Liz Discusses McDonald's Mighty Wings in Rhyme

I decided to try the Mighty Wings,

to see what kind of flavor it brings.

I took a big bite,

and much to my delight,

the black peppery taste? It zings!

...is that technically a limerick? I thought limericks had to be about someone. You know, "There once was a man from Nantucket, who's..." HOLD IT! Liz, this is a family-friendly (mostly) food blog, you can't be bringing that kind of filth in here!

I'm not exactly sure why these had to be battered and deep fried, but hey, it's McDonald's. I believe you can get these in 3, 5 or 10, and as you can see, I went with 5. In my defense, I just got back from Canada and wanted some good old fashioned American food. Shut up, I know they have McDonald's in Canada!

What was good: the crunch was good, the flavor was good, they were juicy. The black pepper can be a bit much though. I personally loved the zing it gave and did not mind one bit.

What was not so good. The on-the-job hazard with these things, particularly the drummie ones in particular was that they were too wide from the ranch dipping sauce. The wingy ones were no problem but the drummie ones were a problem, so keep that in mind.

What else was not so good: NO BLUE CHEESE! But they have ranch, so that's better than nothing I guess. 

If you like wings, definitely give these a try! I hope some day they offer an unbreaded version but that might be where the black peppery zest is hiding.

Good job, McDonald's! You (mostly) nailed it. Now if you can offer something for the more mild flavored crowd. Hey I know! Plain or Zesty. Get on that. :)

The Fish Dish You Shouldn't Mish..er..Miss!

I am so excited that some T/A's still offer a local special dinner item because then I get all giddy and excited if I'm passing by and think "Do I have to stop for dinner here?" Well, that wasn't exactly the case up here in Ohio because..well..I had never stopped at this place before. But after the amazing dinner I had that fateful night, it's now on my places to go!

I'm talking about the Kingsville Ohio T/A. It's on I-90, exit 235. It is, I would say, about half way between Cleveland OH and Erie PA, near Lake Erie but far enough away to where you can't see it from the road (you can see it at one point in PA and the view is amazing!). It's actually on the way out of Ohio, there are a few truck stops near-ish the border. Um, it's an older model store. It has that old T/A look and feel to it. I think the showers are upstairs (which are remodeled and very nice, btw)

But let's talk food! On the way into the restaurant they were promoting their special dish: Whitefish Monterrey. Sounds interesting, sounds like it could be good, why not I'll give it a shot. Besides, it's the local specialty item so, really, for myself and the blog I have to try it.

As far as fish dishes go, it's not exactly heart healthy. Fish is supposed to be good for you and they found a way to make it totally bad for you and cause a very stern lecture from your cardiologist. Well honey, pass me the glycerin, because this dish was incredible!

So what is Whitefish Monterrey? Well it's a whitefish covered in mayo and pepperjack cheese with some bacon on the bottom that they shove into a broiler until it's bubbly and then slide it onto a plate with some rice and garlic bread. 

Since I'm sure you didn't catch it before, let me say it again. This dish was awesome. It was cooked just right, the flavors were yummy and tasty. The bacon on the bottom I didn't know about so that was either a surprise or something the cook did so the fish wouldn't stick to the broiler? I was offered tartar sauce but refused because the mayo and the cheese worked so well that nothing extra was needed. This is, hands down, one of the best things I've eaten from a truck stop restaurant.

But let me criticize one thing here: I think they missed a great opportunity and it's probably because their hands are tied with the way the company runs the restaurant and they're not allowed to make outside decisions. I feel this dish, while very very good, could have been made better had they used a fish native to the Lake Erie area. I mean, the lake is like 10 minutes away, and I'm sure Bass, Perch, Pike and/or Walleye could be found for a fairly good price at a local fish market. Any of those locally caught fish would have probably made this dish even better, but alas, I'm sure the chef and restaurant owner aren't allowed to go outside the norm and were stuck using the same Whitefish they use for their other fish dishes.

That's one thing I've picked up from watching some of these cooking competition shows and reality shows: always buy local if you can. It will be fresher, it will have a better taste and the cost will be comparable or less. But like I said, I'm sure their hands are tied and aren't allowed to do so. :(

In the meantime, if you're in the area or passing through the area, please stop and try the Whitefish Monterrey because it blew me away how good it was. I loved it. Sadly I couldn't get seconds. Or maybe I could but I was too full. I forget. 

GO EAT IT! 

(they're open 24-hours, you could go now if you wanted)

A Penne Saved...

I don't know about you, but my comfort food is Fettuccine Alfredo. Someone more famous than me said "It's like macaroni and cheese for adults" and it totally is! While I'm usually not that picky with how it comes, I may have to make an exception in this case. 

Now for this particular dinner, I was at a Petro in, I believe, Reddick FL (it's between Ocala and Gainesville on I-75. Have you heard of Cafe Risque' in Micanopy? Yeah its just down the road a bit from there). You can get it plain, or with a choice of chicken or shrimp. I was feelin' fancy that night and opted for the shrimp, which were well seasoned and yummy.

Buuuuut, rigatoni doesn't seem to fare too well with Alfredo sauce. It must be that totally tubular (sorry, as a kid who grew up in the 80's, I really had to put that in there) shape doesn't lend itself to sauce adhesion or maybe the sauce was too watery or maybe MAYBE the pasta was still kinda wet and the sauce just...ran right off it.

I have no idea why I'm trying to be so scientific about this. Now you see, class, we have the constant (X) represented by the sauce, the the variable (Y) represented by the pasta. Now you'll see as Y decreases in consistency, we see a related decrease in adhesion of Y.

...I really have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. My high school science teachers would be embarrassed. Both the Physics and Chemistry teachers.

Ok so..focus, Liz, focus! Rigatoni...not such a good Fettuccine Alfredo pasta choice.

Now I swear they said this was chicken and rice soup...

Sorry it's kind of fuzzy, I took this picture in a bit of a hurry and was afraid I was drawing too much concern taking pics of my food. I don't want to get kicked out of a place because they're afraid I write a food blog and will give them a bad review. On the other hand, maybe they just let it go thinking "I'll bet hardly anyone reads her food blog" to which they're probably right.

...please correct me if I'm wrong. Anyone?...anyone?...Bueller?

T/A still has Fettuccine Alfredo on their Country Pride menu and it is much, much better. Considering they're both owned by the same company, I'm not sure why there's a quality discrepancy here but oh well.

Fettuccine Alfredo:

T/A - 1 (they also offer chicken or shrimp)

Petro - 0

P.S. Sorry this blog entry sucks. The next one will be much better...

Special Guest Marconin visit's Dyer's Burgers in Memphis!

Hello bloggers, bloggies and bloggettes.  Guest blogger Marconin filling in for this culinary romp.  Here’s a tiny bit about myself.  I like food, lots of different kinds of food, too.  I also travel most of the year for work, which is probably why I was asked to contribute to the Truck Stop Food Blog.  I like to find the out-of-the-way and Mom & Pop places to eat.  Anyway, on to the review!

Dyer’s Burgers is located on Beale Street in Memphis, a strip of pavement famous for its place in blues music history.  Dyer’s itself has been in business since 1912 and is most famous for frying their burgers on a pan with grease… 101 YEAR OLD GREASE!  Seriously, the grease has not been changed since 1912!!  When they've changed locations, the grease is moved with a police escort. They strain and process the grease to keep it usable, but (in theory) at least a couple molecules from the grease from the VERY FIRST fried hamburger fried at Dyer’s is in your hamburger.  WEIRD!

Dyer’s itself is your classic diner, and was pretty clean when we went on a Thursday for lunch.  There were maybe 10 other customers and it was fairly quiet.  Our waitress was prompt in getting our order and was very polite.  We ordered a Double (two fried beef patties and two slices of American cheese with onion and mustard), some onion rings and a fried Twinkie for dessert. 

Here’s the (in)famous Burger and… fries?  The waitress forgot the onion rings, but we get to review a bonus item!  The fries weren’t good at all.  Soggy with grease and not even that warm, it was the low point for the meal. 

The burger? Oh the burger… It came wrapped in wax paper and was nearly transparent from the greasy goodness.  Surprisingly, the burger itself wasn’t as greasy as I’d expected.  It was a little greasy to be sure, but was quite good.  It’s not the best burger I’ve had, and honestly it tasted just like a Supersonic Cheeseburger from Sonic (fast food chain for those not in the know). 

Our waitress brought the onion rings out and they were really good.  The batter was crunchy and the onions themselves were thick and very tasty.  Much, much better than the fries.

And then came the fried Twinkie and ice cream……ooooooooooooooh.  It was deep fried and topped with strawberry syrup and powdered sugar, and came with vanilla ice cream.  It. Was. Delicious.  The batter was magnificent, and the warm Twinkie paired with the cold, creamy ice cream was amazing.  This was definitely the high point of the meal!

So, in conclusion:

The burger is really good but was more of a “You’re eating century old grease” novelty for me.  

Fries weren’t good at all, please avoid them. Onion rings a definite plus.  

Fried Twinkie was SO GOOD PLEASE TRY IT.

Their new logo should be “Dyer’s Burgers: Come for the burger, stay for the Twinkie.”

Rutter's...they're around Harrisburg PA

Four score and seven years ago, God created Sheetz. And it was good. Frankly, it was really good. Then God said, "Monopolies are bad, mmkay." and thus created Wawa. And it was also good. (side note: this is probably not at all accurate. I'm a truck driver, not a historian)

Then a little while later, or maybe elsewhere around the same time, heck maybe earlier..come on what is this a test?!..Rutter's was born. And it was good, but similar to Sheetz and Wawa, I mean they all have little differences but they're all basically the same concept and the same ordering system.

So unbeknownst to me then, but knownst to me now, Rutter's is a local chain to the Harrisburg PA and surrounding areas. Like, immediate surrounding areas. The one I went to was near York. Yes where the barbells are made. Will you stop distracting me with tangents?

So they sell gas. This one in particular also sells diesel and has VERY LIMITED truck parking...like..3 spots and that's it. I was bobtail so I could park anywhere and found a lovely spot near the truck parking that was actually quite nice and peaceful.

Like I said the ordering system is exactly the same: Touch screen. Order what you want, take the receipt up to the cashier, pay for your food, drop receipt into little basket as you pick up your order. Sheetz, Wawa and Rutter's all do this. They (like those other 2) have drinks and chips and a pre-made cold snacks cooler and sandwiches and coffee and yadda yadda yadda.

So on this particular night (and this was my first time here), I tried a bevy of foods because I was a bevy of hungry. For some reason I don't think that word works the second time, but hey, I'm a truck driver not a student of proper grammar (as I'm sure you've noticed by now).

Gotta try some appetizers! or one appetizer. Since I like soup, I tried one of theirs.

Chicken and rice, I do believe. It was nice. It warmed my insides and made me happy and eager to dive into everything else I bought, such as...

MACARONI AND CHEESE! Always a popular comfort food of mine. I don't know if they make it there or if it's pre-made. Who cares, it's mac and cheese! I couldn't unwrap my fork fast enough..

Next up is the sammich. Since we're nowhere near Philly, the obvious selection was the Philly Cheesesteak!

What a freaking mess of a sandwich that looks like, eh? Steak, and lettuce and onion and you can't see it but there's ketchup in there too, and cheese. Since I've never had a cheesesteak in Philly, this is my best guess of what it *might* be like. It's probably close but not quite. Either way, this sandwich in front of me, was delish! I tore into this thing like a little kid tears into presents on Christmas morning. Loved it!

And then to wash everything down, I grabbed two Rutter's drinks. One was an obvious choice, the other piqued my interest.

The Orange Tea was surprisingly good! I was amazed at how good it was. Several times after taking a sip/chug/swig I would stop and think "man, this is some good orange tea!" I almost went back inside for a second one! While the sweet tea to the left was good, the Southern Sweet Tea that I had the next day was better. Maybe it's personal preference. Maybe it's because I'm from the south. Maybe the Southern Sweet Tea is better than the regular sweet tea. Maybe I'm craving that Orange Tea right now, omg it was so good!

So there you have it! Rutter's, around the Harrisburg PA area. They're like Sheetz and Wawa...but with different food options to choose from. In Pennsylvania, you're not too far from one of these 3 chains so check them out! Check them all out.

This particular Rutter's (with very limited truck parking) is located on I-83, south of Harrisburg. It's in Newberrytown (cute name, no?) I-83 exit 32.

BK's version of the McRib reviewed in haiku form

Burger King's McRib

Nearly the same, different sauce.

Go give it a try.

Liz climbs a mountain of a burger at Denny's.

While the new Build Your Own Pancake special thingymabob at Denny's really didn't catch my attention or interest, I did notice a couple *NEW!* items on the Denny's menu and decided to give them a try. I'll just warn you right now, they were both good, so if you're expecting a typical Liz food rant you'll be disappointed.

First up, a new "Build Your Own Appetizer". They give you a few options and then you decide if you want to try 3 of them, or for a little bit less you can try 2. While they offered fried jalapeno slices, I'm not really a fan and too many gives me acid reflux, so I went with two very basic standard apps:

Mozarella sticks and chips and queso! They were good. I chose these two items because I knew they would be good so mission accomplished!

This particular evening I decided to get a burger. I wasn't sure what burger to get but then I saw a *NEW!* one so I went with that. Barbecue Bacon Burger..sounds lovely. But little did I know what I was going to be expecting. Grab your climbing ropes and helmet because this is one mountain of a burger!

This is exactly how it looked when the server brought it to me and set it on my table. I'm sure if you looked closely you can see an expedition crew and a sherpa around the 3rd pickle. This burger, by burger standards, was freaking huge. Even after taking the tower o' pickles off, it was still freaking huge. I had difficulty eating this thing because it was just so...big! (no jokes about that, please)

Size jokes aside, this was good. Like really good. I mean it's so easy, too! Burger, cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce and garden on a cheddar bun. And like I said, it was really good. My only obvious complaint was to some how make it..smaller. But now that I think about it, making it smaller would either have to include a thinner burger, which would be a disappointment, or taking away the garden which although it wouldn't be as cumbersome to hold would probably take away a little something from the overall burger eating experience.

Congratulations, Denny's, you made something so good that trying to take away from it to make it a little more manageable would ruin part of the experience. I'm waving my white flag of surrender and grabbing a couple extra napkins for this beast.