Tomato Scare

This past few weeks theres been a nationwide news spread about the concern of positive results of salmonella in many tomatoes. Its been in the news that theres been dozens of people that got affected by these infected tomatoes.

As a result of these infected tomatoes, several food and dining establishment are affected by this health issues. Many recipes and food preparations have tomatoes ingredient in them like sandwhiches, pastas, tortillas, tacos, etc.

Tomatoes are such important ingredient in some recipes, not having tomatoes in them definitely wont taste as good. Although, there might be some restaurants that go through tests and got approve of having safe using tomatoes and still use tomatoes in their menus. How concern are you of eating or not eating tomatoes nowadays since the breakout of salmonella issues?

Dinner At Ruby Tuesday

We decided to try something new yesterday, so instead of going to our usual places to eat our meals, we decided to check out other restaurant nearby. We passed by Ruby Tuesday restaurant quite often on a busy street, so we decided to check out their food yesterday. As far as I can recall, we never been to their restaurant before, so we had no idea regarding their menus.

I ordered Asian Salmon and my hubby ordered hamburger with french fries. My order came with steamed brocolli, buttered toasted bread, fried rice with diced fresh tomatoes and the big chunk of salmon meat! I love to eat fish so I find everything great with what I had in my plate. I finished everything except a little leftover on the bread.

Normally, we dont go to little bit of expensive restaurants quite often because like many people nowadays, we are in a budget. Specially with how the economy is doing right now, we usually cook and prepare most of our meals at home! But it is definitely worth to experiment and try out new places youve never been before to widen our horizon and nothing get stagnant. Specially that when it comes to ordering food in our favorite restaurants, I always tend to order the same menu over and over, which is fine knowing that I will have no suprises ahead of me like I will not like the food and have it wasted, but on the other hand, I have no way of knowing what other great surprises awaits other recipes, like a totally pleasant dinner we had last night. We were definitely full and satisfied walking out of the restaurant, and it was definitely worth it.

Restaurants Name Things Differently

I cant helped but noticed that some restaurants dont always refer to the same things when it comes to food, particularly regarding noodles! At one time, in a restaurant in Washington, we ordered a chow mein and we got a bean sprouts? Another restaurant, we order chow mein, and we were served egg noodles. Then another time, one restaurant refer a chow mein to an angel haired noodle! I am definitely confused how these restaurants cannot use one term to refer to the same item. How will people know exactly which restaurants use the word chow mein to refer to an egg noodle, and which restaurants use the same word to refer to angel hair noodles, and worse case scenario to refer to a bean sprout?

In the contrary, there are several different types of animal eggs, but the most common ones are from the chicken. But when we order a scrambled egg or an over-easy egg from a restaurant, it is a good thing that it automatically means that we want a chicken egg! This definitely make sense, at least we know what we are ordering and we know what to expect once the plate is served.

But when it comes to ordering noodles, it gets really confusing how some restaurants do use different terminologies to refer to the same thing, while others use the same word to refer to different things.

Back To Italian Restaurant Again

We had a quick drive to downtown, so we decided to swing by the Italian restaurant again. As usual, i ordered the same thing, Fettucini Pesto with Shrimps, and had some warm soup and bread as first the course. We been served by two people today, a waiter took our order and bring them to us, then a waitress did all the follow-ups as far as what else we needed like additional bread and some butter requests. The soup had more veggies this time, so that was cool. But the bread was not as warm as usual, and when we ran out of bread, nobody asked if we wanted more, so we thought that they changed the rules in their restaurant, perhaps no more additional free breads, huh? But later we find out that the bread were still in the oven, as explained by the waitress, when she finally brought fresh from the oven breads! The meal was fantastic, I ended up requesting a box for my leftover again.

After we were done with the meals, we drove off to Walmart to get some groceries. On our way back to the car, while walking in the Walmart parking lot, a lady driving near where we walked slowed down in front of us and uttered our way, How Are You Guys? And we recognized her right away as the lady waitress who just served us like an hour earlier. No wonder why she left us the bill early :-) She handed us the bill of our order, the same time she handed us the food, lol. She was close to sign-off work that time, i guess, and I can understand why she left the bill early, which doesnt happen everytime we go in that restaurant, she probably just want to be able to get the tip before she leave off work, lol.

Anyways, just wanna great everyone a good night! Thanks for your visit here again.

No Milk Shake Disappointment

Just few hours ago, while in the car, probably around 7-8 pm, my hubby and I decided to take the straight route instead of turning ninety degrees towards home so that we can stop by at the nearest Jack In The Box place to buy a milkshake, nothing but a milkshake. So we drove down around 3 miles or so towards Jack In The Box to get our favorite milkshake because we presonally think that Jack In The Box milkshake is one of the best that we know, creamy and yummy! When we drove down to their drive-thru section, we noticed that all menu displays were lit and a big paper taped in one of the menu display with black pen writing that says No MILK SHAKE. Grrr, we came all the way there just to get a milkshake, and of all the menu, the one thing not available that time was their milkshake, and it was a complete pisser. So we had no choice but to back up off their drive-thru and headed towards home disappointed and pissed because we wanted the milkshake.

More Places For Coffee Breaks

This morning, I was reading an article in one of the Wall Street Journal newspaper. In the frontpage, the story is talking about McDonalds company planning to add coffee bars to most if not all their McDonalds outlet here in the United States, which according to the article is around 14,000 establishments?

Yes, you read it right, McDonalds coffee bars with stuff like Latte, Cappuchino, Mocha, and all kinds of stuff, similar to what Starbucks Coffee and Java City have been offering for years. Its been months since I saw that tv show in Travel Channel, where they featured about all the unique McDonald outlets in the world. And one of the international outlet that really caught my attention in the show was the coffee shop called McCafe that been successfully operating in a place around Canada, i believe that was in Montreal Canada. I thought, that was so cool, specialized coffee at MdDonalds. Before that tv show, i never knew that there was such thing, a coffee shop or bar operated by McDonalds.

And now, the Wall Street Journal newspaper article mentioned that McDonalds is planning to open up coffee bars in most of the current McDonalds outlet! Its definitely a major competition for the big coffee giants like Starbucks. We love Starbucks coffee, as well as Java City coffees, so its gonna be quite interesting to taste the newcomer, McDonalds coffees, and decide how good they taste as well. So I cannot wait to be able to finally drop by in one of their new coffee bar, once they open up in our area.

Personally, I think, with McDonalds new coffee bars coming up here in the USA, its gonna be cool, more choices for the consumers, and hopefully, competitions will cause some prices of coffees lowered down a little bit and becomes more affordable for more people! So its a good thing in a way, specially in the side of the consumers. What about you, what do you think of having more coffee shops around, where you can have more choices as to where to buy your latte or cappuccino or mocha?