Frozen Pizza

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/taste-test-frozen-pizza-409319/

I was going to discount this article as being completely worthless seeing as though they rated possibly the worst frozen pizza I’ve ever tasted as the First Runner-Up.  But then I was just confused when they placed my current go-to immediately after it.  Perhaps since they were doing cheese-only (I assume to be “fair” through being consistent) none of the overly offensive ingredients were present.

The really wierd thing about CPK is that the restaurant itself is actually quite good, but the frozen pizzas are awful (I’d honestly rather have a “death pizza” [stupid Flash, I can't directly link to the 'page']).  And it’s not just me, everyone I’ve talked to until now agrees.

Messina Hof – Food

Tapas @ The Wine Bar

Italian Meat & Cheese Plate – Assorted Italian meats, domestic and imported cheeses.  I don’t really know any of the names for the individual items, but many of them were standard issue.  There was your typical white and yellow cheese, ham, and round crackers, but then there was another white cheese with something like an herb rub on it that was quite good.  Then there was the “sausage”.  We’re still not entirely sure exactly what it was, but the closest thing I could equate it to is some of the duck sausage I’ve had.  However all the duck sausages I’ve ever seen have been no bigger that quarter size and are usually sliced very thin.  And since this was an “Italian Meat” plate it couldn’t have been chorizo either.  So the mystery continues but it was quite good.  Too bad the store didn’t open early enough so we could get some (that and some Port chocolate too).

Dinner @ The Vintage House

Initially we were going to go for the Chateaubriand Dinner for Two but we were so wined-out by this point (wow I didn’t really think that was possible after the last Napa trip, but I guess there were at least some small breaks in between venues there and today was fairly non-stop) that we didn’t want to go for a full-on package deal.  So we both decided to go with the Filet Mignon (Grilled 8oz filet of beef with bacon bordelaise and topped with hollandaise and a touch of Japanese horseradish) medium of course.  This actually comes served on top of mashed potatoes with some little onion rings on top   The cut of beef seemed to be rather generous as we’ve seen 7oz and 9oz steaks quite regularly; perhaps it was just the dimensions though as it was a nice thick cut but still cooked just right.  The tenderness was quite notable, and yes I’m aware I’m talking about a filet here, but I mean even for that.  Even more notable was the lack of any surgery-requiring bits.  Even on a filet there’s usually at least something I have to trim off, a little nub or a thin strip of fat or something, but nothing here at all, it was entirely edible.  On the first bite I definitely noticed a “lack” of flavor, but really that could be better described as a purposeful non-overabundance.  This steak had an excellent sauce over it, almost cherry-like in nature and obviously derived from one of the port wines here.  So after a couple more bites I could appreciate that the steak wasn’t seasoned in the usual “stand-alone” way and it allowed the natural flavors of the beef to be present and almost serve as the medium for introducing the bold sauce flavors to your palette.

For dessert we opted for the usual dual option attack and ordered up the Chocolate Flan Cake and the Cherries Jubilee.  The couple of (homemade) flan cakes I’ve had in the past have been very good but I could definitely see at the time the potential for non-greatness.  Unfortunately the streak has ended; not that it was bad, as of course the Independent Food Theory states, but it wasn’t stellar.  The cake was just cake, and the flan didn’t really have anything special going for it either (which at least means it wasn’t eggy).  The cherry dish wasn’t super fantastic either.  I suppose it could possibly be due to me maybe starting to get sweeted-out by this point although that didn’t seem to be the case at the time.  It had a lot of ingredients going on: butter, brown sugar, cinnamon,  orange juice, lemon juice, various liquors, rum, the port fudge, and of course cherries (and I could even be forgetting a couple).  It was prepared table-side in full-on flambe action then served on top of vanilla bean ice cream   I think what saved it was the fudge; every time I had a bite with a fair amount of fudge in it it was really good, all the others were just ok.

Breakfast @ The Villa

The “European-style champagne breakfast” had a table set out with a few meats, cheeses, and fruit along with milk, orange juice, and cranberry juice with some various pastries at the end.  There was also coffee and what appeared to be toast making materials off on another table.  Once you grabbed that and munched for a little while you were presented with the option of champagne or mimosas; I think pretty much everyone opted for the later (thus why I went for the cranberry initially, knowing that was coming).  Then the hot plate arrived with a decent sized solid hash-brown (so McDonalds format, not IHOP) and a quiche-like substance.  There was great debate over whether it was chicken or tuna.  I actually tried a couple bites and it was ok.  But that’s certainly not my style of dish so I really couldn’t rate it accurately.  Plus once the taunting of the possible tuna began my brain pretty much put a halt to any further consumption of that particular item.  So I had my mimosas, most of an apple turnover, part of a chocolate muffin, and a couple more pieces of that really good sausage to finish my meal.

Messina Hof – Wine

Wine & Cheese Reception

Riesling [pic] – Hard to remember exactly which one this was (twas the first of the evening after all, I’ll try to ask tomorrow [confirmed, regular Riesling]) I think it was of the semi-dry / semi-sweet variety as I don’t recall it having the harsh flavor and finish that a dry Riesling does but I also don’t remember it being super sweet either (and there are plenty of those around here, yeay me).  Given the discussions about having it with Thanksgiving dinner I’d say it was your fairly standard middle-of-the-road Riesling if not a bit on the sweet side of the fence.

Pinot Grigio [pic] – No.  Although I’ve pretty much never been a fan of any Pinot ever, so there ya go.

Cabernet Sauvignon [pic] – I liked this one a lot, although others didn’t seem to nearly as much.  Was definitely well representative of the Bordeaux style.  Was supposed to be “dry” and to a certain degree it was, but for a Cab Sauv no where near the levels of dryness I’ve experienced in the past.  Oak added interesting characteristics; was difficult to determine the type of oak, which on a later tour they revealed they reuse the (mostly American Oak with some French Oak) Port barrels for their other reds which would explain it.

Cabernet Franc [pic] – This one went over quite well with everyone, and was the server’s favorite, although I think I liked the other Cab better actually.  Lately I’ve really been favoring the more complex reds.  This one was smoother especially on the finish.  I didn’t experience the supposed very quick finish but that’s ok as I prefer my reds to stick around for a little while. Same oak characteristics, but perhaps slightly more subdued.

Tasting Flights

Before starting these we ordered: Italian Meat & Cheese Plate – Assorted Italian meats, domestic and imported cheeses. I was able to take tasting notes at the time for these (for all the others I threw together a blog draft at the end of the evening)

Texas Hold ‘Em White [pic] – Ok, not impressed.  Had the typical Chardonnay “bite” and had some pseudo-Grigio type flavors going on.  Cool, I’m definitely getting some good experience under my belt to pull from; now that I’ve looked at the label I was pretty much right on with my guess as to what was in it and the ratios.  And the 5% Gewurzt explains the extra slight bit of spiciness it had.

Mama Rosa Rosé [pic] -Just had to try this due to the name.  Figured it would be your typical rosé and it pretty much was.  Basically had your standard White Zinfandel type flavor.  Nothing too remarkable.

Sweet Chardonnay – This one was interesting and I really wanted to try it and I’m glad I did.  It was very similar to a late harvest Riesling but it had the distinct Chardonnay flavors.  Thankfully there wasn’t too much of that “bite” like in the Texas Hold ‘Em, but still enough of a different flavor to make it though the sweetness and certainly identify itself as a unique product.

Ebony Ports of Call [pic] -Now this I’ve had before and have always loved it.  A bottle does not last very long at all in my house.  I think I’ve even made it through some in the past and other folks didn’t even get a chance to try it   Simply awesome.

2005 Paulo Shiraz [pic] – I was very interested to see how the Paulo treatment would affect a shiraz.  I’m still trying to think of a good way to describe the unique flavor this possessed.  I’m rather familiar with Shiraz after many a Friday Night Fights with them, but this definitely stood out as something different, and for me that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.  I suppose perhaps it could be that their style and my tastes differ that much, or perhaps I was in a much sweeter state of mind, but I just wasn’t fully feeling this one.  Or it simply could have been the alcohol content, it was a 13.5%  Not way off the charts by any means, but certainly not an eight or nine either.  Maybe the closest thing to describing that flavor would be “minerality” but not like any previous minerality experiences I’ve had, this had more of an earthyness to it.

Private Reserve Reflections – Similar to the Shiraz, but since this is actually a blend of three other reds (and no shiraz at all) it had a flavor all to its own of course.  But primarily I’m referring to the reappearance of the unique minerality/earthy flavor.  Although in this one it’s much more subdued.  I think due to the lesser “mystery flavor” I enjoyed it more than the Shiraz but I still didn’t think I’d be getting any for dinner like I was thinking before I tried it.

2004 Tawny Port [pic] – Ah the Tawny.  I’ve been meaning to try this one for a long time now.  I try not to fall victim to gratuitous marketing practices but that stained-glass (printed) label has taunted me from the shelf many a time.  So finally I got to try some and what I came up with was “you know that slightly burnt crust that forms at the edge of a freshly baked cherry cobbler, yeah it’s like that” but totally in a good way   This had a good level of sweetness to it too.  Starting to approach almost too much but still safely under the threshold, just how I like it.

Solera Sherry [pic] -Take the Tawny and bump it up yet another notch.  The server wasn’t kidding when he said “if you like the Tawny you’ll definitely like this.”  This had a very strong “burnt cherry cobbler” taste (still in a good way) and a very strong dark cherry finish.  I found that taking small sips really allowed the finish to take its full effect.  At the time I wrote down “very fortified” (which was my shorthand way of saying you could definitely sense the high alcohol content and very bold flavors), but get this, they actually don’t add any Brandy or other spirits to any of their Ports or other “fortified” style wines.  Due to their use of 100% locally grown Lenoir grapes (I got to stand amongst them) this allows them to achieve a 26° Brix at harvest and still have 10% residual sugar left over at the end!  And then of course there is the whole 18% alcohol thing

Trick Or Treat

Mulled Un-Oaked Chardannay [pic] (paired with fig-walnut scones w/ brie) – A very surprising let down; I have a feeling this may be due to expectations though.  I have typically really liked any unoaked chard I’ve come across, plus all the mulling experiences I’ve had thus far have been great.  However somehow combining the two were a dismal failure.  I almost didn’t even finish the glass, and if you know me you know that happens all of about *2* times a *year* if that.  I’m curious to see if perhaps it’s just their particular style of spices; I hope to research that tomorrow (nope, store opened too late).  Or maybe it’s just that mulling should stick with reds.  On the plus side, the scones kicked ass, and I’m not usually a fig kinda guy.

Barrel Reserve Shiraz [pic] (paired with carmelized onion goat cheese tartlet) – This was pretty good, didn’t seem to have the “funky” flavors that the earlier ones from the flights had.  I really need to figure out what’s up with that as I still don’t believe it’s solely due just to alcohol content alone.  I was a bit wary of this edible as me and goat cheese don’t tend to get along very well, it’s the bitterness that is always off-putting.  For the majority of the time this was actually ok, especially since the pastry it was contained within was somewhat “spank-o-pita” (the greek spinach thing, I just like calling it that) in nature.  I forgot about the onions initially and then ended up pulling out a long strand, that was funny.  But of course once I got towards the middle the cheese ratio really picked up and there were a couple bites I had to struggle through; but just getting a bit more pastry shell with those bites worked ok.

Merrill’s Vineyard Angel [pic] [actual product] (paired with skewered candied apple slice) – As expected this was a very sweet adventure, and I quite enjoyed it.  Also as expected there were those who couldn’t quite handle it.  If it was starting to get into the sweet overload range for me then that’s gunna happen for some folks.  I’m now even more intrigued by exactly what the difference is between Merrill’s products and all the regular stuff.  I hope to do some further research on this tomorrow as well (basically just seems to be where it’s produced, one vineyard or the other; and the soil/altitude/weather differences tend to make one better than the other for certain varietals).

Papa Paulo Port [pic] (paired with Papa Paulo Port truffle s’mores) – AWESOME, I was really looking forward to this.  The only thing I was a bit worried about is the always ambiguous use of the word ‘truffle’, especially so when dealing with both chocolate and a somewhat gourmet environment.  I didn’t detect any strange flavors so I’m gunna call this one as just straight-up chocolate, particularly since there was basically no explanation about the chocolate part of the do-it-mostly-yourself smores (they had to roast the marshmallows for you, oh noes fire!) other than the fact that it was an available component.  The port itself was very good as always, and of course since it’s very detectibly used in the chocolate they went quite well together.  Oh, and did I mention I won the random drawing for a bottle of this stuff?  Heck yeah I did; I’ll try to post a picture of the hand-signed bottle with custom Trick Or Treat label later.

BEHOLD!

Five Guys

Five Guys

While Howard Stern is on vacation I listen to Bubba The Love Sponge.  For the past few weeks he’s been raving about this burger joint he frequents named Five Guys.  It got to the point where he was talking about it every day, about the particular configurations of burgers he would get.  Then people would start calling in saying things like “I had never heard about Five Guys before, found out there’s one near me, tried it, and it was amazing”.  After a couple days of that a manager from a Five Guys called in and they had a discussion about how the burgers are made, if there were any special ingredients, and what makes it just so damn good.  The Bubba crew got on the Five Guys website while they were on the air and commented they were located in roughly half the country; so the search was on.

And it just so happened there were two located very nearby where I was going to be for a trip, so accommodations were made to facilitate a visit.  When a 400lb man tells you about a really good burger place you go!   Let me begin by saying that the default burger starts at two patties.  Also notice how the burger was wrapped in foil.

Apparently here is the middle part where I was going to go into intricate detail describing the awesomeness of the various flavors, and thus why I hadn’t actually posted this yet.  I don’t quite remember the exact experience at this point but suffice it to say it was legen – wait for it – dary (hmm, perhaps that certain How I Met Your Mother episode was about this place? Thankfully, at least if you have one somewhat close by, they’re not nearly as hard to find)

So if you ever get the chance definitely make an effort to go hit one up.  And if you’re lucky enough to have one in your area try not to go too often

http://www.fiveguys.com/

Do Your Business Elsewhere Please

Here’s something I saw in a local restaurant; looked like it was in bumper-sticker format. Not exactly something I want to be thinking about while I’m eating.

Taking The “Independent Food Theory” To A Whole New Level

Futuristic technology has come to sweets.

I think this technique may trump the dual-layer (dark and white chocolate) Peppermint Bark I made the other day.

Jimmy John’s

Well it finally happened, the official boycott is in place. Actually now that I think about it I’m the second person I know to boycott here, although for a completely different reason. Anyway here’s the rather interesting back-story:

My usual lunch crew and I would frequent Jimmy John’s somewhat regularly. We try to save the sandwich places for when we’re in a little bit of a time crunch, so we weren’t there all the time, but definitely often enough to know the owner. Of course the owner and I had an interesting relationship; he knew me as the customer that ordered the sandwich that shouldn’t exist. The thing was, the wheat bread there was so good (and if you’ve read any of this blog you’d be able to safely assume I’d normally select white bread) I would get an Italian sandwich with wheat bread instead. I remember the very first time I ordered it he said “you know, only about 1 in 100 people order that”. Over time that number increased to 500 and then eventually 1000. So he most certainly knew who I was.

The owner would also tend to have some interesting story going on at the time. In the beginning it was just normal stuff, not even necessarily restaurant related. But then the day came when he started making too much money. Based on his pretty darn good location, and pretty darn good food he was the #1 revenue generating JJ’s around. So of course, as The Man is like to do, things started getting complicated. The actual owner of the franchise as a whole wanted to buy-out this particular establishment so he’d have all of the profit for himself. Of course the owner of the restaurant didn’t want to give it up for the exact same reason.

That’s when the games began. All of a sudden this JJ’s was “the worst JJ’s around, particularly when it came to health and quality issues ” and was thus in jeopardy of violating the franchise licensing agreement, how convenient (I actually just checked and since August ‘06 they have received zero demerits from the Health Department inspections). This went on for a little while as The Man and the owner battled out franchising issues; then the trickle of JJ’s paraphernalia disappearances began. As it became more and more apparent that the owner was going to lose that battle one way or another he started preparing for the worst. First it was the crazy signs (your typical random Americana on the walls), then the napkins, etc.

Then the day finally came when tape was placed over any trace of the name Jimmy Johns, the menu was completely renamed (but not redone thankfully) and when the credit card slip printed out we discovered we were now eating at The Sandwich Shop With No Name.

TSSWNN lived on for a few weeks as we heard about the impending legal battle. There was a definite “climate shift” after these few weeks. Not only was any trace of the corporate junk long gone, now ingredients had started to change. We always wondered what might happen to his suppliers. We speculated whether he’d be able to continue on some kind of bulk-purchase program which surely had been going on with all the official JJ’s, if he’d be able to continue with some kind of independent agreement, or if perhaps there’d be pressure from The Man for the distributer to stop supplying this particular establishment. Whatever it was, one day they started “running out of things” and replacing with something else. So the day came when the awesome multi-grain wheat disappeared and was replaced with standard issue wheat. On this day I felt compelled to proclaim to the owner “well, you finally found a way to beat me, I’ll be having white today.”

Shortly after all this, upon our next attempted visit we were greeted by a sign on the door saying they were closed. I can’t remember exactly what the sign said, but I do remember there being some discussion around if they just so happened to be closed that particular day, or if it was a true out-of-business type closed. Perhaps it was just us hoping it was a simple closed for the day, but that had never happened in the past, and of course given the sequence of events so far it was fairly certain it was the more terminal kind.

Some weeks passed, then we heard from a fellow member of the usual lunch crew that he had spotted some kind of Grand Opening banner on the place. He also mentioned that it seemed to be possibly re-corporatized, but was only able to judge by the appearance of the outside from a distance. So we figured in a couple weeks we’d do a recon mission.

It was decided that we would attempt to determine the true new ownership of the revitalized establishment. If the previous owner was there, then perhaps some arrangement was made and things would be relatively back to normal. However if we didn’t see the owner (he was there almost every single time) or anyone we might recognize we would turn around, walk out, and not look back; the boycott would be on.

The fateful recon day comes. With a Schlotzsky’s nearby the plan was to scope out the situation at JJ’s and then have Schlotz as a backup. We arrive in the parking lot and the front-door signage is back in full effect. Approaching the door it was easy to see all of the Americana had returned to the walls in essentially the exact same pattern as before. What we weren’t quite prepared for was the complete onslaught of boisterousness exuded by the completely new staff. As we walked in the door no fewer than 8 youngish and far too enthusiastic employees (I can smell corporate kool-aid a mile away) shouted “hey guys, welcome to Jimmy John’s!!!” We paused for a few seconds, partially due to being stunned by this barrage, to take in the scene, to search for the new owner, to linger long enough that our presence would be noted (since surely the “warm” greeting was a mandated knee-jerk reaction), and finish assessing the situation. With no sign of the owner or any of the previous employees I proclaimed in a voice hopefully loud enough to be heard over the continued yelps of hello yet not enough to disturb the poor souls ensnared by the new evil “That’s it, the boycott is on!”, pulled an about-face and high-tailed it outta there.

And so ends the tale of the local Jimmy John’s. Their Italian (or Ferrari towards the end) sandwich was quite splendid and no one can quite do it the same; but we’re getting some new sandwich shops opening up and they’re starting to pick up the slack.

Holidaze

I had a bit of a “moral” dilemma a couple days ago. It all started when the groceries at home were starting to dwindle. I knew I needed to go to the grocery store but really didn’t feel like going on the 2^nd. So then the sequence began; I knew it was rather futile to go to the grocery store on the 3^rd as all of the hotdog & hamburger buns would surely be gone. I tend to shop rather late (we’re talking 11pm timeframe) because of my “line disease” (that’s a whole ‘nuther post) so it’s pretty much a guarantee the “seasonal” items aren’t there when I am. I didn’t go on the 4^th either since they tend to have rather limited hours, if they’re even open at all; so it’d be a madhouse again and in all likelihood I probably wouldn’t be awake and ready to go (with time to shop) before they closed.

And so here it was, the evening of the Fourth of July, and since it’s been raining like crazy I hadn’t made any plans to blow stuff up this year, and I’m out of food. Now normally when one is “out” of food you can scavenge and usually drum up some semblance of a meal, but I’d already been doing that for two days. So came my dilemma.

I’m a pretty big stickler for time off. Vacation time is just that, there is to be absolutely no work during it. This is even more true when it’s a National Holiday. Personal vacation is one thing, but when there is a federal holiday going on, particularly one celebrating our nation’s independence, I pretty much expect the country to shut down. And so there is my dilemma. One of the things that makes this nation great are those very freedoms we’ve sought after from the beginning. If you run a business you should be able to do what you want with it. So here I am, in need of food, and have to decide if I really want to give my patronage to an establishment that is causing people to work on a holiday. In the end I was pretty darn hungry, and I figured at least the employees are getting double-time pay, so it was time to eat At least it was typical American fare.

They were pretty busy too, as they were one of the very few places open. I suppose you could say they had a chronopoly.

A Culmination of Thoughts

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted… although in my defense not nearly as long as some other people I know. So I figured I’d throw together something that contained a bunch of the small ideas I’ve had for posts but didn’t really constitute their own individual space.

The first thing that comes to mind was the bomb scare a few weeks ago. There had been a few in a town nearby and then I had my own personal experience (no, I wasn’t the one doing it… my pyro days are behind me). I was going to lunch one day and the cops had a couple blocks cordoned off. The place we wanted to go was just inside the perimeter. The cop manning that particular corner of the sectioned off area informed us there was a “package”. Turned out it was a fake… a pretty bad prank if someone wasn’t just a complete idiot leaving trash around. And my favorite part… it was very close to, you guessed it, the Agape Pregnancy Center! I should mention the earlier bomb attempts were abortion clinics.

The next thing is, why do restaurants sometimes make changes in the wrong direction? A Greek place I like used to use almost crouton size chunks of Feta cheese on their salad. As you know I’m not exactly the salad type, but his worked well for me. The large chunks were quite easy to excavate from the top and enjoy. Now they’ve moved to an almost cottage-cheese-like consistency with their Feta; so no more easy Feta for me Although now I’ve found out I can get a couple falafels or Lentil soup instead.

I had one of those “scary bad” experiences a couple months ago. Johnny Carinos was trying out new menu items. Of the stuff I can eat there (as I like to say it, things with not too many “funky bits”) I like their dishes; and there are a good many I rotate through fairly regularly. So I figured it’d be fairly safe to try something new they were just starting to offer as I’d never really had anything bad there before, and that’s over quite a few visits. But this pork chop whatever the heck it was was icky. I mean it was bad. Prior to that I couldn’t tell you the last time I returned a dish, but now I can. The manager came over and we had a small chat; I found out that particular item was being sent back at a much higher rate than anything else normally does. It disappeared from the menu shortly thereafter.

It’s been a little hit or miss on the more expensive meals lately. There’s a place I go that is consistently good for lunch if you’re willing to spend a couple more bucks. Then for dinner it’s definitely higher. But it’s not like the standard Chinese restaurant treatment of essentially giving you the exact same thing (sometimes just a bit extra) for a higher price. This place actually offers an almost completely different menu. There are a couple carry-overs but that’s about it. I’ll usually get a steak or pork based meal there, but they offer things like duck, quail etc if you so desire. A couple times ago I happened to be in there on the right day at the right time and they were offering prime rib, so I jumped on that. It was great. Prime rib is always a slight debate for me as it usually requires a good bit of surgery and sometimes I’m not up for the effort but I was feeling it this time around and it paid off. The next time I got what you might call pork chops, the on-menu ones I was thinking about getting the previous time ’till prime rib was mentioned. This I will probably not be doing again. I don’t know if it was the sauce(s), the herbs/spices, the cooking or what but it just wasn’t working for me. The sides here are always a little “adventurous” but usually good in a different sort of way. But I happened to end up with a rather poor mix this time around which compounded the misfortune. However the saving grace is always the unique desserts! It’s rare I don’t finish a dessert, but the cheesecake here is very dense and rich, even for a cheesecake. Damn you cheesecake and your brutal challenge phase.

The Independent Food Theory

Many years ago I devised the Independent Food Theory.  The theory states that any food that tastes good by itself will taste good when eaten with other foods that taste good.  This has proven basically true since its inception.  I’ll never forget the time I “blew someone’s mind” when I was drinking milk with my spaghetti.  I certainly didn’t find anything wierd about that at all, especially since I’ll pretty much drink milk with anything.  But I’d imagine there are many others out there that don’t find that particular combination all that grotesque either.   There have been other occasions like this as well.  But I suppose as my adventure into what I like to call freelance food critic-dom progresses I’m starting to find exceptions to this rule.

This first one I will admit that I haven’t tried, basically because it actually sounds a little scary.  I’m debating even bolding its name, and violating what I’ve developed as a common practice on this site thus far, in respect to you the reader’s eyes, but here we go: Bacon Caramel.  Now I sure love me some caramel, and you’ll often get a Homer-esque “mmmmmmm baaaaaaaacon” outta me, even the occasional Eric from That 70’s Show “bacón!”, but this combo even looks unappetizing.

Another recent discovery was rootbeer and pineapple (as in pineapple chunks).  You may not particularly think this would be all that bad, but it is.  Granted you may not expect it to taste good, but it’s certainly a bit surprising just how bad it really is.   And this followed another recent and quite successful pairing of rootbeer with Cheez Its.  It’s almost like some strange chemical reaction takes place in your mouth that creates an entirely new tertiary taste that is completely unique to the other flavors.