Hey everyone! This is our first official blog. We made it back from our 15 hour car ride to Texas. It was a great trip. We ate a lot of good food. So here is our first blog about the food we ate there.
Most people that know us, know what the number one eatery on our list was. Chipotle!!! It's acutally not the first place we went to. But it's our favorite, so it's first. Johnny and I had a nice day and went to the Modern Art Museum in downtown Ft. Worth. It was awesome, really nice place. We loved it. I was hungry before we left the house. But, we didn't want to spoil our appetites, because we needed a lot of room for Chipotle. So we stopped at a 7 Eleven for a snack. This would be another place we don't have in SC. We got their Go Go Taquitos. I think they shouldn't charge 2 for $2. Maybe 2 for 99 cent???
They looked a lot better in person. They had a few different flavors to choose from.We got Taco and Monterey Chicken. It was like a fried flour tortilla on the outside with meat and cheese on the inside. They were both equally good. Topped it off with a 99 cent Arizona Green Tea. I was ready to walk the museum.
Johnny and I walked the museum for a couple of hours before heading out to Chipotle. It was actually right across the street from the museum. We managed to get two pictures. Neither shots are of us eating a burrito. :( The first one, I managed to get of JP standing outside.
We get inside and order our favorite burrito...The Barbacoa! Yum Yum, I'm having burrito flashbacks! LOL JP snapped this one shot. He starts telling the lady why he's taking pictures. Saying we don't have a Chipotle in South Carolina. The lady looks confused, because I think she barely speaks English. Next thing we know, some guy comes out saying, "I'm sorry you can't take pictures in here." Johnny and I look at each other all crazy. The guy said they have to much competition and they would try and come and steal recipes or something. I was thinking you can google the recipe dude! So here we only have two shots of our burrito experience. No other Chipotle has ever had a problem with us taking pictures.
Update: Since we've returned from Texas, I sent an email to Chipotle asking them is it indeed true that pictures cannot be taken inside the restaurant. I got a response from them fairly quickly and I wasn't surprised with what they said:
Johnny,
Anywhere customers don't go, you can't shoot, but you can take pictures
of anything else. Our manager was incorrect in this regard. The only
thing we ask is that you don't disturb our other customers. I am very
sorry, and we'll make this clear to our people. Somebody was just being
overprotective.
Sincerely,
Joe Stupp
ChipotleSo it's pretty much what I thought Since we weren't anywhere near a "no-customer zone". Joe from Chipotle was nice about it and told me that he would spread the word. So we'll continue endorsing Chipotle. Speaking of Endorsements, this election is crazy this year.
JP
This next picture was actually from the second night we were there. We went to a little spot called No. 1 Chinese. It actually looked like a old Taco Bell or Pizza Hut. They had a buffet and a small menu. We ordered the dinner plate from the buffet. You get three choices: I chose Chow Mein, Orange Chicken, and Beef Broccoli. Johnny got Jalepeno Chicken ( I think that's what it was called), Fried Rice, and Orange chicken. The dinner plates were $5.40 each, which is pretty darn good. On top of your three choices they throw in a egg roll and two pieces of char siu chicken for free!!! Man, it was cheap, delicious, and they give you a ton of food. Excellent!
Now you West Coasters may think this is not a big deal, but to us it was the shizz nittle bang bang! I'm not going to lie folks, we went here almost everyday. For snacks, lunch, and dinner you name it! Jack In D Box ! 99 cent Tacos Son!!! Wow! Greasy, delicious, spicy, and cheap! What more can you ask for. We were killing these joints. I like the egg rolls too. Somebody tell Jack to open one in Columbia!
JP likes the jalepeno poppers, that batch in the picture was kind of tired.
We also tried another taco joint. It was actually next to the No. 1 Chinese place. It also looked like a former Taco Bell . The menu again, wasn't very large. The food was cheap and looked pretty good in the pictures. I think the most expensive thing they had were these enormous Nachos. They looked pretty good. We opted to go with a fried flour tortilla taco and loaded burrito. The taco was good, it was so light it fell apart. The burrito was aight. It had lettuce, tomato, ground beef, sour cream, cheese, and black olives. I really prefer no lettuce on a burrito and tons of gauc...but it was good for the price and it made me full.
Didn't get a picture of the burrito.
Like I mentioned above, I also did some cooking while we were there. While we were out at the grocery store buying food. We discovered our favorite salsa brand had a whole line of products. Ms. Renfros is our absolute favorite green salsa! We can only find it at Publix and they only sell two of the products. In Texas, they had every sauce and salsa made by Ms. Renfros. If you haven't tried Ms. Renfros I suggest you do. The flavor is amazing. It's a good balance of heat and flavor.
We also headed down to the Asian market. I had to get my ingredients to make Korean lettuce wraps. I don't recall what the store was called, but it was huge! It had a meat market with fresh fish and other types of meat. A fresh produce section and bakery. They had so many things in there, I didn't know where to start. They also sold unusual things you see on tv like thousand year old duck eggs!!! Eewww!
Definitely wasn't on the grocery list! LOL
Here are the delicious lettuce wraps I made. They were a hit. I also made some Asian crab patties.
So, for the most part we had a great eating experience on this trip. Not to mention the other good home cooked food we ate. We also went to some chicken chain called Chicken Express. We heard their corn nuggets were the best. Not that I have ever had a corn nugget. But, wow! Those things were amazing. Deep fried golden nuggets with a sweet creamy corn inside. Yum! The chicken on the other hand was horrible!!! Flavorless...just bad. I guess there was a reason people only mentioned the corn nuggets. Well they said the chicken tenders were good, we'll just take their word on that.
Finally, we visited a lot of dollar stores. They had a few. While browsing the local Dollar Tree (because we love Dollar Tree). I found some Twin Dragon Almond Cookies!!! I love these freaking cookies. Can't seem to find them down here in SC. They were only a dollar. I should of went back and got some more.
So that ends my little food blog for now. I hope to get my actual food blog up and running. Because, we love to eat and we are always looking to try new and fun things. I will post a link when we get it up and running.
Laters
Read more!
Chipotle has finally opened it's doors in Columbia,SC! You know we were there to get in all the action!
Here we are waiting in line for our t-shirt and burritos! Don't the kids look excited??? Ha!
The t-shirt give away started at 3, and this it what the line looked like as time got closer.
We made it in! Burrito time!
Our free shirt and gift card. They made the t-shirt look like a burrito! Cute!
JP Enjoying his burrito!
Arial shot of our favorite burrito the Barbacoa!
Me enjoying my burrito. Check out our friend Kris in the background! LOL
All Pau! It was well worth it! We stood in line for about an hour. I'm sure glad they finally came to our town. We were driving an hour away to get our fix! Moes better watch out! Moes also had the nerve to try and give away free burritos on Chipotle's grand opening! How dare they! lol Other friends of ours went to the new Chipotle a couple days after the grand opening and said there were still long lines! Sounds like they are off to a good start! Good times! :)
