Hoffbrau - Fort Worth, TX

 The Hoffbrau is any easy place to go when you are looking for a quick dinner close to the Coliseum. We usually make a visit there after a long day and are craving really big entree salads. It is known as a steak place but the menu hits on a variety of items so you really cannot go wrong ordering land, water or sea.

We were seated just under these two license plates... How fitting is that?! The name of our good little horse and my family business. I like a good coincidence. I give the decorations two thumbs up, obviously.

If you order an appetizer make sure it is the Brau Chips served with chunky blue cheese dressing. The thinly sliced potatoes are sometimes crispy, others chewy and as a whole totally awesome. They usually come out totally hot and perfectly salty. Ask for more blue cheese dressing if you run out before the basket is empty. If there are only two of you dining ask for a half order, even I could not do a full.  

The fried Chicken Salad is just the bomb. It is filled with all naughty things along with the chopped fried chicken. Bacon, cheese, croutons, hard boiled eggs and too much dressing washed it all down. I know this version of a "salad" is not the best option but it was just tasty enough for me not to care.

Scott ordered the Tilapia Salad and it surprised me to see him go the seafood route without me joining in as well. The salsa on top was quite spicy as the jalapeno had a kick. It was served on a bed of lettuce, corn, beans and delicately dressed. From what I saw, the best part of his order was probably those two little hush puppies on the side of his plate.

We will most likely will be back for another meal here because of the proximity to the coliseum. I will probably get the Fried Green Tomatoes because I have not had them probably since my last visit here two years ago. 

The Fort Worth eating competition rolls on... 

The Jolly Oyster - Ventura, CA

Scott and I set out on a date day hoping to spend the whole day at the beach, but the wind nixed those plans. We instead switched it up and decided to run some errands. One of our stops included running into Dan and Laura Dotson from the television show, "Storage Wars". They were so nice! 

I have wanted to dine at The Jolly Oyster for ever, but they are only set up on Fridays and weekends when we are usually out of town horse showing it. They are set up at the Buenaventura State Beach Park so go through the gate and wrap around to the back of the lot to find them.

Everything on the menu sounded great but Scott and I controlled ourselves and only ordered a few things to share.

We started with a split of "Jolly Oysters" on the right which were baked with leeks, thyme,bacon in a white wine cream sauce. It sort of tasted like a clam chowder baked oyster. They were Scott's favorite. On the left were "Creole Baked Oysters" baked with garlic, butter, herbs, green onions, creole seasonings, white wine, parmesan and lemon zest. And, I preferred these.

We both saw the Baja Stone Crab Spring Roll and wanted to try it. It was delicious crisp roll of stone crab, shitake mushrooms, cabbage, green onions and carrots. The sweet and sour dipping sauce just made this! 

I was surprised when Scott wanted to try the Clam Chowder but he did and I happily shared it with him as well. The Clam Chowder was much more reminiscent of an Oyster Stew. It was packed full of them and the consistency was much thinner than your average chowder. I thought it was delicious!

All in all, I was very impressed with The Jolly Oyster. The quality of the food that came out of that food truck was amazing! I will return, hopefully on a less windy day!

Channel Island Food Trucks - Oxnard, CA

Scott Good Taste did some foodie recon and discovered something that I had totally been missing out on... "Wet Wednesdays", a food truck gathering at the Channel Island Harbor in Oxnard. So after his evening session, we met up to get our tasting on! 

There were probably 10 trucks there and all seemed to be doing very good business. There were lines at every truck.

We started at an Indian food truck called, "India Jones Chow Truck". Scott ordered a Roti, which was basically like a burrito made with flat bread, housing chopped onions, tamarind chutney and grilled beef. He absolutely loved it and said he would return back next week to order just that. 

I ordered the "Aloo Tikki Chaat" which was a potato pancake topped with chickpeas, raita, chopped onions and chickpea vermicelli. It too was fantastic. Perfect portion size for the price, just four dollars. 

We took a break for a frosty beverage at Seafresh and cooled off our spicy mouth with a Mondos Cream Ale. I love that beer!

Next up Lobster Rolls! The Cousin's Maine Lobster Truck had the longest line so we decided we just had to get in on that action. We waited for about 15 minutes but chatted up nice people in line so it went really fast...

We ordered ours "Conneticut Style" which was hot with butter. $12 will get you this bad boy! It had tons of hope and anticipation riding on my first bite... drum roll please..... It was just ok. I ate the entire thing in three bites, and didn't crave more. I would most likely try something else next time, like the Lobster bisque they ran out of just before we hit the counter. 

But what fun! Thank you Scott Good Taste for the interactive eating experience. All you local readers better get out there and try it too. A lot of fun for the kids too!