From Burgers to Burritos!

So I’m struggling.  The lunchers have decided to finish our burger tour and picked Mexican as our next food tour of Denver.  Denver has a pile of Mexican style restaurants and this will likely keep us busy until the next ice age.  The problem is, how are we going to rate them?  I mean the food quality is obviously important, but there are two categories for food, first is the chips and salsa.  I go to many Mexican restaurants simply because I love their chips and salsa, this is a critical factor in selecting a Mexican restaurant.  Then the main dish needs to be rated.  And this presents another layer of problems because there are the new style Mexican restaurants that have all sorts of crazy dishes with a bit of a Mexican flair, and then there are the standard taco, burrito, enchilada restaurants.  They both have value and a place but are difficult to compare.

Right now here are my categories, let me know what you think:

1. Chips and Salsa
2. Food
3. Ambiance
4. Service
5. Price

And there are two categories:

1. Standard Mexican/Southwestern Restaurants
2. Vogue Mexican

Our burgers had only 4 ratings and one category, but I think we will have to stick with two categories.  The breakdown between the categories is well defined by the 1^st restaurant that we went to, so as an example I will review the 1^st restaurant that we went to:  Rio Grande at the corner of Yosemite and Park Meadows Drive in Lone Tree, CO.  The ratings go from 1 to 5, 5 being the best of the best and 1 being the worst of the worst.

Chips and Salsa: 2 – it didn’t have enough spice, the chips were fine but the salsa was just not my style.  I don’t like to dip my chip in a pile of tomatoes; I want to dip it in a puree of spice and hotness.

Food: 4 – the food was excellent.  Good quality and tasted great.  It was above average from what I could see on all ordered entrees.

Ambiance: 3 – Pretty average for a Mexican joint.

Service: 3.5 – Fast and effective, I was happy with the service, considered it slightly above average expectations.

Price: 2.5 – A touch more pricy than the average Mexican restaurant, but not bad for the quality of food.

Category: Vogue – While almost everything was very typical of a Mexican restaurant, Rio Grande’s primary specialties were all seafood which on a traditional American/Mexican restaurant the choices of meat are Beef, Chicken and Pork.  Therefore Rio Grande  falls into the Vogue category and defines the line.  First to be traditional the main dishes have to include tacos, burritos and enchiladas.  Second they have to stick to the primary 3 meats of classis mexican, beef, chicken and pork.  Outside of that they fall into the Vogue Mexican.

Overall, a good restaurant with excellent food.  I might not head there if all you care about is chips and salsa, but you you want and excellent seafood enchilada, I would hurry on over.  And thank you for listening, I now have a basis to start rating the Mexican restaurants!

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Switchfoot!

Now I try to be unbiased on all I do, it really is a goal.  I understand intellectually that with any upbringing it is nearly impossible to be truly unbiased.  But I try.  That being said, this review is well… biased. 

Switchfoot is seriously one of my favorite bands.  I have loved college/surfer/alternative music forever and to me they are the epitome of this style of music.  The songs are challenging and musically both fun rock and complex.  So, needless to say I doubt I am ever unbiased in reviewing their album.

They released their new and I believe 7^th album, Hello Hurricane.  The album continues to show the maturation that started with Beautiful Letdown and has continued through the last 4 albums.  The music ranges from fast, fun rock’n’roll to slower thought provoking ballads.  If I had to pick from a 1^st listen perspective The Sound kills down with an awesome rhythm and a near perfect progression from beginning to mid to finally closing down the song and leaving you wanting more.  In first listen fun, ‘The Sound’, is followed closely by their first single ‘Mess of Me’ which is not only a great rock song, but also a poignant look at the true source of most people’s problems. 

So far I would say the top ballad, or slow song if you have the classic 80s and 90s hard rock band slow song in your head as the only ballad, is ‘Enough to let Me Go’ with its acoustical guitar catchy riff and undertow of bass and drums that keep the song from being a true ‘ballad’.  (You might note I like faster music so my ‘ballad’ is well, not really.)

Outside of that I can already tell there are layers of complexity to the music that will continue to pull me back to listening to the album over and over again.  This is an album that will make me change my favorites from the album multiple times.  But without a doubt, this independant release is amazing and could possibly be my favorite even eclipsing their opus of ‘This Beautiful Letdown’.

Thanks Guys! You rock and I can’t wait for you to hit Denver again!

 

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Fat Burger! a fun fast food place.

A lighter but better subject is on it’s way!  Another burger review!  Last week due to sickness, anniversaries, work and various other calamities the burger group was cut in half.  Out of our normal 4 members, we only had 2.  While this could have stopped us, instead my fellow compatriot decided to take one for the team and allow me to go back to a restaurant that I missed early in our cycling through burger joints, Fat Burger!

Well I am glad he did.  It wasn’t the best burger joint we went to, but the combination of a good burger, excellent fries and a nicely sized and tasty shake made the trip a worthwhile event.  On the inside it looks like a classic burger stand.  Not fancy, clean enough, but pretty basic, crowded and loud.  You order standing in line but they happily take a pet peeve of mine away and actually bring the food out to you!  I hate having to go get my own food.  Don’t ask why, it is nonsensical, and it makes buffets really low on my list of restaurants.  They have a choice of fries either thin or fat and have choices on the size of burger you get.

I had a standard burger with cheddar cheese, a vanilla shake and thin fries.  The food was quite tasty.  You can’t tell them how you want the burger cooked, and it was medium well which is overcooked in my book but wasn’t cooked so far to be dried out.  The flavor and quality of the meat was good and the fries were excellent!  I would go back simply for the fries.  The shake had a slight malted flavor to it and I enjoyed that immensely!  All in all it was a good affordable lunch and I would happily go back again.  Was it the Counter?  No, but then what is besides the Counter?

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1981 Pakistan was a beautiful place!

I really don’t need to say much on this one as this is just a quick post refuting an email I received.  But perhaps some ‘personal’ background will help.  I am conservative.  I argue sometimes that I am not Republican, but at the same time I don’t know who else to support.  As the struggle Teddy Roosevelt had, there is no other system to support, so it is best to try and change the one that is there.  (Paraphrase of Pres. Roosevelt’s early political life from Mornings on Horseback).  I might be the modern conservative, I might be partially libertarian.  Those qualifications or descriptors I really don’t understand all that well.  I just know I think for myself and hope to continue to think critically about all subjects.

So knowing I am conservative now you can add all your preconceived notions about conservatives and decide on the result at the end of this blog.  I received an email.  I receive many and while tons of the email, blogs, rantings out there are based on nothing more than rhetoric and biased imaginings of the writer, I like to give everything equal credit.  That unless I can prove it true or false it is an interesting subject to research.  Every once in a while they come with proof and that is just a great thing!

This email brought up the subject of Obama’s citizenship.  I know these have been going for over a year now, but cases are still happening in courts and getting media coverage so there is still interest.  Well this one focused on his 1981 trip to Pakistan saying he couldn’t go there on a US Passport because there was a travel ban.  The liberal rhetoric is saying things like ‘he snuck in’ and ‘he went on an Indonesian passport with dual citizenship’.  And the conservative rhetoric is that he isn’t an American. 

After reading a million (slight exageration) completely stupid blogs on both sides (I mean really, your argument that someone is f-ing stupid just makes you look stupid, you know that don’t you?), I found one thing that to me seems to be actual proof that he could in fact be there in 1981.  Here is a travel article from the NY Times in 1981 dated early that summer.  As he was supposed to go between school semesters I am guessing it was the same summer that this article was written.  Maybe President Obama even read this article.

NY Times: Lahore a Survivor with a Bitersweet History – 1981-06-14

While I am still of the opinion that it would ease the burden if he just showed the people his citizenship credentials, I think this one puts to rest the Pakistan trip as proof of other citizenship.  He doesn’t have to answer to every individual challenge on the planet and perhaps it would just waste precious time; but the withholding of this information seems to go against his transparent government image.  If you are going to be transparent, be transparent about yourself first, that makes it believable.

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Freedom for Some!

So maybe it shouldn’t bother me.  Maybe, being somewhat conservative and having a few conservative conspiracy theorists around me has somehow warped my brain.  But I am not sure I like it when America is on the same side as the OIC and opposed to our more consistent allies in the EU.  When the UN resolutions we are pushing limit any freedom of expression it makes me take pause and wonder if we as a country have taken a left turn somewhere and lost our way.  But I am not expert of this stuff, and my research has been limited to the internet and what I can find there so please enlighten me if I am missing something critical to this subject!

Here are a couple of articles; two by bloggists/news sources much more eloquent than myself, and two from the UN itself.  The UN is more moderate in its tone, and also completely devoid of any mention of the USA’s overall opinion of this beyond that we are pushing this resolution.  The articles state a stronger position of the opponents to this resolution.

 Weekly Standard

CNS News

 UN Press Release 1

 UN Press Release 2

 The point that I don’t understand, and perhaps just need more information, is that it seems we are supporting a limitation on the freedom of expression.  I guess from my schooling and living here in America my entire life, I kind of thought we were in strong support of all things pro-liberty, pro-freedom.  I mean we even defend the rights of radical minority groups that in general fly in the face of all that America holds dear, or used to hold dear.  (Read KKK, NAMBLA, etc.)

 But to be supporting a resolution that basically says, you have freedom of expression as long as it doesn’t conflict with someone else’s race or religion.  That just sounds un-American to me.  Now I am against racism and religious persecution, I think all have the right to freedom of religion, and to be able to live in a world without fear of persecution because of their race.  But with resolutions like this, when do they start stating that because you believe in a religion that unequivocally states other religions are wrong, are you now breaking this resolution by supporting your religion?  Who makes these calls?  You can’t have half freedom in areas like this.

In addition, if we take away the rights of those who disagree with that statement, how long until what you and I hold as important becomes politically incorrect and is now on the ban list in the name of religious and racial persecution.  We all know the subject of religious and racial persecution can be warped to the advantage of one side or the other as American politics have so eloquently shown us in the last few weeks. 

 Carter’s Round Two of Racist Statements

 I think as Americans we stand that freedom has to be for all, or it soon becomes freedom for none.

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Bias is so biased.

So I will blog on political stuff sometimes.  I simply will.  It interests me; though I must admit I am no politico or avid newsy with expansive information on all things political.  I just simply think it is another area of the world, our world, which is shaded with more fiction than fact.

So in comments to posts such as these I am looking for facts that I don’t have.  It seems that what you normally get is piles of comments such as ‘Right on, that is so true’, or ‘You’re stupid’.  (sarc on)While those are terribly enlightening and I do in fact blog for the approval that I so desperately need. (sarc off)  I really just want to understand the situation in a truthful manner, whether it agrees with my own private predisposed paradigm or with others, you know the ones that will tell me I am stupid.  So please if you find deeper facts or just other sources that can be compared to the ones I have already found, please comment them!  And if you must tell me I am stupid, then, well I guess it is part of the greatness that is the USA (and other free countries), so have at it.

With that introduction, today I am only going to make a simple statement that I believe is true with an excellent article to back it up.  All media is biased.

Conservatives like to say ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc. are all terribly biased, nay covert socialists and Marxists; and only FOX is fair and balanced.  And of course FOX is the Great Satan to all liberals, while the others News Channels are only fighting the good fight against such evils.  And I haven’t even breached the print media.  But my hypothesis is that they are all biased.  I believe it is nearly impossible for any person to be unbiased.  And as sensationalized as the news has become, always searching for the big story to draw in viewers, how can it not be biased?

Here is an excellent article from Scientific American that I believe gives a great overview of the media bias fight:

Media Bias: Going beyond Fair and Balanced

Ok, I know big deal right?  Everybody knows the media is biased, how does the saying go, if the 4^th estate’s job is to keep the first three in check, who keeps the 4^th in check?  Well I am not sure it is possible, news is driven as much as any other TV by sponsorship and viewership so as long as sensational news sells, it will continue, at least in a society where the press is allowed freedom.  I don’t want to consider the alternative of government controlled press.

So what response?  To watch none of it, to throw out unconditionally all that doesn’t agree with your preconceived notions?  I think that is a poor decision as well.  I believe that your goal should be to find the facts and truth at the core of the story, as much as there is, and to use multiple sources to back up what is hopefully the most factual of the news story.

What would I say in summation?  All of you out there, quit just getting your news from the source that agrees with you, but find new sources that might disagree with you and expand your mind.  Not just to disprove but possibly get the full story.

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Burger Joints in Denver

There are some excellent burger joints in Denver.  There really are!  And unfortunately there are some not so excellent burgers in Denver as well.  A few copatriots and I decided several months ago in a moment of delirium from overwork and not enough good beer to go on a quest for the best burger in Denver. 

Being computer geeks we of course immediately made a statistical weighting system, spreadsheet and lots of formulas.  We then proceeded to hit a new burger place around Denver one per week.  We are far from done, but I did want to share with those here and abroad that currently the winner is the Counter.  It is in the new outdoors mall attached to Park Meadows and has some seriously excellent hamburgers and fries.

The principle is that like a sushi place you get a sheet and pencil handed to you, but instead of deciding between Unagi and Yellow tail you are deciding on whether you want a fried egg, ham, pineapple or a myriad of other toppings on your burger.  I personally took a ham and pineapple burger with some cheese combination I can’t actually remember.  It was excellent!  The meat was cooked exactly like I like it (medium rare), the ingredients fresh and all of great quality.  The service was superb and the atmosphere was very nice.  We have been to… around 15 places now and so I believe you can’t go wrong on heading to the Counter for a burger, fries and shake.

Oh, there is one thing.  It is expensive.  Expect to spend $15 at minimum and you could easily have a $20+ per person meal at this not so cheap burger joint.

thecounterburger.com‎

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