Alittle Something To Be Proud Of...

After years of tinkering and fiddling in the kitchen, as I do love to do, I have finally perfected three amazing sauces, and I am damn proud of them..

these three beauties are as follows...

1. Cook Out Sauce; though most people might look at me funny for making an orange sauce, once they smell it, and then once they try it, they quickly change their minds. See, Cook Out Sauce is what I call my own version of the sauce you can find on a McDonald's Big Mac burger, I call it Cook Out Sauce because when i debuted it, at a July 4th cook out many years ago, it was gone in about 20 minutes. Sense then I've changed the recipe, tweeked it abit using different, stronger ingredients, finally getting it to where I want it to be, I am rather proud of it.

2. Barbecue Sauce; I have always been of the belief that every man that can cook, needs his own signature Barbecue Sauce, after all he needs something that sets his grilling and cooking apart from his friends and neighbors, I've spent many years working on and perfecting what i would consider my signature barbecue sauce, and after, near as I can count 96 tries over the last 15 years, I finally think I struck gold, I cant decide if I should call this "Ol'98" or "Crimson Gold", all I know is, its amazingly good.

3. Super Extreme Chunky Blu Cheese; This is the simplest, and the most amazing of the sauces I've made this time around, its honestly, the simplest sauce there is to make, with out giving away the recipe, there is 4 things in it, but is by far the most popular of all the things i make, seriously I can't keep this stuff filled in containers.. I am truly proud of it.

As you can see.... I wholeheartedly approve of these....

Anyway, thats just me rambling abit before Thanksgiving, just to keep stuff going, I gotta get back to reviewing the lovely eateries of New England, while my friends review the lovely places to eat where they are, in the near future....

LMAO god I look like a doofus ..... LMAO!!!!!

-----

Chris

Holy Crap, Look What I Found...

Damn, can you believe this? I was gassing up my suburban the other day, and when I went in the pay, they were selling these and reeses peanut butter cups in the same size class 2 for $20.oo. Now $10.oo a candy bar might seem alot to you, and it probably is, but, honestly, for a two pound chocolate bar, or if you went the peanut butter cup route, 2 one pound peanut butter cups, thats honestly not all that bad, plus i've heard they also make hershey bars in the same size class.

I gotta tell ya, I'm abit scared to even attempt to eat these things, they're beasts.. yummy yummy beasts...

-----

Chris

Sandwich Master

Sandwich Master

Rindge New Hampshire

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As most of you can tell by now, I'm a big fan of what people in other counties would consider "Traditionally American Food", by that I mean things like barbecue, fried chicken, ribs, things like that, among those such things would be sandwich with many names, "the grinder", "the hoagie", "The Hero", "The Foot Long", "The Sub", or its proper name, The Submarine Sandwich, but whatever name you call them, they are all the same, a 5 to 8 inch average loaf of bread split open in the middle and stuffed with various meats and cheeses and other awesome things, I am seriously a big fan of these things, as is any proper male on the planet, thats why when I was recently told by a friend who lives one town over in Jaffery NH, that not far from him, in the town of Rindge, which is less then 20 minutes from me, there was a newly opened sub shop called The Sandwich Master, who was making some completely insane sandwiches, that were so good, they were infact almost an artform, naturally, i had to check it out, i mean really how could i not?

Sadly no, the minivan with the autobot symbol is not mine, but you can see my suburban's door!

I must admit, going into this one i was abit leery, i like to do my research on a place before i go, check out the menu, see what the place looks like, see what the prices are so i know how much money to bring, stuff like that, and i was rather saddened to discover that all this place has is a rather sparse Facebook page, as well as a website and twitter, both of which are not in operation, something that is rather important to have these days, I understand they're just starting out on their own instead of being stuffed inside a mini-mart, so I can give them a pass on these things, after all they're not deal-breakers, some places don't need to use Social Media, its not the end of the world, as long as the food is good the people will come from miles around, and judging by the crowd that was in there when i went in, late on a Saturday afternoon, the word of mouth seems to be getting them in the door just fine with out any online help, seriously they were packed for 4pm on a Saturday in October when both the Red Sox and the Bruins were playing less then an hour later, for those of you outside of New England thats a hugely impressive thing.

The location itself, is very small, but for a place thats just starting out on their own, you don't really expect there to be a big open location, though they could have more seating given the volume of people that come in and wait for their food, there aren't alot of chairs or tables and the place does feel slightly claustrophobic given how much stuff is crammed into the location, they also have a very odd picture menu for their "sandwiches gone MAD!!" which is their signature menu obviously, its not that the picture menu is odd, so much as if you're going to have a picture menu, you shouldn't have it basically sitting on the floor, alot of people have back issues and can't really bend all the way down to read the lower part of the menu, i know that seems like nitpicking, and i guess to some it is, but as someone with back issues, I notice stuff like that, but again, i stress, its just my personal opinion, it shouldn't effect anyone's personal ideas of the place itself.

cheese and bacon fries, fresh fries, real bacon and real shredded cheese, mmmm

As for the food, I will tell you this, if you are in a hurry then this isn't the place for you, or, if you have the ability to call in your order beforehand, then do so, the food, though excellent, does take a long time for them to get out, i think we waited something in the area of 45 minutes after we put in our order of two subs and one side dish. Now some could consider this a bad thing, but honestly, as long as the food is worth the wait, no one should really care about the wait, after all, some steakhouses and high end eateries have up to an hour or more wait for food after you place your order, and in places like that, most of the time you don't get nearly as much food as you do at Sandwich Master. And really, though I have pointed out alot of negatives about the place, i wanna stress, the food, which really is all that matters, is BEYOND amazing, all the small nitpicking things are worth ignoring just for the food, after all we only care about the food, and nothing else really.

Before I get into what we ate, I have to tell you, the menu is HUGE, I mean seriously huge for a place thats got everything made to order fresh like, and options galore. I kid you not, the take home menu is almost the size of a concert poster, and has stuff printed on both sides. The menu is divided into various groupings; "Sandwiches Gone MAD!!", "Hot And Cold Sandwiches", "Fried Foods", "Nachos", "Funnel Cakes", "Soup", "Salads", "Wraps", "Flat Breads", "Grilled Cheese", "Quesadillas", "Smashed Quesadillas", "Pizza Quesadillas", "Family Friendly" and "Appetizers", each of those headings has a TON of stuff under each thing, its seriously amazing the size of this menu, and more so, how amazingly good it all sounds. Seriously, the guy behind this place is like the Willy Wonka of sandwich makers, the place is a dream for people like me who love to chow down and really enjoy what they're eating, and again i point out thats all that matters.

the amazing savage carnivore, its truly a work of art.

We both ordered off the "sandwiches gone MAD" menu, each getting "The Savage Carnivore" which consists of a foot long sub roll full of pulled pork, Italian sausage, imported ham, shaved steak, grilled chicken and bacon, all covered in a very delicious barbecue sauce, which is one of like 10 sauces you could have on the sub, and we split a large order of cheese and bacon fries, which honestly, we should have bumped up to the larger family size. As for the subs themselves, they were AMAZING, these subs were stuffed to the hilt with meats and covered in sauce, now first off, a foot long or longer sub is hard to come by, most places a large is 10 inches at best, but to come across a foot long sub thats literally STUFFED full of food is a true rarity, and one that i happily enjoyed discovering, though I do wish i had gotten some cheese on my sub, but thats me, i'm a cheese on a sub kind of guy. The cheese and bacon fries were also a very pleasant surprise, i have to admit, i was expecting a really cheap frozen fry with some of that yellow cheese thats made for melting, and some bacon bits or those finally chopped bits of imitation bacon, thats what you get at most places like this, but oh no, you don't get that crap up in this joint, these tasted like freshly made fries seasoned before fried, then with real shredded cheese ontop of that, with REAL bacon, yes you read that right, REAL BACON ontop of, and mixed into the fries and cheese. The prices weren't that bad really, for two foot long subs, a large cheese and bacon fry and two fountain drinks with free refills came to alittle over $33.oo which honestly isn't all that bad for what we got. Infact half way through eating we were already looking over the take home menu and plotting out what we'd be getting next time we went there, its truly a great place, and somewhere that you should try atleast once, they truly are a haven for unique one of a kind sandwiches that you can can't get anywhere else, which really, is what most people want in a sub shop, i honestly can't wait to go back again.

So for the big question, is it truly worth going too? Well yes, though I pointed out alot of the small nitpicky things that personally bother me, that doesn't detract from the fact the food is so amazing it makes up for any flaw the location has, and though yes, you have to wait a while for your food, it comes down to a case of, do you want something generic and fast, or something made with time and care and quality so you know its the best it truly could be? Or if you don't wanna wait around the building, you can as i said earlier, call in your order, they welcome those. And honestly, with a place that has foot long subs that consist of things like chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks and onion rings in a bun covered in cheese and marinara sauce, or basically a thanksgiving dinner in a bun, or barbecue chicken with granny smith apples and a special sauce, or the countless other insane creations Sandwich Master has created, its seriously like a sub lovers wonderland. And as I said, I can't wait to go back again for more, and if you're up in the Rindge area, give them a look, you won't be sorry you did.

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Chris

Shade Bar and Grill

Shade Bar And Grill

Nashua, New Hampshire

Shade Website

Shade on Twitter

Shade on Facebook

**First off, i would like to apologize, I had forgotten my camera in my rush out the door to get to this one, so I have to use pictures off the website, so the pictures of the food won't completely match, sorry for that.**

Now, about a month ago, I was watching the local news broadcast at noon, and normally i dismiss their cooking segment, I never really understood the point of a cooking segment on a local news program, it doesn't make sense like weather or sports report, its just a local restaurant chef rushed through showing you how to cook a dish from their restaurant, it normally doesn't make much sense, and normally they're from the same few places, popular eateries in Manchester or Portsmouth or the lakes region or something, but this day, they had a chef from a place that wasn't to far from me, a place called Shade, and upon a quick googling, it turns out its literally right nextdoor to where my mother works, which instantly put it on the must check out list for both her and me alike. So after about a month of research and discussion, today was the day I decided to check out Shade, and I must tell you, I am so very glad i did.

Shade Bar and Grill is located in the western wing of the Radison Hotel in Nashua, above the Atlantis Sports Bar, its important to note that though the name is on the side of the building, and the entrance to Atlantis is clearly marked, the main doorway that leads to Shade, does not have the name on the door, but it is right inside on the right side, I found it slightly confusing personally, but maybe thats just because it was my first time there. Shade, like most american bar and grills is basically a sports bar/pub with better quality food and less we'll kick your ass if you don't like the local team feel. Seriously, we need to stop that. Anyway, the dining room is roomy and bright and honestly, has the most comfortable chairs I have ever sat in at a restaurant ever, seriously, i didn't wanna get out of them they were so comfortable. The staff, though only two girls on duty when I went in, seemed polite and friendly, my waitress, who's name I couldn't make out on her name tag, and forgot to ask for, was very friendly and talkitive, even talking to me and my mom after we'd paid and were leaving, some might find such things abit annoying, but, i love a friendly waitstaff, they make you feel like friends and like you matter, thats a big thing to me, but maybe I'm weird, I dunno, stuff like that leaves an impression on me, a good one normally.

As for the food, its actually alot better then i was expecting. Normally when you see a restaurant thats latched onto a hotel, you tend to get hotel level food, you know that its passable but not something you would travel to where ever you're staying just for. Let me be clear on this, Shade's food is phenomenally good, my only issues would be personal taste nit-picky stuff, but I'll get to that as i explain what we ate.  We had to start, an order of potato skins, fried mozzarella wedges, and barbecue chicken wings. Now, the potato skins, though they were very large, there was only 4 of them on the plate, and though they were nice and crispy and full of cheese and bacon and chives, and tasted lovely covered in sour cream, i did find myself wishing for atleast 6 of them on the plate for the price they were, and similarly with the fried mozzarella wedges, I wish for the price there was maybe afew more, five not so large wedges really isn't enough of how good they are, but again thats small personal nitpicks, they were over all delightful. The highlight of the starters, and really the whole meal over all, was the barbecue chicken wings, I ordered a large, which was 12 wings, that could be served either hot or mild buffalo, barbecue, or teriyaki, thinking first they they'd be those microscopically small wings that most places serve you, you know the kind that look like they came off a baby chicken or something, and then thinking you can get buffalo wings and teriyaki wings just about anywhere, i'd go for the barbecue, and let me tell you, that was the RIGHT choice, now let me be clear on this, these chicken wings, not only where they amazingly flavored, and fried to a nice crispy outside and a juicy tender inside, but they were HUGE, seriously, as i said to my mom, i could see a group of friends going there and ordering a large of each of the three flavors you can get and that filling them all, these things were so big i almost asked for an order to go, and i'm thinking the next time we go, i just might get one to go after we eat, because they are simply amazing and a must try, i don't say that lightly either, so you know its gotta be a true statement.

As for our main courses, I, being the burger guy i am, got the Shade Burger and my mother got a Chicken Parmesan, both are made completely in house, my burger's meat is ground in the kitchen, and the chicken for the chicken parm is pounded out and prepped to order, and the sauce and pasta that go with it are also made on properly as well, you have to love that sort of detail. The Shade Burger was rather good, you could tell it was freshly ground, freshly ground meat has a certain flavor to it when its cooked right after grinding that is unmistakable, it was topped with some swiss cheese, really crispy bacon, and served with some delightful double fried fries, i love when a burger is so juicy when you bite it, the juice runs down your arm, this was one of thoe burgers, i enjoyed it a great deal. As for the chicken parm, it was giant, it was a whole large chicken breast, not the little kind you find at a grocery store, a the larger, free range ones that you find at butcher shops size breast, breaded, seasoned, and fried to a nice crisp, then covered in mozzarella and provolone cheese, placed ontop of in house made noodles, and covered in a house made thick and chunky marinara sauce. Now i will admit i tried a bite of the chicken and the noodles, and they were amazing, but sadly, the sauce, though i'm not a fan of thick and chunky tomato based sauces in general, was slightly bland and abit watery, my mom said she could probably get better out of a can, or that the sauce made by our local pizza delivery we order from alot was exceptionally better then the one she had on her meal. But as I've said with other negatively aimed things, they are just personal nitpicking things, and by all means, try them yourself and make up your own mind.

The prices aren't all that bad if i'm being honest, all together with drinks it cost me just abit over $65.oo for three apps, two meals and afew sodas each, which really isn't all that bad for a non-fast food type meal, and honestly is good enough that i would happily come back over and over, I mean the wings alone were enough to make me wanna go back to Shade, and knowing that its really not that far away from home is ofcourse a plus as well, so is that the staff is friendly and fun and enjoyable. If there was anything that i had to find as an over all downside about my time there, i would say the service was slightly slow, but, to be fair, we did show up on a saturday afternoon in that downtime between the lunch and the evening crowds, so maybe that had an effect on it, and also, that they don't list their deserts on their website, they have a chocolate cake that looks like passing it up might be a criminal offense, had I known about it before i went, i would have made sure I had room leftover to eat some, because, hey, house made chocolate cake, the simplest looking, but hardest to perfect thing there is. No, seriously try to make one, you'll see what i mean.

See what i mean? Look at that, and the hot fudge caramel moose next to it, don't those look just amazing? Seriously though, if you are ever in the Nashua area, or are up for a drive to the area for any reason or another, Shade really is a must try, you will leave so full that you'll get home and slip into a happy food coma, but it will be so very very worth it, i honestly am planning on returning soon, even if just for those wings, because seriously they are a must try.

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Chris

Mr. Mac's Macaroni and Cheese

Mr. Mac's Macaroni and Cheese

Manchester, New Hampshire

Mr. Mac's Website

Mr. Mac's On Twitter

Mr. Mac's on Facebook

 

if you were to tell me afew months ago, that i'd be sitting here so full that it might be bordering on a lethal dose of macaroni and cheese, i would have laughed at you and said you're crazy. but yet, here i am, only afew hours off from a visit to Mr. Mac's Macaroni and Cheese in Manchester, one of the bigger cities here in New Hampshire, and I feel as if i have finally, for the first time in my life, truly had the American classic that is Mac and Cheese. Now most will laugh and ofcourse think of their love or hate of growing up with the ready made in the box stuff that either has powder cheese or that pre-melted stuff in a silver container, but thankfully, none of that stuff is found here. Mr. Mac's is all natural, all made on the spot, and made the way Mac and Cheese is ment to be made, and oh my god is ever so damn good.

Mr. Mac's is a tucked away at the end of a business district outside of downtown Manchester, next to a UPS Store and an Auto Repair and Tire shop, but that sort of fits, the whole down home, hidden away little jewel type of place that not many know about unless you are aware what it is about or are adventurous with your food, its served, what i like to call high end cafeteria style, where you order at the counter where you get your drinks from the ice box next to it, you can also grab one of their desserts they offer too, but i'll get to those later. Once you've given your order, you are given a little standie with a number on and asked to find your seat, once your food is ready, normally between 15 to 20 minutes or so, because this is after all made to order, not scooped out of buckets and put on a plate and called dinner mac and cheese, when its ready a server or two will bring our your food like at any non-fast food restaurant, they then make sure you have all you need, and will leave you to it. The food is served in the cast iron skillet homestyle will a wooden plate and a pot holder on the handle to keep you from getting burned, i seriously love the fact they serve it in the skillet old school style, thats a touch I will never get tired of, ever.

Now after doing my research about Mr. Mac's before going, I found out the best way to spend your first time eating there, is to have yourself and whoever is with you, order afew small skillets and everyone pick and choose trying abit of everything, sort of like what they do with tapas in spanish food culture, or how American pub food works with nachos and chicken wings and such. Its rather fun and adventurous, which is really always fun. We ordered five different types, American Chop Suey, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Blazing Buffalo Chicken, with Blu Cheese on the side, Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese, and Pulled Pork Mac And Cheese, thinking this covered the gambit of what their menu is all about pretty nicely, both of us had a nice cold Ice Tea, cuz, well, thats just how we roll when it comes to cold beverages and such around here.

Now for the sake of those that just love details, lets break down what each of these lovely skillets of lovely goodness before i get into how they taste shall we? Lets start with the good, the two best, by far, where the pulled pork and the chicken cordon bleu, the pulled pork is your basic southern style pulled pork with barbecue sauce mixed in to macaroni and served with american and cabot white sharp cheddar mixed in, under a nice torched to a crisp top of both cheeses, its by far the best, the pork was sweet and tender and melt in your mouth, and the barbecue sauce was just so very good, and the cheese was so melty and oozing it was just amazing, i could eat this all day long and not once get tired of it. The chicken cordon bleu, is made of shredded chicken, candian bacon chunks, dijon mustard and American and Gruyere cheeses, I wouldn't have though this would be nearly as good as it truly is, because, for serious, this was amazingly good, I could eat this as much as i could the pulled pork honestly, sense they do full menu take out, i almost ordered one of each to go, but realized honestly, i would be far to full to ever venture more mac and cheese today. The Cheeseburger Mac is what you'd expect, its ground up hamburger seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed with american and cheddar cheese, its not anything amazing, but its what most people would consider a great traditional mac and cheese type meal, its very flavorful though, so, really, its worth a try.

Sadly though, the Blazing Buffalo Chicken, and the American Chop Suey really weren't that great, they were ok, but honestly i wouldn't try them again. The Blazing Buffalo Chicken is shredded chicken mixed with American and cheddar cheese and served with either bleu cheese or ranch dressing on the side that you can put on it, they say you can get it hot or mild, but I was never asked which I'd like, so I'm guessing i was given mild, which sadly, is not that great at all, the chicken and the cheese combo was great, but the spice honestly tasted like a watered down tabasco sauce was lightly sprinkled onto the mix, it was sparse and really not to good, it was however tolerable with the bleu cheese dressing on it, though i wish it could have been more chunky bleu cheese then the smooth kind, but thats just splitting hairs. The American Chop Suey, which to those that don't know what this is, its macaroni, ground hamburger, marinara sauce, and whatever the maker chooses to add, Mr. Mac's consists of, Macaroni, a thick chunky marinara sauce, and lots of peppers and onions, and though there are many that are big fans of such, i'm not personally, but by all means don't let my picky eating habits sway you from giving it a try if its your kind of thing, even though i never did truly know where the term American Chop Suey comes from, but thats a ponderance for another time.

As for deserts, they have four, they are kept at the counter and you can either buy it right off and take it with you to your table, or buy it after you've eaten, or do what i did and buy and take them home, my guess is most people take them home with their leftovers, seeing as I didn't see many people leaving with out a take home box. They offer locally made Moon pies, in house made chocolate fudge brownies, in house made giant chocolate chip cookies, and something called a waffle cookie, which i guess is a cookie made inside a waffle maker, the moon pie, my personal favorite, and a massive favorite all around new england, is what you would expect it to be, two beautiful chocolate sticky cakes with an almost oreo filling like thick cream in the middle, its just amazing no matter where you get it, sure you can get them anywhere, but, hey, anytime, anywhere, when its right its right, right? Their inhouse made fudge brownies are surprisingly good, they're a nice big and thick chocolate and fudge brownie topped with sea salt, its heavenly honestly, it truly is. The chocolate chip cookies are giant and full of chunks, big chunks of chocolate, and a nice gooey soft cookie, i love a nice soft cookie, they're just so damn good. Sadly, they were out of the waffle cookies when we were there, so i wasn't able to try one, they did try to offer me some gluten free cookies, but after explaining to the lovely girl behind the counter that I am a meat eating heterosexual, there was no longer any talk of that.

Overall we greatly enjoyed our meal, and exploring their menu, i would however suggest that if you plan on going to study the menu, they had afew lovely skillets we didn't try simply because we didn't have the room to fit them on the table, or in our stomachs, they also have a create your own special order option, where you can customize your own skillet full of whatever you like, which i think is a lovely idea. The prices aren't all that bad really, for 5 different types of mac and cheese and two drinks, we paid alittle under $50.oo, which is about average for any dinner out that isn't fast food, and about the same level as Five Guys which i reviewed before as you all know, I would say quality wise the two places are the same, though one is a national chain and the other is a place thats just starting to look for a second location to open, which i hope leads to a state wide or region wide chain, this stuff is so good you wanna share it with as many as you can. The place itself is also decorated rather well, its got that local/sports bar feel to it, having tons of pictures of local sports legends and locations both national and state level, i always get a kick out of such things.

So the big question, is it truly worth the trip? Honestly? Ofcourse it is, Mr. Mac's was voted as one of the best places to eat in the state, and has recently been featured on local food review television, as well as working with many local media outlets to get their name and how good they are out there, and the hype truly is deserved, this stuff is amazing, and is just beyond good, remember, even though i found afew not so great, that doesn't mean you or anyone else won't enjoy it, and when you add in the fact you can custom make, and take out your custom or any other type they make, it just makes you want to go back for more and more and more, truly i've not been this full and happy to be full in a long time. So if you can, make it down to their little corner of the world, order yourself afew skillets to try it all out, open up a nice cold Gold Peak Iced Tea and enjoy yourself a great hidden treasure tucked away on the outer edge of Manchester New Hampshire.

-------

Chris 

The Whittington Arms

The Whittington Arms

Lichfield, Staffordshire, West Midlands, UK

The Whittington Arms Website

It's always nice when you have an unexpectedly wonderful afternoon and suffice to say, this afternoon was just that. I'd finished work for the afternoon and my fiance and I decided to head out for a bit of lunch. After umming and ahhing about where we could go, we decided to head to The Whittington Arms, a lovely country pub only five-ten minutes drive away from our house.

We've been a couple of times previously and enjoyed the food and today was no different. We strolled up to the bar, a wonderfully wooden creation - it's all very lovely and well decorated, with a huge fireplace as you walk in that in the evenings will make the front door feel very warm!

We were sat right away in a small area at the back of the pub in a two tabled booth. There was already another couple there, but whilst it was cosy, it was pleasant. I ordered a white wine, my fiance had a lemonade - both arrived very quickly. One nice thing about British pubs is, they're always willing to take the time to know which wine you want, the waitress who served me asked what kind of wine I liked and got it spot on with the wine she brought back for me. Yes, there's always a wine list but a surprise is always nice. 

Looking through the delightful menu, we ended up stuck for choice, so plumped for the House Sharing Platter and a side order of chunky fries. It took around 15-20 minutes to arrive and we certainly weren't disappointed when it did.  The food was utterly delicious. The camembert melted and oozed from the crumb case, the soup made my jaw tingle as it was so sharp and flavoursome, the pork was tender and the apple fritter added a tangy flavour with some crisp texture, the goat's cheese was creamy and tart and the fishcake wasn't made mainly of potato like so many are. It was utterly wonderful. Chips in the UK can often be a huge disappointment, either from a frozen bag or just crap. These chips were well seasoned, fluffy inside and crispy outside, not greasy and super tasty.

So, we wolfed that down and sat thinking "Hmmm....dare we have a pud?". The answer to that query is always yes and again after perusing the menu, we went for the sharing platter. After about five minutes, a waiter came over and let us know that unfortunately, one part of the platter was unavailable and they would like to offer a replacement, and we agreed to one. Little did we know that they'd put a full size portion on the plate!!

Right - Left clockwise - you've got a peach creme brulee, an apple and summer fruits crumble with creamy cup of custard on the side, a warm chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, a pot of chocolate mousse topped with chantilly cream and our "replacement" (bugger me it was amazing) pudding, a salted caramel and chocolate pastry pot. Every single bite was heaven. I can't even describe, I just couldn't get enough!!!!

So, once we were satisfied, we got our bill - a total for the two platters and three drinks of £37, about $56 in today's converted currency. For a place like Lichfield, that's pretty reasonable.

Food was wonderful, setting was excellent and most enjoyed by the both of us. So hey, if you're ever over this side of the pond...check it out.


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Tiffany

Connolly Brothers Dairy and Farm Store

Connolly Brothers Dairy and Farm Store

Temple, New Hampshire

Connolly Brothers Dairy and Farm Store Facebook Page

As I often too, I was watching a local tv program that spotlights various things to do, places to go, and places to eat here in New Hampshire, and I was rather surprised to see that there is a place just over the mountain in Temple, that is considered some of the best ice cream in the state, I was more surprised that I hadn't ever heard of this place, thinking I am one of those local in the know on where to go types. I quickly remedied this situation last Saturday on my way back from seeing a movie, and though it was abit hard to find the place at first, I have to admit, I am very glad that I have, because the hype honestly doesn't do the ice cream of this place justice, it really doesn't.

The farm itself, is very clean, its a straight up fully functional farm, they produce and sell Dairy, meat and maple syrup mostly, which is the standard for most farms up here that aren't crop, and though their meat and syrup look excellent, I was there for the ice cream, now, you can get your ice cream two ways here, either right outside in a cone from their little ice cream trailer, which has their best selling flavors, or you can go inside and buy from their case, that has tons of various different flavors, old standards and some they've created themselves, some created by visitors that they either really liked or thought might sell well, they have a "if you can think of it, we can make it" policy that, if you're willing to pay alittle extra, which really isn't that bad, honestly their regular prices aren't all that bad for what you get, infact its actually pretty fair over all for the quality of product if I am being honest.

The key to just how excellent their ice cream is, happens to be how they make it, instead of using milk, like is traditional in ice cream, they instead use the freshest heavy cream that floats to the top of every freshly milked unprocessed milk, or "raw" as they call it, each day they use it fresh from the cow that day, which makes the ice cream not only smoother and softer, but it also gives it a lovely, sweeter taste, which is just amazing. I wasn't really a soft serve person outside of Dairy Queen or New Hampshire's legendary King Kone ice cream, but Connolly Brothers sort of rides the line between soft serve and the more traditional harder ice creams, its sort of like a hybrid of the two, which is unique, and something i've never had before, its truly awesome, it really is. There is just something amazing about this kind of localized home made style stuff, its just so wonderful. And honestly, the price isn't so bad for what you can get. So if you are ever in the area, take a trip out in the backwoods of the lower end of Temple NH, follow the ice cream and maple leaf signs till you see the red barn, you won't be disappointed.

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Chris

Grill Em All

Grill 'Em All

Alhambra, California

Grill 'Em All Burgers

@GrillEmAll 

Yesterday, myself and 5 other drove down to Santa Monica to the beach. We laid around in the sun, watched the ocean, and later walked the promenade a bit, nursing our mostly horrible sunburns. Later four of us decided to drive to Alhambra and visit a burger joint called Grill 'Em All. If the name doesn't give it away, this is a heavy metal themed burger joint and it totally lives up to it!

Grill 'Em All began as a food truck, and after winning a Food Network competition, they opened up a brick and mortar store, which makes them even easier to find! We couldn't hear much of the music playing inside because there was something going on outside that was pretty loud, but the atmosphere was good. Lots of metal themed stuff, like paintings, posters, and concerts playing, and the menu was just insane. All items on it had a metal twist- things such as the Napalm Death, Behemoth, Immortal, and Dee Snider. The burgers are big, with a ｽ pound of meat in every patty.

The Napalm Death Burger with Primate Fries

It took me about five minutes to decide on the Napalm Death, and a side of Primate Fries. My boyfriend ordered the Behemoth and the Pomme Fries, which we were about to find out really was a behemoth. I've had some good burgers, but this was easily the best burger I have eaten.

The Behemoth Burger with Pomme Fries

I started with a few bites of the fries, which are basically like In n Out's Animal Fries, but so much better. Then I took a bite of the burger, which was nothing short of amazing. The Napalm Death features pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, cream cheese, pickled jalapenos, jalapeno poppers, and habanero aioli. It was nothing short of amazing. Every bite I took resulted in more cheese oozing out from somewhere, and the heat was just right

My boyfriend has a tremendous appetite, but the Behemoth won. He managed to eat about 2/3rds of it but had to stop. The Behemoth is basically a big bacon cheeseburger, but with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. Three sandwiches in one. Mattie vs Behemoth! Behemoth wins! The Pomme fries are just regular fries and he did quite a bit of damage to them.

The burgers are cooked medium rare unless you request otherwise, and are big, and juicy. Yes, its pricey for a burger joint but these burgers are worth every penny! We spent about $40 for our two burgers, two orders of fries, and 2 drinks. We got soda but they also have beer on tap and in cans, and margaritas. Service is friendly, outgoing, and very good. The owner came out and socialized with us, and the cashier who took our order hooed over my awesome lobster earnings. We had no complaints with anything there. Bathrooms are clean and single occupancy, and the place is nicely decorated staying with the heavy metal theme. We can't wait to go back again! 

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Deb

 

Kings

 

Kings

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

Kings Boston

Last night I went out with my family for my cousin Casey's 21st birthday party, I was rather excited to go, because we were going to place I'd only heard of recently, and thought would be a great place to try, after all I do love all in one locations, where you can eat your food and then have all your entertainment right there in one spot, places like this are starting to pop up all over the food landscape here in the United States, and though by design that can be, for lack of a better term, Chuck E. Cheese for adults, thankfully, Kings is no such place. Also, if you are from outside of the United States, or from somewhere other then the east coast, and don't get the Chuck E. Cheese reference, please, be grateful, you're not missing anything other then terrifying foam rubber mice and a history of even more terror inducing early animatronic anthropomorphic animals singing country jamboree songs that will haunt your nightmares for decades to come.

The Main Dining Room, if you look all the way to the back on the left, that is where we sat

The Main Dining Room from the opposite end of the room.

Located in the Back Bay area of Boston, down the street from both The Berkley College of Music, and the often buzzed about Dillon's Pub, and attached to a parking garage for easy parking, infact, Kings is technically under the parking garage, which allows them a tremendous about of space for a location in Boston where everything is compact and ontop of everything else. From the moment you open the front door and see that giant disco ball that shines about as you descend the kind of steep stairs into the main seating area, you find yourself noticing two things, first, that the look of this place is sort Retro-1950s/Rockabilly meets modern Pub/Sports Bar, and that you kind of wish they would turn the lights up, because its very cave like, maybe they kept the lights low because the restaurant wasn't busy the night we went, apparently were were the only people in the area not going to see country singer Jason Aldean at Fenway Park, but i didn't mind that, I like to check places out when they aren't that busy, it allows you more time to relax and look around and truly think about what you want, instead of the order, eat, pay, tip and leave mentality so many busy restaurants give you, i am sure they have nights like that, but thankfully, for us, this wasn't one of those nights. The staff was very polite and friendly, and went out of their way to make us happy, which truly was impressive, normally i wouldn't mention such thing, but, two of our servers were in training, and one of them accidentally dropped two of the entrees, and though we didn't make a big deal out of it, because mistakes happen, they not only deducted the price of the two dinners off our bill, as well as knocked off afew of the appetizers as well, they continued to ask if there was anything they could do to make things better for us, as if we were the most important people in the place, infact, after finding out it was my cousin's birthday, they gave her a free slice of their triple chocolate cake free with a candle on it, and sang her happy birthday. I'm not sure if thats how they handle every single mistake, but their constant making sure we were ok after the incident and going above and beyond with the bill was very impressive, I've never seen a restaurant go that far out of their way to please visitors after that sort of accident. Truly a class act if there ever was one.

Mini Cheeseburger Empanadas

The last of the Buffalo Wontons

As for the food, oh my god! I wasn't expecting the food to be as good as it was, because again, lets be honest, this is a bowling alley/pool hall with a pub attached, you sort of expect pub level food, even though they want you to think they're high end. I started with a large order of mini cheeseburger empanadas, in a large you get six of them and what they call "fancy sauce" which is basically the big mac sauce with out the hot dog relish in it, they were abit to small for my liking and were mostly dough instead of cheeseburger filling, and you'd think you'd get more for the price, but, they are "mini" after all, so i guess i should have expected what I got. Don't get me wrong, they were excellent, I just wish there was more of them for the $12.oo price tag. My mother and one of my aunts split a small order of Buffalo Wontons, which is buffalo chicken and a creamy cheese sauce lightly fried inside of a wonton wrapper, served with a dill ranch dip, they both rather enjoyed them and happily gave me the last one for tasting reasons, I can tell you, i would much rather order those again then my empanadas, though i would order a large instead of a small, given their size, but for $8.oo for a small they were pretty nice sized and very tasty, i would go back just for them infact. For dinner itself, I had what is called a Texas Burger, which consisted of two 4oz. beef patties served on a bun and covered with bacon, a very large helping of pulled pork, a very large helping of coleslaw, pepperjack cheese, half and half pickles, and covered in a texas style barbecue sauce, OH. MY. GOD. was this a dish made in heaven, I am a burger guy, I always have been and always will be, but I must tell you, this might be, with out a doubt, the greatest non-fast food/national chain burger, I have ever had. Seriously, it was so flavorful and juicy, like a burger should be, and all the stuff piled ontop of it, was just so many excellent flavors ontop of other amazing flavors, I almost didn't mind that I had to pay an extra three dollars for fries to go with it, and though i would have liked a bit bigger of a burger for almost $9.oo, the taste truly makes up for the very few short comings for this, I was seriously in heaven, and can not wait to go back for another one as soon as I can. My mother had a meat pizza, which was a light thin crust style pizza with bacon, pepperoni, hamburger, sausage and mozzarella and romano cheese, to say my mother enjoyed her pizza would be an understatement, when she was full and slid the plate my way to try it, she did so very regretfully, because she truly loved this pizza, though everything was properly cooked and tasted amazing together, I wish it had just alittle more sauce, in bites you barely had any at all, and in a pizza, you need your sauce, that aside though, it was still very excellent for what is almost twice the size of a pizza hut personal pan pizza, and alot more flavor packed inside. 

My Texas Burger with crispy double fried french fries

The Meat Pizza, a thin crusted bit of Italian goodness

We seriously enjoyed our meal here, and are already talking about going back again as soon as we can get a group together to do so. Which, really is the best sign of just how good this place is, and how good the food really is as well. And if you're ever in Boston's Back Bay, and need a place to eat, please, make your way to Kings, you'll truly enjoy your time, plus, they've got bowling, skeeball, pool and shuffleboard too, you can't go wrong with that. My only complaint, if there is one at all, is that there is a very strict dress code, no work boots or steel toe shoes, no overly baggy cloths, nothing to trampy for the girls, and afew other things, i get the point of it, but, I always feel abit sad about dress codes in general.

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Chris