[jjbrr]

So I recently moved to Dallas to start a new job and I feel like I've finally settled into a routine and frankly it's scary to me that I'm grinding a 9 to 5 then get the same old same old for dinner every night before relaxing and going to sleep. I'm 22 and I feel like I shouldn't be so jaded already. In an attempt at some sort of chaos theory, I'd really appreciate you all to determine what I do with a typical Friday night. While it's already been determined that I'll go to a bar and responsibly consume a few drinks and try to meet that special someone who makes life worth living, I'd like to leave my evening up to a little bit of chance for a change.

I'd also like to provide a description of each choice to help you weigh the pros and cons:

PF Changs: I hope you are all familiar with this popular American Chinese place. In my personal experience, the cost is not justified by the quality of the food, but a vast majority of the people I've talked to can't stop raving about how good this place is. To be honest I only like going here when I'm with a group, which would be the case here. But if I'm paying, does it really make sense to go here just so everyone else can be reasonably happy?

4-star Italian: I recently went here with a group of very well-known and famous bridge players and despite the excellent ratings was quite surprised with how good this restaurant is. The waiter was a bit of a presumptuous prick, but the food more than compensated. Obviously this restaurant is too expensive to indulge in too frequently, but the quality is certainly worth it. I'm willing to spend a large part of paycheck for you voters, but this is quite an event on a 22 year old's salary.

Pappadeaux: This is another one on the pricy side, but again I feel the quantities and the quality justify the expense. They specialize in Cajun style seafood dishes with some of the perks of the finer restaurants. The attention to detail might be missed by the casual diner, but to one who notices the small things, Pappadeaux quickly becomes a favorite.

Indian: I've had a lot of Indian lately, having moved in with an Indian family. It's always an option and has never disappointed. Cheap and reliable.

Chipotle: Best burritos on the planet. For 8 bucks, you don't have to eat for three days subsequent to this feast.

Cook something/ eat in: I'm a 22 year old male. While I do admit to enjoy cooking, my options are severely limited to simple things and/or things I can print off the internet and have a reasonable chance not to screw up. This also involves going to the grocery store on a Friday afternoon. The up-side is this is a lock to impress the women.

Fish and chips: To be honest I wouldn't even know where to go to get these, but obviously it's good fish and chips are unrivaled in terms of a comfort food. Probably worth the effort to find a place with a good deep-frier, right?

The deli: The local deli shop with a huge menu, and everything is good and cheap. No adventure whatsoever, but a solid meal nonetheless.

Sushi: I'm a big fan. Again, a tad on the pricy side, and generally I feel hungry again within a few hours. But the quality at the local sushi restaurant is well worth it. I haven't been in a while and certainly would be a large change from the usual Indian, American, or fast Chinese I've been having frequently.

I hope you take this post seriously; my Friday evening excitement rests on you. As a postscript, I'd like to point out that I live with Jlall and he will be in attendance. While his opinions generally mirror mine, we do have some slightly different tastes. If that matters to you, I hope you pick the place that you think I'd enjoy most. I understand I haven't made myself well-known on the forums yet, but I know some of you know me well enough to make a reasonable decision.

I appreciate your time and consideration, and I'll be happy to post-mortem when I get the chance.

Wish me luck at the bars.

Jeremy.

[Jlall]

I personally would post what I think you should do, but I don't want to bias the poll. As we know, I am jlall, and whenever I post something everyone else thinks thats what they would do too.

FWIW I think 655321s vote should count twice.

[Echognome]

Definitely the cajun place. I guar-un-tay it's mo-nay.

[Mbodell]

Quote

Chipotle: Best burritos on the planet.

That is sarcasm, right? If not, come visit California where burritos are much better than Chipotle. I will not claim they are the best on the planet (I'd want to try lots of Mexico first), but they are cetainly better than Chipotle.

[qwery_hi]

If there's a chance you may end up having more than a couple of drinks, I'd vote for sushi. I've always felt uncomfortable having heavy (read indian/burritos) with alcohol. I've no experience with italian + drinks. Second choice would be Deli or fish and chips.

[Jlall]

qwery_hi, on Jun 26 2009, 02:26 AM, said:

If there's a chance you may end up having more than a couple of drinks, I'd vote for sushi. I've always felt uncomfortable having heavy (read indian/burritos) with alcohol. I've no experience with italian + drinks. Second choice would be Deli or fish and chips.

Italian goes very well with wine. Sushi obviously lends itself to sake.

[Fluffy]

Jlall, on Jun 26 2009, 04:42 AM, said:

I personally would post what I think you should do, but I don't want to bias the poll. As we know, I am jlall, and whenever I post something everyone else thinks thats what they would do too.

FWIW I think 655321s vote should count twice.

Agree with Justin


BTW: I'd go to McDonalds, you are young to stand that food after all.

[jjbrr]

Serious about Chipotle.

Serious about not going to McDonalds.

Activities following dinner shouldn't affect the decision.

[hrothgar]

The Ginger Man in Houston is one of my all time favorite bars...
Rumor has it they have a sister bar with the same name in Dallas

I even bet that they have fish and chips

Whatever you end up, I hope that you have a blast

For what its worth, here's tonight's dinner

Anticuschos picante

Step 1:
Clean the beef heart
Remove all veins and fat
Cut into 1 inch cubes

Step 2:
Marinade
1 bottle (750 ml) full bodied red wine (cheap is fine)
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 onion, thickly sliced
1 large leek (White and tender green) halved lengthwise and thickly
sliced cross wide
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
1 lemon, quartered

In a large saucepan, boil the wine until it is reduced to 2 cups
(about 10 minutes). Add the carrots, leek, onions, halved garlic
head, lemo, plum tomatoes, thyme, oregano, pepper corns, and bay
leaves and simmer for 5 minutes. Let the marinade cool completely.
If you want, you can burn off the lest dregs of the alcohol

Step 3:
Seal beef heart and marinade in a large ziplock bag and stick this in
the fridge for 12-24 hours.

Step 4:
About an hour before grilling, start threading the beef heart onto skewers.
(Reserve the marinade)

Step 5:
Combine 1/3rd cup dried Aji chilis
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use mustard oil)
salt to taste
~3/4 cups of the reserved marinade

(Aji chillis are just a recommendation. You can use most any type of
dried chillis. I think that a few chipotles add a nice smokiness.
I'll often reconstitute the chilis in the marinade before running it
all through the blender / food prcessor)

Brush sauce onto skewers

Step 6:
Best cooked over a grill for 4-6 minutes
Turn frequently and baste frequently

[Gerben42]

Quote

For what its worth, here's tonight's dinner

Hmm... I feel real sorry that I can't make it

My suggestion would be to do something like Richard, buy some high quality food and do-it-yourself

2nd choice Indian

[matmat]

if it were me i'd reassess the situation at 30 minutes before dinner or so, and decide then what sounds good to me -- based on hunger level and climate . In vacuum I'd probably opt for sushi (if there's a good restaurant) or a bbq place (not listed!)

As an aside. learn to cook (and i mean to cook nice things, not just a few basics) -- it's well worth the time and, eventually, money.

[jjbrr]

matmat, on Jun 26 2009, 10:33 AM, said:

if it were me i'd reassess the situation at 30 minutes before dinner or so, and decide then what sounds good to me -- based on hunger level and climate . In vacuum I'd probably opt for sushi (if there's a good restaurant) or a bbq place (not listed!)

As an aside. learn to cook (and i mean to cook nice things, not just a few basics) -- it's well worth the time and, eventually, money.

Excellent point about BBQ: one of my personal faves. Less popular among the others. Definitely should have been included.

Assessing 30 minutes before meal time completely defeats the purpose of this. I decide 30 minutes before meal time everyday, and it's time for change. This is like flipping a 9-sided coin, and I'm leaving this decision entirely up to chance.

I'm hoping something epic (hence the title) comes out of this meal so that I can go on and on about fate and destiny and stuff. Just imagine how rewarding it would be if everyone who voted played a small role in changing my life. You know?

There is a good sushi restaurant. Jlall pointed out to me that my observation of the sushi being expensive is not necessarily because the sushi itself is expensive, but because we order a lot and a lot of what we order is the expensive stuff. Just some food for thought for future voters. HAR HAR.

As an aside to your aside, I know how to cook a lot better than I led you all to believe. Frankly I was hoping you wouldn't pick that so I wouldn't have to go shopping for things after work, then set to cooking. Sounds like chores. I would be willing to make a deal with you that I will shop this weekend and cook something new and intriguing simply to broaden my horizons, as long as I don't have to shop on a Friday evening.

[ggwhiz]

rookie poster, see below

[y66]

If hrothgar has a blog, sounds like you'd do pretty well to subscribe for starters. Or maybe Dallas has something like this Brooklyn site you can tap into. Gotta get out there.

[ggwhiz]

ggwhiz, on Jun 26 2009, 11:05 AM, said:

[Cook something/ eat in: I'm a 22 year old male. While I do admit to enjoy cooking, my options are severely limited to simple things and/or things I can print off the internet and have a reasonable chance not to screw up. This also involves going to the grocery store on a Friday afternoon. The up-side is this is a lock to impress the women.

This is not just an upside with the gals, at your age, it's mandatory.

Doesn't matter a bit what you cook or what it tastes like, every woman on the planet will say "that was wonderful, you should do it more often".

In the age of googling recipes, I repeat, mandatory.

[jjbrr]

y66, on Jun 26 2009, 11:11 AM, said:

If hrothgar has a blog, sounds like you'd do pretty well to subscribe for starters. Or maybe Dallas has something like this Brooklyn site you can tap into. Gotta get out there.

huh?

[hrothgar]

On the cooking front:

The following recipe is DIRT simple and always turns out great.
The main problem is that requires a fair amount of advanced planning.


Start with a six - eight pound boston butt:

Brine

Dissolve 1/4 cup sea salt or kosher salt in cup hot water.

Add

3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups cold water

Pop the fat cap from the boston butt and marinade the pork in the
brine for 1-2 days

To cook

Drain pork and pat dry

Crush

1 head garlic
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon dried pepper
1.5 teaspoon oregano or marjoram

Rush over surface of pork

Replace skin cap and place pork (skin side up on a rack in a shallow
roasting pan. Roast for 45 minutes at 450 degrees.

Add 1/4 cup oloroso sherry and 2 cups chicken stock. Throw in 1 large
onion thinly sliced.
Turn heat down to 180 degrees.

Roast at 180 for ~ 12 hours (or until a meat thermometer reads 170
degrees internal temperature)

[jjbrr]

please stop posting recipes lol.

[hrothgar]

If you want to complicate the following recipe, top it with the following sauce. (I think that this stacks up very well with Indian food I've gotten in good restaurants)

Typically served with slow cooked Boston Butt, but works equally well with chicken, potatos, whatever)

-from Richard

Step 1: Vinegar and chilis

1 cup White Vinegar
¾ cup Bragg's unfilter cider vinegar
¼ cup red wine vinegar
~16 habeneros
~10 Indian green chillies

Put the vinegar in a non reactive bowl. Add coarsely chopped chilies.
Set aside to soak for a couple hours.

Step 2: Sweetness

2 medium onions sliced paper thin
2 cups shallots, sliced paper thin
6 inches of ginger, sliced into match sticks
6 large cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons mustard oil

Heat oil in pan. Add ingredients. Caramelize the onions and shallots.
Set aside

Step 3: Annoying

Remove peppers from vinegar (reserve vinegar)
40 quarter sized rounds of ginger root
12 large cloves garlic
2 medium onions
3 tablespoons mustard oil
1 28 ounce can tomato sauce (pastene seems to work well)

Run the first four ingredients through a food processor to produce a smooth paste. Heat mustard oil in a pan. Roast the garlic/onion/ginger/pepper paste in a pan. This is the most annoying step of the entire recipes. A good Indian curry is dependent on the quality of the bhuna. I find that this requires roasting the paste for a long time at medium temperature with lots of stirring. Here, once again, we're working towards caramelized onions. At the end of the process, the onions should be a dark, rich brown verging on black.

Do not burn the onions. Whatever you do, don't breathe any of the fumes!

When the onions have caramelized, add the tomato sauce. Turn the heat
up to medium high. Continue to cook, stirring continuously. You're
done when the oil starts to express itself back out of the bhuna.

Step 4. The spices

~100 finely chopped curry leaves
6 tablespoons cumin seeds
3 – 4 tablespoons mustard seeds
1 tablespoon turmeric
4 tablespoons garam masala
Black and white peppercorns to taste

Roast cumin seeds in a cast iron pan. Grind cumins seeds and mustard
seeds using a mortar and pestle or a spice mill. Set aside

Step 5. It all comes together

Add your spice blend to the roasting bhuna. Mix in the roasted onions
and shallots. Add the reserved vinegar.

Add 4 cups stock to the bhuna. (I used goat stock if I have it. Any
low / zero salt commercial stock will do. The amount of stock that I
use is highly variable)

Add ½ can peeled tomatos (with basil) (roughly chopped)

Add 3 tablespoons tamarind paste.

Simmer for a hour for the flavors to mix

[kfay]

Voted. Choice was obv