Little Plastic Spoons

29 June 2013

Pizza Papa

Tonight, for the low low price of $22, I got chicken poppers, cheesy sticks, and a large one topping (pepperoni) pizza from Papa John's.

The chicken poppers tasted good, but they were little bit disappointing because I thought they would be bigger. I didn't expect them to be as large as, say, a boneless wing but I did expect them to be as big as, say, a jalapeño popper. Instead they were about the size of a pair of dice. A 10 piece comes with two complementary sauces, so I chose Buffalo and Ranch. When I saw the size of the poppers, I realized I would only need one container of sauce so I decided to use the Buffalo. I'm not sure if I've ever had Papa John's buffalo sauce before, but it was freaking amazing - it's spicy, it's hot, and it has a lot of flavor!

The pepperoni pizza was excellent; super hot and super crispy on top. The cheese sticks, which I have never had before, were actually a small 10 inch pizza with garlic sauce and a very thick layer of cheese on top. It comes with 2 garlic sauces, which I will save and use for pizza tomorrow.

The best part is that by spending at least $15, I earned a free pizza, so that makes me happy!

Sandwich Forensics

In case you didn't know, Wendy's fast-food chain has a new sandwich, the pretzel burger. I decided to try this burger the other day even though I have been kind of trying to stay away from fast food. Kind of. The flavor of the burger was delicious and the consistency of the band was perfect; it was tough on the outside and fluffy on the inside just like a regular hot pretzel you would get at the mall or at the fair. The meat was delicious and the sauce was great as well. Included on the burger was lettuce, tomato, and red onion slices. The only real problem with the burger was that it was so incredibly greasy.

When you have a sauce that is a delicate emulsion of oil and "other", sometimes it is very difficult to get that sauce to a high enough temperature without breaking, also known as separating. I believe some of the greasiness of the burger was due to the sauce breaking and the oil from the sauce leaking out into the container and settling underneath the bottom bun. I believe the rest of the greasiness was due to regular greasiness of a beef burger combined with the greasy sauce and all put on a bun that does not have the consistency or ability to absorb grease like your typical hamburger bun would.

I'm going to try the pretzel burger again because the flavor was absolutely amazing, however, if it is greasy the next time then I will know it is just a poorly made burger!

24 April 2013

A Flourishing Garden

Location:
Asian Garden Buffet
8633 Columbus Pike
Lewis Center, Ohio 43035(740) 549-1888

I've been to this buffet on several occasions. Honestly I would like to go more often, but I am rarely in or around Lewis Center anymore, so I forget it's there. This buffet is pretty typical, but the thing that makes them stand out is the freshness. The food is always SO fresh. Often at buffets, Chinese or otherwise, you will see a few pieces of whatever left in the pan for someone to finally take. AGB does not let that happen. Once it's down to a few, they switch it out and put in fresh. You won't find those dried up sticky noodles and vegetables at the bottom, you won't have any chewy crab rangoon or egg rolls.

The crab rangoon are little purse-types, which I am starting to prefer over the triangles. The triangles seem to get stale and chewy and lose their filling very quickly on buffets, whereas the purses stay nice and fresh and full. AGB has a good selection of fried foods, including french fries and onion rings, which were a big hit with my son. The only things that were really disappointing were the white rice and General Tso's, two very important items for a Chinese buffet. The white rice wasn't sticky, it was just stuck together and hard - even though it was warm. The General Tso's chicken pieces were hard and had to be gnawed on, and the sauce was b-l-a-n-d. It was so strange because all the other food I had was really good! Well except the brown sauce, because I expected it to be salty and it was sweet. That was my own misjudgment. Their hot & sour soup, my new obsession, was okay. Very miso-y, which is kinda strange because H&S soup has no miso in it. One other kind of annoying thing, which happens at 9/10 Chinese buffets, is the lack of mustard packets. Once again, as always, I had to get a bowl of hot mustard off the salad bar. It's not so much that I hate that kind of mustard, it's just that I feels so wasteful when I leave so much. Oh, I almost forgot the teriaki - pork, I believe, because it was darker on the inside than chicken usually is - freakin' amazing. I usually stay away from the chick-on-a-stick, but I was tasting for it that day. It was so flavorful, so tender, and so perfectly moist - not dripping gross and not toughly dry. It was literally perfect.

Overall, I'd say in the realm of Chinese buffets, Asian Garden Buffet is definitely one to be visited more often. The staff is friendly, they loved to play with my son, and they kept up on the refills with impeccable timing.

Fries, Onion rings, vegetable pieces, fried rice

I love this rice, Mom!

This right here is the BEST plate ever.

Crab rangoon, brown sauce chicken, naked chicken for S&S

Panko Shrimp, Egg roll

Mustard

Egg roll, spring roll, teriaki pork, crab rangoon, crispy flaky thing

I dip my fries in Sweet & Sour sauce - What?

Teriaki pork, crab rangoon, sugar buns, broccoli chicken

General Tso's and white rice

No pics while I'm chewing!

Beige Plate: Lo Mein, chicken, coconut shrimp

Overall Scores: (1-5, 1 being lowest, 5 highest):

Cleanliness: 4 (always those old bathrooms! ugh!)

Value: 5

Accessibility: 5

Friendliness: 5

Menu: 5

Neighbor's Deli Update!

I've been going to Neighbor's Deli since they were a Jersey Mike's franchise. Super awesome owner, super awesome food, and just when I think it can't get any better (unless they moved closer to my house) - French Onion Soup.

OMG.

The best non-sit-down-restaurant French Onion Soup that I've had in a long time. Make sure you go get some as soon as possible. Also, join their Facebook page for great deals.

And now, the photos (do not judge too harshly, this soup sat in the car for 25 minutes while I was stuck in traffic. I popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds and it was perfect):

Ejecutar en la frontera

(Or: Run from the border)

Location:

On The Border

4175 Morse Crossing Columbus, OH 43219

(614) 471-4416 ‎

I have to warn you, in case you didn't already know, that I'm basically a Mexican food snob. That being said, we decided to go to On the Border because we were starving and it was literally right in front of our eyeballs.

What a mistake. The service was mediocre at best. Our waiter had an earpiece in, which he clearly spent more time listening to than to us, and I personally could not understand a word he said due to mumbling and volume of voice. My best friend could make most of it out, but I'm not sure how. The floors were sticky - and I don't mean Texas Roadhouse/peanuts all over the floor/sticky - I mean when I set my feet down and stood in one spot for more than 10 seconds, I had to exert effort to remove my shoe from the floor. The entire restaurant, even the bathroom, was like this. It was so bad that I checked the bottoms of my shoes to see if I had stepped in gum - I had not.

My food was terrible. Our waiter brought two bowls of the same salsa, and one basket of chips. We waited so long between ordering drinks & food that he had to bring us more chips. They were fine, nothing special. The salsa was watery and had no zip - even my 21 month old son would not eat it and he'll eat pretty much anything. He loves spicy food like mama, so it probably tasted bland to him too! I ordered barbacoa enchiladas, which is: "Three enchiladas filled with Shredded Beef and aged cheddar cheese, topped with red chile enchilada sauce and melted cheddar cheese." When my plate arrived, you could tell immediately that it had been sitting under a heat lamp. The random blue chip shoved into my beans was rubbery; The sauce wasn't shiny like fresh sauce, it was matte like old crusty sauce. The cheese was dull and starting to separate, the tortillas were dry and cracking, and the meat filling was just ordinary. When I tasted the red enchilada sauce, I almost spit it out. Instead of being a tangy delicious sauce, it was almost exactly like mole. Thick, sweet, and seriously had the hints of cocoa that mole has. Total (bad) surprise to my mouth. My refried beans were run of the mill, and my Mexican rice tasted like someone's leftover Rice-A-Roni... from last year. I got a side of black beans for my son, which he ate all of, and they were fine. You can't really mess up black beans... as far as I know... I'm sure it's been done.

My best friend got the Queso Chicken, "Tender grilled Chicken Breast topped with creamy chile con queso sauce and fresh sliced avocado. Served with sauteed vegetables and cilantro lime rice." She liked it okay, but it wasn't exactly what she'd expected. The chile con queso sauce was more like Rotel + Velveeta, and didn't really have a flavor to it. The chicken was grilled, and she said it was not spicy, but very flavorful. Yay! A good thing! Also her rice was nice and fluffy and tasty, and the sauteed vegetables (squash & zucchini) were done perfectly. Apparently I should have ordered off the "fresh" menu! Guess that's the only food that's made fresh!

Overall, this was a very disappointing experience. I guess if I had never eaten at a real Mexican restaurant, I might think places like this are good? I don't know. It was just sad. I will most likely never go back, and that feels fine to me because I'd rather support the mama y papa restaurantes down the street.