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Back in the Saddle

Hello loyal TasteBuds viewers:

We would like to take the opportunity to apologize for the lack of updates in forever. For a million and one reasons this thing has been super-neglected. Mainly my lack of an at home internet connection. But that doesn't mean we weren’t hitting spots, taking pics and formulating drawn out opinions. Not at all. Here we have the first post in a series of more than a handful that will re-establish the dominance of your friendly neighborhood over-indulgers.

Onward.

Cfre and I were invited by Shallowness to come check out his family owned spot, Four Seasons Steakhouse, in Rowland Heights. The spot was said to be good, but with an offer of the food being on him, we found it hard not to take Shallowness up on it.

The spot is located in an Asian indoor shopping center called Pacific Plaza. They have a food court in the back that has a bunch of other restaurants. One of the main things that sets Four Seasons apart from its neighbors is the fact that they have an English friendly menu. I’m not trying to tear on the restraints without English-speaking people at the register; I’m merely saying that, as a person who doesn’t speak anything but English, I find the place more welcoming. Or, one could go so far as to say, “less intimidating”.

All of the restaurants in the food court feature signs in what I think may be Chinese, I’m at least sure that that is what Four Seasons sign is in. But just so you know what to look for here’s their front counter.

Shallowness handled the ordering duties by asking us what kind of meat we wanted, and having already seen the illustrious images of food on the menu we both replied “steak and shrimp”.

We sat down and were surprised to get some full on appetizers with our meal. The salad had some really nice thousand island dressing and the garlic bread was awesome, but the true standout star was the soup. I don’t know exactly what kind of soup it is, I can best describe it as a less heavy version of corn chowder, but HOLY SHIT…the soup is FUCKING AMAZING.

It’s as if God came down from heaven and blessed you with a taste of perfection. But just the smallest taste. Just enough to make you spend you entire life waiting for that next taste and no matter how bad it is, in the end its all worth it when you get some more and its like you just looked Jesus in the eyes. Yup, just like heroin.

Anyways, here’s the rest of the food:

Shallowness got some pasta with shrimp on it. Looks delicious, doesn’t it?

And Cfre and I went with the same thing, I’m not sure what it’s called, but Giant steak with a handful of humongous shrimp, pasta and everyone’s food came with the same sauce and an overeasy egg. And the obligatory bowl of rice.

The plates were sizzling hot, literally. Not like “Careful, it’s hot”, more like “Watch out, this shit will melt your skin off”.

The food was awesome. Honestly, I was a little hesitant when I started to see the odd combinations of foods. I mean, the rice and garlic bread was a little weird, but the pasta was like chow mein with a kind of spaghetti sauce I’ve never seen before (Peas? Really?). But in the end everything came together in a crazy mix of the best parts of normal steakhouse offerings with a Chinese flair.

Mmmmm...

I promised not to post the pictures of Cfre licking the still-sizzling plate, but as a testament to the quality of the food, here’s a pic of my own personal aftermath.

So, yeah, if you’re in the neighborhood go get some good ass food at really good prices (around $15 a person with drink, come on you’re getting steak and shrimp) go to the Four Seasons. Fuck, even if you have a forty minute drive ahead of you (like yours truly) make the trip anyway.

Chicken and waffles

Its been a while since the last update so we’re gonna be posting a few previously unpublished missions to make it up to you. But, first things first, here’s the most recent outing to a definite classic spot in SoCal.

The night started off with the crew fragmented across the greater 562 area, when we all received the call to arms from none other than mORALISM. TasteBuds were going to Roscoe’s. The roster for the night? mORALISM, Cfre, prozak, Big Guuurrt plus one homey(David), Grimey Greg and myself, JoeGoblyn.

A quick stop at Monster to break into groups and we were on our way. The 101 never looked so good. Or so blurry. We were driving so fast.

We arrived at Roscoe’s in record time and managed to get seating for seven, no small feat in a spot as small as Roscoe’s Gower location.

We proceed to order, pretty much everyone went with the Scoe’s #1 except for Dave and Greg, who both went with stuff involving biscuits and gravy and French fries and duck fetuses and other weird shit.

Special guest star: The Claw



Cfre wasn’t about to let a busted paw stop him from manhandling some chicken and waffles.

The breakout star of the night was the Red Rooster sauce that managed to find itself back in mORALISM’s whip at the end of the night. Apparently it has a flavor that is neither Tabasco no Tapatio, but its own taste that blows other shit away. At least on chicken and waffles. Or just chicken.

The aftermath of our feast had the busboy scared to come near our table to get the plates. But we broke them off a decent tip that put us a little closer to the hundred dollar mark. TasteBuds stay ballin’ Spauldin’.

All objectives complete. Roscoe’s gets a thumbs up and the seal of approval.

And mORALISM gets his very own bottle of the Rooster. He's developed such a taste for it that I’ve seen him do shots of it in his room. I’m not fucking around.

TasteBuds v.s.Comic Con 2007

This past weekend I made my yearly pilgrimage to San Diego Comic Con. In proper TasteBuds fashion I brought the camera to chronicle whatever spectacles awaited me, culinary or otherwise. Brace yourself.

Day One

Upon arrival in beautiful (and sweltering fucking hot) Downtown San Diego we made our way to the convention center and proceeded to sit in line. Despite the fact that we were pre-registered for the event, the wait was nearly two hours. If waiting in the hot-ass sun while people in costumes try to “keep in character” wasn’t enough, this lady decides to pull a quick one and cuts in line.

She was shown mercy, simply for the fact that she was obviously there for her kids. Otherwise I would have beat her ass down, and as anyone that’s ever seen me scrap with a forty-something Filipino woman of under 5 feet knows, when I get down I don’t stop until there’s blood, teeth and hair littering the sidewalk.

So we end up getting our badges and head into the convention hall. Before I left everyone said the same thing. “Take pictures of the freaks dressed up”. Well I don’t disappoint. Here we go:

As a comic nerd there's something amazing about a girl that not only willingly goes to the epicenter of dorkiness, but does so in costume. She's amazing.

I have nothing nice to say here:

Lego R2-D2.

6 foot tall Lego Chewbacca.

Awesome Sam & Max costume.

Smoke Break.

I have no idea who they are supposed to be or what they are promoting:

Asian Warrior Princess

Darth Vader is for the children.

The convention was pretty much so awesome it numbed away any hunger pains, so I didn’t eat until like 8 o’clock that night. It was cool though, a friend recommended this spot that not only has awesome food, but good ass beer they brew at the restaurant. Nice.

Yeah, that’s right, it’s called Rock Bottom. Classy.

I had a salad to start. Pretty good considering that I’m not really a salad guy. The triangle of bread that came on the salad plate was amazing.

The main course was something they call a “Bourbonzola Burger”. I think it’s a clever way to not only get across the inclusion of gorgonzola cheese, but also to imply that bourbon is involved in the preparation of the burger. It was really good, but in the description of the burger on the menu, they mentioned nothing about bourbon. I’m not buying it.

Day Two

Friday morning we wanted to get in early so we got Downtown quick to grab some food and get to the convention center. We saw this spot and,after the initial novelty of it having Punky Brewster’s real name wore off, we were drawn in by the promise of Modern Californian Cuisine.

At the bar they had different alcohol (no, I didn’t drink any it was like 8a.m.) infused with exotic fruits. By “infused” it seems they dump it all together to absorb all the flavors. Kind of like how a spread is really an “infusion” of prison food.

The omelet had some fancy cheese on it and the potatoes were good, but the realness here was the flower on the plate. And the cute hostess. Too bad I couldn’t secure a photo without looking like a total creep.

Back to the con:

Boba Fett vs... a Ghostbuster? Come on.

Iron Man costume Spidey with no package. Poor son of a bitch.

The coolest thing about this is that the studio actually found a real amputee to stand around the pole and dance for our entertainment.

This chick was being interviewed and trying to get all philisophical about the "nature and history of costume". Come on lady, you're wearing a latex body suit, just let it go.

Reebok says "Fuck Transformers"

This dude's whole kit was chrome. Spauldin'

Filipino Leon from Resident Evil holding it down with Psylocke and Storm(?)

Dark Phoenix.

The best Slave Leia at the whole convention.

I don't know, they actually made me take their picture.
Best celebrity sighting of the weekend. Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Robert Downey Jr., none of them have shit on Maddox.

At the end of the day we asked around and found that this spot Fred’s was supposed to have good food.Upon arrival we noticed the waitresses all had on wifebeaters that said “Kiss My Taco”. Crudeness ensued.

Settled down at the bar where Pabst Blue Ribbon reigned supreme.

I had a meal called the “Three Amigos”. It has three tacos: one steak, one fish, and one chicken. I got the dish mostly because, in it’s own way, it promotes racial equality and proves that we (even the black beans on the side) can all get along. As friends. As amigos.

Day Three

The final day was a tough one, but we did see members of Gwar,a fat Asian Captain America, The Rocketeer, Indiana Jones, Master Chief with a foamboard gun, a nice Wonder Woman, a smoking Spartan with a 40 pound tabletop for a shield, spray-painted hair Guy Gardener, Brian Posehn, old school Superman in what looked like wool pajamas, and a xenomorph dressed all business casual as he was interviewed amongst other things.

I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it, but I did. We wrapped it all up at Fred’s again, mostly because everywhere was crowded and no one wanted to walk around in 100 degree weather looking for more options.

The cleverly named (once again!)“Surf and Turf” burrito held it down with a skrimp and steak mix.

More beer.

And on the way out we saw that there was apparently a Blade Runner mini-convention going on. Seeing a small gang Pris and Zhoras was pretty surreal.

These two Rutger Hauer clones refused to speak to me. Fuck them.

That’s it. End of the road. Goodbye San Diego, I’ll be back next year.