While there is no shortage of donut shops in LA, in Boston you can’t walk for more than five minutes without seeing a Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s like the city runs on this doughnut franchise. So, before I parted ways with Boston, I made sure to stop at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Boston’s Logan Airport to grab something to eat.

I was expecting to be stuck eating a doughnut for dinner, but instead I found that Dunkin’s had started offering flatbread sandwiches, and for pretty cheap. None of them really had vegetables, but I ordered the Chicken Parmesan flatbread one thinking it was the most dinner-like of all.

I watched sadly as the woman behind the counter opened up a freezer, unwrapped a sandwich in plastic, then put it in a high-speed toaster. I had assumed the ingredients were so basic that they could be prepared on the spot, but apparently I was wrong. Even if the sandwiches had all been created that morning, I was disappointed.

After the rapid toasting, my sandwich was ready. I took it to my gate, had a seat and opened it up. Inside the paper wrapping were the basic components of a chicken parmesan sandwich, bread, cheese, chicken and tomato sauce. With their powers combined, they created a pretty average sandwich. It wasn’t a terrible choice for someone on the go, but there is so much potential for sandwich greatness in the world that one should never have to settle for the Dunkin’ Donuts flatbread sandwiches when other choices exist.

The article is written by a disgruntled vegan, calling out her fellow vegans who are supposed proponents of eating meat. These vegans don’t eat meat themselves, but rather than try to convince the world to go against human instinct, they simply propose that meat be treated better before heading off to the slaughter for the real people.

More power to these vegans. Any proponents of eating meat, whether they eat it themselves or not, are good people in my book. It’s refreshing to see that some people have realistic goals in life that don’t involve alienating the majority of the human race. Meat makes us human (it really does), so why fight it?

(via Vegan Soap Box)

For a pre-movie dinner, I found myself at the Century City food court once again and looking for something new. Some of the competitors in the food court have found the best way to bring in new customers: sampling.

I will sample almost anything put in front of me, as long as it has no vegetable qualities. You wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a test drive, so why buy a meal without knowing how it will taste? Well obviously, this isn’t always possible, but when it is I think it’s great to take advantage.

The Rotisserie Works offered me a sample of their Hawaiian BBQ chicken and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a nice sweet BBQ taste with the hint of some pineapple-like fruit. After a few other tastes, I decided the Hawaiian chicken would be filling my belly that evening. The order of chicken came with two sides, and I looked at the menu with mild distaste. All but two of the sides had words like “squash,” and “spinach,” so I ordered their mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.

The guy behind the counter scooped out dollops of all my dishes, and I was please to see he wasn’t stingy. In fact, my plate ended up having sides bigger than the main course. This is not to say that the main course was small, just that the sides were even bigger.

I started eating and really enjoyed. The sides, although nothing amazing, complemented the Hawaiian chicken. As I continued eating, I became increasingly happy with the sizes of the sides, because the Hawaiian chicken became a little too sweet, but the sides were always there to bail me out. Herein lies the only trouble with ordering a food based on a sample. The initial taste might be great, but it could become increasingly intense. For a big example of this, read up on the Pepsi Challenge.

No doubt my meal was an enjoyable one, only not as good as I had hoped upon first sampling.

A recent report from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has shed a new light on the history of the domestication of dogs in the world.

It seems that dogs weren’t originally intended to be man’s best friend. Instead, they were most likely domesticated to be man’s next meal.

According to the New York Times, “[a] single domestication event seems to have occurred in southern China…[where]there is a long tradition of eating dogs…”

Of course, the most heroic thing one can do is to sacrifice their life for the well-being of others. Dogs have apparently done that in spades for the last 14,000 years. In fact, research shows that they were domesticated before any other animal, making it even more likely they were used for food.

Of course, dogs have since been bred for other reasons. They have been used to hunt down delicious meat and to protect homes from people attempting to steal food (most likely precious meat). Such uses have made them even greater heroes.

For being food, finding food and protecting food, Dogs, you are true Unvegan Heroes!

(via New York Times)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Country Bob’s, Inc., a little company looking to get the word out on their sauce, Country Bob’s All-Purpose Sauce. They loved my blog (obviously) and wanted to send me some free sauce to write about. Being a shameless sell-out, I jumped at the offer.

I researched the company a bit (ie. checked the website) and found that Country Bob gave a whole lot of credit for his success to God. Hey, if athletes can do it, why not sauce-makers? I also found on the website that Christ himself had risen through the ranks of Country Bob’s to become CEO. I’m not sure if he usurped the title from Country Bob himself, but Bob seemed to have no problem putting “Christ is our CEO” on the website.

After about a week, my package of sauces came in the mail. I decided a Labor Day BBQ would be the perfect chance to test out the sauce and to get a range of opinions, specifically from my Jewish friends. To complete the holy trinity of monotheistic religions present at the meal, I picked up some Halal ground beef to make burger patties.

After a few minutes of grilling, the tasting was ready to begin. I opened up a bottle and poured it onto my plate. It was runnier than the average BBQ sauce, but had a higher viscosity than your typical steak sauce. I dipped my burger in it for the first taste, slightly fearful that the presence of Christ would burn my Jewish mouth. Fortunately for Country Bob, Christ and myself, the sauce did not burn. In fact, it was pretty tasty. I found it to be a bit on the sweet side, to the point where it probably would have been better on some chicken. But I still opened up my burger and dumped it on as my condiment du jour.

As my companions around the table tried out the sauce, I gathered some insightful comments.

Alyson, a 27-year old Jew working in the insurance business said, “I like Bob, it makes me think twice about Christ.”

Danny, a 24-year old Jew working in talent management said, “Tangy. Maybe too tangy.”

Sarah, a 29-year old Jew working in catering was overheard saying, “Can you please pass the Christ sauce? It’s really good.”

Overall, that’s a pretty positive judgment. Usually BBQ sauce is my top condiment for a cook-out, but Country Bob’s is not a shabby substitute if I’m in the mood for something sweeter.I know Country Bob would have been especially proud to know he had been paired up with the friendly monk on the Franziskaner Beer label.

For a little Chinese lunch, I headed to Szechwan in Manhattan Beach. It had come highly recommended, so I went expecting something pretty good. When we arrived, the restaurant was only about half-full, but we were still told to wait for a table. This seemed strange, especially when were standing around for five minutes looking like fools. Nonetheless we eventually took our seats and got the chance to check out the menu. The first thing I noticed that seemed off was that the food wasn’t quite Sichuan style (Sichuan being the way Szechwan is actually supposed to be spelled). Sichuan style is usually really spicy food and different from what we usually think of as “Chinese” food. Instead, the menu looked like any other Chinese restaurant.

As if to make up for the misnomer, Szechwan offered a pretty swanky-looking “Special Luncheon.” For $7.95, the special luncheon came with rice, soup, salad and an egg roll. The short list of options for the special luckily included one of my favorite dishes, Kung Pao Chicken. I also saw happily that my lunch buddy ordered Tangerine Chicken, another relatively veggie-free meal that I could try.

I ignored the salad that was brought to me in order to concentrate on the finer things in life. The egg drop soup wasn’t bad, but as a bonus little surprise, we were brought fried shrimp to go with our egg rolls. Before even finishing these items, the main meals were brought to the table. Both looked pretty great, except that there were green onions scattered about my Kung Pao Chicken. I tried my best to avoid them as I ate, but most surely some some slipped into my mouth and tainted my digestive process. Overall I was pretty happy with the chicken, it was actually pretty Chinese in style rather than a spicy

glazed chicken that so many places try to pass off as Kung Pao. It definitely could have used some more spice, especially since the restaurant was named Szechwan. I also tested out the Tangerine Chicken and was pretty impressed. It wasn’t too different from the typical orange chicken, but it was free from vegetables and pretty good.

In all, the Special Luncheon treated me pretty well. If I’m ever in the mood again for a cheap and filling lunch, I will definitely keep Szechwan in mind.

The most exciting food news to hit El Segundo since Chipotle is most certainly The Habit. Taking over the dilapidated former building of the Grand Cafe, The Habit put up signs months ago and began renovations. Just this week they opened for business, and I knew it was time for me to see what The Habit was all about.

When I arrived, the line was coming out the door. I hoped and prayed that the line would move fast and my wish was granted. In only five-ish minutes I was at the counter and ready to order. The menu is pretty basic if you stick to burgers, but they also offer salads and other non-burger sandwiches. On the menu, the burgers are called charburgers, which really leaves the impression that they will be overcooked. I hoped this wouldn’t be true and ordered the BBQ Bacon Char. Cheese cost me an extra 50 cents, which I wouldn’t have noticed if they had just added the change to the regular price, but since they didn’t I was a little upset. Honestly, who (without a lactose intolerance) orders a burger

without cheese these days? By default, the burgers included mayo, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes and caramelized onions. I ordered mine without any of those offensive toppings, then ordered fries and a chocolate malt.

There was about a ten minute wait before they called my number, but I was happy to find that the burger was exactly as I had ordered it. The meat was pretty good and not at all charred. The bacon was nice and crisp, just the way I like it. I was a bit disappointed by the overall size of my burger, which would have to be a lot thicker to quench my meaty appetite. The fries were cooked perfectly, despite being a little over-salted. The malt was actually pretty disappointing, as it tasted virtually the same as a milkshake should have. For the extra 50 cents that it cost me to get the malt, they should have put in a much heftier amount of malt powder.

In all, despite the diminutive scale of the burger, I left The Habit fully stuffed. And the best part was that the whole meal cost me less than 10 bucks. In fact the receipt came out to exactly $9.99 including tax. Not too shabby.

Another restaurant we found in La Fortuna was called Lava Rocks. This place a had a much simpler atmosphere than La Choza de Laurel, but that was fine by. I searched for my new favorite food, the “Tipical” dish and found that it was called Casado here. Further research has taught me that “casado” means married, because this is the type of meal that married men get at home. Thanks for the info, Wikipedia!

Although not married, I was happy to eat like a casado. I ordered my casado with chicken again. The nice thing about the dish is that no two restaurants seem to serve it the same way.This was nice, because I could just keep ordering the same dish at different restaurants and still have the opportunity to try out a variety of tastes. The only downside was that almost every place threw a salad in with the casado. For this particular dish, the corn chips were some of the best I’ve ever had. They were great for dipping in the mashed potatoes (or was it yuca?) and black beans. The chicken meat here wasn’t as good as at La Choza de Laurel, but it wasn’t bad either.

I also tested out a strange brown sauce that had been on the table at both restaurants. It tasted a bit like steak sauce, except thicker. It was good to dip the chicken into, but nothing amazing. I would come to find this sauce at just about every restaurant I went to.

In the end, Lava Rocks treated me well. The centerpiece of the meal wasn’t amazing and the dish could have used one more addition like a fried plantain, but the corn chips and mashed potatoes were pretty awesome.

It takes a special type of person to realize the seemingly unlimited possibilities with eating meat. One of these special types of people is Greg Givan. Givan throws an annual barbecue, and this year his theme was “Grill around the Globe.”

The lineup sounds like an unvegan fantasy, “…Givan ordered yak (California), alligator (Louisiana), crocodile (Bolivia), elk (New Zealand), boar (Texas), llama (California and elsewhere), kangaroo (Australia), as well as antelope sausage.”

I didn’t even realize there were elk in New Zealand. Either way, I would’ve loved to have been at this BBQ. Instead, I will have to settle for traveling around the world and eating exotica as I go.

For recognizing the delicious potential of a multitude of animals, Greg Givan, you are a true Unvegan Hero!

(via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Today is day one of Costa Rican food week, featuring highlights of my recent trip to Costa Rica. While traveling, I don’t really order my food without vegetables and just cross my fingers that my meal won’t require too much picking out. For this reason, I only rate the overall experience. Enjoy!

My first stop in Costa Rica was the tiny little town of La Fortuna, the closest town to the Arenal Volcano. Despite its small size, it still had plenty of restaurants to choose from and they all had English menus for the tourists. For our first dinner, we went to a fun-looking restaurant called La Choza de Laurel.

Eager to try some fancy new Costa Rican food, I ordered an Imperial Beer and we started off with some Fried Yuca. Yuca is similar to potato, so fried yuca was similar to french fries. There were a few differences, though, in that fried yuca is much heavier and drier than fries. This was no problem though, as the yuca came with delicious salsa, guacamole and beans. These dipping juices wouldn’t be appropriate for regular french fries, but they were perfect for fried yuca.

For my main course, I ordered the Choza Tipical Plate. It’s always disappointing to eat in a foreign country and find that everything on the English menu is spelled right. Luckily, this was no such place. The description of the Choza Tipical Plate read like this:

Rice, beans, mixed chayote and sweet corn, mixed green papaya and ground beef, salad, chicken, beef or pork shop, sweet plantain and boiled egg.

Based on this, I couldn’t really figure out what was optional and was was included. When the waiter came, he asked if I wanted to chicken, beef or pork. I decided against the “pork shop” or beef, and chose chicken.

When my plate came, it was quite a beauty. I learned quickly that chayote is a sort

of yellowish fruit and that green papaya is not nearly as delicious as regular papaya, yet still interesting. The chicken was great, especially when eaten with a mouthful of half the other things on my plate. I avoided the salad for maximum enjoyment.

For my first meal in Costa Rica, La Choza de Laurel was a great decision. The “Tipical” was a good foray into the world of Costa Rican food and I would highly recommend giving the place a visit if you ever find yourself in La Fortuna. Oh, and the prices were deliciously cheap.