8/22-8/24

Well, it seems that I have been too busy (work, drink, sleep, repeat) to keep up with this blog over the weekend, so we'll do a quick catch up. When we last left off, I was sipping martinis late, late Friday night. I had one too many it seems, because I raided the styrofoam takeout container that had Lisa's leftovers from Chili's inside. Never a good idea or a pretty sight. I am reminded of Patton Oswalt's bit on KFC's Famous Bowls.

I mean, here I am, a man of discriminating taste. One that understands the beauty of fresh, locally grown produce, choice meats, and super fresh fish. A cook that aspires to be a great chef, drunk as fuck, shoveling cold Southwest Egg-rolls doused in soy sauce at 3 in the morning in his dark kitchen of his shitty apartment. Sad, but it happens.

Then I go to sleep.

Wake up Saturday afternoon, get dressed, and head with Lisa to Haltom City for some delicious Thai Belknap. I love that place man. They have lunch specials six days a week from 11-3, closed on Mondays.

As we always do, we started off with the Thai Dumplings which are steamed and made with ground pork, shrimp, chicken, and mushrooms, served with the house soy sauce that is slightly sweet and smoky. Delicious!!

Lisa had a hard time deciding, I always get the same thing...the fish special which consists of 2 tilapia filets, breaded and deep fried and covered with a melange of cilantro, mint, scallions, red onion, peanuts, and chili flakes tossed in a lime dressing served with rice, cucumber, tomato, and an egg roll. I order it Thai hot, which is the highest level of spiciness. It ensures i drink a ton of water which as you may or may not know, I have a problem with not hydrating myself properly, especially considering the heroic doses of adult beverages I am known to consume.

After some consultation with our super nice server, Lisa decides on the Spicy Basil Duck that is stir fried with vegetables. She was pleased and stated that it was the best thing she has tried there yet. I know I should branch out and try some new things, but I'm telling you, the fish dish is the shit!! You must try it

Thai Belknap Cuisine
4023 E. Belknap st. Suite A
Haltom City, TX 76111
http://thaibelknap.com/

We then went to Target for a few items, then to 7-11 so we could stock up on 5 hour energy doses and Gatorade as we were both working long nights. By the way, 5 hour energy fucked up my stomach, but it was probably reacting to the chili slurry in my gut.
My chef and the lead line cook had worked early to cater for a bridal shower that was held at the restaurant. They offered a fixed menu of appetizers for them, and had an ass-load of grilled chicken breast left over, as well as some blue corn tortilla chips, and shredded pepper-jack cheese.

That's right kids, I made nachos for dinner. Fuck you pizza!

I also grazed on pita, 2 shrimp bacon brochettes, various other bites here and there.

I closed, then rode my bike to Sarah's Place for copious Pabst Blue Ribbons and a shot or two. I met the chef and the sous chef of Aventino, a highly praised Italian joint very close to my place. Nice guys, gotta check that place out for sure soon. My friend Rowdy met me up there, and Lisa showed up too. We ended up going to Rowdy's for some late night Tecates for a bit, but we got hungry. For some awful reason, I was craving shitty Jack in the Box tacos. I devoured them and passed the fuck out.

Woke up Sunday feeling like appropriate hell. Drank a Dr. Pepper and felt better. I had to go into work from 2-5pm for a deep clean and meeting. I came in a little late so Lisa and I could look at a rent house. It's a total fixer upper, but it has a garage, a backyard, a giant rosemary bush out front, a shed, garbage disposal, dishwasher, and........... a gas oven/range!!!!!! Oh yeah, and walking distance to Central Market. Ummm...I'm pretty much sold.

So I get to work and get Lisa to get a grip of Melis bisteck tacos for the crew.

The guys do not look happy. I guess we were all under the impression that we would be paid for this clean-up, and we were, but in free food and beer. I can deal with that. But the other guys had been working since 9am for the Sunday Brunch.

Oh yeah, Brunch sucks.

Our lead line cook was especially peeved about everything, he almost lost it.

The meeting was for the entire staff, but the issues were 99% front of the house. We didn't even need to be there. The cooks just sipped their Bud Light from plastic cups and watched scantily clad ladies dancing off in some kinda booty shaking competition on a silent flat-screen behind the bar. After about an hour of this, we wrapped up the cleaning, even though we barely made a dent in the greasy-ass saute station.
The owner ordered food for us. Guess what we got........ fucking pizza from Rocco's. No thank you, I'll stick with beer. I had a good time drinking and smoking and talking shit with the guys until I had Lisa pick me up a little after 7. I was pretty drunk, and needed to eat dinner. I came up with a quick plan to go to the grocery for the makings of shrimp scampi and a few bottles of wine, then to Blockbuster to get some movies. We also had like a bowl left of some good herb, so I decided I wanted ice cream. The grocery didn't have what I wanted (did Ben and Jerry quit making Chubby Hubby?), so I settled for Haagen Dazs Creme Brule.

After what seemed like a million stops and a good long wee behind the dumpster at Blockbuster (I had to go dude, I had like 6 cups of beer!), got home and started making the scampi. This has become a staple dish in our house. It's perfect for a quick, easy, summer dish that is light and super tasty. You can find the recipe here.

We sat down to eat with a bottle of Hess Chardonnay and put on 'The Last House on the Left', and turned it off after 20 minutes. It was terrible. We even called Blockbuster to ask about a return policy for terrible movies just for shits and giggles. Lisa hung up when the associate went to ask the manager. We got stoned and put on 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe', but I wasn't feeling it. I was, however, totally feeling the ice cream. Holy shit!! Creme Brule ice cream = fucking rad!

We then put on Vanilla Sky as Lisa had never seen it and I forced her to watch the entire thing even though she was fighting slumber tooth and nail. We went to bed around 2am.

Lisa woke me up at 8:30am asking me to take the dog out because she had taken him out twice already. I was pissed off and tired. I decided to kick it on the couch and read for a bit, fell asleep about 10:30am, and woke up at 12:30pm and did nothing but read, facebook, play with the dog, tried to go swim, but the pool was locked. Lisa got home from her lunch shift at Mac's and made a sandwich, I followed suit. Peppered-turkey, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, pesto on wheat bread with sweet onion chips and a coke.

It is currently 6:34pm central time, but not quite ready to eat dinner. Thinking it will be a late one. Lisa is at work at Pop's so it's just me and the animals. It'll probably just be chicken pasta tonight because I really don't feel like riding to the store in this heat, especially after the 3 vodka tonics I've had typing this super long post.

Get back with you on dinner.

Ciao!!!