Category Archives: food

Project 365 8-23-2010 Five Guys. Burgers, Not Gay Porn.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, however if you’re in the North Orange County area of Southern California then that’s pretty unlikely, but there is a new new burger joint in town.  It is very popular all over the country.  It is blogged about by people other than me, it is praised in Zagat surveys and it’s even been mentioned in the pages of Marvel Comics.  Five Guys Burgers & Fries has opened in Orange near the 55 freeway and it’s making the same kind of splash that Krispy Kreme and the iPhone made when they first came out. 

There are lines around the block, excitement from those in the line and high expectations.

Maybe those expectations are a bit too high.

Dean and I went to Five Guys for lunch and ordered some of these nationally renowned burgers.  Burgers that, if you believe the hype, are “…better than In-N-Out!”  We ordered bacon cheeseburgers, which come standard as “doubles,” and I had mine with  lettuce, tomato and grilled onions – just like my Double Doubles.  I also ordered the Cajun fries and washed it all down with a root beer.

The result:

I intended to take a picture before it was eaten, but I dove right in.  Dean put it best when he said, “…you didn’t even put it down!”  So as you can probably tell I liked it.  It was a really good burger – but it was far away from being the “best” burger I’ve ever had and that got Dean and I in a discussion about hype vs reality and the Apple phenomenon.

When it comes right down to it I still like In-N-Out burgers better.  There is a taste to In-N-Out burgers, a kind of salty hint, that is what I look forward to when I know I’m getting In-N-Out.  The taste gets me excited!  Five Guys doesn’t have a specific taste.  Dean and I both agreed that it tasted like a really good homemade burger.  Desirable?  Totally, but I know what it tastes like because I make burgers like this at home and when I’m out I don’t want to feel like I just paid more for something I could have made myself. 

I felt kind of tricked.  Yeah, the food and fries were good and made from “high quality ingredients” but it wasn’t the life changing experience that the press had told me it would be.  That’s the downside of hype.  If the product can’t live up to what it has been built up to be then, even if it’s a great product, it’s disappointing.  Dean and I were drawing comparisons to other things that get a lot of hype that we don’t seem to get like Chickfilet and Apple fanboys.  I have never seen why Chickfilet is so popular.  I find them bland and expensive, but fans of the chicken treat it like the white meat second coming!  And I think we all know, or are, an Apple fan boy.  The thing is that these products are good, great even, but do they warrant the price or praise that is associated with them?  How much are you paying for quality and how much for the prestige of the name?  And with the iPhone 4 it had a great launch and continues to sell well, but it’s legacy is marred by “antenna-gate.”  Krispy Kreme had a great shot out of the gate, but since then they’ve had to close stores and they are far from the glory of the late 90’s. 

So it remains to be seen if Five Guys will go the way of Apple or the way of Krispy Kreme, but if you’re in the neighborhood and you’ve got a good two hours to blow stop in a try a burger, just adjust your expectations.  You don’t want to be a victim of the hype.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under food, friends, musings, project 365 2010

Project 365 8-18-2010 First Day Back & The Bad Brownie.

Man, oh man was it hard to get back on the ball today!  Really could have used a few more days at South Coast and maybe a spa treatment or six – but work waits for no man! 

Today ended up being a pretty easy day anyway -private student and then teaching the regular class – so even though we’re technically “back” my brain was still a bit on vacation.

At least it was until I was attacked in the mouth by this:

This was a terrible brownie!  Horrible!  It tasted like dry cake mix and while some of you may like dry cake mix straight out of the box (I confess I’ve enjoyed a spoonful or two in my life) this was not dry cake mix given easily eaten solid form.

It was gross and crumbly and I will not buy another Togo’s brownie again until either A) I forget how bad this one was or B) they get a new brownie.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under food, project 365 2010, rant, work

Project 365 8-12-2010 Crepes & A Cut

Had a bit of a change in plans, which is never bad as far as I’m concerned.

Unless it is bad, then it’s very upsetting.

But today was not upsetting, it was exciting!  Since my morning was suddenly free I visited my friend Dean’s house where he was hosting a brunch which consisted of crepes, both sweet and savory, and roasted potatoes and coffee and mimosas.

I’m not a very big fan of mimosas, but the coffee was very good, as was the food and so was the company!  Had the extra bonus of seeing a filmmaker friend of mine unexpectedly!  We were able to talk shop and swap some contacts, always nice to do.  And I got my haircut.

But the highlight of my day that wasn’t connecting with good friends was when I got a picture text from my director Zeke:

Apparently the Wiggy logo is making the rounds!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, food, friends, making movies, project 365 2010, Wiggy VonSchtick

Project 365 7-19-2010 Monday, Monday, Monday!

Monday is the day that I set-up how the rest of my week is going to look – it is very possible that this is the same for all of you out there in blog-land.  As Rene & I get closer to a wedding and Zeke and I get closer to strangling people for not writing us movie making checks there has been a lot to plan out on Mondays and today was no different.

As I look at my calendar the days are starting to fill with meetings – that’s a good thing!

That and lot’s of wedding math.

I’d write more, but my attention is on the other stuff I should be doing so I will leave you with today’s picture:

Guacamole is delicious!

See you tomorrow.

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Filed under business, food, project 365 2010, the wedding

Project 365 7-11-2010 Double Fail!

Ugh!  I did it again!  I don’t know what it is about Sundays that has me forget to take pictures, but I did it again.  Rather than just be a shit and post an empty blog I thought I would revisit Friday July 9th.  I was pretty down on the whole Red Carpet thing, but  it is very affecting to be around that much desperation.  It’s one of the reasons that I can’t live in L.A. proper.  But L.A., and the whole evening, was not without it’s good points!  Stan, the movie that the red carpet was for, was very funny and we enjoyed it quite a bit and after the event Rene and I headed over to one of our favorite L.A. spots Miceli’s!  Miceli’s is one of the oldest restaurants in Hollywood and is just beautiful inside!  It feels like a little section of New York was transported into Hollywood.  Every time that we have been there we have seen the same employees and they have always been kind, generous and interesting.  There is a no cell phones policy so, even though the restaurant is smack in the middle of H’wood, there isn’t an H’wood douche vibe.

The food is fine, worthy of eating.  I really like their dinner salad and pizza, but I warn gourmets to go in with appropriate expectations.  The wine list is delightful and Rene and I pretty much keep to the Chiantis.  The real reason  to go is for the atmosphere, the live music and for a chance to visit a real Hollywood land mark.

In lieu of just one picture for today I present a photographic tour of our evening at Miceli’s:

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Filed under fail, food, Hollywood, project 365 2010, rene

Project 365 7-8-2010 Hungry!

One of the side effects of working out on the regular is an increased appetite!  I have found myself eating much healthier and much more on a regular schedule than I ever have in my life.  I actually eat breakfast now – and that’s something that used to require third-party intervention.

My current favorites, besides Rene’s delightful eggs and fakon (that’s fake bacon) are oatmeal and the blended breakfast things at Jamba Juice.  Right now Jamba Juice is running all kinds of specials too so eating there is suddenly very reasonable!

When it comes to dinner there is a food that has been my favorite since I was a kid: Spinach Tortellini in Alfredo Sauce from The Old Spaghetti Factory!  It’s the only thing I get when I eat there.  When I’ve ordered other things I’ve only been disappointed.

My parents got me an order of it tonight and surprised me with it.  I planned to take a picture of it but my work out appetite got the better of me so this was all that was left:

It doesn’t look as good once it’s all gone.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under food, getting fit, project 365 2010

Project 365 5-12-2010 Onion Rings

Watching LOST with Dean tonight and I picked up food before I got there.  When we spoke on the phone and decided on what food to eat the only stipulation that I gave was that I did not want Wing Stop again since it made me gassy so, naturally, we narrowed it down to pastrami sandwiches from The Hat and an order of onion rings.

Yeah, probably should have gotten Wing Stop again.

For those of you who may not be familiar with The Hat they make really good pastrami and if you are a fan of french fries covered in gravy, like yours truly, then this is the place to go.  It is also the destination for anyone who can devour a metric ton of onion rings because that’s how big a single order is.  I mentioned on the phone that I was getting onion rings and Dean said, “Really?  Are you sure?”  Then later when we actually poured them onto a plate we started to wonder if we shouldn’t invite over the neighbors and maybe a starving family of four to help finish them off.

It was an amazing amount of rings.  The grease alone could power an alternate fuel car for at least a year.  I can still feel it coating my throat and it took about twenty minutes to scrub it off my teeth.  The bag was see through, yet still held together by the power of grease.  Just describing it all makes me wonder why I ate them in the first place, but then I remember – they taste AWESOME!!!

The only problem I had with The Hat tonight was that I ordered a Dr. Pepper and got a Diet Coke!  DIET COKE!!!!!  I ordered a pastrami sandwich and coronary inducing onion rings,  a Diet Coke isn’t going to make up for all that.

Although they probably didn’t do it on purpose, it felt deliberate.

Today’s picture is the mountain of onion rings that were left after we ate our fill:

That’s right this is WHAT WAS LEFT!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under food, musings, project 365 2010