I'm not usually in the habit of scouting industrial parks for a good place to eat, but we have driven by this little New York style hot dog place many times, always threatening to stop. Then, I saw an ad for the place in Passages, our local paper and thought we ought to make an effort to try them out.
Sabrett is apparently a popular hot dog brand in New York, and so the owners of this little hot dog place called appropriately, NY Hot Dogs, serve that brand exclusively.
The place is small with only three tables, so don't plan on taking an entire office full for lunch. But we found it to be very clean and very bright. For a minute, I though we had walked into a muffler shop off of Commerce Street or something. It is quite yellow!
We both ordered the combo - a dog, bag of chips and soda for $4.50. Not bad at all. I got the dog with some sort of red onion sauce and brown mustard. It was easily a step above what you get at Exxon Tiger Market for a buck.
My wife added chili and cheese to her dog (they do charge extra for both chili and cheese but other toppings are free). The chili was pretty good.
All in all, for a quick snack, I'd go again. Certainly not the atmosphere of Frankfurter Express, but close to home.
We were pulling out of the drive-way this morning when I saw a cat sitting on the roof across the street.
I guess this is nothing to call the fire department about, but the cat just sat there, totally unconcerned about the fact that I was taking his picture. Cats really do ignore people. This cat is not impressed by my truck or my camera.
I shouldn't take it so personally, should I?
If you have read this blog during the last two years, you have witnessed some really unhealthy eating. As that one guy on Sons of Anarchy (the guy who had most his fingers cut off in an effort to persuade him from some compulsive behavior), I am happy to say, "I'll own that". You could perhaps hope that I might announce I have become vegan and turn you on to all the great restaurants that serve only salads and mac & cheese and such, but that is not very likely at this juncture.
In fairness though, in spite of all the barbecue and pizza and wonderful burgers my wife and I have consumed over time, I am happy to report that our consumption of McDonald's has been extremely limited. It isn't that I don't appreciate McDonald's for what it is, fast and cheap, but really, it rarely appeals to me these days.
Earlier in the week, I came home from work and my wife asked me if I would consider a Big Mac for supper. I had to look around for a few minutes to see if I was on Candid Camera. But sure enough, she had a craving for a Big Mac and so off we went to the 'Donald's near our house.
The drive-thru does a pretty brisk business, but inside, the place was dead. You may have experienced this same sort of thing in your visits to many fast food places, where they have one guy cooking, one person in the drive-thru and a manager doing everything else. Running the front counter, making the fries, helping the drive-thru person get their order. Oh the memories I have of working at BranMac and turning back-to-back-to-back $1,000 hours, when at today's prices, that would be about $5,000 in an hour. That's a lot of burgers and fries and triple thick shakes. I would go for 2 hours straight making burger and macs, six and twelve on the turn. Good times.
But now, it seems like the charm of it all is gone. I just don't care for McDonald's, even if they have delicious, irresistible fries. There is something about the experience that ruins it for me. The 17 year old girl staring at you from the counter, waiting for you, the customer to initiate the order process. The cell phone in one hand as she punches in your order with no interest in suggestive selling a hot apple pie to go with your super-sized McCrap. I'm sure the McDonald's by your house is clean and totally above board, but I can't help thinking that the gang-member cook is tagging my burger with his own special sauce. And it isn't just McDonald's, but you know that.
On this particular day, we went in and ordered the combo (not super-sized) and just because I couldn't resist, I also got one of the double cheeseburgers. I mean really, for a buck? How could you not get the double cheeseburger?
The double cheeseburger is like dessert to me. It is so disturbingly greasy that it simply slides down your gullet like melted butter. Just look at it: you could grease your axle with it. But I ate it all.
I have been concerned for years about the buns on the Big Mac. Specifically, I don't think they toast them the way we did in the late 70's and early 80's. The club portion of the bun is supposed to be toasted just like the bottom and the crown, and this doesn't seem to happen. Maybe the procedure has changed, or maybe someone is talking on their cell phone.
Anyway, there was that familiar taste and in spite of the fact the little tasteless burgers just don't look very appetizing, I confess that we both enjoyed the meal. My wife eats her Big Mac in the standard delivery. That is to say, she takes in the two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun like a normal burger.
I on the other hand always eat my Big Mac in two parts. I eat from the club bun up like it was a burger by itself, then I eat the bottom portion like a pizza. Something I started when I was about 16 and just never have changed. By the way, there really should be more onions on that patty.
If you get the feeling that this is all very unhealthy, you are probably right. And McDonald's gives you the facts. There it is. I just ate enough calories for an entire week in a single setting. That ought to hold me over for another year or so.
I am still at the age where working a Monday through Friday job is going to be my reality for many, many more years. Thankfully, I work in a place with air conditioning and to be honest, I enjoy the work I do. But for even those of us who have it fairly easy when it comes to work, the mind wanders from time to time.
A few weeks ago I had spent a fairly busy morning answering e-mails, responding to phone calls, enlightening co-workers with my vast corporate knowledge (it's good to be needed), and it had crossed my mind that my wife won a free trip for two to Las Vegas, and we still hadn't even made the effort to plan a date to go. The trip includes hotel and airfare, but that got me thinking about a drive.
I pulled up a map of Las Vegas then did one of those "get directions" features and plugged in San Antonio. 1,326 miles. Holy crap! And then I thought to myself, why would a person drive all that way, only to turn around and drive back along the same road? So I added in a third destination of Oklahoma City* and somehow it occurred to me that for much of the journey from Vegas to OKC, you could drive along the famous Route 66.
I haven't really done a lot of research on this but since looking at the map a few weeks ago, I really have this urge to see some of those odd travel attractions along that famous path. I guess the original Route 66 went from Los Angeles all the way to Chicago. I think I'm more interested in the stretch from Flagstaff, Arizona to OKC. And I also am guessing that parts of Route 66 are now I-40, but I'm not sure that it is a one for one swap the entire way. I'll need to bust out the Internet to get some more specific ideas. Or if you have made this trip yourself, you might alert me to the important features that must be seen.
When we travel, we always seem to be in a rush. This is a fact of life when you do not take month long vacations. I have seen I-10 from San Antonio to Lake City, Florida at least 10 times, I'm sure, but I've always done it at between 75 and 80 miles an hour. We drive by the the same landmarks everyone else does but rarely have we ever slowed down to drive more than a mile or two off the highway. I would like to see the drive between Flagstaff and OKC at a much slower pace. Instead of driving straight for 13 or 14 hours, I'd like to take several days just so we can stop and take pictures in front of that old Wigwam Hotel, or even stay the night there! I want to see the leaning water tower in Groom, TX as well as that Cadillac Ranch.
So as I contemplated all these sites along Route 66, the idea of including Las Vegas on the trip seemed a bit out of place. I thought to myself, why should we drive all the way to Las Vegas when we have a free trip coming to us? And then the big revelation came. The Grand Canyon. If you are going to drive all the way from San Antonio to Flagstaff, why in the world wouldn't you drive a few inches more (on the map anyway) to see the Grand Canyon?
So I haven't even mentioned this to my wife - she's reading it here just like you are. It isn't something we need to pack our bags for anytime soon. I am not a fan of cold weather and any road trip like this would have to be one suitable for shorts. But between now and whenever it seems feasible that I could take off at least ten days from work, I am going to start planning a route, doing some research, and I'd love to receive some input from the many readers here who have crisscrossed the country via small highways and interstates and seen a site or two worth sharing.
The Doobie Brothers have a song about a sleepy little town around San Antone called China Grove; I've been there. I'd like to know what the Eagles were thinking when they were standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
A goal for 2010.
* Our son lives in OKC now and we'd like to visit.
For the past several years, I have kept my digital camera at the ready for those occasions where I get a glimpse of something that is just too good not preserve for future viewing or more often, share with readers here. I am pretty quick with the camera, and often, my wife acts as a spotter, alerting me to something worth a quick snap of the lens.I do admit there have been occasions where, even though I have the camera at the ready, I was simply too dumbfounded to react until after the fact. I hate when that happens. Yesterday was a different scenario. I actually had the shot, but the Good Samaritan in me prevented me from taking the photo, and instead I rolled down the window (okay, I pushed the button and the window lowered), and got the attention of the driver in the vehicle next to me at the stoplight. You have all seen, or may have experienced it yourself, what happens when a person sets their coffee cup on top of the car so they can unlock the door. Remarkably, they usually make it at least a ¼ mile before the laws of physics or gravity or Kharma take over, and the cup and the contents fly off the roof into traffic. When this happens, the driver usually says to themselves, “What was that?” then continues to try to remember what is missing from the morning commute. So I’m at the intersection of Callaghan and Culebra stopped at the light when I notice this old beater of a car. The car itself was worthy of a picture as it seemed to have a patchwork of different shades of blue body parts. Some lighter, more faded, others a darker shade, quite possibly taken from a different vehicle or maybe just spray painted more recently than the rest of the car. But the Partridge Family bus-like paint scheme isn’t what caught my eye. It was the parrot-nose hedge clippers and the box saw, sitting on top of the roof above the rear driver’s side window. No telling how many other tools had started on the roof before the guy began his drive. I looked up to see that my turning lane signal was still red, reached for my camera and then it occurred to me that perhaps this guy was just someone trying to make a few bucks doing some handyman work. Like I said, I got the guy’s attention and told him he left his tools on the roof of the car. We were still at the light so I just assumed that he would put his car in park, step out of the door and grab the items, then continue on his way. As he thanked me, he looked around several times and just as the turning lane light turned green I realized that he had some sort of bailing wire wrapped around the window frame of the front and rear driver’s side doors. In other words, his only exit was through the passenger side of the car. Poor guy.With cars behind me, I had to go so I never saw the outcome. Did the guy slowly move to the nearest parking spot to retrieve the tools or did he actually jump out of the passenger’s side of the car? Or did he just continue driving on, waiting for the inevitable thump? Either way, I wish I would have taken the picture of the tools and the look on his face when I alerted him to his predicament.
My wife and I just finished watching the final episode of season 4 of Dexter. We were so totally not expecting that.
I shan't say another word for those of you who either DVR or are a season behind. But if you do not watch Dexter, now is the time to get to your Blockbuster or Netflix or someplace, rent the DVD's and get started.
John Lithgow was fabulous, as you would expect, but the twist(s) put in by the writers just made this entire season superb.
Shocked!
Okay, you know that guy Hurley from the TV show LOST!? I was checking out Yellowdog Granny's blog and she had a link to Jorge Garcia's (Hurley) blog, and he has a six-part miniseries on the encounter he and girlfriend Beth had with a rat.
Each clip is about 2 minutes long. If you go through them all, you'll find number 6 to be pretty funny. Check it out here.
This is about the only kinda of reality TV I can take.
Sabrett is apparently a popular hot dog brand in New York, and so the owners of this little hot dog place called appropriately, NY Hot Dogs, serve that brand exclusively.
The place is small with only three tables, so don't plan on taking an entire office full for lunch. But we found it to be very clean and very bright. For a minute, I though we had walked into a muffler shop off of Commerce Street or something. It is quite yellow!
We both ordered the combo - a dog, bag of chips and soda for $4.50. Not bad at all. I got the dog with some sort of red onion sauce and brown mustard. It was easily a step above what you get at Exxon Tiger Market for a buck.
My wife added chili and cheese to her dog (they do charge extra for both chili and cheese but other toppings are free). The chili was pretty good.
