If you've ever looked at the food that I write about, you'll see that my diet is that of a twelve year old boy. It's not that I eat nothing but junk food. The problem is that I like all foods and I want to try everything. However, I'm not wealthy and I live in a small town that doesn't have the world's most robust restaurant scene (we just got a Starbucks in town three years ago and a Chipotle this summer). Because of this, the foods I tend to write about are fairly humble - things that I find at the grocery store, fast food, diners, chain restaurants, and the occasional foods that I come across at concerts, carnivals and fairs.
The Bloomsburg Fair starts this weekend. I'm sure that I'll be posting a ridiculous amount of food over the next few weeks, so I wanted to take a moment to write about some of the things that I've tried for the first time over the past few weeks before my blog becomes an unofficial food catalog for the Fair.
When I was in college, my philosophy professor structured one of his lessons around his favorite Indian food: Chicken Tikka Masala. I've wanted to try it ever since, and I had the chance to order it eight years ago when we were in London for the holidays, but I ordered something else instead. What I ended up getting was absolutely delicious, but I still regret passing up on Chicken Tikka Masala.
What you see in the photo above is obviously is not proper Indian food. It's a refrigerated pre-made pizza from Aldi's grocery store, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I only bought it because it was on clearance. I can't speak to how much it tastes like Chicken Tikka Masala, but it wasn't bad at all. It would have been better if it had a little more chicken, but for the price it cost, it had a fair amount. It's not very big (maybe about the size of a slice and a half from a large takeout pizza), so if you're having this for dinner, you'll either want to pick up two of them or to have a salad or something with it.
This was an unintended cheeseburger. I stopped by Sonic to pick up a couple of milkshakes at the drive-thru, but I was told that "the machine is down". I'm pretty sure I was told the same thing the last time I visited Sonic a few years ago. Now, I've come to expect the milkshake machine to be "down" when I'm at a fast food restaurant, especially if you're there after 7 pm, but this was the mid-afternoon at a fast food chain whose primary menu item is milkshakes. If I'm being honest, I didn't even know they sold burgers until earlier this week.
Since I was already there at the drive-thru and I had the munchies, I went ahead and ordered the burger that they were advertising on the menu board, which was the Chophouse Cheeseburger. The website describes this burger as a pure seasoned beef patty with two slices of American cheese, bold Chophouse aioli, and crispy onion strings, served on a toasted brioche bun.
This burger wasn't terrible, but it wasn't worth the six dollars and change that they were charging for it. The Rodeo Burger with Cheese from Burger King is practically the same thing, except it cost less than half as much and I think it tastes a lot better. The Chophouse Cheeseburger is going to be a one-and-done for me.
Last, but not least, I tried the new limited edition Sweet Potato Marshmallow Casserole ice cream from Van Leeuwen, and hot damn! This is one of the best ice cream flavors that I've tried in a long time. I know you really can't tell from this photo, but the carton was chock full of marshmallows. I'm not talking about the little tiny specks of marshmallow that you find in instant cocoa either... these were big honkin' marshmallows, and they were surrounded by a delicious ice cream that tasted a lot like candied sweet potatoes.
This is a dessert that would be perfect to have alongside a slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, but working in the ice cream industry has taught me that if you see a limited edition product that you want to try, buy it when you see it. The production lines for a limited edition product often stop well before the holiday that's associated with that flavor, so if a flavor sells out in your area, there's a pretty good chance that you won't see it again until next year. If you like sweet potatoes as much as I do, this is a flavor that you'll definitely want to have on hand for Fall.
