Colorado, from a New Yorker's point of view

What is the worst free drink to get after already having one of the same?  Does that make sense?  What is delicious the first time around, but horrible for round 2?  A bartender offers a second beer or glass of wine on the house.  No problem.  But what about mixed drinks?  The Dirty Martini has to be it.  Especially one made with 30-40% olive juice.  When served in a 10 oz martini glass? “Wow! thanks but no thanks.”

If I’m drinking martini’s it’s usually a one and done thing. Or rather one and move on to something else.  The other night I was given a free dirty martini. If it wasn’t overflowing I would have thought that someone else returned for being half olive juice.  I only wanted one, but then to get a horribly made second drink yech.

I’ve been a fan of The Rolling Stones since I was a young child.  My father has an extensive vinyl collection and the Stones are a focal point.  A couple of friends of mine, as well as many rock critics feel Exile on Main Street is one of the best, if not the best Stones album.  I’ve always strongly disagreed.  IMO Exile is good, not great.

I’ve been listening to a lot of The Rolling Stones albums lately and I decided to give Exile another chance.  I’ve always thought there are at least four stronger Stones’ albums.  Let’s see if that holds true as I revist to my collection.

–Continue

Last Saturday my roommate / landlord / friend Cori and I hosted our first party.   It was actually a chocolate mousse off.   My first night in town she casually mentioned that she makes the world’s best chocolate mousse.   At first it didn’t bother me.   She’s never had my mousse, so it was just easier to let her continue believing her delusional thoughts.   But over time I realized that some of our friends might actually believe her.   It was time for a throw down.

Prep work starting the day before.   We both spent considerable time cooking & cleaning.   Combined we made about six trips to various stores to get everything.   No matter how I plan out my shopping list I always seem to forget something.

I also frequently change the menu late in the game.   For example, I made a calzone and I had some left over pizza dough.   Knowing we also had a lot of left over blue cheese Cori asked what I could make with it.   Quickly I assembled a spinach, mushroom, blue cheese, & mozzarella calzone.   It was delicious.   The only problem was that it was unevenly stuffed.   Some other time I’ll write about my struggles with manipulating pizza dough.

We had just under twenty guests.   It’s always interesting mixing groups of friends.   With one exception, none of my friends had met each other before last night.   It was also the first time I got to meet some of Cori’s friends, none of whom knew my friends.   Adding to the mix our cool duplex mate, Jeanne invited some of her friends.   Luckily everyone got along and the party went really well.  Cori and Jeanne’s friends were all really cool.  My only complaint is that there were too many invisible women.  Actually almost all the women there were invisible.  I also played the roll of the invisible man more often than I would have preferred.  I’ll explain in another post.

I always find it fun when you end up going though more alcohol than you anticipated.   In the beginning of the night I was making most of the drinks.   I remember going through half a bottle of vodka.    As the night progressed people started helping themselves.   Before long the vodka and rum were both kicked.

The Results
I no longer make the best chocolate mousse in the world.   By a 2-1 margin Cori’s mousse was declared the winner.   Her’s was much darker and richer.   Mine was lighter and creamier.   My recipe calls for either cognac, rum or vanilla.   I used a  combination of rum and vanilla, but I splashed in a little too much rum.   You can actually see me using a paper towel to absorb some of it.   I’ve been humbled.

I’m still not entirely giving up on my recipe.   But next time I might need to make a layered mousse using both recipes.

Shame on me for not getting any pictures of the finished mousse.   I did however get some pictures of the aftermath in the kitchen.

Wiping up the alcohol

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This is where I lost the Mousse off. I accidentally splashed in a little too much rum. You can see the bottle of Pyrat Rum in background as I use a paper towel to absorb some of the excess.

How a mouse eats pizza

There times you have food so bad it boggles the mind.  Coming back from the Great American Beer Festival I was looking for a late night place to eat.  It was a Thursday night and the kitchen’s in my two typical spots Billy’s & Patrick Carrol’s were closed.  Since its within walking distance I opted to try Carl’s Pizza.  First rule, never go to a pizza place named Carl’s.  Carl is a Scandinavian name, pizza joints should not be named after Scandinavians.  Of course when you are looking for a place within walking distance and everything else is closed sometimes you have to violate the rules.

To summarize it was horrible, even for late night “I’ve been drinking” food.  To start with the positive, the cheese was good.  The meatball topping was nicely browned and had okay flavor.  Moving on to the bad.  The tougher than cardboard dough was absolutely horrible, as you can see from the picture.  I also had spaghetti with meatballs and sausage.  It was very cheap tasting pasta, presumably similar to what you find “in the joint.”  It was slightly over cooked which not surprisingly didn’t help its taste.  The heart burn inducing sauce was average at best.  Why waste time making something from scratch if the result is only going to be average.  I recommend they start using jar sauce if they are not already doing so.

What puzzles me the most is how has Carl’s been in business for years.  Does Carl eat his own pizza?  Does he say to himself “Damn I make a great slice.”?

Assuming he eats and enjoys his own pie, I have to wonder has he ever had good pizza?  Does his palate not recognize the difference?  How can you run a restaurant with such a horrible palate?  If he has had a good slice in his life does he not want to replicate that?  I believe the place has been in business for well over twenty years.  Cooking is a skill and like any other skill you get better with experience.  Is Carl’s food better today than it was five of ten years ago?

Having food that bad really makes me wonder.  In the next few days I’ll most my review of the Great American Beer Festival.

Here are some photo highlights from the 25th annual A Taste of Colorado.

Famous Daves BBQ

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I finally understand the fascination with BBQ. This place is amazing. Famous Dave's have won over 150 awards. I can't wait to check out their restaurant.

This years winners:

2009 Best of Taste
Restaurant Winners

Best of Taste

1. India’s Restaurant – One of my favorites as well
2. Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que – Delicious
3. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. – I missed their booth

Décor

1. Colorado Buffalo Grill – I missed their booth
2. Saltgrass Steak House – I missed their booth
3. Golden Toad – They ran out of their Toad Wings, which I’m assuming are chicken wings, but who knows.

Most Unique

1. Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que – Delicious
2. Bayou Bob’s – I missed their booth
3. Golden Toad – See the comments above

Best Value

1. Baker Street Grill – I missed them as well
2. Saltgrass Steak House – Another miss
3. India’s Restaurant – Good stuff