I love food.

So. Much.

And so I have decided to start a new series of articles based on my love of food. This is the first article which includes a review of a restaurant I recently dined at: J.Alexander’s. I hope my review of these heavenly places to “grab” some grub will help you become a lover of food as I am. Yes, I said lover.

J.Alexander’s. The location I went to was on the east coast of Florida in Boca Raton. The occasion was a nice night out with my wife and soon-to-be baby-mamma. We wanted something nice. Something memorable. There were the common places to choose from: Chang’s, Applebees, Pizza Hut Bistro. There were the uncommon places: all of which required valet parking. I am sure you remember THAT post. We wanted something with a history, something that was proven, so that ruled out all the mom and pop places. We wanted something different, so that ruled out the common franchises.

 We settled on J.Alexander’s at the suggestion of a friend and are very glad we decided to try them out.

THE ORDER

My wife ordered a strip steak, which came with a side of fries but she subbed it out for a side of fresh green beans. The steak was incredible. I know because she didn’t have to use A1 sauce on it. You can tell it was fired-seared because it was perfectly juicy. There was a butter garlic sauce that you could garnish on your steak as you ate it. Big plus there. The green beans for probably the best green beans I have ever tastred - they had some kind of garlic seasoning to start, but the real winning aspect of them was that they were so crunchy and full of substance.

I ordered a Roasted Chicken which was lightly crusted on the outside to give it that perfect crisp edge to the skin. I have to say that this review may be a tad bit skewed since I am currently thinking about adding Roasted Chicken to my list of all-time favorite foods. But I can honestly say that J.Alexander’s perfect crisp roasted chicken is now in my top TWO favorited roasted chickens served at a resturaunt. The other is Rum Runners. If I went back, I wouldn’t be able to NOT order it. It was that good. It came with “Smashed Potatoes” but I substituted that for a “loaded” baked potatoe. This sucker was loaded in the fullest sense. It was about 5 inches TALL (not wide) and was amply supplied with cheese, sour cream, butter, bacon, chives, and I’m sure love from the chef him- or herself. The skin was encrusted with sea salt. The entire baked potatoe ceased to exist about 10 minutes later.

My wife and I went for dessert afterward and we are glad we did. The waitress recommended the carrot cake since supposedly J.Alexander’s is famous for it’s carrot cake. Regrettably and at the same time unregrettably, we ordered, and I quote directly from the menu, the “Very Best Chocolate Cake”. Pretty dang good. Came with an honestly generous helping of vanilla icecream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and a couple mint leaves. The cake was enough for both of us, easily. Not too rich, and not just all icing and fluff. Again, I am not sure I would be able to order anything else should I go again, although that carrot cake sure is tempting as I write this.

THE SERVICE

Not a whole lot of bad things to say about the service. Our waiter made some good comments about certain menu items, was never “missing”, and the drink refills were virtually nostop, a HUGE plus in my book. Other than that, it was standard restaraunt service as it should be. He got a well-deserved tip.

THE ATMOSPHERE

Family style dinner? Sure. A romantic dinner date? Definitely. Jumpin’ night life? Not really. Although there is a bar in the middle of the dining area, I would say this place was way too quiet if you were looking for a “watch the game and drink on a stool” evening. The table we sat at was big enough for 6 people. And it was just the 2 of us. The crowd started to pour in around 5:00 PM. We got there at 4:30. The tables are spaced enough apart that you don’t feel like you might just be part of any number of tables. Good music, subtle but you were aware it was playing.

PRICE POINT

Ahh the big question. I think we got out of there with under a 50-dollar total bill (after tax and tip). For what you are getting, the price is just about right. Add some alchoholic drinks and you could easily tack on another 15-20 bucks. I wouldn’t eat here every night (or even every month at this point), but once in a while is great. I have had way worse meals for more than this costs so that’s saying something.

So if you are ever near one of their considerably few locations throughout the country, I recommend trying these guys out. Tell ‘em Aazh sent ya.

Website: J.Alexander’s

Let me begin by painting an insightful, revealing picture of just how much I love coffee: not that much. On the love spectrum, I would put me and coffee in a place that doesn’t really belong on a love spectrum. I’m just not one for coffee. I don’t require coffee to wake me up in the morning. A cup of coffee after dinner just isn’t my cup of tea. Were midday “tea” breaks as common here in the US as in other areas of the world, I likely wouldn’t participate.

That’s not to say that I will not drink coffee. And when I do, I rather enjoy it. I usually prefer a nice, cool drink to a hot cup of coffee, but I’m one to mix it up on occasion. And I don’t imagine such a preference is limited to me. Someone actually took note of casual coffee enjoyers like myself and came up with a bright idea a long time ago– iced coffee.

Not that coffee, even iced coffee, is a new idea, but it seems more and more restaurants are finally realizing the appeal of coffee that’s already cold, made colder with ice.

McDonald’s, which has been selling iced coffee in our area for quite a while now, has a billboard advertisement on a road I frequently drive by that shows off their new sugar-free iced coffee as well as their regular sugar-full iced coffee. But I was a bit confused by the tagline they had. The ad says: Twice the Ice

Twice the Ice? Twice as what? Regular coffee? Nothing twice is still nothing… Twice as they used to do with iced coffee? Because they already fill that cup up with ice. I’m trying to find the application but I just can’t. Did they say twice because they have two drinks on there? But why would one get two drinks, two differently presented drinks at that (one w/sugar, one without)?

Whatever, all this talk about iced coffee makes me want one now. But those hazelnut-flavored cups of cool, liquid genius are expensive. Maybe they meant Twice the Price.

Last week we gathered up as many of our group of friends as we could muster and drove out to the beach to take group pictures. The idea was Mike’s to get everyone together and, to make it more than just a group shot, mimic the style of the promotional cast photos for LOST. The idea was not to have each person specifically be a certain character, more than we tried to copy the variation in styles so we didn’t all look alike.

So here we are in our best “stranded on a semi-deserted island” attire:

There’s more pictures in the gallery, and I’ll be adding more of the group pictures as we get them (there’s some processing involved), as well as some general photos that we took while out there.

A ceremonial musical instrument. Not much is known about its origin or history except that it is sounded to herald the commencement of the consumption a large meal or an unhealthy candy alternative to a meal.

Video archive:

Today I got a late start getting out of the house. I stopped to pick up a quick breakfast at McDonald’s, as I occasionally do. Today felt like an Egg McMuffin day…I usually just get a yogurt and an iced coffee, but I was feeling a bit more hungry for some odd reason.

Unbeknown* to myself at this moment was the fact that it was later than I suspected. I’d soon figure this out and come to an understanding as to why I was as hungry as I was. My usual small breakfast hunger was joining with a newly-spawning lunch hunger.

Anyway, enough omnipotence, back to the story: me, unsuspecting and temporarily obliviously ordering a “number 1″ (this is the Egg McMuffin meal on the breakfast menu). Pull forward, pay, next window. Iced coffee, bag of food. I open the bag…SURPRISE, it’s fries!

“Fries? They serve fries with breakfast?” I think to myself, as the imaginary audience that watches my every move Truman Show-style rolls their collective eyes and shakes their heads.

And then I get it. The time, the fries, McDonald’s unforgivingly strict and too early breakfast/lunch transition. “What’s a number 1 on the lunch menu? I never get a number 1 for lunch.”

Revelation number 2 hits me within 30 seconds of the first one, before I could even finish my first blessedly hot fry: I have never eaten a McDonald’s Big Mac. I felt like a robot learning new emotions. Special sauce? What’s this middle bread? Interesting…

I probably won’t get one again…it wasn’t that great. Plus I lucked out on the tomato front thanks to the salmonella scare (I think tomatoes are poison + tomatoes actually are poison at the moment = no tomatoes = I’m totally cool with that). Besides, I never grew out of Chicken McNuggets.

*You may’ve thought…”isn’t that ‘unbeknownst’?” It could be, either way is correct…and I figure: who needs that extra ST?

Most of my friends know my fondness for break dancing, in particular, popping. I’m not very good, but I have my signature “robot arm spin” move, and can moonwalk/float moderately well. I also am one of those people that went to see “You Got Served” in the theater. Even with Viral videos of David “Elsewhere” being seen by millions of people, it’s still a relatively underground art form.

So when Robert Muraine (aka Mr. Fantastic) showed up on the TV Show “So You Think You Can Dance”, I was shocked. Not just at how creative and brilliant this kid is, but at the judges’ reactions as well. Somebody give this guy some money. Now.

Watch him totally kill it in the video audition…

Two hours, 44 minutes, 44 seconds. That’s how long it took for Taco vs. Grilled Cheese (our team name) to complete the Urban Dare challenge in Tampa, FL (results listed here).

The Hitchhiker’s Guide quotes the official word on what Urban Dare is, and then adds a curious bit at the end:

Continue reading this post…

Whether you know it or not, you know a sampler.

We’ve all been to a few restaurants and we’ve all been to them with a few friends. It turns out, that the more friends you go with to a single sitting at a restaurant, the more likely you will encounter the sampler.

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