puzzler's Profile
Another Bellingham resto opening in May: HomeSkillet!
After two visits we'd give it a "meh" and hope for improvement.
Last Sunday I had the Meat Lovers HomeSkillet -- homefries mixed with chunks of bacon, ham, and sausage, topped with eggs. The potato/meat part was good as the meats provided much needed seasoning to the potatoes, but the scrambled eggs were very overcooked (tough, dried, and singed). Mrs. Puzzler had eggs, homefries and toast -- same overcooked scrambled eggs, bland potatoes, and burnt toast.
This morning I had sides of homefries, chorizo gravy (somewhat bland), tough scrambled eggs, and very good biscuits. Mrs. Puzzler had the Mexi-skillet, which was unseasoned and fairly blah, topped with tough scrambled eggs, plus had to ask for the included salsa and sourcream to be served. With those added and a dosing of Black Market medium hot sauce it approached a modest flavor.
Eggs take a deft hand at cooking --- I hope they find one.
Next time I'll try a side of their pork green chile to dump on some homefries and eggs. If the green chile is good it can cover a number of sins.
Trader Joe's Yea/Nay Thread - 2nd quarter 2012
Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips -- NAY
TJ says "where potato chips meet tortilla chips in a very tasty way!" Well someone forgot to invite the potato chips to the party. These are not very good corn tortilla chips with a murky taste and color. If I were fed these on a blind taste, sweet potato would be the last thing I'd guess.
If you're hoping for a sweet potato chip, these miss the boat completely.
Wendy's chili cheese fries
This stuff is an epic fail. I had some last night because I remember Wendy's chili as being decent for fast food and ditto for the fries.
But together it added up to much worse than the sum of its parts. The chili is too thin and watery to use this way and the fries just get soggy and dead. You can't even eat the chili unless you first remove all the fries and pile them somewhere else.
This is a waste of semi-decent chili and fries.
Trader Joe's Yea/Nay Thread - 1st quarter 2012 [old]
It may have been a NORTH Korean WMD.
Bellingham: Cafe Rumba!
We couldn't wait more than two days to return, so we did lunch there again Wednesday.
We had the pork sandwich (see above) again wonderful and also tried the Turkey sandwich -- best ever! Hand cut roasted turkey slices, moist and flavorful, on their great French roll. Marco (one of the owners) asked if I wanted some of their great onion salad on the sandwich, and I said of course. When I bit into it there was a scrumptious new flavor in addition to the usual peruvian pepper sauce. It had a wonderful fresh, almost mint flavor -- the menu list of their sauces includes "Salsa Huacatay - preuvian black mint sauce." They were jammed up with the lunch rush, so I couldn't ask if that's what ot was. I guess we'll have to return sometime when they're not so busy, so I can ask about their sauces.
Bellingham: Cafe Rumba!
We had lunch here today. Very good -- we'll be back for more.
We had the Peruvian style pork sandwich with potatoes ($6.25) -- very nice roast pork on a french roll that had just the right crust, topped with an onion salad and a mild sauce. The potatoes were billed on the menu as "grilled" but weren't, just slabs of baked potatoes, but the mild, creamy peruvian pepper sauce was tasty. They were pretty busy, so that may have caused them to skip the grilling of the potatoes, which would have really improved them.
The second sandwich was braised beef ($6.25). The menu lists it as "in marinara," which wasn't the red Italian sauce you might expect from the description -- it was more of the braising sauce. Kind of like a really good pot roast on a nice french roll.
Of the two we prefered the pork roast because of the added flavor and crunch of the onion salad.
The soup of the day was Apple and Carrot Bisque, but we didn't have that, so can't comment.
Bellingham: Cafe Rumba!
Yes, their website made it sound like next Saturday.
There is an article about them in this morning's Herald.
How do you eat tinned sardines?
Make a Belker.
If you remember Detective Mick Belker the Hill Street Blues TV series (played by Bruce Weitz), his favorite sandwich was sardines and chopped onion and mayo mashed up like tuna salad. It's one of my favorite sandwiches.
Bellingham: Cafe Rumba!
Sounds great. Can't wait for them to open.
Thanks for the headsup!
Jack-in-the-Box Tacos -- 50 years of skid-marked cardboard
I realized the other day that I hadn't had Jack-in-the-Box Tacos for 50 years. The last time was 1962, when I met my future wife. See came from a part of the country that didn't have JitB or tacos and wanted to try them. I had already sworn off them as vile and disgusting, but joined in with her. Never again for 50 years, until In a fit of nostalgia we thought we'd try them the other day.
I don't know if they've changed during the 50 years in between, but it turns out they are still as horrible as 1962 -- a shell that tastes like a hybrid of cardboard, corn and plastic, with a skid-mark of some partially meat-like substance smeared inside. This is clamped shut and deep-fried until vulcanized, then pried open with a tire iron and a bit of synthetic cheese and lettuce is forced inside.
We took the remainders home for the dog, but he took one sniff, looked at us like we were trying to poison him, and walked off -- and this from an animal that licks his own butt.
Stagg No Beans Chili the worst ever
Take a can of another chunky chili, add three cans of water, and pick out the beans -- that would get you close to this Stagg stuff.
Stagg No Beans Chili the worst ever
No TVP in it -- they managed to turn beef, tomatoes and seasonings into a mess without even getting into fake meat.
Stagg No Beans Chili the worst ever
Stagg Steak House No Beans Chili is the worst ever. A few chunks of "beef" lost in a sea of thin, watery sauce with a flavor that barely suggests chili.
You can't use it for chili dogs and you'd never eat a bowl of it -- so what is it good for?
The idea of "Chunky" no beans chili should never have been produced unless it is mostly meat.
The biggest laugh comes with their claim that it has "60% more beef than our chili with beans."
Discontinued at Trader Joe's - January thru June 2012
Thanks, but I'm in the Pacific Northwest. Wish I could find it bulk here.
Discontinued at Trader Joe's - January thru June 2012
Candied Ginger -- have been waiting months for it to return. This time I going to clean off the shelf. I know it's seasonal, but I don't remember going this long without a fix.
New Year's Eve at Prospect Street Cafe - A Report [Bellingham, Wa]
What was the price of this adventure?
PEPPER GRINDERS
Yes, great grinders and only $6.
I have 3 of them. Pepper and sea salt on the table and a third for pepper near the range.
Poor Siamese - Worst Thai food in Bellingham
This is the worst Thai food in Bellingham. Poor Siamese, 1213 Dupont, is in the building that used to house Supon's.
What we had suffered a severe lack of flavor and was frankly boring. It's not a matter of spice level, but a lack of underlying flavor notes.
Their Pad Thai (Thai style) was the worst I've had in Bellingham -- an insipid sauce that lacked even basic flavor, much less the depth and complexity found in well seasoned Thai food. The chicken was plain sliced already-cooked chicken that had barely made any contact with the sauce -- not that this sauce would have made much difference.
The second dish we had was called Poor Siamese Stir-fry. We expected that such a "signature" dish would be their best effort, but it too was disappointing. Here the sauce was a monotonous brown gravy.
Friends told us that Poor Siamese wasn't as good as Supon's, but as we drove by the other night the place was full of people so we decided to take a chance. Bad idea! Either they were all first-timers or the flavor fairy took a break when our two dishes came up.
Imagine the result when the school cafeteria cooks decide that it's Thai Day and they don't know what all those funny ingredients are in the recipe so they substitute what they have on hand -- that would be what we were served.
We won't be back, until it's next incarnation.
how long to cool down before refrigerating?
I usually put it directly into the frig if it's late night or I'm leaving the house. Just put a hot pad or cork trivet on the glass shelf first.
Diamond Jim's Grill (Bellingham)
Yes, the State Street address was the previous location -- that was bulldozed by the city for a street project.
I don't care for the AFPs either. I like the crunch of hashbrowns.
They have fantastic pancakes, not fluffy or cakey. My favorite breakfast is the 2-2-2 -- two eggs, two sausage links (or bacon) and two pancakes for $6.99.
How Do I Dry My Immersion Blender's Gearbox?
Try a hair dryer or leave it out in the sun for a day. Both have worked for me in similar instances.
Knife Toolsteels... What Do We Really Know? An Earth-Returning Counterexample
Probably one place to start would be to look at the steel used by people who cut meat all day long -- butchers or workers in meat packing plants. I'd bet their knives are made of some pretty simple steel. I've seen some really old ones that were "worn" down to a fraction of the original width by years of sharpening.
As with most things, people are convinced that the more they pay for something the better it is.
How many cupcakes for a 125 guest wedding?
Depends on how much other food and time of day. You mentioned it will be dessert -- that implies a meal will preceed it. If so, I'd go for 200 cupcakes. If it's just finger food and munchies I'd do 300.
Kiwi Knife Questions
Check out Asian grocery stores in your town. I got several Kiwi knives at one of these nearby, and at a lower price, with no shipping -- plus I could handle them first. Kiwis are surprisingly thin and light -- very sharp and nice to slice with -- but you'll be surprised if you're used to working with knives with some weight to them.
Ferndale
The Steak House (clever name) is great -- excellent food!
The buffet was blah at best and horrid at worst.
Cobbler - batter on top or below the fruits?
Big thumbs up on Alkapal's mom's recipe!!! My all-time favorite with any type of fruit, easy, easy, easy.
Potato Salad Using Baking Potatoes?
I love Russets for potato salad. I've found the best way to get consistent results is to steam the potatoes AFTER they're cubed. I cube peeled raw potatoes to 1/2" and put into a steamer insert over boiling water in a saucepan. About 13 minutes they're right where I want them.
I also love baking them first -- when we have baked potatoes I bake extras to save in the refrigerator. Cube them skin and all for a great Baked Potato Salad.
Tip #2: Dump the hot potatoes from the steamer into a large mixing bowl and add 1/4 cup vinegar for 4-5 potatoes (I like rice wine vinegar, but cider or white works too). Mix gently every 10 or 15 minutes until cooled then add rest of the goodies. The vinegar gets absorbed into the hot potatoes much better than cold.
Jacci's Fish & Chips in Bellingham, WA?
Shrimp Shack, 1200 Cornwall (corner of Chestnut)
Best Fish & Chips in Bellingham!
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Rhodes Cafe, 1046 Lakeway (next to Costcutter supermarket)
Best breakfast in Bellingham!
