Feasting on Asphalt Wedding Anniversary pt.1.5

From Anniversary

I felt it was only fair that I call this part 1.5 because this episode does not consist of Feeding on Asphalt eating. Although I wish it had, it did not. How about a few pointers?

You may have asked, 'why didn't you go to Dallas?'...been there, did that, quite a few day trips in the last year and a half. Some mandatory some not. And great hotel rooms were horrendous in price. What you need to think about is the area in Shreveport. Bustling city with many a casino and gambling.

We don't particularly care for the Casino's but you can get a great room at a nice hotel for a cheap price because the establishment can afford to make it cheap, they are making money hand over fist with the gambling. Our room was probably twice to three times more expensive in Dallas for the equivalent of what we got in Shreveport.

(a little side note just in case you want to take your dollar and play a penny machine 'just one time for the fun of it' remember Shreveport doesn't have those smoking rules...so if you don't like stuffy, club-like atmospheres...or your a former smoker I would suggest you forgo your 'just for fun one time' trial period)

Unless you want 'all you can eat greasy home style food' or not-so-international International Buffet I would not suggest eating in the actual hotel. We had about 4 or 5 options in the hotel that broke down as follows:

1. Coffee Place - ok for coffee but not quite equipped as you would think, pastries were good but they failed to change out the crusty displays of everything they sold...so I was actually scared they were going to pull one of the pastries from the glass display case and try to give it to me. Seriously these were baked goods that had been in the window at least 3 days that I know of...not sure they were even changed when I left.


2. Some kind of restaurant that tried to be a blend of Applebees, Ruby Tuesday's, and TGIF all rolled in one with a cajun injection on the menu to boot. Usually you don't want your cajun food from a national chain, and you don't want your national chain from a local cajun place...personal opinion is - make it one or the other. But food wise it was the usual.


3. Of course there was the 'International Buffet' that I spoke of previously...in addition to what I said above about 'all you can eat greasy home style food or not-so-international International Buffet' I would like to add that I really can't seem to stuff more than 1 plate (or even a half) of greasy food down my throat at a sitting so I couldn't even attempt to eat enough to make it worth the price $16 a person. Sadly we tried. Overcooked, gravied up, watered down...


4. Expensive Restaurant with a wine list that won 2 prior awards...but I suspect it was an award in the casino-restaurant-wine-selection category which probably only runs in casino classifications. But at any rate after looking at the menu and the prices and having prior experience with the others...just couldn't take that chance. I like to cook with wine and occasionally drink a glass but most places I go to I drink water, no lemon. Because I just want something to cleanse the palate between bites or eating especially when trying new places...I like to play the "Critic at Large or the ingredient-technique-flavor-guessing-game" with my food. Sometimes I get real good and detect a recipe change in menu items that I eat frequently at certain places so you know they had to substitute an ingredient in a pinch.


5. Room Service? Didn't see the use...they want you out of the rooms gambling. And to pay extra for all that I already saw just to have it delivered to the room? No thank you!

Now, all that being said...I don't think this would hold true for the 'BIG BOYS' in Las Vegas. Actually I would hope it would be quite the opposite with all the big names they moved out there. I know down in Biloxi (Mississippi) their is an excellent buffet at the Beau Rivage that my good friend Bill took me to, and we took our time grazing for about 3 hours...hey! It takes time to crack them Alaskan King Crab Legs open!

This was just my (and my wifes) opinion of the food choices at the Hotel, but I still recommend the great rooms at these low prices. (use Expedia or something like that to review them and get the best price). We were close to the River Walk which is a nice place of outlet stores and restaurants with a big movie cinema as well (where we saw 2 good movies!). So there were better food choices for the same price like Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro...which eerily reminded you of what it would look like if Copeland mashed together one of its seafood restaurants with a cheesecake factory, funny huh?

It had good food and it was enough to carry leftovers back to the hotel to put in our refrigerator but it didn't really meet the Feeding on Asphalt criteria did it?

Feasting on Asphalt Wedding Anniversary pt.1

From Anniversary

On Sunday the 4th we ventured out on celebrating our wedding anniversary (which was on the 5th). What happened became a version of Feeding on Asphalt meets the Newlyweds...or something of that nature. I being a career cook (or chef if you will) and my wife being a Registered Nurse are very adventuresome in general but also with food exploits.

Our criteria had nothing to do with food per se, Stephanie had 2 days off from work and we didn't want to drive very far to enjoy ourselves. Which left us with Louisiana, which you know can be a food destination of its own caliber.

But right away we never got out of Texas for the first installment of our feeding on asphalt wedding anniversary!

East Texas, Interstate 20, exit 635 will have a few fast food options and a Jim's BBQ & Catfish (locally owned and operated). Big (pizza hut style) cups of sweet tea or soda's, huge heaping helpings of food, and a very 'wanting to serve you' attitude...

Can't say we ever got to the pie or desserts (maybe we should have gotten one to go) but our appetite was bordering on 'no lunch' but to late to get stuffed before supper. We had a fried catfish sandwich and split some spicy curly fries. Catfish was breaded and fried with a big crunch but light in texture and color, moist and juicy inside and the fries were delicious...personal adjustments to the sandwich was hotsauce, but thats to be expected with us.

Menu was great and we got to look at several other peoples heaping plates of fried catfish or bbq...drool factor was in 'full effect'.

Things were looking good and we haven't even got to the destination yet!

Holiday Funny!

There was a large chess tournament held at a hotel, and after the first few games, some of the players gathered in the lobby to talk quite loudly amongst themselves about their various victories. They would boast about their brilliant strategies, sharp tactics, cunning endgame play, each trying to brag of a more impressive victory than the others. After a while, the manager of the hotel came over and asked them to disperse. “You’re disturbing the other guests”, he told them. The group of chess players seemed unhappy about this, but they left the lobby to find a more private area to continue their conversation. Once they were gone, one of the other hotel employees asked the manager, “Why did you ask them to leave the lobby? None of the other guests have complained.” The manager replied, “I just can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!”

Allrecipes.com - from small recipes to bulk!

A few things that would be good to understand about recipes:

I personally don’t buy any recipe books unless it is a very unique one. Most recipe/cookbooks are given to me as gifts. Today’s world has just about any recipe or technique at your finger tips thru the internet. I usually buy magazine, technique, how-to, and/or culinary text/educational books.

I have learned many ways of cooking or preparing food just by working with or beside others. Most of my recipes are in my head. and I modify them to the available manpower, ingredients, storage, cooking times, and proper handling that is available. From there I can tweak them and create different tastes, textures, colors, flavors and combinations. I can however produce them (recipes) in bulk format to be written down for others in the galley.

Usually we (I) make it a practice (in the Galley) to not take anyones recipes for several reasons, but here are a few I can think of right now.

• Usually smaller recipes are not translated well for larger groups of people.


• Multiplying does NOT always work when using smaller recipes.


• Lack of or different ingredients.


• And, no matter how hard we try, its probably not going to taste like you remember it.

General suggestions -however- do help. Because they stimulate the ‘how to’ process of what exactly we may be able to cook with what we have…and if its feasible for time and preparation.

Below is a widget that display some recipes from allrecipes.com . I chose this for those of you who would like to see some good and ever expanding recipe collections that even I use in the kitchen. Allrecipes.com is not the fancy Michelin 3 star or NYC 4 star rated restaurant food (although I would say some of their recipes probably taste better)…BUT everyday ‘Good Stuff’!

In addition to that allrecipes.com tells how many star rating it is out of 5 stars, and it tells you how many people voted on it. For example I want the simplest, best tasting, pumpkin pie recipe there is on the site. One recipe has 5 stars but only 2 people voted on it, so I go to the next one that has 4.5 stars but 67 people say it was good. I would pick that one. Then to take it a step further, if 3 recipes had about the same rating and people voting…then I would pick the one with the least and easiest ingredients to get and the simplest instructions to put the dish together.

Also, allrecipes.com has user reviews for the recipes so even though you see a 5 star recipe voted by 200 people they may still tell you it was a little bland and to add some hot sauce. So then if you have time, you see if it was an overall consensus that it was bland and then adjust accordingly.

If that wasn’t enough, allrecipes.com has a US and Metric scaling and conversion calculator for making those small recipes feed hundreds of people. So simple, so easy…But yes, you still need to know how to cook.

If you really want to take it a little deeper, Cooks Illustrated (.com) is like the online consumer report magazine for cooks but that will cost you a yearly subscription for access to their site and there is so much more than the magazine at your fingertips.

Get this widget!

Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles - Social Club and Cocktails

From A few surprises

So I found the perfect club that I would want to check out and possibly consider a membership to (found on 69 right off the loop in Tyler Texas across from Baird's Bread Store)...but I am never in the neighborhood when they are open.

Since I am way behind in competing with Jeremy's 'Signs of a fine establishment, pt.??' (although I could probably catch up with pics from Liberia and Alabama) I will leave you with my title for this picture:

Gotta get me a membership!!!