Brian-food

There are restaurants, joints, canteens, eateries, chuck-wagons, bistros, snack-bars, cafes, deli's and there are diners.
Ideally, a diner should be built in an old dining car from the railroad. There should be a considerable amount of stainless steel. There should be flavored cokes, french fries, and hand-dipped milk shakes. Burgers should be simple, served with chips and a pickle, or fries and slaw. Ketchup and mustard should be on the table at all times. They should have meatloaf. There should be a lunch counter. There should be pie.
In Grand Rapids, there is a place where all these things come together in one place - Pal's Diner.

If you go there, have a flavored coke - Cherry, Strawberry, Vanilla - I can't recommend the Chocolate. If you're in the mood for a dessert - get a shake. Any of the sundae flavors work.

Their signature item is cute rather than tasty. It's the "car full of fries". A paper-board car lined with waxed paper, full of fries. The fries are good and just the right size for dipping.

I haven't been there as often as I used to, when I knew the wait-staff by name. I stopped in for lunch the other day with Andy and Paul, and I couldn't help but tell this story.

Once when I used to go to pals a lot, my favorite waitress came to me at the end of a long line of my friends at the lunch counter. She had taken all of their orders already, and when she came to me she said, "the usual?"
I didn't know what "the usual" was going to be, but I knew one thing. If a waitress asks you if you'll have "the usual," you say "yes!" I don't care if she brings you a manhole cover loaded with sausage gravy and pinapple wedges, you say "yes!"
To this day, I still don't remember what she brought me, but it left an indellible impression.

... maybe it's just me?


P.S. - click the picture above for a bonus story.

Happy Paczki day everyone!

This day, set aside once per year, to celebrate gastronomic indulgence is a major holiday here at Brian-Food. It's a day dedicated to eating not only too much, but of the wrong thing. It's not good for you. I know it. You know it. The ingestion of a single half-kilo donut is never a good idea, let alone turning the day into a contest to see how many one can actually ingest.

Today I returned (unusually) to the scene of a previous blog entry in order to obtain the goods for this one.

The hefty donuts come in a variety of flavors - depending on the source. The following were available at this time.
Blueberry
Raspberry
Strawberry
Lemon
Custard
Prune
I'm told by my devout Polish friends that the sweetened prune filling is not only the most traditional, but the best tasting. I tried them once... ONCE - never again. I'm also not eating one of the lemon Paczki, as it violates food rule #1. I'll have to explain the food rules in a future post.

For today, please think about what you might-should-not eat.

... maybe it's just me?

PS - are you sacrificing anything for the season of lent - the few weeks approaching the recognized anniversary of Christ's resurrection? Why/why not?


P.P.S - the picture above has been picked up by a happy little news service.

Peter Pan Peanut Butter
Now with more real salmonella flavor!

Bad news - the batch number on the lid starts with 2111.
Good news - I get a $2.54 refund from Con Agra Foods
Bad news - I've eaten about half of it.

... I happen to know it's not just me.

There's a moment on a Friday night when you realize that you might want to eat something the next day, so you make a quick run to the closest grocery store.

After purchasing some soda (12-packs for $1.97), milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, and yogurt, it's time to brave the parking lot once again. Now, a week after the Blizzard of 2007 the roads are starting to clear, but the parking lots are still slush-laden. Pushing even a small cart through the dry-slurpee-gunk is a chore. You end up dragging more than pushing. Parked next to me was this fancy car.


It takes insulation to a whole new level. But at the same time I found myself very thankful for my apartment, and that I'm not living in my car like this poor soul probably is.
Or, maybe they just don't have trash removal at their place?

...maybe it's just me.

One of the things I do to keep myself entertained from time to time is shopping at TJ-Maxx. It's like an indoor garage sale with all new stuff. This week I picked up this little beauty in the clearance section and actually got the Romanian lady at the checkout to take an extra dollar off the price before I took it with me.

When you think "complimentary" cereal bowl, you're probably thinking, "free" right? That's what I thought too, but that wasn't the half of it. Not only is this bad-boy finally a cereal bowl that holds a reasonable serving of cereal - seriously 3/4 of a cup of Count Chocula? Try 3-4 cups - but it feeds your ego.

Feel better about yourself first thing in the morning, or even late at night, whenever your appetite strikes.

maybe it's just me...