Posts Tagged ‘ Food

Awesome Eats in Tallahassee, Florida

So I went to Tallahassee on July 7th to go see Lightning Bolt perform at The Farside.

That was a pretty amazing concert, but in the time that I spent in Tally during which I wasn’t having my ears destroyed, I was taken by my friend  Nikki to have some pretty awesome food.

For dinner we went to a cool place called Monk’s, that is known for their wide selection of burgers.

They’re the sort of place that has a giant list of crazy toppings that you can get, so there’s quite a few possibilities there for the picking, but they’re got some of the really interesting ones right there on the menu. As a man who is adventurous when it comes to culinary matters I knew that I had to try the burger on the menu called THE LIP SMACKER.

Smoked Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter, and Strawberry Jelly.

I was terrified, I was curious, I was up for the challenge.

I have to say that the name of the burger is appropriate, it’s a sort of greasy, wonderful, flavorful mess inside your mouth. It’s kinda strange, but new and interesting, cause honestly, most people haven’t even considered such a meal.

Like I’m not totally sure that it’s something I’d be in a hurry to get over and over, but it’s certainly different. The peanut butter is pretty sticky, which is an interesting texture contrast to the rest of the elements of the burger. The bacon adds a saltiness, while the jelly gives you a sweet flavor, it works better than you’d expect honestly. While it’s not something I’d recommend for everyone to try, it is a burger that I’m glad I tried and one that I’m glad exists as an option. I always support creative food combinations.

Weirdness aside, they do make a good burger at Monks, nice and juicy, full of flavor. I plan on going there again, next time I’m in Tally.

The next day we went to a hot dog place  called Voodoo Dog. We picked up a flyer for them at The Farside while I was waiting around to get the two guys from Lightning Bolt to autograph their newest album for me. I saw the words, “bacon wrapped deep fried hot dogs” and I was sold.

The place itself was pretty cool, they had all sorts of pop culture pictures and things, a big poster for They Live instantly endeared me to the restaurant. They’ve also got a pretty cool logo.

Overall I had a pretty decent experience there, the signature bacon wrapped dog was pretty good, I got one with cheese and slaw, and another off the menu called the Hari Kari that was the bacon wrapped dog, with teriyaki sauce, pineapple, and green onions.

I wasn’t too impressed with the Hari Kari really, I don’t really think they put enough teriyaki sauce on it at all, cause it didn’t taste teriyaki-esque to me. So i felt like I had just gotten a hot dog with some pineapple on it, not really what I was hoping for.

The cheese fries that I also got were quite good, they used real cheese instead of cheese sauce, and they were nice and freshly fried, so they tasted wonderful like a cardiac arrest. So out of the things I got from Voodoo Dog, two out of the three were pretty good, and one was kinda meh. I’ll try them again at some point, cause they’ve got a variety of other interesting looking hot dogs and burgers on their menu, I was just a bit underwhelmed with my first go round.

So there you have it, two places in Tallahassee, Florida that have serve some pretty good eats. When I’m in a different town I like to find myself good local restaurants that serve interesting foods, and I’d say these two proved a success.

So comment back here if you’ve got any suggestions of more places I should try out next time I’m in Tally.

Skittles Vodka

So one day I was telling my friend Jay about the Bacon Beer that they made over at Grocery Eats, and he told me that he’d seen Skittles flavored vodka on the internet.

I said: “That’s an amazing idea!”

So the day before Cinco de Mayo, I gathered up the supplies and decided to spend some time making an amazing drink.

This is how you make skittles Vodka:

What You Need: 1lb bag of skittles, Vodka (at least 30 ounces minimum), coffee filters, bottles for mixing, some funnels, and more bottles for the finished drink.

Step 1: Separate the different flavors of skittles.

You’re going to need roughly 10 skittles for every ounce of Vodka. I used around sixty skittles and six ounces of vodka per mixing bottle.

There’s going to be some extra, I added a few extra skittles to each bottle and used the remaining pieces in an extra bottle and made a mix of all the flavors.

Step 2: Put separated and counted skittles in mixing bottles. You’re going to need one bottle for each of the five flavors

I just used normal plastic water bottles for this. I got a 12 pack at WalMart for like 2 bucks, and had enough bottles for the entire project.

Step 3: Use a funnel to pour six ounces of Vodka into each mixing bottle, seal, and shake well.

There’s a bit of emphasis on the shaking. It’s what is going to help the vodka dissolve the skittles. Shake each bottle well, then come back later and shake it some more, then do the same even later.

I let mine sit overnight, and then did some more shaking in the morning. The longer you give the Skittles to dissolve the better your results shall be.

Step 4: Grab your remaining, unused bottles, a funnel, and some coffee filters.

In this step we’re going to filter out all the remaining Skittle particulates. Because even though the Skittles are mostly dissolved, the currently liquid is a little on the chunky side, with various sugary pieces throughout. Not exactly the best consistency.

Place your funnel in an empty bottle, and then place a coffee filter in the funnel. Slowly pour the drink out of the mixing bottle, into the filter, and let it filter through.

I used two coffee filters at a time, to ensure that the skittle particles didn’t end up in the final mix, thought the number of filters you’ll need is dependent on the type of filter you use.

The process isn’t very fast, and you need to repeat it for every flavor. But this is the step that will get you a nice quality drink consistency.

I’d recommend washing your funnel after every flavor, to avoid flavor contamination.

That’s essentially all there is too it.

Once you finish thing get awesome.

Cause it’s drinkin’ time.

STEP 5: Chill.

I feel that the drink is best served in the form of a freezer chilled shot. That way you can have all five flavors.

The shots themselves come on sweet, then kick you with the vodka burn, but finish with Skittles sweetness.

The liquid itself is a little bit syrupy. Each flavor has varying degrees of strength, Lemon being the strongest, and Green being probably the best tasting

I hear if you mix them with Sprite, or a club soda they’re pretty good.

I can heartily say that making some skittles of your own is a great idea. It’s fun, colorful, and bound to be popular at any party you’d go to.