Greg's Grilling

2014-07-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

Lone Star BYO

The BYO.

Mysterious meat on top of rice or noodles, red wine for the guys, white for the girls, progressively louder and incomprehensible conversation, awkward chat with random people who came along with their friends and the sly gesture of placing a coin into your friend’s wine glass gifting them an obligatory scull creates a memorable (for some) once a monthly alternative to the usual flat pre-drinks. What begins as a civilized evening worthy of the duchess’s presence quickly transitions to an evening not fit for Len Brown.

When my friend told me that he was having a BYO at Lone Star I was skeptical from the get go. I tend to associate BYO’s with Asian restaurants with meat straight from the spca that turned a blind eye to the ensuring chaos. My memory of Lone Star was a family restaurant that served giant carcasses of meat surrounded by boulders of buffalo potatoes. Was it desperate to attract a new breed of customer? Maybe they are over the hungus family birthday dinners? I was actually nervous about how their giant meals would mix with my giant serving of wine.

Wine choice at a BYO is essential. You want a wine that will enhance your meal experience and augment the flavors on offer. I arrive at Lone Star with a fine Hawke’s Bay Pinot Noir. It cost me 10.99. Gone are the days of the tasteless $6.99 bottle, sigh… I am growing up. I felt this enriching full-bodied wine would compliment the American cuisine well and because white wine to me tastes like an old ladies urinary tract infection. Pinot Noir I find is not as heavy as a merlot and a lot less earthy which is vital if a coin so happens to find its way into your glass.

We arrive at the American joint full of western paraphernalia and realise that by some miracle had booked the numbers were exactly right for once. I swear this has never happened at a BYO before. Despite this I was seated in the middle of two semi-circles. Why they arranged four circular tables together bewildered me, oblongs work so much better for shuffling round for the people who turn up late. Amateurs.

We received our menus and I am immediately impressed with the variety on offer but the simplicity of it all. It was refreshing not having to decipher through 7000 different options scattered over 20 pages and, where the only real difference is rice or noodles. The ribs immediately stand out to me; I have fond memories of the ribs. It is a graveyard stack of succulent, tender, good meat to rib ratio saucy goodness. However eating your way through this ribcage is about as glamorous as a blind hyena learning to eat a carcass for the first time. I decide like the rest of the group to order the stir-crazy sirloin, (medium-rare) of course the 250gram option instead of the 350grams. Why I did this I will never know, maybe I panicked at the attraction of the waitress and the on the spot ordering, whatever the reason the table definitely did not let me forget my foolish uncharacteristic choice of the lighter option.

Dinner arrived at a good time as the conversation volume and laughter was increasing by the minute. I even think there was a couple of deep and meaningfuls going on already. A blunting of the wine was definitely needed to delay the dremos (emotional drunks) coming out. My thick 250gram sirloin covered in creamy mushroom sauce with a side of coleslaw and buffalo potatoes arrived. I felt like a ravenous dog waiting to eat, but was a good boy and waited for everyone else’s dishes to arrive. I politely ripped into my steak and saw that it was cooked medium, not medium rare. Unbelievable. I swear everyone always orders medium rare, so it should be a piece of meat right? Apparently not. Likely the euphoria from my delicious wine offset this and I chowed through it nonetheless.

The steak tasted like your standard restaurant steak, I ate it too fast and I was slightly intoxication to give more details about it sorry. The mushroom sauce was delicious, it had the consistency of semen which was a good thing, and didn’t let the butter in it shine through too much. Side salads at restaurants are never exciting, they just put the ratty rocket leaves with various other shavings to balance the meal. This salad was a different story, it was tasty well dressed coleslaw (always better!) with little pine nuts amongst it. I felt like a starving chipmunk coming across nuts in winter, they were so good.

Having finished the meal in a polite 4 minutes, there was no doubt I could finish the 350gram option. However eating that entire meal and trying to polish off my wine as well would have been like flushing gelatin done a toilet. I was comfortable, I felt like I had eaten a nice meal at my parent’s house and was ready to sneak out to the party with some rocket fuel. It definitely beat the feeling I had post-Indian BYO where the alcohol and curry seemed to react like napalm in my abdomen.

The substantial meals are enjoyed by all and helped prevent any BYO insensibilities. Unlike Asian BYO’s where the level of drunkenness rises faster than a 15 year olds penis in the morning, this was a more controlled environment with a smoother ride to the land of blurriness. Either that or we are just more mature now, probably the former. The staff, efficient and cheery tolerated us well and even smiled when the inevitable broken glass occurred.

With the meal over, it was time to make the ataxic stumble into town. All the payments were made and like every BYO $30 was still left to pay. The best thing about Lone Star is that it is in close proximity to the good home, the ideal place to cut shapes amongst horny 40 year olds and rugby “number ones”. Lone Star is a great alternative for a BYO venue. Simple American cuisine washed down with glorious red wine provides the perfect foundation for that 3am crowded house/our place creep.

Cheers guys

Next up- The Bellagio buffet in Las Vegas!

Larry

2014-05-28T03:14:00.000-07:00

Debrief meal at The Federal store

The debrief meal. Nausea, headaches, residual intoxication, guilt and shame blend together to serve as the most important meal of the week. It has the potential to provide the antidote for the hangover that threatens to paralyze you or turn you into a dissatisfied 2 year old saturated with food envy at your friends choice of meal. It is an emotional roller-coaster ride, as you go over the night’s antics and wrong-doings while you decide on the meal that will make or break you.

The venue for this week’s debrief is The Federal Store in New Plymouth. I’ve heard rumors it was the best café in town, I’ll be the judge of that. Everyone was particularly seedy today because of tequila shots backed by a foundation of byo wine (lone star blog next!) so there was pressure to perform. The first thing that struck me was that I couldn’t get in the main door, I tried for a long time to open it before someone pointed out the sign “use side door”, unbelievable, sort your door out federal. Pfft, I’m not going to mention stuff about the setting now. I’m not going to take about the extensive cake selection offered at Federal Store either because those things don’t belong in a debrief meal.

There are some intriguing items on the fed’s menu which delivers some buzzyness to the café e.g brunch quesadilla, mince on toast, eggs benedict. It took a while for the waiter to realise we were outside and we had to prompt them to come outside. It was good in the end because then it gave time to actually read the menus and for our hungover group to actually make a decision. Too often the service comes over and asks if your ready to order and when you have just opened your menus. However no matter how long the service takes there is always one person who hasn’t made their mind up and gets flustered when it’s their turn to order. What usually follows is a barrage of unnecessary questions e.g what are you getting? Does it contain gluten? I was surprised at my decisiveness and opt for the brunch quesadilla. I also got a side of fries because they are the tits when you’re hung.

The next order of affairs is the liquid situation. I had a mouth that could prepare a piece of wood for painting and there was no water on the table! First the door, now no water, this quesadilla better be foodgasmic. My flat white I had ordered initially arrived with a underwhelming heart design in the milk froth, I got a fern once which was wayyy better. good coffee though, beans were really shining through the milky goodness. My friend who had ordered 4 different drinks due to her demanding illogical palate gave me a try of her spicy tomato juice. She had taken the liberty and added tabasco sauce. Weird craving to have when your hung, it was like mixing sunburn with sandpaper. I would not be ordering one.

My brunch quesadilla actually arrived quickly; good considering the place was packed. It was immense. I was impressed. A giant quesadilla stuffed with beans, spud and cheese topped of with bacon and eggs. It had all the great components of brunch parceled nicely in a savory Mexican scrotum. If they had sausages as well I would have fainted from ecstasy. I was chuffed with my choice, no food envy for me!

It was actually quite an effort to get through the meal. I usually hoof down these meals faster than a virgin with Scarlett Johansen, but this one was taking longer than a drunk guy who can barely get it up. It tasted great. It was cooked well. The beans and cheese and potato oozing out of the quesadilla actually looked like I had cut into a bloody abscess, but tasted anything but. The whole mixture of bacon, eggs, tortilla, beans, cheese and potato was like I just had a line of cocaine in Mexico and then the drug lord himself served me breakfast. I finished it, was completely satisfied. I didn’t have to eat for another 2 hours, epic!

The debrief was over. Bellies were protruding, headaches subsiding, membranes rehydrating. After a rocky start they really had delivered as a hangover busting, palate exciting original brunch experience. I will hope to return one day once they sort that god dam door out.

Rating

Service- 2/5

Taste-5/6

Presentation- 4/5

Setting-2/5

Overall 13/20

Until next time! (hopefully won’t be 2 years this time)

Larry

Carnivores in Nariobi, Kenya

2012-03-20T02:20:00.005-07:00

I had to blog about this place.

When I was looking for some animals in Africa, I had the opportunity to go to a restaurant called carnivores. It specialised in a large selection of meat and was all you can eat! This restaurant was a winner and I hadn’t even been to it yet.

Walking into this dining heaven I am confronted by an animal on a spit. I am used to the odd pig on a spit, but this was something else. They had stuck a whole cow on a spit! The kitchen area was ridiculous. Meat was dangling everywhere like some sort of glorious decoration, there were massive skewers of meat cooking everywhere. It was a bbq on steroids. The setting was incredible, I felt like Hansel in a meat version of a gingerbread house. Isn’t that a terrible story, you have a dysfunctional family that dumps their children in the woods, the equivalent of a dumpster, they are then found by a cannibalistic witch, who is then outwitted and burnt in her own fire! What kind of story is that for young children! Anyway…

Once seated at the table we are told that we are allowed to eat as much meat as we want of and when you are finished you put the flag at your end of the table up. Like some sort of surrender flag. Really though after seeing the beast at the front door, there was no winning here, unless you were a human sized shrew.

Our first dish surprisingly wasn’t meat, it was soup and bread. Just a dish to warm us up, but not what we were here for. A massive debate raged between by logical brain who wanted to preserve precious stomach space and my illogical stomach who had a 3am Saturday night persona and just wanted a feed. The stomach won.

Then it came. The meat. The waiters brought round massive skewers of meat which they would carve onto your plate. It was entertaining and absolutely glorious. We were served a massive array of meat all prepared in different ways and all with a complimentary sauce – chicken (garlic), pork (fruit salsa), ostrich (wildberry), turkey (wildberry), crocodile (garlic), gizzard (garlic) , lamb (mint), ox balls (garlic) and good old beef (tikka masala) and liver (garlic) from some animal. Tikka malasa was the best, that sauce went with everything. For those who like to have a ‘complete’ meal, there was a selection of salads beneath the sauces. But like Christmas time at home where meat predominates they were not going to make an appearance on my plate today. The place was called carnivores not omnivores.

The variety was impressive and made for an interesting afternoon of eating. First we got to try a bit of everything. Can’t say I was a fan of the crocodile- that tasted like chicken and a fish’s offspring. I had never tried ostrich before and I must say I was impressed, they came in the form of meatballs which is always fun and had a rich beefy taste balanced by the wildberry sauce that accompanied it. Gizzard-not even sure what the fuck that is, and its taste and texture only added to the mystery. It had a rubbery consistency like you find with squid or calamari and were really chewy, with a subtle liver like taste to them, very weird. At these kind of events you gotta eat some balls, and these ones I didn’t enjoy at all, they had a texture that reminded of pate and I swear they would taste like chicken if you didn’t know you were eating balls.

My favourite was actually the turkey. They carve us off large beautiful slices of the stuff and it was cooked to a glorious white perfection.

After trying everything, the next part of the meal is about survival. I was determined to not only to make my money’s worth, but to be the last one standing. The waiters were determined to see me surrender early, with each successive serving being larger than the last. The meat was always scrumptious, but after a while I started to despise the look of it. I think it was a defensive mechanism from my stomach. One dude went to far and put a large potato on my plate! Apparently the winner of the table had to finish the meal with a whole spud. For me that was like drinking the tequila last in a slammer, but instead of drinking it, sucking it through your nose.

After a like 7 rounds of meat servings there was only two of use left, Logan and me. I wasn’t in a good state. I was sweating, becoming nauseated and trembling. It was like meat fever. It was dire. I tried massaging meat out of my stomach like a tube of toothpaste but my small bowel objected loudly, seems like the lanky bugger was working overtime. I had honestly eaten enough meat to satisfy a male lion with some leftover to feed the rest of the pride.

After what seemed like a lifetime I gave in to the relentless waiters. I gave the victory away sadly to Logan a deserving winner. That was not before I ate the spud. Now that was a battle. I don’t even think finishing a marathon could compete with that harrowing experience. I went through all that for nothing really, just a painful stomach worthy of a surgical consult and stools the next day that could block a pipeline from shell.

Somehow in all of this I ate desert. It always seems that you have room for that course. It just squeezes itself in like a Mongolian contortionist.

I managed to walk out of this place, but it wasn’t pretty. I couldn’t straighten up so I looked like a old man, or a pregnant woman with a ‘food baby’ as one of my tour mates cleverly described. Proper exit though, I wasn’t there to fuck spiders.

So if you are in Kenya at anytime I would highly recommend this restaurant. Even if you are a vegetarian because the delicious meat might make you change your mind for the better. They focus on one thing and they execute it well.

Rating

setting-5/5 (in africa and a big as cow on the spit, cant compete really)

Taste-5/6 meat always tastes good

presentation- 5/5

service- 4/5-They carve you your meat! couple of drink orders went astray though.

total-18.5/21

I do love meat so this rating may have some bias.

cheers

Larry

GP meeting in New Plymouth at the Plymouth hotel

2012-03-07T01:03:00.003-08:00

Finally a meeting with free food! Couldn't wait to see what was on offer. Was interesting as it was in New Plymouth at the spectacular Plymouth hotel, the psych dudes were really putting it on for us. Walking into the hotel I was reminded of school balls and 21sts I had attended there, doing dance moves more cringe than if John Key hit the d-floor. Now I was entering this place with a bunch of mature doctor people who discuss things like ACC and bureaucracy whatever that means. What happened to me? Even the food had matured, fries and chicken bits have been replaced with blue cheese and grapes. There was even wine and beer on offer, no need for a hip flask anymore!

Sadly the Plymouth hotel collapsed worse than the black caps. The food on offer were some tuna rolls, but rolled in white bread, not fancy wraps. The sauce to fish ratio was high as well, luckily the sauce was delicious so was unphazed. There was a plate of fruit, just your standard grapes, melon and apple slices. Not sure what the apple slices were doing there tho, we aren’t in preschool for god’s sake, everything looked so sophisticated until I saw that immature mistake. There was also your token dish of hot fried food that always turns up at these kind of free food events. This dish is really the decider it make or breaks the offering. Tonight there were small wonton things. Not enough meat and too small, and not crispy. I would have chicken bits any day. The sweet and sour sauce attempted to save them but failed worse than Phil Goff. The beer on offer was export gold, and DB. Good brews if you are at the cricket, but here you really need green bottle beers, geez.

So pretty poor from the psych team and Plymouth hotel. Not even a sweets dish which I always thought was stock standard. Some wraps, some sort of chicken and slices would of improved it greatly. I was hoping for the Hilton but got the YHA. Maybe growing up ain’t that great.

Being a new year I thought I’d change the rating system as the other one was quite complex and hard to understand. The new one incorporates taste, integrity, variety, appropriateness (does the food relate to the event) and presentation

Taste- 2/5

Integrity-1/3

Variety-1/4

Appropriateness- 2/5

Presentation-2/4

So got a few other blogs in the pipeline they shouldn’t be far away

Cheers

Larry.

Return of the Grill

2012-03-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

After a much needed break from blog writing after suffering from a bad case of writers block I thought I would start up again. Some of you may laugh at the concept of writers block as it sounds as ridiculous as vegetarianism, but I assure you it is actually a serious condition. Just look what happened in the Shining! With the help of a run that requires as much work as a dude playing a corpse on CSI I am hoping to make a return that rivals Eminem in 8 mile.

I am currently working on a couple of blogs including a new fast food blog, an African and potentially Ireland food blog from my recent travels and a review of a restaurant in New Plymouth. I also must include any free food provided at a medical event as that is the meat and veg of Gregs Grilling. It also would be great to keep the food challenges going so would appreciate any suggestions for challenges. I am open to anything involving food although I usually stop at shelving. In my new found freedom of 6^th year I also am hoping to add a few new features, which will appear soon!

New post won’t be long away.

Cheers

Larry

Topomax

2011-04-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

Today an interesting gentleman was in the practice promoting some sort of wonder drug for those moaners who get migraine headaches. He was interesting because he was clearly from Ireland with a stereotypical accent which made for an amusing pitch. I could not take the guy seriously. His accent instantly made me think of leprechauns dancing around drinking Guinness. If his pitch was in the form of an Irish pub jingle with a bit of highland dancing involved it would have been greatly improved.

Anyway after my initial amusement at the Irish man I moved onto the main motivator behind my presence in the staff room-the free food. On offer today were Afghans the size of Frisbees, a sample of fruit, some basic club sandwiches and a variety of cheese and crackers. No Guinness on offer, nothing green. This guy wasn’t doing himself any favours. I tried all the cheeses and was impressed with the variety on offer-some camembert, blue cheese and some other random cheese I didn’t know. The Afghans had sacrificed taste for size proving the age old cliché that size doesn’t always matter. The sandwiches were your typical free morning tea/lunch ones of which you can always seem to eat about 8 of them with no satisfaction.

So a standard lunch provided by the Topomax Irish man. I think because of the variety they are ahead of the fibrate company but due to its lack of glamour it does not overtake Crestor which is still leading.

The list now.

1. Crestor

2. Topoxax

3. The Fibrate company

Pharmacy company challenge

2011-03-21T00:35:00.001-07:00

Crestor and the fibrate company

A free feed that used to make me cum in my pants at the Wellington clinical school would barely give me a semi now after being in the Rural programme. I have had so many fantastic free feeds I literally didn’t know where to start in regards to reviews. Instead I thought I would try something different and rate the food provided by the drug companies..

Oh the joys of drug companies. They may be a pain in the arse with their endless jabbering about patient outcomes or whatever but they do usually put on a good feed. They also give you free shit like staplers so not all is bad. I thought it was a good thing to start a ranking system between the drug companies on the basis of the free food that they provide. I aim to motivate the companies to provide practices with a higher quality of food which may in turn lead to their drug being prescribed. Hopefully I will get enough of these feeds to create a decent competitive list between the companies and host a masterchef show where drug reps are the contestants. The reps will be able to see this list in the Masterton Medical centre when there is enough on it.

The way a company will rank higher on this list will be if they provide food that is original, tasty and presented satisfactory. We are dealing with real Doctors now so they better have their shit together.

Since starting at the centre I have had two reps visit both providing food. The first company was trying to sell a new state of the art cholesterol drug which had fewer side effects apparently. I can’t prescribe anything so the reps marketing pitch was as useful as a new box of condoms in this town. I was also too busy sussing out the food on offer.

There were ham and cheese croissants, filled wholemeal rolls with either roast beef or ham, swirly buns with chocolate chips and Danishes. No drinks, no fruit, no staplers. The croissants were tasty but they could have been a bit more inventive with them. Ham and cheese is what I would expect from a flat in Dunedin. The rolls were satisfactory. Had lettuce meat and cheese with a bit of sauce but it was like a Pak and save roll not a New World roll.

The Danishes looked like they had a raw egg on them which intrigued me rather than repulse me. It did not taste of egg but just like a sweet apricot Danish but again just standard Danish nothing special.

The second company would have performed a lot better if they went to a kindergarden or a rest home at afternoon tea time. It was all sweet stuff-gingerbread men, ginger kisses, fudge and some cake with some grapes on the side. This was all on one plate, who did they think they are? Coming to a medical centre with one plate of food all in the sweet category! Would it kill them to have some chicken pasties or some crazy savoury dish as well? Plus they had two things in their already limited selection containing ginger. It likes serving potato bake with a side of mash potato to the flatties. Despite the narrow selection the stuff on offer was very tasty, and the staffs were particularly amused by the gingerbread men. I was not amused.

Since these are the first two drug companies feeds I have encountered there will be only a first and second place for today. So top of the list today will be Crestor and second will be the fibrate company. Crestor had more on offer and their food was presented nicer than the fibrate company who seem to have a shortage of plates.

The list so far

1. Crestor

2. Fibrate company (sorry will get the proper name soon)

Sorry for the delays between blogs I have been suffering from a bad case of writers block.

Larry

thoughts go out to those in christchurch

2011-02-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

To all those in Christchurch affected by the quake exactly a week ago, my thoughts go out to you.
Larry

Jitzu review from a free trip to Dunedin

2010-10-24T01:22:00.000-07:00

Wow what a weekend good to be reliving the memories of Dunedin! And it was free trip! One particular thing I love about Dunedin is going to BYOs. There is nothing like polishing off a bottle of $6.99 Shiraz over an Asian meal and using it to justify your lonely walk home in the morning. The venue tonight was the popular Jitzu BYO restaurant. I was looking forward to the new experience and seeing my friends.

When I first arrived I was dumbstruck. They had cut the legs off our table so that it was about 30cm off the ground and eliminated the chairs. I couldn’t see the reasoning behind it. It was like being a kid at Christmas not being allowed to sit at the table with the adults so you go sit on the floor and eat. Due to the number of people transferring from one side of the table to the other had to be done army style underneath the table with people reemerging on the other side like they had just escaped from being stuck in a Chilian mine. Standing up made you feel like you had a large amount of authority, kinda like a motorcyclist in a scooter gang.
So anyway onto the food side of things. I ordered a bento chicken box with a miso starter. This was my first time trying miso and honestly I am not a fan. It tasted like juice drained from a sardines can mixed what felt like whale blubber. But hey this is a Japanese experience and a fishy dish is vital for that. The Miso was not for me which is crazy because I go crazy over sardines on toast which used to rat out my previous fussy flatmates. The others had the complete opposite opinion and rated it.

The bento box however was a taste sensation and also an awesome idea. Each ingredient is separated into its own compartment so it’s up to you to mix and match. The main body of the box was the chicken nugget with mayonnaise and a restaurant special tomato sauce, the rest of the box consisted of rice some onion things, a random sushi roll and some other sauces. Sorry the details are quite hazy as my fine red was nearly finished. I tried every compartment individually in order to gauge how I was best going to mix everything into a mouthful that was worthy of a samurai honor. The flavors of each individual compartment were amazing; it was like a journey through Japanese food culture. On my first mixing attempt I failed dismally mainly because my chopstick dexterity was the equivalent of someone with Parkinson’s. I probably should have performed seppuku right then and there. I slowly got the hang of it and made some pretty worthy mixes but would have been better with proper cutlery. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the whole chopsticks debacle meant I actually took time to appreciate it rather than adding more food to my mouth in-between chewing.

Overall this is a great BYO to go to in Dunedin. You can’t get as rowdy as in chopsticks and there appears to be no basement where you can go exploring but the food is ten times nicer and comes in cool mix and match boxes. The sitting room out back has the potential for many fun challenges e.g how many people can fit under the table? because you can definitely get two layers of people lying under there. There is however no potential for a sneaky under the table gobby or handy.

Rating

Setting-4/5 could had some more Japanese stuff like samurai swords
Taste-4/6 the miso caused this to be lower others might have a different opinion
Presentation-4/5
Service-4.5/5
Total-16.5/21

To all those in Dunedin I love each and every one of you

Cheers
Larry

The Picnic challenge!

2010-10-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hey guys sorry I have been really slack with the blog lately mainly because got some much shit to learn. Here is a new challenge which involves me and ash trying to eat a picnic bar in under a minute. take a look!

so yeah exactly a minute! first challenge I actually have beaten! gutted for ash but nice try tho!

The Saltine cracker challenge

2010-08-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is a well known challenge across the world. It involves eating 6 5 by 5cm saltine crackers in under 1 minute. There is even an article on wikipedia for it.
It's not as easy as it sounds.

Sweet so yeah I failed but I reckon I might be able to do it one day if I practice a little bit.

Masterton surg trip

2010-08-18T20:45:00.001-07:00

Masterton hospital surgery trip

7.50am start after end of run, a bus driver who enjoyed driving over the Rimutaka’s a way too much and an incredibly annoying 5th year whose voice is like one of those bugs off the mummy that get under your skin and go mental all added up to a hangover that could take down an elephant. I was relying on two things to get me through this day-free food and coffee.

We arrived at Masterton hospital to a provided morning tea which was cheese scones, juice and coffee. Not much variety here, a few savouries would have been a nice inclusion mainly because that’s all I felt like. Coffee was standard, after three I was getting over it slash starting to seizure. The juice was fantastic and helped clear away my toxin flooded blood. Hopefully lunch offers more.

Lunch

I was so hungry by lunch I had began to hallucinate. Needles became dried noodles, syringes were little sausages, and the training mannequin became a pig on the spit. I’m glad they didn’t put me on suturing first or else I would have eaten the pork belly. Lunch saved me, it was glorious. Chicken drumsticks, club sandwiches, assorted wraps, fresh fruit, slices and mini spring rolls and samosas with sweet chilli. I ate copious amounts at a speed that didn’t allow chewing. They had all the bases pretty well covered with respect to a free lunch. Probably needed more samosas and spring rolls as they disappeared faster than those eels on eel soup. My friend commented that the chicken was too greasy and on any other day this would have bothered me. Today I would have happily bathed in the greasy goodness.
The sandwiches were some sort of egg salad and tasted amazing. Being the foundation of any lunch it is important that the sandwiches are decent, and luckily for the hospital they were. The wraps were of a good size as it took two bites to eat them.

After the typical first course of sammies, wraps and chicken I moved on to the sweet side of things and tried a slice. It was clearly brought, but had a good icing to rest of the slice ratio. The fruit gets kudos because it was cut up and included mango, you know a good fruit assortment when it has mango in it.

Overall this was your bog standard free lunch that definitely satisfied me. It didn’t really push the boundaries in terms of creativity and presentation but hey it’s Masterton. There was leftover food that was handed out at the end of the day so they deserve a shit load of credit for that. Let’s see how they rated.

Taste- 4.5/6 stars
Appearance- 2/4 stars
Originality-1.5/4 stars

Overall- 8/14 stars

Larry

Osteria del Toro review

2010-07-24T16:45:00.001-07:00

I was very fortunate to have another meal out at the expense of another person, thanks Rob! The name of this place made me very intrigued and was wondering if there was going to be some sort of Spanish bull theme going on.

The setting was mind blowing; I must of looked ridiculous as I spent 10 minutes looking round the place like a newborn who is still figuring out its vision. It was a Mediterranean style restaurant. There were sculptures attached to the pillars and an unbelievable mirror frame that had the angel babies things sculpted into it, it looked like it cost around about half of what I pay the uni each year in tuition fees. Even going to the toilet provided plenty of visual stimuli; you got to piss in urinals that were alcoves! I felt like I was on the set of gladiator going to toilet in the king’s private bathroom. The waiter’s and waitresses were dressed well with waistcoats and ties. They even went the extra mile and hired a dude who looked like a greasy Italian. This was offset however by the ginga that was waitering. Their service was very prompt and polite and made no hesitation to top up your drink, always a good sign of service.

I finally stopped admiring the setting and got to work on the menu. I think there was just the right amount of meal options. Not too much that it feels like reading a book and not enough that you feel short changed. The problem was I had no idea what each dish was, I could make out the meat but Zeus knows what it came with. There were gourmet pizzas, pasta dishes and a good variety of your classic meat dishes. I finally made a decision after asking what everyone else is getting and ordered the veal. While deciding there was Turkish bread being handed round. It was good bread but they weren’t generous with the garlic, it tasted like they got a little bit of garlic on a toothpick and spread it on.

While I waiting I enjoyed several bottles of estrella beer that seemed to fill up the glasses provided perfectly. It was a smooth drop and certainly beat the goon and budget sparkling lemon I usually drink. I also engaged in small talk with my delightful company sometimes achieving a medium to full length conversation.

My meal arrived and I was very excited. It was slow roasted veal with crushed potato and spinach. Everything was cooked beautifully. The serving size was the right amount to let you know this place is more about quality than quantity but still leaves you satisfied. There were just the right amount of ingredients but I felt there could have been more flavour injected into the meal. Maybe a more out there marinade? Something extra was needed to achieve that fancy restaurant kind of taste.

I was over the moon when I found out we were allowed deserts. I ordered the Baklava, which is baked filo with pistachio nut crumble and vanilla bean ice cream. On first glimpse I was wondering what the heck did I order. On first taste however every single bit of regret was overpowered by the euphoria I had from the taste of this dish. The savouriness of the filo combined with the intense sweetness of the pistachio nut crumble stimulated the shit out of my taste centre. The vanilla ice cream worked well with the filo giving the dish a good balance. This desert was very impressive and one of the best I’ve tried. Better than my flatmate’s donut thingies which looked like a bunch of turds on a plate. It was nice but didn’t have the same divinity of my desert.
Overall I would recommend this restaurant. You may need to get an overdraft or course related costs to pay for the bill, as it seems like these guys are trying to pay off all their exquisite pieces of art. It is an appropriate restaurant if you have a date and you want it to end successfully.

Rating

Setting- 5/5
Taste-5/6
Presentation-4/5
Service-4.5/5
Total-18.5/21

Cheers
Larry

Newtown McDonalds

2010-07-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Not really a review here, i'm just ratted out cause my drink in my cheeseburger combo was actually 50% ice, how cold do you think we want our drinks? Also an added note to everyone, ask to get your buns steamed its worth it.
Larry

Zico-Italian restuarant and bar

2010-07-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

ZICO is an Italian restaurant and bar and on first glance I suppose that is obvious because it says it on the sign. Zico is also an Italian football player so it seems appropriate to eat at this place while that soccer event thing is on. Inside they do try to portray Italian culture through their clever use of what I think is Italian art and photos of Italian stuff. They also have that cliché Italian music playing pleasantly in the background. All these attempts to capture the Italian experience are ruined by the waitresses who clearly aren’t Italian. They don’t even try to use accents! I think they should a job requirement as not only are they supplementing the setting, the waitresses will become twice as hot with an accent.

The menu has plenty of choice, kinda felt like reading a short story. They did use a lot of Italian for the names of their meals which made it bloody difficult to know what I was ordering. I always have the philosophy though that if you can’t read or pronounce the item on the menu then it must be good. I ordered the lamb cutlets and beef Mignon, two meats will be better than one right? We also ordered your typical breads for the table because going out for tea and not having garlic bread is like missing out on the pre ball drinks before going to the actual ball sober. The bread was good, the normal bread had a similar texture to stale bread but the garlic bread was had a better texture. They came with a parsley dip and an olive oil and vinaigrette dip. Another sign of a decent restaurant, both were incredibly tasty.

We ordered a Merlot, I was an amateur and did not note what year or what vineyard it was from a silly mistake on my behalf. Not as silly as how the waitress looked trying to open a cork bottle with an opener from the $2 shop. The wine was smooth and rich with the taste of grapes and not too heavy. It would compliment the meal I ordered unlike my mother who ordered fish, clearly my critic skills were not from her genome.

The main arrived which consisted of the two meats, a superbly cylindrical shaped bit of mash, a couple of tomatoes and a random lemon. What was with the lemon? I didn’t know if I should eat it with the meal or use the juice from it on my cutlets and Mignon. I wasn’t advised so left it out in distaste. The meat was cooked well, rare could do with a sauce or marinade but I suppose they wanted to focus on the quality of the meat. While my meat was cooked to my liking my sister’s steak resembled a freshly cut piece of muscle despite ordering it to be cooked medium.

There was also a side of fries with a rich tomato sauce that actually tasted like tomatoes, this place dominates the dips.

I was satisfied with the meal knowing too well I was going to get a bunch of free food at a 21^st later on. We didn’t order desert despite being asked twice, once by our waitress and another by a rookie waiter whose face resembled a sunburnt beachball. This was my first real taste at Italian food. Italian always made me think of pizza or spaghetti or jersey shore. I now know it also incorporates flavoursome dips, a kind of tomatoey taste and undercooked meat.

Zico Rating

As I said the rating will be different for this review as it is a bit different to the free sandwiches and savouries we get occasionally. I have a rating for setting (5 stars), taste (6 stars), presentation (5 stars) and service.(5 stars) , adding up to 21 stars

Setting- 4/5

Taste-4/6

Presentation-3/5

Service- 3.5/5

Total- 14.5/ 21 stars

Cheers

Larry

2010-06-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hi guys sorry for the delay between posts, blogger has been stuffing up and not allowing me to put videos on. The KFC blog is not far away and a review of a restaurant in town, for the time being here is my attempt to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon.

Wellington Public Hospital-dining experience from an inpatient

2010-05-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve gone and dislocated my hip so I have been given the opportunity to rate the food at Wellington public hospital. Being in the public system still recovering from a recession I did not expect much. I will give an overall rating based on 4 meals because honestly they all taste pretty much the same.

Saturday night dinner

I was admitted late so missed out on the fresh courses so had to have a nuked frozen meal. The dish tonight was roast lamb, mash and vegetables, and it was microwaved hmmmm. So everything was against them from the start. The only way they could pull off a decent roast lamb frozen meal is if they worked at Nasa or if I had suffered a brain haemorrhage which severely damaged the taste centres in my cerebral cortex. The “roast lamb” arrived in patties accompanied by mash and typical mixed vegetables. If they put the lamb between some burger buns and chucked some Big Mac sauce on it, then it would have been semi legit. Not even my haziness from the truck load of painkillers I was on could cover my distaste for this meal. One positive from the meal was that it came with ice cream afterwards with some cubed jelly, a minimal amount but enough to cheer me up.

Sunday Breakfast

Can’t be bothered putting this into sentences.
Porridge-Water mixed with a bit of flour I think
Toast-appalling toast to jam ratio
Coffee-Good for instant

Sunday lunch

After a less than satisfying breakfast I was looking forward to the “sausage hotpot” with a side of pumpkin soup. What I got was devilled sausages public hospital style. It consisted of sizzlers (I think) cooked in a sauce that seemed like a fancy tomato sauce. It was served with a side of carrots and broccoli, with no mash. What a debacle. Mash is the foundation of devilled sausages; you cripple the dish without it. Then again this was supposed to be a ‘sausage hotpot’ but it didn’t come in any kind of pot so who knows what was going on. What is with this hospital and chucking fancy names on ratty meals?
There was no pumpkin soup with my meal; apparently I did not miss much. My ward mate described it as water drained through a pumpkin with a dash of whatever was coming out of my other ward mate’s catheter.

Sunday night dinner

A fresh meal tonight! No excuses for this meal.
I ordered chicken and on first appearance the chicken aspect of the meal looked similar to what my cat Mozart regurgitates after it scoffs herself silly. A point of hilarity here, the dish was called Tahitian chicken on the piece of paper that comes with the meal. What was the point in trying to add an authentic element to it like that when it was blatantly chucked together from an expired Wattie’s can? Worth noting however was the pumpkin mash which had a good consistency unlike the potato mash which had the consistency of porridge. They did include beans with this meal as well and accordingly to the old guy opposite me, are quite expensive this time of year. He was just transferred from neurology though…
One of the other dudes in my ward had scrambled eggs, I would have been well satisfied with that meal.
I once again received ice cream with this meal exactly the same as the night before except for a different flavoured jelly that was a little denser. Geez I need some more Ketamine.

Overall the food does serve its purpose-it keeps you alive…just.
This sort of food brings back memories of airline food. Both systems with strict budgets which is evident in the taste, both have meals with fancy names that make you think you’re going to get a kick-arse meal but leave you very disappointed, and both are eaten in company you wish wasn’t there. This rating will not be pretty. Further blogs could compare hospital and airline food because they are in a whole different league to normal food (in a bad way).

Rating

Taste- .5/4 stars
Appearance- 1/4 stars
Originality-1/4 stars
Overall-2.5/12 stars

The reason why appearance gets a whole star is that they were served on a plastic platter which always added an element of surprise to it. This excitement did not last long and always ended in bitter disappointment. Kinda like at Christmas when I open presents from Grandma expecting something awesome (sorry Gran!).

Afternoon Tea provided by the Maori health crew

2010-04-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while! I have had nothing to really blog about lately because med school has been average at giving us free stuff, luckily Maori health came to the rescue.

This free afternoon tea was a much needed relief from an afternoon where I would have preferred to have contracted Fournier's disease. On first appearance there was a good variety especially for an afternoon tea (were they trying to make up for something?). On offer was salmon and chicken buns, cold crumbed chicken breasts, club sandwiches, some funny pudding things, and bread with various dips (fancy!).
The club sandwiches had standard fillings but their potentially good flavour was masked by the amount of mustard that was lathered on, simple mistake. On a more positive note the salmon buns gave me a semi. There was a good salmon:salad:bun ratio making them very tasty.
I tried the chicken, it was cold, kinda dry but a nice addition to the afternoon tea. I am never one to complain about more meat being on offer.
The bread and assorted dips were very impressive and I unfortunately had to double dip here in order to try all the dips with one piece of bread (sorry guys!). Very original tasty dips with good quality bread.
Last I tried the pudding things. I went halves with Rob cause I had eaten a fair bit and was reaching capacity. I didn't even know what was going on with these things. It was like a mushy apple crumble cake thing with a berry base which provided some flavour. This afternoon tea was clearly not focussed on the sweet side of things.

Overall an impressive afternoon tea with only a couple of let downs. These however did not really dull my excitement as a free afternoon tea to me is the same as a big mac voucher to an Ethiopian.

Rating
Taste-2.5/4 stars
Originality-2.5/4 stars
Appearance-2/4stars
Overall-7.5/12 stars

Cake competition at the end of advanced clinical skills

2010-02-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

I don't have a lot to say here this event does not really meet the criteria of having food 'provided' as we put all the effort in. We had some wine provided which tasted like it was fresh out of the country cask. There were no beers provided. The med school wasn't really meeting us half way here. The students put a lot of effort in and all we get is shit wine and no beer what a shame.

I was lucky enough to get hold of some images from the cake comp, as you can see a lot of hard work went into these fine creations.

The winner was the H1N1 cake which is pictured first. To all the competitors well done and my birthday is on the 19th of August if you want to put your baking skills to the test again.

Dinner at the Marae

2010-02-24T00:04:00.000-08:00

Kai at the Marae is considered tapu or sacred if you would, with this in mind I hoped I could move on from the average afternoon tea to a more sacred dinner.
Playing touch had increased my hunger to "I'm gonna bite someone soon if I don't eat soon." This added on with being last in line while experiencing post shower sweats was fueling my impatient hunger pains.

The selection of meat was good with beef and chicken on offer with also would you believe it seafood salad! This rating had the potential to be bias because of this dish. However there was fruit added to this salad which I felt was unnecessary, since when did fruit apart from lemon go well with creatures of the sea?
The roast potatoes were prepared well and were yellow. Salads were nothing spectacular but were a good addition. Roast pumpkin was on offer and had the orangely fluffy texture I liked but in saying that roast pumpkin isn't exactly rocket science to cook it's actually food science just not that difficult food science.

One major criticism of the meal was the lack of gravy with the roast meat and vegetables. This is the equivalent of sex without a blowjob first, of fish and chips without tomato sauce. I mean they had mayo with the salad so I just couldn't understand the roast without gravy.

Desert was also provided. Strawberries,cream,ice cream,fruit salad and jelly. Not ridiculously fancy stuff but it served it's purpose. The availability of fresh fruit on the tables complimented the desert menu and was a hit with my classmates so has a special audience vote there.

This was a vast improvement on afternoon tea and I can honestly say I did enjoy my meal, but mainly because I was so hungry and was allowed seconds. This is always an easy way to impress me. Leaving this out of the picture and taking into account that this blog is strictly professional this typical Marae meal may not rate that highly as it was not out of this world impressive. Lets see how it went.

Originality- nothing really original here 1/4 stars
Taste-2/4 stars (might have been improved if gravy was provided)
Appearance-1/4 stars
Added star for audience vote
Overall-5/12 stars

An added side note
Several of my classmates came down with food poisoning after the Marae visit. It seemed like my flatmate was having his stomach wrung out like a wet rag. Since I did not come down with food poisoning the rating will not be affected. To all those who came down with food poisoning and spent the weekend winging, harden the fuck up.
Larry

Afternoon Tea at the Marae following the Powhiri

2010-02-17T01:17:00.000-08:00

The Kai following the Powhiri should really meet the standards of the initial greeting and welcoming onto the Marae, on this occasion it did not. I was quite hungry as I had a light lunch so was definitely holding out for the free kai.
The selection was crackers with cheese and some relish, a couple of cakes and a solid selection of fruit, kinda what you would get when you do your annual visit to your grandparents for afternoon tea. The pick of the afternoon tea was probably the crackers I really didn't have much to work with here. This was no Porirua Marae (CCW), which had spectacular food.
Apperance-1/4 stars
Originality-1/4 stars
Taste-1/4 stars
Overall- 3/12 stars

Morning Tea-Sponsored by NZMSA

2010-02-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

Had a very limited selection today, thanks a lot NZMSA. My flatmate noted that the ginger cake things tasted like they had been made in the Phillipines and then sent over last year.
There also wasn't enough sandwiches of which were pretty stock standard. They just had your average meats and fillings, I could of done pretty similar but better. There isn't much else to comment on here. Aren't you guys meant to be encouraging us to join your society?

Larry's rating
Apparance-1/4 stars
Originality-1/4 stars
Taste-2/4 stars
Overall- 4/12 stars

1st day of 4th year-A social event provided by the Wellington school of Medicine

2010-02-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

This was meant to be a social event but already knew each other so was an excuse to eat some free stuff and drink some free alcohol. The free alcohol was a highlight but my previous weekend which involved drinking a concoction called "green goblin" before the races made me reluctant to make the most of this opportunity.
I enjoyed how the two tables were set out. One table for hot pastry type foods, the other for sweet stuff.
I started with the chicken filo. The chicken was cooked well which we all know is important and the pastry was nice and flakey. Good start med school.
The fried bread and pate was by my honest opinion shit and didn't really belong on the hot food table. That was really the only thing on that table that ratted me out.
The lamingtons were presented well and were worth noting. I did not get to sample them but i'm sure they were good.
When I saw that my buddy Cam was sampling a danish I thought it looked amazing so I thought I'd get in on that action. Man what an experience. The sweetness of the chocolate with the airiness of the pastry complimented each other well. The danish and the chocolate danish were winners on the day as well as the free speights. Was gutted I couldn't get on the wine buzz though.

Larry's rating
Originality- 2.5/4 stars
Apperance- 2/4 stars
Taste- 2.5/4 stars
Overall- 7/12 stars