Things wot I Made Then Ate

fried chicken sliders, house salad, Stoney's Bar & Grill

Stoney's... Denver... It's not what you might be thinking.

The place was packed. All young people. I sat at the bar, people engaged me in friendly fashion.

One young man asked me, "What makes you different?"

His idiosyncratic icebreaker.

I demurred. On account of being so normal.

I honestly did not know how to answer.

People were gathered outside as shown on their website, people were gathered inside engaged in a trivia game. Others meandered the other half of the place in conversation, watching sports on t.v. and reading their phones. It is a gathering place of mostly millennials. Equally male and female, all terribly well behaved. They spoke mostly about work.

I must say I was surprised at the quantity of food. I would have brought home three fourths of it but I brought only one storage container. It is the best salad I've had in awhile. I love it when salads are done well.

steak fajita, Quijote's Broadway

Such a nice clean place with lovely people. Family run and they do treat me as family. Better than that, actually.

Their menu.

We can copy this. But it'd be a major project. The reason why it appears such a feast is in my way each element is its own separate meal. To have it all at once, pow, it's like Thanksgiving right there. Except for it all being Mexican, of course. The roasted jalapeño is a nice touch. You usually don't see that.

fried chicken, Charcoal restaurant

I did not make this.

Ordered fried chicken because restaurants do better with this than I can do at home.

Charcoal restaurant is a few blocks from my apartment. I walked there. They've done a fine job of redesigning a one-time garage later turned into an art gallery. Their menu is crab cakes and oysters and flank steak, interesting salads and exotic desserts. They pair wine with each item. Cost is medium high.

So I was surprised that my meal was only $10.00 even though there is not very much on the plate.

And then further surprised when they comped the meal for completing a survey designed mostly for training their staff. Yes, this meal was free.

Except 80¢ tax.

And $5.00 tip.

What the heck.

The day I was there the staff were all tall thin young men. Friendly and helpful and engaging as can be. Explaining the free dinner for the survey the waiter threw me off by saying, "... as retribution for completing the survey."

Is that adorable, or what?

pork country ribs and white beans

A little bit of brown sugar and these strongly flavored fresh grape tomatoes together have a similar agridulce effect that bbq sauce has. Minus the mess of eating ribs baked with in bbq sauce. The cheese is incredibly strongly flavored cheddar that honestly vies with Parmigiano Reggiano for its own standard of excellence.

The meat is pork country style ribs. Their bones contribute significant body. The whole thing, meat, bones, dry beans all started at once and cooked in water with spices and garlic cloves, bay and the like, until the beans are softened and the meat falls from the bones.

Acid is held off until the beans are fully cooked. Acidic pH prevents the surface of beans from softening fully. Unless they're baked overnight. There is acid in brown sugar and in molasses and tomato. So those things are better added at the end. Fresh tomato is very nice switch out for cooked tomato paste and tomato sauce.

I cannot say enough about this cheddar cheese. Expensive, yes, but it's not used as slices for sandwiches. I've always seen offered mild, sharp, very sharp, but this cheddar is explosively powerful without being sharp. It's the strangest thing and most impressive. I'm using the cheese as flavoring similar to hard Italian parmesan so a block of it goes a long way. If it were used for a sandwich then a cheddar sauce would be the way go with this cheese. Not to be cheap about it, rather, to prevent having your mouth blown off your face from intense cheese flavor. In moderation it's a very nice addition. To everything.