Bob's Big Boy

Bob's Big Boy

4211 Riverside Dr
Burbank, CA

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This afternoon, Mattie, his brother Geoff, and I drove down to the Pantages Theatre to see The Book of Mormon preformed. The show was amazing, and worth every dollar, but that's not what this is about.

 

After the show, we drove down to Burbank, and stopped in at Bob's Big Boy- a place my grandparents used to eat at often back in the 40's and 50's. My friend Chris assumed this was like In n Out, that every Californian has eaten there, but there were even (much) older ladies talking about how excited they were and that they'd never eaten there before. There was about a twenty minute wait before we were able to get in, but once a table opened up, we were seated promptly.

 

The place has 50's music playing, and outside there's a “carhop parking” area for eating in your car, and the interior is decorated with photos and murals of old cars, awards they have received, t-shirts for sale, trophies for car shows, and its very clean and well-kempt. There are statues of the Big Boy placed around the restaurant, and its a very comfortable atmosphere.

 

Mattie ordered the chicken and waffle, Geoff got a bacon cheeseburger, and I ordered the guacamole bacon cheeseburger. All three were serves with side salads, and the burgers came with fries. The guys had Italian dressing, but having grown up on their bleu cheese dressing, I had to order it. The salad was the perfect size to start off the meal with just the right amount of dressing on it.

Shortly after, our meals arrived, and we dug in. Aside from having guacamole smeared all over my nose several times, my burger was fantastic. The slices of bacon on it were very thick-cut and cooked perfectly. The fries were good- better than a lot of other places, and I finished everything on my plate off. Mattie and Geoff really seemed to enjoy their food as well, and no one left anything substantial on their plates.

Afterwards we wandered up front to pay our bill, and headed for home. It was a great way to end our day at te theatre.


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Debra Wilson

Michelle's Gourmet Popcorn

Michelle's Gourmet Popcorn

Michele's Sweet Shoppe, Epsom, NH

Michelle's Sweet Shoppe

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As you all know by now, I, and those who guest review for me as well, have an endearing love for local products, local businesses, and ofcourse local food. As a lover of popcorn, you can imagine how excited I was to discover that there was not only a local company that made popcorn, but infact they're a very big deal when it comes to the popcorn business, winning not only best in New Hampshire several times in their few years in business, but also being a favorite of hollywood red carpets and award shows, many of which include their product in the swag bags given away at such events. I was elated to discover this, and even more excited when one day I discovered that my butcher shop, The Meat House, which I have spoken of here before, was one of the places you can buy Michelle's products, which I happily started buying and trying their many different flavors sold there.

Michelle's Popcorn comes in 25 regular flavors with anywhere between two to four seasonal flavors as well as a special limited run of a special Christmas flavor available only in December. They vary in flavors from the common flavors like Carmel, White Cheddar, Salt and Vinegar, Nacho Cheese, Chocolate, and the like, to more creative and distinctively regional flavors like New England Maple, which is a carmel and maple flavored popcorn, and the new england stand by Moose Tracks, a sort of chocolate, carmel and peanut butter combination that is found in everything from ice cream flavors to chocolate bars here, they also have some interesting flavors i've never come across anywhere else, flavors like pizza, ranch, garlic and rosemary, peanut butter, apple, cinnamon sugar, and many others that just sound like the kind of thing you have to try or you'll feel abit like there is a hole in your life. 

Though I've tried many of their flavors, I can tell you, my favorite is by far their classic carmel flavor, sure its simple, and its like getting chocolate or vanilla in an ice cream shop with dozens of flavors, but I like the classic stand bys, something comforting and homely about them. Though I do admit their dark chocolate and their peanut butter cup are amazingly good, as is their cookies and cream, though if i am to be honest, these aren't the kind of thing you can eat in one setting, the chocolate they use is so excellent but its also so rich and sweet that you really can't have it all in one setting, well atleast I can't, but that is by no means a negative thing, and i will admit their Nacho Cheese flavor really isn't all that good, personally I felt it tasted a tad stale, but I assume that might also be just the bag I got, so I can't really hold that against them, or their otherwise stellar popcorn that I tend to go abit crazy for when I can get it.

My only real complaint, if I have one at all, is that you can't get all their flavors at all of the places they sell their product outside of the home store in Epsom, and though I can order the flavors i can't normally find, I think their shipping rates, for something that will only be traveling about an hour and 20 minutes, is abit expensive, but thats a personal gripe not really anything about the company themselves. As a whole I am very impressed with their products, and really should make a trip to their home store and pick up some of their other products, after all I am a sucker for fudge covered oreos and home made peanut butter cups.

So if you happen to see some Michelle's in one of their many locations they sell at, or if you're outside of New England and wanna try this lovely local treat, and order it over the internet, pick your flavor carefully, and then try not to go crazy waiting for the package to arrive, you will not be disappointed, its truly something special. So much so, infact, when I recently shipped out some sauces i made to some friends around the world, I included a bag of Michelle's Carmel popcorn as a surprise, which I was told was a very welcome one indeed.

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Chris

Harvest Moon Café

 

Harvest Moon Café

Northgate Street, Chester UK

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Ah Harvest Moon, I love this place. I come here quite a bit now to meet a couple of friends and I'm never let down. It's a small café right in the heart of Chester, opposite the Town Hall and library and so easy to get to from the bus station. 

 

They promote themselves as Bavarian and American Coffee house and they don't disappoint. A warm atmosphere as you enter with a few old dark wooden tables, large wooden counter displaying the beautiful homemade cakes in glass cloches and quirky art, books and pictures on the walls. 

The menu is simple as you can see from the picture and I swear one day I'll have a Reuben because it looks absolutely lush! 

I sat at the long bench table at the back which is lovely and out of the way, well lit and very comfortable. I'd ordered myself my usual, a hot chocolate with cream and a hunk of whatever delicious cake took my fancy - it was chocolate that day so a total cocoa overload, like I'm going to complain! 

We waited for just a few minutes and the order turned up. My hot chocolate was so thick I could almost stand my spoon up in it! Dusted with cocoa on top, a choccie lover's delight. It's a very warm and rich hot chocolate, a nice amount so you don't feel over faced when you've finished it. There's a disappointing amount of places (let me be clear, they're chain coffee shops!) that just think a brown cup of nothing constitutes hot chocolate and covering it in fake cream and plastic marshmallows fixes it. Thankfully, that's not the case here! 

The chocolate cake was a total delight! Dark, super rich and super moist and the buttercream had a touch of coffee flavour in it to cut through the chocolate and it was lovely and smooth. All with the obligatory squirt of cream on the side which is always a bit of fun. 

I then had a pot of Assam tea to wash all that chocolate down and as per usual that was lovely, too. 

At the risk of never getting a table again, I'd highly recommend Harvest Moon to anyone and everyone local. The staff are really friendly, the atmosphere is comfortable, relaxed and familiar and you can totally lose a lot of hours in this place! My cake, hot chocolate and pot of tea came to a total of £8. Bargain! Get your butts down here! Especially now they've just started being open 7 days a week. There really is no excuse. 

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Tiffany

Woody's Bar And Grill

 

Woody's Bar And Grill

Foregate Street, Chester. UK

Woody's Bar and Grill

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So, I'm thinking to myself 2 weeks back "it's Superbowl Sunday soon, I think I need a good old American food fest to kick off my night", and following many a review and picture on Twitter, plus a passing glance at the place, I figured Woody's would be the ideal place to satisfy the need. 

Woody's states "American eating and drinking at its best" and based on reviews, they seem to be living up to the claim. A quick flip online shows a succinct but varied menu, focusing on all that's good about American dining when you think about it - burgers, hot dogs, wings and ribs. I peruse the menu and see "bacon", "BBQ sauce", "fried onions", jalapeños" and I know I'm going to be stuck for choice. 

So, Sunday comes around and Woody's makes it plain to all on Twitter they'll be open late for deliveries, so we call at 6.30 to order and get told it wouldn't be delivered until 9.30. Honest response and we figured "Wow, they must be popular!", so we whack in an order for two Woody's Whopper burgers (beer battered onion rings, fried onions, smoked bacon with BBQ sauce and Monterey Jack cheese), two portions of skin on chips (chips, not fries! We like them chunky here) and an Oreo milkshake and agreed to pick up 40 mins later. 

LONGEST. 40. MINS. EVER. I was ravenous.. 

So, I head into the shop, it's got wooden walls, with various American number plates up, high counter tables and a very warm atmosphere. Head to the counter and bless the guy, he's clearly busy, the kitchen staff are moving so quick they look like their arms have become disconnected from their bodies! I wait until the guy was finished, picked my order up and headed home. A visit to sit in and dine here would be most welcome, it's a dinky diner but it's really nice inside (so get on it, locals!) 

 

The Oreo milkshake didn't last the trip home. Why? Because I had a sip as I walked back to the car and I almost tipped the whole thing into my face. Packed with Oreo flavour, thick, creamy and absolutely delicious. Regret giving my mum a taste as she kept asking for a bit more!! So, big tick on the drinks. Be aware they do a great drinks selection, both alcoholic and soft from root beer to Brewdog to cream soda to wine. It's rare such an establishment offers such a range in house as well as for delivery. Plus they do Rekorderlig which is the beeeest! 

Anyway, where was I? Yes! I get home, get the burger and chips out and wow, the smell! It was a lovely, warm, smoky smell that came from the food we'd got and boy it didn't disappoint. 

The chips first of all - not your regular US skin on fries which are thin and crispy with a tendency to have a bit too much salt. Nooo, these were chunky skin on chips, made perfectly, not very crispy but the flavour was great, a really nice, almost baked potato flavour. Fluffy centres as well, which us Brits love from our chips! I didn't season them so I could taste them as is but know next time, I would salt slightly to heighten the flavour. Definitely an excellent side for the burger, and given the remaining choices on the menu for sides? A plethora of things to try next time. 

Now the burger - wowza it was good. Super onion flavour with the onion rings and the fried onions but it wasn't overpowering, as is so often the case when you have a lot of onion on your food but this was nice and sweet. The cheese was tangy, not claggy, nicely melted and just right, the bacon was a nice salty sting as you ate, it wasn't too thick or too crumbly. I actually quite like chewy bacon and it was nicely cooked to that consistency.. The burger patty itself was well cooked, perfectly juicy and a nice mild beef flavour which wasn't overshadowed by the toppings. The BBQ sauce was superbly smoky bringing all the flavours together. Nothing overpowered anything even though the burger was a subtle flavour. Also - thank god for the bun! So often you get burgers where the bun soaks up the juice and falls to bits but this was nice and tight, held the juice and sauce, and was a sweet flavour. 

Top notch all around and definitely somewhere I'll be visiting again. Total for the two burgers, two portions of chips and milkshake was £16.65. They've not been open long in Chester and it's a nicely unique place with a great interior, so get down there and get a visit in. My mouth is watering just thinking about it, so yours should be, too!! 

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Tiffany

Lake Champlain Chocolates

Lake Champlain Chocolates

Burlington Vermont

Lake Champlain Chocolates

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With Valentine's day just around the corner, i felt it would be the right time to give you all alittle write up on one of the better hidden jewels I've found out and about, and is close enough to me to be local, and we all know how much i love things most don't know about AND local companies, so, anyway here we go..

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About six months ago, I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal (don't be hating, a fella's gotta be educated yo), and they were doing a list of the greatest places to in the united states where you can get chocolate and chocolate related products, amazingly, they listed their favorite as Lake Champlain Chocolates, a small chocolate shop from Burlington Vermont, not far from fabled Lake Champlain, which apparently is the home of not only Champ the Lake Monster, but also now some of the best chocolate I have ever had.

I bookmarked the website and i decided to save trying their products for a special occasion, after all, the middle of the summer really isn't the best time to have chocolate shipped to your home, well unless you want chocolate soup. So I waited until Christmas, I figured it would be best to wait until a nice cold winter holiday, plus, you know, stocking stuffer for the epic win. Lucky for me, they were having a pre-christmas sale, so I ordered myself and my mother 5 of their chocolate bars, i figured this'd be a good way to judge them over all of their fancy amazing types they make, if they can make a good bar, the rest has to be amazing, you know, the cadbury rule as chocolate lovers the world over call it.

I ordered; 2 African Blend Dark Chocolate, 2 Coffee Truffle, 2 Carmel, 2 Milk Chocolate, and because we're both massive peppermint fans, 4 Peppermint Crunch bars. I figured this would give me a good cross section of their work, being a giant fan of dark chocolate, the african blend being 80% is the darkest they had, and infact the darkest i've ever tried, the coffee was a lesser dark chocolate that was filled with a lovely coffee flavored ganash, the carmel is a lovely milk chocolate with house made carmel filled inside, a personal favorite of mine, the milk is also a lovely soft and melty rich chocolate that is like a lovely chocolate velvet, and the peppermint crunch, honestly, has to be the greatest peppermint chocolate bar i've ever had, its a lovely dark chocolate with big healthy chunks of peppermint generously littered through out the bar, I am so very glad i got us each two, otherwise i'd have been very sad once mine was finished. Seriously this was some amazing chocolate, I'm actually planning a second order in the near future, and maybe trying afew of the other things they have.

I tell you, if the rest of their stuff, ranging from organic chocolate, to coco powder, to old fashion drinking chocolate, which is, basically shaved chocolate, you pour into warm or hot milk to make hot chocolate the original way, it all looks very amazing, I honestly can't wait to try more! I encourage all of you to do the same!

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Chris

Just Alittle Note

Sorry I've been out of contact sense November, but with holidays and many of my family's birthdays being between December and February, i just haven't had time to go out and review anywhere, but with the crazyness of birthdays and other important things winding down, soon things shall be back to normal.

there are two reviews coming in afew days hopefully from my friend Tiffany over in the UK, and i got a lovely chocolate company i ordered from over the holidays that i'm gonna write a small review of, so things will be back to normal soon, hopefully back and better then before!

thanks for sticking with us, hopefully for bigger and better things in the future!

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Chris