Although there’s no sign up on their website, Golden Wok Chinese restaurant closed January 5. We were thinking of eating there Saturday, but when I called their phone just rang and rang. I finally called one of their San Antonio locations, who confirmed they had closed just the day before.
Too bad. They were a pretty good restaurant, and you could order Dim Sum for dinner. My guess is that the space is just too large for a Chinese restaurant to be profitable, but I suspect a great Cajun place, BBQ joint or hamburger joint could do very well there…
The Saturday Dining Conspiracy notes with sadness the passing of unindicted co-conspirator Murray Wayne Person, Jr., my father, after a 2 year battle with cancer. He and my mother (who is still alive) joined us on many dining conspiracies over the years, a few of which he generously picked up the entire bill for.
My full obituary is here. He will be missed.
A tiny morsel of restaurant news: Jim Hasslocher, the man who founded the Jim’s Restaurant chain, has died at 93.
As far as mid-American chain restaurants that serve breakfast go, I like Jim’s a bit better than Denny’s, and there’s a location quite close to my house. I was unaware that there are only 19 locations in Austin and San Antonio; I thought they were more widely located across the south.
Blue Bell ice cream to begin test production this week.
Hip hip, hooray! If all goes well, they expect to have product back on store shelves by Labor Day. Also, billionaire Sid Bass has made a “significant investment” in Blue Bell, which should help them survive until production is up and running again.
(Cross-posted from Futuramen.)
For twenty years worth of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy, I’ve had good dishes and bad, but never before until this past Saturday had I just sent a dish back as completely inedible.
The Chong Chin Chicken was described as seasoned with lots of hot peppers and peppercorns. I didn’t really see the peppercorns, but I definitely saw the hot peppers; it looked like they dumped a giant fistful into the dish. Though a chilehead, I’ve never had that many dry hot peppers in any dish before.
That’s not why I sent the dish back.
The first few bites of the dish seemed incredibly dry to me, and it tasted like they hadn’t used any sauce whatsoever, which was an odd choice.
That’s not why I sent the dish back.
After a few bites, my tongue’s taste receptors just seemed to shut off, ruining the taste of the dumplings Dwight and Andrew had ordered. Shortly thereafter I realized what the big problem was: it was the most salty dish I’d ever tasted in my life.
A dish too salty for Andrew and too hot for me; it was like some sort of anti-miracle.
So I sent it back and got some orange peel chicken instead, which was far more edible.
I wouldn’t discourage you from going to Asia Cafe, but unless you look like this:
(Cross posted to Futuramen.)
“Brenham-based Blue Bell Creameries is pulling all of its products from the shelves after more ice cream samples tested positive for a life-threatening bacterial infection.”
The voluntary decision, announced Monday, is the latest and most sweeping development to plague the Texas business icon since a recall last month, the first in the company’s 108-year history.
It came after an “enhanced sampling program” that found half-gallon containers of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream produced on March 17 and March 27 contained the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, company officials said.
Plus this:
“The latest tests mean the company had several positive tests for Listeria in different plants.”
Pretty hard to fathom a wide-spread outbreak in multiple plants. The only explanations I can think of:
Anyway, if you have any Blue Bell in your freezer, it’s probably safest to throw it out…
(Copied from Futuramen.)
