Month: March 2015

I’ll Cheerlead with Pom Poms for BBQ from Jon Jon’s!!

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Did you know….

No one is really sure where the term barbecue originated. The conventional wisdom is that the Spanish, upon landing in the Caribbean, used the wordbarbacoa to refer to the natives’ method of slow-cooking meat over a wooden platform. By the 19th century, the culinary technique was well established in the American South, and because pigs were prevalent in the region, pork became the primary meat at barbecues. Corn bread emerged as the side dish of choice, owing largely to the fact that in humid Southern climates, corn grew better than wheat (which was prone to fungal infections). Barbecue allowed an abundance of food to be cooked at once and quickly became the go-to menu item for large gatherings like church festivals and neighborhood picnics (content.time.com)

Today’s Food Truck of Choice

Jon Jon’s – San Jose, Ca

Average Cost

$10 or less

Rating (1-10)

8.5

Recommended Truck(Dishes): 

Tri – tip sandwich, Hotlink Sandwich, Potato Salad

Give me a B! Give me an B!
Give me an Q!
What’s that spell? BBQ! BBQ!
Put it to the test!
Tri-tip is the best!
We won’t give it a rest!

It’s Food Truck Tuesday’s folks and I hope by now that you have found a food truck event in your area. If not, then at least you can enjoy this festivity with me today while we engage ourselves in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness in extravagant food truck dining!

Continue reading “I’ll Cheerlead with Pom Poms for BBQ from Jon Jon’s!!” →

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I’ll do ‘The Dance of Joy’ kickin for BBQ with Fried Chicken!

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Did you know….

The earliest European settlers were looking for quick wealth so agriculture in the South didn’t take off until African farmers were brought here. African Americans brought seeds of collard greens, peas, okra (kumba), yams, watermelons and sesame (benne). They used the same farming techniques they had learned in Africa, creating a surplus of crops that became the basis for traditional Southern Hospitality.

The rural South of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced few cities outside of ports like Baltimore, Charleston, and New Orleans. Travel was difficult. Lonesome homesteads and plantations were far apart. Guests expected to visit for days if not weeks. Not only did they need to rest, but they brought news and entertainment to isolated families. Chickens and pork were served in every possible fashion. Salted, smoked country hams were boiled and baked and served with beaten biscuits. Greens and their potliquor were served with cornbread. Desserts featured ambrosia, trifles, sweet potato and pecan pies. Barbecues, and fish feasts drew distant neighbors together. At oyster roasts, oysters were steamed, fried, stewed, served in patties or just raw.(southernfood.com)

Today’s Restaurant

Mom’s House (TasteBook Recipes) – Tracy, Ca

Average Cost

A whole lot of hugs, kisses, love and helping her grill the meat. 🙂

Rating (1-10)

10

Recommended Dishes to BBQ with family: 

Fried Chicken, Pork and Beef Ribs, Hotlinks, Collard Greens, Potato Salad, and Corn!

Favorite Food Celebration Dance:

It’s the weekend and it is sunny outside and any time the sun is willing then I am willing for a BBQ!

“Trevis, I love to eat BBQ but it is always so hard for me..I guess I’ll just read today..”

“My dear friend, BBQ is really easy and you can do it with the simplest ingredients.”

Let’s talk about it.

Continue reading “I’ll do ‘The Dance of Joy’ kickin for BBQ with Fried Chicken!” →

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I’ll do “La Cucaracha” for my Chicken Tostada!

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Did you know….

This figurative cockroach described in “La Cucaracha” song may have been Pancho Villa, the revolutionary general, or Villa’s automobile, which was reputedly always breaking down. Alternatively, it may have referred to the gaggle of female camp-followers, soldaderas, who accompanied Villa and his men from battle to battle. Probably more likely, historically, is the claim that the “cockroach” was Mexican president Victoriano Huerta, who held office from 1913 to 1914. Huerta, a dictatorial leader if ever there was one, was ridiculed by his opponents as “a drunk and dope fiend who lived only for his daily weed.” Pancho Villa’s troops adopted La Cucaracha as their own song.

A typical stanza from the Mexican Revolution is:

Una cosa me da risa:
Pancho Villa sin camisa;
ya se van los carrancistas
porque vienen los villistas.

One thing makes me laugh:
Pancho Villa without his shirt;
Now the Carrancistas are leaving
Because the Villistas are coming. (mexconnect.com)

Today’s Restaurant

El Pollo Loco – Santa Clara, Ca

Average Cost

Less than $8

Rating (1-10)

8

Recommended Dishes: 

Chicken Bacon Avocado Tostada, Any Tostada Meals, Chicken Meals

It’s Friday and it’s time to knock this day out so we all can enjoy life to ourselves and take a break on looking at a computer screen all day! Wooohoooo!

Today I decided to go and engage with an old time favorite “El Pollo Loco!“

One thing I love about this restaurant is how they cook the food. I can see the cook grilling mountains of chicken on top of a long grilling oven with nothing else being cooked on there but chicken.

This makes me feel great because it takes away that fear of cross contamination of other meats being cooked together like you see at other fast food places.

The chicken is always grilled to perfection and has great flavor and when you combine fire grilled chicken with awesome flavor to a salad or a tostada bowl then you’re living the dream!

“Trev, you rarely ever talk about fast food restaurants, why today?”

Continue reading “I’ll do “La Cucaracha” for my Chicken Tostada!” →

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Give me a batch of Pacific Catch!!!

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Did you know….

Broiling food using hot coals (ko`ala) or hot ashes (pulehu) was a common way to cook if a meal was prepared out in the fields away from home or if the small amount of food being prepared did not warrant use of a larger earth oven, or imu. Food was cooked by being spread out flat on a level bed of coals, or it was warmed over or near a fire and periodically turned. Breadfruit and unripe bananas could be broiled this way in their skins. Other foods needed protection from burning and were wrapped in ti leaves (laulau). Fish could be wrapped in a leaf package called lawalu but a whole fish could also be broiled without being wrapped.(hawaiihistory.org)

Today’s Restaurant

Pacific Catch – Campbell, Ca (PruneYard)

Average Cost

Less than $7 during Happy Hour

Rating (1-10)

7

Recommended Dishes: 

Korean Sticky Ribs, Spicy Fries, Pan-Asian Rice Bowls, Vietnamese Steak Sandwich

I absolutely love Hawaii! It is a paradise on earth…. The true Garden of Eden!

When you are in the bay area on a nice sunny day and you want a blend of fish from the Pacific and a taste of Hawaiian decadence then Pacific Catch is the place for you!

Continue reading “Give me a batch of Pacific Catch!!!” →

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I’ll drive thru rain and smog for my Road Dog!!!

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Did you know….

It’s said that the frankfurter was developed there in 1487, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. The people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, point to the term “wiener” to prove their claim as the birthplace of the hot dog.
As it turns out, it is likely that the North American hot dog comes from a widespread common European sausage brought here by butchers of several nationalities. Also in doubt is who first served the dachshund sausage with a roll. One report says a German immigrant sold them, along with milk rolls and sauerkraut, from a push cart in New York City’s Bowery during the 1860’s. In 1871, Charles Feltman, a German butcher opened up the first Coney Island hot dog stand selling 3,684 dachshund sausages in a milk roll during his first year in business.(hot-dog.org)

Today’s Truck

Road Dogs – Bay Area

Average Cost

Less than $8

Rating (1-10)

10

Recommended Dishes: 

Kamikaze Dog, Space Needle, Tator Tots, Any Dogs they have!

Being American means a lot of things..

Having an attitude of free choice, free speech, the right to achieve and succeed, to have your own ideas and to reach out for them; but we also have Hot Dogs!!

We love hot dogs at baseball games, football games, soccer games..

We’ll even eat hot dogs playing board games!

Street corner hot dogs, hot dogs at the bar….

Bottom line hot dogs make us happy and I am a hot dog fanatic when the time is right!

Continue reading “I’ll drive thru rain and smog for my Road Dog!!!” →

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Spaghetti in a different way every day!!

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Did you know….

Although we think of spaghetti with tomato sauce as the quintessential Italian dish, tomatoes didn’t become part of the Italian diet until the 1800s. And the first recipe for pasta with tomato sauce actually appeared in a French cookbook from 1797. So the tomato-based pasta sauces we tend to think of as typically Italian – bolognese, pomodoro, puttanesca – are actually more recent developments.

Of these, puttanesca has the most colorful history. A spicy spaghetti dish of tomatoes, capers, anchovies and garlic, the name literally translates to “whore’s spaghetti.” According to popular legend, this dish was what prostitutes would cook while waiting on their next appointment. In actuality, a restaurant owner made up the dish after a group of late arriving customers instructed him to make pasta “facci una puttanata qualsiasi”, roughly translated as “make any kind of garbage.” The slang term for garbage is derived from the word puttana, which also means prostitute, giving the sauce its famous name.(history.com)

Today’s Restaurant

Trev’s House – San Jose, Ca

Average Cost

Less than $20

Rating (1-10)

10

Recommended Dishes: 

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles, Ground Italian Sausage

I know this is a subject that every can talk about….

This is a festivity that none of us are shy about and love to talk about.

Spaghetti! Spaghetti! Spaghetti!

How do you like your spaghetti?

With ground beef? With ground turkey? Blended with multiple meats?

But have you tried it with ground Italian Sausage!

Continue reading “Spaghetti in a different way every day!!” →

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Yippee Ki Yay..I’m eating at Three today!!

Live Action Quick Tips

Did you know….

Blending different cuts of meat to make a better burger is not new, according to Kenji López-Alt, managing culinary director of Serious Eats, Harlem, NY. But it is becoming more common and also something that many culinary professionals are using to create a name for themselves.

George Motz, author of “Hamburger America”, a state-by-state guide to some of the best burger eateries in the country, has taught a course on hamburgers at New York Univ. and Princeton, and consulted for many hamburger restaurants. He explains that the concept of blending different cuts of meat, or even different species, to make hamburger has been going on forever. “But no one really took note,” he says. “Only recently have Americans started taking the hamburger more seriously.”(foodbusinessnews.net)

Today’s Restaurant

Three Restaurant & Bar – San Mateo, Ca

Average Cost

$10-15

Rating (1-10)

9.5

Recommended Dishes: 

Bacon Bitz, Three Grind Burger, Fried Chicken Club, Fried Chicken Buttermilk Waffle Sandwich

It’s Saturday and I am excited to be able to enjoy the day and get this weekend started!

Usually I would try to go hiking or maybe indulging myself in a nice breakfast at home or at a restaurant; but today was an exciting day as my family and I auditioned for Family Feud.

We had a chance to play a few fake rounds with questions just like the show and also got a chance to be on a commercial for KCBW Channel 12. True live action living!

The location of the audition was really close to one of my favorite restaurants of all time so I made sure to bring my family to enjoy this breathtaking experience.

Continue reading “Yippee Ki Yay..I’m eating at Three today!!” →

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Getting ready for Friday on Thursday Night!!

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Did you know….

Albondigas are meatballs, often used in a soup, known to many as “Mexican soul food.” Though we consider albondigas soup (or sopa de albondigas) Mexican food, history follows a line that dates back to the sixth Century, where the Islamic influence dominated the region of Southwestern Europe. Then in the 13th Century, the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella conquered the region which had been occupied by the Muslims. Many of the culinary traditions were integrated into the Spanish community. From there, albondigas made its way to Mexico by way of the conquistadors, where it has remained and flourished into a cultural favorite. (wisegeek.com)

Today’s Restaurant

Cascal Restaurant – Mountain View, Ca

Average Cost

$10-15

Rating (1-10)

9.5

Recommended Dishes and drinks: 

Lamb Albondigas, Chips and Dips, Beef Short Rib Tacos, The House Margarita, Raspberry Caipirinha

Man I love Thursday’s!! Almost as much as I love Friday’s.

I guess we love Thursday’s because we all know we have 1 more day to go until we have some freedom to do as we choose, to truly live the American dream, to engage in some hard core live action eating! Let the games begin!

Keep in mind that I’ve written about this magnificent taste bud sparking sensational restaurant ‘Cascal‘ before; and since the last adventure I had to come back to try some other items on the menu since my last experience was so memorizing.

What better day to enjoy Happy Hour than on a Thursday Night! Knowing that when I wake up in the morning I can do it again! Woohooo!

Continue reading “Getting ready for Friday on Thursday Night!!” →

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

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Did you know….

St Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland. True, he was not a born Irish. But he has become an integral part of the Irish heritage, mostly through his service across Ireland of the 5th century.

Patrick was born in the later half of the 4th century AD. There are differing views about the exact year and place of his birth. According to one school of opinion, he was born about 390 A.D., while the other school says it is about 373 AD. Again, his birth place is said to be in either Scotland or Roman England. His real name was probably Maewyn Succat. Though Patricius was his Romanicized name, he was later came to be familiar as Patrick.(theholidayspot.com)

Today’s Restaurant

Duke of Edinburgh – Cupertino, Ca

Average Cost

$12-$15

Rating (1-10)

9

Recommended Dishes an drinks: 

Buffalo Chicken Wings, Corned Beef and Cabbage, French Fries, Beer!!!

What does St. Patrick’s Day mean to you?

I tell you what it means to me…

Irish Car Bombs!! Corned Beef and Cabbage! Laughs..Friendship..Love..Green!

Continue reading “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!” →

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Beer..Shots..Fish and Chips..The Dream of The English!!

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Did you know….

Fish and chips became a stock meal among the working classes in England as a consequence of the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea, and the development of railways which connected the ports to major industrial cities during the second half of the 19th century, which meant that fresh fish could be rapidly transported to the heavily populated areas. Deep-fried fish was first introduced into Britain during the 16th century by Jewish refugees from Portugal and Spain, and is derived from pescado frito. In 1860, the first fish and chip shop was opened in London by Joseph Malin. (en.wikipedia.org)

Today’s Restaurant

The Brit – Downtown San Jose, Ca

Average Cost

$12-$15

Rating (1-10)

7.5

Recommended Dishes an drinks: 

Fish and Chips, Dry Rub Chicken Wings, The Beer of your Choice

It’s the weekend and what do you have planned for the night?

Are you going to a bar? Out dancing? Or hanging at home?

Whatever you are doing I hope you enjoy yourself and have a moment of relaxation to get yourself back to the basics of living to enjoy life and not for life to overwhelm you.

One thing Virginia and I like to do on weekends is to have an ice cold Lagunitas IPA with a couple of Jameson shots and some bar food to go with it.

Continue reading “Beer..Shots..Fish and Chips..The Dream of The English!!” →

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