hot chocolate house

so alicia's house is called the hot chocolate house. not that they drink so much hot chocolate, but because the color of the house resembles, in large part, the color of well made hot chocolate. the hot chocolate house is about a block away from 7-11 and its a great jumping point for me to get hot dogs when i hang out with alicia and her kick ass roomates. earlier i went to the salvadoran and got some tamales, becase they're my favorite. chicken tamales. alicia and i may go fishing in the early morn and i may take my leftover tamale with me for a light snack on the river.

i'm legit

so it turns out the nice folks over at the uv review like me enough to let me waste space in their paper for record reviews and food stuff. i wonder how many 7-11 hot dog reviews i can get away with before they ask me never to write for them again?

i'm eating a calzone with chicken, bacon and peppers while i write and i just spilled some marinara on my dang shirt. so much for maintaining some degree of dignity while writing.

nicolitalia just got infamous

because of a co-worker and a blow-hard politician. we seriously had people coming in just because of it.
also, the hotdogs at wills pit stop are pretty tasty, especially if you re-cook them over a fire in the uinta national forest.
also, the fishing in the uinta national forest is awesome. definitely going back. with my kick ass new hip waders.
i think i'm going to start taking a bunch of tamales from el salvadoran when i go camping. when you get them to go, they wrap them in aliminum foil and keep pretty well. i know this becaus i bought one then waited like 5 hours to eat it. delicious. imagine if you re-cook it over coals!

bad tippers

can go to hell.

i have a love/hate relationship with sammys

their food is great, but their customers and employees are retards. except for kara, but she usually isn't working when i'm in.
also someone brought home some muffin tops and left them out. i've already eaten two. i don't know who they belong to, but until i get caught i'm going to continue to eat them.

sitting around with no shirt on

is what i do on my day off. its already 8:30 (pm) and i haven't done crap. so i stole daves computer because mine is suck. last night brimstone howl played at the compound. kicked ass. those dudes are one of my fav bands and i'm super glad about the amount of people that showed up. the band loved provo and they loved burnt reynolds and split reactions and they loved betos. i mean rancheritos. the retard who changed the name of betos to rancheritos is a moron. don't they know there's a mexican place in orem called mi rancherito? i hope those people didn't buy out betos. mi rancheritos is only mediocre. i always get sick off their carnitas and i never want to go back. betos however is worth getting sick for. maggot, austin and i took brimstone howl to the betos on state by sonic. we all ordered the texano with rice. except for austin, he got 5 roll tacos because he'd already eaten a texano earlier that day. i'm pretty sure i've sung praises to the person who invented that burrito, but i'll sing them again because i like singin. mellow not too spicy chicken with cheeese and potatoes and sour cream wrapped in that stinky tortilla? brilliant. and with their rice thrown in for good measure? genius. i'm the genius, by the way. maggot couldn't eat all of hers and was going to save it but as we were walking out she tripped over something in the parking lot and somehow her texano slipped out of the wrapper right on to the ground. she was shattered. we tried to get her to save it and cut off the parts that had touched the disgusting betos parking lot asphalt, but she, like always, decided it was too much of a hassle to save it. i don't see the hassle in trying to salvage one of the better tasting leftover meals ever. after we got back the howl crashed and i crashed then maggot crashed. then the next morning maggot came back over and we saw them off and then maggot and i went to pete's. it looked pretty busy in there today which always makes me happy. i know he'll never have the breakfast crowd of like gandolfos or whatever, but little places like pete's need to stay in business and they need the patronage of everyone interested in maintaining a local legend. i think one of these days i'll interview pete and get his whole story. i know he likes fishing. i know he's the greatest breakfast artist in the world, and i know he doesn't get much business. you know, while i'm on the subject i think its time for me to rant a little about how stupid consumers here are. pete's is the tip of the iceberg. what is it about this community that gets the biggest boner about corporate chains? or long time establishments that have no quality? take the pizza industry here, brick oven, probably the oldest, has to be the worst pizza i've ever had, yet its one of the most popular pizza joints in town. pizza factory is overpriced and isn't good either. pier 49 is barely a step above pizza factory and nina's is a total ripoff. i don't even want to get into the chain places. my loyalty lies with nicolitalia. yes, i work there, but thats why i work there. i love nick and i love what he's doing. the customers who are loyal to nick are always in. and they all know his pizza is the best in town, most people who eat at nicks usually say its the best pizza they've had in provo. i know nick doesn't advertise as well as he probably should, but wtf? he's going out of business because people are too cheap or nostalgic to buy good quality pizza. i know for a fact nicks pizza is the highest quality around. most of the food reps for the food distributors in provo have accounts with all the pizza places here and they tell us what the other resturants are using...BRICK OVEN'S CHEESE IS ONLY HALF CHEESE. the rest is cheese product. and they don't even use a friggin brick oven. nick uses a brick oven that was made in the 50's. and don't get me started on nina's. total trash. btw, nick is not asking me to write this, he would probably get pretty pissed if he knew, and if he does happen to read this i'm sure i'll get an earful. oh well. we all know i'm a fan of local resturants and i have some disdain for large chains (7-11 hotdogs aside), but come on people, keep the good places in business and let the crap ones die. the only reason brick oven is in business is because it somehow is a tradition for old people who used to go to BYU to eat there now with their sons and daughters who went to BYU and their retarded kids who go there now. is bad taste hereditary? i'm starting to think all the inbreeding here has damaged people's ability to discern good food. or anything for that matter. but since this blog is mainly for food, i will resist the urge to rant off topic. in all honesty i cannot understand the rationale for what goes on here. nicks pizza is the highest quality and the least expensive. thanks to the idiots here he's going to have to raise his prices. he's in the process of working up a new menu that is incorporating some of these increases, but he's also making new options to make it easier on his long time customers and he's hoping his new menu will be appealing to new customers. he's adding an extra large option and a few new specialty pizza choices as well as breadsticks. all these new menu items have been tried and i'm here to say i've gained a little more weight because of them. i think i've been writing way too much tonight, but be sure and exercise some good pizza judgement in the near future and come by nicolitalia. and when the new menu comes out be sure and try the "smoky joe scione". its a BBQ pizza and he named it after me. precious isn't it?

i had almost forgotten

but i went to memphis post 4th of july weekend. my big sis got married to a millionaire and i went to the wedding. it was at the graceland chapel. they had pictures of elvis in a paisley suit. pretty kick ass. i ate alot of food along the way. since i blew most of my money getting to memphis i pretty much ate at my dad's resturant in memphis, newly opened, called fat larry's. mainly because he's a fat dude that cooks a lot. and his name is larry. its mostly BBQ and heavily salted southern favorites. liver and onions etc. he brought his sweet potato fries with him from the last place and those are always a hit. i got the BBQ sampler plate, consisting of some pork shoulder, some ribs, and some brisquet. the man has perfected the brisquet. i keep telling him he needs to make his shoulder taste more like paynes, but he won't listen. white folks with a lot of money really like his BBQ so he won't mess with it. over all i'm down with it. its over and above anything else in that area of memphis or anything i can get in provo. i've said it over and over, if i want good bbq in provo i have to make it myself. supposedly big dane over at abg's knows what he's doing, but i've yet to try. we keep talking about cooking together, but who knows when either of us will have time. i also went to gus's world famous fried chicken...again...i have a tough time not going there when i'm home. i can't remember what i got, but it was like a 3 piece dark something or other. i also got the fried pickles and a slice of chess pie. if you haven't had, or heard of chess pie, make a quick trip down to memphis and grab a slice at gus's. my big sis is the only person i know who can make it better.
as for provo food i'm too poor to eat anywhere else but 7-11. and i eat their hot dogs with frequency. for a while there i could get a big gulp (my drink of choice in the summer is a mixture of 1 part limeade and 3 parts raspberry iced tea) and a hot dog for under 3 bux. mighty good deal if you ask me. i think the deal is over, but that isn't going to stop me, at least until school starts and uncle sam throws money at me for being 30 and still in college.

just thought of a new band name.

tickle fight.
if anyone uses it it has to be super gooey 60's girl pop. otherwise i'll sue.

update!

nothing has happened since last time. india palace, nicolitalia, sammy's, and beto's all still kick ass. except for the salt lake beto's. never ever go to the one on 4th south. i've been hosting a tons of shows for touring bands that no one comes to. in the last few months split reactions and other compound bands have played with:
box elders
vivian girls
duchess and the duke
the cheat
the shudders
and in a few weeks the mighty brimstone howl will be coming through town. they are by far one of my favorite bands to come through town.

oh yeah, i'm starting a record label for some of the bands that frequently play shows at the compound. expect a compilation cd here in the coming months, as well as a series of 7"s.
also i've learned to eat a hot dog and sing at the same time.