As a Matter of Food

Bimbo Snacks Truck on 270 South bound

On the way to work this morning my friend Hemmalaya saw this truck and was very tickled by it.  She took a picture and sent it in as her contribution to my blog.  I’ve never heard of Bimbo before and thought I’d look into it a little further to feed the inquiring minds of my readership.

Bimbo Bakeries USA is headquartered in Texas and is a part of Grupo Bimbo.  It is an international leader in baked goods and have a presence in 14 countries.  A big part of its growth is attributed to acquiring some smaller family run and owned bakeries in the past century to form Bimbo Bakeries USA.  Some of the name brands that are associated with Bimbo’s include Mrs. Baird’s, Oroweat, Bimbo, Tia Rosa, Francisco, Marinela, Boboli, Old Country, Weber’s, and Bohemian Hearth, to name a few.  The company has also acquired exclusive licenses to Entenmann’s and Thomas’ products in the Western region of the United States.  The company’s range of product lines consist of sweet and salted snacks, tortillas, pizza crust, english muffins, muffins, bagels, snack cakes,  cookies, buns, and sliced traditional and premium bread.  Wow!  I didn’t know all THAT!

If you’re interested in learning more about Bimbo Bakeries USA than the short synopsis I provided, please visit www.bimbobakeriesusa.com.

Hemmalaya and I both thought the name was neat and I decided to do a little digging.  She’s seen the snacks and trucks around before.  This was my first food find on this product eventhough I’m very familiar with some of the brands this company carries.  I’m always excited to learn something new.  Hemmalaya thanks for your contribution!

Have you had a Bimbo snack or seen a Bimbo truck?  Let me know!

Last month I visited Shula’s Steakhouse at the Marriott Tysons Corner in Vienna, Virginia.  Once in a while I get a craving for a nice juicy steak.  I had gotten a $25 gift certificate from Restaurants.com and thought I’d try it.

As soon as we walked through the doors we were taken back by the decor.  The walls were a dark rich, either cherry or mahogany, wood.  The lights were dimmed so it gave the dining room an even darker appearance.  I like dimmed lights but honestly cannot say that it gave me a cozy or inviting feeling.  I know my opinion can be considered biased because of the feeling I expect to experience given a certain atmosphere.  I noticed the patrons were very well suited up.  We had never been to Shula’s so we didn’t know what to expect. 

We were seated in a nice booth.  Immediately, my husband and I started to joke about how stuffy it felt.  It was too rigid, in my opinion.  A waitress came and placed a football on a tee, right on my plate, I found it odd but a little intriguing.  It took a good 10 minutes before someone came to get our drink orders, and still no menus.  We ordered a beer and a martini.  I don’t remember which martini it was but remember that it was recommended by our waitress as being her favorite.   I also remember that it wasn’t as great as she thought it’d be and that I could have made a better one.  We waited another 10 minutes until our drinks came back and we ordered appetizers which we were able to find on the drink menu.  Fancy, but we discovered the football which was placed on my plate served as a menu.  I think the football menu is a neat idea which plays part in showcasing Don Shula’s history as a football coach.  I also came to find out that the restaurant is themed after the 1972 Miami Dolphin’s “Perfect Season”.  So it all tied in together well. 

At this point we were starving!  We ordered the beef tips and a salad.  It took 20 minutes for our appetizers to come.  In the mean time we had finished our drinks and a cart of meat with all the different cuts was wheeled to our table.  There were the filet mignon, the N.Y. strip steak, the porterhouse, prime rib, and the Kansas City Strip, and the Cowboy steak to choose from.  I ordered the prime rib and my husband the N.Y. strip steak.  We also put in another order for drinks.  It took, what felt like another eternity for our drinks to come, and then yet another for the entrees.

Overall, the steaks were good.  I didn’t find my meal exceptional.  The prime rib which I was served, had a bit too much fat on it and I had to spend a lot of time trimming the fat off.  I ordered medium rare and got a piece that was more medium.  The N.Y. strip was ordered to be a medium well but was served more well.  The bread was excellent, I must add.  I can’t say that it was a horrible experience.  It wasn’t.  The meal was still good.  However, the wait staff was slow.  We had 3 different waitresses, so if we needed anything we didn’t know who to make eye contact with and get their attention.  It took a little over 2 hours to have our entire meal.  A good thing we didn’t have other plans!  For a $190 bill with gratuities pre-included, and an award-winning restaurant, I expected to have had a much better dining experience to write about.  For less than half of what we paid at Shula’s we could have gone to our usual spot, Outback Steakhouse.  We could have had steaks just as good but cooked according to our specifications.

For those who want to try the restaurant or get more information, please visit www.donshula.com.  Perhaps you’ll have a different experience.  One has to keep in mind certain demographics, individual taste, and the atmosphere one seeks.  Like they say “Different folks, different strokes!”. 

As for me, I will chalk this one up as a one-time visit.

I have cooked Thanksgiving dinners at my parents’ home for the last 7 years. My parents being of Asian decent (and I do have to attribute this more to their palettes than their heritage) have never really been into the whole “big-turkey-and stuffing-and-everything-that-comes-along-with-it”. Then there’s me, the one that wants to fit in and do the American traditions. I would sit down a few days before Thanksgiving day each year and start planning my menu.

The very first turkey we had was a 25 lbs. turkey given to us by this nice lady, Mrs. Lomax, I believe. This was back in 1991.  I didn’t have a cookbook or the Internet to show me how to cook this big bird. So I thought to myself “Just stick it in the oven for say…. 1 1/2 hours and we’ll have dinner!” Yeah right. Of course at 15 and not having the right resources or not knowing any better, I had no clue about the “cook for so much time if your bird weighs this much”. So after 1 1/2 hours I took the bird out, the color was nice. Plated it and served it with stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls. Ahhh cutting into the bird presented our family with a huge surprise. It was still raw and some parts still frozen! Boy, what a disaster that was. I stuck the bird back into the oven for another hour at 450 degrees. After an hour I took it back out and checked it. Still raw, at least now the frozen parts were thawed out. I was disgusted with it all, to say the least. By now it was almost 7pm. So to make a long story short, by the time we were able to eat the turkey it was close to 7 hours from the initial start time and the bird was totally cut up into smaller pieces. We finally ate it but it wasn’t great. Seriously, nothing to write home about. It was dry and bland. Yuck.

Perhaps this is what set my parents’ expectations of future turkeys. LOL Although the turkeys have become much better over the years, the memory of the first turkey has stuck with my entire family.

I’ve got more Thanksgiving stories, some ‘horror’ stories to add to the mix, but for now I’d like to hear yours.

Email me your Thanksgiving stories, whether good or bad, to asamatteroffood@gmail.com or gotfood13@gmail.com and get a chance to have your story told on my blog!