Food Jerk's Blog

Catch up from the foodjerk

foodjerk — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:13:07 +0000

Apparently, it has been a long time since I have eaten, because I have not blogged about any recent meals or experiences. I seriously doubt there is anyone out there or anyone that cares about my lack of updates, but I find it fun, so I continue on my quest. The biggest event that I can remember since my last blog entry was Thanksgiving. I had three Thanksgiving dinners and could have squeezed a fourth in if needed. First up was the Dinner Club feast, which Whit and I hosted. Our contributions consisted of the turkey, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows!), and corn casserole. I think it was about a 13 pound turkey, and all we did to prepare it was cover it with black pepper and butter. We also made sure to baste it with drippings. Prior to the kick-off of the event, Whit and I went to our favorite farmers market (the only one near us) and bought up some goodies for the dinner. We had a great time, eating delicious food and sharing good company. The next Thanksgiving feast was at my parents’ house in Tyrone. As with the first, I ate too much, drank a little, and enjoyed the company. Whit and I went early to help with all the cooking. It must have looked ridiculous as my dad and I sat in the yard consuming a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck, while watching the turkeys fry from the comfort of our patio chairs. In the end, we had killed two bottles of the cheap ass wine and had produced two amazing turkeys, one with a butter marinade and one with Cajun seasoning. Both were crisp and delicious, so I could not tell you which one was better. I think I enjoyed the process of cooking the most. The third and final Thanksgiving celebration actually occurred in December. My office building is run by a man who loves to cook and entertain. So, when he said he was going to fry a couple of turkeys for us, I was all in. Everyone brought something as side dishes, and we had enough oil that my boss cooked every turkey we brought. Leftover turkey was not a problem in my house; I think I picked on cold turkey until January. The next memorable meal was the Dinner Club Christmas celebration, hosted by another couple. The menu consisted of T-bone steak, homemade crab cakes, asparagus with goat cheese, and twice-baked mashed potatoes. The steak was seasoned and cooked incredibly, and the crab cakes were the best I have ever eaten! I have had crab cakes from St Simons Island all the way to San Francisco, with a couple in between. Natalie’s recipe is awesome! They were light and fluffy and not too bready- the perfect balance of ingredients. I wanted to package them up, take them to Barbra Jeans, and tell her, “This is how you make them!” Another memorable December experience was the 20% off mix and match case sale at Harry’s. To celebrate the new near, we bought way too much Riesling, Cabernet, and Sparkling wine. After considering the price, we realized we would have paid way more buying these 12 bottles separately, so it was totally worth it! One guarantee of the Boda household, there will always be wine!

Zocca is not Zucca

foodjerk — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:37:29 +0000

So, I wander San Antonio in search of a foodie-worthy establishment. I ate at Twin Sisters Bakery for lunch and absolutely loved it. It’s a little corner cafe with an eclectic decor. I sat in one of the windows and asked what was good. The waitress told me that the chicken salad sandwich and the tortilla soup were “on time.” Pondering what exactly “on time” meant, I took her up on the suggestion. The soup came out, and it was exactly as she said. Within minutes of ordering, the soup came out. The broth was a simple chicken stock with a definite kick. The chicken was most likely a thigh, but it was tender and great. The added bonus was the garnish of tortilla chips and a corn bread muffin. All in all, the soup was “on time.” Then the sammie came out. It was supposedly a half, but it could have easily been the whole. It was like a pesto chicken salad without the garlic. Basically, it was just chicken, mayo, mustard, basil, and oregano. It was a great sandwich-quite possibly the best chicken salad sandwich I have ever had. The only other chicken salad that I competes with is from V.Sattui winery in Napa Valley. I think more research is necessary. Buy me a ticket to San Francisco pronto!
But back to the title of the blog, Zocca not Zucca. I wandered around looking for a place that was: 1) open past three 2) had good food and 3) not a tourist trap. This place is riddled with tourist traps, and most are along the River Walk. I do not want to put these places down, but that is not what I was interested in. So, I looked on my LocalPicks app and found Zooca. Thinking it would be like one of MY favorite eateries, Zucca, I thought it would be great. Like any other solo traveler, I walked in, found the bar, and sat down. Looking over the menu, I decided it looked like Zucca. It consisted of fusion of Italian and american dishes that all sounded good. I decided on the Pizzetta. Considering the description of a flat bread with the eggplant and goat cheese on top, it could only be good. It came out and was nothing like what I thought it would be. It was a flatbread cut in triangles, all around a scoop of the eggplant purée with the goat cheese crumbles on top. Despite this, it was very good, and I would go back for another meal.

Acenar Hot Mex Cool Bar (San Antonio)

foodjerk — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:40:24 +0000

So, I am traveling for business again. You all know what that means- per diem. In my mind, it means free food! I am in San Antonio and staying on the River Walk. I have heard that this is a great place for food and night life. I’m not sure if I’ll see the night life since I am only here for three nights, but I’m more than willing to try the food. I arrived on Monday, checked in my hotel, and went down to the river in search of something local. I found Acenar, a Tex Mex-type restaurant. It had neat decor that reminded me of a dance club, but they played music along the lines of Kings of Leon and Phoenix. It was my kind of place. I bellied up to the bar, ordered my staple drink (Jack and diet), and ask “What’s good?” The bar keep (I say that because my bride says I talk like a an 80-year-old man) tells me the pork fajitas (carnitas) are the best. I take his advice and order them with some chips and salsa. I thought the salsa was weird. Some bites tasted like a marinara and some tasted like a weak tomato and red pepper dip. No spice whatsoever! I was really disappointed since my LocalPick app told me this was one of the top five restaurants in my area. The entree came out, I ordered another drink, and I dug in. The pork was okay but was very fatty. The side was a bowl of half pico de gallo and half guacamole. It was awesome and definitely made the meal great. I’m not sure exactly how to make pico de gallo. I assume it is fresh tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and cilantro mixed together. The guacamole might be a little difficult to make. I know you should start with an avocado, but after that I am lost. Maybe I could loom on that crazy device called the interweb and find out. Maybe later, I have an hour of jet lag to fix.

Greenwoods on Green Street

foodjerk — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:54:54 +0000

If I do not stop loving sweet country cooking, I am going to become a fried chicken. When asked what my favorite food is I go in order of my ethnicity: Italian, Southern (I consider this an ethnicity!), Hungarian, American, and something else I don’t really talk about. I may have made that all up, mainly because I do not think I have ever had Hungarian food, but it’s an extreme way to say I LOVE SOUTHERN FOOD. The dinner club went to Roswell last weekend for a ghost tour and dinner. The ghost tour was unimpressive. I could go on and on about it ,but it has nothing to do with food so you will just have to ask me sometime. We ate a late dinner at Greenwood’s, and it is about as unpretentious as a restaurant can be. It sits back off the main road, and you have to park in a gravel parking lot and walk a little to get there. At the front of the building, there is a replica of the Haight/Ashbury sign above a peace sign, all on top of large “NOW”. Knowing where Haight/Ashbury is, it makes sense that the rest of the sign looks the way it does. We walked in and I thought we were walking into my great aunt Mary’s house if she lived below the Mason/Dixon line. She would cook a huge Italian spread every time my family would visit. Mounds and mounds of food for just a small group of people was the norm. If there were a lot of family and friends coming over for dinner, forget about it. There would be food for days. At Greenwood’s, the menu is simple. A hand drawn cover, left side for food and right for wine and beer. That’s it. Nothing fancy and none of it was expensive. The left side consisted mostly of fried foods and buttery sides, and they offered a good range of wines, microbrews, and domestics. We ordered a couple of the house appetizer, fried green tomatoes, and extra corn bread muffins. The tomatoes were covered and fried to a crisp, and the muffins were perfect. My bride (She hates to be called this, as it makes her feel like were 80 years old) read everywhere to go early and get the fried chicken before they sell out. So, at 9:00pm, we thought it was too late, but we were pleasantly surprised. Two sides came with the entree, so I got mashed potatoes covered in gravy and steamed green beans (I needed something healthy!). When it all came out, it looked like I had an entire chicken, battered, fried, and on my plate . The healthy green beans were covered in butter. Everything I ordered had something dripping off it: the beans-butter, the mashed potatoes-gravy, and the chicken-honey. Whatever it was, it was great. All I have to say is that Greenwood’s is awesome. Definitely will have to try its sister restaurant, Swallow at the Hollow, in the future.

Southern Cooking Done Right

foodjerk — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:50:48 +0000

Paula Dean is clown shoes! She is just silly. I feel bad talking about her, but she makes me mad. No southerner really says “y’all” as much as she does. I feel she uses it like it’s a period. “We are going to make some chicken, y’all. First we are going to clean it, y’all. Then we are going to butter it, y’all. Then it’s time to bread it with cheese, y’all. Then fry it, y’all.” NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT! Even the southernmost, back woods, banjo pickin’ Georgian I personally know, does not talk like that. Now, in my opinion, even if she stopped talking like an idiot, she wouldn’t be a horrible cook. I love southern food, but she just puts butter in something and it is automatically southern. I think she’d add a stick of butter to Chicken Parmesan, and consider it Chicken Parma-south. Philly cheese steak, with a stick of butter instead of cheese wiz, it’s now a southern butter steak sandwich. She drives me up the wall. All I can do is hope that her show gets cancelled and she stops cooking. (Considering her success, I don’t see that happening.) I do have to admit that her restaurant, Lady and Sons, is a great concept, and the food was awesome! She should just stop trying so hard to be southern. It makes the rest of us look dumb.

Goat Cheese

foodjerk — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:49:33 +0000

I think goat cheese is my new favorite go-to ingredient. It is quite possibly the easiest thing to add to any dish in order to make it creamier, richer, and tastier. Recently, I have put it in a chicken parmesan, mashed potatoes, and crackers. The chicken was made by flattening it and rolling the cheese and fresh herbs in the middle. Adding marinara to the cheese makes a simple topping for bread and crackers. Whit’s favorite was when I added it to homemade mashed potatoes instead of using milk. It’s been a great addition to several meals, and I plan to use it a lot in the future. There are so many options: a non-traditional lasagna, a pasta salad, grilling a thinly sliced skirt steak roll with some herbs and adding it to any pasta dish. As I write this, the ideas continue… chicken soft tacos with fresh pico de gallo, nachos, or a deconstructed taco, where there is no shell just a plate of goodness. Best idea ever: pizza dough, basil, and sliced steak. The more I write, the more I think I am going to run to the store so I can come up with another dish!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

foodjerk — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:36:34 +0000

Let me tell you how great Harry’s Farmers Market is; well it’s great! I went there for lunch a few weeks ago and had a chilled grilled salmon sandwich with a side salad and roasted sugared pecans.

If you do not know anything about Harry’s or what a farmer’s market is, then you have been living in a hole. Whit and I like to go there, but we realized it is kind of pricey. The Harry’s concept is great. They only get their food from a 50 mile radius of the store. All the produce is locally grown, the meat is all local, and the non-perishables are all organic. We really should shop there more often for our produce and meats; it is really just healthier than a typical grocery store.

We often hear about the preservatives and steroids in food. I do not have children yet, but I do think we, as a society, go overboard on trying to keep every bug and germ off our children. I ate dirt as a child, and I am the healthiest guy I know. (I am not kidding about eating dirt as a kid. My Dad often reminds me abouy the time he spent getting on to me about eating the sand in Florida.) I hardly ever get sick, and when I do, it’s one day and done. I rarely wash my hands (only after using the lavatory and if I think I touched poison ivy. I itch just thinking about it.) I try not to cough in my hands, and I sneeze in my elbow like the Secretary of the US Public Health Services says I should. I think that having germs is healthier than not having germs. Then it comes down to Darwin’s survival of the fittest. The stronger germs will kill off the weaker ones, and we as a society have drugs to combat the strong germs. That is the reason why I only get sick one day a year. One bug made it to the top of his food chain but was too weak to succeed. Stephen – 1 Sickness – 0, I win. This does not mean that I am going to shovel dirt onto my child’s plate. We plan to shop for organic foods, make our own baby food, and vaccinate on a schedule that does not give the kid thirty shots all at once. But, I am not going to walk around with a bottle of Purell and make my kids clean the playground before they play and wash their hands after. (My wife, on the other hand, will!)

Sorry about my rant.

So we bought two pre-prepared, chicken cordon bleu servings for dinner, three orange pumpkins, two white pumpkins, fresh baked French bread, and some honey butter. On the way home, we stopped by Cupcake Charm on the Marietta Square. Now my intentions for dinner were good…Chicken Cordon Bleu, a side of penne pesto, and cupcakes for dessert. It did not turn out as I pictured. The penne we had was whole wheat cardboard, and I ended up burning the outsides of the chicken before the inside finished cooking. We had to microwave the chicken in order for it to be edible and ended up throwing the pasta away. BUT the cupcakes were great. I definitely suggest Cupcake Charm!

Back Pantry cooking

foodjerk — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:17:06 +0000

Back Pantry Cooking is a term I thought of to sum up taking random items from your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to make a great meal. It is in interesting concept that is great for families that have a lot of food in their kitchens but really do not have complete meals to make. You know the day or two just before you go to the grocery store to restock the cabinets. Last night I took a half eaten, left over chicken wrap from Taco Mac, a chicken breast, salsa, a Lean Cuisine Santé Fe Beans and Rice meal, the little bit of Mexican cheese I had, wheat tortillas wraps, and tortilla chips; and Whit and I made our own Santé Fe Chicken Wraps. Everything was already there all I had to do was put it together. The wraps were actually better than the supposed Southwest Chicken Wrap from Taco Mac. I have done the same concept with a box of thai noodles that you add water and microwave by adding chicken and the chow mien noodles. It was alright but it was really salty. I do suggest that you go in to your kitchen with an open mind and try to make a game out of finding food items that have been pushed to the back of the pantry or fridge and make a meal out of random stuff. It could be good or it could be bad but as long as you do it as a family it could be really fun.

M and MMs

foodjerk — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:09:40 +0000

How was your day today?
Well, I could say it was a great day, if it were opposite day. (I would now laugh like a nerd who just made an inside joke about star wars that I have with my self.)

Well Whit and I went to Marlows (their logo is an “M”) in Kennesaw for drinks and dinner before we go see Zombieland. We were hopeing that since it is October that they would have their Halloween decorations up. They usually have spider webs and skeletons hanging from the ceiling. Red light bulbs in place of white ones. And you are greeted at the door by a giant grim reaper hanging down in the door way. The whole place transforms and is fun to get a little drunk and hang out withhold beautiful bride. As a staple I get my Jack and Diet Coke. I mean I have to watch my girlish figure (I would now laugh like a nerd who just made an inside joke about star wars that I have with my self.) three to be exact who was counting anyway. I opted out of my usual fish tacos; the last two times I ordered them they were a little dry. So I tried some thing new, the half rack with twice potato salad, fried mac and cheese, and jalapeño corn muffins. It was apart of their Makers Mark BBQ special. The sides were really good. The twice potato salad was great even through I do not know what the twice means. Is it baked twice? No. Is it twice boiled? Maybe. Is it twice tossed in mayo? Doubt it. But it was a tasty mayo based potato salad. I kind of prefer the mustard based salads. I know every good southerner can only like Dukes Mayo potato salad but even though I was born and raised in Georgia I think the folks north of the Mason Dixon line make a better potato salad. Now to make up for that I love North Carolina BBQ. A vinegar based sauce is BOSS. Marlows ribs were dry rubbed St Louis style; and it was dry and over cooked. The fried mac and cheese was good but what fried food is not good? Fried chicken? Yes. Fried Twinkie? Yes. Fried snickers? Yes. So all in all I will not get the ribs again but the sides were great. I’ll definitely order those for next time. Although I may just stick to the flat bread, because they are always great.
So, we move out to the Regal Theater for Zombieland! If you cannot tell I am super stoked about this movie. It combines three of my favorite things: Zombies of course, funny zombie killing, and awkward situations that Re cured by sarcasm and irony. Still feeling down from the day I get my own small 40 oz Coke Zero because I have to watch my girlish figure and my own box of M&Ms. I pretty much killed both before the movie started. Do I feel bad about eating all that? No because it made me feel netter then. But now that it digested? No, Stevie has a tummy ache. But remember rule #32, enjoy the little things.

Starbucks for breakfast

foodjerk — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:08:53 +0000

I know that Starbucks has had these sandwiches for a long time, but did you know how great they are? All of them are absolutely great! I usually order the Reduced-Fat Egg White Turkey Bacon Breakfast Sandwich and even tough it is a diet type breakfast sandwich it is awesome. At 340 calories and 10 grams of fat, you cannot beat that with a stick, it is so good. Even the Ham, Egg Frittata, Cheddar Cheese on Artisan Roll at 370 calories and 16 grams of fat, is not bad for a diet but it is alright. Then the Classic Sausage, Egg & Aged Cheddar Breakfast Sandwich at 500 calories and 29 grams of fat, it is not great for that flat stomach but at least it is better than most breakfast sandwiches out there. If you pair it right you will still have calories to spare for the rest of the day. I usually get regular coffee with any tasty treat. Iced in the warm months and hot in the cold months. Every once and a while I’ll get a Grande Non-Fat Iced Carmel Macchiato when it is just too damn hot for a penguin to be walkin’ around (name that reference and I’ll shake your hand) or I’ll get a hot Non-Fat Carmel Macchiato if it is cold out side at 190 calories. I am not a great dieter, if you have read my other postings, but I do what I can with what I got; and it is not much. So I eat what I want and I watch what I can and I run as much as my body will let me. So far on that diet I have lost 18 pounds in three months. Not bad for a guy who was stuck at 186 for the majority of his adult life. I never thought I could lose weight but I am doing alright. But this is not about me and my fat rump; this is about the fantastic food at Starbucks. So I have talked about the hot sandwiches, now for the great cakes they always have. I think I love the Iced Lemon Cake the best. It is so soft and sweet. Then the Pumpkin Muffin with the Cream Cheese filling, the cheese danish, the oatmeal is good, the yogurt with fruit and granola is always good and good for you, and the Starbucks Classic Coffee Cake tastes great too. Okay I think you get it and I can put away my inner fat kid; Starbucks has great tasting food. It’s just not all healthy for you.