Slaters 50/50, Anaheim Hills CA

Now what does the 50/50 stand for in Slater’s 50/50 you ask?  Why I’ll tell you. It’s burger patties that are 50% ground beef and 50% ground bacon.  You heard me, 50% BACON!  You might say, now that’s just wrong, but that’s what makes it even more exciting.  Come prepared with an appetite, because you will definitely need it.  You can order burgers here two ways, either try one of their signature burgers or create your own off of the “design it” menu.  The Design it menu consists of seven different burger patties, including veggie and turkey, in three sizes and your choice of over 60 different toppings.  Unfortunately we didn’t go for appetizers as we knew that we wouldn’t be able to handle it if we weren’t starving.  This visit, we went the signature route and wanted try what they are known for first.

This is the Flamin’ Hot burger with a spicy beef patty, pepper jack cheese, fried onion strings, chipotle mayo, and a roasted green chili.  The burger is a 50/50 patty at 2/3 lbs AFTER cooking.  I personally, can tolerate it if more heat were added, but it still has a kick that even the more capsaicin (the active ingredient in peppers) sensitive ones can handle.  I really love the flavor the roasted green chili adds, because it made the burger feel more organic, although it probably isn’t.  Quite frankly I don’t know why I haven’t seen more burger places add roasted chilies on their burgers but they should.

The burger that Slater’s is best known for besides the 50/50 patty itself, the peanut butter and jelly burger on a  1/3 lb. 50/50 patty topped with bacon.  Oh yes my friend, you read this right.  I was so happy I did my internet research because it paid off.  As odd as it sounds, the salty and sweet flavors are very complimentary.  The salty and sweet comes from the the bacon and jelly obviously, and the rich and creaminess of the peanut butter help bring everything together.  The two boys sitting with me thought I was crazy when I ordered this but I assure you, I converted them into believers.  My only regret is that I didn’t order this with a glass of milk. 

Rating: 5/5 Napkins

Budget: $-$$, Can be as inexpensive as under $10 if you just stick to a burger, and believe me you’ll be satisfied, to up to $20 if you get appetizers and/or how complex you want your “design it” burger to be.

www.slaters5050.com

Boiling Crab, Garden Grove CA

First, to the person who introduced me to possibly the death of me, thanks JO JO! :)   Dedicated to shellfish ranging from oysters, crab, craw fish, and lobster, I’ve had a loved one willing to risk his shellfish allergies for the sake of awesomeness.  Not that I’m saying you should do it if you’re risking anaphylactic shock, but you would be dying in the best seasonings butter can hold.  The way it works is that you have your choices of shellfish, then you select your seasonings: Rajun Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic butter, or the whole She-Bang (a combination of all three).  Then you select your degree of spiciness.  For first timers, go with mild because it does pack a good sized kick. Lastly, do yourself a favor and and just order the whole She-bang.  After you’ve ordered, they throw everything in a bag and serve it to you just like that, and you eat right out of the bag.  Your table cloth is butcher paper and you’ll get a bib.  Your only utensils are your hands and a crab cracker.  So get down and dirty and don’t get a manicure until after.

Here is the fried shrimp and cajun fries basket.  Everything was seasoned well  and the shrimp was not overdone and chewy at all.  It does the job, but this is not what you came for.

Now we’re talking, king crab legs!  Cooked perfectly and even better when you take out the meat and throw back into the whole She-bang.  I can hardly describe how flavorful the whole She-bang butter sauce is.  You really taste all the different seasonings and I love that they throw in big chunks of garlic because the garlic  absorbs all that flavor.  I could even eat the garlic by itself.

A pound of shrimp with an order of corn and red potatoes.  Yes, you will have to work for your food but the rewards make it worth it.  I recommend de-shelling at least half of your shrimp first and then throwing it back in the sauce so it intensifies the flavor.  Also, the great thing about the corn and potatoes is that the sauce and the seasonings get in every nook and cranny, making the veggies just as addicting as the meat.
Rating: 5/5 Lipitors
Budget: $$, probably spending about $20-30 per person.
Tips:  1) Don’t wear your pristine clothes and have a Tide Pen ready.  If you don’t realize until hours later that you’re full of butter spots, get Soil Love from Stater Bros. as a pre-treatment before you throw it the washer.
2) Take your left over sauce home and smother it on veggies, especially mashed potatoes.
3) Be prepared, your bowels are probably not used to this much grease and butter.  I’ll let you figure out the rest.  But I’ve never let anything like that deter me as long as I’m not suffering the symptoms of dehydration :)

Dining In: Dinner is served with sauce

Unfortunately, loving food is not always economical.  Also, my skills as a chef at home are not very complex and quite frankly it’s difficult to take the time to cook dinner.  So after some experimenting and searching on the internet, I have a few dinner suggestions that help the wallet and the clock.  I didn’t intend for everything to have sauce on top but it just happened that way.

 

Peppercorn Steak sauce: comes in a dried mix packet and can be found in most grocery stores.  All you have to do is season any steak with salt and pepper, then cook to your preference and pour the sauce on top.  Here, I used rib eye cooked medium.  The sauce is thick in consistency and is nice and rich from the butter you add.  It’s a nice change from regular steak sauce, not that I mind steak sauce at all but its good if you want to mix it up.  It’s also great over potatoes.

 
In a separate meal, I roasted yams and red onion inspired by “Roasted Vegetables” recipe by Saundra on allrecipes.com.  The original has more veggies that you can use but I stuck with two because that’s all that I had on hand at home.  I peeled and cubed one large yam and sliced up one red onion.  The sauce is 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic, 1/2 tablespoon of dried thyme and 1 tablespoon dried rosemary.  Pour the sauce over the veggies in a mixing bowl and mix by hand.  The lay the veggies over a baking sheet and bake for about 30 mins or until fork tender in 475 degrees.  Lastly, salt and pepper to taste. 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Vegetables/Detail.aspx

For my main, I used McCormick’s Garlic, Herb and Wine marinate on chicken.  Like the peppercorn sauce, it comes in a dried mix packet.  After you mix up the marinade, I put aside a couple tablespoons so that I can top the chicken with a little extra.  The directions calls for the meat to marinade for only 15 mins, but I did it for two hours to give the chicken more flavor.  This marinate has a lot of great flavor and you can really taste the wine component even though it was dehydrated at one point.
Tip: sear both sides of the chicken on high heat for three minutes each and then bake in the oven at 350 degrees until it reaches an internal temp of 170.


This is one my favorite dinners to make at home, “Heavenly Halibut” by chellebell on allrecipes.com. I have made this at least a dozen times, I actually don’t cook that often, so for me that is a lot.  The sauce is a mayo, parmesan cheese, green onion sauce that goes over the halibut.  The mayo gives it its creamy richness and the parmesan gives the cheesy salty bite.   The only tip I have is to double the recipe so that you have plenty of extra for broccoli, which goes perfectly.  I’ve also tried the sauce on carrots.  Let me spare you the time by saying don’t do it!  With the broccoli, first I steam it, then season it with salt and pepper.  Then I place the broccoli under the broiler and pour the sauce on top so that it melts.  I really do think you can make a broccoli gratin with the same sauce, although I haven’t tried it yet.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Heavenly-Halibut/Detail.aspx

President Thai – Pasadena, CA

I love it when I see a great place like being called family owned.  The menu itself features many of the typical Thai and Asian influenced dishes, but there is something about this place makes the food stand out.  I have no idea what it is, but I bet it has to do with love.  Come here with a group of friends because their portions family style.  And make sure you don’t have a three hour comedy show while its 90 degrees at night afterwards, otherwise you’ll be scrambling to find a Target so you can buy a cooler.  Also, make sure they are willing to give you ice from their soda dispenser, so that you don’t let your $30 worth of leftovers spoil.

Calamari with a sesame plum sauce – I love that the breading was extra crispy and had sesame seeds actually in it.  Definitely one of the better calamari dishes I’ve had.  The sauce just really makes it better because you don’t see calamari served with plum sauce much,  it’s usually marinara or sweet and sour sauce. 

 

Stuffed chicken wings – Chicken wings stuffed with noodles, cabbage, mushrooms, and other veggies.  The panko breading was also so good and deep fried to a perfect golden brown.  However I did have issues with the chicken skin because it was chewy and seemed wrong just to attempt to eat.  I was hoping that the skin would crisp up even a little since the whole thing is deep fried.  But aside from that, the chicken itself, the stuffing and the breading were great.  Just separate the skin and you’ll be fine.

Crab fried rice – This dish was ALMOST there.  No issues with all the ingredients such as the eggs, bean sprouts, crab, and other vegetables.  The problem is that the rice itself was on the dry side.  However I was able to fix that by adding their house cilantro sauce, as you will see in the next entrée. The whole rice dish became pretty fantastic I was able to see what the hype was about.  I would say it was probably even better with the cilantro sauce.

Charbroiled beef – Now here is where is starts to get legendary.  The beef has got to be marinated in a soy sauce vinegar marinade because it was so flavorful and the beef was cooked perfectly.  Not at all over done or dry.  The cilantro sauce was even great with it, but quite honestly the meat was also great on its own.

Pad thai – You can’t go to a Thai place and not order pad thai.  I didn’t find any ingredients out of the ordinary, but this is the best pad thai I’ve had to date.  The sauce has to have some sort of special ingredient that only family knows because it tastes just a tad sweeter than most, but its that tiny extra sweetness that makes it perfect.

 

Pad see ew – With beef and broccoli, I felt same here too.  Just by looking at it, there is nothing out of the ordinary, but its the best pad see ew I’ve ever had.  The way the black bean sauce incorporates and is soaked up by the noodles, just packs it with incredible flavor.

Rating: 4/5 Forks

Budget: $$, about $20 per person.

I heart the Kogi Truck

If you’ve never heard of the Kogi truck, then you must have been living under a rock.  A Korean-Mexican fusion taco truck that brings the taco truck to a much tastier level.  Entrees include, but not limited to, tacos, hot dogs, burritos, quesadillas, and sliders consisting of Korean BBQ and other Asian flavored meats and ingredients.  Check out their schedule and their website at www.kogibbq.com.  I highly recommend getting there a half hour early and bring cash.  And try not to order the entire menu because believe, you’re going to be tempted.  But also trust me when I say that you won’t have enough room for it unless you take it home.  Entrees range from $2-$5.  I also high recommend bringing your own drinks because the canned soda will really drive up the cost.  You can easily spend $15-$20 on the entrees alone without even realizing it.

The Kogi Dog -  A hot dog topped with their chili soy vinaigrette salad and house red sauce.  I don’t think this will become one of my go-to entrees buts its still worth trying.

Kim chi quesadilla -  I should warn you, in reading other peoples experiences with the kim chi quesadilla, people either really enjoyed it or just didn’t at all.  I was one of those that did.  You wouldn’t think that cheese and fermented napa cabbage would go together but it actually works out surprisingly well.  You may not like it if you haven’t gotten used to the acquired kim chi taste, but it’s worth giving a try if you have.  It is topped with their red sauce and has sesame seeds, and is a little tangy and a little spicy but not overbearingly spicy.  Make sure you bring your Tide pen because this especially gets messy.  That Tide pen has saved me on more than one occasion.

The Kogi sliders are by far my most favorite item on their menu.  The meat is Korean BBQ with shredded cheese, chili-soy salad and sesame mayo.  The buns are buttered and toasted and everything together is just oh so heavenly.  The anticipation is brutal but the rewards are priceless to your tummy.

Our Kogi feast.  Don’t worry, it’s not all for me, although that would be fantastic.  Sorry I didn’t get a better picture of the chocolate cake in the middle, but that’s because I dug into it so fast I forgot to get a close up.  Anyways, that’s their Chocolate Tres Leches.  A super moist chocolate cake that’s topped with peanut brittle, toffee, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa pebbles.  The diddle has tapioca milk that oozes once you open it up, which is probably why they keep it in the aluminum up.  As they describe on the website “you can totally make out with it in a dark corned shamelessly,” which when my other forgot to get me a fork, I did.  I ate it right out of the cup and wasn’t ashamed to do it in front of four other people. 

Rating: 4.5/ 5 Bites

Budget: $-$$, probably spending in the teens depending on how desperate you are to try everything.

Tip:  Bring your own drinks because drinks ,if you buy it from them, it will easily drive up the cost and its just canned soda.