Sam brought these work –Chips Ahoy! cookies filled with Oreo creme and Birthday frosting. One tasted like Oreos and the other tasted like Birthday Cake. So sweet! LOL.
Tag: cake
I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Johnstown, Colorado.
Greetings from Johnstown, Colorado
N 40° 21.7583’ W 104° 59.0529’ Elev. 4986’
I first wrote about the legendary Johnson’s Corner just over two years ago. It’s one of those places that I usually stop at whenever I’m passing nearby because it’s just so damn good. So good, in fact, that Johnson’s Corner is programmed into the SS Me So Hungry’s GPS so we’ll know exactly how near or far it is.
My original intention was to dash in and get a roast beef dinner and a piece of German chocolate cake to go. I was hoping to beat out the worst of the first snow of the season and, with any luck, get at least part of the way across Wyoming before it became unbearable or they closed the Interstate or … who the hell knows? It’s Wyoming in Winter and anything can happen — quickly.
Having done Wyoming in Winter countless times before I knew what I was potentially in for. And it ain’t pretty. Indeed, it can be absolutely brutal:
I’ve been there when the snow “fell†horizontally; when the wind blew so hard you could look in the mirror and read the side of the trailer; when the windshield iced up so badly you couldn’t see a damn thing and it was all you could do to find a safe place to stop and knock the ice off the wipers; when road conditions were so horrible and you were so “puckered†you had to use a pry bar to uncouple a certain part of your anatomy from your seat; when it was so bitterly cold that you had to park ass-into-the-wind in hopes of generating enough heat in the cab to be “comfortableâ€; when, if you’re finally lucky enough to find a place to park, you got to spend a half-hour the next morning, wet and freezing to death, crawling around underneath the rig hammering on frozen wheel drums trying to free-up the brakes. Did I mention that it ain’t pretty? Winter Wonderland, my ass!
(Helpful tip: When driving in snow turn on the defroster before you need it. More importantly, put the sun visors down to trap the heat and help warm the windshield.)
So… I went into Johnson’s Corner and the offerings on the Specials Board were Pork Rib Tips, Seasoned Red Potatoes, Vegetable and Roll for $7.29, and Hot Meatloaf, Open Faced w/Smashed Taters for $6.99. Both of them sounded pretty good. I’d had the meatloaf before and it was great. So I asked my server, Emily, what was more fun. She said the Meatloaf. Okay, I said.
As I was waiting I kept staring at the Specials Board, thinking the Pork Rib Tips sounded pretty good, too. So I ordered that as well. After all, you can’t possibly have too much food when you’re crossing Wyoming in Winter. Did I mention that it ain’t pretty?
The Pork Rib Tips were a really great treat. I couldn’t believe how heavy the box was when I picked it up. There must’ve been three pounds of meat in there, which took up two-thirds of the box. I had two meals of it and still had some meat left over.
The Rib Tips were strips of virtually boneless rib meat, although it did contain those weird little white cartilage things. It was served covered with a great, somewhat spicy barbecue sauce. They were extremely tender, though not quite fall-off-the-bone tender. Still, there was so much I got kind of burned out on it.
The Seasoned Red Potatoes were also a treat. I think they were spiced with a bit of cayenne pepper as some of the bites were downright hot. Thankfully the cayenne wasn’t overpowering. The corn was standard-issue canned corn, which I kind of like occasionally.
I’m pretty sure they make their own rolls at Johnson’s Corner. They have a full-blown bakery there that churns out all kinds of great stuff. This particular roll was lighter than air. It was also invisible — Emily didn’t give me the roll! For shame. I would’ve gone back in to fetch one but the weather was coming and time was of the essence. However I will remember to whine loudly and complain hardily during my next visit.
The Open-faced Meatloaf was likewise great. The meat and the smashed taters (they’re term) were both served on pieces of white bread, smothered with a great brown gravy. Johnson’s Corner has great mashed potatoes and gravy. That they serve them on a piece of white bread always kind of cracks me up. Starch on starch smothered in gravy thickened with starch. You’ve got to love it. This may also be an indication that there is probably not a nutritionist on staff at Johnson’s Corner.
The German Chocolate Cake is quite a deal. At $3.29 for a giant slice you can’t go wrong. The slice is one-sixth of the homemade two-layer cake. It’s got German Chocolate frosting on the top and between the layers, chocolate icing on the outside. The slice is humongous enough, and rich and sweet enough, that it takes me well-over a half-dozen tries before I can finish it.
It was truly fortuitous that I stopped at Johnson’s Corner when I did. I ended up making it only a short way across Wyoming (to Laramie) before I surrendered and parked the yacht. But it all worked out. After all, I had a giant stash of great foods to enjoy as the snow fell.
And so we roll.
Johnson’s Corner, 2842 SE Frontage Road, Johnstown, Colorado
Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.
I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Tempe, Arizona.
Greetings from Tempe, Arizona
N 33° 25.384’  W 111° 55.198’  Elev. 1132 ft.
There I was, chomping at the bit, just wanting to get there. It was Sunday so traffic in greater Phoenix was light. I was sailing along with no impediments. I was just a few miles away, stomach growling, and there they were: Orange traffic cones as far as the eye could see, rerouting me, in circles.
Had I known there was going to be a triathlon in Tempe that day I would’ve entered … providing, of course, I could be motor-boated, rickshawed, and then electric wheel-chaired to the finish line.
Thankfully, I was bobtailing (land yachting without a trailer/sail) otherwise it could’ve gotten very ugly, very quickly. But after getting alternate directions from one of Tempe’s finest, I eventually made it. To Chompie’s.
New Yorkers, especially New York City-zens, are spoiled. With little effort they can find this kind of food. But in the rest of the country, even much of Florida — Go figure! — it’s hard. That’s why Chompie’s is such a treat.
Founded in Phoenix in 1979 by the Borenstein family, formerly of Queens, Chompie’s is a taste of New York and then some. Originally a bagel factory, it’s grown to become a full-blown deli and bakery with four locations that’s truly a tasty slice of New York Jewish soul food. And they have an incredibly extensive menu, from breakfast to dinner and everything in between.
I first asked for the garnish plate. If you ask, they’ll serve you a heaping dish of delicious home-cured pickles. Judging by the color, there are two kinds. I’ve never figured out the difference other than the light green ones are perhaps “younger†and taste more cucumbery; the darker ones more of a mild kosher dill.
I started my meal with the Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Rolls ($12.95), which came with two sides. These cabbage rolls are indescribably delicious. Overly stuffed with ground beef filling, the cabbage is as tender as can be and smothered in a sweet tomato sauce. I’m not sure why they call it Sweet and Sour. I think it’s mostly sweet. In fact, I could see it being too sweet for many people.
For the sides I first ordered a spinach latke but they didn’t have them that day. So I settled for the next best thing: a potato pancake and sautéed spinach, served with applesauce and sour cream, respectively. While they were both good, they didn’t measure up to a spinach latke. Still, they were awfully good.
Knowing I was going to get a sandwich to go I only ate one of the two cabbage rolls. Plus I also wanted to get some of their great soup.
I noticed on the menu they had The Rueben Combo ($9.99) which included a cup of soup (your choice) and a “cole slaw gnosh.†Supposedly it’s a dine-in only thing, but I told my most excellent server, Shula, that I was going to eat the soup there and run away with the rest, providing she’d give me a to-go box. I also told her that, if she were going to chase me, I wanted to take a nap first.
For the soup I got the Chicken with Kreplach. It’s a great soup, with nice pieces of tender celery and carrot and a single kreplach — a minced chicken-filled dumpling — in a savory chicken broth. However, there was no chicken.
One time I ordered the Mish Mosh, a big bowl of chicken soup with noodles, matzos and kreplachs. If I remember correctly it had chunks of chicken in it. But the Chicken with Kreplach that I had that day had no discernible chunks of chicken. That can only mean one thing: The Borensteins owe me a Chompie’s hat.
As I was packing up my booty Shula asked if I wanted anything else. “Maybe dessert?†she suggested. It sounds dangerous, I replied. “Yeah. Dangerously good,†she said. She was right.
Chompie’s has a dessert case that would kill a diabetic on sight. So I ordered both a Mini German Chocolate Cake and a Mini Chocolate Mousse Cake ($2.25 each) to go.
The German Chocolate cake was pretty good. But the Chocolate Mousse Cake was really spectacular, really creamy.
But I learned an important lesson afterward. While the Rueben, with its half-mile-high stack of delicious pastrami served between slices of really great double-baked Jewish rye bread was awesome cold, and the cole slaw equally so, the Sweet and Sour Cabbage Rolls aren’t very good cold. Not at all.
It’s just more proof, land yachters, it’s always something.
And so we roll.
Chompies, locations in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler and Tempe, Arizona
Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.
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Nasto’s Olde World Ice Cream Cake
Carmen brought this ice cream cake to the party all the way from Newark, NJ.  She said it was so cold sitting on her lap all the way to Brooklyn. It’s from a place where her dad used to take her when she was a kid –Nasto’s Olde World Desserts. I wonder if Cory Booker eats there.
Nasto’s Ice Cream – 236 Jefferson St. Newark, NJ 07105
I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Sylvester, Georgia.
Greetings from Sylvester, Georgia
N 31° 31.862’ W 083° 50.599’ Elev. 388 ft.
I arrived here a day early with a leaking power steering box to pick up 22 tons of Peter Pan peanut butter. So while I was at the auto parts store buying some miraculous Lucas Power Steering Stop Leak I asked the guys where the good food was. One of them recommended Jackson’s Soul Food Kitchen, adding “That’s some seriously good food.†So I went and, well, had some very, very seriously good food.
Jackson’s one of those meat-and-three-sides places where they’ll have a few meats and maybe a half-dozen sides to choose from. These used to be really common in the South but are, sadly, rapidly disappearing it seems.
The meat choices that day were Cube Steak in gravy, and either Fried or Baked Chicken. Side choices were Rice (white), Yams, Collard Greens, Squash (yellow), and Green Beans or Butter Beans (Baby Lima) with Ham Hock. It also came with a piece of Corn Bread and your choice from an assortment of slices of pie or cake for dessert, and a drink.
For lunch I had the Cube Steak ($9.58 w/tax), with yams, squash and green beans, and a Sweet Tea. For dessert I chose Caramel Cake.
This stuff was seriously, seriously, seriously good, all homemade and cooked to perfection Southern-style (i.e. mushy veggies). The Cube Steak was very tender, which is often not the case with cube steak. The squash and green beans were wonderful, the latter with big pieces of ham hock in it. The yams — which I love anyway— were out of this world. The yams weren’t cubed but rather large slices. And I don’t know what they do but I swear they’re using either pineapple or orange juice in the preparation. Whatever it is, it’s goo-ood.
The sweet tea was also homemade and delicious. The Caramel Cake was also great. Having never had it before I expected it to be sickeningly sweet, but it wasn’t at all. It was so good, in fact, I ended up picking crumbs of cake off the plate with my fingers. I wanted it all, I wanted it to last.
One of the curious things, for me, was the corn bread. I would’ve called it a hoe cake or griddle cake before I’d call it corn bread. It’s actually fried rather than baked. Moreover, this stuff wasn’t as sweet nor made solely with yellow corn meal as is common. It seems to’ve been made with white corn meal and, possibly, flour. It actually kind of reminded me of a pupusa. It was still good and made a good sopper-upper for the gravy; I really should’ve taken a picture of my plate after I finished as it looked like it had just been washed.
The food at Jackson’s was so good that I ended up getting a dark meat Fried Chicken ($8.51 w/tax) meal with yams, yams, butter beans with ham hock, and Buttermilk Pie to-go for dinner.
The fried chicken was fantastic! Perfectly seasoned, not too crispy, not greasy at all and really moist. The butter beans were freakin’ awesome; I really I should’ve gotten double of them, too. The Buttermilk Pie, which I’d also never had before, was also great. Really moist and creamy, not too sweet and sort of lemony.
An oddity, if you can call it that, was that Soul Food places sometimes get heavy handed with the salt. Not so at Jackson’s. They really did everything right, especially by letting the ham hock add the natural salt/seasoning to the butter beans and green beans.
Jackson’s Soul Food Kitchen was a great recommendation/find. I’d highly recommend it myself, probably adding “This is some seriously good food!†Seriously soulful, and seriously, seriously, seriously great.
And so we roll.
Jackson’s Soul Food Kitchen
602 W. Franklin St., Sylvester, Georgia
Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.
Categories
Rocio’s Spanish Bakery
My first time inside Rocio’s Bakery on Grand. This is the same place that I saw this poor Dora the Explorer cake in the window. There were a lot of flies inside, but they got an A rating, so what do I know.
I ordered the Bistec a la Mexicana ($7.50) and a tamale. The steak and rice platter had avocado, refried beans, peppers and onions and came with tortillas. It was surprisingly tasty, especially with their green hot sauce. So much food. It was like the equivalent of 8 tacos. I should have quit half way. I came home and passed out for the rest of the day.
Rocio’s Bakery – 501 Grand Street (btwn Union Ave & Lorimer) Brooklyn, NY 11211
Some more cake disasters below…
Sam brought this half made Martha Stewart YORK Peppermint Pattie Googly Eye Brownie Cake to Rusty’s birthday party. It was from their magazine photo shoot. I assumed they would they would just shoot the cake being built as they go. But they make several cakes in different stages and have the photographer shoot them all at once. Make sense. The photography crew’s time is worth much more than a few $8 cakes.
The cake was so rich. A YORK Peppermint Pattie on top and a YORK Peppermint Pattie baked inside each square. The eye balls sweet and crusty.
