Beef on Weck, originally uploaded by 131j.
We had a Potluck at work and the theme was foods from home/childhood. I decided to introduce Denver to the Beef on Weck. I Found Kaiser rolls but had to bake on the salt and caraway seeds. I was shocked, it actually came out well and my coworkers all seemed to like it. You don’t see the horseradish in the picture but I had a jar of it on the side.
Now that Death Flu ‘07 is over I can finally get back on track. Something nasty had been going around and it got the worst of me last week. I did manage to get some 8+ hours in on the orginal Legend of Zelda which I had downloaded onto my Wii. Anyway, almost a full week later and I am finally on the road to recovery. Not quite 100% yet but I’m feeling a lot better than I was last Thursday. Saturday was the first day I felt somewhat mobile and was able to do some shopping with Aileen and find ourselves an outdoor table for the Backyard. We got an umbrella for it as well but still haven’t gotten chairs yet. I gave in after 3 years and picked up a pair of Crocs. 30 bucks always seemed steep for a pair of rubber shoes but with my REI dividend they were only 14 bucks, I figured they were worth that. Now I know why people wear these stupid things.
The planets must have been aligned Sat night because after talking to My friend on the phone and deciding we wanted Steak, Aileen agreed to go with us to a steakhouse. Crossing another “places to go to while in Denver” off our list we hit the Traildust Steakhouse. Certainly a Casa Bonita for Cowboys. Much better food too 
Sunday I hit up the Vintage Voltage Expo with some friends and somehow managed not to spend a dime there. We had brunch at some Crazy suburban Italian Marketplace type buffet. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing yardwork… yay.
We hit up a pretty cool place this past weekend that recently opened up. The following quote came from a 5280 article that summed it up as well as I have. I think it will also explain my likeing of the establishment.
“The real beauty of the Rockbar is that virtually everything, from the carpet to the ceiling, is original. It closed on December 31, 1979, and nothing has changed since. Once they removed the piles of junk that had been stored inside (Morreale bought the motel last year) all the funky old details emerged, giving it the sort of authenticity that you can’t replicate. Imagine, if you are child of the 70s and 80s like myself, your parents’ old basement rec room crossed with the Regal Beagle bar from Three’s Company, and you’ll have an idea of what awaits you inside. This place has mirrored walls, and even mirrored ceilings behind the bar. Silver foil wallpaper with orange and gold arches line the lounge area, heavy iron lanterns with rippled gold glass illuminate the dance floor, and orange hurricane lamps complete with white plastic netting brighten up the dark wood laminated cocktail tables. And get this - they even have a small video arcade with retro games like Donkey Kong and Ms. Pacman.”
And it is that cool. For all you trashy drinkers out there. All the beer is served in cans including: Colt 45, Olympia, PBR, Schlitts, Labatt Blue, Amstel Light and Newcastle. Plus, Shots of MadDog for 1 buck all day. Lol
This is by far the best tasting hot dog stand in all of Denver. Biker Jim offers up a diverse selection of unusual sausages from around the World. I walked by it for months staring at the menu always saying to my self “hmmm” Finally last week I made it down.I asked him to suggest something and he said how bout this and offered me bite size pieces of several sausages to sample. I ended up getting the Spicy Buffalo and today I had the Jalepeno Cheddar Elk Sausage. Totally amazing!. He grills them as you order them so nothing is sitting on heat rollers or in water. All the fixins including bbq sauce, sour cream shredded cheese and sauerkraut. They guy is fun to talk to and always upbeat jammin to classic rock from his xm boombox. Both times Ive been there there’s been a line and both times people have said that they have gone outta their way to come here. Apparently he has authentic imported German veal brats, which i need to try along with something called the German Red. What am i kidding I’m gonna try em all!
I am heading down to the official Einstein Bros Bagels testing facility for some sort of taste test this evening. It should be interesting to say the least. It’s only an hour and their paying me 40 bucks so I really can’t complan. I had a phone interview where I was asked a bunch of questions and to the best of my knowledge they are testing some sort of breakfast / lunch sandwich.Most of the questions were focused around a bunch of different places that serve breakfast and my frquesncy to those places. Based on my answers I apparently qualified to be in the taste test.
Cool Idea for a store… of course none in Denver 
Has anyone been here?
Vino 100 - one hundred great wines for $25 or less
I must agree with the Boing Boing Author that I read . “Pictures of glistening meat matted into heavily saturated, 1960s-style photos are surprising cool…”
Check out about 12 of them Here
He used to do “A Cooks Tour” which was my Favorite show EVER on the Food Network and then it kind of dissapated. Any way Anthony is back with Travel Channel :: Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
He’s Kind of this Rough Guy Who not only is a Chef but also an accomplished writer. Best PArt is he’s travelling around the world exploring new cultures and their Cusine. Liek Sheep Brains… I wish I had that job
Well, we had our first annual(?) Casa Bonita outing last night. All I have to say is that place is totally insane. Yes Jack, it pretty much is the Mexican Disneyland. I was speecheless all night, even while I was chowing down on my plate of crappy mexican food. LOL by far the worst mexican food I’ve come across in Denver. But It is certainly not a place you visit for the food. It’s the High Divers, Mariachis, Puppet Shows, Dancing Gorillias, Haunted Caves etc that you are really there for. If you ever come to Denver you have to go to Casa Bonita. I just need to catch that episode of South Park now where Cartman spends the day there.
I took this from their site
“Casa Bonita opened early in 1974. It took approximately one year to create Casa Bonita.
The pink tower on the outside is 85 feet fall. The dome is covered with 22-karat gold leaf and has a statue of the last Aztec emperor - Quahuatomec.
The fountain outside of the front of the restaurant was shipped in pieces from Mexico.
The inside of Casa Bonita is designed to look like a Mexican Village at night complete with dining areas such as Plaza, Poolside, Caverns, Gold Mine and Silver Mine. Find Black Bart’s secret hideout full of mystery and intrigue.
With over 52,000 square feet and seating for 1,100 guests, Casa Bonita is the perfect place to hold a group event or birthday party . Complete your exciting dining experience with puppet shows, arcade games and a visit to El Mercado, Casa Bonita’s Giftshop.”
Here is Mats take
Were you ever curious on how to create beautiful carvings from a sausage? Well this site Complete with instructions shows you the beauty and the how to in the world of sausage carving.
-note its a Japanese site so you must rely on the pictures. Unless you know how to read Japanese that is.
I ended up watching this documentary for the second time this weekend. Makes ya hungry. ANyway it’s all about very local hamburger joints and their take on them. IAfterwatching that sure enough I went to “denver best Burger” and had a nice lunch. I wanted to try all of the burgers on the movie. One that stood out was the ButterBurger. Just very interesting and apparently Wisconsin’s Butter Burger Is sold at a Culvers in Col Springs. So you guessed it, I need to get mu butt down there and try one. A coworker here knows all about Culvers and she says that their Concrete shakes, Custard and Fried Cheese Curds are all tops. I have a full meal at culvers in front of me very soon.
So I get a phone call fom Aileen while I’m at lunch today. I guess she was eating at Chipotle as she does often between classes andshe found lying in her burrito bol a “huge” Bug’s “Head and two of its legs” As expected it grossed her out big time. She did talk to the manager and they comped her a few freee food coupons and that seemed to be it. Aileen wasn’t that upset when I was talking to her on the phone. She said she understands that these things happen. I told her she needs to call corporate. Even if thses things happen it’s good to let these people know… What do you think?
I swer there has to be some sort of addicting ingredient in Cheetos. Does anyone have any idea if and what it may be?
I was eating breakfast and chatting with some friends yesterday morning and Cincinnati style Chili came up in the conversation. The one guy and I both knew of it and loved it. My experience was with Skyline Chili which in the last few years began expanding into central and northeast Ohio. A branch opened up a few miles from My old place in Cuyahogoa Falls. Anyways I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how much I missed it. I decided to see if I could find a recipie online and make some. Sure enough I found This Recipie which didn’t end up being half bad. it was certainly no Skyline but It’s was pretty good. One thing i nver knew until yesterday was that some of the main ingredients included Cocoa, Allspice and Cinnamon. The two firends that helped inspire the conversation came over last night for Dinner. I even made a Special version with Fake meat for Aileen. We all had it threeway style with Spaghetti! Loved it
Coming from what people here like to call the “East Coast” though most of us know as “Ohio” Every Town seemed to have a very good fairly authentic Mexican Restraunt. Most of you reading this are probably familiar with “The Camp” or El Campesino” At least there once a week I craved that place. But, with that and a few other places that was about it. After moving to Denver I realized that they took their mexican food very seriously. An Annual Chili Harvest festival in Peublo, There is a mexican place on every street corner, the Local paper rates the Areas best Green Chili. I guess it should be quite obvious seeing a decent percentage of the local population is Mexican or of Mexican decent. When I first came here seeing green chili on the menu I expected something similar to what you might find at Wendy’s only green. That certainly was not the case. None the less I am trying to get a grasp on this phenom here. Anyway, this past weekend I passed a place advertised as “foods of New Mexico” Hmm what exactly does new Mecican food consist of? So today I checked it out. I ordered the New mexico Plate. It had a tamale, cheese enchilada, beef taco, rice and beans All covered in Green Chili and on the side a Sopaipilla with honey for dipping. Not bad for 6 bucks! And to me it sounded pretty Mexican. The food was outstanding. But, I’m still not sure why it is “New Mexican” I did a little research when I got back. A colleague at work informed me that Little Anita’s Is a Local chain out of NM who recently expanded into the Denver Area. The following is the best definition of New mexican food I could Find “New Mexican comida, or food, is a spicy blend of cultures: Native American and Hispanic–which has created the most unique and temptingly sabrosa (flavorful) comida under the New Mexican sun. In fact, you will find our chile verde (green) and rojo (red) to be equal to the heat found on the sun, so bring along your own personal supply of H20 if it gets a little too hot for you in the cocina (kitchen). All and all It was still good and I can’t wait to go back… Wait I saved half for lunch tomarrow wohoo!
We had a few squash laying around the place that I wanted to use up. But every night I wasn’t in the mood for something sweet I’ve only had acorn squash a few times and every one of those times it was baked with brownsugar and butter. It’s quite tasty and very sweet. I was chatting with a friend the other day and he mentioned a meal that his roomate made. It was baked acorn squash and was prepared in a more savory way than I had ever seen. I told him of my acorn squash laying around so he sent me This recipe Believe it or not it was quite good. Aileen liked it alot too (go figure it was all veggies) I don’t know if it is for everyone out there but give it a whirl you might be surprised.
We went here last night for some dinner. Didn’t know what to expect but had a read a blurb in the local community paper about it and it mentioned a Vegan/vegetarian friendly menu. Being only a few blocks down the road we figured we’d check it out. Essentially its a super healthy subway. And man do they cater to the vegetarians. The menu is split into the Carnivore section and the herbivore section. All the food is natural, organic freerange etc etc so the quality is pretty high. Oddly enough they don’t serve soft drinks, I didn’t even realize until reading their site later on. I had something called “Nick the Greek” it was pretty good, and it was rolled in a freshly baked pita. Aileen had some sort of Portabella mushroom thing that had Her beloved fake cheese on it. For desert we had some sort of pear cobbler. All in all it was pretty good, A bit sloppy so you might need a fork, but Aileen loves going to places like that where there is more than one thing on the menu for her.
Thought of an idea for a mexican joint. Call it Desburrito, make everyone who works there dress up like Antonio Banderas and play only Eagles songs.
