Monday, May 23, 2011

Review: Shiner Ruby Redbird

Well I want to put a quick disclaimer on here first. I do not drink a whole lot so I am not super experienced with alcohol. I mean I can tell good beer from piss beer but thats about it. I am not the biggest fan of stouts or ales, I know that much. My sister recommended the Shiner Ruby Redbird so I went ahead and gave it a shot (we have similar tastes).


I have had most of the Shiner varieties up to this point being Texas born and raised. I like Shiner, it is a good middle class beer. They also do a great job mixing it up and providing plenty of varieties with the seasons. This has to be one of my favorites though. It is beer with a hint of Ruby Red Grapefruit and ginger. I was hoping it would be red, but then again I am glad it isn't because it is a very appealing golden color. Right of the first sip you can taste the grapefruit. It is strong, yet not too pungent. You get the tartness without the sourness of grapefruit. The ginger hits with after leaving a clean taste in your mouth afterwords. It is definitely a lighter beer and maybe could have benefited from some more volume but too thick and it kills the idea of being a "summer beer". All in all if you can get Shiner and want to try literally what I think makes a perfect summer beer, give it a shot. You won't be looking like a beer connoisseur or a hard-ass drinker, but you will be enjoying a quality cold one for sure.

Rating 4/5 "It's Just Swell"

Now go enjoy a cold one, you have an excuse

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Review: Blazin BBQ Burger


Sonic has decent enough burgers. I do not think they are a Sonic staple by any stretch, but they are pretty tasty. Now when I saw they had new “special” burgers I had to give them a shot, just because sonic does a good job with their enhanced burgers (the BBQ Toaster Burger is one of my favorite fast food burgers of all time). I had two options, the Blazin BBQ Burger and the Ring Leader Burger. I normally would of picked the Ring Leader but I decided to go the spicy route and get the Blazin BBQ. The Burger, as described by the sonic website,

It's a heat stroke of genius. A 100% pure beef patty topped with crispy jalapeno strips plus sliced jalapenos, bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, sweet and spicy habanero and hickory BBQ sauces, lettuce, and ripe tomato on a toasty bakery bun. That ought to melt heartstrings.




Was it Blazin? Not too bad. I was kind of worried with so many heat elements they would over power the burger but thankfully that did not happen. The crispy Jalapeno strips added some good crunch without too much heat. The pepperjack cheese was a welcome substitute and did not hurt but I honestly cannot say I would have noticed a huge difference. The sauce was were most of the flavor came from. It has a unique flavor to it that initially I did not like. That changed after a few bites though. It starts off sweet but slowly turns into spicy. Most of the heat comes from the jalapenos that are down on the bottom with the veggies. The veggies are another thing that sonic is good at by the way! They are fresh and crisp! I got it with tater tots, which are always a winner, and a Chocolate Coke (the one reason I LOVE Sonic, if it sounds gross, try it. It is the Best type of coke).

Rating 4/5 –“it’s Just Swell!”

I cannot say I was head over heels for this burger but I definitely enjoyed it. It was a nice twist on Sonic’s burgers, which are typically boring to me. I do want to try the Ring Leader Burger at some point.  This one just sounded more exciting!

If anyone has the other one let me know how it is!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Review: Beefy Melt Burrito


Really Taco Bell?! Really? What is going on over at corporate. Are you guys so busy that you cannot come up with an original promo item idea? It cannot be that difficult to do within a MONTH.

Here is how they mathematically came to the Beefy Melt Burrito

Beefy Crunch Burrito
-Crunch
+Cheese
=Beefy Melt Burrito


Thats all this is folks. Do not get too excited because there is nothing new here. The only positive I have to say is this is only 99 cents. But honestly at this point that is starting to loose it's glamour. The Promo items are supposed to be something new and exciting we cannot get any other time. Not something I can make with any item on the menu by just adding stuff. The worst part? This was already a promo item, it was just bigger and cost more then. Now it is a "value" item. You keep on disappointing me Taco Bell.

Rating 1/5 -"IT'S F*$&ING STUPID"

I know that is not a real rating but I am mad at this. Taco Bell, if you see this, fix this problem now.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Review: Fast Five

I am really tired so I am going to make this quick. I saw Fast Five last weekend and thought I would give my thoughts on it. This is the fifth installment of the Fast and Furious series (really? five? they are one behind star wars..) and of course, as a male I had to see it, regardless of how bad it looked. It was not a let down either. It was fun and entertaining. This one is a bit different then the past four. It takes place between the last movie and Tokyo Drift. The story is pretty much Ocean's Eleven but in this world. This installment is much more of a heist movie and much less of a racing movie. All of your old favorites from the past movies, plus a few new ones, are involved as well. It was actually really nice to see a lot of the characters I have liked from the past movies together. The Dialogue between these characters may be dumb and shallow but I really always got a sense that these guys have been friends for years and have real chemistry. 


Dwayne Johnson (the Rock) also graces this movie with his talents. He plays a law enforcement agent out to catch Vin Diesel and his crew. He is not much of an enemy or a threat and holy balls is his dialogue horrible, but he has a few tight scenes and he and Vin Diesel finally have a fight to see who can put there arms down at their sides the farthest. As Spill.com has pointed out, these movies seem to only take actors who had blooming careers suddenly cave (i.e Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, The Rock, Tyrese). Either way the plot of this movie is pretty standard. The action on the other hand is exactly what you want from  these movies. The last scene in the movie is so unrealistic but yet so much fun to watch. 

Rating 3/5 "It's Just Meh"

The movie has nothing special about it but is a solid movie that is fun to watch. If you can sneak it to see it after seeing something else do it, it is not a waste of time. It might just not be worth your $10. 

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Review: Which Wich

I do not know why I do not eat subs more often. I always think they sound unappealing when I am deciding what to eat but every time I have one I am more then happy to finish it. I tend to avoid Subway and Quiznos when I can and lean toward Potbelly. I guess I am surprised it has taken me so long to try Which Wich. Especially because they are located less then three minuets from my house. I think it is because someone once told me they are pricey and I am a cheap person. Needless to say I finally got around to trying it.
My Which wich


My first impression was WOAH. There are sooooo many choices that I honestly was overwhelmed. I had to sit there for ten minuets debating between which meat I wanted, what kind of that meat, what veggies, what sauces, ect. The process was exhausting and I wish I spent some time before doing research on what I wanted. They literally have something here for EVERYONE. While it took a while I finally made the choice of a pastrami sandwich on wheat topped with cole slaw and provolone. A simple, classic sandwich. With the quantity of choices I expected the quality to be low, but it was not at all. The pastrami was flavorful and had plenty juiciness. They cole slaw was good but I did not get quite enough of it. They cheese was melted and the bread toasted nicely. I will say I am kind of sad they only had two options of bread but I cannot complain too much because that would have added another five minuets to my decision process.

Rating 4/5 "It's Just Swell"

I will go again if only to try one of the other 182,847,382 combinations. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality as well. It is not the best sub a have ever had by any stretch, but compared to subway and Quiznos it is awesome.

So Which Wich do you get? I want to see some comments and get some ideas!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Review: Wendy's Spicy Chipotle Sandwiches

I have to give Wendy's credit. They are one of the few fast food places that mixes up their value menu. I recently was passing my local Wendy's and it turns out they have two new 99 cent sandwiches. After doing some peaking around I could not find any info about them on the website so I am assuming they might be testing them here. Or they are on their value menu so they do not want to advertise them. Either way they hooked me in. They are the Spicy chipotle sandwiches. There is a chicken and burger version of them. They both have a slice of pepper jack, jalapenos, and chipotle sauce. Does Wendy's have a winner?



Burger
Chicken



Yes and no. I appreciate the effort here. Offering some flavor to my value menu options is always appreciated. Pepper-jack cheese is always a welcome substitution to any sandwich. The chipotle sauce is spicy but does not have  much flavor. Unfortunately there is not a whole lot of a chipotle taste to it either which made me sad. The jalapenos were nothing special but provided a good kick. Now I have to emphasize there is a HUGE difference between the two. The burger version was so much less satisfying then the chicken version. You can see in the pictures above that the burger patty is just too small. I felt like I was eating bun with cheese and spicy stuff. I could not taste the burger and I felt like there was no heft that I like to have in my Wendy's burgers. If they made it a double then it might work. Now the chicken was much better. It was a big breaded piece that made the sandwich more filling. At 99 cents a piece I can not complain too much but I really can only see myself getting the chicken version again.

Ratings: 
Spicy Chipotle Burger 2/5 "It's Not Worth It"
Spicy Chipotle Chicken Sandwich: 4/5 "It's Just Swell"

I am almost done with finals so I will be updating more often! Sorry for the slowness lately.