[Hoot Gibson]

Well I've never eaten from a Middle Eastern food cart, but I sure would love to try it!!

Some really good restaurants in this area started out as food carts. When I first moved to this area, I worked in an office located in Arlington, where food carts were pretty common. The hot dog cart was awful (Oscar Mayer wieners with canned Hormel sauce), but most of the other food carts served pretty good food. If you have never eaten much Mediterranean food except Italian or Greek, then you would probably love chicken Kababs or shawarma. My favorite is chicken shawarma, which is thin slivers of chicken shaved from a stack of chicken cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Beef, lamb, and pork are often fixed the same way.

I have never had chicken breast from a Mediterranean restaurant or food cart that was not perfectly cooked.

A few years after we moved here, our office was moved from Arlington to a local military base. There is a Middle Eastern food truck that parks in the lot across from our office for lunch once or twice a week, but I haven't tried their food yet. I only work in the office a couple days a week since the pandemic began, so I'm not sure whether there is enough customers to support food carts. They tend to set up near large offices and we are limited to a maximum of 40 percent occupancy at this time.

[Hoot Gibson]

As part of a plan to reduce our DoorDash expenses, I bought an enameled Dutch oven. I have half a 10 lb. Boston butt roast in the oven as the first dish in the Dutch oven. I will be having several pulled pork sandwiches during the next week. I am also planning to fix tacos with carnitas made from pulled pork.

I also roasted chunks of chicken breasts and a variety of fresh vegetables a couple of nights ago. I marinated everything in a balsamic vinigrett salad dressing and threw everything on a cookie sheet. It turned out great and except for cutting the vegetables, it took very little effort. I heated up leftovers for my lunch today.

[Granny Bear]

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailv2&iss=sbi&FORM=recidp&sbisrc=ImgDropper&q=carnitas&imgurl=https://bing.com/th?id=OSK.b0059065d234903b581ba9dd05a98846&idpbck=1&sim=4&pageurl=https%3a%2f%2fcafedelites.com%2fpork-carnitas-mexican-slow-cooked-pulled-pork%2f&idpp=recipe&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

My favorite pork carnitas recipe.

[Hoot Gibson]

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailv2&iss=sbi&FORM=recidp&sbisrc=ImgDropper&q=carnitas&imgurl=https://bing.com/th?id=OSK.b0059065d234903b581ba9dd05a98846&idpbck=1&sim=4&pageurl=https%3a%2f%2fcafedelites.com%2fpork-carnitas-mexican-slow-cooked-pulled-pork%2f&idpp=recipe&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

My favorite pork carnitas recipe.

Thanks for the recipe, Granny. I may try this one for my next pork roast. For some reason, mine cooked much faster at 220 degrees in a Dutch oven than it would have cooked in the smoker. It was overcooked and a little bit dry, but it still made a pretty good pulled pork sandwich with some homemade barbecue sauce topped with some cole slaw from Popeye's.

[jetpilot]

I make myself a burger with no bun
Ground round with a slice of cheese and thin onion and about 1/10 of an ounce of A-1
Fresh salad with iceberg lettuce, sliced carrots, small amount of diced tomatoes and onions, small amount of Caesar dressing and drizzle of virgin olive oil
1 slice whole wheat toast with very thin layer of margarine.
Ice water and 8 oz orange juice and 4 oz of soda water.

$50 less than Hoot’s meal lol

[Granny Bear]

I like onions too!! 

Never had Popeye's cole slaw.  I've lived a sheltered life.

[Hoot Gibson]

I like onions too!! 

Never had Popeye's cole slaw.  I've lived a sheltered life.

I live close to a Popeye's. We usually get slaw from a KFC. Long John's is probably my favorite restaurant slaw but the only LJS within a close drive went out of business a few years ago.

I had red beans and rice from Popeye's for lunch today. I don't know of any other fast-food chain that has red beans and rice on its menu. I am going to make some homemade red beans and rice soon. I love Cajun and Creole food.

[Old School Hound]

I make myself a burger with no bun
Ground round with a slice of cheese and thin onion and about 1/10 of an ounce of A-1
Fresh salad with iceberg lettuce, sliced carrots, small amount of diced tomatoes and onions, small amount of Caesar dressing and drizzle of virgin olive oil
1 slice whole wheat toast with very thin layer of margarine.
Ice water and 8 oz orange juice and 4 oz of soda water.

$50 less than Hoot’s meal lol

Sounds yum !     The Atlanta Braves has a burger at their stadium that they sell for $150 .  You could probably make 25 of your burgers for what that Braves burger would cost.

[jetpilot]

^^^More like 50+ of those 1/3 lb burgers for that!

[Hoot Gibson]

I make myself a burger with no bun
Ground round with a slice of cheese and thin onion and about 1/10 of an ounce of A-1
Fresh salad with iceberg lettuce, sliced carrots, small amount of diced tomatoes and onions, small amount of Caesar dressing and drizzle of virgin olive oil
1 slice whole wheat toast with very thin layer of margarine.
Ice water and 8 oz orange juice and 4 oz of soda water.

$50 less than Hoot’s meal lol

Not even close. Boston butt/pork shoulder blades are about as cheap of meat as there is. Red beans and rice are pretty cheap at Popeye's and even cheaper if you cook a pot of them at home. You could eat red beans and rice every meal for a week for $50.

[Old School Hound]

^^^More like 50+ of those 1/3 lb burgers for that!

I'll place my order now for the next Corbin-Pikeville game. I want two of your burgers fully dressed. lol

---

^^^More like 50+ of those 1/3 lb burgers for that!

Here's the burger sold at the Braves' ballpark. It's actually $151 .  For $25,000 , it comes with a limited editionWorld Series ring. 


[Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPoXJH8XsAUt...me=900x900]

[Granny Bear]

No thank you. PJ's burgers look better than that.

[Old School Hound]

For the "class snobs" out there , here's what the $151 burger has on it:


A Wagyu beef patty with cage-free pan-fried eggs, gold-leaf-wrapped foie gras, grilled cold water lobster tail, heirloom tomato, Tillamook cheddar cheese and truffle aioli on a toasted, buttered bun served with Parmesan waffle fries.

[Granny Bear]

I've had truffle aioli. Not a fan. Guess my palate just isn't sophisticated enough.

You forgot to mention asparagus.

[Old School Hound]

I've had truffle aioli.  Not a fan.  Guess my palate just isn't sophisticated enough.

You forgot to mention asparagus.

Aspargus makes me pee stink( But I love it... aspragus, that is; not stinky pee)  lol

I'm sure that fancy burger is good but I'd go with a  3/4 lb Fuddrucker for $10  before I'd shell out $150 for a burger.

I would like to try a kobe beef burger, though

[Hoot Gibson]

Coincidentally, my wife brought home a package of Wagyu sliders from Safeway yesterday and we had them for dinner tonight. The package was more than enough to feed the two of us but the fact that the cost was under $12 made me suspect that the burgers did not originate in a $30,000 Japanese cow. I had never tried Wagyu beef and I am not sure that I still haven't tried it.

[Old School Hound]

Coincidentally, my wife brought home a package of Wagyu sliders from Safeway yesterday and we had them for dinner tonight. The package was more than enough to feed the two of us but the fact that the cost was under $12 made me suspect that the burgers did not originate in a $30,000 Japanese cow. I had never tried Wagyu beef and I am not sure that I still haven't tried it.

LOL . Probably not.

There's a restaurant in Tokyo that offers this Wagyu burger(I think it's over 6 lbs) for $900. It comes with a magnum of champagne. Has foie gras and black truffles.  


[Image: https://www.maxim.com/wp-content/uploads...burger.jpg]

[Hoot Gibson]

For dinner tonight, I made hot Italian sausage with peppers and onions in a homemade marinara sauce. I cooked the sausages sous vide the day before and then sliced them and browned them in some olive oil and butter. I made the marinara sauce from a can of San Marzano tomatoes with some garlic, fresh basil, and oregano. Then, I simmered everything together before serving the mixture on rolls lined with melted mozzarella.

[jetpilot]

^Love Hoot but we have a food snob. Took him 2 days for that and I made myself delicious spaghetti, bread stick and salad this evening in 15 minutes.

[jetpilot]

And no telling how much money I have saved not knowing what sous vide means lol

[jetpilot]

I'm in the private sector and can't afford government aka taxpayer subsidized meals lol. Kind of like John Kerry on a a private jet and me riding the bus haha...

[Hoot Gibson]

And no telling how much money I have saved not knowing what sous vide means lol

Sous vide is French for "under vacuum" and it is actually a cheap way of cooking. It is a great way to cook tough cuts of meat like pork shoulders or beef brisket. You vacuum pack your food or place it in a Zip-lock bag and remove as much air as possible. Then you submerge it in water and cook it with a device called a sous vide circulator, which is basically a heater that pumps water around in the container. You can control the cooking termperature within one degree. It also allows you to cook food at lower temperatures than other methods of cooking. So, if you want a medium-rare steak, you can cook it at 132 degrees and then grill it over a hot grill or in a skillet to brown the surface.

A sous-vide circulator costs under $100 on Amazon. A lot of fancy restaurants have lower paid cooks prepare food sous vide, which gets finished by a chef. I would prefer doing more smoking and grilling but apartment life makes that difficult.

I had never heard of sous vide until one of my coworkers brought a cooler and a circulator to work and cooked a chicken dish at his desk for a pot luck lunch in the office. It is a great way to cood chicken breasts because it doesn't need to be cooked to 165 degrees. Sous vide kills bacteria with longer cooking times at lower temperatures, which also allows it to turn tough cuts of meat tender.

So, you have probably saved $100, although you would make some of that back by using less electricity or gas and buying cheaper cuts of meat. With a sous vide system and a propane torch, you can get by without a stove heating up the kitchen. 

[Hoot Gibson]

I'm in the private sector and can't afford government aka taxpayer subsidized meals lol. Kind of like John Kerry on a a private jet and me riding the bus haha...

I work for a private company and my meals are not subsidized by taxpayers either. I drive a 1995 Acura to work, so I am not exactly lighting cigars with $100 bills. I draw the line at riding the bus but I have ridden the Washington Metro many times. I haven't flown in a jet or a helicopter in more than a decade.

[jetpilot]

^Just messing with you Hoot. I am probably the simplest eater on here. All my favorite meals are still what my mother cooked for me when I was young.

[Hoot Gibson]

A sausage, pepper, and onion sandwich is pretty simple eating for me. I just finished eating one for lunch and it is one of the best things that I have ever cooked.

If you prefer simple, southern cooking, of all the places that I have lived, central Mississippi has the hands-down best food that I have ever eaten. Home-style fried catfish; pulled pork; fried chicken; fresh, affordable seafood; fried green tomatoes; fried pickles; chicken and dumplings; meatloaf; etc. - Jackson has the tastiest restaurant food of anywhere I have been. 

If you ever drive through Jackson during daylight hours, I highly recommend driving through Tony's Tamalies. If your mom cooked better meals than Tony, then she was a much better cook than my mom - and my mom was a pretty good cook. (My best advice if you drive through Jackson at night is to stay on the interstate and do not roll to a stop anywhere in Hinds County.)

"Sous vide" is a French word that sounds fancy, but there is not a good short way of describing cooking food in vacuum packaging in hot water. It is just a variation of the "low and slow" cooking method and it can be combined with other cooking methods to save a lot of time. It also allows you to safely cook food straight from the freezer by just adding some time to allow for defrosting. A lot of meat and fish is vacuum packed, so you can drop it straight into a sous vide bath.

[jetpilot]

^^^You are speaking my language. If I ever have to be in Houston or NOLA again I will detour through Jackson. Savannah GA is my favorite place for southern cooking. Will get to Tony's if I ever get down Jackson way though.

[Hoot Gibson]

^^^You are speaking my language. If I ever have to be in Houston or NOLA again I will detour through Jackson. Savannah GA is my favorite place for southern cooking. Will get to Tony's if I ever get down Jackson way though.

Jackson's restaurants are definitely no match for NOLA's cuisine. Louisiana has probably produced as many famous chefs as any state in the U.S. I have only made two trips to NOLA and I remember being amazed at how cheap shrimp was there. I have never been to Savannah, but it's also got a great reputation for southern dishes. Shrimp and grits is one of my favorite meals and it is popular from the Low Country of South Carolina to the Texas Gulf coast.

[Granny Bear]

You have never been to Savannah?!!? I'm shocked! Hoot, it's definitely a place to go for food. I would highly recommend you going for a long weekend this summer!! Go during peach season.

[jetpilot]

I agree with GB, Savannah is a must.
Once you go, you will keep going back.

[jetpilot]

Just want to add Savannah is a great place to stop for a night or 2 on the way to Florida vacation. I can be there in 7 1/2 hours from Pikeville so if I leave before daylight like I normally do on long trips I am there for lunch and dinner lol.