Three Strips from Chick-fil-A - $3.15

1101 Quintilio Drive, Bear, DE - 302.843.4816

It feels like Chick-fil-A has a die hard fan following, very much like White Castle does and after eating there, I can see why.

Obviously, they specialize in chicken, so I ordered the three strips. I believe there's really only three or four things to check for with chicken strips - juiciness of the chicken, breading texture, the dipping sauce, and the price. In this particular case, I ate it sans sauce so that doesn't apply. The chicken was tender and the breading was light and unobtrusive, while the price seems fair. That gives it a 2.5 out of 3 - definitely a winner in my book.

Beef Royale Jamaican Patty from Royal Caribbean – $?

A very small booth in a small airport in a somewhat small town in Philippines (Clark Airport, Angeles City).

 

I’m posting this in response to the post below this one. This is my only experience with Jamaican food. Judging from  where I got it, I’m guessing it ain’t too Jamaican. I can’t remember the price as it was months ago. But it wasn’t expensive… maybe around the vicinity of 1-2 dollars. Maybe. 

Just like any regular hot pocket, with the meat tasting like heavily processed (read: way too tender) road kill and the skin a little too hard from sitting in the heated erm.. window display for too long.

Oh, except this gave my friend and I the runs the next day. Luckily we only had 1 each. Tho I wouldn’t hold that against Jamaican food, cos I mean look where I bought it.

Since I don’t have much to say about this, but have 4 pictures to share…. I’ll just keep babbling on. The 2nd picture shows you the available flavours. Not everything was available at that time. I went with the Beef Royale as it had the word Royale, and the scene about Cheese Royale from Pulp Fiction couldn’t stop playing in my head immediately after reading the menu.

And this twisting text thing is giving me a headache.

Jerk Chicken from D&H Jamaican Cuisine - $7.99

748 East Chestnut Hill Road, Newark, DE - 302.896.8826

If you recall from my previous post here, all you need to remember is to ask for a lot of ox tail gravy.

This dish is good enough that my two coworkers and myself order it regularly whenever we come here. I'm not crazy about the cabbage, but who is? The plantains are okay, but easily forgettable - in fact, the last time we went there, I didn't realize the plantains were missing until it was pointed out to me. The focus of the dish is the quarter leg of chicken and all that gravy that covers the rice and that alone makes it worthwhile.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp from Riva - ???

2020 Calamos Court, Naperville, IL - (630)718-1010

I ate this a long time ago so I don't quite remember its exact name or its price. I DO recall that it was tasty, but bordering the I'm-not-sure-it's-worth-the-price mark. Riva is a classier joint though, so I'm a bit more forgiving.

New England Clam Chowder from Harry's Savoy Grill - $6.25

2020 Naamans Road, Wilmington, DE - (302)475-3000

I realize soup doesn't make for the best pictures, but I feel this image still captures this soups creaminess. MMMmmm... It was tasty soup, but not sure if it was worth the money. A glutton like me needs more than this plateful.

Century Eggs - $0.41

Malaysian Chinese Hawkers – Lobak Stall

Since somebody’s being a lazy hobo (name starts with an e and ends with an rnest), I figured I’ll post the promised follow-up to the Balut post. Well not so much a follow-up as it is a related post and since I mentioned it there…. yeah you get the idea.

Century eggs. Very dark brown bordering on black, translucent, coral/snowflake patterns on the egg white (technically black), Dark grey-ish green yolk, again bordering on black.

Contrary to what Americans think of it, and that it is actually a 100 year old egg, it is not. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I did see at least 3 different and separate occurrences of this, one being Fear Factor. If that is indeed what you are thinking, give yourself some time now and think that through and you’ll see why that is impossible. I’ll give you some keywords to help the with the thought process : hatch, rot.

Century eggs are actually preserved eggs, the process of which include ash, clay, salt, lime and rice straw, lasting for several weeks to several months (Source: Wikipedia). The egg has a very strong ammonia smell to it, which brings us to popular misconception #2, and that is that the eggs have been marinated in horse urine. They haven’t.

But it does have a very strong taste to it, and the ammonia smell plays a big part in that. Once I bought some and steamed it (it’s always served hard boiled), it wasn’t ready yet but somehow the genius in me decided to give it a try. The egg-white was barely taking form. It was like jello, breaking form on contact. Because it was still steaming hot, when I took a bite the ammonia scent whiffed up my nose and I started tearing. All in good fun, I still ate it all. The yolk is the best part, having a custardy texture to it if cooked right and tasting/smelling like sweet and salty sulfur.

I don’t know if there are any health benefits to eating this, I’m guessing there are none. Popular dishes that have century eggs as an ingredient include the Century Egg and Lean Pork porridge which is mostly available during Dim Sum breakfasts.

There’s also the Penang Lobak (hence the suggestion to find this at the Lobak stall in any Chinese hawker), a mixture of fried tofu and other stuff (these eggs included) cut up into pieces and eaten with sweet sauce. I don’t normally eat Lobak, hence this post focusing only on century eggs rather than Lobak.

(Ed: I wrote this MONTHS ago and never posted it. I figured there was no point to it since this blog was dying. But *someone* promised to stop spending so much time on the Xbox 360 and post more, so here’s to keeping that promise, hobo.)