Mobi: I have an announcement: Wendy's spice chicken nuggets are pretty good. 
Out on a TEAM FPT shopping junket, we found these in a weird location inside the market. As you may know we are big fans of the Cheetos here at the FPT test kitchens (which are 500 feet underground). Immediately, we thought back to our earlier post where we had the 'way too hot' Habanero flavor cheetos and how we mixed them with regular Cheetos and made an eatable blend.This is the idea we promoted 2 weeks ago, a cool ranch to temper the hot cajun spices. This mix seems to work pretty well, you get to savor both flavors and cand handpick out single flavors for heat control. The shiny reflective bag is a little too much - thats why the mobi media is a little below our usual standards. Overall - nice new offering from Cheetos, we recommend you try these ma's out.
Our good friend Mr. James McQuarters, seemd to be a little off yesterday when we spoke to him - after a little prodding he revealed the following:"Last week I ate at Jimmy John's. I have had the #14 before which is turkey , roast beef and cheese (it comes with tomatoes but I leave those off). My wife and I noted that the roast beef seemed VERY red. Much more red than normal, as stated we've had it before. I ate the entire sandwich and later that night I could not sleep, my stomach hurt so bad..this was Thursday night last week and I still don't feel right.
The sandwich stats:
BOOTLEGGER CLUB®
"Roast beef, turkey breast, lettuce, tomato, & mayo. An American classic, certainly not invented by J.J. but definitely tweaked and fine-tuned to perfection!"
We feel Mr. McQuarters pain and hope he gets well soon - and we also respect his authority. If anyone else has had a similar experience please contact TEAM FPT.
The google earth photo above is where this New Jimmy John's is now located.
Yes, you may have seen our review last weeek of the new BURN line of Doritos chips where we complained of a need of something to quench the lingering fire in our mouths. Apparently, that was allready covered and we missed this.Pepsi now has a limited time Burn Doritos teammate with its Cease Fire cola. This offering allegedly will stop the pain that these BURN chips can cause your tongue and mouth. We have aquired a 2-liter jug and will test this out soon.
Hopefully will be a different experience than before - "Not prepared - we had no water or anything handy to mitigate the heat damage to our mouthes from just one chip. Upon getting beverage as quickly as possible - we realized this was not enough to mask the lingering burn in our mouthes. We turned to eating Mini-Charleston Chews and anything that might calm the fire mouth feeling. It took an average of 10 minutes of eating, drinking and teeth/mouth brushing to get our mouthes and tongue back to a normal state." - previous post on FPT.
Dear FPT readers,
Thank you for your comments relative to my most recent post to this forum - The Bloody Mary a la Mongo. If you will recall, I mentioned in that post that there would presently be an exposition upon hard booze, per se.
Lest we disappoint our readers here at the FPT, leave it to say that IaM has been vigorously researching the subject of hard booze, and the exposition discussed above is forthcoming. In the meantime, may I share with you Saturday with IaM?
My favorite purveyor of foodstuffs, Vons, had a sale on Top Sirloin steak for $1.99 a pound. Therefore, I washed my balls and chute, got in the Mongomobile, and hoofed it on over. As an aside, my favorite Vons is on the corner of Sunset and Virgil, in Hollywood. On the way, IaM happened upon an American classic. I happened to have my camera with me, so I took a shot. In the first photograph, you will see a Packard. I'm not an expert on cars, but I would say that is about a 1954.
In any case, I rolled over to Vons and took advantage of their sale on Top Sirloin steaks. In the second photograph, our readers will see the fruits of my travels. Our readers may not know that asparagus is now in season. While at Vons, I picked up a pound for $0.78. That is an excellent price. Having collected these delectable foodstuffs, IaM hoofed it on back to the Mongo Cage, busted out the mesquite, and got rocking.
As one can see in the following photograph, it is perfectly appropriate to cook asparagus on the grill. It goes perfectly with grilled Top Sirloin, as the next photograph shows. Again, this columnist believes in the benefits of anti-junk food, and the health benefits derived therefrom. It is an honor to write for this esteemed publication, and I hope you enjoyed my most recent babble.
IaM
The staff was quite happy to stumble upon these Cheeseburger Doritos yesterday on a routine shopping mission. As our previous posts show, we have mostly enjoyed the "Late Night" line of flavors - which makes us wonder if this new "All-Nighter" tag is a spin-off or a whole new line of future flavors?Regardless, these are truly excellent - great chesseburgererie flavor. Whomever is the "mix-master" that created this flavor is, we offer him thanks and we also respect his authority.
Team FPT is happy to fully encourage you to grab some of these and dig in to them.
Thanks to reader Veronica for this very cool photo seen above. This gumball machine can be found inside of Fry's Electronics. She tells the FPT that it is app. 5 feet tall - and the base is app. 3.5 feet wide (probably built that way to house all the change it gets fed).
Doritos has launched a sizzling new line of HOT chips - and they are labeled appropriately. They come in 3 degrees of "Burn" - First Degree Burn Blazin' Jalapeno, Second Degree Burn Buffalo Sauce & Third Degree Burn Scorchin' Habanero.Long time staffer Franklin spotted these new chips on a coffee run and made the common mistake of thinking that 3rd degree burn means was the bottom of the scale with 1st degree burns being the hottest. Actually, as you may know - it is the exact opposite.
Team FPT sat down at our roundtable and we all tried one chip each from the 3rd Degree Burn Doritos bag he had bought for us. Not prepared - we had no water or anything handy to mitigate the heat damage to our mouthes from just one chip. Upon getting beverage as quickly as possible - we realized this was not enough to mask the lingering burn in our mouthes. We turned to eating Mini-Charleston Chews and anything that might calm the fire mouth feeling. It took an average of 10 minutes of eating, drinking and teeth/mouth brushing to get our mouthes and tongue back to a normal state.
These chips are for the truly hardcore heat people - we could not and did not want another of these 3rd degree burn chips. You think you can handle these - if you cant find them locally in your region, the FPT is offering to send anyone two of these chips for free to try. We have 2/3 of a bag sitting here and no one on the staff is interested in going thru all that again. Email us for your free 2 chip sample via regular mail.
Mobi Report from B2:I found a great hidden secret in Primm, Nevada....The Buffalo Bill's Casino mini burger bar in side the buffet. I usually eat once a week at Buffalo Bill's buffet. It is by far the best of the 3 buffets in Primm. They usually have the same ol' stuff, salad bar, roast beef carving station, mashed potatoes, lasagna, fish, etc....This time around, in a buffet station all by its self was the mini burger bar.
The mini burger bar consisted of mini beef and breaded chicken patties, jo-jo potatoes, and mini hamburger buns. On the fixins' side of the bar, there was tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cheese, etc. I made myself a double cheese mini burger, and topped it off with a few jalapenos from the salsa bar. I added a side of macaroni salad, one of my other favorites at Buffalo Bill's Buffet. It gave my meal a BBQ kind of feel.
I have to admit, the price of the buffet may not be worth just the mini burger bar....dinner buffet can be over $14 on the weekends. Luckily for me, my meals are always comped in Primm. I added a picture of the mini burger next to a salt shaker to show its size.
Faith n' Begorrah, FPT --We enjoyed an early St. Patrick's Day courtesy of our good Irish friends. Attached are two pictures for your viewing pleasure. The first is of our delicious Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner which was served, of course, with a proper Irish beverage; and the second is a sampling of our Mickey's Big Mouth cap puzzles.
We figured them all out except the last..."
May the road rise to meet you,
Skep
Dear FPT readers,Today, we will not discuss lamb or the other white meat. Nor will we discuss beef, or the cuts therefrom. Today, we will discuss booze. As some of our readers know, I rarely touch hard booze. But, I am an expert. I tended bar for some time. I would like to impart to my readers the best recipe for a Bloody Mary known to God, FP and e, with a California twist no less.
The best way to enjoy a Bloody Mary is to prepare correctly. This normally involves going out to a dive bar on Saturday night and getting totally lit. Then, come morning, one needs to do some damage control. This is where the Bloody Mary a la Mongo can come in handily. The best recipe for Bloody Mary mix that I have ever tasted was at the dinner house at which I worked.
When making Bloody Mary mix, one must first keep in mind the "does and don'ts." On the "do" side, one should start with Glorietta tomato juice. One can substitute with Campbell's, but Glorietta is the best.One must add Lea and Perrins. Do not substitute from this brand. Our knowledgeable connoisseurs will then add lime juice, celery salt, and pepper.
On the "don't" side, we here at the FPT strongly discourage the use of Tabasco sauce. Yes, it does provide a quick source of spiciness. However, the vinegar therein always leaves a bad taste in our readers' palates. We also discourage the use of regular pepper. Tantamount, we here at the FPT insist that a proper Bloody Mary does not contain MSG. MSG is a cheap fix and not good for the health of our readers.
Those are the basics. Now, here is the best recipe I have ever tasted. This is an institutional sized recipe, but can be cut back to size. Take a one-gallon glass jar. This is important because glass does not impart flavour to the mix ("flavour" for our overseas friends). Add two large cans of Glorietta tomato juice. Add one can of Campbell's Beef Broth (do not ever substitute). This is also extremely important for the reason that you will probably be hurting when you request a Bloody Mary, and beef broth injects some food into the equation. Add one small bottle of Lea and Perrins. Again, do not substitute. Add one and a half ounces of lime juice. Lemon juice is a decent substitute. Add a tablespoon of celery salt. Now comes the trick. How will this mix be spicey? Add one tablespoon of black, cracked pepper. This gives the mix a beautifully spicey taste without the taste of vinegar. Having thrown all of the ingredients into your glass jar, there is one more secret: One must let the mix sit for at least a half a day. This allows the full flavour of the cracked pepper to permeate the mix. Oh, yea... Don't forget to shake the ingredients well before you stash the mix in the 'fridge. Oh, fuck, I almost forgot the garnishments. Garnish this delectable damage-controlling cocktail with a celery stick, a lime wedge, and a fully cooked shrimp. Add vodka to taste (the subject of vodka shall be expounded upon in a subsequent edition of the FPT).
I hope you enjoy this excellent cocktail.
IaMongo
Here we have another set of photos sent via email from an FPT reader. The mystery of these continues. Some have argued global warming. Until our friend Yancy sends us the results of his algorithims on this we are not taking a stance.
As you regular readers know, Team FPT likes hot & spicy snacks. We were excited when new front office staffer Janet suprised us with a bag of this new Wild Habanero flavor from Cheetos.Upon choming down our first handful - we were all gasping for water. These are hot - way way hot - even too hot for us. We could not eat these - even with water nearby. In our confused state - Janet came up with the perfect solution. She had noticed we were working a normal bag of Cheetos on a side shelf. We mixed them 50/50 and found that to be a nice hot spicy do-able mix. Try this move - let us know how it turns out for you.
Regular mobi contributor Chris Norton to the FPT sent us a reminder photo to support the Girl Scouts! We could not agree more.What is ironic is after we received this pic - there was a fax sent to us regarding that some of the cookies were found to be "smelly" but safe to eat. Turns out the maker used a cheap oil that broke down too quick and they are recalling these.
This were captured on a mobi device by a friend of the FPT. Yancy - You may know him, he is a good common man and he makes stuff happens/solves problems.
We generally dont throw in with discount counter-display mini-sausages. These need your help - has anyone been man enough to power one of these?
Please comment below - or by email on right side of page. No sign-ups needed to post a comment on this site.
Finally!
We received this anonymous photo via email last night and the whole team here loves it. This is food as art. Whomever sent this did a great job with placing additional items on/around the 5-can chili pyramid stack. This piece speaks out with a message. We will post our own individual takes on the metaphors going on in this piece as we firm them up.
Not to long ago the FPT team reviewed a new offering from the good folks at Cheetos...Wild White Cheddar. The glowing review prompted me to head out and find a bag myself, as i find Cheetos to be a great snack and usually enjoy their limited time experimental flavor concoctions. Plus white cheddar is one of my all time favorite flavorings. After searching far and wide for these elusive Wild White Cheddar Cheetos with no luck of finding them, I assumed they were a regional offering that had not made it to my area(I live in a mountainous region in the upper elevations of West Virginia so it is not uncommon to miss out on stuff like this).
After mentioning this to TEAM FPT at the Fat Pride Times, they was kind enough to purchase me a bag and send them across the the great USA so i could experience this limited time offer.
Upon opening the package from TEAM FPT, I was honored to find a full size bag of Wild White Cheddar Cheetos. I was expecting a small grab bag 99 cent sized bag, in hindsight i don't know why i would have expected a small portion bag from the good folks at the FPT, after all they are Priders and Priders buy Prider sized products.
My first taste of these Cheetos was a bit of a let down. They were not overpowering with cheese flavor, and actually tasted rather similar to the original cheetos. As i continued to sample them i found them to have a unique flavor that was indeed different than the original Cheetos. These Cheetos are easy to eat, and i credit that to the non overpowering White Cheddar flavoring, making them a very bender friendly snack. In fact i had to put the bag in a different room to write up this review.
EDITOR'S COMMENT: Really now - thats rather over-dramatic.
These cheetos also did not leave my hands cheese stained, like the original cheetos we are all familiar with. I was thankful for this as the cheese staining is very difficult to remove.
In summation, these are a unique yet not overpowering offering from Cheetos, however they are not my favorite all time Cheeto flavor. That title still belongs to the Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos.
Again, many thanks to FP and the great people at the Fat Pride Times for sending and sharing this snack bag with a fellow prider on the other side of the country. A tip of the cap to you all!
EDITOR'S COMMENT: The FPT thanks Etathed for all oh his fine contributions over the years to this site - we have a different take on these - as we found them to be the best Cheetos ever! As we tell everyone who writes a post for us - tell it like it is, we keep it real here. FYI: Yancy is little upset we did not do this on a tri-trade level. But we are happy to purchase and ship to Etathed at our expense. Sometimes it is not all about the multi-tiered trades Yancy.
My MOBI assignment this last weekend was to attend the Confluence Festival in Gardiner Oregon, a small coastal town that I have been exploring as of late.
The festival was held at the local school. The lineup of bands was pretty good for such an event, it was a nice break from crap local bands like Kush and Mr Wizard, and it was nice to not see a Ron Jeremy look-a-like playing saxaphone. The food was off the hook. Canby Asparagus Farm clearly won the day with their mix of tamales, salsa, and chips. They did some darn fine work and my wife says that it was some of the best Mexican food she has ever experienced. They are located in Milwaukie Oregon on Main Street.
The vendor booths were fun, and crammed into a 100-year old gymnasium. The highlight of the evernt for me was the *lovely* bouquet of veggie made flowers, look closely and you will be amazed. The nice lady what made the arrangement was, well, nice.
The "beer and wine" part of the festival was predictable. All I wanted was a Corona, but there was nothing to be had but local microbrews which I find to be absolute swill. We had a great time taking in the event and the lovely town of Gardiner. I highly recommend this festival.
-- Barnabus
Team FPT immediately went Mobi when we heard about this new offering at Carl's Jr, we have a fondness for sourdough bread - especially when used as the 'bun' on a burger.
This was really cheesy good. We got the standard burger and found it to be all we expected - we know the 6.00 version (which actually sells for 5.oo and change) has got to be off the charts.
Most important thing going on with this new burger is the cheese - there is a lot of cheese. Look at the photos above - in the one with the finger, if you look closely you can see a strand of the cheddar stretching from the burger. The photos of the wrapper that is cheese-laden also show that there is no skimping here - it is truly cheesy - cannot emphasize that enough.
Team FPT loves this burger - get one. If you hook up with Carl's Jr. on Facebook & Twitter - you can get web-exclusive coupons!
When the Team FPT mini-van rolled up to Arby's on a recent junket - we almost backed out. There was nobody there - at least inside, not sure about the drive-thru - but would have noticed if there were a lot of cars. This was around 8pm - as the photos show this place was not happening.
However, we were armed with a coupon for 2 of their 'premium' bacon swiss chicken sandwiches for 4.00 - and we did the math using the risk/reward model and decied to go for it. After ordering, a few people wandered in, suprisingly enough they all ahd coupons. Arby's must stay afloat with their coupons - as we see them all the time in various publications.
To the sandwiches, they were fresh - by default, and not too bad. They seemed like 2.00 sandwiches and without the coupon they would have been 3.99 each. So what did we learn from this junket? If you are not banking coupons - Arby's might not be the best choice. Plus we got that weird burned to the crisp maximus tip on the end of our bacon. Team FPT is not ready to endorse or not-endorse Arby's at this time. Our entire staff will do a sit-down roundtable and de-brief ourselves about this visit ASAP.
