Sandwiches and Eye Candy (TGI Friday's Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Review)

   TGI Friday's After walking around for a while at DFW in terminal E. My group of friends and I realized that we had still a few hours before our plane was due to depart for Phoenix. Everyone was hungry so we decided to grab a bite to eat. When it comes restaurants, there weren't many that sounded appealing except TGI Fridays.
    Looking at their menu, they had more options that is suitable for a group with people of different palates. There was a slight wait before we were called in to be seated. I must say the downside about this TGI's is that I don't think it was meant to accommodate a big group of people (like 6 people). Our group ended up having to sit separately.
   The thing I love about this restaurant is that you get a good view of the run way, and multiple times I saw a few of the new American 777 taking off. It was absolutely stunning. Besides the windows, the decor inside the restaurant was very retro/vintage feeling. There were a lot of memorabilia from different eras, not to mention (this is kind of random) but the servers here are all so fit looking and attractive ;).
    I flipped through the menu and I noticed most things here are fried and fatty like burgers and fries. I found a chicken sandwich that came with a salad as a side. I had a hard time pronouncing the name of the sandwich because it was in Italian I believe.
   Taking the first bite into the sandwich I fell in love with it. The bread with the sunflower seeds along with the chicken was very good. It was full of flavour. Together with the salad (which has a generous portion of cheese with it by the way), this sandwich was full of awesomeness. To top it off, the price was only around $10, which I found was very reasonable.
    This is going to be the last place we are going to stop by before we head up to the Pacific Northwest. I must say, I really enjoyed my time in Texas. People I've met were so friendly and polite, not to mention the weather was just magnificent. 

Mushroom Burrito? Yup, you heard it right. (Jason's Deli/ Fort Worth)

During our competition at the Thunderbird flying fields, the event organizers recognized that the competition teams would not have time to get food, so they got catering done for everyone. This was about 200-300 people worth of food. What they got were these lunch boxes from Jason's Deli (Sorry, I do not know the exact location that they got it from, but I assumed it's this one because it's relatively close to the flying field).
   What I really liked about Jason's Deli was that the lunch was all neatly packed inside a box. For all of the lunch boxes, they came with a bag of chips, a piece of pickle, a chocolate chip cookie and a sandwich. I got the vegetarian option because I wanted a something that was healthier. It's really funny because the vegetarian option came with baked chips instead of the regular chips, while the other meat options had the deep fried chips. It seems like whoever makes these meals also assume that vegetarians are also health nuts. There is nothing wrong with it, I actually like the assumption, but I just find it funny.
   When it comes to the sandwich, for the vegetarian option, I was surprised when I opened it and found a mushroom burrito. I never had raw mushrooms before, let alone seeing it in a burrito. When I took the first bite, I immediately fell in love with it. The feta cheese and the spinach really brings out the flavour inside the burrito and it was really good. The funny thing was that the event organizers bought extra portions of the food and they gave them to our team because no on wanted them. While everyone took the cookies (which by the way was amazing) and chips, I took the burritos. Even though I felt a bit fat after eating 3 or 4 burritos, but it was fantastic. If anyone is looking for catering, I highly recommend this place.

"Everything's bigger in Texas" (Cousin's Pit Barbeque Review) Crowley, Texas)

When you are in Texas, steak and meat is definitely something that that is not to be missed (Sorry Vegans and Vegetarians! I usually am mostly vegetarian except on the occasion). My friends who were with me, who's been to Fort Worth/ Burleson before have been muttering about going to a place called "Cousin's" since we landed in DFW.
From the outside, Cousin's was located in a outdoor mall. Nestled across the parking lot from a Wells Fargo, the outside appearance of Cousin's was not too special. However, once you walk into the place the unspecialness of the exteriors immediately changed.
The inside was extremely well decorated that it gave off a Texas / Rodeo feel to it. The walls were all wooden and there were pictures and memorabilia from all sorts of country culture. Not to mention, there was country music playing when we walked in. I recall the song that was playing was Florida Georgia Line's "Round Here" (which I added to my playlist which you can find on the top of the page).
 Because it was close to closing time when we were there, everyone quickly lined up to get their food. I noticed that they had pretty big combos. All of these combos include a meat (so you can choose from dark chicken and white chicken (honestly, I don't get the difference between the chickens but the white chicken was slightly more expensive), beef (there are sizes too from a 1/4 lb to 1/2 lb and etc..., to name a few. Then there are combos that include a selection of a few meats as well.

The combo I got was the 1/4lb white chicken with two sides and Texas Toast. The way Cousin's is setup is sort of like the cafeteria at school, where you tell the lunch lady what you would like and then she prepares the food for you and you move down the line until you reach the cashier. Except in this case, it wasn't a lunch lady on the other end, but a really tall and muscular guy. After I ordered my chicken, my combo includes two sides.
The sides area was pretty cool because you can choose what you would like and the sides range from healthy options like steamed vegetables/corn to things like casseroles to desserts. The casserole sounded very promising so I decided to get it.
 After I got all my orders, I proceeded to the cashier. She was very nice as well. When my friend before me was about to pay for his order, he was missing a penny, and the cashier kept this collection of pennies that she helped my friend with. After I finished paying, I quickly joined my friends at the table.
I started with the BBQ white chicken I got. I must say, it was very delicious. It was very nice and tender and juicy. After that I had the Texas Toast followed by the two sides. In general the sides were really good and so was the toast. It was the first time I had Texas Toast, and I must say it tasted like just a very thick slide of white bread with some spices on it.
The funniest part about my meal was that they have me in a bowl something that looked like soup. After taking the first sip in it, I felt it was very salty. Some of my friends who were with me gave me a funny look. Apparently what I drank was the sauce for the chicken... I guess when they say "everything's bigger in Texas", it is justified. At this moment, the bowl of sauce was so big that it looked like soup.
 Overall, my experience at Cousin's was fantastic and if I was in town again, it probably would be the first place I rush to.

Free Ice Cream with Purchase and Really Cute Supermarket!!! (City Market Burleson)/(Texas Trip Part 6)

This has got to be one of the most welcoming supermarkets I've ever been to. Unlike many supermarkets nowadays (such as huge multinational companies that owns chains of supermarkets with no attention to detail what-so-ever), this supermarket is locally owned. From the outside, it has a vintage feel to it, with it's slightly vintage exteriors and fainted colours.
   We were on our way to our competition when we decided to pickup some food for lunch. From our hotel to Venue 510 (where our competition was held) this supermarket was on the way. One of the biggest differences that I noticed was the pricing between the goods here and the prices of things back in Vancouver. For example, avocados are only 50 cents each, while in Vancouver, things are $1. Apples are only 33 cents and cheese, like for a bag of Kraft Shredded cheese, it is only $2.99 which is like half the price of what it is in Vancouver.
    That said, many things are around the same price such as bread (where they are roughly $1) per loaf, for a package of bottled water (24 bottles), they are both roughly $3. So not everything is cheaper here, but many things are.
   What is really special about this supermarket is that it has a really nice small town feeling to it. The cashiers are all so friendly. Not to mention, for just making a purchase you get free ice cream. When we were there, everyone made a purchase all together. We asked the cashier if we can all get ice cream, and she was so happy to say yes. The ice cream itself was very creamy and had a nice milky taste to it. Also,




    In addition, what was really cool was that for the conveyor belt that normal supermarkets have that is linear, City Market had a circular conveyor belt. Actually, it wasn't a belt, but more like a wooden disk. It's really cool because I never seen this before.
  I guess this is what the difference between independently owned supermarkets and the huge multinational chains is. The huge multinational supermarket chains don't really have attention to detail and once you've been to one, you've been to them all. Also, at these multinational chains, you get employees who are like zombies who does not want to be there (mind you, there are great employees there too). At this supermarket, you get a really warm feeling.

Americanized Mexican Cuisine (Chili's Burleson Review)/ (Texas Trip Part 5)

It was late at night (around 10:00) and my team and I just finished our day at Thunderbird flying field for our competition. We were hungry, and wanted some food (that wasn't fast food). We had Denny's the night before so tonight Denny's was off our list. As we were driving, we came across Chili's.
   From the outside, Chili's appears to be like a regular American diner. However, when we walked in, the whole diner feel of the exterior went away. The inside had sort of a retro feel to it with it's synthetic leather couches. It was very close to closing time, so once we were seated the waitress
reminded us that the restaurant was about to close and we only had 10 minutes to put our order in.
  Although this restaurant's main feature was Mexican cuisine, I find that many, if not all of the menu items were all somewhat Americanized versions of Mexican food.
   We were all starving by the time we got into the restaurant, and we were short on time. I quickly searched through the menu to find what to eat. I tried to stay away from the burgers and fries section, and at the end, I found a section for the health nuts. Well it wasn't called the health nut section but it contained healthy options (that was under certain calories and had only a certain percentage of fat).
  Besides meals, they had a wide variety of sides like side order of rice or steamed broccoli for only around $2. Even though the sides sounds tempting, I decided to get a meal. In the end I settled for the Grilled Tilapia.
   When it arrived, it was served on a long plate, and the presentation of it was pretty decent. The broccoli was pretty average tasting. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything special. The rice and Tilapia was on the spicy side, not to mention that the Tilapia tasted like it's been in the freezer. That said, the sauce on the Tilapia masked abit of the taste of the Tilapia.  I would say this Grilled Tilapia was average tasting. It wasn't anything too special, but it wasn't bad either. When you are surrounded by burgers and French fries, this Grilled Tilapia is more nutritious and abit healthier than the whole deep fried options.
   When it comes to pricing however, I found that the Grilled Tilapia meal (which came in at about $13) was abit on the expensive side. The reason that I found it expensive was that the size of the meal was not that big. The sides like rice and broccoli can also be obtained for $2 each. This means that the Tilapia costs $9, ($13-$4 (for the two sides)), it was abit on the expensive side. Other than the price, I would say the service was pretty decent but abit on the slow side (I understand though, because they are near closing and everyone is probably drained from working). Also, this restuarant is pretty family friendly. They have free crayons and activity papers for kids, in fact, they gave away free crayons for kids and they gave me some too haha. 

Really cute convenience store ( D J's Corner Food Store (Burleson, Texas))/ (Texas Trip Part 4)

Because our competition was being held at Venue 510, it was very close to DJ's food store. It was about 3 in the afternoon and I was starving. My friends had subway while I wanted to save the calories. I decided to take a quick walk in the near by areas to look for things to eat.
 I stumbled upon this gas station. What really caught my attention was the sound of bubbling water outside. When I walked closer, I noticed they have goldfish and minnows inside the wooden bins at the entrance. I am not really sure why they would sell this, but my instinct tells me that these fishes are being sold as feeder fishes for other animals. It seems impractical to sell this pets. I also noticed that these goldfish were being fed cheerios. (Hmm, maybe I should start feeding my goldfishes with cheerios too, that could increase the survival rate potentially).
 After glaring at the goldfishes for a few moments, I decided to enter the store. Because I was looking for lunch, I started by looking for a sandwich section. However, I wasn't able to find a section for that. I did find a few sections like a bread section and also a crackers/candy section. They also had a big section for liquor at the back too. In addition, they also had warm food like burritos in the warmer.
  I decided to grab some crackers (they were only 59 cents each), some mini muffins and a bottle of sweet tea. My rationale was that if there wasn't a meal like food (such as sandwiches), the next in line when it comes to health/ nutrition was things like trail mix, pastries and crackers (well in my books anyway).
   The sweet tea was pretty good, but at the same time, it was very sweet. Not to mention, the cashiers were really nice too.




Overall, this is one of the cutest corner stores I've been to. 

Talent Spread too thin (Denny's Burleson Review)/ (Adventure in Texas Part 3)

It was late at night (like 11PM) when we finally arrived at our hotel. We haven't ate in a few hours and everyone was starving. We all knew that because we are going to be busy with our competition, we wouldn't have time to eat something properly (and fast food would probably be the source of food for the next few days) so we figured, Denny's is probably better than a better bet for this meal.
   From the outside, this Denny's location is just like any other Denny's location. The only thing that I was not really used to was the fact that the surroundings were pretty empty besides a gas station, the highway and a few drive throughs. I'm used to seeing Denny's in the city, but I must say I like this Denny's in the country side.
  When we walked in, the waiter greeted us. It seems like the waiter and the cook were the only ones working and the waiter was very nice and polite. I feel bad for him because he looked like he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in a while. He politely notified us that because there was only one cook, the orders may take a while.
   After being seated down, I started to look through the menu. The menu itself felt very sugary and sticky. It was slightly gross flipping through them, but I did anyway because there was not alternatives.
 I wanted something healthier, something that wasn't fried. At the end I settled for the chicken lifestyle burger because it was grilled. In addition, instead of fries, I got seasonal veggies with my burger. This option was different than in Canada because I recall, in Canada, we don't have as many options as they have here in Texas.

   All my friends ordered burgers as well, and some even ordered nachos. When the orders came, I was pretty satisfied with the portions. For my own order however, it fel abit weird having just the burger without anything else. The seasonal veggies/ sides came awhile after the burger. The portion of the seasonal veggies was abit small (hah, what happened to "everything's bigger in Texas"? Haha).
   The burger itself tasted satisfactory, however, more care could have been put into it's preparation such as perhaps heating the bun. I don't blame the cook though, because she was all by herself. Managing a few dozen orders is very hard by herself, especially when it's late at night.
   I think it might have been a more economical choice to go to Wendy's or another fast food place. That said, after I finished my burger and sides, I must admit, I was still hungry. Before heading back to the hotel, I did a pitstop at 7-11 to grab some trail mix and crackers to fill up my stomach.