Goodbye Stereotypes O'Bennigans

Bennigan's is apparently closing all of its restaurants nationwide. I found the food there to be ok, but I always enjoyed it because it had very little to do with all things Irish. For instance, the Turkey O'Toole had nothing Irish about it except for the fact that they tacked O'Toole on the end of it. Pretzel Roll, turkey and honey mustard doesn't scream Irish to me.

In my younger days, I enjoyed the incredibly unhealthy Monte Cristo sandwich (like the Red Robin Royal burger, the actual nutritional information is not available anywhere). Unline Monte Cristo sandwiches where the bread is basically french toast, this was a breaded and deep fried club sandwich. I'd always order it, always try to eat it all and midway through the third of the four triangles of goodness, feel completely awful.

In tribute to Bennigan's, I penned this today over my lunch. (to the tune of American Pie... how un-fitting for a tribute)

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How those Irish stereotypes made me smile.
And I knew if I had my choice
That I'd speak in a bad Irish voice
And eat some greasy food for a while.

But July 29 made me shiver
When the news was delivered.
Was it potato famine?
How could this have ever happened?

I do remember that I cried
When I heard they crushed the Irish pride,
I was burned deep inside
The day that Bennigans died.

So bye-bye, Irish stereotypes
No more deep-fried club sandwiches,
Or Turkey O'Tooles.
My arteries were not quite as crushed,
Singin', "maybe now he won't die."
"maybe now he won't die."

Me = failing at blogging

John Blog, creator of blogs, would be very disappointed in me. Apparently, April is national forget about your blog month. All of my 3 readers (special shoutout to my spiderman-loving college roomate for his devoted reading and commenting) have surely been saddened by my incompetence and laziness.

Since coming back from Florida last month, I've gone to Washington DC, back to Florida (St. Pete) and spent a week in California (San Francisco and Mountain View.) The trips provided a lot of interesting adventures and good food. I ate on the beach in Clearwater, Fla., had some amazing polenta in Washington DC and FINALLY had In-N-Out Burger while in California. (Twice in the week I was out there.) While the travel is tiring, the interesting new things I see always make it worth it. I especially love the opportunity to try different restaurants and local specialties.

I've also been spending time fixing up our house to try to sell it. You can track progress at: http://metrodetroitstarterhome.blogspot.com/ I mainly made the blog because I figured out that Blogger.com gets pretty good SEO and by creating this blog, if you google "starter home metro Detroit" the blog comes up as the third listing and if you search "metro Detroit starter home" it comes up second. Who knows if it will help, but it's going to be a fun little experiment.

In other news, the Tigers are finally back on track, the Pistons are doing their normal up and down playoff run and the Wings look to have a good chance to bring home the Stanley Cup. Should be an interesting spring in the D.

Sorry to all the loyal readers for not updating, let's hope I'm back on the blog bus now.

Twitter me this, twitter me that, who's afraid of the Tigers' bats?

So basically I'm famous. Well, not really. Today, I twittered live updates for Mlive at the Tigers' game. It was a lot of fun, until the Tigers lost.

Here's my stream, reversed to chronological order beginning with my first tweet.

greetings from comerica, game time temp is 59 degrees and the crowd cheers

a fan is confused that dombrowski plays for the tigers and bought a dombrowski jersey

great start, after going 0-2 on swisher, willis walks him

big boy wasn't too good with details today and i ended up with some bun-on-bun action in my double decker burger

cabrera flies out with two on and an old man in toledo muttered "hessman would have ate that up"

mvp 5 games in is clete thomas

jacque jones actually does something good... crowd is in shock

inge doubles in jacque and the tigers lead 1-0

ozuna, how about no-zuna!

dontrelle with the slowest pick-off throw ever

dontrelle with a no-hitter through 3, I'm a one-man curse machine

mullet in a hot-orange scrunchie sighting

quentin a few feet away from putting the white sox up 3-1, one pitch later, he grounds into a dp to get willis out of the jam

quentin's revenge as he guns to double renteria off first after a pudge fly-out

guy wearing a renteria no. 11 t-shirt obviously right after the trade and before the t-shirt maker realized 11 is sparky's number

inge homers to left, he's making a case to keep an everyday role when granderson returns, maybe in left?

ok, the no-hitter joke isn't looking so funny now when he still has it after 5

little kid in front of us has dippin dots... when will dippin dots be the ice cream of the present instead of the ice cream of the future?

some guy participating in the wave wearing two orange fists from the souvenir stand... hilarious
dontrelle has allowed no hits, but a bevy of walks

thome breaks up the no-hitter and the shutout... sigh

pandering to the little kid behind us who has been yelling "pull him!" leyland brings in miner

tie game...

mark champion level of pessimism has befallen CoPa

sac fly... sox lead

inge is batting .400, watch out ted Williams

had no idea francis beltran had been called up

beltran puts grilli to shame

boone logan sounds like davey crockett's cousin or a character from a gary paulsen book

inge just misses another

polanco needs to recapture the power of the overgrown temples and get a hit sometime

a young fan is braving the chilly night to show off his guns via cut-off granderson t-shirt

beltran looking more and more like a keeper

spoke too soon... dye homers

magglio gidp... i want to cry

announcement about kids running the bases tomorrow night after the game.... at midnight???

bautista throwing well, hopefully i don't curse him like i did beltran

white sox have 3 hits and are up 5-3... ridiculous

jacque jones is the only hope... not looking good

love fielders indifference

bobby fats can't throw a strike

time for clete to make up for that error

blah good play by crede, tigers are 0-5

just saw fans swigging liquor on the ramp, it's that bad

highlight of the day, a guy juggling drumsticks while playing the xylophone outside the stadium


So yeah, the Tigers are 0-5, sound the panic. I'm going to go cry now.

Finally wrapping up the vacation

Sorry for no updates, coming back from vacation I had a lot to catch up on.

So as I'm sure you've all been waiting for, here's the final food review.


Food review, day 6 (a week plus late)


Breakfast and lunch aren't exciting, it was McDonalds for breakfast and a sandwich before the Tigers game that day.


After the game, we went for a Florida tradition and must if you are in the Lakeland area... Parksdale Farm Market strawberry shortcake. I don't even like strawberries and I love this stuff. The shortcake is like crack it's so good. But it becomes like a highly-refined, white collar crack when you let it soak up all the strawberry sauce, ice cream and whipped cream. Parksdale's doesn't look like much visually, but the shortcake is amazing and well worth the trip over to Plant City.


Dinner was Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which I'd previously had at one of the original locations in Alexandria, Virginia. They are now being franchised all over and one went up in Lakeland since the last time we had been there. The atmosphere isn't as good as the originals, but the food is still uniquely good. I had a burger without a lot of toppings because I was still recovering from shortcake. The handcut fries are great, especially the extra portions they give you.

The last day wasn't much to write about, breakfast in the room, Quiznos in the terminal and back home to Michigan. Jones the dog was sure happy to see us and we were glad to be home. Good things lie ahead and the time in Florida was great for a re-charge. Now let's all sing kumbayah together.

You're in potato salad row!

In game promotions are always entertaining and the ones here in Lakeland for Tigers spring training don't disappoint. One of the favorites is "dooooooooogggg row!" where everyone (check that, only 11, apparently for rows with more than 11 people puts Joker Marchant over budget) in the row gets a hot dog. Last night when we found out that not everyone got a hot dog, we thought about starting our own competing promotion. We had passes for an all-you-can-eat buffet for season ticket holders. It was open an hour after the game started, so we could have conceivably gone back and gotten our own hot dogs for our own "dooooogggg row!" or our own "hamburger row." Then we started taking it a little further based on other items from the buffet and by far the best was "pooooootato salad row!" Imagine the announcement, "If you're in section 105, row 6, you're in pooooootato salad row!" And everyone says a collective "noooooooooooo!" A elementary school-style lunch lady would appear with a little scoop and all patrons in the row would be forced to put their hands out and get a big scoop of potato salad. This idea is going to make me rich.

I'm behind on a few days of food reviews, so here we go.

Food review, day 5
Another boring breakfast and lunch of cheerios and turkey sandwiches. Everything was saved until dinner, when we tried Jimbo's Pit Barbecue, one of the better-known barbecue joints in Lakeland. As we had read before going, you don't go to Jimbo's for a beautiful atmosphere. The bathrooms are out back and apparently not the most sanitary, but if you do go out back, you can see the smoking pit. I had the pork plate with baked beans, fries and hush puppies. The beans were great, the fries and hush puppies were adequate. The pork was fairly good, not the best I've had, but very good. Overall, a great experience and the laid-back, down-home vibe at the place is great.

Food review, day 6
I love pancakes, therefore I love IHOP. We had a late breakfast at the good old International House O' Pancakes, which for me consisted of a half order of corn cake pancakes (great w/ the butter pecan syrup) and chocolate chip pancakes (just ok) with some eggs. I was so full, I didn't even eat lunch when my wife did at the outlet mall. I ended up eating a turkey sandwich in the afternoon and then our dinner was the aforementioned buffet. I had a burger, a little bit of potato salad and some chips. Not great, but free.

Food review, day 4

We went to Sea World, so breakfast was at the room, then we ate lunch at Sea World. We found a decent barbecue place and I had some surprisingly good brisket. We then did a beer tasting at the Aneheuser Busch hospitality center. This involved tasting four different beers with various, cheeses, fruits and chocolates. It was rather interesting. For dinner, we went to the ever-elusive Sonic. Much like a friend of mine, I had seen several thousand commercials for Sonic, but never actually eaten there. Because of the high number of these commercials, I had visions that the menu would be 10 pages long with hundreds of options. Either they are like Taco Bell and just combine the same ingredients in different ways or have a rotating menu, because the menu wasn't that big. I suppose all of the build up left very little chance I'd be satisfied. The food was ok, but it surely wasn't worth all those times where I saw the commercials and would have liked to go try said item except there's no Sonic anywhere near where I live.

Food review, day 3

Breakfast at our room with some generic honey nut cheerios and lunch was also in the room, turkey sandwich, etc. After the game, I had a craving for a down home Easter Sunday dinner, so we went to Whistle Junction buffet, the highest rated buffet by the Lakeland Ledger. I had pulled pork, roast beef, baked chicken and ham as well as several sides and then several types of pudding. I was stuffed. Overall, it was just ok and probably not worth the increased price because it was Easter Sunday, but it filled the need.

Flea markets are awesome

Today was a rainy day in Florida and we decided to head out with my wife's parents to a flea market. This was an excellent choice. As someone who enjoys cheesy items, it was a day well spent.

The first flea market was a little trashier than the second. It was sparsely covered with vendors, some who appeared to literally have not sold an item in years. It was a good basis, as some items were ones that we'd see over and over all day.

The second was much bigger and a little more organized, but still full of a wealth of awesomely cheesy items. Full details of items are available in the above graph.

So I'm sure you are wondering about what we actually purchased. Here's a preview:

And here's a satisfied customer at the end of the day.

I now have two awesome gifts for friends.

Food review, day 2:

A rushed breakfast at McDonalds. An oldie, but goodie (tasting, not for you.) Sausage biscuit, hashbrown and milk. I ran about 2.5 miles later because I felt guilty about it.

The rest of the day was all about authentic Mexican food. I had two tacos (one chicken, one beef) made with just cilantro and onions. Then I had an ear of roasted corn smothered in butter, garlic salt and Parmesan cheese. Great for food out of trailer restaurants.

Dinner was also Mexican, at Tapatio's in Lakeland. We went based off a good review in the Lakeland Ledger and were not disappointed. It reminded us of one of our favorite restaurants back home, Little Mexico. My wife and I both had enchiladas and have some leftovers for the next couple of days. The service was good, we had some nice salsas and chips to munch on while we waited and the desserts looked awesome, though we were all too full to try.

Next up is trying some of the well-known barbecue places around Lakeland.

Also, tomorrow, we are going to Easter service at a church here that is apparently "dropping thousands of pieces of candy from a helicopter for all children." In all honesty, Easter is a special day to me because of its significance in my beliefs. But, the candy and helicopter was too ridiculous not to reference.

What constitutes a ceremonial first pitch thrower?

Our first day in Florida was a great one, although we're currently waiting to hear if my wife's parents were able to get out of Detroit because of the blizzard there. (Blizzard in late March, gotta love Michigan.)

We went to our first Tigers game, saw Gary Sheffield and Pudge Rodriguez hit home runs, but Dontrelle Willis got rocked and the Tigers lost. But the interesting thing about the game was one of the people to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. I didn't hear the name, but the description was "one of the original munchkins from the Wizard of Oz" and I also heard he was 89-years-old. After some of the other ceremonial first pitchers (there were like four, since when is that allowed?) were done and had bounced their throws, this gentleman and former munchkin star motioned to the catcher to come closer to the mound, which brought quite a laugh from the crowd. He then proceeded to throw the best strike of anyone.


It got me to thinking, if an 89-year-old who played a munchkin could throw out a first pitch, what would be a more random ceremonial first pitcher? Here's five of mine:
1. Air Bud's stunt double
2. The director of Snakes on a Train
3. The voice of Templeton from Charlotte's Web
4. Brad Anderson, creator and author of Marmaduke
5. A guy who beat Brandon Inge at pool




Food review, day one:

One of the great parts about vacation is all the different restaurants you get to try. I'll be writing short reviews of the days food for my own memory and for well, just me I guess. Today we went for mainly chain restaurants because we have a list of restaurants to try with my wife's parents once they get here.


Lunch - Steak and Shake
As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid greasy fast food. But once in awhile, it's just too hard to pass up. Steak and Shake was too hard to pass up today. I had a frisco melt, a chocolate mint shake and we shared some of the absolutely awesome fries. The burger was good, but the grease literally dripping from it was a bit disheartening. The fries were great as always. The shake was lacking in mint, but not bad overall. Once in a great while, it's good to have a little Steak and Shake.


Dinner - Panera Bread
After a great lunch, I figured a healthy dinner would be good, so I chose the orchard harvest salad. It contains field greens, crisp romaine, dried cherries, fresh pears, Gorgonzola, toasted pecans and a cherry balsamic vinaigrette. Normally I love Panera Bread, but today's choice was a bad one. I think it may have been the dressing, either I just didn't take to the taste or it was going bad. After a few bites, I couldn't eat anymore, an extreme rarity for me. Luckily, my wife had some soup and part of her sandwich I could eat. But I'll happily go back to Panera Bread in the future, I'll just remember to have things like the Chicken Pomodoro rather than the orchard harvest salad.