Goodies First

Dec 10

Chains Never Sleep

I spend the day, you know, actually working–and so much happens! The internet is a machine that never stops. Last night I found out that Eatocracy had reported on Tony Luke’s bringing cheesesteaks to Bahrain (I’m not embarrassed to admit that I ate two Pat’s cheesesteaks last weekend), Eater had mentioned that 24 IHOPs are coming to NYC and Grub Street had tracked down Nate Appleman making burritos at a Chelsea Chipotle.

This morning I awoke to see Slate’s article about the opening of Hooters in Japan and just felt empty and distraught and wanting to partake in my office’s bagel Friday, which I normally avoid because I try not to eat bread for breakfast. I will never let my RSS feeds get the better of me again.

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Dec 7

Chain Links: Seaweed Soft Pretzels

I’ve seen Auntie Anne’s—serving seaweed pretzels, no less—in Malaysia, so it doesn’t seem so strange that they’d also expand to Japan. “…much of the Japanese population had never experienced a soft pretzel” yet that did not stop curiosity-seekers from lining up around the block–and filming it. [press release]

Golden Chick, which I keep reading as Golden Child, is a Dallas-based chain that has nothing to do with Eddie Murphy and a lot to do with chicken tenders–they practically claims to have invented them. They will be bringing breaded strips of poultry to China and nine other Asian countries next year. Also, there is a chain of Irish pubs in Texas? [QSR]

California Pizza Kitchen will also be opening its first mainland China location. Shanghai is the lucky recipient. [NRN]

Subway is getting out of control in Saudi Arabia. Oddly, the last Subway I patronized (in Paramus) was filled with Middle Eastern families so maybe there is a UAE hoagie connection. [AME Info]

Frozen yogurt is so unappealing to me that I would prefer not even typing the two words. Apparently, there is a chain from Oklahoma creatively named FreshBerry. Venezuela and Portugal will be getting their no-sugar-added vanilla frozen yogurt in Q1 2011. [QSR]

Tossed, which isn’t that prevalent in the US, will be heading to Vancouver, B.C. [Fast Casual]

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Dec 3

Pizza Hut Saratoga Springs

A $20 Pizza Hut gift card has been stashed in the armrest of James’ car for probably the past two years. Just in case, you know? Really, it’s only a gift in the way that buying things for yourself while Christmas shopping can be considered gifts.

Unlike the cards for Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory, also languishing in their cache between the front seats, I’ve hoped that James would forget that he bought it. Pizza Hut, like Sizzler, feels second-tier, someplace old and tired that I’ve known my whole life. Not necessarily the source of good nostalgia.

Yet during a rain storm, hungry yet hours earlier than normal dinner time you might see Pizza Hut advertised on a sign on I-87 while approaching Saratoga Springs from Montreal. This is no occasion for glitzy trappings or voluminous menus. And maybe it’s a sit-down? Standalone Pizza Huts are a rare breed, at least around NYC. We struck-out with the first location we found on the GPS. It was just a strip mall takeout version like the one I worked at in the summer of 1990. But the counter woman was nicer than I was during my stint and directed us to a full-service one just a block-and-a-half down the street. Why Saratoga Springs is so saturated with Pizza Huts is another issue.

The faded, family-friendly style that I’d been thinking of as dreary turned out to be charming in its refusal to modernize like an uppity Red Lobster. This photo could’ve been taken decades ago: '70s suburban church italics, '80s checkerboard tiles, three-bean salad. The menu wasn’t laminated and photo-driven, but simply a Xeroxed piece of paper listing the basics. There is a small salad bar and pizzas you can order half-and-half—or Hawaiian with no shame.

I picked hand-tossed crust because I couldn’t handle the breadiness of pan, and not thin crust because I remember hating having to make it since it was the only style you had to roll through a machine out on demand. This is childhood pizza, sweetish sauce encased in mozzarella, completely inoffensive. The pepperoni had the perfect singed ends and pools of oil. The odd thing, and I hope it’s not a case of my palate maturing, was how bland the ham and pineapple was. Maybe it was always this way.

The most shocking part of the experience was that after paying, we still had 88 cents left on the gift card. I practically spent as much on a lobster roll and naturally sweetened blueberry soda for lunch last week. No wonder Pizza Hut is such a family favorite (with the exception of the tottering elderly couple drinking white wine and Molson in the primo corner booth, the diners were all parents and children). You might not be treated to a bubbly coal oven pie adorned with mozzarella di bufala, and who would expect to for $11.99?

Pizza Hut * 22 Congress St., Saratoga Springs, NY

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Dec 3

What You’ll Be Eating in 2011

It’s easy to make fun of corporate food pronouncements and trends. 64% of Americans eat a gingerbread man’s head first, fried vegetables and hummus will be hot for 2011, local everything and ethnic-inspired breakfasts…or will it be food trucks and celebrity farmers?

But I have to admit that McCormick’s annual Flavor Forecast always manages to come up with unusual combinations and suggested recipes far more sophisticated than I would expect from the popular spice brand. (Frankly, I’m a La Flor girl because they’re local, always the cheapest and use glass bottles, but they only appear to have two recipes on their entire site: sweet and spicy cilantro chicken/pollo agridulce con cilantro and pork chops in wine sauc, missing the very important E.)

Caramelized honey and adzuki beans? Green peppercorn and goat’s milk? Perhaps I have been reading too much Taste of Home, sheltered in my New York-centric bubble. I thought Americans didn’t cook anymore. Now I’m faced with McCormick recipes for
Salmon and Scallop Ceviche with Herbes de Provence Popcorn and
Peri-Peri Fennel Bloody Mary with Vodka-Infused Tomatoes? I had no idea.

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Dec 1

Le Footlong

The $5 Footlong has become synonymous with Subway in the US despite that dreary, minor-key jingle. But the sandwich chain has a presence in 92 countries, most using the metric system and not using dollars.

In Quebec, they just size the sub literally, calling it 12 pouces (inches). They also make a catchier song—you won’t be able to watch this video without getting “douze pouces” stuck in your craw.

The one universal truth I discovered in Canada was sidewalk chicken bones. I used to think that carelessly discarded poultry parts were a Brooklyn scourge, but I’ve since wised up.

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Nov 27

Chain Links: McBoda & McFoie

Chinese may have the benefit of officially sanctioned McDonald’s weddings, but Mexicans are going the DIY route—with aplomb; check out those striped socks. Carlos Munoz and Marisela Matienzo were married yesterday at a McDonald’s in Monterrey, “Mexico's most Americanized city.” Watch a video of the “McBoda.” Clowns and a manual typewriter are involved. [Reuters]

Quick, a French fast food chain, will be serving foie gras topped hamburgers for 5 euros for three days in December. Do you think French bloggers will go McRib crazy over the limited edition promotion? [Daily Mail]

Rich Sullivan, a partner in P.F. Chang’s, has opened a new restaurant, Sunshine Moon Peking Pub, in Scottsdale. He claims that it won’t be a chain and that it’s different from P.F. Chang’s because it’s "simpler, warmer and more comfortable." Let’s hope that it fares better than Taneko Japanese Tavern, Sullivan’s last Arizona foray into Asian cuisine. [azcentral]

Photo from Reuters

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Nov 25

Alpenhaus

After so much gravy and fries, I just wanted something light and fresh like…fondue. Ok, what I really wanted was something old fashioned and festive. Alpenhaus more than met my needs.

Fondue is a confusing dish, though. I treat it as an entrée (American entrée, not entrée meaning appetizer like in the rest of the world including Canada). But it’s always on a menu with other big dishes, whether veal cordon bleu at a traditional restaurant or heritage pork cassoulet at a more modern one. Are you supposed to treat it as a starter? At Pain Béni in Quebec City (which I’m not blogging because I’m trying to be more restrained) a group ordered cheese fondue as dessert, which isn’t a bad idea.

I’ve never encountered a fondue for two as massive as the three-inches of melted Emmental and Gruyere that was presented to us in this weathered, red crock. We were warned against ordering a rosti and the large cheese-and-sausage heavy salad, and I can see why.

Nonetheless, the male half of a couple sitting nearby yelled out to the waiter, “Yes, now I do want the wienerschnitzel!” implying that his original order had been tamed, as well. He got his veal cutlet.

And we ordered the Alpenhaus salad anyway.

Alphenhaus * 1279 Rue St-Marc, Montreal, Canada

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Nov 25

Chez Ashton & Restaurant Madrid

While I do profess to be an admirer of chain restaurants, I don’t eat a lot of fast food in practice. But when I leave the US (yes, Canada counts) it’s a free for all. Canada is particularly interesting because it looks just like the US on the surface except our franchises are nearly nonexistent there. Roots not the Gap, The Bay not Macy’s, Tim Hortons not Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s all homegrown.

On our last excursion up north we discovered St-Hubert, featuring rotisserie chicken and a fondness for gravy and frozen peas (which seems more English than French). James became so enamored by the brand that on this visit we stocked up on packaged sauces. DIY hot chicken sandwiches in our future.

This time we explored Chez Ashton and all its poutiney glory. How many ways can you serve fries? Quite a few, it turns out.

Combo meals come with fries or poutine as a side. The round aluminum tin on the left accompanied a chicken sandwich (poultry on bread is as ubiquitous as poutine in this fast food canon). The gravy-softened fries and soft irregular hunks of tangy cheese would be ideal for a geriatric jaw (or my toothless cat, Caesar, who gums Doritos with fervor) but there’s nothing gruel-like about the makeshift casserole that hits the right salty and starchy notes. Snow food or drunk food, it’s hearty. What’s not, are the sodas that come with these combinations. Beverages are served in sane, un-American-sized paper cups that I don’t think we’ve had since the ‘70s.

A Dulton Saucisses adds fat wiener slices and cinnamon-spiced ground beef, the same “Michigan sauce” that you’ll find just south of the border smothering hot dogs in Plattsburgh, New York. This is an onion-topped specimen from Gus’ Red Hots. The Galvaude Fromage, which I did not try, is poutine with chicken chunks and little green peas. Featured on the tray liner is a nameless snack that’s simply cheese curds and gravy. I guess it’s no stranger than eating a bowl of cottage cheese with ketchup.

Lunch turned out to also involve fries and gravy. There was no way we weren’t stopping at Restaurant Madrid, a hotel and diner half-way between Quebec City and Montreal that’s inexplicably surrounded by dinosaur figurines, monster trucks and designed in “the Spanish style that was sweeping Quebec” in the ‘70s.

I don’t recall a Spanish revival during my childhood. If there were one, I suspect it didn’t involve a mechanical fortune teller or life-size country bumpkin dolls.

Not really hungry after a Dulton for breakfast, I just ordered the bbq chicken leg. It came on half a hamburger bun, surrounded by fries with a small dish of what I’d call gravy. Canadians make a distinction between the brown liquid served on poutine and the brown liquid served with rotisserie chicken and atop hot chicken sandwiches like in the photo above. Those peas, they’re everywhere.

Chez Ashton * 54, Côte du Palais, Quebec City, Canada
Restaurant Madrid * Autoroute 20, Exit 202, St-Léonard d’Aston, Canada

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Nov 25

Schwartz’s

Schwartz’s is touristy—even at 0 degrees Celsius there are lines out the door, tour busses parked out front—but classic. I still went back for a repeat visit.

I haven’t yet mustered up the patience for Mile End, though, so I can’t compare a Brooklyn interpretation of Montreal smoked meat to the real thing. I would say that the Canadian pastrami is seasoned a bit more mildly, is less salty and more tender (even though I’ve read the contrary) than their NYC counterparts. To be honest, I prefer it if only because the sandwiches are completely rational in size and price. I’ve never understood the half-foot tower of rosy meat spilling out of two floppy slices of rye. Why not just order a pile of meat?

Which is what we did. This was the $13.95 large plate, which came with $1.50 sharing surcharge. “Enough for three sandwiches” turned out to be plenty for five in reality. They’ll give you more bread if you blow through your ration.

I was stymied by something called “nash” on the menu (also “pogos” at a pit stop between Quebec City and Montreal). It turns out to be pepperoni sticks, a snack I didn’t realize was so popular in Canada until we were faced with a big bag of Piller’s pepperonettes at a grocery store and had to buy them.

Previously on Schwartz's

Schwartz’s * 3895 Saint-Laurent Blvd., Montreal, Canada

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Nov 25