Armchair Dining on DP

My cousin brought these last Sunday:



FRIED ICECREAM!!

I have a really bad hangover when I ate it but still enjoy it

 

OMG, they look great! And I really, really like hard ice cream that has gotten soft and I suspect that the ice cream above has been softened quite a bit. Hopefully, one of the unopened ones has chocolate chip ice cream in it. I would love to try that one.

So, these were brought frozen and you deep fried them, yourself? Or did he walk in off the street with ready to eat treats? Either way, it was a great way to make an entrance.

I recall having Baked Alaska once at a restaurant but it was only so-so. This treat looks wonderful.

 

I don't live in Santa Ana anymore, but when I did, Charlie's Best Burgers was my favorite burger place. If you're ever driving through, PLEASE do yourself a favor and don't stop at McDonald's or whatever, go to Charlie's.

Picture isn't mine but I wish it was.

 

Southern California is our favorite place to vacation, though we haven't been there in 3-4 years. Will definitely add it to the itinerary. I like the pickle that is peeking out there, though I might substitute the bacon for onion. I love bacon, but not on a burger. And no burger is truly complete, in my mind, unless there is a slice of raw onion (the better to give me heartburn, of course.)

Anyway, thanks for the post and please post any other great foods we should take note of. I love the bakery restaurants out there!!!

 

Have you ever tried Regina Pizza in Boston? I have a friend who is there as we speak, supposedly he had to stand in line for half hour just to get in. Is it really that good?

 

Yes, I have had it several times and it is good pizza. Is it worth waiting in a long line, for? Not really, in my opinion. To be honest, the best pizza that I ever had, bar none, was in Chicago:



This is a picture of a Gino's Deep Dish pizza. Note the "yellowness" of the crust which is caused by the use of corn meal in the dough. Let me state, unequivocally, that if you have not had a Gino's deep dish pizza made with corn meal dough, you have not had pizza. I was sitting at a table with about 25 colleagues from around the country who were in Chicago a for a nearby meeting. We ordered quite a few pizzas with varying toppings. EVERYONE AT THE TABLE agreed that it was, by far, the best pizza they have ever had. Nothing before or after for me has been close. It is that much better. So, even as a New England native who has lived just outside Boston my entire adult life, I give the nod to Gino's in Chicago.

Of course, for your friend, part of the experience is being with a group of people in line in the North End of Boston, so given that there is good pizza at the end of the wait, he probably enjoyed the entire experience. If he is looking for the best seafood place that is not fancy and economical (for Boston, anyway) he should seek out the No Name Restaurant on the docks in nearby South Boston.

 

They were bought at a mall and are ready to eat. Those taste so damn good. Imagine donut and ice cream in one treat

 

They sound fantastic. It would only be better if they used chocolate chip ice cream inside.

 

So, one of my favorite diners (and I have been to many over the decades) is in a neighboring town called Woonsocket. It is the Patriot Diner:



Classic diner with classic diner foods, including breakfast dishes 24x7. Below is their Stuffed French Toast, which is batter-fried bread and either raspberry or strawberry jam and cream cheese. One of my wife's favorite orders there:



Lot's of good food here and it may be our inaugural meal on the DP Foodie World Tour, since the bus will be housed in RI prior to the trip, of course.

 

So, it looks like we lost a few posts from the server crash a couple of days ago...

Anyway, I had my eyes opened yesterday by a new trail mix that I had never seen or tasted before. A long time ago on this thread, I raved about Ann's Swiss Mix as being my absolute favorite trail mix. However, yesterday I went to a local grocery chain called Dave's Market. It is a smallish grocery store (compared to the big regional/national chains) so while it has everything you might need from a grocery store, it has far fewer choices among brands within a category. But it also has smaller, lesser known brands that the big chains do not carry. I saw this on the shelf and took one home:



It has the same basic ingredients as my previously favorite brand, but the mix is better and also saltier, which really made it better. Kar's Sweet and Salty Mix is my new favorite trail mix and if you happen to spy it on your store's shelves, I suggest that you try it!

 

You know this is something I can't wrap my brain around when it comes to american snacks. And I've been here since 1997. Why in the hell do you put so much salt on everything? Peanuts, flower seeds, cashew nuts, etc. etc. That has caused so many heart problems and other health issues, yet you still prefer that over something a little bit more healthy (less saturated with salt or sodium). Don't get it.

 

I can't comment on the overall sociology of salt in the American diet, but I actually am not that big of a fan of salted snacks. I prefer sweet junk food which, of course, is just as bad for you. My wife and kids, however, prefer salted snacks over sweet ones, for the most part. The above trail mix may simply be my way of fusing the two and bonding a bit more with the family.

 

So, decisions have been made, logistics have been worked out, and actions have been taken so we will be taking my wife out to Davenports for Mothers Day dinner on Sunday:



It is a Rhode Island-based, family-owned "chain." I put "chain" in quotes because there are only two restaurants in the chain.

They have great seafood and also some specialties like Yankee Pot Roast that are very good. But, I am more focused on the dessert potential for me on Sunday and below is one of their offerings that I may go with:



I absolutely LOVE carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and they make a good one that does not have too many nuts in it. Whipped cream on the side is nice, too. I may have mentioned before that I like nuts and I like cake/muffins/cookies but I do not like nuts in baked goods, so the fact that they do not usually have too many of them in the batter is a plus for me. Anyway, this is shaping up to be a good weekend, eating-food-wise, so I thought that I would share in my happiness over this fact.

 

Over the past couple of months, I have had a couple of businesspeople from Asia come to meet with me and they have a tradition of bringing small, token gifts as a very nice way of starting s business relationship. I decided to give them each this in return:

Salt Water Taffy is a very traditional, Northeastern candy that can be found at many beaches spanning from New Jersey to Maine. It is a sugary sweet, very sticky and chewy candy. Despite its name, it is not salty at all...just sweet. Not recommended for those with dentures or loose fillings. I originally got them as a kid when I was taken to the seashore, so no matter where I am when I have some salt water taffy, it reminds me of the beach.

 

Quite a while ago, I mentioned Allie's Donut Cakes on this thread. They are a real Rhode Island novelty in which they make a cake-shaped pastry out of donut batter and then frost it like a regular cake. My daughter graduated from URI Pharmacy school today (phd) and requested this cake to celebrate:



Again, there is a big donut under all of that frosting! Needless to say, the cake no longer looks like the above photo. It is a mere shadow of itself now.

 

Speaking of donuts, I bought a dozen of Dunkin' Donuts after watching X-Men Apocalypse with my siblings. I need something sweet for a somewhat bland movie. At least to me, it is kinda bland.

 

Wow, that's huge. That donut doesn't look all that great compared to her accomplishment.

 

Yes, it is huge. As far as I know, she is the first phd ever on either side of my family tree. One of her cousins on my wife's side is a young dentist, so she is second there, but I am not aware of anyone on my side of the family. And, she did it in a condensed timeframe in which she accomplished 8 years' of required schooling in six years (it is a special URI program.)

We did have other food, of course, for the celebration, but the donut cake is surprisingly better than it looks. Most people at the party had not tried it before and it was very well-received. And, you can eat your "slice" with your hands much as you would eat a donut. I had two pieces, BTW.

Sorry to hear that the movie was bland as I was looking forward to it. DD is a favorite stop of mine. Chocolate glazed, blueberry glazed, and glazed sticks (note the glazed trend) are my favorites.

 

I have posted before about Whoopie Pies being a New England treat. Since then, I have found a new source of what I consider to be the best Whoopie Pie that I have ever had. Since I am a chocoholic, this is no small feat. The confection is made by Steve's Snacks in Skowhegan Maine and they call it The Classic Maine Whoopie Pie:



Rich chocolate cake separated by a sweet, creamy vanilla filling. It is fantastic and, luckily, a local grocery chain here in RI carries the product. They even make a monstrous-sized whoopie pie as a cake that can be sliced up and served to guests. They also make different flavored cake and filling, but I am a purist and strongly prefer the traditional version. We will have a case of them on the Tourbus when we launch the DP Foodie World Tour.

 

OMG, yesterday was National Donut Day here in the U.S. and I completely missed it! Damn diet.

I did pick up one little bit of trivia regarding this topic. Apparently, Boston has the highest rate of donut shops, per capita, in the world. Within the city limits, there is one donut shop for every 2,480 people. Obviously, the fact that Dunkin Donuts is headquartered nearby has a big influence on that statistic. Anyway, I hope y'all celebrated National Donut Day!