Tom Caster's Blog - a blog by Tom Caster - FoodProof

Quaker Steak and Lube: The Atomic Wing

Tom Caster — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:43:22 -0700

I have only two words for this hot wing: Mother F**ker. I am not, by my nature, a fan of spicy food. My preferences on the Scoville trend just slightly above bell peppers. But when I found out that Quaker Steak and Lube sells a wing so hot that they make you sign a release form, we figured it was worth a try. This thing was a beast. It was hard to breathe near them; the spice was so strong it burned my nose. They come with a side of jalapenos to help cool your mouth down after eating. I'm no ...

Fried Food Fiasco

Tom Caster — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:18:30 -0700

For some inscrutable reason the other day, I found myself at the Kansas State Fair. For some other strange reason, they had a giraffe. In Kansas. This one is going to take me a while to get over. Fairs are not just good for giraffes, however. They are also the native home of some of the most unhealthy foods known to human kind. In our infinite wisdom, my party and I decided to sample everything we could find. We managed to track down fried pickles, fried mushrooms, fried olives and cheese, fri ...

Connie's BBQ - St Petersburg FL

Tom Caster — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:36:14 -0700

One of the fun things about traveling all around the country is finding new and interesting places to go and eat while in a new city. One of the problems with this is that, invariably, when you ask someone where you should go while you're in town, they always end up mentioning this great little Mexican restaurant that you need to go try out. Which is great and all, but unless you want to be surviving of a steady diet of burritos for a month (in college still I am not), it helps to have a litt ...

Reuben Omelette

Tom Caster — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:47:10 -0700

These are not words that one typically expects to see together. Yet as I sat there in Madison, WI, staring at the menu board on the other side of the room in Mickie's Dairy Barn, there it was. Nestled unceremoniously in between the griddle cakes and the french toast, as if it was a culinary breakfast concept that deserved no more attention than a plate of hash browns. After the initial shock wore off, I finally figured out what this must be. A reuben is nothing more than a well dressed cor ...

Soup Dumplings

Tom Caster — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:35:29 -0700

This was a new one for me. Dim Sum is kind of a big deal in Seattle, especially in the ID (the political correctness of "China Town" seems to have come into question at some point, so it has been re-titled "International District"), where the city dirty with restaurants serving up baskets of steamed steamed dumplings stuffed with meat and seafood. For those of you unfamiliar with the soup dumpling phenomena, they look, and largely taste, much like your standard dim sum dumpling, but in additi ...

Breakfast of Champions

Tom Caster — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:06:48 -0700

It never really matters how much extra time you try and give yourself, when it comes to getting ready for a trip, you almost always find yourself running late. Which explains why I found myself running out the door for the first morning of my FoodProof sponsored trip without breakfast. Luckily, snacks were served aboard my flight, and I was able to make a... err... healthy meal out of JetBlue's signature Blue Potato Chips. The bag states they're cooked using a vacuum cooking process, wh ...

Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale

Tom Caster — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:44:50 -0700

So first of all, a quick hello to Reddit and a thank you to FoodProof for helping to sponsor our Fantastic Voyage. Over the next month, I'll be traveling across the country and blogging about my meals here. I figured I'd get started with a topic near and dear to my heart, beer. Fall is nearly upon us, and that means that the seasonal Pumpkin Ales can't be far behind. And Buffalo Bill's is a brewery that makes one of my favorite summer seasonals, Orange Cream Ale. So, having been ...