Tag: food

Mikuni – Best Cocktail in Yolo County

If I wasn’t doing this for SCIENCE, I wouldn’t have kept drinking. Also, if it wasn’t for the Server being up front with me about the drink this would have been tied for the worst cocktail

Whiskey Sour, Mikuni, Davis, CA, Spring 2022

Mikuni – The Review

Taste (3/10) – Tastes like bad lemon juice. The Server said it was going to be made with sour mix, but they didn’t warn me it was the cheap stuff. Just a hint of the whiskey on the back of the throat.

Presentation (1/5) – No garnish. Correct glass. Looks like dirty bath water. Not a lot to say because there wasn’t a lot to look at.

Balance (2/5) – Mostly the sour mix as I said in Taste. There is an aftertaste of whiskey, or maybe just the alcohol once you’ve swallowed. Hard to tell. Very weak.

Correctness (1/5) –Not correct, except for the glass. No garnish, no egg white, not lemon juice. I didn’t even see them make it so for all I know there’s no whiskey in there either!

Delivery (4/x) – The Server was up front with me when I ordered this drink. They said this was not going to be a craft cocktail, “no fresh juice, or egg white.” He wasn’t lying! I’m going to give them some credit for that. Every other poorly reviewed cocktail in this has just been presented without comment as if it WAS correct!

Total (11/25) – If I wasn’t doing this for SCIENCE, I wouldn’t have kept drinking. Also, if it wasn’t for the Server being up front with me about the drink this would have been tied for the worst cocktail.

Absolut Lychee Shock, Mikuni, Davis, CA, Spring 2022

Thoughts – I paid over $10.00 for this Whiskey Sour, and that’s using their “well” liquor, that’s wild! It also tasted terrible. As I usually do now, I ordered one of the signature cocktails off their menu, an Absolut Lychee Shock. This drink was better, if a little too sweet. It was revolves around more around a gimmick rather than the cocktail itself.

Mikuni has great sushi, but maybe just stick to the Asahi or sake if you’re eating there. Ordering anything else is liable to spoil the rest of your meal.

Links

Mikuni
The Project
The Criteria
The Bars

Best Cheeseburger in Davis: The Project

Cheeseburger
A pretty good cheeseburger

Last week I brought Cocktail of the Week to an end. If you want to browse through all of the cocktails I made over the last two years the full list is here. I also hinted in that last post about a new project I was looking forward to kicking off. Well, may I Welcome you to my new project: The Best Cheeseburger in Davis, California! I’m going to eat and rank every cheeseburger in town (and try not to gain 60 pounds.)

I’m not a food critic. I’ve never been trained as a cook. I have learned, am learning, how to cook and it is an activity I enjoy. I enjoy sharing food with friends and I’d fallen in love with this “tiny” town in Northern California. This seems like a good fit for the me and the blog, it’s a natural extension of previous projects and my own interests. Continue reading “Best Cheeseburger in Davis: The Project”

Making Restaurant Passports

What you'll need!
What you’ll need!

D and I some times have trouble deciding where to eat when we go out for dinner. There is a lot of back and forth and statements, declarations, and assertions of “not caring,” or “up for anything.” This usually dissolves into both of us shrugging our shoulders and then going to one of the three restaurants we always went to…

D is not a fan of this system.

She saw some where on-line the idea of a food passport: a small book filled with a list of the restaurants in your town and the surrounding area you want to eat at or you have not yet been to. Instead of having the same old conversation over and over you just flip open your passport and go! Not being too fond of our current system I seconded the notion of making our own. For the passports I picked up a three pack of Moleskine’s unlined chap books. Next, I used a straight edge to draw out the lines for each page of the passport. The page was divided into three parts the upper 2/3 is blank, the bottom third divided vertically for making comments or stamping once the restaurant had been frequented.

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With the passports laid out D and I next went through our town local wiki and wrote down all of the restaurants we had not yet been to and wanted to make sure we visited. The list came to 37. I didn’t think there were nearly that many restaurants in town but these were just the ones we had never been too?! With the list drawn up I sat down to start adding some charm and personality to the passports. Using crayons, remember when I bought those, I started doodling whatever came to mind when I read the names of the restaurants. I tried to portray in some way the nature of the place or the food provided there.

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Of the 37 restaurants I’ve drawn up 16 so far. There are a lot of Thai and Indian places in Davis. It is not easy to draw, using crayons, Thai or Indian food… I’m sure I’ll figure out something…

D seems pretty excited about starting to use the passports. I’ll admit I am too! Once I finish all the art and/or once start “getting visas” from the restaurants I’ll post some more pictures.

Beer of the Week 39: Union Jack IPA

Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s Union Jack India Pale Ale

From their website:

Union Jack abounds with hop aroma and character. In fact this well balanced, west coast IPA is double dry hopped, giving it more and more of the grapefruit, citrus hop aroma and flavor it is known for. Overall it utilizes over four pounds of pacific-northwest hops per barrel.

From my notes:

Coppery colored with large bubbled tan head with medium retention (about 3 or 4 minutes) and nice lacing. Citrus hoppiness on the nose with with pine in the background. Citrus and floral on the tongue, specifically  I’m tasting grapefruit. Medium bodied. The hope flavor is pretty well balanced by some malt which smooths out the hops. Mild to medium bitter finish.

Another IPA! IPAs have a robust flavor profile and need to be paired with food with similarly strong flavors. Think spicy foods, bold cheeses, robust cheeses. Thai food is great here, as would be macaroni and cheese  with some good blue cheeses.

Rating (out of five):

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