Today’s pick was: the local mongolian grill.

Yes, my need for comfort is apparently insatiable these days.

Work is just overwhelming at times. Upper management continues to just pile it on and simply spouts out the ubiquitous phrase “do more with less!” gah. Yeah, I’m thankful I still have a job but come on, there’s only so much I can give. ugh. my head hurts. could be from the stress. or from all the MSG in the food. who knows.

So, for those that haven’t heard about this – Batter Blaster is a pressurized canister of pancake batter. So, essentially a quicker and easier way of making pancakes without the hassle and mess of prepping pancake batter. So, the canister looks similar to a can of whipped cream. You press against the top nozzle and out comes the batter.

There was some trial and error involved in getting a good pancake made. Since the Batter Blaster is refrigerated, I had to lower the temp of the pan since the cold batter burned easily compared to normal batter. Also the batter was lighter and didn’t rise like regular batter. In fact, I had a tough time flipping these things because the batter was a lot more delicate and “airy”. So, my initial batch wasn’t much to look at. either they were burnt or deformed.

As for taste – I actually liked the taste of the batter but the texture was lacking. Some of mine were almost crepe like thin. But maybe that had to do with my technique. I’ve read afterwards that dispensing more batter in the center would make the pancake more substantial than dispensing in a spiral motion (which is what I was doing).

So how would I rate Batter Blaster? I’d give it a “C”. I probably need more practice in making these from a can dispenser. But factoring the cost of the product and the resulting pancakes, I’ll most likely stick to prepping my pancake batter the regular way.

And if it’s a busy place, it’s gotta be good, right? Obviously not.

This place was disgusting. It’s a windowless, rundown restaurant full of customers there just to fill their face.

The wife and I have been more health conscious over the last year or so and have been losing a lot of weight lately. So, a buffet shouldn’t have been on our radar anyway. But we didn’t feel like going to the same old places tonight so we opted to go to this Buffet and boy are we regretting it now. yuck.

It’s your typical chinese buffet that also offers a hibachi style grill as well as sushi. everything was just “blah” with nothing really special that would explain why this place is packed day in and day out.

I just have to conclude that the average customer there don’t really give a shit about taste and simply wants a stuffed tummy.

My kids really didn’t seem to mind though. As long as they got their ice cream for dessert, they were happy.

whatever.

All I know is that I’m never going to set foot in that place ever again. What a waste of money…

excuse me now while I go throw up…

Since a lot of “foodies” use the site, I thought I could trust the rating system on UrbanSpoon but it turns out that we have to take the ratings listed on the site with a grain of salt. It seems that the problem that plagues other review sites like TripAdvisor and Citysearch, applies here as well. My guess is that savvy restaurant owners are skewing the ratings on UrbanSpoon in their favor. How else can one explain the reason for “Peking Garden” being listed as one of the top Chinese restaurants in Raleigh??

Until this past weekend, I had never been to Peking Garden since it looked to be one of those run of the mill old-school chinese restaurants from the 1980′s. But still it’s listed as one of the top picks in the area, so I thought I’d give it a try. bad idea.

I should have went with my instincts and stayed away from this place. It’s definitely old-school. From the bamboo decor to the koi fish pond, the place looks to be frozen in time, with no intention of updating their look or their food. And boy, is the food old fashioned and sad to say, just plain awful.

The General Tso’s was basic and passable. But the more expensive “gourmet” (not!) Hawaiian shrimp dish – was a joke. essentially prepackaged shrimp drowned in a “sweet & sour” sauce. oh and don’t get me started on the “Chicken in Garlic Sauce”. It’s more like GARLIC and more garlic with some chicken in it. I’m going to be smelling like garlic for days. oh and whatever you do, don’t ever order the double pan fried noodles with chicken. what a waste of money.

Two obvious tip offs that I unfortunately chose to ignore:
1) the place was far from crowded during dinner
2) we were the only asians dining there during our visit. So, if other asians won’t come to eat your asian food, what does that tell you??

This is no damn “hidden gem”, I can honestly tell you that right now. Obviously the owners (and friends/family etc) are tech savvy enough to know how to place these bogus votes/ratings on the various review sites like UrbanSpoon. Either that or these local yokels have absolutely no idea what good asian cuisine is supposed to taste like!

alright! the wife packed me kimbap today. normally, it’s the usual ho-hum turkey sandwich and chips but I’m pleasantly surprised to find kimbap in my lunch box today.

hhhhmmmm, what did I do to deserve this?

..uummm, nothing really comes to mind…

uh oh. I’m getting a bit suspicious now.

is the wife trying to soften me up for some big purchase in the near future???

hhhmmmmm…

We don’t make the trek over to Food World too often since there’s a nicer (cleaner, more modern) Korean grocery store in Cary that we prefer. But I have to say that Food World’s got character. On our most recent visit (it had been about six months since our previous visit) we wondered if they had updated the look of the store to keep up with the new competition in Cary. NOPE. not a thing. Well, actually I think the hispanic presence in the store has become even more prominent now. and maybe the Taqueria/fishmonger feature of the store is enough to keep the place in business even with the competition across town. oh and surprisingly the prices of the various korean items we needed on our visit were just as high as they are in Cary. I would have thought with the lower rent in that part of Durham, the prices would reflect some sort of discount but I was wrong…

anyway, I had placed a take-out order over the phone and then when I got there, I realized that he messed up my order. First he tried to make it appear that *I* was mistaken. but when he double checked what he wrote down, he muttered something under his breath basically acknowledging that he messed up. but he didn’t apologize. then he made me wait another twenty minutes for them to correct my order.

I was fuming!

I never liked the guy. and I hate the fact that I give him my business especially when he so condescending. AND NOW he’s NOT apologizing to me for fucking up my order. what an asshole. what’s the big deal anyway? Say you’re sorry and be done with it. Obviously it’s your typical “korean pride” issues.

again, when it was finally time to pay for my order, he had another opportunity to apologize to me and he DIDN’T do it. Not only that but he charged me full price for the meals. come on, you’re the owner for pete’s sake! can’t ya give a frequent customer a small discount for making him wait for your mistake???? fucker.

OK, hear me now people! I ain’t going back to his restaurant. he obviously doesn’t appreciate my business. Seoul Garden is dead to me. you hear me, DEAD.