nick on the history of nicolitalia

thanks to the utah peoples post.
http://www.utahpeoplespost.com/news/one-in-120000-nick-the-pizza-guy

loser casserole

so, i'm still eating pretty frugally, occasionally i'll hit up petes on a saturday morning with vegs, ernie, mel, grady and a few others or do some el salvadoran if i got a f ew extra bucks. but lately i've tried to make food more than not. and i include pizza in this, because, you know, i make it. at work. but last night i did something that newlin might actually be ashamed of.
i made a loser casserole.
you might not know what that is, and its cool, because i just made it up.
caveat: i started cooking food for ned. and i usually make him rice, carrots, chicken/chicken stock or some other protein source. he eats better than i do.
so i took some of this rice i made for ned and mixed in some broccoli. then i put some cream of chicken soup in it.
i finished it off with chicken nuggets. i know. i've reached the bottom.
it didn't taste bad, but i was ashamed for the entire 15 minutes i was eating it.

went to pete's today. got some great news.

so we all know how much i love pete's lunch. honestly, its the best breakfast in utah, hands down. no one does it like pete. i took mel and grady this morning because i was off work and i'd been bugging mel to come hang out. since the snowstorm she'd been worried about driving grady around on the typically unplowed UT roads, understandably. so today was super nice, sunny, and a little warmer so we agreed to meet up at pete's for breakfast. we got there around 11 and got my normal table (#9) and ordered. mel got an omelette and i got eggs toast hashbrowns and bacon. grady got milk. i always love the reaction of first timers when they take the first bite, and its usually the same:
"OH MY GOD"
mel was no different. i've yet to find someone who isn't wholly impressed by pete's culinary prowess. so we were eating and today helena was our waitress, but julie happened to be there and walks by and says hello and we chat a bit, and she say, oh, here, you might be interested in this, we're going to be OPEN TIL 7:00 PM NOW, AND WE WILL DO TAKE OUT ORDERS, SO YOU CAN CALL US ANY TIME BEFORE 7:00 AND WE'LL DO IT TO GO.
i almost had a heart attack, not from the food, but fromthe news that now i can get PETE'S FOR DINNER.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm as happy as a little girl.
i'm still working on him to get sundays open.
i'd like to think that maybe in some small way i've helped get him a few more customers, enough to warrant this exhilarating news. even if it wasn't me, i'm still happy beyond belief.

HUH? I HAVE A BLOG?

howdy folks, seein as its been about 14 years since i wrote anything, i decided i'd take a break out of my busy schedule and "pen" a few words about some vittles i've had recently.
across from nicolitalia in that little shop that used to be hires big h, and the guanojuato mexican place and probably a few other forgettable restaurants, there is now a greek place, sadaf greek souvlaki. they gots the normal greek fare and big giant beef ribs. pretty damn good. i, of course, only got the gyro because lets be honest, its the benchmark food for small out of the way greek places. it did not fail to please. i'd take it over the other greek place on state street any day. for me its up there with greek souvlaki #1 up in salt lake. the dudes who run it are pretty ok dudes too, which is a plus, i hate goin to places where i can't talk to the owners.

i got made fun of by a girl i used to like for my grocery shopping decisions.

it was pretty humiliating. i had some mac and cheese, loaf of bread, bologna, some ground beef, assorted canned soups, and some cheap steaks. for my part, since i don't do much grocery shopping, i was pretty stoked on the deals i had found, and i got all my shit for under $25 bones. i stopped being stoked when this girl i knew, and liked, (and blew my chances with a few years ago) looked down in my basket and started laughing at my stuff. its pretty tough to play that off, and i'm not quick or cool enough to side step that. i did, however, snag a ride home from the grocery store with her and got a few laughs out of her. after i got home i looked at what i had and said to myself "fuck it" and made biscuits, steak and eggs. and washed it down with oj.

grief stroganoff

so, when i'm broke (which seems to be frequent these days) i need to be creative with the food i eat. i gotta make my dollar stretch like its elastic. the other night i whipped up a serious meal of rice, sage breakfast sausage, chicken tenders, and cream of mushroom soup. it was pretty tasty. tonight though, i had some ground beef and ramen, and i thought to myself, hey this might taste ok with some more cream of shroom.
i cooked the ramen, browned the beef, and mixed in the shroom soup, and well, came up with the title of this post. it isn't the best thing i've ever eaten, but it isn't the worst.

I.E.M. is a kuh..kunt...kkuh...a kuh kunt...

a continual source of inspiration. andy posted the companion videos for his latest piece on tortas and it again prompted me to go grab another torta. instead of making my way over to chungas, as i was inclined to do, i decided to try out taqueria vaquero. "where the hell is that?" you might be asking. it is in the same little strip mall place as laser assault across from the rc willey outlet on 1st west in provo. very nondescript place, but holy jeebus. i got a carnitas torta and like 6 bites in i got the itis. this may be the first time i got the itis from mexican food. usually it's brought on by ribs. i'm hoping mud butt is not a result of this round of the itis. any way, i'd really like to talk about inhuman eating machine some more. after seeing the clips of the session it made me realize what a pussy i really am. if i had tried to eat another bite of another torta i probably would have gone into a coma. even at the time of this writing, probably an hour after my ONE torta i'm feeling pretty sluggish and can't speak in complete sentences. andy is a god among men. like the videos coupled with the blog is like the goddam videodrome of gluttony.