Food Pit
I recently made a trip to Pita Pit, a chain of restaurants one of which is located near me. In case you have never been to one/heard of it, it is essentially a subway where the only bread is pita bread. You get to choose a meat, and then all kinds of toppings/veggies and sauces. I picked roast beef because that sounded good, but they had many other options. I picked lettuce, tomato, pineapple, pickles, and possibly others and then loaded it up with tzatziki sauce, hot sauce, and secret sauce (their secret sauce, not thousand island). Aggregately all of this may sound disgusting, but it honestly was not; on the contrary, it was the best thing that I have had in a long time. All the ingredients blended perfectly together in the pita creating a taste sensation the likes of which I had not had in a long time. Well, the price wasn’t too bad, coming in at about 6$ for a pita helping and about 2$ extra to make it into a combo, with chips and a drink. The negatives? Well, they did run out of a few sauces: (guacamole, humus, and a few others) that kind of disappointed me. Also, the portions were not gigantic for the price, but it is up to the discretion of the customer to put in as many ingredients as he/she wishes and thus affect the size of it. However, the negatives are insignificant when compared with the positives, and I was very pleased with my first trying of pita pit. Ultimately, Pita Pit receives a score of 9 pitas out of a possible 11.
Palazzio
I recently took a trip to Palazzios on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. In case you cannot tell from the name, Palazzios is a snazzy Italian restaurant. I was skeptical when I was walked in and saw the sign that read “People generally don’t leave here hungry”. From what I had heard, this place is primarily gone to because of the complimentary garlic rolls served to every guest and the large-family sized portions that accompanied. The great thing about Palazzios is that you can customize your order in any way that you want, adding or subtracting ingredients to your pasta at your discretion (i. e. sausage, tomatoes, etc.) to best fit your taste buds and stomach. The rolls were good, just nothing to write home about, but from what I understand used to be much better. The food is typically shared among two-three people for a half-size, but or three-four for a full portion. I shared a pesto that came with tomatoes and ham, with one other gentleman, and both of us being men, we devoured it. All other parties at the table; however, went away with boxes. The sad part about this is the $$$. The price was unusually high, and the thing that perturbed me a snicket was the 17% service charge they automatically charged, thereby forcing you to tip that amount, in addition to the tax. These together tipped the bill well over the Benjamin mark, and while we were splitting it between everyone at the table and thus it didn’t turn out to be super expensive, I still would have sacrificed a little taste for a lot less money. As far as atmosphere there was one thing about Palazzios that stuck out to me: at a seemingly arbitrary moment, a loud rendition of “That’s Amore” with many people in the restaurant singing and the waiters each coming up and toasting at our table. Everybody there was totally surprised by the whole event, but it was a fun little shindig. at the end of the day, the price put a sour taste in my mouth for Palazzios and it gets a mere 4 buckets of pasta out of 9.
Food Incorporated
Did you know that ketchup is made partially from corn? How about Coke or even diapers? If you’re interested at all about where your food comes from or how a relatively unknown company named Monsantos has a near monopoly on pesticide-resistant soybeans with an army of PI’s to enforce their claim, see Food Inc. As a food critic I jumped at the opportunity to see a food movie, and Food Inc, although not playing in many theaters, is completely worth the price. I would totally advise seeing it, and I give it an unprecedented 6 out of 6 film reels.

Food Blog Two

The Big Deal-A Big Deal?
A bulk of this issue is going into discussing Jack-In-The-Box’s new ‘Big Deal’. In case you haven’t seen the previews for this bad boy, it is a taco, a hamburger (or chicken sandwich if you chose to substitute), fries, and a small drink-for the grand sum of $2.99. The old Jack head is advertising this as a great deal and saying that it is putting your money in a good place. It is only this food blogger who dared pose the question: Should we even be making a big deal out of the big deal? After investigating, my definitive answer: NO! Let me break the down prices for you: a taco- 50 cents, a cheeseburger or chicken sandwich-1$. This means that you are paying $1.50 for a small drink and small fries, is that a good deal? I think not. Their fries are $1.09 for the smallest, which ultimately boils down to you getting a really cheap drink. This is not worth it. True, their big deal is one of the cheapest items on the jack menu, but the food is not that great. When doing my investigation, I opted to substitute the cheeseburger for the chicken nasty sandwich, which was, by far, the nastiest part of the meal. If you do ignore my advice and get a big deal do yourself a favor and don’t substitute. I would describe the taco, but I am guessing most, if not all of you, have had a jack taco in your lifetime. These don’t change. Ultimately while cheap, this deal does not offer a lot of food. It leaves you hungry, unless of course you do what jack hopes you do and fill up on soda. The fries are just fries despite the deceptive title of ‘natural cut fries’. I give jack kudos for trying to save the consumer some money and throw a good deal out there, but the execution of this deal just didn’t cut it for me. Ultimately, going with a Subway 5$ footlong, or a nice, thick burger from somewhere else might be worth the couple extra bucks it will cost you. So, Jack’s new ‘Big Deal’ receives 1.5 out of 5 dollar signs. The answer is no, we do not need to make a big deal of the big deal.

I know, I know, it’s extremely hot here in SoCal each summer day, and I care about your well-being. (I do too) So, this week I am comparing two quick, really cold drinks and seeing which is worth your money. The first is the aforementioned Jack-in-the-box’s flavored ice teas. These come in three flavors: raspberry, peach, and mango, and I am not sure how they make them but the cost $1.89 each, which is about $2.07 after Tax. I tried the raspberry flavor recently, and I have to say, Jack let me down again. This was wayyy to sweet and didn’t have enough of that refreshing ice tea flavor that I love. They fill up the cup they give you most of the way with ice, so you don’t even end up getting that much tea, which tasted more like raspberry water than tea. My other drink is Burger King’s Icee Float. Most people don’t know what an ice float is, and that is like a rootbeer float but instead of root beer they use icee. This, on the contrary to jack’s drink is very refreshing. Normally ice cream makes me thirsty, but the icee does a good job of quenching that thirst. It comes in Orange cream or soda flavored icee, and it runs about as much as jack’s drink, for a good amount, but also comes in a smaller size if you feel you don’t need as much. This is a far better deal than Jack’s ice tea, so I’d say stick with an Icee Float which wins this week for refreshment.

There are three health food chains right now all competing for prominence: Henry’s, Trader Joe’s, and Fresh and Easy. This week, I’ll be reviewing Fresh and Easy, with reviews of the other two coming in the following weeks. But first off, let’s dice fresh and easy. Fresh and Easy is sort of a newish healthy store whose slogan is “Quality you can trust at Budget prices/Why compromise?” Their prices, however, are not budget. I have not gone to F and E for extensive shopping, but they aren’t really that great for that. Their half-off racks are great buys however, and I frequently order off of their half-off racks. Another good feature of F and E is their drinks: They’re famous for their Strawberry Lemonade and their Black Tea is also great, but again, too expensive unless these drinks are found on the half-off racks. Another feature of F and E is their self check-out which virtually eliminates the need for human interaction, which is good and bad because sometimes people feel lost. Ultimately, Fresh and Easy is a nice place to go once and a while, but their sandwiches aren’t great and their burritos are dry. Getting the right items at the right times can pay off, but I’d say you’re not missing anything by not going.
~Good Luck and Good Eats

New Food BlogIt has been a while since I have posted any food blogs on the internet, a long while. Many people ask me about them, and there are few reasons why I do not do them anymore, but it is summertime, the perfect time to food blog. So this blog is about various food odds-and-ends. First off, one of the best burger combo around.I’m sure that if any of you live in Glendora or the surrounding area you know of Marie Calendar’s and the vast array of pies available there. Or perhaps you know of the happy hour there and how you can get cheap booze and free food. But I doubt you know of their burger combo. Marie’s burger combo consists of a burger, fries, and a slice of pie-drinks are extra if that’s your fancy. All three items are for just $7.99. Now this is a deal because ordinarily a slice of Marie’s famous pies run around half that. At the time I got this I was in the need of a really good burger, but I didn’t have high expectations for Marie’s burgers because they had a small burger selection. However, my low expectations were proven wrong. This was the best burger I have had in a really long time. The patty had more flavor than most burgers’ ingredients combined. It didn’t come with anything fancy-no avocado, or awesome blossom strings, or anything like that, but it was a solid American burger. The fries were fries, but they were better than most restaurants’ fries in my opinion. The slice of pie I got was chocolate satin. It was obviously bomb and the upgrade to the chocolate pie crust was also a very unexpectedly tasty addition. The whole meal was one of the best I’ve had in a while, and it was easily one of the cheapest items on the menu. I would give the whole meal 4.5 out of 5 pie tins. If you’re in the mood for a good burger and fries, but also want some bomb pie all for cheap, go Marie’s. The service was good, not great, but as good as you’ll find anywhere else. Also the atmosphere is nice and cozy and it is not too crowded.Keeping on the topic of burgers, why does Carl’s Jr. find it necessary to use scantily-clad women to advertise all of its new menu items? I like most of their burgers, including their recently returning Hawaiian Burger. However, what I don’t like is that they always find the need to use girls in bikinis to advertise this. I’ve blogged on this before, and I really find it unnecessary. If Carl’s lowered its prices and advertised a neat little slogan like “Quality Burgers for Less” or “Recession Burgers” or something they would have my respect rather than stooping to using sex to sell cheeseburgers.

Trends Section:I’m finding more and more candies and other goodies (most recently sour patch kids and a new stride gum flavor) that have two flavors. Like it’ll start out sour then get sweet or something. This also coincides with my other observational food trend: the emergence of Strawberry Lemonade. Years ago every place sold pink Lemonade and strawberry lemonade was a rare delicacy. The pink was for color, not flavor. Fast forward to 2009 and suddenly you can find strawberry, cranberry, pomegranate, and even hard lemonade everywhere. I find it pretty funny that America no longer can focus on just one flavor, but now needs two to satisfy its taste buds. Has America begun to grow tired of typical candy and drink flavors that now it demands two? Soon we’ll start to see more flavor-injected food, like steaks and more combining of flavors. It’s the American way.

Competition:I think that KFC’s blatant attack on Subway in its recent commercials is very misguided. First off, KFC isn’t losing as many customers to Subway as it is to its bland food and hormone-shot up chicken. Second off, a few pieces of chicken are not nearly worth the five dollars as a foot-long of sandwich with whatever you like on it. Quite frankly I love Subway’s five dollar foot long campaign and I think that it is a low-blow of KFC to attack subways prices when KFC needs to improve its own food first.

~Good Luck and Good Eats