Best Steak Ever

Steakhouse 55 Steak

I like steak and I'm always looking for a great one. Some of the best steaks I've had were bought from local ranchers and cooked at home. My son has this method of cooking steaks that makes them delicious. I believe he learned it from YouTube.

But the best steak is one you don't have to cook, i.e., bought in a restaurant. Ruth Chris Steakhouse (which is a chain) makes really good steaks. I haven't been to one of those forever (since my oldest son graduated the University of Washington and that was June of 2012). I keep waiting for my second son to graduate college so I can take him there.

But the best steak I've ever had was at Disneyland. Seriously. Off the Disneyland Hotel is Steakhouse 55. Like Ruth Chris, you order a steak and then you order side dishes to go with it. And it's quite expensive (Ruth Chris is cheaper, relatively). I didn't see the bill (it was a family dinner and my father paid) but I saw the prices on the menu. I was there about 11 months ago.

The steak was in every way perfect. Tender, juicy, flavorful, and cooked to perfection. The only weird thing was it was served with a bit of bone marrow inside a bone (see picture). I wasn't sure what to do with that, so I left it alone.

It felt as if the steak literally melted in your mouth, it was that tender. And it tasted so good. And the sides were delicious. They had both potato and vegetable sides. We ordered a multi-layer chocolate cake for dessert, and it was amazing.

If you're in southern California, I would suggest visiting Steakhouse 55. I also recommend reservations. And maybe a short-term loan to pay for it.

In my novel Treasure of the Black Hole, there is a scene where my character is having breakfast with the emperor of the Core Empire. And it's almost food porn. You should check it out.

Snacks

Back to the 52-week blogging challenge. Today the prompt is "My favorite snacks."

Well, as I explained last week, I have tried to avoid snacks and eat fruit instead. So now my favorite snacks are pineapple, oranges, and apples. And strawberries. Love strawberries.

But if I'm going to be honest, those aren't my favorite. I love Tapatio Doritios. And Cheetoes. And Tim's Cascade Chips Sea Salt and Vinegar potato chips (a regional brand). And nachos with chips, salsa, cheese, and guacamole.

And Oreo Cookies (Double Stuf please).

Man, now I'm getting hungry.

My birthday is coming soon and I'm hoping for a Grandma's White Cake (old family recipe) with caramel frosting. It's so good.

What's your favorite snack? Comment below!

What's Always in My Shopping Cart

Back to the 53-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "What's Always in My Shopping Cart." I don't tend to do the food shopping in the family. So this would more be like "what's always in my wife's shopping cart." I really can't think of anything that's "always" in the shopping cart other than staples such as bread, milk, butter. I think on thing we always try to have on hand is fruit. I love oranges and pineapple. Some times of the year it's hard to get good, fresh oranges. (I pretty much love orange anything.) I know this prompt is designed to ferret out our food fetishes like "I always have potato chips in my cart." But I don't have any food fetishes, except for "orange anything."

I also love peaches but it's early in the season for those. They'll become available in August. My dad usually buys a bunch then gives us some.

You'd think for someone who eats a lot of fruit, I'd be thinner.

My Favorite Parts of Each Season

Time once again for the 52-week blogging challenge. Today's prompt is "Your Favorite Recipe."

My favorite recipe is browned butter, salted caramel, snickerdoodle cookies made by my wife. Because I don't cook much except for nuking things in the microwave.

So what's the next prompt? "The Best Parts of Each Season."

Hmmmmmm

The best part of Winter is watching snow fall. Which is also the worst part because you know that the roads are going to be bad and if you haven't put you snow tires on yet, they're going to be very bad.

After this last winter, my favorite part was when it ended earlier this month (finally). This is the latest the snow has hung around since I moved to Eastern Washington.

The best part of Spring is that here in Eastern Washington, at least for a while, things are green. Even things that aren't irrigated/watered are green. Also, there's no snow on the roads. And it's not as hot as summer. Also, women shed their winter bulky clothes and start wearing dresses and shorts again.

The best part of Summer is air conditioning.

The best part of Fall (probably my favorite season) is it cools off and the leafs start to change, which can be very pretty. Of course, this portends winter coming and snowy roads once again.

So, apparently I like roads that aren't snowy and don't like it hot.

What's your favorite part of each season, comment below.

Last Meal

Time once again for the 52-week blogging challenge and today they want me to write about "If I could eat ONE last meal."

One last meal would have to be a steak, dry aged, cooked to perfection, mashed potatoes and gravy, spinach, and New York cheese cake with strawberry sauce topping for dessert. A nice Merlot or maybe a Cabernet Sauvignon to go with it.

When beef is dry aged, they develop better flavor than wet aged. But dry aged they lose mass so a lot of wholesalers don't want to dry age because, of course, beef is sold by the pound. I know that Ruth Chris Steak Houses dry age their steaks except for the Filet Mignon.

A good steak with a good red wine is just unbelievable.

And I love mash potatoes and gravy with lots of salt and pepper. It's almost like dessert. But it's not so we go with the cheesecake.

Spinach with a little white vinegar on it is also very good. I've always like spinach.

So that would be my last meal. Either that or a pepperoni pizza with extra sauce from Pizza Hut.

What would your last meal be? Comment below.

Restaurant Review: Miner's Drive-In Restaurant, Yakima, Washington

Yesterday I was in Yakima, WA, for a freelance assignment and I decided to try Miner's Drive-In Restaurant for dinner (or "supper" depending on where you live). I'd heard about Miner's from people saying it has good food and lots of it. I was a little concerned when my brother said they sell empty mayonnaise buckets for 75 cents. And indeed, there was a sign saying "Buckets: 75 cents" at the cash register.

When you walk into Miner's, head to the right where the cashiers are and order your food there. This is not cheap fast food. A "combo" with a bacon burger, fries, and a medium drink was more than $12. After ordering they give you a number on a tall stand and empty drink cups. Like most fast food joints these days, you fill your own cup. Interesting, they had Pepsi products but one fountain said "Coca Cola." Not sure how they get away with that.

The food arrives and if you've never been there before, prepare to be shocked. The hamburgers are huge and the medium fries were enough to feed a family. A family like the Duggars The hamburger was almost the size of a small dinner plate.

My wife was happy as they have fry sauce there (ranch and BBQ sauce).

So there's lots of food. How is it? The fries are okay, nothing special. I ordered the hamburger with their default fixings. That seemed to be lettuce, pickles, raw onions, and mayonnaise. I joked there was a pound of mayonnaise on my hamburger. There probably wasn't (probably a pound of hamburger, though). If you like mayonnaise on your burger, you'll love Miner's. I don't and I didn't. I would rather have less of a good hamburger. Like Five Guys.

My wife ordered a plain chicken sandwich. The chicken looked like un-breaded chicken fingers. She said it was okay. Of the four, she ate three. She ate them with a knife and fork so she wasn't eating the huge bun that they came on.

I'm glad I ate there once to experience it. But I won't go back.

Unless I need an empty mayonnaise bucket.

Miner's Drive-In Restaurant is located at 2415 S 1st St, Yakima, WA 98903, near the Valley Mall in south Yakima.

School Lunches

When I was in first grade, sixth grade, and middle school (called "junior high" back then), I often ate the school lunches. (In second through fifth grade I lived close enough to home that I would walk or ride my bike home for lunch. The same with high school.)

We ate on metal trays like the ones pictured at left.

Tuesdays were usually chili day and also cinnamon roll day. Loved Tuesdays except when they'd switch out navy bean soup for chili.

Because I liked (and still do) vegetables, I would use that to my advantage. You couldn't go back for seconds unless you ate everything. And a lot of kids didn't like vegetables (especially spinach) so I'd offer to eat their vegetables for them so they could go back. But I demanded their dessert in exchange. So I got more vegetables that I liked, plus more dessert. It was great.

There are vegetables I won't eat, such as lima beans and brussel sprouts but they never served those at school, to my memory.

But for the longest time I couldn't figure out why vegetables at school were so much better than the vegetables my mother served at home. Finally I figured out that the vegetables at school were canned and the ones at home were frozen. Canned vegetables, at least back then, had a lot of salt in them.

The biggest difference was green beans. At school they were heavenly. At home, they were pedestrian. Even if you added salt they just didn't have that wonderful canned flavor.

Sometimes I miss those school lunches. But most of the time, I don't.

Free Peaches

I love fruit.  I really like oranges and peaches and pears (although it seems pears are hit-and-miss, they are perfectly ripe for about half an hour, otherwise they taste like wood or are much).  So when I had a chance to get some peaches right off the farm, I took it.

Last week I was driving south of where I live to interview a man for a freelance writing assignment.  I sort of took the back way (that was shorter) and on the way there I passed a sign pointing right that said "Peaches."  And I thought "Hmmmm, peaches."

So on the way back from the very successful interview (which turned into a great story), I saw the sign again, except this time pointing left (because I was going the opposite direction).  So I turned left and followed the road.

Now in that part of the county, the roads tend to be a) straight as an arrow and b) one mile apart.  So I kept going (west, incidentally, away from home) and passed one road (one mile) and then passed two roads (two miles) and kept wondering if I'd either missed it or it was a long ways down this road.  I was driving between row-crop fields and fruit orchards on this west-heading vector.

Finally (and looking at my gas gauge) I decided to give up and turn around.  I pulled to the side of the road and was about to turn when I saw a sign ahead that said . . . well, I couldn't read it.  I drove a bit closer and sure enough it said, "Peaches" and the arrow pointed right (or north).  "I must be getting close," I thought.  So I turned right and drove down that road maybe a half a mile.  I was just about to give up again (still nervously looking at my gas gauge that was hovering near empty) when I saw a sign saying the peaches were to the right, now.  I turned.  It was a gravel road with a warning sign: "Primitive Road: No Warnings."  But I kept going (albeit slowly to minimize rock chips on my car).  Went up a hill and behold, there was a sign: "Peaches" pointing into a farmstead.  So I pulled in, parked the car by the metal shop, and got out.  The door on the shop was open and a sign by the door said (you guessed it) "Peaches."

I walked toward the shop and this girl about 15 or 16 years old comes out.  Pretty little thing with long red hair with a slight curl to it.  She had braces on her teeth.  "You want some peaches?" she asked.

"You suckered me in for about five miles," I said, exaggerating sliglty, "so you'd better have peaches."

She didn't react but she said, "They're in here."  I followed her into the shop.  "They are $20 a box or 80 cents a pound," she said pointing to a large commercial refrigerator with glass doors.  Inside I could see boxes or peaches.

"I don't need a box," I said.

She picked up a flat box (like they put stuff in at Costco) and started putting peaches in it, inspecting each one and rejecting those she didn't think were up to snuff.  Then she asked if that was enough when the box was full.  I said it was so she weighed it on a huge industrial scale.  It came to 7 pounds (with the box).  So I was pulling out my wallet when she handed the box to me and said, "Take 'em."

I said, "What?"

She said "Take 'em.  It's not worth it and you didn't buy a whole box."

I said, "Are you sure?"

She replied, "Yes."

So I thanked her and said that that was defiantly worth getting sucked into from five miles away.

I put the peaches on the floor of the passenger side of my car, and drove home.  Did not run out of gas.

And the peaches are amazing.

Bait

There was a time, about 20 years ago, when I could not fathom eating sushi.  "Raw fish, yuck," I thought.  I didn't (and generally still don't) like cooked fish, I couldn't imagine eating it raw.  Now I love sushi (well, most sushi) and have eaten sashimi.  When sushi is good, it's very good.  When it's acceptable, it's still pretty good.  The only time I've had "bad" sushi was when I didn't like the flavor of the fish (avoid sea urchin and octopus), not because there was something wrong with it.

So how did this progression happen?  Well, when I was in the Army, learning Korean, I was introduced to kimbop, also called "Korean sushi" (by people who don't know better).  But kimbop, which looks like maki sushi, has no raw fish.  It also has a unique flavor that sushi doesn't have.  I still enjoy kimbop when I can get it.

Still, no sushi.  Then I was at a convention in Anaheim and we took some people out to dinner at a Benihana Japanese restaurant.  And one person I was with ordered some sushi (maki or roll style).  And maybe it was the Sapporo beers, maybe it was the desire to go along, I tried it.  And I liked it.

I don't remember when I first tried nigri sushi.  But I found I out I liked it too, even though the raw fish content is much higher than in maki sushi.  Plus I like spicy food so I like wasabi, too.

(In the U.S. I've only seen maki, nigri, gunkanmaki (which I've also eaten) and temaki. Perhaps in larger cities you can get other varieties.  I have a feeling that nare sushi probably isn't available in the U.S.)

And I've even had sashimi which is basically slices of raw fish without any rice, seaweed, or other ingredients.  You have to be careful with sashimi since if it's not perfectly fresh it is not very good.

So, what caused this transition?  I guess the willingness to overcome prejudices and try new things.  That's sort of how I ended up writing my Adept Series books.  Never thought I'd ever write fantasy.  I've now written four (and three are published).  If it's not immoral and doesn't hurt other people or ourselves, we should be open to new things.  Never know where they might lead.

Diet . . .

If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook you probably know I'm on a diet.  And today was my first weigh-on and I've lost a good amount of weight.  But I have a lot to go.

The interesting thing is how much mental energy it takes to not eat.  Just last night I was in the kitchen and I opened the fridge (why? habit?) and saw something I would have loved to eat.  But I couldn't so I didn't.  But that took effort.  Or maybe will power.  And all the mental energy I'm expending on NOT EATING is not mental power I have for writing or other tasks.  No wonder I feel exhausted at the end of the day.

This is a special diet done under a doctor's supervision and you don't eat much.  And what you do eat tends to be fruits, vegetables, and bland meats like chicken (although my wife is pretty good at spicing them up).  I've been on this diet for two weeks and other than two days I was out of town for RadCon and had to eat in restaurants, I have followed it nearly to the letter (I cheated a couple of times by eating about 10 calories worth of cherry tomatoes).  I'm drinking between 1/2 and one gallon of water a day (and wearing a trail to the bathroom in the carpet).  That sort of keeps me glued to home or places with public bathrooms.

I know, reading about some one's diet is boring.  So I'll stop now.  But you may get a few more of these.  The doctor projects I'll be on this diet for about 8 months to get to my weight goal.  That's a long time to fight eating.

Sensual Blogging Award

Well, my good friend Sare has nominated me for something called the  Sensual Blogging Award which I think is just an excuse to link between people's blogs.  So here's the deal:

When nominated for the Sensual Blogging Award the blogger must:
1) Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2) Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and link back.
3) Answer 7 sensual questions
4) Select some nominees and notify them on their blogs.
5) Copy and paste the award on your blog.

Now anyone who knows me knows I don't take orders well.  I have this rebellious streak.  So I've done #1, #2, I'm about to do #3, I'm not gonna do #4, and I don't exactly understand what they mean by #5 unless it's put the picture above on my blog.

So here's the seven sensual questions:

1. Most romantic memory: When Rose asked Jack to draw her in the nude wearing only her huge blue diamond.  I squealed like a 15-year-old girl.  But then again, I was one.

2. Most sensual music: "Kill the Wabbit" by Michael Maltese and Richard Wagner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI9Nbt7oJG0

2. Most sensual season: Wabbit season.  Or duck season. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-k5J4RxQdE

4. Favorite flower: Amorphophallus titanum or the "Corpse Flower."  Love those carnivorous plants.

5. Favorite fruit: Citrus sinensis or the "Sweet Orange" (no snark, I love oranges, orange juice, orange flavored anything pretty much.  Arby's had an orange creamsicle shake for a while, oh my god, it was amazing except when they screwed it up and it then tasted like sour milk).

6. Best gift received: My wife brought me an Arbys Orange Creamsicle Shake.

7. Love is… never having to say you're sorry.

So, there you have it.

 

Starbucks

If I'm not home or off interviewing someone, I'm usually at Starbucks. I may be addicted!

Exotic Food

A while back I posted a pic (testing the mobile app for Blogger) of Mexican food.  Then this weekend I went out for Korean food in Spokane (see picture at left).  I really like Korean food and this place (actually, in Airway Heights) has good stuff.  I was a little insulted when they handed us the "English Only" menus (I read a little Korean).

I like exotic food, just not too exotic. When I was in Peru they had guinea pig on the menu.  But I like Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Japanese (sushi and sashimi), and Thai.  I guess that's not all that exotic but it beats McDonald's.

So what kind of foreign food do you like?

Mexican Food

Having Mexican on Sunday night.