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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Bryce Harper gets free Chipotle burritos for life.
I will let that fact marinate with you for a second as you consider how horrible your own life is now by comparison.
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and Little Tavern burgers...
Buy them by the bag!
I get the soft corn tacos now, they're healthier than a burrito and tastier IMO. And count me in as another who loads it up with Chipotle Tabasco.
The best chips and salsa I've had were at a little independent place called El Rio in some small town near the Georgia-Tennessee boarder, great chimichanga too. Steak N' Shake's cheese fries are divine, it's pretty much the only thing I eat there. The burgers are quite mediocre but they have the best milkshakes around.
Has anyone here been to Genghis Grill? A couple of my friends were talking it up last weekend and I'm going to go soon, though I'll have to go over to Tampa for it.
Have you tried Cafe Rio? It's one of the places I always have to go when I visit Utah, and they have at least one location in DC.
Coincidentally, there's one in the same shopping complex as the Chipotle I go to. I keep meaning to try it out...
Those comments really puzzled me. I have literally eaten at Chipotle hundreds upon hundreds of times. I've never once gotten diarrhea, or an upset stomach, or anything like that.
Genghis Grill is okay, but nothing special. I've been to the Pembroke Pines location. By far my favorite Mongolian Grill chain is Hu Hot. It's a Midwestern chain, and it is quite good. Good ingredients, good sauces, etc. My only complaint is the quality of their scallops. They use the tiniest little bay scallops. They pretty much disintigrate once cooked.
If you are looking for a Mongolian Grill in the greater Tampa area, Genghis Grill may indeed be your best bet. Whatever you do, avoid BD's Mongolian Grill at all costs. Terrible!
The best burger I've ever had was at a place called Litton's Market in Knoxville, TN. It's a somewhat quaint restaurant/market/bakery. They get quite busy. When you arrive, instead of giving your name to a hostess, you write your own name on a giant chalkboard. They are quite pricey, but at least you get a great burger for your money.
This is is usually a function of the cookware, not the burner (or your skill level :) Woks should be thin, but sauté pans and saucepans and Dutch ovens should be thick and heavy. Then, over gas flame, the heat will conduct over the whole cooking surface instead of trying to burn through a given spot.
The gas range I use now is no top-of-the-line thing, but I cook mostly in Le Creuset pans, which are worth the initial outlay (in fact, La Dernière got a few of them for $2.92 at a thrift store, hence well worth the outlay). Functional and indestructible.
I agree and endorse each of these statements. All-Clad pans are worth every nickel as well. Mine get heavy use and all they need is some bar keeper's friend from time to time to keep 'em nice and shiny. Of course everyone should have a well seasoned iron skillet which is inexpensive.
No locations in DC. They have one in Seven Corners in NoVA which I believe is the closest to the city.
Aren't there local places to get a decent burger anymore?
The problem is that in urban areas mom and pops can't really afford the rents anymore so all you have left is chains and stores with big backers. Plus the margins on burger joints are really small which is why all the new burger joints are "high dollar" amount restaurants. The difference between now and say the 1980's is that most places are now trying to come up with a darn good product.
Just around me is BGR, Shake Shack, Five Guys, Black & Orange, and probably a couple of franchises/concepts that pop up and close every now and then.
My brother eats a lot of processed food, fast food, etc. When he comes to our place, he always gets the shits, because he's not used to the fibre. I get the shits on the odd occasion that I eat fast food, which is when I'm on a trip somewhere and have no other choice. Chipotle is more comparable to a home-cooked from scratch meal than most other fast food places.
My favourite pan is a good old cast iron skillet, its probably 50 years old. As far as I'm concerned breakfast (bacon, eggs, pancakes, french toast) isn't worth having unless its done on cast iron.
I bought a decent set of Lagostina stainless steel pots with a sandwiched copper bottom about 12 years ago, and you can't go wrong with something like that, regardless of brand. They work great and last literally forever.
My other prize possession is a stainless-steel stockpot: not especially heavy, but with a built-in strainer, so that it's double-walled; it simmers away happily on a gas burner.
Absolutely.
(in fact, La Dernière got a few of them for $2.92 at a thrift store, hence well worth the outlay).
Holy crap, that's an A++ thrift store find.
but the difference normally in price between Le Crueset enameled cookware and say Cuisinarts doesn't really make Le Crueset a good buy for all but the most affluent of home cookers.
Probably true. I think the amount my GF and I use ours has made them worth it. Of course, one was a gift she received from her mom, the other a 40% of full cost at TJ Maxx. It isn't like we laid out full price for the two of them at Williams-Sonoma. And they can double as home defense weapons, one shot to the head with one of those and you probably wouldn't ever wake up.
Absolutely. I prefer All-Clad, but they can be a pain to clean. My wife likes Le Creuset, and does most of the cooking, so they tend to get used a bit more than the All-Clad. Plus Le Creuset seems easier to clean for some reason.
Unless the pots contained a live, enraged badger, that's an absolute steal, and maybe even then.
No, we're better than you because our cookware is better. Keep up.
the few retail stores they have will discount items pretty significantly from time to time and I get post cards from them in the mail and can order online, that's the only time I would buy, versus buying at Sur La Table or WS at full sticker price.
Burgers, though, I don't make. Don't eat a lot of them, though if anyone is coming to Arlington on a ballpark tour I can suggest good Vietnamese storefront pho places – that's our local specialty cuisine.
What is a restaurant supply store(I know it's what it says it is, but I mean where would you find these, are they common, can anyone go etc?)
My girlfriend has given me permission to replace her value cookware with quality products one at a time, and we are slowly replacing pieces. Looking at sauce pans or cutlery for the next purchase so that would be something that would be nice to get a good bargain on.
Confirming yet again that Minneapolis is nothing even resembling a major city.
The Bowery!
Anywhere else, wtf knows.
Confirming yet again that Minneapolis is nothing even resembling a major city.
First Avenue. They don't have to do anything else well, ever.
They are very common in and around major metropolitan areas. You can find them via google or the yellow pages. Almost all of them are open to the public. The ones that are not are the ones like Restaurant Depot which sets itself up as a distributor and not a retail store so you have to fill out paperwork before you shop at these kinds of stores.
I've done this. Have had issues where I've wanted to buy one of something, but they wouldn't sell that small of a quantity. At minimum, they are worth checking out.
Is anyone else here overly inclined to research things? When I bought my aforementioned rice steamer, I first checked out Cooks Illustrated, Consumersearch, Consumer Reports, etc... - which is my norm. (I also go hella cheap when possible - figure out first whether I want a decent thing or a just get me by thing.)
The big ones in my area are named things like "East Bay Restaurant Supply." Yelp should be able to locate them if there are any near you. They are intended for professionals and the salesmen usually are dealing with large contracts but anyone can walk in, browse and pick things up. As McCoy says sometimes there are good such stores in Chinatowns and similar areas ... these places are smaller and don't have the heavy equipment but they do tend to have entire aisles of soy sauce ramekins and such.
Pricey (a bit more than Five Guys), but pretty good. Anyone else agree/disagree?
Wildly overrated, just like pretty much everything about this ########.
Yes. I have basic rules....whatever consumer reports rates as number one is almost always going to be garbage, and absolute proof they are paid off. The first item after number one by a different manufacturer would be what I look at. I love Cooks Illustrated for any cooking supplies, the way they test everything and do a very good job of properly weighing cost vs quality(something that Consumer Reports also sucks at), that I usually trust their opinion.
Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago (in that order) are the best cities for sushi I've yet encountered. New York is a massive disappointment.
These are amazing, aren't they? Who even knew Coke made a grape-flavored Sprite?
Admittedly, it wasn't good, but I enjoy the fact that it exists.
I usually just read negative online reviews (Amazon, Newegg, etc.), and if the complaints are something that seem like outliers or are something I can live with, then I'll go with the product.
Must be something about Wisconsin. Best steak(at a restaurant) I ever had was a little dive bar by the stadium called Fourth Base. (I'm thinking that my expectations were low and they wildly exceeded them so I've pumped up the quality in my mind)
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but those machines (which are super cool) use a basic syrup and flavor mix strategy. I was using one a while back and it ran out of raspberry, and all the various raspberry combos went dark at once.
WTF? Do you also think the Cardinals threw the 2004 World Series?
The first item after number one by a different manufacturer would be what I look at. I love Cooks Illustrated for any cooking supplies, the way they test everything and do a very good job of properly weighing cost vs quality(something that Consumer Reports also sucks at), that I usually trust their opinion.
Being as how Consumer Reports has been around forever, has never taken advertising, buys the products it tests, relies on their readers' feedback to supplement their tests, doesn't let anyone use their ratings in advertising (unlike good old J.D. Power**) and gives the cost range that you can expect to pay for every item they rate, I'm trying to figure out where you're coming from with this comment.
**A name which in itself suggests branding a la Homer Simpson.
Obsessively. Part of the fun of shopping. Well for stuff I want to buy. For some shopping I am typical guy shopper, in store grab, pay, and then flee.
That is tinfoil hat material, cfb.
I've had remarkable success with the Consumer Reports recommendations. Let's see: TV, dishwasher, refrigerator, camera, phone, PC, netbook, DVD player, food processor, snowblower... Pretty much everything I've ever relied on them for has been a great value.
I've not relied on them much for cars (they tab so many as "recommended" that I find it doesn't discern enough for me), nor for foods. Also, I'm usually looking for what they call a "best buy", which usually ends up being a highly-rated model with a considerably lower price than the others; I don't necessarily go for the #1 rated item.
I agree with this in general, but note that when I've compared the two, CI and CR are actually fairly consistent with each other. They are often inconsistent in the models or brands they test, which I find annoying.
Washington's Consumer Checkbook (which is also in other cities) is very good for finding the best and least expensive services like repairmen, home improvement outfits, etc. We've gone with their recommendations for the best deals on new tires, window installation and stove repairs, and the ones we used did great work and beat the "brand names" in everything, especially the lack of bait-and-switch sales tactics.
Just before we subscribed to Consumer Reports, someone crashed into my Subaru wagon and I had to get it replaced. At the time (2006) the new version of that model was running close to $28,000. I googled station wagons + Consumer Reports, and while it only gave non-subscribers their top pick, that top pick (a Ford Focus wagon)** wound up costing less than $15,000 cash, and hasn't had a major problem since the day I bought it. I've since used it for buying a big screen TV and a mini-camera, with equally good results.
**Which in recent years is nowhere near as highly rated. But their 2006 model consistently rates with the best for rate of repairs.
I worked retail for 15 years and had to deal with Consumer Report zombies. People constantly came in for the garbage that Consumer reports rated as best and they were products that we hadn't sold any of in six months, because they just weren't that good. (Most obvious example. Sold portable cd players. Panasonic by far had the best product out there, consumer reports rated an RCA as best, even though by their grading, Panasonic scored better, the RCA had two pros, and two cons, the Panasonic had 3 pros, no cons. The difference was that the RCA cost $79 and the Panasonic $86--when they bought them.... had idiots coming in to buy the RCA because of that, and there was no reason to sell the RCA. Panasonic had the better product--it wasn't particularly close to be honest--, and was always on sale at the RCA price)
Heck Consumer Reports listed Old Milwaukee as best american made beer for something like 15 years straight. (not sure the number of years, just know that it's been several)
Conspiracy theory based upon their consistent ranking of absolute crap at the upper echelons, that they do a horrible job of ranking quality versus price. Price is almost always their number one determination even for a few dollars more, you get a much superior product. I just don't trust them having seen them put in action for 15 years by the masses.
I recommended consumer reports as a tool for researching the features(and the whys) of a product, the reputation of a particular company, etc... but their individual ratings are absolute garbage.
They had what I consider to be a must read article on lightbulbs. And their car ratings is something that a lot of people in the know swear by. It's not like I hate everything they do, but I just don't trust their opinion on technology equipment in the slightest.
It has a lot to do with a South Park ep, where anyone who ate Chipolte had explosive diarrhea, and so had to get a Made for TV product pitched by the Ghost of Billy Mays, "Chipolte-a-way."
It's just a venue. I just don't see how it's different to any other venue I've been to. And it's still staffed by Minnesotans, who are the most culturally mendacious ######## I've ever met.
The first time I saw BGR's soda machine I thought it was pretty cool but I have given up drinking sodas so while it was cool it was rather useless for me.
I wouldn't pay attention to any rating for food products or anything else where individual preference forms a great part of what you consider "quality", any more than I pay attention to movie critics or restaurant reviewers. To the extent that Consumer Reports has branched out into those categories, I simply ignore them. And anyway, we all know that any beer sold in green bottles is by definition better than beer sold in any other type of container. That's really all anyone needs to know about beer.
But what you're talking about for the most part are people who treat CR as if those tiny numerical rating distinctions among the top few choices were statistically significant. I've never taken that approach, and maybe that's why I've never been burned by them.
And what you also don't mention is that in addition to their ratings, they provide a lot of good basic information about what to look for in a product or a service, info that can help you formulate your own decisions. They spend a fair amount of space debunking the hyperbolic claims for bogus products like "dietary supplements" and those widely advertised (and almost always pointless) screening tests for various forms of cancer. The bottom line is that their history is that of an extremely valuable counterweight to the steady bombardment of advertising that's inescapable in 21st century life, including all those BS ads that feature those "J.D. Power" trophies.
Not in my experience, but hey I can't totally defned any group that insists on "borrowing" things to other people.
Yes I did. I said I recommended Consumer reports as a tool for researching features. I could have added more, but basically, it's a great research tool in that it explains what a feature is, what it's good for, why you may or may not want/need it. I have no problem with people reading the articles and using that as a basis for their research. It's the way I do it myself. I just won't use their final ratings on individual products.
Their individual ratings never vibe with the reality. They WAY overrate price.(and considering that their prices are about six months out of date by the time the magazine comes out, those ratings are even more screwed up as the more expensive products always have dropped in price significantly while the cheaper products have hardly dropped at all) Anytime you see a Kodak camera being listed on par with an Olympus/Canon/Nikon you know it's a ###### up rating system.
I lived in Minneapolis for about a year and thought it was great. First Avenue is tremendous and it wasn't hard to win tickets to great shows from the public radio station.
I figure you typoed "defend," but even so I have no idea what this means. Probably because I know nothing about Minnesota.
another vote for Angie's List, I'm sure results may vary market to market, but it has been terrifically useful in each city that I've used it.
Anathema! I find their meat flavorless but the extra cilantro option gets bonus points, for sure.
Minnesotans do not "loan" things to other people. Instead they "borrow" things to them.
WTF? That's just stupid.
Though I'm sure any number of grammatical idiosyncracies down here in the South would strike outsiders the same way.
Is there a place where people who have English as a first language say "stand on line"?
Google says New York. I already knew those people couldn't speak properly, anyway.
no stupider than "have a catch"
Is that the same thing as "play catch" or "throw the ball around"?
only when playing with one's father
I'm pretty sure I say "on line" and "in line" interchangeably.
I also say "have a catch".
"Stand in line" doesn't sound weird to me. They both sound correct.
Field of Dreams quote. Only time in the history of mankind had those words been uttered together, but for some reason the director thought it was better than "Play catch" or "throw the ball around".
It's already here and been here for awhile.
Like cnet on tech, though I guess they've got corporate ownership issues.
Noodles and Company is gross. (sample size = 3)
Sure but it takes awhile to grow and reach everywhere. For instance, I believe Chicago is easing up on their insane laws and soon food trucks will be able to roam the city.
The darker the glass, the longer it takes beer to skunk. If the maker cares at all about the taste, they'll use the darkest glass they can, and package it so that lights don't shine on it anyways. If the maker doesn't care about taste, only buy it if you don't, either.
If you buy a case of beer and stick the case or even the bottles in your garage fridge there will be no taste difference between green, clear, or brown bottles.
Speaking of asian groceries, does anyone know where I can get some green papaya in NYC? Preferably uptown, preferably west side.
Anyone try the Chipotle Southeast Asian spin-off Shophouse? I was not impressed by it, and I love that type of cuisine. In particular, the beef was pretty low grade which really surprised me since I remember Chipotle's being pretty good. they did have Beerlao though, which is a win.
I used to go to Five Guys back when they only the one store so I am biased towards them, but the one time I tried In n' Out I thought it was basically crap. But small sample size and all that jazz.
Roy Rogers was amazing until Hardees bought it and ruined. It exists only as a pale mockery of what was once glorious now.
My dad and I used to eat at Roy Rogers all the time. When I was 12 we went on a big road trip and stopped at the now-defunct Roy Rogers museum, which creepily had Trigger and Bullet stuffed and a bunch of Roy's stuff from like elementary school. Amazingly comprehensive. My dad explained that although I was too young to have seen the show, I loved Roy Rogers from the restaurant, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Had never heard of the fast food joint at all. It was utterly bizzare.
ick. SSS and all but I have friends who insist on ordering it. Very expensive not that good and the order always ends up wrong. I honestly have no clue why they order it, but they do.
Regarding the "borrow" thing it is odd and I correct the natives every single time. I just can't help myself. And of course I stand in line and never heard "have a catch" until Field of Dreams.
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