Fairfield County Menu Talk

It’s called the French Doughnut, and wow, it’s just unreal. Homemade vanilla whipped cream in between a ridiculously yummy raised doughnut. You can’t miss this stand located at the SONO Marketplace in South Norwalk. It’s called the Green Leaf Organic Bakery and Cafe, and it’s situated right next to the bar. How come no one told me they had a bar?! Anyhoo, this thing is awesome. And it’s very light too.

The location has turned over more times in the past year than a rotisserie chicken. However, what’s cooking now at 3488 Fairfield Avenue in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport has success written all over it. The place is called Chubby’s, and the food is delicious pub fare at seriously reasonable prices, with happy hour every single day of the week from 2pm - 7pm.

We won’t bore you with talk of the interior. It’s a horseshoe bar, and there are booths and tables. So let’s just jump right to the food, because that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it. Introducing the Super Mega Burger - which is cajun rubbed, with melted swiss, and fried onions smothering the heck out of it. Oh, and it somes with a heap of fries and shoe-string onion rings. The burger was cooked as requested, and you could tell it was freshly grilled since the outside was deliciously charred. Things got messy after getting into this bad boy.

The next burger I would like to make your acquaintance, is the Chubby burger.

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They’re like bad apples. Rogue green potato chips. There’s one in every batch. And just like most things in life, there is a perfectly logical explanation for their existence. Now I Know, explains the heck out of it.

Every once in a while — less often than a few years ago — you’ll open a bag of potato chips and see one which isn’t like the others. It’s green-ish, especially around the edges, like the salty tasty snack chip above. And it is safe to eat.

Probably.

Potatoes grow underground and are shielded from sunlight — usually. Sometimes, parts emerge above ground, and those sections turn green as chlorophyll develops. And for this to happen, the light need not be natural light. Most green potatoes don’t make it to the stores — be it in the produce section or in crinkly foil bags — for a variety of reasons, but really, who wants to eat a green potato? 

That said, on occasion, a green-tinted potato may find its way into a potato chip factory and, eventually, a slice thereof may sneak into a bag of chips. (It’s less and less likely though, due to advances in technology. Here’s a video showing how potato chips are made in a large factory setting; if you fast-forward to about 2:50, you’ll hear about the cameras used to identify and reject flawed chips.)  Chlorophyll is non-toxic and harmless, but, as mental_floss points out,  ”in the process of a potato going green […] conditions are also right for it to synthesize more of [ … ] poison called solanine.” Solanine, in large enough amounts, is really bad for you — it can cause “vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and even paralysis of the central nervous system,” per Snopes.

But don’t worry too much. One would have to eat about twenty or so green potatoes in a day to fall ill. A medium-sized potato yields about 36 chips, per the video linked to above; it’s safe to say that if you ate 720 potato chips in a day, you’re going to get sick, even if the chips aren’t of the green variety. So if you come across a green chip, you’re probably OK.

On the other hand, don’t eat the green sprouts or leaves from the potatoes themselves. As the Straight Dope recounted – a story which is likely apocryphal, but regardless, demonstrative — “during World War II some refugees broke into an abandoned house and found a quantity of old sprouted potatoes in the basement. The potatoes themselves were too dried out to eat, so the refugees made a stew out of the sprouts — and got incredibly sick as a result.”

So, for perhaps the only time ever, this is one case where a vegetable’s fried yellow chips are better for you than its green leaves.

I think the biggest offender of the above has to be Wise potato chips. I love them, don’t get me wrong. However, growing up, my grandparents ALWAYS had a bag in the pantry. In our house we rocked the original Lays potato chips. So it was always nice to get some variety when we went to Memaw and Peepaw’s (we didn’t call them that, although I always wanted to). With that said, WOW, Wise sure has a ton of green chips. I just thought it was their “thing”. Now I just know they are trying to poison me with solanine. I can respect that.

Memorize this. All of it. You need to know this.

Before getting to the point. Let me ask you, would you eat Horse Meat? Sure they are absolutely beautiful creatures. But that would imply that it’s only OK to eat ugly animals such as cows and pigs. WHICH, is totally OK with me because in my book, the uglier the better.

The reason for the question, people are being warned that a particular frozen-food brand, Findus, has imported frozen lasagne meals from France that contain upwards of

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(Source: washingtontimes.com)

What happens when this guy opens up a SIX ounce egg is just unbelievable.

There are many Guy Fieri haters out there. With this guy leading the pack, and chairing the hate committee against the bleached blonde, goatee wearing, silly little catch-phrase creating, Next Food Network Star winner and restaurant owner; Mr. Guy Fieri. It’s a love/hate sort of thing with me. You know, when you’re at the gym and see a skinny bitch in yoga pants looking all good, it makes you immediately hate them. Well, it’s like that, only with getting to eat ridiculously good food and getting paid for it.

Well, Mr. Fieri is cashing in with his middle finger in the air, just screaming, “eat me you fickle little haters!” Well, not eat “him”, but his crazy combination frozen foods that he’s rolling out. And if “S’mores Indoors Pizza” doesn’t sound bad enough, some of the boxes even say “WELCOME TO FLAVORTOWN” on them. It’s meant to get your attention. And it does.

He knows you may hate him. He knows you may hate on him. And he doesn’t care one iota. Because he knows you’re going to buy and try his wacky frozen crap. And you, against every fiber in your curious schadenfreudian body, are going to maybe even like it. Then immediately hate yourself for it.

(Source: blisstree.com)

The short answer is, nope. But now there’s even more proof to add to your search engine conglomerate pudding. And it has to do with how they are trying to make their employees healthier when eating at their on campus cafeteria.

To make it easy for these people to eat healthy, Google cafeteria-runners put the better-for-you stuff at eye level, use smaller plates, force vegetables as part of everything, and other basic concepts.

Well, it’s not just at the cafeteria that they’re doing what they can to battle the bulge. And it’s rather difficult to do when they so graciously make food free for employees 24/7. HOWEVER, not even Google makes the vending machine free. But they can control the prices. Here’s what they did:

The only place on the campus where employees pay for food is from a vending machine. The pricing strategy is based on nutrient content, again according to the Harvard pyramid plan.  For the vended products, you pay:

• one cent per gram of sugar
• two cents per gram of fat
• four cents per gram of saturated fat
• one dollar per gram of trans fat

On this basis, Quaker Chewy Bars are 15 cents each, Famous Amos cookies are 55 cents, and an enormous Ghirardelli chocolate bar is $4.25. Weights don’t count and neither do calories.

Google, you will always have my online search.

Somebody get me on the next flight leaving JFK to LAX. Subway is rocking out some new “Creamy Sriracha Sauce.” And by rocking out, I mean, just testing it out on the market. Foodbeast tried it.

Of course, we couldn’t help but order a few sandwiches ourselves to try out the new flavor. It’s SRIRACHA sauce for goodness sake. I ordered a Turkey & Bacon Avocado with Spinach, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and the “Creamy Sriracha Sauce.” The latter took on a more subdued color from the original’s bright red, it had a mayo-like consistency and was less sweet and much more spicy. The mayo-ish Sriracha blended exquisitely with the mustard, adding a delightful kick to my so-so Subway sandwich.

I’d put that creamy sauce square on my BBQ rib sandwich. Because I do what I want.

Never knew there was a Chinese Restaurant Association.