So at my local supermarket there are two frozen food aisles. One contains all the usual stuff, the frozen dinners, stir-frys, vegetables… all the usual stuff. The other is a sort of hidden “half frozen half not” aisle that contains mostly bulk items, hamburger meats, and if I remember correctly, frozen pizzas. Into this hidden aisle I strolled and immediately came across these Albertson’s Frozen Fish Fillets.

After a halfway decent experience with the Banquet Fish Stick Meal, I thought I might try to bypass the whole frozen dinner and go straight for the gusto. Fish Fillets for everyone! 12 Golden Crunchy Fish Fillets, and note how large the words “golden crunchy” are on the packaging. They don’t want anyone to forget that outer breading which of course can make or break a fish fillet like this.

The major reason I picked up this package is because of the price… as an Albertson’s store brand, it is significantly cheaper. Generic store brands are a tossup though. Certain items seem to be a better buy than others. At $2.99 for 12 fillets it was definitely worth a shot.

Taking these fillets out the cardboard box, I was sort of surprised to see that they aren’t wrapped in the interior in any sort of extra packaging, like plastic wrap or a plastic bag even. The fillets are just shoved into the box as they are, they sort of rattle around in there. I guess they are just trying to save money and they are rock solid frozen after all so they’re not going to break.

Another thing is that the fillets are SQUARE. Interestingly, they remind me a bit of McDonald’s Filet ‘o Fish except smaller. Well, I went ahead and put 5 of them on a cookie sheet in the oven for the required time. It’s required to flip them about three quarters of the way through which is a bit tricky, but I think it’s necessary for crunch. Here’s a picture, the greens on the bottom are just some shredded cabbage to help soak up the copious grease.

Continue reading “Albertson’s Fish Fillets” …

If you haven’t had this type of porridge before, you may be a bit confused here. When I say porridge, most people think of that as the sludge that Goldilocks ate in the Three Bears’ house - some sort of oatmeal connoction for breakfast.

The porridge I’m talking about is made with rice, and can be plain (basically just rice and water), flavored (either sweet or savory), and contain various different things like stew beef, fish, tofu, vegetables, and pickled items. I live in a community that is predominantly Asian, so I actually see this all the time on menus. Sometimes it’s called porridge, but most frequently I see it listed as “Congee” in Hong Kong style cafes.

I believe there are 3 different kinds. I think that the Taiwanese version is cooked with sweet potatoes in it and the Mandarin (mainland China) version is completely plain with just rice and water. Most of the time people eat other savory side dishes along with the porridge since it’s pretty plain. But the Cantonese (Hong Kong) style version is actually pre-flavored with chicken or fish stock and often contains cooked items in it. Don’t quote me on all this, I think there is a lot of interchange in the styles…

As far as equivalents for other nationalities go, it seems to me like a really watery version of Italian risotto. Whatever it’s called, and whoever makes it, I really like rice porridge.

Some people also call this type of porridge gruel. It’s a way to stretch out rice, wheat, or whatever cooked grain you’d like. I really don’t like the use of the word “gruel”, because besides being associated with something that is fed to starving orphans it reminds me too much of the word GRUE. (For those of you that didn’t play Zork, this is akin to a really ugly troll that will eat you.)

It also sounds an awful lot like “cruel” which it most certainly is not. It is actually quite kind on the stomach. If you are not feeling to well, this is sort of the Asian equivalent of having Chicken Soup. I put a lot of ginger in it as well, which I think is supposed to help with stomach problems.

Ok, so I’m no expert at making this, but this is my version of the Hong Kong style pre-flavored rice porridge:

Chinese Rice Porridge

1-2 cups of cooked rice — $0.15
1 can Chicken Stock — $0.50
Brown Onion (1/8 a $.50 onion) — $0.06
Cilantro or Parsley (1/8 $0.69 bunch) — $0.08
1 inch square of ginger — $0.25
Salt / pepper / water — negligible

Total: $1.04

You will have to experiment with the ratio of rice to chicken stock in order to produce the type of porridge you like. The above proportions are just guides.

Peel and mince up the ginger and slice up the onion thin. In a medium sized pot pour in chicken stock and about 1 can worth of water and add the brown onion. Bring it to a boil and then let it cook for about 3 minutes more. Add the ginger and cooked rice to the pot, breaking up the rice with a spoon. Turn heat to low and let simmer for about 10-25 minutes, stirring every so often.

The amount of time here is dependent on how “glutinous” you want your porridge to be. It also affects the amount of breakdown in the rice. Some people also chop up the rice to get it finer. Also, be carefull not to add TOO much rice or you’ll end up with a mixture that’s nearly solid. In general, put in less rice than you think you need to, since the rice expands and the released starch will thicken the mixture further.

When you’ve got it to the consistency you want, spoon the mixture into a bowl, throw in the cilantro or parsley (I don’t usually eat this but it gives it a fresh flavor, omit it if you don’t want to) and add salt/pepper to taste and serve.

Continue reading “Chinese Rice Porridge” …

I could have seen this one coming a mile off. McDonald’s took first place in the Fast Food Poll I had on the site for last month, though not with some serious competition from Burger King. I’m actually quite surprised that Burger King made such a strong showing. It must be all their new “silent scary king mask” commercials that they’ve been pushing lately. Or perhaps it was their Enormous Omelette which seemed to get enormous publicity.

I’m a bit sad that my own fave, Jack in the Box, came in third. Belatedly, I also realized what with the furor over the Wendy’s chili finger incident that I should have included them in the poll instead of Carl’s Jr. I have a lot of good memories from Carl’s first introducing the Western Bacon Cheeseburger though, so I thought I’d include them:

As far as the cheapest restaurant of the four is concerned, all of them have their 99 cents menus and various other promotions. I feel that Jack in the Box promotes their 99 cent menu more than the others, although McD’s definitely has their “Day of the Week” specials that are extremely popular. I actually think Carl’s comes in a bit expensive, but maybe that’s because when I used to eat there when I was a kid I would go for the “strange” sandwiches, like that Chicken sandwich that actually had(has?) alfalfa sprouts in it, which are more expensive than plain old hamboigers.

Continue reading “McDonalds Wins Fast Food Poll” …

Has Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation really gotten to everybody and convinced them to avoid fast food restaurants? I haven’t read the book yet, so I can’t really comment. But I’ve heard from many friends who have read it that it’s been at least partially responsible for a 180 degree turn in the way they eat.

Maybe Detroit’s mayor has read the book one too many times. Or maybe he’s gotten addled from ingesting too many Super Size Fries and Big Macs. All I can say is boy, I bet he will be one hell of an unpopular guy (at least in fast food restaurants) if this proposed tax comes about. I know he’s certainly landed on my Cheap Eats shortlist of dummies. What will this fast food tax entail? From CNN Money article:

In an effort to curb a looming $300 million budget deficit, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick last month floated what he called a “different budget than has ever been presented to our city council.”

The budget includes a proposed 2 percent tax that would be levied only on sales at fast-food restaurants, among other items that would generate additional revenue for the city.

Like the majority of the people in the article, I just can’t see the justification of taxing fast food. I mean if you’re going to tax something, tax the sit down restaurants… tax those people wolfing down creme brulee lobster or whatever. Shoot, they can afford it. The people who go to fast food restaurants more frequently are often the ones who currently need to watch every penny spent on food. So, you’re basically going to end up levying this tax against people who it would hurt the most. What the hell.

Continue reading “Fast Food Tax?” …

I have a lot of fond memories of eating at Arby’s when I was a kid. But at the time I didn’t make a huge distinction between eating a Arby’s vs. eating at McDonald’s because I ate in fast food restaurants a lot less back then. So perhaps I didn’t appreciate the size of the roast beef sandwiches back then. Because they have certainly shrunk.

Not that other fast food places haven’t decreased the sizes of their hamburgers to match inflation while still keeping prices eye-catchingly low. I still have this conversation with friends, whether the sizes of hamburgers HAVE shrunk or are they near the same size but it was just because we were kids back then that they looked so big?

I’m pretty sure they have shrunk. Both in size and the amount of roast beef in them.

This shrinkage notwithstanding, I still hit up Arby’s once in awhile. When I went on a road trip to Colorado, we stopped at maybe 10 Arby’s restaurants along the way just because the food is predictibly decent and we’re not huge fans of McD’s hamburgers.

So how did Arby’s start up? Some history: It was established in Ohio in 1964 by brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel, who go the idea for a roast beef sandwich franchise after eating at a Boston sandwich restaurant. As to the origins of the name “Arby’s” according to the Arby’s site, Forrest said:

“We came up with Arby’s, which stands for R.B., the initials of Raffel Brothers, although I guess customers might think the initials stand for roast beef.”

As for their current menu, the best thing for Cheap Eaters is probably to stick with the tried and true Roast Beef Sandwiches as it is difficult to mess them up. Over the years they’ve added other things which I always skip like Chicken Sandwiches, Wraps, Salads, Breakfast, and sides (like Mozzarella Sticks, Jalapeno Bites, and Onion Petals).

Continue reading “Arby’s - Where’s The Beef?” …

I nearly always have some bacon around, because it tends to last a little longer in the fridge (several months?) than some other lunch meats and because it is usable for flavoring many things. (I’m not going to get into any fights with you health nuts out there - yeah I know that bacon ain’t the best for your plumbing).

Many pastas that I end up making involve some sort of bacon. I think the important thing is that because it’s high in the flavor department, you can pretty much get away with using only TWO strips of bacon for a one serving dish of pasta. It stretches the bacon out a bit and will no doubt please people concerned with cholesterol or fat.

Quick Bacon Pasta

Two slices bacon (from $4.00 pkg) — $0.25
Any Dry Pasta like Macaroni(4 oz of $0.99 8 oz bag) — $0.50
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Olive oil (1 tbsp of $4.00 12 fl. oz bottle) — $0.17
Butter (1 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.13
Milk (1/2 cup from $4.19 1/2 gallon lactaid) — $0.26
Chicken Stock (1/2 a $.50 can) — $0.25
Brown Onion (1/8 a $.50 onion) — $0.06
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $1.79

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, mince the brown onion and parsley and cut up the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry the bacon in a skillet at low heat until extra crispy, remove to a paper lined plate and blot the oil. Set that aside for now, in the oven if you want.. I actually learned that taking it out of the pan and then adding it back only at the very end keeps the bacon more crispy. If you don’t care about that, you can leave the bacon in the pan and continue.

Drain off all but 1 tbsp or so of fat. Add 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Add brown onion and cook for about three minutes or so on med heat. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk, scraping it well. Sometimes I use a tbsp of vodka or white wine as well, but it’s not necessary. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. You want it to thicken a bit. Watch out for the mixture foaming over though. You might need to add a bit of water and reduce heat.

When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parsley, parm cheese, butter and 1/2 tbsp olive oil if it’s too dry. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more. Off heat add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the reserved bacon on top and serve.

Continue reading “Quick Bacon Pasta” …

I came across a sort of fun article about a student at Chico State U. which is sort of in the inland empire of SoCal Northern California. The premise sort of goes like:

Dan Cline is a senior at Chico State University. Each week he cruises the Chico area with $6.75 in his pocket (one hour’s minimum wage), sampling local eateries for ambiance, service and most of all, cheap eats.

That’s a great idea… I’ve been thinking about doing something like that for awhile, a Rachel Ray’s $40 a Day theme but with less money. But I’d probably try to attempt something impossible like $6.75 a DAY…

Anyhow, in addition to providing food Moxie’s Cafe is apparently an art gallery slash indie music venue. When searching for a pic of the place, I did come across numerous shots of bands playing (I saw Mates of State did a show there) but not many about the actual place.

In this article, he mainly talks about pancakes. I’m more of an omelette and potatoes person, but pancakes are still delish when done right and not breaking your wallet. At $4.50 for a flapjack, even if as he says it’s gigantic…

A Moxie’s pancake is big. So big the cup of syrup they give you isn’t enough. It’s so big I have to eat from the center out so stickiness doesn’t splosh on their posh marble tables, (a solid foundation to our meal).

is little much, though if it’s REALLY big I guess it’s not such a bad deal. They seem to have these “Oops” 25 percent off coupons that students use so maybe that makes it a better deal. They also specialize in vegetarian and vegan food which may be good news to some.

In any case, I’ve got a soft spot for breakfast cafes and diners so I’m willing to compromise a bit. I might try make the drive there one of these days from L.A.

Moxie’s Cafe & Gallery
128 Broadway
Chico, CA

Cheap Eats Score: 4/10

Source:
Chico Enterprise Record
Starving Student Column: Moxie’s Cafe