

So, I just wrapped up a lil trip to tape the second and third episodes of How'd That Get On My Plate? First, lemme tell ya about me and traveling. Due to my upbringing as an Army Brat, I'm accustomed to new places and things, but boy do I dislike flying. I can remember throwing up on a government flight from Germany back to the States for a vacation and it's been difficult ever since. Then my crazy self joined the Air Force. The first year was in Korea, so that was cool, flew there and stayed put for a year. Then I got an assignment to produce and write radio news stories for AFNEWS and moved back to San Antonio (my high school city), but almost never was there because the gig required lots n lots of travel. I didn't like it. I mean I loved telling the stories, but they would sometimes come abruptly, like news does, and I'd have to get on a flight and be there. Needless to say my electric bills were teeny tiny some months due to my frequent travel the last 3 years in the Air Force. 

I distinctly remember being rolled into the television department at AFNEWS to go shoot the Holiday Greetings oversees, a 2-3 month trip that included many 1-day stays and living out of the suitcase. I protested, loudly :-) ... I was just exhausted, and a long TDY (that's military lingo for "tour of duty" and means a biz trip) didn't look like fun. It was grueling work I can't even fathom now. We'd break into teams of 3 or four and then break the world up into regions and each team would tour all or many of the bases in that region and we'd tape every single soldier, airman, seaman, or marine saying happy holidays to their families back home. You may have caught the greetings on your local news station or even on the national news around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean we taped thousands and thousands of people, sometimes we'd begin taping before the sun rose and ended after it fell. I was young and everyone on my team was older with families and it was always such a lonely trip for me. Our thing to say was we "flew" by some of the nicest places in the world teeheehee ... not much time to sight see. Plus, I always did the Pac-rim trip, the Japan, Guam, Korea, Hawaii leg ... man did I want to do the Germany leg and never got to. So, I say all that to say, after I left the military I thought my frequent flyer miles were over .... Since then, I've gotten better at flying, although being new to NYC just a week before 9/11 gave me a bit of a set back. I always got sick, but now there's anxiety attached. The best thing for me was to be able to plan flying, get relaxed about it and get my mind ready, in the Air Force, I sometimes got very little notice. So far on How'd That Get On My Plate? I'm doin' okay, no throwing up just yet on the flight lol ... but I did drip a tear on landing in Denver. Sucks to tell you cuz it feels wimpy, but if there is someone that dislikes flying that reads this, you have a friend, especially if you fly for work. :-) Okay, on with the post ..... Denver dining ....

I got to Denver on Memorial Day and realized I'd left my flat-iron at home, so first thing's first I needed to find a spot to buy one ... on the way to Walgreen's on the 16th Street mall I saw a Sally's and stopped there. Then looked down the street and saw Chili's ... yaaaaaaay! Don't look at me crazy, the hood I live in has no fast food places, much less the semi fast food of places like TGIF and Chili's. I mean we have a kosher Subway, but you can't get cheese on your sandwich and there's a kosher Dunkin' Donuts, but you can't get cheese on the croissanwich. I need cheese. Funny enough, I didn't get anything from Chili's that was cheese and meat combined, but I still felt like I was livin' on the wild side! Plus, have you ever had their SW eggrolls? They are yummy, even with the corn. I also must tell you about my Taco Bell thing, look ... it was right there on the 16th Street mall as well and lemme tell ya, my second paying job ever was at Taco Bell, so it's in my system. I was waaaaay too excited to find one within walking distance from my hotel!!! I did it two days in a row and woke up the next morning like, ok ... today I'll do something different. We get to the parking lot of Lamar's Donuts and off in the distance courtesy of my Lasik, I see a sign in the sky ... SONIC!!!! I immediately knew what I wanted for lunch! Donuts for breakfast of course. Here's a shot of Jamie, me and Dellgosh ... he was the master donut maker and trains people at all the stores, so he was there to give me the lowdown on Lamar's Donuts. Here we are smilin' away ... sugar does that.



Anyway, after a morning of donut making, the crew was all into getting lunch from this other place, complete with shrimp and pasta and food that was way too fancy for lunch for me ... I wanted SONIC! Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you ... Sonic was the 1st paying job I ever had. Yeah, so it was pretty neat to get done with Taco Bell, the 2nd spot I'd worked at and the next morning run into my 1st fast food love, Sonic. Also, people in the NYC area will feel my pain ... they run Sonic commercials here all the time and every single time they run, I'll log on and see if finally a Sonic is in the area .... and every time, I'm let down. Have you seen the new one with the fries and shake joke?? Hilarious to me, anyway .... I had a Cherry Limeade and Onion Rings and almost lost my mind when there was no ketchup in the bag! lol ...don'tcha hate it when that happens? Luckily, the donut shop had ketchup, go figure. I know you are like, just rings and a drink? No burger or coney?? Nope, it was all I could do to save prime real estate in my belly after working the morning in the donut kitchen. At lunch time my tummy space was at a premium. I had the equivalent of about 5-6 donuts. Lemme tell ya, I'm gonna gain some pounds with this gig if I don't watch it because people offer free food left and right and sometimes the foodie in you HAS to try it. Like who wouldn't try several donuts fresh from the fryer? I tried several flavors in several different states of production, before glaze, after glaze, no glaze, with sprinkles, no sprinkles, toppings, fillings, you name it I tried it if it was offered and then some. Then that night the suits from the production company wanted to do dinner. I was like eat after a day of over eating? Sure ... we ate at Rioja in Denver, just off the 16th Street Mall. Here's what I had ...



Brioche Crusted Sea Scallops, organic brussel sprouts, crispy smoked prosciutto, lemon creme fraiche, pistachio pistou.
The salad dressing or pistou (think pesto, i'm sure that's the derivative) was yummy ... pistachios made it perfect. This is an entree I asked to be made into an appetizer portion. Then ...


Candied Lemon Gnocchi, butter poached crab, shaved asparagus, fava beans, grape tomatoes, tarragon herb salad, Moutere Grove organic olive oil emulsion.
The asparagus were yummy, but cut in a manner that made it difficult to get on a fork, very thin and very long at an angle. Pretty, but hard to eat.


And another chef that knows we like our black pepper and we don't want to wait for someone to come by and offer it with a grinder they don't know how to use. Ever try to get them to loosen it to give you coarse pepper? It should be in the waiter handbook, how to use a grinder, right? Anyway, I'm a sucker for the teeny bowls on the table.


Now, can I speak freely? My scallops were gritty and there was a big chunk of shell in the butter poached crab meat. Lemme tell ya though, the crab meat was soooo good that even though my tummy was stuffed from a full day of eating, I searched every shred out on my plate for consumption, a little shell wasn't gonna stop me. It's just I'm sitting there having a great conversation with the people I've just met, who wants to break the flow by asking for not only the scallops to go back, but the gnocchi with crab meat as well? Plus, it takes plenty for me to send back a plate ... I think I'd only send back an improperly cooked steak. I mean that is something to get mad about, not a kitchen prepper that can't clean seafood properly. That's just me, and heck now that I think about it ... I just recently had a steak in NYC that was killed in a bad way by the chef. It was totally overcooked and  I sat there and tried to eat the tough piece of meat and never said a word. What is wrong with me? Do I need to send food back? It really feels weird to do. Help me if you have those issues. I'd much rather not eat something and say I was full to the waiter than tell them what I found wrong with it. Come to think of it, the gnocchi was a bit too salty as well. O my, what is wrong with me? I dine on tacos and onion rings and then complain about scallops lol. Okay, anyway ...the company at dinner was great. 

Then the next day we all headed out to a chicken farm in the sticks, I mean faaaar from anything. No food to eat, just chickens to pet ... take a look ... 


Okay, these chickadees were just 2 weeks old so they needed heat to feel warm ... hence my sweat. The make up artist kept trying to dab me, I was like just give up ... it's okay to be sweaty in a sweaty situation ... the chick was so sweet, when I let go to put it back down it didn't want to leave my hand. real cute.


And this is a hen about 24 weeks old and egg-baring age :-). I got a close up with no flash, she moved her head and I ended up with a prettier pic i think. Picked her up too, she was a sweetie. All her friends were pecking at my plastic bag wrapped feet. Reflexology on the farm!

Then, when we broke for lunch I was very interested to see just what we'd run into. Turns out even though we were in the stix, Sara who works on the production is like a chick I remember from a Seinfeld episode. Remember the one where Jerry was dating this girl that could get the impossible done? Remember she got tickets to a sold out show with just a smile? Anyway, our Sara has this gift, heck she got us on a farm behind a biosecure door, all I had to do was put on a blue suit ... big whoop, gimme tha suit!! So, anyway, even though we were faaaaaar from civilization, she managed to get a place to deliver lunch faaaar outside it's delivery zone. And boy was it good. You ever have something to eat where right as you bring it to your face to chomp on you are hit with the aroma of it??? That's Jimmy John's sandwiches. I mean this was a sandwich that had the freshest bread and boy did it smell fresh, just yeasty and yummy. Then the bread was chewy and light and airy all at once. Bread can really mess up a sandwich as was foreshadowing for the Sunnyvale, CA leg of the road trip... Take a look at the box each of our lunches came in too ... really cute, with chips, a cookie and a pickle.


Makes me feel like a kid to get a boxed lunch. Like it like that from In & Out Burger in cali too...


 All I could think was yaaaay cheese and meat together!!! I got the #12 Beach Club, Fresh baked turkey breast, provolone cheese, avocado spread, sliced cucumber, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, and mayo! (It's the real deal and it ain't even California.) 

THAT'S HOW THE FOOD DESCRIPTION LOOKS ON THE MENU PARENTHESIS AND ALL :-)


Turns out it was the owner that did the delivery too, really cool dude. Now you ready for this??? Remember how I was saying I'd kinda run the Taco Bell out in 2 days and knew I needed a change? I was just saying to myself, wonder if I can find something within walking distance just like the Taco Bell. So, the next day after the yummy and perfect Jimmy John's lunch I needed to get something from Walgreen's that was on the same street as Taco Bell ... and what do I see right next to Taco Bell??????



Yes, a Jimmy John's sandwich spot, right there on the left and it was right there all along. Isn't that so true in life? I left Taco Bell thinkin' ok, this is it, I gotta find another place and right next to it was a place that made yummy sandwiches. It was so funny I had to take a pic. Only thing is, the next day was a travel day to Cali. So, no more Jimmy John's, but at least I know where to get a good sandwich next time I'm in town.

Ok, on to California to talk strawberries. I knew from my teeny stint in the Inland Empire area that strawberries grow very well in Cali. We went to Sunnyvale which is significantly north of where I'd lived before, but still the perfect climate for strawberries. We got there on a Friday evening and immediately decided to catch dinner in town. Now usually before I eat at new places I google search to death and also go to a few foodie websites to check the reviews, this time I had no time. We decided on Tarragon and hopped in the car for the short trip from our hotel. All the internet time I got was to do a quick menu scan which turned up a drink I wanted to try. The Cherry Life Saver. Look, I'm a 7&7 drinker if it's not beer, but I'll try a new drink, just like food. Plus the name was catchy. We all took a sip of mine because I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it was not a Life Saver flavor ... we all decided it was more like cherry Nyquil. That was before the food got there, I settled on 2 beers and ate this ...


Cowboy Bone-In Blackened Rib Eye Steak, Pointe Reyes Bleu and Onion Strings.
Cooked perfectly, I always ask for "medium rare, closer to rare".

and then after all the eating, laughing and NBA.com refreshes on my pda for real-time play-off scores ... our director/producer decided to give the Cherry Life Saver another go because it had watered down a bit ... turns out after time the flavors mellowed and the Nyquil flavor morphed into a Hawaiian Punch flavor! Now that's a drink I can work with! lol ... here's the watered down pic ....


Cherry Life Saver turned Kicked up Hawaiian Punch ... I'd call it "H Punch Drunk" teeheehee

So, If ya like Hawaiian Punch and want it with a kick, go to a bar and ask for a watered down Cherry Life Saver teeheehee. Service was relaxed at Tarragon, probably because the whole town was relaxed. Really cool ... on the short restaurant row we went to there were 2 other herb-named eateries. Basil and Turmeric. I think if I had to go with one herb inspired name for a place it'd be Sage. I think. The next day we headed out to the sticks again for acres and acres of strawberries. Now this was pretty cool food-wise. We stopped at a farm that had rows and rows of expiramental strawberries. From the tart to the extra sweet and can I tell ya my foodie friend? I ate as much as I could!!! Dirt and all. Plus, breaking news!!! They are currently working on harvesting white and pink strawberries!!!! I only got that info when asking about golden raspberries, I was like if you can have those, why not different colored strawberries and the strawberry geneticist gave me the news!!! Yes, you read that right, dude had a PhD in Strawberry Genetics. Word. I ate and ate and ate those top secret berries and hope the sweetest one I ate makes it to the market. Thing is, sweetness isn't the only thing they look for it's also the right balance of shelf life. So, I took care of that and shelved them into my mouth!!! Then for lunch, all the field workers were getting nothing but the best from the taco truck ... so you know that's what I wanted. I used to make up excuses to leave work when I was at AFNEWS so me and a coworker could go to the gate for the base and get some tacos from the place that sold them there. I am a taco truck junkie. Everyone else was duped into sandwiches, but I went with the unpopular route and asked for some taco truck tacos and dined on the finest of chorizo and bean while the sandwich takers complained about the bad bread that ruined their day. Remember how I said Jimmy John's sandwich bread just made my day?? I think part of my reason for not wanting a sandwich in cali was cuz the one in colo was just perfect! Why mess with an immediate good memory? Like really can I get the perfect sandwich twice in one week?? I didn't think so and the cali sandwich was being much publicized by a local, I just didn't buy into the pitch. Felt a bit set-up if you feel me. The guys on the crew said they thought the bread would be good because we were close to San Francisco which is famous for it's sour dough. We'll have to go to the bay for that ... their bread left them feeling empty, my tortillas were right on the money! When in Rome baby!!! Thing is we were all filled to the brim with fresh strawberries anyway. Ok, then just as we finished eating lunch ... the sun came out!!! Just in time for me to deliver a line to the camera about loving sorbet on a warm day, need the sunshine for that visual and we got it!!  That was Saturday, flew back Sunday and today ... I'm grocery shopping, my fridge looks a mess. I made a chocolate pudding pie last night with peanut butter chips, gonna whip up some whip cream later and indulge. Other than that, boy am I happy to be home, but boy did I have a good time on the road. 3 shows down, 10 more to tape. Happy Monday!!!