Who's Your Daddy?

It was an epic Father's Day in Fat Mike's world.  That's right, for those of you who are reading this and didn't already know... Fat Mike is a dad.  Rule #1 in the house, though, is the boy is not allowed to call Daddy "fat", and Daddy is NOT allowed to jokingly (and lovingly) call the boy "fat". Nevertheless, on certain occasions I AM allowed to let the boy tag along for a wondrous and enthusiastic food adventure.  In this case, we took a journey to try the new...

 PIZZA HUT HOT DOG CRUST PIZZA

This, my friends, did NOT disappoint.

We went ALL out.  I gotta tell ya.  I haven't been to a "brick and mortar" Pizza Hut since I went to celebrate a win in pee-wee soccer back in 1988.  However, the Pizza Hut in NJ that we used to go to was still standing and that's where "the boy" (I'm protecting his anonymity) and I went to enjoy in this delicious indulgence.

I wish I was able to take more pictures of the process, but anyone who's reading this who has kids knows that you only have so many hands when you're hanging out and I was only able to grab the "money shot" shown above.  I'll have to use the magic of the blogging keys to accurately describe how this went down.

This is a masterfully crafted pizza.  My primary worry was that the dogs were going to overshadow the pizza, or that the pizza was going to suffer in order to accommodate the dogs.  Neither was the case.  It was impressive how the dogs simply "popped" off the pizza if you wanted to separate the dogs and enjoy them on their own.  As an initial test run, the first thing I did was grab a dog (thinking that the tearing of the pig out of its designated blanked would mangle the slice that the dog was attached to and render the entire slice inedible).  Nothing could have been farther from the truth.  If the eater wishes to enjoy the pizza and the dog independently "The Hut" accommodates that wish.  What's even more impressive is that if you choose to eat the slice from "top to tails", the weight of the "swaddled piggies" doesn't overwhelm the slice and make for a frantic eating experience.  I would've expected the slice to fall apart in my hands, or start to droop since the crust carried such heavy weight, but that never happened.  The eating experience was pleasant from start to finish.  In fairness, it's a lofty expectation for anyone to go into this thinking that all of the hot dogs are going to be evenly cooked.  Admittedly, some were overdone, but I'd say there was a good 65/35 ratio of perfect dogs to overcooked dogs.  "The boy" and I were both impressed with how this entire event transpired, and it made for a FANTASTIC father-son experience.  There were smiles all around the table.  The boy is 2.5 yrs old and he took down his dinner like a champ.

*as a disclaimer, my son is NOT overweight and has a very balanced diet of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.  I will NOT be lumped into that group of parents who has a satisfied child only when they are eating "kid friendly" foods.  I like to think that this experience was as enjoyable for him as it was for me because we have a balance of food we "need" to eat and food we "want" to eat.* 

Proof of happy faces

I HIGHLY recommend the Pizza Hut Hot Dog Crusted Pizza.  Pizza Hut is displaying the ingenuity and innovation that is crucial in diversifying the American food market and they're executing it with forethought and attention to quality.  I appreciated the experience they provided for me and my family, and I look forward to seeing what they decide to do next to make the pizza world a bigger and better place.

Thanks, Hut. (if you haven't already, please click above)

I'm such a JERK

Guess who's back??

So much has happened since the last post!  There's a lot to get out there, so I hope everyone's ready.  I'm going to try and capture it all in chronological order, but sometimes my excitement gets the best of me so the timeline might fly out the window.  First things first, however, we need to talk about Jerk chips.

As usual, I got beat to the punch on this one by other blogging chip enthusiasts out there on the Inter-Web, but I'm still going to share my view with you all.  You can't find these chips just anywhere, so I want to make sure that if you see these on a random shelf in a random bodega or grocery store you can say, "Oh... these are the chips that Fat Mike told me about!"

I present to you, Dr. Dread's Famous Kettle Cooked Jamaican Jerk Chips:

 These things are AMAZING.  Purchase online here.   I was given them as a gift Thankfully, I have great people in my life who appreciate and contribute to my enthusiasm for finding new and exciting flavors in snack food that's out there these days. #thanksamy.  To be honest, I didn't entirely know what to expect.  I'm a big fan of jerk flavor, and I didn't know if the chip would cut it.  How do you pack all of that big flavor and various spicing onto a chip?  Seems like a tall or, but the doctor is in and knows what he'd doing.  I was pretty impressed.  I couldn't put them down.  If I had to offer a criticism, a chip isn't necessarily the best vessel for all that spice, so there isn't consistency throughout, but there's a good smoke and nice bit of hot spice that accompanies each bite as you move through the bag.  I HIGHLY recommend a nice beer pairing with these.  However, I'll warn you that if you do you might just down the whole thing.  Even something as modest as the "King of Beers" compliments the spicy and unique flavor of these chips and makes for an enjoyable eating experience.

There is one side effect:

Do you remember those old Pringles commercials from the 80s and 90s?  They would emphasize that Pringles would spare you from the "greasy" leftovers of eating bagged chips.  Dr Dread puts those greasy chips to shame.  Even if you exercise surgical precision going into the bag to grab a specifically positioned chip to eat, you're gonna come out of there with SOME spice accompaniment on the fingers or hands.  It's unavoidable.

I'm a finger licker, myself. I love the cakey, orange leftovers from a good bag of Cheetos, and of course I cherish my Doritos dust (as all of the regular readers should know).  These, however, leave an excessive amount of cleanup.  My theory, is that it only makes committing to taking down the entire bag in one sitting that much easier.  After all, do you want to have a few, clean up, put them down, crave a couple more, have a few, and then clean up again?? Of course not.  Open, eat, rinse off... done.  Throw the bag in the garbage, smile to yourself, bathe in that feeling of accomplishment, and say, "Thanks Fat Mike. That was awesome".