28th Annual MDA Chili Cook Off - Larimer Square Historic District Denver, Colorado

October 2, 2015

 

Recently I was able to attend the 28^th Annual MDA Chili Cook Off which is a fundraiser to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  This was held at Larimer Square in Denver.  The whole street was shut down and filled with tents for each of the participating fire stations.  There were way too many to try each one, so I ended up sampling 4 different ones plus 2 bowls.  4 of them were green chili.  One of the Denver stations was my favorite and the one from Westminster was the hottest I had and made my nose run.  The most different one was from a Fort Worth Texas station which of course had no beans.  My overall favorite was an elk chili from Mountain View fire, which was a red chili.  This was a great event and a lot of fun to try all the different chili’s and most importantly it raised a lot of money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.   

Mici Handcrafted Italian- Stapleton Denver Colorado

After waiting in the parking lot for a while and waiting out the rain we had an early dinner here.  After finding a break in the rain we went in. We headed up to the counter I ordered a pepperoni pizza, mom and dad both got the lasagna.  After we ordered we took our drink cups and a number to our table and waited a bit.  shortly our food arrived

the pizza was very good it wasn’t the best and it was a step below the best pizzas I’ve had, but still very good I didn’t particularly like the cornmeal on the crust but the rest was very good it was quite a bit greasy as well it dripped all over my hand.

The lasagna seemed pretty good with two pieces of ciabatta bread. Mom and dad both liked this very much. Throughout our meal multiple people came by to see how everything was including a guy who told us how good everything else on their menu was and that he liked the lasagna the most and also he told us how good the desserts were. So after we were done eating I took my last piece in a box and we all decided to try it cannoli which I have never had before.

They were mini cannoli’s, so they were kind of small but I wasn’t too hungry so I thought it was the perfect size. These were excellent.  I don’t exactly know how they stack up against others but all I know is these were great.

2373 Central Park Blvd, Denver, CO 80238

Chris’ Café Santa Fe New Mexico

March 12, 2015

Driving home from phoenix and Albuquerque each year we find a different place to stop for lunch in Santa Fe. This year we picked Chris’ Café. This place is owned by Chris who was formerly from Tecolote café which was on diners drive-ins and dives years ago. So we stopped in around lunchtime this place is small and very crowded and not all tables were wheelchair accessible there was only one available which was rather small for the three of us. First we were all three ordered cokes and shortly thereafter our waitress was back to take our orders. I had the bacon breakfast burrito and I had it Christmas style because I can never figure out which to choose, so I just got both.  Dad had the sausage burrito and did the same thing with the chili.

 

 

And mom got an omelet with green chili.

 

 I thought this burrito was very good and was an all right size not the biggest one I’ve ever had but decent size it also had beans and hash browns on the side. This was a perfect meal for our last day of our trip and I couldn’t stop thinking about how great my burrito was all the way home and I never could figure out which chili I liked best because they were both delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3568 Cerrillos Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87507

 

 

Hot bagels Phoenix Arizona

March 11, 2015 

This place was in a little strip mall with some various other stores so we went for lunch before we left Phoenix.

 

I had the honey turkey sandwich and I picked a jalapeno bagel for the bread this came with onion, tomato, lettuce, mayo and spicy brown mustard this all tasted good but the bagel was tough and chewy which made it very hard for me at least to eat it.  This came with the chips, but you had no choice of chips just lays chips. Mom had a BLT

 

and dad the Reuben sandwich both thought they were okay, but I don’t think they were too excited.

 Tramonto Marketplace, 34640 North Valley Parkway, Phoenix, AZ 85086

Beaver Choice Mesa Arizona

March 10, 2015

This place has intrigued me for a few years now, the first year on our last day in Phoenix we were planning to go there on a Sunday until we realized they close early on Sundays.  The next year when we were in town they were in the middle of moving to a new location, the old one was closed and the new one wasn’t quite open yet so we’ve never been able to make it, but this year we were finally able to. When we entered the building they told us to sit wherever. We were early so there were plenty of tables except for the ones they said that were reserved. After this were brought menus and also were brought a cheese and potato pierogi for each of us to try.  These were delicious and I almost had to change and order these for dinner. Also we had time to check out the menu which was rather large with many things; Scandinavian food, Polish food, Canadian food, all kinds of food. I was already thinking to get Swedish meatballs I haven’t had real ones in a restaurant before just ones that my mom makes that are good, but I don’t know how they stack up against others and I didn’t change my mind even though the pierogis were so good. This came with a side dish which I picked the mashed potatoes and also with three side salads I picked coleslaw, Broccoli, and the tomato basil salad. Mom ordered the Danish meatballs or Frikadellers, she had the mashed potatoes, coleslaw, peas and a green salad.

 

Dad had some Swedish thing never heard of, called a shoemakers box that he thought the description sounded good. This came with pickles and the tomato basil salad and mashed potatoes under a pork loin and gravy. It seemed like our food came pretty soon which was all right with me.

 

This was all good stuff which came with two scoops of the mashed potatoes and plenty of gravy and the balls had good flavor and were soft in texture and the Lingon berries you can’t forget these, they pretty good. I tried some one of mom’s Danish meatballs and they were way too sweet for me. Mom liked them though and dad seemed to think his was pretty good too. It Seemed like after we ate that’s when the service started to go slow, but eventually we were brought a dessert menu and our waitress said they were out of the cheesecake pierogis which I wanted to try. So after we waited for a while, not our waitress but the owner who seemed like a very friendly person came and took our dessert order my dad mentioned something about the cheesecake pierogis being gone so we would just get the regular cheesecake. The lady said that they didn’t run out of them that she just didn’t have time to make them today.

 

So my parents just got the regular cheesecake to share. In a bit this was brought out with an extra spoon for me to try it and I thought it was very good, so did my parents. Eventually we got our check paid and left and I was very impressed and happy with my meal.

 Baseline Mercado, 745 W Baseline Rd, Mesa, AZ 85210

Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana Scottsdale Arizona

March 10, 2015

This place is a certified Neapolitan pizza place and since I’ve been to a couple others in other places I figured let’s try this one out too. They have an Italian menu so I wasn’t exactly sure what some things were, but we figured out a few things like Fior di Latte was mozzarella which helped a lot. I was thinking that a margarita type pizza would be good and dad thought one of them with spicy salami on it would be good to. So we decided to order those two pizzas for the three of us as well as three cokes. Our waiter was nice and was on top of things and was even complete with a nice Italian accent.

 

The one pizza had spicy salami, mozzarella, tomato sauce and ricotta on top it was kind of different than anything I’ve had before but it was kind of like a pepperoni pizza but with better ingredients and the salami was better than any pepperoni I’ve ever had and was delicious.

 

 

The margarita pizza was simple with just mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil and was simple just like it should be and was excellent. This was a very good pizza place and I’ll be sure to visit it again.

Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana

8977 N Scottsdale Rd

Scottsdale, AZ 85253

 

 

Casa Ramos Mesa Arizona

March 9, 2015

We arrived here for a bit of an early dinner and the place is pretty empty when we arrived on a Monday night. When we went in we waited for a while before anyone noticed us and seated us, but after that It didn’t seem too slow of service.

 

We were brought chips and salsa right away, the salsa was in a jar like thing with two bowls to fill yourself. Also we had our drink orders taken they serve Pepsi products or Mexican Coke in bottles. While we enjoyed the chips and salsa we had some time to check out the menu I picked the combo with a green chili pork chimichanga and a chicken enchilada mom picked a cheese enchilada and chili relleno and dad had a green chili pork chimichanga with a cheese enchilada. These all came with rice and beans. The chips were good and the salsa was the best of the three places we ate at in Phoenix on our trip. It was fresh tasting and had a bit of heat, but not too much. After a little bit of waiting our food arrived with the normal warning of the plate is hot.

 

 

The Chimichanga had a good fried tortilla which was filled with pork with some green chilies but mostly pork this was not like a smothered with green chili thing it was different than what I’ve had, but it was quite good. The pork inside was very good and fell apart. The beans and rice with this were really just all right, on my plate was also tomato and lettuce, but it was more like a salad with decent lettuce better than the normal shredded lettuce you  would normally get. I thought the enchilada was all right but I would’ve liked to have more sauce. Everyone else also seem to enjoy their meal as well mom’s plate also had a coleslaw on it which she thought was very good. I enjoyed this Mexican restaurant it wasn’t maybe the best Mexican restaurant been to but everything was very good.

1526 E Main St, Mesa, AZ 85203