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Honorable mention

Because it's greater than anything we could ever have hoped for.

Since we've been gone

Things have been pretty quiet here at BBT lately. The reason? It turns out we all have day jobs. Horrible, horrible day jobs. But the summer time is here and it's time to get back on the amateur food-blogging horse.

If you're ever on E. Burnside an 24th and you feel like pounding down a 4,000 calorie meal, then swing on by the Screen Door. Southern food has become a recent favorite of mine and TSD is by far my favorite southern restaurant to date. Be prepared for a wait however, I've never been there during peak hours without standing by for at least an hour. On the plus side, there is a bar about one block south that you can stop by for drinks until the hostess calls to let you know that your table is ready.

My personal first order of business (on non DD nights) is to order a bourbon flight. Selections are subject to the bartenders discretion but rarely disappoint. I'd like to say that the bourbon flight is purely an enjoyable aperitif or conversation starter but it's real benefit is the pre-game analgesic. In order to successfully tackle the enormous meal to follow I'm going to need a little something to kill the pain.

By far the best entree for the money is the Screen Door Plate. You get to chose from a long list of side dishes, plus a healthy square of cornbread, to piece together something that will surely satisfy your cravings. All for $13 bucks, not half bad. I had the fried catfish, yellow beet salad, and sweet pepper hash. The meal was incredible and the portions were so large that two people smaller than myself could easily share.

This meal was back in 2008 and unfortunately I haven't been back since. Writing this review has refreshed my memory of what they have to offer, though, so I have a feeling I'll be back soon.

*Editor's note: We've also been here for breakfast and while I've heard it's quite good, I was too hungover to provide an accurate review.

Mountain Pies by Beau Jo's

There has always been the rivalry between the two styles of pizza: New York or Chicago style. Well move over boys there is another tasty contender in the fight for the best Pie in the Sky . Introducing the Mountain Pies by Beau Jo's. Their "Colorado Style Pizzas" are high was the Rocky Mountains themselves. Beau Jo's started making these piled mile high pies since 1973. Located in Idaho Springs, Colorado. This pizza joint is in the middle of a quaint Main Street in the town. It's a spot where skiers plunk down after a day of skiing and get some good grub in their bellies. The pizza crust in made out of honey and olive oil instead of sugar and shortening. The sweet thick bready crust stands high to contain the mountain of ingredients. The choices of what kind of pies you want is quite a daunting task since you first have to choose out of the five different sauces: tomato, creamy garlic, bbq, and the fratboy/skibum/stoner/trailertrash nectar of the gods: ranching dressing. We opted for the BBQ Pie. Filled with BBQ sauce, chicken breast slices, smoked bacon bits, red onions, mushrooms, smothered in cheddar cheese. Holy *Bling*ing Shit!!! Sweet, savory, and BACONY taste! The three of us only ordered the one pounder and still had two slices left. The Pie was not just only our entree, but dessert too! Each table has a big bottle of honey to eat with the crust. I just grabbed the bottle squirted oozy honey on my plate and dipped my crust in it. Totally completed my meal. For all you Kobayashi wannabes there is the Beau Jo's Challenge. You and another person have to consume the "Grand Sicilian" in one hour. The prize is the free pie and $100 in cash. It's a 16" super thick crust pizza with 12-14 pounds of hamburger sausage, pounds of green peppers, onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, and covered in cheese. You can be the Don of all pizzas if you can stuff this down your gluttonous pie hole.

Kushibar - "What street food?"

When I think of “Street Food”, I imagine a food cart with steam rising from the boilers below. A one manned station working furiously preparing food, while she or he takes the next five orders and cashes out the present hungry patron. Its simple, easy, and tasty food. Seattle doesn’t have much of a street food scene here, except for the hotdog carts that are dotted alongside of bars and nightclubs during the weekends.

Then there is Kushibar. This restaurant located in Belltown calls itself a “Japanese Street Food” type of restaurant. When you first approach the building it looks something like a Japanese bathhouse that the indoor patio is located. The wood slates makes it look street food-ish, but the moment you walk in the clean long narrow lines of the interior makes it look like some type of minimalist LA restaurant.

You first start with a complimentary bowl of curried popcorn they give to you to start off your drinking buds, very clever. I ended up with a Sapporo in my little hands immediately. After that we ordered about five small plates of “street food”. Some of the items that we really wanted they were out of. So all in all, its just sushi type appetizers, an awful smoke scallop dish with no taste swimming in a tasty broth. Everything was beautifully presented and no taste at all. I think the shining star of this meal was the popcorn which is the only thing that would qualify as street food. But here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

The Burger to End All Blinging Burgers....

I was looking through my pictures on my computer, and we all know that we have tons of useless ones in our files, when I ran into a two year old picture of a burger I had in Las Vegas at the Daniel Boulud Brasserie located in the Wynn Hotel. The Original NY DB Burger was an 9-oz. sirloin burger stuffed with braised short ribs, foie gras, and black truffle on a Parmesan bun with French Fries. Stacked high that you had to plan each orgasmic bite. It was rich and luscious. The tomato jam worked very well to cut the butteriness of each juicy bite. It was a true BlingBling burger, the burger cost $32! I just need to pair it with some gold teef and I would be ballin'! I could only eat half of it, but took down the other half later on in the early A.M. after a night of gambling and cocktails. It was even better cold or maybe I was just drunk like David Hasselhoff.

New, Not So New Hong Kong

Ahh…..nothing better for Sunday brunch than Dim Sum. I went to the New Hong Kong restaurant, formally known as New Kowloon. The new owner is the former owner’s ex-wife, so pretty much the same ownership, just new a name. I love going to Dim Sum, the bustling restaurant with a team of Chinese people working hard towards the American dream pushing carts of steaming food, showing items on their cart to the customers in hopes to stamp your food bill. While passing each other they throw jokes or talk shit to each other in their native tongue. I wonder how many of the employees of New Hong Kong came over in a ship container. (Food for thought?)

Dim Sum is the definite cure all for a hangover, very greasy, salty, and lots of fried food. You are in HEAVEN!!! We first started with a sweet baked bun with bbq pork, one of my childhood favorites. I was a somewhat picky eater as a child, not that you would know that now since I am willing to try anything these days. So that was my staple during our Dim Sum outings. Then we moved on to orders of different dumplings. Sticky rice steamed in a banana leaf, fried shrimp, friend tofu, and other steamy or fried delights kept stacking up on our table. My family tends to order way more than we can eat, we just want a taste of everything.

On item we’re sure to get every time is the good old stand by of chicken feet. A family fave, we all can eat this stuff all day. Chicken feet may make the majority of the population squirm but we love them. I swear if you had a Vietnamese family compete on Fear Factor we would not only take first place in the eating challenges, but go on to be world champions. The chicken feet are braised in some kind of savory sauce that makes the skin so very soft and tender that it just falls off the bones. Some people argue that the skin of the animal is the best part (fried chicken skin anyone or pork rinds?). It is a little challenging to eat since you have so many bones to work around but it’s well worth the effort. I don’t know why I love it, I just do. It’s damn good.

I also tried something new, Duck Tongue. It’s pretty much the bottom half of a duck’s bill with the tongue attached. The tongue was battered and deep-fried. Again, anything deep fried crispy is good in my book. I was a little weirded out by it at first but quickly got over it after the first bite. It was light and crunchy. I really could not describe it more than very crispy fried chicken skin. Just a little bit more chew to it. It was seasoned well, I think with MSG.

When you are done, say hi to the new owner that (wo)mans the front desk and runs the cash register. She was camera shy, but I did take a sweet picture of a framed photo of her and our state governor, Christine Gregoire.