The Unvegan » Beef

Feeding on Curry at Fat Spoon

The Unvegan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:00:09 +0000

Just keep swimming...

Apparently some place called The Lazy Ox downtown is a big deal or something. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t been, but supposedly the guy behind it, Michael Cardenas, is also a big deal. Such a big deal, in fact, that he took it upon himself to open another restaurant, called Fat Spoon. The new place is down in Little Tokyo and is conceptually a Japanese curry house. As a man with a fair amount of Japanese curry experience, I definitely wanted to check the place out, and it didn’t hurt that I had one of those Blackboard Eats 30% off printouts either.

We arrived for a late dinner on a Saturday night, but fortunately Fat Spoon keeps their doors open until midnight for hungry curry-lovers. With a group of people, we decided to go all-out, order a bunch of things and eat them family-style. This was pretty easy to do with the modest prices, and even with the vegetable choices that my foolish friends made, I felt like I was getting a fair share of meat.

But before I get into the mass of food, I feel the need to mention the beer I ordered with my meal. It was a Sapporo, which was the only beer they had on tap and when it arrived, it seemed to be lacking in bubbles. Upon tasting, the flatness was confirmed. Sapporo isn’t an especially great beer in the best of conditions, and being flat certainly didn’t help. We let the waitress know and she brought us a second round, which was only slightly better. It was a shame to have this as my first taste of the restaurant, and I hoped the real meal would make up for it.

Like a Japanized poutine.

It started with a round of jalapeno, cheese and curry fries, which was a strong start. The combination of flavors made it into a sort of Japanese poutine. Instead of gravy, there was curry, and instead of cheese curds there was shredded cheese, but the spiciness added a nice twist. Even bites without the actual jalapenos had a bit of a kick, which was nice. The fries themselves were thick-cut and crispy enough on the outside to survive the curry without coming out too soggy.

My, your ribs are short.

Next, I moved on to our two main curry dishes. The first was the beef curry, which was made with short rib meat. It looked awesome and tasted pretty good too. Yet, the spiciness that had been a part of the fries was lost in the regular curry, leaving me wanting a little more. Of course, Japanese curry is not known for being spicy like Indian is, and I could probably order it spicier in the future when I don’t have to share with spice haters. The meat was damn good and short rib was a nice change from the chicken cutlet I usually find myself eating with Japanese curry. I also tried a bit of the seafood curry, which had the same sauce, but a nice variety of invertebrates (shrimp, calamari, scallops and clams) swimming around in it. As not much of a seafood lover, I preferred the beef, but the seafood was definitely worthy.

Curry donuts!

For a fake dessert, we followed up our main courses with some curry pan. Pan means bread in Japanese and these were like crispy eclair donuts, but with curry in the middle. The panko crust that covered the pan gave them an awesome crunchy texture and the ground beef curry inside made them nothing short of awesome. They were a great way to close out a pretty tasty meal.

As a self-proclaimed Japanese curry expert, I was pretty happy with Fat Spoon. It doesn’t quite measure up to the standards set by Hurry Curry of Tokyo, but is definitely a solid establishment with good food for even better prices. Next time, though, I’ll pass on the beer and order my curry extra spicy.

Going to Hell with Lucky Devils

The Unvegan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The devil is in arugula.

Deep in the heart of the Hollywood Strip is a burger that rivals Umami Burger. Or so a coworker told me once upon a time. That once upon a time may have been over a year ago, but I never forgot, so when I had the chance to meet some buddies for dinner in Hollywood, Lucky Devils crept into my mind (and it didn’t hurt that it has been sitting on my to-eat list). What we found was a neat space with a great and enthusiastic server who was happy to tell us of their current specials, some awesome beers on tap and help us out with anything on the menu. Even though I had sworn not to drink, his description of their special black IPA on tap almost had my mouth watering enough to break the promise I made to myself.

But while a neat space and great staff is good and well, none of that matters If the food flops. Of their interesting burger options, the one that looked best to me was the Diablo Burger. Plus, it was keeping with the hellish theme of the place, and who was I to fight Hell? This burger was topped with white cheddar, double-smoked bacon, avocado, wild arugula, house 1,000 island and devil hot sauce. I ordered it without the wild arugula (What makes it wild? Do they literally find it in a field somewhere?) and made sure the get the hot sauce at their 2x level because my buddy had already tried the 1x and found it to be lacking in heat. I also upgraded the burger from Black Angus to their 100% grass-fed Tallgrass Beef for an extra $1.50. It’s a small price to pay for grass-fed beef, which is always superior.

You are cooked well, my meat.

When my burger arrived, I looked upon it in disappointment. Sprouting from inside the bun, I could see arugula gone wild. This was a damn shame and immediately destroyed my first impression of their food. I had to de-bun the burger, remove the leaves and put it back together before I could even taste the burger. When I finally did get to eat, the first thing I noticed about the burger was the overwhelming amount of 1,000 island. This sauce dominated the burger, and not in a good way. The devil sauce, which offered some great heat when I could eat it away from the 1,000 island, was severely tempered whenever it hit the dressing.

The other elements of the burger, including the meat itself, were awesome. I could only taste a single smoke in the bacon, but it was delicious, and I loved the inclusion of white cheddar, which is always a sure way to get to my heart. The bun did a great job of keeping the burger together and had some great give to it when I squeezed it for every bite. The Tallgrass beef was a bit more lean than your usual burger, so it didn’t ooze out much juiciness, but it was definitely not dry and cooked to a nice medium/medium rare.

What an appropriate name you have.

Oh, and did I mention that I ordered fries? No? Well, I did and they were damn good. They were listed on the menu as Crispy Fries and certainly lived up to their name. But while, crispy, they weren’t overdone and still had a nice potato-ey taste and some softness in their core. They were nice and evenly salted and really made a great companion to the burger.

Ultimately, what could have been an amazing burger and fries was undone by a couple of big flaws. Arugula (wild or tame) is simply unacceptable on an unvegan burger. And just go easy on the 1,000 island. There’s no need to flood a burger with that stuff, and in fact I think it would have been better off without it completely. It can go hang out with the arugula in a salad somewhere instead of chilling on my burger.

Eating Big at Little Polynesian

The Unvegan — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:00:07 +0000

Poolside dining.

In the windy town of Titikaveka, there is a restaurant called Little Polynesian, that also doubles as a hotel. Just like nearly every spot on Rarotonga, Little Polynesian offers amazing views of the ocean and numerous palm trees. While fine views are usually followed by only decent dining, Little Polynesian was supposed to be quite good, and we hoped the meal would be half as good as the view.

Just as we had done at Windjammer, a quick look at the menu made us realize that this was a meal for splitting. We ordered two dishes and an appetizer, then sit back, relaxed and soaked up our evening of Little Polynesian.

Not quite as white as Texas.

The appetizer was simply garlic bread, and Little Polynesian managed to keep it simply good. It started with some thick-as-Texas toast, but this bread was no plain white. It was dense, with a flavor and texture kind of similar to rye. But of course, the true flavor was in the buttery garlic upon the bread that was strong enough to keep pace with the heavy bread while not being overwhelming.

Polynesian surf and turf.

As for our main courses, the first was the Fillet of Beef & Garlic Prawns. This came with some stir-fried veggies, potato mash and merlot jus. The dish was pretty beautiful, and starting with the prawns, the flavor lived up to the beauty. As with the garlic bread, these had the perfect balance of garlic to prawn and were fresh as the day they were born (probably recently). The beef, though, was nothing amazing. Yeah, it was good, and the merlot jus gave it a nice, sweet kick, but overall the prawns were the king of this dish. Oh, and the mash was also delicious.

Give me more sauce, I don't care what's in it.

Yet, while the prawns were the king of that dish, our other dish was the king of Little Polynesian. This was the Seafood Gratin, which contained scallops, prawns and calimari, cooked in a white wine, butter, herb and havarti cheese sauce. It came with a side of coconut steamed rice and bread, to take care of the leftover sauce after all the seafood was gone. This seafood gratin may be the best dish that the Cook Islands have to offer. Every bite was incredible, and while the seafood was fresh and delicious, my shoe would have tasted amazing in that crack sauce.

Little Polynesian was an awesome meal, and mostly due to that delectable seafood gratin. If we hadn’t run out of that sauce eventually, I’m pretty I would have eaten it until my stomach burst. And I mean that in the most literal sense. It would have gotten ugly. As it was, this was definitely a worthwhile meal, even if it did mean driving the motor scooter down to windy Titikaveka.

Sonic Good is Just Pretty Good

The Unvegan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:33 +0000

So this is what all those commercials were about...

About 10 or so years ago, the world began to see commercials for a fast food burger place called Sonic. These commercials were often both funny and hunger-inducing. Unfortunately, though, Sonics were only in select locations throughout the country. Yes it was annoying, but it was also genius, because it whet the appetite for Sonic with people who had never even seen the place. The idea was that when they would finally see one, whether in travel or with a new one being built, they would want nothing more than to devour their burgers. And it worked, at least on me. When I saw my first Sonic years ago while driving through Independence, Missouri, I just had to try it. I remember it being good, but this was pre-meat blog and in the middle of a cross-country road trip, so the memory is mostly blur filled with the knowledge that the meal kept my internal fuel running just as long as I needed it to.

But just this weekend, on the way to Las Vegas, I came across another Sonic and decided it needed a proper tasting. The town was Victorville, California, and the Sonic was just off the highway amidst some other tasty-looking fast food-esque restaurants. One thing unique about Sonic is their old-fashioned drive-in spots. Notice, I didn’t say drive-thru because while they have that, they also have the spots where you order from your car and a server brings out the food on roller skates. We opted for the drive-in, which I hadn’t experienced since I was a wee child at an A & W in Michigan.

Sonic Boom!

As for the food, the girlfriend told me their Cherry Lime Slush was unbeatable, so I started with one of those to split, then moved on to the big gun: The Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger. Although served with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles, when I asked for it plain, it seemed fit for an unvegan. Then, to make the meal even more frightening, I ordered Chili Cheese Tots simply because I had never seen such substances offered on tots.

Sonic me some tots!

Soon enough, the food was roller skated out to greet us. I was a little disappointed with the lack of a window tray (like a regular fast food tray with things to stick it to the window like a table). I remember A & W had those, but perhaps they now only exist in memory. I opened up the burger to find it had been prepared perfectly, then I began to take it down. What I found was a pretty good bacon cheeseburger. And that’s kind of where it ends. In Sonic’s commercials, they would say, “It’s not just good, it’s Sonic good” but in my case it was just simply good. Ultimately it tasted like a fast food burger that was better than your typical fast food, but not good enough to reach the level of Five Guys Burgers and Fries or In-N-Out Burger. The tots were similarly good and while they earned Sonic points for creativity, they didn’t change the game.

Also, there was the Cherry Lime Slush. I do love me a slush and was happy to see that Sonic had them. The slush did deliver migraine-level brain freezes to each of us, but I still definitely appreciated the addition of these frozen beverages on the menu.

So for the gimmick of old-fashioned drive-in food, Sonic delivers some good food. Unfortunately it just isn’t quite good enough to merit multiple return visits based on the food alone.

Doubling Down at Townhouse

The Unvegan — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:00:41 +0000

Not in my Townhouse.

After seeing the frontrunner for Most Gratuitously Violent Movie of the Year (Drive, which is great by the way), some people might not have much of an appetite. Those people, though, are not unvegan and the sight of so much blood made me crave some meat. As we had seen the movie in the Sherman Oaks Galleria, my local valley friends took me to a place called Townhouse Kitchen + Bar. I knew little of what to expect, except that football would be on TV and this was a good start.

A quick look at the menu told me I would be getting a burger, and that burger would be the Fried Egg Burger. As we all know, I love me a fried egg on a burger. This thing was topped with the aforementioned fried egg, bacon, gouda, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions. I asked for mine without any of the veggies and then played the waiting game. Fortunately, my waiting game was not nearly as bad as one of my valley friends, who waited just as long to get his beer as I did to get my burger. The burger wait wasn’t too long, but it was far longer than a wait should be for a beer. Nonetheless, in the middle of my own wait, I realized I had not been asked how I wanted my burger cooked. I was a little scared, but figured restaurants usually default towards the medium end.

Yes, you are looking at double patties.

Yet, when my burger arrived, I was in for a shock, and not due to vegetables as usual, because my plate was free from those bitter beings. No, the shock was my meat, which was not cooked medium and it was easy to see why he had not asked me how I wanted my meat cooked. Sitting on my bun were two patties of meat, both pretty thin and both cooked all the way through. In other words, it looked like they had cooked up two patties of grocery store frozen beef and served them to me. When I bit in, this was all but confirmed. Now, had I been at a friend’s BBQ, I would have been damn happy with the double burger, but at a restaurant I was more than a little disappointed. Yet, from the ashes of bad meat rose tasty toppings. I must admit that the gouda, bacon and egg combo worked out pretty nicely. The egg was nice and runny, although not to the extent that the plate was overflowing with yolk drippings. And of course the bacon and gouda were delicious.

Oh, the burger also came with fries, which were quite delicious. They almost made up for the…wait, no, not at all. Good fries never make up for bad beef. So, Townhouse, if you took the time to prepare some real patties, you could have some burgers worth bragging about. Instead, you hover somewhere between fast food and gourmet, which, in my world is known as no man’s land.

The Redcoat Tavern is Coming!

The Unvegan — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:00:34 +0000

Wait, this doesn't seem dangerous at all.

Once upon a time, Paul Revere rode through the streets of Boston, warning all patriots by shouting, “The redcoats are coming!” These redcoats, of course, were the British soldiers and the Americans knew that danger was coming. But when Redcoat Tavern came to West Bloomfield, Michigan, the people did not sense danger. No, they embraced it. That’s because the original Redcoat Tavern in Royal Oak had been serving up some of the most delicious food in metro Detroit for years. Yet, while I embraced the branching out of Redcoat Tavern, like the Founding Fathers, I also prepared to do battle against its famous burger.

I truly did not need to give the menu a long look, because my burger buddy Rev told me Redcoat was his favorite burger in the state of Michigan and I needed to see if he was worth listening to.

Yeah, you better hide, pickle!

Although the menu failed to describe what this burger consisted of, aside from awesomeness, my awesome waiter was happy to let me know it came with tomatoes, lettuce and some special sauce that he described as pretty much mayo. Wow, none of this sounded good on my burger, so I took the base of patty and bun, then unveganized it by adding a fried egg and cheddar cheese from their long list of topping options. And for those of you who are wondering, no, I did not get the “zip” sauce. In fact, I didn’t do my research and did not know such a sauce existed until I talked to my buddy later that day. Alright, back to what I did order. I asked for the burger to be cooked medium rare, then ordered a side of onion rings, which my step-dad had said were delicious. And he knows delicious.

After a short wait, my grand meal arrived. “Get out of here, you stupid pickle,” I yelled in my head, then quickly removed the terrible pickle spear from my plate and sent it in the direction of my mother before taking a look at my creation. In a stark contrast to the gourmet burgers of the West Coast, my burger ingredients were encapsulated not by some fancy brioche bun, but by a fancy sesame seed bun instead. The toothpicks holding the burger together also screamed, “You’re not in California anymore,” because burgers in California are typically half-wrapped in wax paper to keep from falling apart. Without such frivolous wrapping, I could see the burger juices beginning to swell up the bun and took my first bite.

A scene inside before unleashing the yolk.

It was like burger bliss.

The meat had a medium grind to it and was packed together nicely. The juices produced by the meat made sauce unnecessary (although I’m still sure zip sauce would have been a welcome addition), and once I reached the yolk of the egg, the perfectly cooked, runny insides exploded and made the burger even juicier. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: fried egg just might be the greatest burger topping. The cheddar cheese did a great job of doing what cheese does, which is make everything taste better. And the bun, well was pretty much how you expect a sesame seed bun to be, yet it felt like a welcome breath of fresh air. Don’t get me wrong, I like brioche plenty, but combining gourmet ingredients with the patriotic (ironic) sesame seed bun was a concept that made itself at home on my taste buds.

Even a stack this high could not provide enough flavor for us.

Now the onion rings were a bit disappointing. I wouldn’t call them bad, because they didn’t have bad flavor. Instead, they were just pretty flavorless. Perhaps it was a bad batter day or my step-dad was just way off with his taste. But, he also felt they weren’t very good and declared them bland. To make matters worse, there was also no sort of sauce to dip them in except for ketchup or the egg-splosion on my plate.

Yet, fortunately these rings of onions were not the cornerstone of my meal – the burger was and it was a success. It was a great way to start out my day, which would end even better in Ann Arbor as I watched Michigan beat Notre Dame for the third year in a row. Every day like that should start with a burger like Redcoat’s.

Scaring Vampires at The Stinking Rose

The Unvegan — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:00:56 +0000

This is the story of when I ran away and joined the garlic circus.

With the ever-growing popularity of vampires in silly stories like Twilight and edgy television like True Blood, it seems that something important to our very human survival has fallen by the wayside. That is garlic, the fabric of our lives…errr…the thing that vampires hate. For some reason. One place you’ll never see a vampire hanging out at is The Stinking Rose, a restaurant in Beverly Hills. The reason is that apparently “stinking rose” is another term for garlic. I disagree with calling it stinking because I like the smell of garlic, as long as it hasn’t yet been eaten, but perhaps pungent rose was already taken.

Yes, I would like some garlic with my garlic.

So like I said, the place is named for garlic, because virtually everything on the menu has garlic. The one place it seemed lacking was on the drink and dessert end, although there was a garlic wine and garlic ice cream. Now, for some reason, the restaurant looks kind of like a circus, which is actually pretty cool because it gave my date and I a sort of private setting for our meal. Although not so private that the people in the tent next to us couldn’t understand every single word we said. But because they weren’t cracking up after every other thing we said, we assumed they weren’t listening.

Gah, stay back, onions!

On to the food, which starts out with a garlicky bang of bread. Not only is there garlic baked on top of the bread, but each table is equipped with one of those little salsa containers, but instead of salsa there is an intense diced garlic spread. This starts the experience off with a kick of garlic to the face. We devoured the garlic bread and spread like garlic-loving hyenas. To follow that up, we ordered a garlicious appetizer to continue the whetting of our appetite. We settled on the Garlic Filet Mignon Chili. Filet as chili was an interesting concept even without the garlic, but that made it especially intriguing. It arrived quite quickly, and to my disappointment, red onions were displayed across the top of the bowl like some twisted mating ritual of a bird of paradise.

Onions aside, the real chili was pretty nice.

I quickly asked my date to remove the offensive parties so I could dive into the goodness. And it was goodness. The chili was tasty and the filet beef chunks were quite tender. It wasn’t an especially interesting chili though. I thought the garlic would draw out some crazy flavor in it, but instead I could hardly taste the garlic. This may have been an after-effect of the destruction of multiple taste buds following the consumption of multiple heaps of that raw garlic sauce, or because they felt the chili was good enough. Well it was good enough, but I would have liked awesome.

One rib, like Eve.

But then the awesome came, my main course. I ordered their Garlic Braised Boneless Short Rib, which came with garlic yukon gold mashed potatoes. It also came with an added bonus, a disgusting pile of creamed spinach that had not been listed on the menu. Shame on you, Stinking Rose, at least your vegetables did not corrupt my meal. After clearing these away, I dove mouth-first into the short rib. This was the perfect kind of short rib, which required no knife whatsoever. In fact, it didn’t need any sort of cutting motion at all by my fork. All I had to do was stab, pull away and voila – a forkful of short rib. It tasted damn good as well, with some extra cloves of garlic in case I hadn’t had enough. The mashed potatoes were also quite delicious. Although the garlic didn’t stand out as much as it would have in any other meal, they were still quite flavorful.

So now that I have had my first Stinking Rose experience, I am ready for more. Although it is now days later and a drop of my sweat would probably melt a vampire, I am completely okay with that. The Stinking Rose makes it worth it.

A Personal Burger at Irv’s

The Unvegan — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:00:50 +0000

Pretty fancy.

Legend tells of a burger shack in West Hollywood. This legend says that this burger place has been around since 1950, but retains everything that made it great in that bygone era, with at least one great enhancement. This place is Irv’s Burgers and the enhancement is a little something special for every customer. This something special is that rather than giving you a number, the people behind Irv’s draw a little picture of you on your plate so they know who to bring each burger out to. This makes Irv’s a refreshing gem in the middle of the fast-paced cafes and generic boutiques of West Hollywood.

This looks and tastes like America.

When I went to place my order, I quickly decided I wanted a double cheeseburger, then quickly upgraded it to a combo because their fries looked so good. The price of $8.25 was a bit pricey for a hole in the wall like this, but I figured I was in for something pretty amazing. As I ordered my burger without veggies, mayo or mustard (ketchup only for the Unvegan) the woman behind the counter said, “Ok, no problem, you want the baby burger.” Yes, that’s right, she called me a baby and I couldn’t be happier. Although I prefer to think of my eating as that of a five-year-old, baby works as well.

Just for me: the baby burger!

This was not the fastest burger I ever received, but that shouldn’t scare you. Clearly, these burgers were made to order, because I got my own customized plate, with the words “Just for You” written on it with black crayon. Next to those words was a quick little sketch of an orange t-shirt to match the one I was wearing. Part of me had hoped for a little more detail for my picture, but if someone knows how to find me by using the color orange, I am still a happy man. Shortly after my burger and fries were brought out, one of the old women working there brought out my giant drink with two straws protruding from it. You see, they had noticed my girlfriend had no drink and brought out enough for both of us. She even said something to us along the lines of “Happy forever” as she dropped it off and gave us both a smile. It might have been the greatest thing to ever happen to me at a burger joint.

These fries were so tasty.

But on to the burger. Thin, cooked through patties were the name of the game here and they were certainly delicious. Combined with standard American cheese and a perfectly normal bun, this burger managed to strike the perfect balance of the true American burger. Gourmet burgers are good and all, but the burger I had at Irv’s is truly representative of a what a burger should be: juicy, cheesy and full of perfect beefy flavor. And the fries were almost as good. Crunchy and lightly seasoned, they were cut slightly thick and there were no sickly stragglers or undercooked fries in the bunch.

This drink is for eternal happiness.

Places like this really hammer home how truly unique a city LA is. Unfortunately, it seems that holes in the wall in like Irv’s are becoming the way of the dodo. A few years ago, Irv’s had to fight for its life in the sea of West Hollywood. It’s a shame, because losing a place like Irv’s would be like killing the roots of a tree. Sure, the trunk may still stand, but it will lose its life and become a sterile shell of its former life. I hope that never happens to Irv’s, because eating there is truly a delight. It may not be the best burger in the world, but it is definitely a burger and experience worth having over and over again.

Apparently, I was Thinking Arby’s

The Unvegan — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:00:56 +0000

Is this what I was thinking?

Arby’s has always been kind of a fringe fast food chain. You can find it all over the country, but it isn’t exactly on every corner. Perhaps this is the reason it has taken me so long to review them. Or perhaps the reason is because I once heard their meat begins its life as a liquid. Whatever the case, a golden opportunity to chow down on some potentially formerly liquid meat presented itself at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

Mmm curly fries.

Being an airport restaurant, this Arby’s wasn’t sporting the crazy cheap sandwiches they are typically known for, but the prices weren’t terribly bad. I opted for their Classic Beef ‘n Cheddar Sandwich. This thing started with a roll and was filled with slices of roast beef, a cheddar sauce and some sort of strange red sauce. With Mexican food, you don’t question the red sauce, but with Arby’s I was a bit confused. Yet, it didn’t scream “veggie” and neither did anything else on the sandwich, so I accepted it. I then upgraded to a combo for some curly fries and a drink.

Find me some texture. Please.

Before I even filled my drink cup, my sandwich was ready for eating. Chowing down, I found exactly what I expected: salty, mostly texture-less beef. Coupled with a cheese sauce that’s a slight upgrade from nacho cheese, this was fast food personified. The roll was pretty good and actually would have worked well on a burger, too. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it did its job. Finally, there was the strange red sauce. This stuff definitely wasn’t ketchup, but it did have a slight tomato-vinegar flavor. Hell, the ladies behind the counter didn’t even know what it was. They also had never heard the name Zachary before, so I don’t know what I was expecting when asking the about the sauce.

Oh, by the way, the fries are awesome. Definitely the best fast food curly fries since A & W gave up on good food.

It’s hard to give Arby’s a bad rating or a good rating. It knows it isn’t pumping out high quality sandwiches, but it does make them fast and free of veggies. I hear their Market Fresh Sandwiches are pretty good, but who goes to a place like Arby’s for something fresh?

Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls on Tires

The Unvegan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:00:31 +0000

One if by sea, two if by truck.

When Great Balls on Tires first debuted last year, I was concerned that such a name for a meatball truck was a bit of a gimmick. Yet, now that GBOT has lasted through the middle of this year, I felt it was time I tried them out. When I walked up to the truck to see what they had to offer, I found there were only a few sets of balls to choose from. Yet, more than one of these balls looked attractive to me. Unfortunately, all balls came in sets of two, so I had to limit myself to only one ball type.

Plus, priced at 6-7 bucks for a set of two balls, I couldn’t really justify paying to try more than one. This was a shame, because had the balls been priced individually, I would have probably been willing to try three types. Instead, I approached the lady at the window to ask her to choose between two ball varieties for me. The first was the Ciao Balla (veal, pork, pancetta marinara, shaved parmesan and fresh basil on a toasted brioche bun) and the second was the Buffalo Ball (chicken, buffalo sauce, mac and cheese and blue cheese on a similarly toasted brioche bun). When I asked, she threw my ideas completely out the window and said I should get the IncrediBall. This was the most expensive, weighing in at 7 bucks. The only trouble was that this was not an unvegan-friendly ball. Sure, it had Kobe beef, applewood smoked bacon, gruyere and garlic aioli on that recurring brioche bun, but it also had arugula. And apparently I am a sucker, because I ordered the IncrediBall, but without the arugula.

The result was ready almost instantly and I found myself looking at two beautiful mini-sandwiches packed with meatballs. If nothing else, I must say how happy I am that GBOT didn’t stoop to inaccurately calling these sandwiches sliders. So thank you for that and on to the eating. I dug in and discovered a pretty tasty sandwich (or two). These guys were composed of a perfect balance of bacon, cheese, bread and meat. Plus, the aioli packed some good flavor. The beef tasted as though it were mostly seasoned with salt and pepper, and although it wasn’t bad, I felt like it might have been better with some more Italian seasonings. Also, I should clear up that although the menu said Kobe beef, this was more than likely American Kobe-style beef, which is pretty much as good, but can’t legally be called Kobe beef unless it comes from Japan. The beef was juicy, but eating it just reminded me of how much better Kobe beef is in steak form than in ground beef form. It’s better beef, but not so much better that it should cost a crazy amount more. Fortunately, these balls only cost a dollar more.

Wow, so there’s my usual Kobe beef rant.

In general, I really did like my IncrediBalls, but I was not completely satisfied. In this case, I can’t just limit myself to judging the taste and price of the food, because I think the practice of selling all these balls as doubles is flawed. I think GBOT should really split up their balls and allow people to order one-offs. This will give people more options and a better eating experience. I know I’d go back if I knew I could try more things without killing my wallet.