Las Vegas 51's Baseball

So aside from the fact that it was hotter than a blast furnace, baseball in Las Vegas isn't all that bad. Granted, Cashman Field is rather lacking in charm, but the surrounding scenery is pretty nice.

Henry's Tacos

Nostalgia is one powerful force. Still today, I can smell freshly cut grass in April and be instantly transported to my Little League days, waiting for Dad to load me up in the car and drive me to one of the two fields we played on. So when Bumper told me about Henry's Tacos in North Hollywood, and the rich tradition it has with her and her family, we had to make a pilgrimage.

I did, however, do my due diligence and research Henry's. I wanted to keep an open mind, but unfortunately, the reviews were pretty accurate in their assessment. They have a limited menu, with hard and soft tacos, tostadas, burritos, and taco burgers. I went for a hard taco, a soft taco, and a bean burrito.

Don't get me wrong, all the food was ok, but given that some of the local fast food places (Jack-in-the-Box) sell two hard tacos for $.99, a $2.40 hard taco better knock my socks off. It didn't. The shell was crisp enough, but was thin, and tended to crumble in my hands. While the cheese, lettuce and tomato were all reasonably fresh, the meat was bland at best, and even the hot sauce didn't help much.

An extra $.20 got me a soft taco, with the same ingredients in a slightly bigger portion. Again, nothing horrible, but certainly not outstanding.

The bean burrito was mostly bean and cheese, with something slightly crunchy on the bottom that I couldn't quite identify - it was either cold, undercooked rice or raw onion. Either way, it didn't add flavor, and it certainly didn't help hold the flimsy tortilla together, since I lost structural integrity after only one bite. And at the same $2.40 price as the hard taco, it certainly wasn't a value item either.

Look, I understand completely that there are places in our lives that we esteem purely on sentimental value. And when we hold them up in the soft light of fond memories and remembrance, we can blur away the rough edges that may have always been there. So that's why I can't be overly harsh on Henry's. It's a neighborhood landmark, and if it's a place where memories are made, well, the food doesn't really matter all that much, now does it?

Taste Chicago

I play in a Friday night modified-fast pitch (fast pitch underhand with a no-windmill delivery) softball league in Burbank with a great group of men and women . . . we have a good time playing and post-game pizza and beer is a staple.

But there was always a restaurant I passed on the way to the park that I wanted to try - Taste Chicago. It's been a few years (eight, actually) since I last spent time in the Windy City, but since my longtime friends Margie and Dave moved there, I've wanted to go back and see them, and revisit the three food items I remembered from my last trip: Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, and Chicago deep-dish pizza. So those are the three things I ordered before last Friday's game.

Mercifully, I was accompanied by Beeper, (or Bumper, as I tend to call her) who shared in the taste test, or my acid reflux would have gone into overload. We got a Chicago dog with everything, a hot Italian beef sandwich with peppers, and a slice of deep dish pizza with sausage.

In theory, the Chicago dog contained all the right ingredients, but they didn't use enough celery salt and they used plain old pickle relish instead of the bright green "Nuclear Relish." There also weren't enough poppy seeds on the roll. The taste was so-so, and not really that impressive, at least not what I remembered from my last one in Chicago. Grade: C-

The Italian beef was just middling too; perhaps I've been spoiled by the French dip sandwiches at Philippe's in downtown L.A. The beef and peppers were all right, but there wasn't the juicy beef flavor I expected in a dipped sandwich. Grade: C

I've never been a huge fan of Chicago deep-dish pizza. To me, it tastes more like a quiche than a pizza, it's been very heavy to the point of almost being soggy, and I never liked the fact you almost always have to eat it with a knife and fork. I've always been more a New York-style pizza guy. The pizza here wasn't a true Chicago style; maybe if we had ordered a whole one it would have come out differently. But surprisingly enough, the slice of sausage we got wasn't all that heavy, and the crust stayed remarkably flaky. Bonus points for the sliced sausage rather than crumbled. Grade: B

Overall, it wasn't a horrible experience, just mildly disappointing. Beeper was a good sport, and we got to see the end of the Stanley Cup finals before our softball game (she OWNS left field). At least now I've tried Taste Chicago, but it just can't compare with the real thing.

Broken & Bloody Noses

What are the odds of two pitchers being on television today with wads of cotton stuffed in their bloody noses? During the first game of the Super Regional matchup between Virginia and Ole Miss, Rebels' closer Jake Morgan got the win in relief, despite being hit by an errant throw during pre-game warmups, resulting in a broken and bloody nose (picture at left).

Then, the Angels' Ervin Santana got a bloody nose before his start tonight in Detroit (picture at right), but still pitched eight innings of shutout ball.

My apologies for the crappy cellphone pictures off the television, but it's not something you see every day, much less twice.

Noise vs. Cool

With the move now complete (just waiting on the return of my security deposit from the distant outpost of Camarillo) I can start re-exploring my old / new neighborhood and pay more attention to this here little corner of the interwebs.

My new apartment is very close to work (8-9 miles, depending on which route I take) but is also very close to LAX and its related noise; witness the view from my balcony in this video clip:




But this morning, I turned on one of the local news shows and they were doing a live remote from LAX as President Obama was getting on Air Force One to leave; he was in town for a big fund raiser yesterday. "Hmm," I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could see the plane." Sure enough, I opened up my sliding balcony door and saw the big 747 taxi down the runway, turn around, and take off. Not having my good camera handy, I managed to grab a quick picture with my cell phone - not great, but enough to see the distinctive blue and white paint scheme.

I've been to enough air shows and museums to see my fair share of cool aircraft - seeing a B-2 stealth bomber come growling out of the fog at the Joint Services Open House at Andrews Air Force Base in D.C. is my favorite, along with clambering about the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian's preservation and restoration facility before it went on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center. But seeing Air Force One in person and knowing the president was aboard ranks pretty high on the cool quotient for a random Thursday.

Mini Sirloin Burgers

The Dodgers are running an in-stadium promotion that if they win by three runs or more, at the end of the game, every fan gets a coupon for an order of Jack in the Box's new Mini Sirloin Burgers. Last night I decided to make a rare venture into a non-In-N-Out fast food joint, use one of the coupons, and have a cheap meal.

Oh boy.

First off, an order of three Mini Sirloin Burgers costs $4.09, plus tax. So not worth it. More on the burgers in a bit. Second, a SMALL fountain soda is 20 ounces. 20 ounces! No wonder America is overweight . . .

And now the burgers . . . in a word: blech. As my friend Mark correctly predicted when we got the coupons at Dodger Stadium, the burgers are quite dry, both the meat itself, and put together. They're thin on toppings, with a small splotch of ketchup, a sprinkling of chopped raw onions, and processed American cheese food. Oh, and the grilled buns were slightly overcooked along the edges.

But the flavor of the meat was what really struck me as odd. They had a very strong "beef" flavor, like bullion or the beef flavor packet in ramen noodles. It didn't taste like normal hamburgers do, but just . . . strange.

Like I said to the Cupcake Queen earlier today, if I'm going to waste calories on fast food, I'm going to do it at In-N-Out or someplace that has a little bit of quality . . . 'cause it sure ain't at Jack in the Box.

Dodger Dogs

It's already a month into the season, and I was able to make it to Dodger Stadium for the first time this year. It was a gorgeous day, the Dodgers won, and I finally can write about ballpark food.

I need to preface this by saying Dodger Stadium is where I learned to watch baseball - it's the home of all of my childhood memories of watching the game in person. With that said, it's certainly not the same place of my youth. My meal was old-school: a couple of Dodger Dogs and a Coke. I certainly can't justify spending $8 on a tepid domestic draft beer, and $5 for a dog and $4 for a soda certainly smacks of highway robbery to me. My friend Mark (who along with his wife Chris - parents of the loverly JS - hosted my ballpark excursion) likened the concession prices to those of a movie theater: outrageous, but we pay 'em anyways.

But back to the food. Dodger Dogs have been made by Farmer John for as long as I can remember, and maybe my tastes have changed, maybe the dogs themselves have changed, but . . . blech. Mushy, no flavor, and barely warm were not how I remember Dodger Dogs. Granted, a 12-year old's palate is a bit less . . . refined, but still. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

Dodger Stadium has certainly expanded its repertoire of food choices in recent years, but I'm on a stricter budget now (thanks pay cut!) and don't feel the need to spend exorbitant amounts of money for glorified munch food, especially when Dodger Stadium allows you to bring your own food in. Which, if we hadn't been pressed for time, we would have done yesterday. Can we say $5 Footlongs?

Anyway, it was a great game, on a picture perfect day, with wonderful friends.

And really, isn't that the point?