Rodizio's Tallahassee

I finally made my way to Rodizio’s last night and I was very impressed! Unfortunately, I did not take my camera with me so there are no pictures but on my next trip, I will have the camera in hand. The first thing you need to know about going to this place is be prepared to eat, and eat a lot. The price per person is $30 (not including drinks) but the assortment of meats makes it well worth the price.

We had a wonderful waiter who explained the entire concept of “Churrasco” to us which is a style of Brazilian BBQ’ing of sort. The waiters, or Gauchos come around with giant skewers of meat and the meats are hand carved at your table for you. Last night, Rodizio’s offered over 20 different styles of meats and I would say we tasted about 12-15 of them. I guess in order to give a real, accurate review I should have taken notes because I know I will not remember every style of meat we had, but what we did have was outstanding. There were numerous types of beef including a house special that was a shoulder cut that was by far by favorite cut of beef from all the choices. They had your typical New York cuts, Filet cuts, etc. but the tenderness and taste of the meats were far out done. Everything was fresh and extremely tasty. Aside from the beef, there was a handful of pork choices which included a parmesan crusted pork which was my favorite of the pork dishes along with BBQ pork (what I believe was a shoulder cut), and a honey BBQ pork. They also offered a lamb which I found to be very good along with a turkey breast that was amazing. The turkey had a nice outer crunch to it with the inside being one of the more moist turkey’s I had ever eaten. Especially in a restaurant. Other meats that made a lasting impression on me was the tiger shrimp, and the sausage. The Gauchos also had a few skewers of chicken which included a bacon wrapped chicken, two different types of chicken wings and I believe there was one other chicken option but it has escaped my memory. It is quite difficult to remember all the fantastic meats we enjoyed....

Aside from the meats, Rodizio’s offers a small salad bar and a vegetable bar that included a soup, rice and beans, plantains, and a pasta dish. Other vegetables offered were a very tasty asparagus, red and green bell peppers that were chilled and seasoned and a few other Brazilian flavored dishes. I will admit that I wasn’t impressed with the side dish selections mainly because the sides that were supposed to be warm were not but nonetheless, they were enjoyable. Like I said, you go here for the meat! One very unique item at the table comes with your bread basket. Along with butter you are also given a salsa looking dipping sauce that reminded me a lot of a Mexican Salsa or a Pico De Gallo. Now I was hesitant to taste this, but I am glad I did. It is an extremely spicy taste but very delicious. Having a salsa with bread is an unique concept but was very fitting for the restaurant.

I will defiantly be taking a trip back here real soon. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food was very good. This would be a great place for a group to go and enjoy a night out with some fantastic food. Maybe next trip I will take a little note book and give a more detailed review on the food. I will admit, its very overwhelming when you are surrounded by all you can eat, fantastic meats. It's very hard to keep up with all the choices!

Back to the slow cooker

My love for the slow cooker came about all from one simple recipe, and that is Pork in the slow cooker. Now that I think about it, that is not the most intriguing name for a recipe, but nonetheless it's wonderful. Simply take a pork shoulder, place it in the slow cooker with approximately 1 inch deep of water. Next, use Dale's Seasoning and use enough to just cover the meat and give enough room for the pork to soak. In a standard 3 quart slow cooker, I use anywhere between 1/2 the jar for seasoning to 3/4. It really depends on the size of the pork shoulder and how much vegetables you want to add. Take note, this seasoning is quite salty, so until you get the taste down, less is always more. Now for the veggies. Personally I like to put onion and red potatoes in with the meat but others enjoy squash and or carrots. Go with what you like and you will be very impressed with the Dale's Seasoning . They do make this seasoning in a regular non low sodium version, but since there is so much sodium to begin with, I try to stick with the somewhat healthier one of the two.

This recipe was something my Mom would cook quite often and I always enjoyed it. When I went off to college this is something that I could put together, turn on, and not worry about it until I was ready to eat dinner that night. This recipe is even better these days because I can come home and have dinner already cooked for me. (after work)

A few notes when cooking this. I like to put the 1 inch deep water in the crock pot first, followed by the meat. Next, I use the Dale's Seasoning followed by the veggies. Using red potatoes works really well since the red potato is the hardest of all potatoes and takes the longest to cool. Considering this dish can cook up to 10 hours, you don't want your potatoes to turn to mash. The potatoes also act as a paper weight of sort to hold the pork down to all the juices. Last I place the onions in and let the cooker do the rest. On occasions, I will season the shoulder with a simple over the counter meat tenderizer before placing in the slow cooker. As for cooking time, it really depends and I have learned you really can't over cook this. I like to let mine cook for at least 8 hours but have let it cook as long as 10. You really can't mess this recipe up, so give it a try. I am sure you will enjoy.

As this Food Blog continues, you will see more then just slow cooker recipes, but I just felt like sharing these for now. I will try to also post pictures of these dishes, but I haven't made this pork dish is a while. As for the Dumplins recipe I shared a few days back, I didn't feel pictures were really needed for that. Quite frankly, it's not a very photogenic dish.

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Five Guys

Five Guys burgers is one of my favorite fast food restaurants and defiantly one of my favorite burgers. I was introduced to Five Guys by a good friend who lives in DC and while in Baltimore MD I finally got the chance to try Five Guys and I was highly impressed. It's to the point now, whenever I see a Five Guys I have to stop, rather I am hungry or not, I am stopping for a burger.

The atmosphere of the place is simple, it's a burger joint. Don't like burgers, well they offer hot dogs and grilled cheese, don't like those options? Well then you better find somewhere else to go.

Let's start with the french fries!

First off, you get a TON of fries. This size is there regular, but what you may not know with Five Guys is they also fill up your brown bag with fries. Seriously, there are so many extra fries in the bag, you have to dig through them to find your burger. As you can tell the fries are freshly cut and cooked on the spot. There is no frozen items in this place!

Now if you are going to go to a burger place, what more do you want then a Burger?

This is what you get. A great, simple, true American burger! This thing is fantastic. Size wise, may not be your largest burger but the taste will simply blow you away. This is what I think of when I think of a burger.

For my first visit, I elected to get my burger plane so I could get a good taste of the burger itself and I approved. The taste was great and it was everything you could want from a burger.


I really do not know what more to say about this place other then it is the best burger you will find. Five Guys does some very unique things such as: Telling all the customers where there potatoes were grown that day and they also advertise that nothing in the place is ever frozen. Sounds good to me!

I am currently counting the days down until Five Guys finally makes its way to my local area of Tallahassee Fl. We are getting one location for sure and possibly a second. As of recent, the coming soon sign is up and that is enough to get me excited about this place. This place ranks way up there on my list of great restaurants and may take the cake when it comes to best fast food/burger place.



For the Urban Tallahassee Readers, a few notes:
-Burger, Fries, and a drink is roughly $11.00.
-Size of burger is not overwhelming, but the regular size with fries is a great meal. (Smaller then a Whataburger but larger than a Backyard Burger)
-The Burgers come in 2 sizes. A single, which they call the Little Burger, and the double which they simply call there cheeseburger.
-Five Guys offers numerous toppings for the burger which are all free with the exception of bacon. There are something like 14 options to add, or close to it.
-Fries come in 2 sizes, regular and large. Also available in Cajun.

Comfort Food on the Easy

Growing up in Kentucky you all but live off of comfort food and one of my favorite dishes is Chicken -n- Dumplins. Growing up my Nanny (Grandmother)always made the best Chicken -n- Dumplins, the only problem is the recipe is an all day process or at least it seems that way. Nonetheless, if you are like me you don't always have the time to spare. So we come to comfort food on the easy using the slow cooker. The slow cooker is a great cooking tool that is often overlooked though it is becoming very popular on many of the food blogs I read and as of recent I haven't checked out at a local grocery store without seeing a slow cooker/crock pot recipe book in the checkout line. Back to the food, if you are shooting for an easy comfort food recipe, you can't go wrong with the following:

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Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

2 cups cooked chicken

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 soup cans of water

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 8-pack can of buttermilk biscuits

Mix all ingredients except biscuits in slow cooker. Cut biscuits into quarters and stir into mixture. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours.
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Few things to note; be sure to use the bouillon granules and not the cubes! The cubes will not dissolve properly and you will lose some valuable taste. As for the biscuits, its always up to the cook but I suggest going with the Grands Southern Style variety. I have made this recipe numerous times with different biscuits but these seem to always taste the best.

One last note on this recipe...It really helps putting all of this together the night before and letting "soak" in the refrigerator, and while cooking this particular recipe in the slow cooker you will have to break the cardinal sin of slow cooking and that is stirring! If you do not stir this recipe while cooking, all the biscuits will make there way to the top and you will end up with a pot pie of sort, and that is not what we are looking for.

Hope all (or anyone who reads this) enjoys!

50 of the World's Best Food Blogs

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50 of the world's best food blogs

On the right, you can see the feeds from some of my favorite food blogs. Hope you enjoy.

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Welcome

This is going to be yet another attempt at a blog that hopefully I can actually keep up with. This is going to revolve around one thing, and pretty much one things only. FOOD. I really enjoy food, and I figured this could be a place to share my thoughts and other odd, random things about food that I feel necessary to share. Let's see where this can take us.