That’s pretty cool.
This is a test to see how that works, exactly. Not that anyone really reads this yet, anyway… as it lacks focus and is probably generally uninteresting as of yet.
-E.
.seitilibasid gninrael fo nuf ekam ot ynnuf ton yllaer s’tI
What? This is insanity! I call shenanigans. I seemed to have warranted a perfectly rational reply to my somewhat irreverent original message regarding Beer Chips, Yuengling Lager Sauce, and La Choy Teriyaki Sauce…
From: “Manager-0035, Grocery” Grocery.Manager-0035@gianteagle.com
To: “me” me@mydomain.com
Sent: Wed, October 21, 2009 2:05:37 PM
Subject: Re:Beer chips, Yuengling Sauce, LaChoy SauceMr. Carroll,
I apologize for the delay in returning an email to you. The items you had requested above are not available to me with the exception of the Beer Chips which have been ordered through a third party vendor. Arrival of the product should be within the week provided they are in stock with the vendor.The Yuengling Sauce and the LaChoy Teriyaki Sauce were discontinued. Unfortunately, I don’t know if they were discontinued by the respective manufacturers, or by our corporate office. If I can be of further assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the store. Our number is 412.343.8020.
Thank you for your continued patronage.Mike Coldren
Grocery Manager
I find it much more difficult to be goofy by phone, so I think I’ll stick to the emails thank you.
I replied & asked for contact info at the corporate office so I could further discuss the Teriyaki issue. I mean, if I can get it at Shop ‘n Save or Kuhn’s… it’s certainly still available. The old packaging was discontinued, but the sauce is still available.
Am I crazy? Has anyone else tried this brand? What brands are you stuck on?
This looks tasty: http://sprytesplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/celeriac.html
I need to try it some time!
Don’t worry, it’s not a recipe.
This is for my wife. Why? Because usually, she hears this rant every time I have to make a trip to the grocery store. Perhaps, in writing it here (and to Giant Eagle), I’ll refrain from telling her my feelings for the 4,397th time.
Submitted today, via contact submission form on the Giant Eagle website:
Hello,
I’d like to request that you carry the following products…
Beer Chips, Yuengling Barbecue Sauce, & La Choy Teriyaki Sauce.
More specifically, I’d like to see them at the Giant Eagle on Cochran Road in Greentree/Mt. Lebanon/Scott Township or whatever the neighborhood is over there.
I drive right by this location on my way home from work, & do the majority of my shopping there.
I first discovered Beer Chips on an end-cap in the Robinson Giant Eagle, and the only other place I’ve seen them is at the Aldi up there… but that place is never reliable as far as expecting a brand name to be there.
Previously, the Cochran Road location did carry Beer Chips in the chip aisle, but I haven’t seen them for weeks. Will they ever return to your tightly packed shelves?
Cochran Road also carried Yuengling Lager Sauce for a short while, but had more of the “hot wing” sauce than the normal stuff, and they hid it on the bottom shelf inches above the floor. How is anyone supposed to find/try the stuff if you do that? I can tell you, it’s excellent, and shouldn’t be relegated to sitting at shoelace level.
Why is the sauce not available at this location any more? If the answer is “it didn’t sell well”, please see my previous references to placement relative to eye level/awareness.
Lastly… we come to the great mystery which is La Choy Teriyaki sauce. I literally go out of my way to get this stuff. As stated previously, I do most of my shopping at the Giant Eagle on Cochran Road. I also find myself occasionally in the Giant Eagle locations in Parkway Center, Bridgeville, or Robinson… or even out in Murrysville, Monroeville, or Squirrel Hill. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that you have a chain-wide ban of La Choy Teriyaki going on. I can never find it it any of your stores. This puzzles me… because you do indeed carry La Choy products… the Soy Sauce and one other sauce which escapes me now… but I NEVER see the Teriyaki sauce in a Giant Eagle.
You may remember that I have written about this before… but I’ve never received an answer… No “we’ll consider carrying that”, no “we’ll get that in our next order to La Choy”, not even a “we don’t carry it because…”
What’s the deal? I feel that if you taste it side by side with the Kikkoman brand, or the Ken’s Steak House Teriyaki Marinade, you’ll have no choice but to agree that it’s clearly the superior product.
Even if not… you sell both Coke & Pepsi, right? Why exclude the La Choy Teriyaki from your fine selection of groceries?
I actually make special trips to the Shop ‘N Save by WAL★MART in Heidelberg or I actually set foot in Kunh’s Market on Banksville Road to get the La Choy Teriyaki Sauce. Have you BEEN to the Kunh’s on Banksville Road? I’ve gotten moldy peppers from that place, as well as ‘turned’ sour cream, …and melted ice cream. I don’t want to go in there. But, I do. Why? To get the La Choy Teriyaki sauce, my friends. It’s THAT GOOD.
I’d love to be able to do all of my grocery shopping with you, and to rack up fuelperks, foodperks, and whatever other kind of perks you come up with in the future.
I look forward to your thoughts on these matters, have a good weekend!
Inquisitively,
-Eric
Yeah.
If you want to know what I’m talking about, check out…
I was hungry for meatloaf, so the other day I asked my wife to pick up some ground meat and croutons at the store, and last night I decided I was in the mood to cook.
Every time I make meatloaf, I think of my mom & grandma telling me how my grandpap used to make it with hard boiled eggs in the middle. I always thought that would be fun to try… but something pushed me into finally doing it. A look at Wikipedia seems to indicate that the eggs-in-the-middle is a Hungarian, Phillipino, Bulgarian or Czech thing… Thanks for the help, Wikipedia. As far as I know, that side of the family is mostly German & Irish… so who knows where it came from? Not like people couldn’t come up with this stuff independantly… but I like to read useless information.
Whenever I make meatloaf, I never use a set recipe. I always end up googling something like “How long and at what temperature do I cook a 2 lb. Meatloaf?” or going to Cooks.com and simply searching for “Meatloaf” right before I start. This time was no exception. I also usually end up calling my mom, to see what she would do as far as time/teperature.
I’m amazed at how many things you can do to meatloaf. I’m gonna try shredded carrots some time. And maybe I’ll even try soaking bread crumbs or croutons in milk before mixing them in. I have used just chunks of bread, crumbled crackers, bread crumbs, and even mashed potato flakes… but too many bread crumbs or crackers and the meatloaf is just gross… more loaf than meat, and that’s certainly not a good thing.
This time though, I kept it pretty simple… except for the eggs, I guess… and the bacon…
Here’s what went into it…
All that got mixed together, well, without the hard-boiled eggs… then I formed the bottom of the loaf in a glass pan, on top of 3 slices of white bread… made spots for the eggs, placed them gently in the raw ground goodness, and covered them over with the rest.
Eggs in meatloaf mixture, on top of the bread slices...
I picked up the meatloaf on top of slices of bread trick from my dad. It serves a double purpose, it prevents the bottom of the loaf from burning, and soaks up any extra grease… I needed a loaf rather than a few slices for this one, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Grandma used to usually put ketchup on the top of her meatloaf. My mom said that my grandpap used to sometimes top his with some mashed potatoes & brown them for a potato frosting. My meatloaf needed something on top… my signature, if you will.
This is where we cross from odd into ridiculous. I couldn’t decide, so I made a triple topping. Typically I go with a glaze on top that’s a mixture of Ketchup, whatever honey mustard, and A1. But the eggs in the middle told me to do something goofy… so I got out some shredded cheddar jack cheese… Then the eggs reminded me of bacon… so I got that out too.
So for the top of the meatloaf we had…
The glaze is probably about 2/3 ketchup, 1/6 mustard, and 1/6 A1. How much of each? I dunno. I eyed it & mixed it in a coffee mug. I put that on top of the meatloaf. It looked pretty good. Then I sprinkled the cheese on top of that… Still lookin’ OK, albeit a little brighter.
Meatloaf + Cheese & ketchup/mustard/A1 glaze...
Then the “aaaaaaaaah”/choir of angels moment… BACON.
I’ve used bacon-bits in meatloaf and chili before, but I’ve never wrapped anything in bacon. There’s a first time for everything, right? Of course, I had to top the bacon with more fresh ground pepper.
After reviewing a bunch of stuff on line, and talking to my mom… I decided to cook it for about an hour and a half and make sure the meat thermometer reached 160° F. I had it covered in foil for about an hour, the last half letting it go uncovered to get the bacon nice & brown… maybe a little too brown this time, but oh well.
I realize this isn’t the most healthy meal in the world, but I seemed to offend the senses of some and become a champion of sorts to others simply by posting photos in photobucket and sharing the link on facebook.
It's... BACON!
My sister-in-law asked how many calories it was, and while I know it was in jest, it got me wondering, so I asked Yahoo!.
The finished product!
This is the meal of a carnivore, as it has stuff from three different animals… although one didn’t have to die in the process of harvesting its delicious nutrition.
Next time, I may not use so much bacon… because it made a pool of grease at the bottom of the baking dish that wasn’t all that appealing.
The eggs are a neat surprise, and a good way to stretch it I suppose… but I doubt I’ll do every meatloaf like this from now on. But, at least I can say I’ve done it, and I know what it looks and tastes like.
I hope you enjoyed my tale of meaty decadence… and I hope to hear others recipes/ideas/surprise ingredients!
This is quite funny: The Blog of Unnecessary Quotes.
I find the incorrect usage of quotes to be quite annoying, and I’m glad others do to. Not that I have great grammar or anything, but some things are just so basic, there’s no excuse…
Yeah, so I did what I do a lot. I got something 90% ready to go and then forgot about it.
I think I may need some help to rekindle my interest.
Can anyone help me with the submission form for http://fastfoodfail.com?
It’s currently here: http://fastfoodfail.com/fail/?page_id=26
And I got the script from here: http://www.dagondesign.com/
I might even get to writing in this thing again too… if anyone’s interested in reading? Ha.
I ought to start using this more. I wasn’t sure what this is going to focus on. Funny stuff. Not so funny stuff. Reviews. Food. Whatever.
I guess anything goes here, right?
I could start posting goofy news here instead of on/in addition to the Beat.
I need to fix the submission form & start pimping Fast Food Fail too. Oddly enough, I haven’t eaten much fast food lately.
Maybe I just need to learn & understand more about WordPress.
Dear Mr. Carroll,
Thank you for your inquiry below. Sonic
allergen information can be found at www.sonicdrivein.com
under the menu and nutritional tab. From this tab choose Quick View tab at the
top. All Sonic allergen information can be found on the left hand side of this
web page.
From reviewing the allergen statement, the
only product that may contain a fish allergen is the fish sandwich. As the fish
sandwich is not a menu item at this Sonic, Sonic may run local promotions for
fish from time to time.
Best Regards,
David
David Abney
Sonic Quality Assurance Department
From: Eric Carroll
[mailto:my@ddre.ss]
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 3:34 PM
To: Sonic PR; T Lemley Sonic
Partner Net
Subject: Sonic – Allergen
Information?
Ominous Sonic Allergen Warning
Hello
Good Citizens at Sonic,
I’m writing to ask about an ominous little warning that I noticed yesterday
afternoon on the Sonic menu board in Bridgeville ,
PA.
I was so stricken by the statement, that I took a photo with my cell
phone. (I’ve cropped to &
highlighted the pertinent information for your reference.)
The warning (as I’m sure you’re familiar with) reads:
Products
containing allergens (e.g. peanuts, fish, eggs, milk, soy, wheat, etc.) are
used in this restaurant and may come in contact with your food or drink.
I’d like to ask why this is so vague. I can assure you, the
“etc.” at the end is quite ominous for someone that’s deathly
allergic to something like myself.
Some restaurants feature
allergen info. quite prominently on their websites&menus. I
would like to respectfully encourage you to do the same in future
re-vamps/revisions of your menu boards & website.
I would also like to ask exactly where
fish is used in the restaurant? I can’t seem to find any on the menu…
unless it’s in the hot dogs. (I only suggest this because I have read
allergen information that states that hot dogs may contain a trace amount of
fish and/or shellfish.)
I ask because the allergen that holds me in its powerful grasp is shellfish.
Does shellfish fall under the dreaded “etc.”? I can assure you,
that if I were to consume some tater-tots fried in the same fryer as a nice
tasty-yet-deadly crustacean, my next destination would be the nearest hospital.
I beseech you to be more forthcoming and informative with your allergen
disclosure policy… and use it as a tool instead of a legal “CYA” (if you’ll
pardon the expression).
I know I’m more prone to dine at and suggest to my friends the places that take
allergies into consideration. As you may be able to imagine, I have a
very limited selection of establishments where I feel comfortable eating.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject!
Inquisitively,
-Eric
.seitilibasid gninrael
fo nuf ekam ot ynnuf ton yllaer s’tI
I had posted the following on my Facebook page and PittsburghBeat.com while ago, and wasn’t really sure if I’d get a response. Enough people seemed to be entertained by it, that I thought it did its job. Today, I got a letter in the mail from Senator Wayne Fontana. It’s also following the following.
Bethany signed after the girl at the door pointed to some bulleted talking points on her clipboard saying pollution is bad, and she then asked for a donation. Bethany, agreeing that clean water is good (and just wanting the girl to go away) gave her a check for $5.
The young lady at the door was very polite, and probably out for a good cause that she believes in wholeheartedly. I applaud her conviction and dedication.
Then, Bethany was given the following pamphlet and asked to write a letter to PA State Senator Wayne Fontana and leave it out on the porch for the young woman to pick up on her way back through in about a half hour.
Bethany sat down, perplexed at what to write. It’s hard to write a letter about an issue that you’ve just learned of minutes ago, mere seconds of those minutes being devoted to actually explaining the issue. She considered aloud just copying the text outlined in the “Tell Them” section of the handout and singing her name, and laughed.
You all know I like to write letters, so I happily offered to write in her stead.
| I wrote: |
|
Dear Senator Fontana,
My wife was asked to write this letter by a door-to-door political solicitor about an issue that was explained to her in less than 30 seconds with talking points laid out that (of course) over-simplify some situation about clean water initiatives. She was asked to donate money to their cause, which she did, under duress. I do not support their cause, and most likely their proposed bill includes some kind of legislation that will take property out of private hands for government use, or raise our taxes. I’m sure there’s something that we’re not being told, or some sort of political affiliation or philosophy that’s not anything like mine behind this agenda. Do I want clean water? Of course I do. Do I want anything else these people are pushing for? Probably not. Perhaps a bigger issue to tackle would be to pass laws saying that people can’t solicit political issues door to door. So, in closing, I apologize for wasting your time, my time, this envelope, a stamp, this ink, and this paper. I’m sure a Prius-driving sandal & socks wearing liberal is crying somewhere at my waste of precious resources. Don’t you guys have e-mail addresses? I would love to hear your thoughts on the issue, and these “Clean Water Action” people. You can waste more ink, paper, stamps, & time by contacting me at the address above, or via email at my_email@ddre.ss. Annoyed, |
We addressed it to Sen. Fontana, placed it in a sealed envelope, stamped it, and placed it on the porch for pickup by the young activist.
And, as promised, the response…
Yours is not the first story I've heard about the organizations's tactics in garnering support for their efforts.
I think it’s awesome that the senator took the time to not only read my letter, but also to form a well-thought-out response. This certainly does not appear to be a standard reply letter, and it’s good to know that others feel the same way. Maybe something does get done by writing to your local politicians.
The last paragraph may not be what I needed to hear.
World (and Lunar) Domination 