Food Porn!

Tired of companies lying about spicy foods. Taco Bell's mild sauce has more kick than these! Especially the Burger King "Ghost Pepper" sandwich. People be putting banana peppers on stuff and calling it spice.

So in the last couple of months I have been really busy. We had a trip to Boston and Salem that had been postponed for 2 years because of Covid. (Mostly to see Rammstein in concert but we decided to check out Salem since it was just like 15ish miles away.) Then I had a big work trip almost immediately following to San Francisco. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/83140212_10157900459159383_970903401942482944_n.jpeg In Salem, we stayed in the notoriously haunted Hawthorne Hotel. Across the street from the hotel, we found a very small, quaint authentic Italian Cafe called Bella Verona. I knew this place was going to be different. Instead of garlic bread, they served toasted plain slices of loaf with an olive topenade. I don't remember what Arc had but I tried a dish that was mentioned a lot in their reviews called Penne alla Pizzaiola con Carne. Which is strips of steak sauteed in marinara then tossed with penne or ziti pasta. (You can also just use spaghetti.) Probably the best Italian dish I've ever had. So I've already found recipes to try to recreate it at home. https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/1b/37/8a/24/photo0jpg.jpg https://media1.tenor.com/images/7db0fd0b1d546422077aa02479bafccb/tenor.gif Since I was working in San Francisco, my time was limited. I had just half a day to check out some sights and then it a was work work work. I found a ramen shop, Ippudo, on the same block as my hotel and I think I ended up eating there like 3 or 4 times. Before we left I had talked it up so much that my boss and another person in the company joined me. The shop didn't have a huge menu. They had only 3 broths and built up their ramen bowls based on those soups. They also had limited space and seating so they put solo people in between bigger group tables. The best ramen I have had until this was Jinya, which is a national growing chain. It's my favorite place to go out to. This place I would say is less chain and more authentic. I have tried other ramen places and they have been let downs by comparison to Jinya, however this shop was on the same level if not better. It was just as good, but different. I would go to either just based on what I want in my ramen. They also had incredible steamed buns. The meat was tender but the sauce they added made it unique. Not quite a BBQ sauce but similar and you could taste hints of plum. It paired nicely with the chashu pork. https://media.tenor.com/images/a2953a83ed4b73359ff8506c14d98a67/tenor.gif https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SJM-L-IPPUDO-0220-2.jpg https://media.tenor.com/images/668f66206974c0bbb93f5220d3a916a6/tenor.gif Had a cool interior. https://www.hyperflyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Ippudo-SFs-metal-tree-symbolizes-moving-into-the-future-after-expanding-from-NY-to-the-West-Coast-Paige-Frisone-1024x769.jpg

I remembered having "riblets" for school lunches and they tasted damn near the same as the mcrib. The Mcrib is only popular because they do "limited" releases. They know how to market crap to the masses and would if they could, too.