Pizza + Ranch, not just at STM anymore!

Danny used to dip his pizza in ranch dressing at STM, since they always served the pizza with those little carrot chips and the dressing on the side, but now the secret is out: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2008/09/pizza_and_ranch_dressing.php

Related: at Wash U I would take my own bottle of ranch down to the grill-type place on campus to use it with my chicken tenders, which was met with confusion as such combination was not typical in that part of the country, or with people who I'd usually eat with. Now, the strips-and-ranch dip combo is almost a foregone conclusion at some restaurants.

Whataburger

...has 3 new dipping sauces that you can choose from for their chicken strips. Ranch, BBQ, Honey Mustard. The flavors aren't original or creative, but these sauces are new at Whataburger so they must be tested. Volunteers?

Pomme Frites

Yesterday my girlfriend and I went to the Mockingbird Bistro for our 1 year anniversary. I looked at the menu before hand to get an idea of what was available. I had to ask my brother (a future chef and a current culinary expert) how to pronounce "pomme frites" which are just french fries. So for dinner I had steak tartare (a raw beef patty on top of which you pour a raw quail egg. The tartare was mixed with slices of garlic and was all meant to be eaten on top of some sourdough toasts which were smeared with basil pesto...delicious! My main course, the prime steak frites was served with wild mushrooms, and watercress. It was awesome. My steak also came with the aforementioned "pomme frites." These french fries were the best I've ever eaten and I'm not being hyperbolic. They were cooked in truffle oil and tossed with parmesan cheese. The Mockingbird Bistro provided a garlic aioli (kind of like a garlic mayonnaise, to the uninitiated) for dipping these little gourmet fries. Wow that was so good! Pomme frites cooked in truffle oil dipped in garlic aoili....absolutely delicious and a perfect food-dip pairing. Needless to say this combination is highly recommended!

K bye bye

Stuffed Crust

Now I know what most of you are thinking, pizza crust, especially that of the stuffed variety, preferably with cheese, needs to be dipped. The natural inclination to use pizza sauce or marinara is quite common and quite good, but let me tell you people, ranch dressing is the way to go. There is not another delectable or complimentary sauce for stuffed crust pizza than ranch dressing. Pizza sauce is good, but if you have the opportunity to use ranch, don't pass it up, you will not regret this.

New Chick-fil-a sauce

Recently Chick-fil-a updated their classic Strips by changing the breading recipe and making them bigger. Now instead of a choice between a 4-count or a 6-count, you get a 3- or a 4-, but the new ones are certainly noticeably bigger so you're not getting ripped off. Accompanying the new strips is a new "Chick-fil-a" sauce. It's yellowish, and bares a strong resemblance to run-of-the-mill honey mustard, and though I can't qualify the difference between this sauce and honey mustard, there certainly is a difference. The difference is not that striking, however, and my lack of memory concerning whether or not Chick-fil-a currently offers honey mustard is the line that determines if this was a necessary addition or not.

Chicken strip-wise, I'm a pretty big Ranch loyalist, though occasionally I'll dip my strip in some honey mustard or Chick-fil-a's tasty polynesian sauce. Chick-fil-a sauce was decent, but I imagine upon future returns to the chain I'll probably stick to the staples when I get the strips (or nuggets, even).

Edit: I checked C-f-a's website, and they do offer Honey Mustard Sauce, and an investigation of the ingredients of the Chick-fil-a sauce pegs it as nothing more than a Honey Mustard/BBQ sauce combination. Give sauce dippers a little credit; they could have come up with this on their own.

Got some spring rolls the other day. Came with some amazing dip. It had something to do with sweet chili sauce, but it was thick like mayonnaise. I know, sounds weird, but trust me, really good.