Holy crap! While driving to a McDonald's to use their free Wi-Fi to download the day's copy of the Sunday newspaper on to my Kindle, I saw a sign that they were selling the McRib sandwich. I had already eaten but I made a mental note to come back another day.
The McRib sandwich is McDonald's faux pork sandwich, consisting of processed pork that is molded into the shape of mini-pork ribs served on a bun with lots of sweet barbecue sauce. The sandwich is not a regular item on the McDonald's menu and would sporadically show up for limited times around the country. The sandwich has a cult like following with people tracking and traveling around the U.S. to partake in the McRib.
Last year McDonald's had brought back the McRib nation-wide for a limited time around this time of year and had a huge success with it. I guess due the popularity they are bringing the sandwich back again nation-wide this year for a 3-week period until November 14th.
There has been no word so far if the McRib will become a regular item on the menu or if this will be an annual event like their Shamrock shakes or cherry baked pies. Maybe I will celebrate Halloween with a McRib meal. Now Count Floyd, that's scary.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wegmaniacs
Not only do I like to try different restaurants, I also like to go visit local supermarkets when I travel. I look for items that are local to the area or not available where I live. So when I heard that a Wegman's was opening up their first store in Massachusetts it kind of piqued my interest.
I must say that I was more interested in seeing if this upstate New York grocery chain was going to carry white hots more than anything else. I haven't had one of those white veal hot dogs in about 2 years and I was even thinking of traveling over 500 miles round trip to pick up a box until I thought better of it. With the price of gas it would just be smarter to have them shipped to me. Then again, no one ever said I was smart...
Still, going to Northboro, MA was about an hour away from where I was this weekend. Just to make sure that a trip to Wegmans would not be all in vain, I sent an e-mail to the company asking if this store was going to carry the white hots. To my surprise they promptly replied that they would.
I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised that they got back to me so fast. After looking at their website and reading stories about the grocery chain they are quite popular to shop at and to work for. They are very big on not just low prices but on great customer service. It looked like people even get fanatical about the stores, kind of like those people who travel the country going to Chik-Fil-A restaurants.
According to some news reports, the store was involved with town officials about having enough police around to help with the extra traffic. At some grand openings they have had over 30,000 people show up on the first day. I must admit I was getting kind of excited about this. How can a supermarket generate this kind of interest? It sounds insane, but at least I will be able to get my white hots.
This new store is the first in Massachusetts and it is one of the largest in the whole state. It took Wegmans a dozen years to move into the Bay State and supposedly the other grocery stores tried to lock up leases on places that Wegmans was looking to move so they could not move into the state. The reports also said that Wegmans can be a game changer in the area as they not only have thousands more items on their shelves but they price some of their items for the whole year!
The store's grand opening was at 7am but I wasn't going to get up early to travel an hour for a grocery store. I got to the area around noon time. I didn't get to the store until about 12:30pm. For 30 minutes I waited in traffic to get into the parking lot. The whole place was packed. There were lots of police officers to help with the traffic but there were too many cars heading to the store.
When I did get into the parking lot, there were officers there too to help direct traffic. They even had people on those Segways running around the parking lot. I ended up parking about 1/4 mile away from the store.
People were streaming in and out of Wegmans. It was pretty funny to think about it, that all of this was for a grocery store. The aisles were packed with people and sometimes you bumped your cart into someone in front of you or you got hit yourself. One lady accidentally hit a little girl, it wasn't a hard hit but the 6-year was on the verge of crying a tear but not before giving one of the nastiest dirty looks at the lady with the cart. It was pretty funny.
It was hard to more around but I did pass by the food court section. They were serving all kinds of hot foods and even had a dim sum bar. I just didn't feel like fighting through the mob to take a look.
Not being a fan of crowds I used my store map to go find my white hots which were in the dairy section at the back of the store. When I got there I didn't see them. They had all kinds of hot dogs, but then at the bottom was an empty space with a sign in front of it. It said, "Sorry to our upstate New York fans, but they were sold out. New shipment, tomorrow".
To say the least I was pretty bummed. I was not able to get the white hots but it was so busy that I really couldn't see what else they had in the store. The few quick glances at items as I worked my way through the crowd were some pretty good prices and items that are not usually available in Boston nor New York city.
The trip was an experience. It is hard to imagine that so many people are fans of a supermarket, that they even call themselves "Wegmaniacs" and even have t-shirts made up for them. The prices looked pretty good so I will go back again, at least to get some white hots.
I must say that I was more interested in seeing if this upstate New York grocery chain was going to carry white hots more than anything else. I haven't had one of those white veal hot dogs in about 2 years and I was even thinking of traveling over 500 miles round trip to pick up a box until I thought better of it. With the price of gas it would just be smarter to have them shipped to me. Then again, no one ever said I was smart...
Still, going to Northboro, MA was about an hour away from where I was this weekend. Just to make sure that a trip to Wegmans would not be all in vain, I sent an e-mail to the company asking if this store was going to carry the white hots. To my surprise they promptly replied that they would.
I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised that they got back to me so fast. After looking at their website and reading stories about the grocery chain they are quite popular to shop at and to work for. They are very big on not just low prices but on great customer service. It looked like people even get fanatical about the stores, kind of like those people who travel the country going to Chik-Fil-A restaurants.
According to some news reports, the store was involved with town officials about having enough police around to help with the extra traffic. At some grand openings they have had over 30,000 people show up on the first day. I must admit I was getting kind of excited about this. How can a supermarket generate this kind of interest? It sounds insane, but at least I will be able to get my white hots.
This new store is the first in Massachusetts and it is one of the largest in the whole state. It took Wegmans a dozen years to move into the Bay State and supposedly the other grocery stores tried to lock up leases on places that Wegmans was looking to move so they could not move into the state. The reports also said that Wegmans can be a game changer in the area as they not only have thousands more items on their shelves but they price some of their items for the whole year!
The store's grand opening was at 7am but I wasn't going to get up early to travel an hour for a grocery store. I got to the area around noon time. I didn't get to the store until about 12:30pm. For 30 minutes I waited in traffic to get into the parking lot. The whole place was packed. There were lots of police officers to help with the traffic but there were too many cars heading to the store.
When I did get into the parking lot, there were officers there too to help direct traffic. They even had people on those Segways running around the parking lot. I ended up parking about 1/4 mile away from the store.
People were streaming in and out of Wegmans. It was pretty funny to think about it, that all of this was for a grocery store. The aisles were packed with people and sometimes you bumped your cart into someone in front of you or you got hit yourself. One lady accidentally hit a little girl, it wasn't a hard hit but the 6-year was on the verge of crying a tear but not before giving one of the nastiest dirty looks at the lady with the cart. It was pretty funny.
It was hard to more around but I did pass by the food court section. They were serving all kinds of hot foods and even had a dim sum bar. I just didn't feel like fighting through the mob to take a look.
Not being a fan of crowds I used my store map to go find my white hots which were in the dairy section at the back of the store. When I got there I didn't see them. They had all kinds of hot dogs, but then at the bottom was an empty space with a sign in front of it. It said, "Sorry to our upstate New York fans, but they were sold out. New shipment, tomorrow".
To say the least I was pretty bummed. I was not able to get the white hots but it was so busy that I really couldn't see what else they had in the store. The few quick glances at items as I worked my way through the crowd were some pretty good prices and items that are not usually available in Boston nor New York city.
The trip was an experience. It is hard to imagine that so many people are fans of a supermarket, that they even call themselves "Wegmaniacs" and even have t-shirts made up for them. The prices looked pretty good so I will go back again, at least to get some white hots.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Bay State Gabby's
Gabby's restaurant is pretty new, they opened up January, 2011. I first learned of the restaurant when I received a 1/2 off email offer from Living Social. I had looked at the restaurant's website and the menu looked pretty good, and with $15 for a $30 gift certificate it looked like it was worth a gamble.
It wasn't until after I had purchased the certificate did I find a review on Gabby's. Boy it looked like I might have been taken in. There was a lone review and it wasn't pretty. I then noticed that there were filtered reviews and so I went looking to see what they said. Those reviews were a bit more positive but I guess reviews get filtered because these reviewers might be shills.
Well I had already spent the money for the certificate so I went with a lot of intrepidation. Things didn't really look better as it was 6pm on a Wednesday evening and the place was empty. The hostess promptly greeted and seated us. As I sat down, I remembered the other review talked about a bad smell. I mentioned this to my friend and before we looked at our menus we were sniffing the air like a bunch of basset hounds. Good thing nobody was around to see us, but we didn't notice a thing.
When we got our menus they looked exactly like what was posted on the website. It definitely did not look like it was put together as a school project as someone on Yelp.com had said. I was kind of wondering if the other review was for the same restaurant. The waitress who was also the hostess came by to fill up our water glasses and to put two warm rolls in front of us. The rolls weren't freshly baked but were heated up just before serving. I thought that was a nice little touch and we were given little bread plates.
There was quite a few Italian dishes on the menu, but we were more interested in trying the Argentinian cuisine. For appetizers we tried a beef and chicken empanda. They were kind of small but pretty tasty. The pastry crust was flaky and tender and the beef empanada was filled with a flavorful ground beef. The chicken empanada was filled with white meat and was a tad dry.
For the main course I ordered the Tira De Asado which is short ribs and my friend ordered the Pastel De Papa, an Argentinian casserole. We both got a house salad with our entrees. The salad was just a basic garden salad with a vinaigrette. Nice, but nothing special.
The meal was going well so far but it was kind of un-nerving to be the only patrons in the place. The hostess did say that they are busier on the weekends and when they have live entertainment.
Our dishes came fairly quickly. My dish consisted of 2 short ribs sliced sideways about 1/4 inch thick. I had selected the rice pilaf and the vegetable of the day was grilled vegetables. My friend's dish consisted of the casserole which looked like Shepherd's pie, garlic mashed potatoes, and the grilled vegetables. We split the casserole and the short ribs so we could sample both.
The casserole tasted just like Shepherd's pie. Mashed potatoes on top and on the bottom with ground beef in the middle. There were no vegetables in the ground beef. It was OK but I wouldn't bother ordering it again. As for my dish, I had made the right call. The short ribs were grilled and you could taste the charcoal flavor on them. And the chimichurri sauce that comes with the dish complimented the ribs very well. The hostess had said that the sauce was usually served with beef but some people had asked for it to use as a dipping sauce as well for the empanadas.
The grilled vegetables were also a big hit. The vegetables were string beans, carrots, and asparagus. They were lightly grilled with light grill marks and not over cooked. They also had a nice charcoal flavor to them.
Even though I was full, I did order dessert. Partly to try another dish, and partly to make sure that I spent all the money on my certificate. The list of desserts wasn't too much but they did have flan so I ordered that. The waitress asked if I wanted some caramel sauce on it and I thought that sounded good. When I got the flan, I must say it didn't look overly appetizing. The flan was a decent size piece but the caramel on top was a scoop that was not warmed. Since it was not warm nor liquidity it actually look kind of like a scoop of poop on top. Undaunted I still tried it and if was fine. The flan was not too sweet as other restaurants but the caramel could have used a bit of warming up. Not just for a smoother texture but it really didn't look too good. My friend kept laughing about what it looked like.
Overall, the whole experience was quite pleasant, I was impressed by my dish and would come back. The prices were reasonable and the chimichurri sauce is kind of addictive on the ribs. The casserole was OK, but you can get better elsewhere. Still I am kind of curious about the Yelp.com review, the only thing that seemed to match what was written was that they have mozzarella sticks. Maybe the restaurant read the review and fixed things.
It wasn't until after I had purchased the certificate did I find a review on Gabby's. Boy it looked like I might have been taken in. There was a lone review and it wasn't pretty. I then noticed that there were filtered reviews and so I went looking to see what they said. Those reviews were a bit more positive but I guess reviews get filtered because these reviewers might be shills.
Well I had already spent the money for the certificate so I went with a lot of intrepidation. Things didn't really look better as it was 6pm on a Wednesday evening and the place was empty. The hostess promptly greeted and seated us. As I sat down, I remembered the other review talked about a bad smell. I mentioned this to my friend and before we looked at our menus we were sniffing the air like a bunch of basset hounds. Good thing nobody was around to see us, but we didn't notice a thing.
When we got our menus they looked exactly like what was posted on the website. It definitely did not look like it was put together as a school project as someone on Yelp.com had said. I was kind of wondering if the other review was for the same restaurant. The waitress who was also the hostess came by to fill up our water glasses and to put two warm rolls in front of us. The rolls weren't freshly baked but were heated up just before serving. I thought that was a nice little touch and we were given little bread plates.
There was quite a few Italian dishes on the menu, but we were more interested in trying the Argentinian cuisine. For appetizers we tried a beef and chicken empanda. They were kind of small but pretty tasty. The pastry crust was flaky and tender and the beef empanada was filled with a flavorful ground beef. The chicken empanada was filled with white meat and was a tad dry.
For the main course I ordered the Tira De Asado which is short ribs and my friend ordered the Pastel De Papa, an Argentinian casserole. We both got a house salad with our entrees. The salad was just a basic garden salad with a vinaigrette. Nice, but nothing special.
The meal was going well so far but it was kind of un-nerving to be the only patrons in the place. The hostess did say that they are busier on the weekends and when they have live entertainment.
Our dishes came fairly quickly. My dish consisted of 2 short ribs sliced sideways about 1/4 inch thick. I had selected the rice pilaf and the vegetable of the day was grilled vegetables. My friend's dish consisted of the casserole which looked like Shepherd's pie, garlic mashed potatoes, and the grilled vegetables. We split the casserole and the short ribs so we could sample both.
The casserole tasted just like Shepherd's pie. Mashed potatoes on top and on the bottom with ground beef in the middle. There were no vegetables in the ground beef. It was OK but I wouldn't bother ordering it again. As for my dish, I had made the right call. The short ribs were grilled and you could taste the charcoal flavor on them. And the chimichurri sauce that comes with the dish complimented the ribs very well. The hostess had said that the sauce was usually served with beef but some people had asked for it to use as a dipping sauce as well for the empanadas.
The grilled vegetables were also a big hit. The vegetables were string beans, carrots, and asparagus. They were lightly grilled with light grill marks and not over cooked. They also had a nice charcoal flavor to them.
Even though I was full, I did order dessert. Partly to try another dish, and partly to make sure that I spent all the money on my certificate. The list of desserts wasn't too much but they did have flan so I ordered that. The waitress asked if I wanted some caramel sauce on it and I thought that sounded good. When I got the flan, I must say it didn't look overly appetizing. The flan was a decent size piece but the caramel on top was a scoop that was not warmed. Since it was not warm nor liquidity it actually look kind of like a scoop of poop on top. Undaunted I still tried it and if was fine. The flan was not too sweet as other restaurants but the caramel could have used a bit of warming up. Not just for a smoother texture but it really didn't look too good. My friend kept laughing about what it looked like.
Overall, the whole experience was quite pleasant, I was impressed by my dish and would come back. The prices were reasonable and the chimichurri sauce is kind of addictive on the ribs. The casserole was OK, but you can get better elsewhere. Still I am kind of curious about the Yelp.com review, the only thing that seemed to match what was written was that they have mozzarella sticks. Maybe the restaurant read the review and fixed things.
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