2007 Year in review- Food!

2007 was once again and excellent year for food eating. We had a Qdoba taco bar at work today and I am still in a taco coma. I definitely ate less than 2006 but I also didn’t do an Ironman (or much of anything) in 2007. I ate out 198 time in 2007. I only ate at one place double digit times, surprise, surprise, it was Taco Bell! 19 times including once in Puerto Rico. Hubbard Ave Diner was 2nd with 9 and JT Whitneys with 8 trips for 3rd. Great Dane, Red Robin, Unos and Papa Johns at 7 each rounding out the Top 7.

Local Rankings

Best New Restaurant: Abuelos
Best Burger/Appetizers: Dottys Melting Pot/Cheese Curds
Best Mexican/Nachos: Abuelos Shredded Beef Nachos
Best Fast Food/Fast Food Item: Taco Bell/Chicken Quesadilla
Worst Restaurant/New Restaurant: Gray’s Tied House (anything/everything)


Best places of 2007:
Empire Burger, Breckenridge, CO
Mama Bear’s, Bloomington, IN
Abuelos, Middleton, WI

On the rise: Taco Bell,
Sliding down: Sonic, White Castle, Taco Time

Notes
-I ate at 0 Waffle Houses this year and never made the trek over to Quaker Steak and Lube. I only ate once at Long John Silvers, Tumbleweed & Buffalo Wild Wings. So my win quota was lacking big-time in 07.
-Gray’s Papaya was the place to eat late night in NYC. It was located next to a White Castle in Manhattan but Gray’s was packed and WC not. I ate at both the first night, Gray’s the rest, best hot dog I’ve ever had.
-Manhattan also has a place that serves just Mac & Cheese. It’s called Smac. Go there!
-Want donuts, burgers or nachos? Breckenridge, CO has among the best in class of each of those, and some pretty awesome pizza to boot.
-It’s hard for me to declare something as the best pizza ever. But one of the top 3 I’ve ever had is Mother Bear’s Pizza in Bloomington, Indiana. Go there, eat big, be happy!
-Coffee was a big thing for me this year. The Copper Cup (also in Bloomington) makes the best brews I’ve ever had. Locally I’d have to rate my top 3 as Java Cat, Starbucks and Barriques, although I’ve only been to about 7-8 shops locally. Kwik Trip is the best gas station coffee hands down.

-My old favorite restaurant, Jungle Jims, is closed now. Much love and respect.

-The worst thing I saw in food was a two stage process. I hated to see our cherished State St. Taco Bell turn into a Taco Bell/KFC. It was even worse when we were in Puerto Rico at a similar operation and Barry got a quesadilla and put mashed potoatoes and cole slaw on them. It might have been the single worst food moment of 2007. Barry should be ashamed.

2007 Life...

Sorry for the lack of updates, been really busy lately and when I wasn’t busy I was still busy playing with my new toys. Christmas treated me pretty well, getting plenty of books, games and clothes. But I got two new toys as well, one called a Nintendo DS and one called a snowblower. Fortunately I’ve only had to use the snowblower twice (and now I’m out of gas so I’ll have to work that out.) It’s odd, I now own a device that makes me perform less manual labor but for some reason the fact that it’s machinery that runs on gas it makes me feel more manly. As for the Nintendo DS, I wonder how I ever got by without one. The Mario game is super sweet, but Jess and I have been playing Brain Age 2. It’s a series of small mini games that make you smarter, improve your concentration and all that jazz…I love it!

So what have I been up to since I last wrote at ya? Direct TV and I are not friends, so much as we don’t even have a relationship anymore. It appears Dish network may be in our future instead. Our new TV is awesome, I’ve seen a lot of TV’s and this is as impressive as anything I’ve seen. Unless someone tells me otherwise it looks like a PS3 will have to be connected to that TV soon too.

The holidays were most excellent. Great food, friends, family, gifts and just quality time all around. Here’s a cliff’s notes version:
Saturday night we went to a Christmas party at our friends Kyle and Tracys house. The party was most excellent and I made a baked Alaska that is quickly becoming legendary. Even scored me a Rubik’s cube as a Yankee swap gift (thanks Hez!) Sunday we watched the Packers (more like watching the Bears, the Packers never showed up) and then capped it with Christmas with Jess’ family. That’s where the Nintendo DS came in. Sweet! Up early on Christmas eve to workout and then shovel. Then over to the in-laws for breakfast before heading north for Christmas. Got caught in a 1-hour traffic jam for an accident which was cleaned up by the time we got to it…such is life. Hung out at the aunt and uncle’s place that night. Christmas morning was Christmas in Rice Lake with the family, that’s where the snowblower came in. Then we had Christmas with my mom’s extended family (the day before was with my dad’s) which is always fun, especially when my parents hosted it and my brother brought his Wii. My grandma bowled a 134 and drank Mountain Dew between throws, how rad is she? That night my dad made me clear their driveway with my new snowblower. Good times. The 26th we hung out and played Cabelas Big Game Hunter for Wii (and did some shopping/returning as well.) We also busted out a new board game, Last Word, which is a fun play. The 27th was travel day. We stopped in Eau Claire at the mall there where I proceeded to dump like 4ounces of sensual vanilla amber oil on me while waiting for Jess to check out at Bath & Body works. It just reeked and I’ve washed my coat on heavy twice and it still smells. I had to stow my coat away in the back of the trunk. Friday we watched the new National Treasure movie (good flick) and we had bowling that night. Saturday was a chill day until that night when we went and saw the Bodeans in concert. Sunday was our anniversary. I picked up a smaller version of our wedding cake as a surprise to Jess. We then watched the Packers with her family and went to the dog park. After that we went out to celebrate our anniversary by eating at Tutto Pasta. Made it home and spent the rest of the night hanging out and watching Amazing Race. Nice laid back celebration. New Years eve arrived on Monday. I didn’t go outside that whole day, unless getting into a car and driving through a drive thru counts. Wasn’t feeling good and we spent all day cleaning and getting ready for New Years. Had some people over for new years and had a good time. Karaoke was sung and beer pong was played. Turns out I am pretty decent at beer pong. Had lots of food as well and I think everyone had a good time! New Years we got up way too early to see Jess’ sister off (and eat some breakfast.) Struggled watching the Badgers game with Jess’ family. Just kind of zoned on the couch the rest of the day watching football (and outdoor hockey.) We even rocked a 1000pc puzzle. There you go, one boring-ass long paragraph about what I’ve been doing…

Which leads me to today, the first day of my new job (sort of.) It’s actually a good transition, I get to finish up my old job for two weeks but sit upstairs at my new desk to get used to the surroundings while I do it. First day wasn't so bad...hopefully the rest will be better. My old (still current) boss took me and the new me out to lunch today as a kind of changing of the guard. It was a good time!

As for everything else, we officially suck at the materialness side of being friends. We didn't do Christmas (or New Years) cards. We didn't buy many Christmas presents for friends even though we recieved some. We forget some birthdays and anniversaries and holidays. That's something I hope we can improve upon.

Planning on doing some 2007 recap posts soon so stay tuned. Mark's year of food review and Mark's year of entertainment review are planned.