If You Want a Piece of This, I Suggest You Wear This

This is really too good to be true. Burger King has just launched a signature scent (I have a signature color - pink is my signature color - my colors are blush and bashful, her colors are pink and pink). It is called Flame (that's hot) and it "captures the essence of love and gives it to you." Hey now. "Behold the scent of seduction with a hint of flame broiled meat." Wow I bet that smells really, really good. I mean why not smell like a really good hamburger. If you read the descriptions on colognes it is usually like oak or wood or musk, might as well smell like a good piece of meat.

Burger King, congrats, you really out did yourself on this one. I am totally going to pick up a bottle to give to my significant other (marshmallow) so he smells like all your flame broiled goodness.

Check out the site. It is hysterical. It is like one of those Mt. Airy Lodge commericals with the champagne bath.

http://www.firemeetsdesire.com/

The Travel Channel is a Wealth of Information

I have a new love.... and it is The Travel Channel. It started with this special on Steaks then progressed into an obsession with the dude from Man vs. Food (he is no Eater X - but a close second). The Travel Channel should really be called the Food Travel Channel because 85% of their shows have something to do with food. What is great is that a lot of the times they focus on, you guessed it, chains! I wanted to share some of the knowledge I learned from the various shows I have been watching with you, my loyal readers.

The coolest thing I learned is that The Palm started in New York on Second Ave (that is not the cool part). If you go to any Palm (they have many because it is a chain) you will see all the cartoon drawings on the wall. That actually started because newspaper people would exchange their drawings for food. Awesome. So now, they have a frequent dining club there called the 837 club and if you earn enough points (I think it is 25,00o) you can have a cartoon of yourself put on the wall. How cool is that? I really want a cartoon Rori on the walls of The Palm. Maybe I can barter my positive blog reviews for a cartoon of me! Who would not want to have a cartoon version of me staring at them while they are dining on a piece of cow carcass and creamed spinach.

Another extremely interesting chain fact I learned while watching The Travel Channel is that the Potato Skin was invented at TGI Fridays. I like potato skins. I am not a big cheese person, but overall, skins are a great appetizer as long as the bacon bits are good and not fake.

I also learned how nachos were invented but it wasn't at a chain so I can not talk about it. I will say though, that it was in Mexico. That is all you are getting out of me.

Urth Caffe - One of the Best Places On Earth

If you are in on the LA scene like I obviously am then you know what Urth Caffe is. If you aren't, it's cool, I will give you a quick explanation. Urth Caffe is a coffee, tea, salad, soup and sandwich shop located in the LA area. There are 4 locations, the one I went to and of course the most trendy is located on Melrose in West Hollywood. It was also the first location as well. Also if you watch Entourage and read the Gossip pages you might notice the name because it is always mentioned on both. I really wanted to run into Turtle there and talk about the Yankees and CC or what it it like to date my twin, something.

It is a very unassuming looking place. There are tons of tables outside so a New Yorker like me can take in the LA sun while dining, maybe even get some color on my see through skin. Inside it looks like any other coffee shop. What impressed me most about this place was the menu. It was like catered to me almost. I had a hard time picking between all the great salad and sandwich options. I figured because so many celebs go there it must be all be healthy. I went with a bowl of the butternut squash soup and a half size pesto chicken salad. Let me tell you, this was no half size portion. Huge portion, huge! It was all just so delicious. The soup was perfect and the salad was filled with chicken and a great pesto sauce that somehow managed to not hurt my belly. You order at the counter and get a number and then a waiter brings you your food. I like that a lot. I find that very relaxing. Other menu options that caught my eye was of course the hummus, a farmers market salad with lots of dried fruits, and a chicken curry sandwich. After seeing Slumdog Millionaire and The Namesake and singing Heart to Rikin all the time, I love anything with Curry! They have tons of organic coffees and teas too. I went with an iced tea because it was lunch time. Quite refreshing for my lunch time celeb spotting spree. Oh yes Urth Caffe is where I saw Queen Latifah pull up in her sick Rolls Royce Phantom Convertible. Truthfully, the car is a bit much. I like nice cars A LOT but something like that almost looks like a cartoon character of a fancy car. Give me my little Saab Convertible any day over that.

Oh they also have valet parking here which is ridiculous, but I did it. I will never risk getting towed again.

Anyway, I get why this place is so cool now. Next time I am in LA I am going to make sure to go again. I would love a place like this to open in NY. I envision it near Madison Square Park or in the village.

Katsuya - Go Stand Next to Nobu Because You Are a Chain Too

Katsuya, Katsuya, Katsuya, how trendy and cool you are. Trendy and cool my friend, but obvi a chain. With three locations in the LA area plus plans to open in Vegas and Miami, you are certainly a member of the chain food family and because of that, I can blog about you.

I had the honor of dining at the Hollywood location with lovely clients and one of my bosses. As any loyaly chain of food reader knows, my immediate boss ditched me so I have a whole new slew of bosses, yippee!

The ambiance of Katsuya is very cool and very trendy. Paper boss (that is what I just decided to call him) noticed that there were all these knives near the bar that were in tall columns of glass. I guess they were kinda like cocktail tables. Interesting.

Anyway when I was seated with my clients I think they put us in the VIP section. I kinda learned how to hint to hostesses that I am a food blogger so they must put me where the important people sit. We started with edamame and these delicious sauteed shisito peppers. Those were my pick and damn were they good. Very flavorful and not overwhelming at all. Katsuya, if you couldn't tell by the name is a Japanese restaurant and the focus of the menu is sushi. RorDawg is just not a sushi fan. I know people hate that about me, but I am sorry. I need my food cooked. I do not think that is a weird thing at all. There is a reason there are stoves and pans and microwaves and all that stuff. Anyway, you pretty much just ordered a bunch of dishes and share them all here. I let everyone order all their crazy sushi dishes like spicy tail sashimi, yuck. I made sure to order Rori food too though. I got a shrimp tempura roll with rice paper. Now that is a sushi I can eat. No seaweed and my food is cooked, thank you! I also got a Kobe steak dish with mushrooms. That seemed to be a real crowd pleaser. We even ordered a second one. I liked it but for sure have had better meats at places like Koi and Tao. The drink I got here was phemon. It was a White Grapefruit Cosmo, I do not think you can have a more perfect drink for me. I only had two because I was the designated driver (can you believe it?). What a hot car it was too, a white Chevy Malibu that smelled like a camel. Every time I got in the car I said, Paper boss, do you think it smells like a camel in here. Gross dude.

At the end of the meal Paper boss was still hungry and was making all these jokes about needing a pizza still. I was rather stuffed but still had room for dessert. Besides the drink, the dessert was my favorite part. We got Mochi Ice Cream, I never heard of it before but it was so so so good. It is really just little balls of ice cream wrapped in some sort of thin jello like material. I was afraid at first to try it because it sounded weird, but boy am I glad I did. We also got Creme Brulee and a very rich Chocolate Cake.

The real amazing part of my journey at Katsuya was all of the great celebrity sightings. The first was John Leguizano and that cutie Jay Hernandez. I have always had a thing for him since he was in that movie Crazy Love with dirty Kirsten Dunst. Also sitting two tables away was Cacee Cobb, who was celebrating her birthday, Donald Fiason, Zach Braff and Ken Paves. Not too shabby for one night.

Everybody Starts Somewhere

Is it just me or is everyone and their mother pregnant? Between my office and my little Tyrone, it is babypalooza. Don't worry, I am not preggers so I can continue drinking my way through my twenties. Let's face it, I can't even get a dude to buy me dinner, how can I expect someone to care for me and little Shelby Aiden.


So I am not preggers and can't find a dude to buy me dinner BUT I do have some fabulous friends. So fabulous in fact that they always send me links to articles about chain restaurants. Here is one that really caught my eye. I have had it for a while but I have been so busy traveling that I have not been able to talk about it. Alas, here it is. It is all about where some of the most famous chain restaurants got their start, their birth!

For example, Carvel was born in Hartsdale, NY. Westchester!!!! I have actually been to that Carvel because so much of my summer life was spent in my favorite NY suburb. I am way too classy for Rockland, my parents should have moved to Scarsdale. I should have spoke up more when I was 12 and we moved out of the city.

Other interesting things learned in this article are that Subway was originally Pete's Super Submarine and was founded in Bridgeport, Ct. The first McDonalds was in Illinois. Well, well, well Illinois, you are the home to my baby McDonalds and the home to our 1st black president, arent you special. Wow, you make NY look pretty weak. The first Burger King was in Miami, I am surprised about that one. The first Starbucks is obvi in Seattle. I have been there and it was really nothing special. I am just not a Starbucks girl at all. Give me Coffee Bean, Caribou or Dunkin anyday over that stuff. Wendy's which mommydawg served for dinner many nights was born in Ohio (dont you think Wendy's should do a takeover on the Post and Chain of Food). I don't really like Ohio. I feel people from there are pretty lame. They are. I mean the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is cool besides that, what the hell is cool about Ohio. Actually I take that back, P&G is in Ohio and if you know me, I love me some P&G. Atlanta, home of Nene, Kim and all the other housewives is actually the birthplace of Chick Fil A, OMFG, so freaking good and Applebees. I am not going to lie. I always wished that my picture was up in Applebees representing NRHS. I think I deserve it. Maybe a prom pic or a Key Club event, something. The first Dunkin Donuts is in Quincy, Mass. Hmm, I usually hate everything out of Massachusetts. Not Dunkin. I am proud to say the NYC is the birth place of TGI Friday's. Yeah, NYC, go big or go home. TGI Friday's was for so long my favorite chain so it makes me smile to know that we share the same birthplace.

Anyway, see the link below for some more chain birthplaces. My third favorite city, Beverly Hills is the mommy of many awesome chains like CPK and the Cheesecake Factory.

http://www.walletpop.com/specials/chain-restaurants-where-it-all-began