Today’s Music:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O.
Fugazi – Instrument Soundtrack
Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory

I don’t know why, but it seems like there weren’t that many places that did Philly Cheesesteaks when I lived in Michigan. I really started having cheesesteaks after I moved down here to Tampa. Apparently the cheesesteak is regular bar fare down here. Now whether it’s good or not… that’s the question. Most of the places that I’ve been to end up using provolone or other white cheeses that need to be melted. The downside to this, is that if the meat/cheese cool down you end up with a meaty cheese log. I’m big on texture, so a cheese log isn’t really palatable for me. So I’ve been in search of the cheez whiz Philly.

We were talking about this with one of our coworkers last week, and he mentioned EATS!. So I went over to their website to check out what they had to offer. He mentioned they were on the Food Network or some such. First thing I noticed was the Philly Cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz. FINALLY! Last week was a busy week though and we didn’t make it over until today. (Matt noticed something else on the menu…)

They serve you some freshly made chips with a dip. Very nice surprise, and delicious. I ordered my usual unsweet iced tea which, by the way, was good.

And now you get to feast your eyes on what Matt had been eyeing since last week:

They have a food challenge. 2lb burger 1lb of fries. Matt was feeling the hunger today and decided to go for it. Above you can see the chef and our waitress presenting the burger castle. Matt starts in on the first burger and demolishes that quickly. His comments “This is really really good burger”. The 3rd picture is him finishing up the first burger. 4th picture he’s halfway through the 2nd patty and still feeling pretty strong and still commenting on how good the burgers are. There are some rules to the challenge. Chief among them the 30 minute time limit and if you get up you forfeit.

The rest of the party’s food also arrived while Matt was working on downing his burgers. I really like banana peppers or pepperoncinis on my philly, but they didn’t have them so I opted for the jalapenos. Subbed my fries for onion rings as well. Our roommate Jacob ended up getting the special of the day which was the Bin on Weck and our other roommate Phil decided to go in on a Philly served straight up (onions and shaved rib eye topped with the cheez whiz).

The shaved rib eye was salty and had a little char from the flat top I think, really great texture. The amoroso roll was incredibly light and is the perfect vessel for a philly. The onion rings are heavily breaded and fried. I normally don’t like heavily breaded onion rings, but these were cooked perfectly and it was almost like a little onion donut. Went incredibly well with the spicy remoulade. Phil and Jake ended up dipping their fries in the remoulade because it was so delicious. Anyways, back to the challenge.

In the first picture Matt still fighting the good fight, but he’s starting to feel it on the 3rd patty. He’s grazing on some fries and gathering his will to finish the 3rd one. He does, and then throws in the towel.

The challenge beat Matt today, but there is the possibility of a rematch. I ended up having a lot of the last burger. Matt ordered it well done, and while I prefer a burger medium this was still excellent. I’ve been looking for a good black and bleu burger down here and I think I need to come back to find out if EATS! does it right.

EATS! gets a Rating: 5 out of 5 stars rating. Excellent service, excellent food, and a nice atmosphere.

Update!
Matt here, reporting in with the latest in stomach news. While still struggling, I can report that the challenge was indeed delicious. I certainly advise anyone in a mood for a burger to give EATS! a shot. One thing that Dan left out, the proprietor of the joint attended us frequently throughout the challenge to give me time updates, ensure that I was sticking to the rules (No getting up, no sharing food, if the food falls to the floor and you want to win then you’ve got to eat it) and to provide words of encouragement. I must say, we received great service from our waitress (and in general) as she was spot on with water refills as well as making sure the other guys got everything they needed while they chuckled at my self-appointed misfortune. While I did NOT finish the challenge (as you can see by my sad mug) I do have tips that may help you conquer the challenge and be the master of your own Burger-Destiny:

1. Eat large meals the day prior (if you can, do a couple of days).
2. Get a good workout in the evening prior to help pique your appetite (this is what helped me bring a hearty appetite).
3. Drink water during the challenge.
4. Don’t order the burger with extras. Only order Meat/Bread/Cheese and ask for sauces to dip on the side.
5. Start fast and finish early.

Post meal I’d suggest drinking a lot of water to help with digestion. If you have the cajones to give it a shot, then good luck to you Sir or Madame.
-Matt

New World is one of those spots in Ybor that we’ve been going to for a long while now.  Excellent beers on tap. Great selection on and off the tap. I kept hearing about the BBQ Buffet but just never managed to make it over.  We work on the opposite side of Tampa and most of the time if I’m driving out that way I’d rather just eat at home. So, since we took a day off Matt, Phil and myself decided to head out to lunch somewhere.  We were thinking about grabbing a Falafel sandwich from the new Greek restaurant in Ybor. We parked and started walking down there when I spotted New World and remembered that they just started the Monday through Friday BBQ Buffet. Fucking. Wicked.

It’s also kind of weird being in/around Ybor around lunch time. Normally we stop by for a bite to eat at night or for drinks.

Anyways, one of my favorite things about establishments in Florida are the open air layouts.  New World is easily one of my favorite spots for this. There is the main bar area that opens up into an atrium with seating.  They have bands playing almost every night. The paradigm seems kinda strange coming from Michigan, you go out to a place and in the winter they keep the doors open but they roll out the space heaters to keep you warm and enjoying the outside. Anyways, they have things hanging on the walls, like a horse riding a bike and a mounted marlin guarding the beers. The atmosphere is inviting, but it’s the food we’re interested in.

Now, it’s BBQ, but they’ve put their twist on all of it. You come in and grab a plate and load up.  You pay by the pound, so you can grab as little or as much as you’d like.  There is also a current reigning champion for who has eaten the most.  Andre Jones is the current champ.  I don’t know how but Andre has dominated a couple of the local eating challenges. He’s also on the wall at this local hotdog place, Frankie’s. Anyways, back to the food. The potato salad is a curry potato salad, just absolutely ridiculous. Curry really pops, but it marries really well with the dish. I would come back just for the potato salad. Coleslaw was fairly standard, but it’s freshly made and the slaw sauce is good. The corn salsa was good, although I can’t recall the flavor that well now. I skipped on the macaroni salad, but that’s probably pretty legit as well. The corn muffins were light and I really like the presentation. Bite size if you have a big mouth, but otherwise a 2 bite endeavor.

One of my biggest beefs with chain restaurants and mall restaurants (shit.. most restaurants) is how they treat vegetables. They’ll give you a big heap of steamed broccoli, but then they drench it in a tankard’s worth of butter. Just give me some fucking greens that haven’t been converted to a saturated fat. Anyways, New World Brewery doesn’t do this. The green beans are clean and fresh, with a hint of salt to help bring out flavor. It reminds me of my Grandma Michael’s freshly picked green beans from the garden. The collard greens were pretty good, I thought it could use a little vinegar but that’s all personal preference.  The baked beans have some chunks of green pepper that still had some snap to it, which was nice. I’m not a huge fan of baked beans but these are good as far as that goes.

They have some curried rice with pineapple.  Awesome. A little kick, and just delicious (you might have noticed that I enjoy curry). I also sampled the mac and cheese, which is pork mac and cheese. Personally, I would like just little bits of pork, this is more of a casserole sort of thing.  It’s good, just not what I prefer.  The mashed potatoes were good, but nothing really out of the ordinary.

Onward to proteins! The smoked chicken is amazing. Tender, delicious and smoky. The sausage was completely stand out, I was dipping it in the Carolina style BBQ. Mustard base sauce to go with some ridiculous sausage. The pork was good, tender but not too tender.  If it’s overcooked it will tend to fall apart too much which I don’t really like. The Kansas City and Carolina were my favorite sauces, but you gotta drop by and pick your favorite some time. You just can’t go wrong here, everything is good.

I’d prefer to be more critical and I don’t like to give these out, but this is definitely worth the rating. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars experience.

http://www.ribfest.org/

November 11th, 12th, & 13th, 2011
22 Years of “ROCKIN’ RIBS – HELPIN’ KIDS”
Vinoy Park, 701 Bayshore Drive NE, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
Gates open at 11 AM daily – No Re-entry

Day of Show at Gate
$20.00
Active Military and family, with ID, No Charge at Gate

Some quick notes about the ribs

(Notes made by Matt on his phone, probably should have just brought a notepad.. but whatever. Also these are as is, as they were taken throughout the day)

Willimgham’s (http://www.willinghams.com/): ribs arent fall off bone but tender but moist. The rub is the winner very spicy. Spicy sauce is strong so is sweet.

Big Boned BBQ Co (http://bigbonedbarbeque.com/): tender and moist don’t taste rub. Habanero sauce stood out.

J&j barbeque (http://www.jjbbqtogo.com/): got an extra rib! Vinegar heavy sauce, meat is best thus far, so juicy, very tender, reminds Phil of Michaels. Best meat so far, but mild sauce was far too vinegary, hot was good.

Camp 31 (http://www.camp31.com/): apparently defending champions, not sure of this or something else. Most expensive so far at $9 but got roughly 5 ribs. As tender as 1st vendor but juicy unlike 1st. Comes with sauce painted on, no additional sauce available but that’s kinda nice. Sweet tea good not cloying. Refills are $1 on the $2 orig cost, so that’s good.

AUSSOM AUSSIE (http://www.aussomaussie.com/): different look to the vendor, also has aussie accent, not sure if real as I didn’t hear him say fuck or cunt once… but maybe that’s for appearances for my american brethren. Got shrimp on stick. Nothing to call home about, don’t get skrimps here.

Carolina Rib King, Spartanburg, SC (http://www.carolinaribking.com/): best rib so far. Great slow heat in the sauce.

Texas outlaws (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Outlaw-BBQ/171154736239282): pretty girls at counter and painting ribs. Good, sauce like Michaels… but the meat not as tender.

Thoughts about Ribfest

So, we ended up seeing some signs around town for something called Ribfest.  I love some good bbq, so obviously I went home and shared the news of some sort of festival for delicious meats with the roommates.  Looked up the information online about the shindig. We were all enthused about the prospect of a lot of different ribs. Unfortunately one of the roommates was heading out of town to visit a friend of ours in Cleveland.  His loss.

The one downside is the car ride across the bay.  I don’t know what it is about living in Tampa or St. Pete but it seems like everyone I talk to is loathe to cross the bay for events and stuff.  It’s only a 30 minute or so car ride, but the bridges make it seem like it’s longer than that. Anyways, we knew we had to brave a 30 minute car ride for the prospect of ribs.

Expensive. I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap going into it but if you’re looking to sample a wide variety of ribs you will spend a pretty penny. Three of us went, and it was $20/each at the gate to get in. So that was $60 to start the day. Three bones were typically $7, so we hit up 7 different vendors and had ribs from 6 of them. The clear winner of the day was Carolina Rib King http://www.carolinaribking.com/. Even after being stuffed, they easily had the tastiest sauce and best texture for ribs.  While I realize that what people want out of BBQ is variable, for me they were perfect.  Tender, but still texture.  A little kick in the sauce and not too smoky.

If I went again in the future I would definitely buy my ticket ahead of time. Preorder tickets were $10 or $13 or something, not too steep if you know you’re going.  If you were looking to be there for a while/stick around for the concert stuff I’d suggest bringing some chairs and a blanket for the ground.  The sound was kind of ridiculously loud, so if you’re really into your classic rock cover bands move right up to the speakers.. otherwise you might want to keep some distance.

It was a lot more county fair like than I expected, some activities for kids and a little car show with some bitchin’ restored/maintained old cars and trucks.  Overall not a bad day.

The day was pretty fun walking around and people watching. The ribs ranged from Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars stars to Rating: 5 out of 5 stars stars for the Carolina Rib King.

Around $3.50
420 calories
180 calories from fat
340 grams
About 8 minutes cooking time

Stouffer’s has apparently caught wind of what other frozen meals have been doing lately regarding marketing. You can see on the front of the box they’re selling this frozen ‘delight’ as a healthy choice (note their billing of: 1.‘No Preservatives.’ 2. Olive Oil and Sea Salt. 3. A fresh Carrot on the box! My response: 1. It’s frozen. 2. Rachel Ray bandwagon. 3. That carrot looks nothing like what I got in my frozen meal.). While I laud making a healthier frozen meal, I think they’re going a little overboard with the “Farmers’ Harvest” tag. If you make something that’s good you don’t need hyperbolic packaging.

The chicken is pretty good despite not resembling what’s advertised on the box. No cartilage thus far (none of the chicken wound up with that Chicken McNugget “suprise” where you take a bite of what looks like normal chicken and you get a fist-sized chunk of gristle or cartilage. Definitely one of the most unappetizing aspects of reconstituted chicken, you know, aside from the whole process of reconstituting chicken parts into the proverbial ‘chicken boot’ [of course I couldn't find a picture of the proverbial McNugget boot shape, but suffice it to say that McNuggets are shaped like little boots. Next time you have one, look for it.]), and it’s kind of moist. Their blend of herbs and spices, primarily parsley and sea salt, are satisfactory. You won’t be calling your mother telling her about your amazingly flavored frozen meal, but I have had far worse. The bowtie pasta is alright, nothing stands out positively or negatively. The vegetables (green beans, carrots, and red pepper) are actually some of the best I’ve had from a frozen meal. The veggies taste fairly fresh (considering their circumstances), retaining a bit of crispness and they’re a little bit buttery (I’d hazard to guess that’s the vegetable oil that the box lauds).

I tasted each component seperately for the purposes of this review, but as you can see above I like to get all of the pieces together in a war of textures and flavors. You can certainly eat this meal without adding anything to it, but I’m a fiend for hotsauce so after my initial impressions I added a little bit of Louisiana Hot Sauce on top. Considering this is a frozen meal, and not freshly prepared I would recommend this for anyone that needs an easy meal they can heat up in the microwave.

Stouffer’s you get a Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars for this one (based on quality of components, flavors, and cost). Neither great nor bad, but totally edible.

-Matt in Tampa

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Here are the boot nuggets:http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingpowercinema/89053032/

Queen of Sheba is celebrating their 4th Anniversary, November 11th and 12th. They are putting a full spread out each day, I would definitely suggest trying to visit during that time.

Before coming to Queen of Sheba I had never had Ethiopian food. Due to my friend Jacob’s, and my brother’s enthusiasm for Ethiopian cuisine we wound up hearing from a young lady about Queen of Sheba; in particular their beef tartar. I’m always up for trying something new (except for Balut… unless I am REALLY hungry), so off we went to try Queen of Sheba for lunch.

Normally I write my reviews immediately after, or shortly after eating at the restaurant. In this case, I had eaten at Queen of Sheba and taken some notes on my phone… and then promptly became a lazy shit and didn’t write anything for months. I’ve since eaten there several times (most recently went for dinner with my roommates and one of my friends, Jamie, when she was in town this previous weekend). I’ve lost some steam from my original notes, so I’ll post what I had noted and let you suss out my experience from that (lazy, I know):

*2nd time here, had the buffet the first time, it was excellent. Costs around $10.

*Note the hand sanitizer, traditional Ethiopian eats with hands using “injera” as your fork, amd it’s a little plate basically.

*Harar beer is basic lager but good. The Hakim stout is delicious, recommend.

*Music is really laid back, and the setting as you can see is very casual. Fresh butcher paper goes down for each table and the proprietress, Seble Gizaw, works everything with a good word for all customers. She explains how to go about eating Ethiopian for any first timers.

*Ordered Queens Special (cook’s choice of items), Beef Tartar, and the Chefs Choice Veggie Combo Platter.

*Jake and Dan talking “shop”, discussing boring work nonsense.

*Food came out and impressive. Each time we come we enjoy the food thoroughly. The tartar was tender, spiced without a lot of heat in it. All of us thoroughly impressed but we all agreed that the veggie dishes are our favorite. Rich flavors, satisfying cravings for curry flavor. With the tartar you get an assortment of sauces and spices to add heat and we added those in providing an additional kick. Definitely advise coming back.

Synopsis: Definitely try something new and go to Queen of Sheba. Every trip has left me feeling contented and with a smile on my face. I give it a consistent Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

-Matt in Tampa