Red Robin

It's a little hard to review chains, but I do have a few things to say about both Red Robin and Cheesecake Factory, so here goes another two entries.

I have a bizarre quirk about food... I tend to avoid messy food. I actually love the way all of these foods taste. However, I don't particularly like eating them often because it involves some amount of messiness. Things on the list include burritos, ribs, and chicken wings. Note that these foods are to be eaten with the hands and involve sauce and/or things falling out of a wrapper.

I committed a rather egregious error of being the closed-minded newbie when I asked for a fork at an Ethiopian restaurant. The server gave me a look that can only be described as an amused glare. I love Ethiopian food, but it involves unleavened flatbread (injera) used to scoop up stewed entrees. While I definitely try to subscribe to the "when in Rome" attitude, I didn't like eating with my hands when it involved "soupy" food.

Neurotic? Yes. I'd have to say this is probably the only major food hangup I have. When I do eat them, I wipe my hands often. Yes, I know it's weird. Very Monk-esque OCD, no?

Thus, gourmet burgers fall on that list. Red Robin, which specializes in burgers, isn't exactly a place I prefer to visit often. Don't get me wrong, I like their burgers. The fish burger and the 'Shroom burger are especially good.

We do go because it's one of D.'s favorite restaurants. I love their milkshakes, so I brave the lactose intolerance and the gads of calories and order a strawberry shake. I usually follow that with something light, like a bowl of soup or a salad. Hey, that's a 1000 calorie shake, easy, so I go the "girly" route and eat light. I usually don't do a burger unless I'm really in the mood.

This past Saturday, I had the chicken tortilla soup, which was pretty good. It's a little expensive ($4.99) for a rather small bowl. Other dishes I like are the BLTA croissant sandwich (not as messy as a burger... hehe), the soup/salad combo (French onion soup is good there), or the soup/sandwich combo. Their fish tacos are decent, but expensive.

Overall, a good chain, but a tad overpriced for the quality of food served.

China Max

Ah, my Cantonese food haven in San Diego. I have to say that of all the types of Chinese food out there, this stuff reminds me of home. Cantonese food tends to be comforting to me, rather than being comfort food in general.

I had a major craving for Peking-style pork spareribs. Naturally, since I preferred them made in the Hong Kong style with the thick sauce, we headed to China Max, purveyor of good dim sum and Cantonese fare. I left the camera at home, so there are no pictures from this trip. Too bad, as their dim sum is as easy on the eyes as it is on the belly.

We ordered the spareribs with the following dim sum dishes:

• BBQ pork buns
• BBQ pork rice noodle rolls
• Egg tarts
• Custard buns (same as BBQ pork, but filled with an eggy custard)
• Potstickers (it's clear at this point that D. was in charge of the ordering... scroll down on the Wikipedia article to see the comment on potstickers)
• Har gao (shrimp dumplings... my choosing, of course)
  

The food was amazing. The dim sum dishes are a lot like tapas and can be a little pricey (rice noodles rolls and har gao were $4 each), but China Max does an excellent job. The Peking-style pork spareribs really hit the spot. I liked doing this mix of entree and dim sum, so we'll have to do it again.

It's a travesty that I didn't take any pictures of this, but hopefully D. will make it again soon. Wednesday night, he surprised me with a gorgeous dinner of:

• filet mignon with red wine caramelized onions
• grilled corn on the cob
• grilled potato (like a baked potato, but cooked on the grill)
• sugar snap peas

The filet mignon with onions was genius. The beef was really moist and tender and D. grilled it to medium rare, which is midway between our preferences. The red wine gave the onions a tangy sweetness that made me think, "This is different, but how?" The corn on the cob, wrapped in foil, was crunchy and sweet. Since the foil kept the moisture in the kernels, each bite had a little burst of sweet liquid.

I ate my potato plain and grilling it made it firm and crumbly. It also brought out a slightly smoky flavor that's probably attributed to the skin being grilled and caramelizing. D. put the snow peas in a foil packet, seasoned with salt and pepper, and put it on the grill. They were steamed until soft, although I do like a little more a bite to my snap peas. Still fabulous, though.

Yup, he'll definitely have to do it again.