WELCOME
If you found this place, we share things in common, like eating. Eating out at the local pizza place or expressing yourself in the kitchen fill the requirements of our most primal urge, the consumption of food. This site is my pet, I love to cook, I love eating good food with others and sharing ideas
This site has three sections, basically food the major corporations offer, good food I find in local places, or and cook myself and the tools of the trade, again, some good, some bad.
PART I - THE NEW FOOD COURT
We went back and rechecked a few places this year. Good food and getting involved is the Food Court section and we look at food not only as a critic but as a consumer.
Not surprised most of the bad were still bad, or gone, most of the good were still good. Because we are not really in control of what we eat all the time, we end up eating out and at the mercy of the God's. A few have the nether God's like Coilitus and Diarearus on the payroll preparing their fare, thats not fair to the consumer.
Lately, food, service, quality control, and cleanliness, at some locations in my Pinellas County like Elvis seemed to have left the building. As the economy hit harder, quality has gone down. McDonalds did a little revamping and finally learned how to cook Chicken better…sometimes. Notice I said nothing about them raising their prices a dime at a time. Taco Bell is back into it's old sloppy habits.
LAST YEAR THE FOOD PATROL SPOKE UP
So bad that my arguments seemed to agree with the findings of a class action lawsuit which has been brought to the courts in Alabama last year accusing Taco Bell of not meeting Federal regulations for food content.
The class action lawsuit was filed by the Beasley Allen law firm out of Montgomery, Alabama. It is a simple question, that asks, "Where's the Beef".
It resulted in barrage ads by Taco Bell actually depicting meat in their sandwiches. I ate in six of their locations before the suit and bad publicity and did not see the meat in the volumes they state.
In one place I wrote up there was no meat. I commented I saw more meat in a diaper. I was really furious and the idiot manager probably who was half or more of the problem got a face full. Retched service and food in one place. Read more on their page and they need to do a lot of corporate soul searching.
Suddenly there was the meat like rays of sun bursting through the clouds. The suit got dropped after the meat showed up for dinner. Now that they portion control and measure the meat, the question remains how old is that meat sitting in the steam hopper. Maybe they should use the slogan, You can't beat our meat… with a stick! But the real problem is their corporate mentality and training.
TAMPA BAY IS NOT KNOWN FOR GOURMET FOOD
A four star restaurant is a big deal here in Tampa bay. We are however, I believe the **1/2 to ***1/2 star franchise capitol of the world and host a few large corporations like Olive garden, Outback, Roy's (Leroy Selmons), BoneFish Grill and Carraba's. Chili's also has corporate offices in Florida. Applebees has many stores here as do Ruby Tuesdays.
I cover a populated area with multiple locations of the same franchises but what I see and alert you too may be applied to all parts of the country. Especially since several of these Corpoguano pits have closed down. Some needed to.
It's a rat race! The corporate gurus and stockholders bottom line the managers who intern the workers, it is a rat race!
FOOD IS ALL ABOUT LEVELS
Reality sets in that there are four levels you live with here and two specialties. Food service is like renting cars. They are all cars but different levels of comfort, accruements and rental charges.
Economy cars like Aveo, Yaris, and Kia Soul are like fast food from the Taco Bell, Mickey D's, Burger King and Wendy's. Under ten dollars. Usually not hot, and may be dripping with grease and or fry oil or both.
Then you step up to the Ruby Tuesdays, Applebees and Chiles, and you are in the Corolla, Sentra, Cruz league. The middle upscale places are Olive Garden, The Red Lobster, Chili's and Applebees, average about fifteen to twenty for a full meal with beverage and the food is hot and served to you.
And then the Dining spots like Ruth Cris, Schulers, Bob Heilman's Beachcomber and Bern's Steak House. These average 40-60 per person with beverage and will go higher with a good 1991 Chateau LeFarte and you just got the full size Buick or Caddilac Esplanade and the deluxe pickups with four doors nothing in the bed.
The last group are specialties, the family owned generational Mom and Pops, some independents and the climbing, upscale nouveau riche places are represented by the Corvettes and Hum Vees, uniquely different, but in terms of mileage and usefulness, you need a race or a war to justify their needs as anything other than ego.
The older family places are still surviving because of their consistency and great followings and so are the ethnic places not on the beaten path but still their unique cuisines and adherence to family recipes are still favorites of mine.
WHO IS WATCHING THE KITCHEN?
Also some stores are better run than others. I am merely trying to make you more cognizant of your surroundings and what you stick in your belly. Places visited on this list might have the date and time I visited when I remember to put it in my recorder.
If it doesn't look like you are getting either your money's worth, or the food isn't right, COMPLAIN! Bring it back to the counter and either demand a refund or replenishment. They should get the message and when they get it often enough, they respond.
I'm not looking to get the hired help in trouble. Most problems are middle level managerial and caused by the corporate bean counters. I did find a paradox, those elevated to assistant manager and manager to be either professional or complete a-holes depending on the corporation.
Franchise food is not personal service. You are a register receipt from oblivion. And we understand the "flakiness" of the fast food operation when ten cars are stacked up in the drive and the manager is having a meltdown because, "some lady is screaming about the eau-de-toilette paper" in the bathroom.
But the corporation confuses eating and customer retention with bottom lines and I'll bet most of the board members don't frequent their own food products.
You can see trends in some places over weeks, "going downhill" I believe is the expression. One of the most obvious clues is different people each time you walk in or when you get served.
Most of these are Tampa-Bay addresses, covering St. Petersburg, Largo, Clearwater, Tampa proper, down to Sarasota, east to Orlando and the West Coast beaches. I didn't have to travel far to find bad. As I travel, I will simply point them out. They might call it unfair, I call it public service. If they wish to challenge me, I have the photos and in some cases recordings.
PART II - INTERNATIONAL CULINARY CORNER
The next section contains some of my favorite delights from around the world, couple of bailouts of mine, and my Mom's kitchen. I share them with you and while some of the dishes might not be familiar as steak and potatoes on the grill, it may require some resourcefulness as they might just mean a trip to the grocery store or ethnic food supplier.
In a mixed community like Tampa we are fortunate to have Philippine, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean, Cambodian, VietNam and Mexican specialty groceries within miles of my location.
For some Westerners, it could be the same thing as a trip to Klingon or Romulon if you do not or have not experienced a world wide palate.
Food like music is both wide and diverse and truly brings new meanings to the phrase melting pot. I never melted one, but I did scorch a few almost beyond repair.
Bad enough to need a steel brush on the end of an electric drill. The newer pots and pans today are both different in design and materials.
It's not as simple as your mothers Farberware. Not the same company, not the same product.
Knowledge and with the web available there are no excuses anymore. So pay attention. I want to bring the world to your doorstep with good tools that will last a lifetime.
COOKING TOLERANCE
I have an eclectic appetite, I love tempting the Food Gods with combinations of common sense and burnt taste buds. Once in a while I score.
The beauty of cooking is that it is endless. There is no beginning and there is no end, it's all based on your curiosity. The tools are the same. It's what you throw in the pot and what you season it with.
The basic skills, never ending or changing are easy to learn. Your taste and perhaps on occasion, a fast trip to the bathroom will guide you.
THE CHICKEN DILEMMA
All I kept hearing from a friend is that she loves Chicken but can't get past the white meat. Thighs…ugh, taste like rubber. Sure does if you cook it like rubber. Ok, this looks bad for the crew who can't stand the bones, gurgles, gimlets and other weird parts they are not familiar with. Just slice them the white meat.
This is the same crew who didn't pass the frog bit in biology and is inclined to believe only good stuff goes in Bologna. The simple dishes above were created to disprove my friends appetites and it is also a bonus in the food cost department.
I am about to pour sauce on the top photo made Mediterranean style. I used some of the tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, olives, drippings, some wine, and immersion blender and a little cornstarch which would have hid the ingredients you can see, and served it over rice. CLEAN PLATES including the kids. Yes the kids ate Olive and Chicken thighs.
The lower version is a take on Chicken, Italian style with Sweet Peppers, Onions, Garlic and Diced and Paste Tomato and wine sauce with spaghetti, simple enough except thighs instead of breasts You can get twice as many pounds of thighs for the same cost as breasts or worse, those overpriced wings. SEE MI-THIGH CHICKEN
PART III - TOOLS OF THE TRADE
No nonsense , no fooling just everything you wanted to know about the tools of the trade and what works and what doesn't. Cooking is divided into three categories of equipment called the three "C"s. They are Cutting, Cookware and Contraptions. It's as simple as that. You cut, you cook, you decorate and serve. More coming, we got a lot to test.
And if it is like other things I'll discover the best around and the gear you don't want to buy. And surprise, they will fool you, as a name marketed years ago as a leader in quality culinary supplies is the junk bond, penny-stock dealer of today.
And like everything else the cooking phenomena has been eclipsed by the Celebrity Cook syndrome, AKA "The Endorser". If they can stuff it in a bag and put his or her name on it and it sells, they have been successful. Just like Congress on a smaller scale. Thats another thing I write about. Congress and it's just as critical as what I think of food. http://www.aljacobsladder.com.