Fat Kid Reviews: Tandoor Indian Grill

Hey! I'm back.

Now I make it no real secret that I'm a fan of the Indian food. I tend to it as often as I can which is generally not often enough. It's one of my absolute favorites. Now this means that I really try to seek out the best of this that I can while at the same time meaning I'm not as knowledgeable about it on the whole.

However, that being said, I know what I like, and this place was pretty fantastic.

There's a trait of Indian restaurants to have a lunch buffet. A collection of various items served in little trays. You know... a buffet. However I've found that it's one of the better ways to gauge some of these place. It's a tactic I know. Get people in with a cheap(er) lunch and they'll come back for a more expensive dinner. And on this first trip to the Tandoor, well, I'll say I wish I had a date to take there.

When we arrived for my bribery luncheon (I can always be bribed with food) the place was far busier than I would have anticipated for a Friday afternoon. At least thirty people. But it didn't slow down. Many were not going for the buffet.

The service was friendly and fast, I honestly don't think I saw the bottom of my glass for longer then a minute or so. (Fantastic Ice Tea by the way). But our server was warm, friendly, and kept things moving. The place was clean and orderly. It was a very pleasant time.

And now for the real event. The reason you read blogs like this on the internet.

The Food. Now as I've said I'm not overly familiar with Indian cuisine. I've been eating it for about five to seven years or so but that doesn't make me an expert. However I know a couple of good markers that many if not most of these places do. Due to the general ignorance about this kind of food in the general populace you see a lot of the same dishes being thrown about with minor variations. Sort of like you see with Mexican and Chinese food. But if you check the vegetable fritters (pakora), the tandoori chicken, and the Tikka Masala you can generally get a good idea of how good they are. Those are things that I've eaten a lot of.

And they met my standards. I wanted to drink their Tikka Masala sauce, and honestly I nearly did. Their tandoori chicken was beautifully charred on the outside and moist and tender inside. And their pakora I think I ate about forty of them. Which is an exaggeration but really not nearly enough of one.

So I think that what I'm saying is that if you're in that area, I'd suggest it. It's quite good. I'll be going back to try the lamb sometime quite soon.

See you in the chow line.
-The Fat Kid

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Bangers and Mash

((Sorry for how late this is going up... Fat Kid Been Busy.))

British food is not all brown sauce with grey lumps. There's also grey sauce with brown lumps. However they got a few things right. Recently I got turned on to the dish bangers and mash. When the fat kid and our dad were coming over for St. Patty's day I wanted to make a new way of doing it.  Here is the brain child from the dark reaches of my mind.

Caramelized Onions and Shallot Mashed Potatoes
2 bulbs of roasted garlic
3 large shallots julienned
2 jonathen apples julienned
2 large onions
2 tbl of thyme
Half and half
2 cubes butter
1 1/2 cup dubliner cheese
10 lbs yukon gold potatoes

Cut the yukon gold into even chunks (about one inch) and put them in water let them simmer til fork tender. As potatoes cook sauté the onions, shallots, and apples until caramelized. Drain the water out then add the butter, thyme, and garlic. Add half and half til desired consistency. Add caramelized veggies, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.

Bangers
Buy some bangers (bratwursts will do) simmer in stout beer and throw on the grill till skin is nice and seared. Plate add potatoes and tasty is coming your way.

The Chubby Gnome's Review-O-Tron REMIX: Desert Magnolia BBQ

Yesterday I had the opportunity to revisit this barbecue joint and sample a much greater selection of items on the menu. I had both my lunch and dinner there the day before this writing, and both of them back up my original opinion on the restaurant. Read on for thoughts on some of the best barbecue I've ever eaten.

The Chubby Gnome: A Study of Spirits: Part 1

Ever since I started cooking professionally I've had a strong interest in cooking with alcohol. In fact I prefer to cook it than to drink it (though I enjoy that a great deal too). Over the years I've compiled a working knowledge of booze, what separates liquors from similar forms, what different nationalities and styles of liquor do to a spirit's taste and texture, as well as how they interact with other foods. Over the next several posts I'll be discussing what I've learned, and hope to condense it all into a useful, workable package to give you a working knowledge of your own, as well as spark some new recipe ideas too.

Down-Gnome Cooking: Stuffed Cornbread Loaves

This is another recipe that I conjured up looking for something that I could easily pack for work and would be able to enjoy at or near it's full potential after a quick nuking. This one is a quick adaptation of Emeril Lagasse's stuffed cornbread recipe utilizing a few ingredients I had available at the time, as well as a few optional tweaks that I found round out the flavor and make it a bit more of a meal-type dish.

Down-Gnome Cooking: Arnold Palmer Braised Brats

Hey boys and girls, here's a quick recipe from the Gnome:

I've been working on a number of easily transportable recipes that I can brown-bag to work for lunch the last few weeks. There are plenty of eating opportunities near my office but with how strapped I am for cash it has become much more effective to simply cook my own and pack it in. As such I'm working hard on building myself a menu of portable edibles that hold well and don't mind a little time in the fridge followed by a subsequent radiation bath.

The first in this series of brown-bag gourmet is an excellent recipe for braised bratwurst I stumbled across very recently. To be completely honest I was just dicking around in the kitchen, but the results were excellent, and so now I give it to the world.

The Chubby Gnome: An Ode to Breakfast

An Ode to Breakfast:

I love breakfast. It's by far my favorite meal of the day, and I will have it at any point in the day, as many times as I like. If there's one thing other than my hairy feet that make people draw comparisons between myself and hobbits, it's that.

Fat Kid Reviews: Copper Creek

Copper Creek Pub and Grub

3154s 5600w West Valley City Ut.


A few years ago my brother stumbled upon this place tucked back behind two fast food mexican places over in West Valley. He went there with an old friend on a number of occasions before I was invited to go with them.

My first impression was that it was a nice a fairly clean bar. Emphasizing sports and beers. Then we ordered some food. The menu was usual bar fair. A fair assortment of meat between various forms of breads and a lot of fried foods. A handful of salads that exist more for the sake of appearance than for their ground breaking flavors or ideas. It is a place exactly as advertised. It's a pub. Where one could very easily grub.

The Chubby Gnome's Review-O-Tron: Desert Magnolia BBQ

Located @ 4066S 1900W Open Tues-Sat

Hidden deep inside an office complex is one of the greatest barbecue joints I've ever entered, and it's certainly the best north of Salt Lake City, and I love me some charcoalized dead animal.

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Bourbon Herb Mustard Rubbed Pork with Buttermilk Garlic Mashed Potatos

This is a delicious dish I came up with after having my friends mustard rubbed lamb rack.

Fat Kid Reviews: The Pie's Chicken Cordon Blue Pizza

The Pie is a pizza place in Utah that most if not all folks in Salt Lake have a passing knowledge of. It began as a pit of a place under a drug store. And in the last few years they've expanded to a handful of locations across the valley.


But this is the one I went to. It's just down the street from me and honestly? It's a good pie. My favorite, and the one I usually get is the combination. Just delicious. Loaded with veggies and meats. Just fantastic. One of my favorite pizzas in the world.

But that's not what I'm reviewing, because honestly, you'll either have already tried it, or would figure it out on your own.

No. I want to talk about the specialty pizza I had a few days ago.

The Cordon Blu pizza.

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Holy Grail Garlic Bread

((Now King Arther spent his life looking for the Holy Grail. I took about 2 months to discover this gem of a recipe. It will taste like somebody made a garlic hand grenade and set it off in your mouth. But in a good way.))

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Not Your Mamas Chili

((Technically Vegetarian))

4 16oz cans diced tomatos
2 Anaheim peppers
2 pablanno peppers
2 cups fresh tomitillos
2 tbls cumin
11/2 tbls light chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp allsice
1tbl onion powder
1 tbls garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp spanish paprika
2 red bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
6 cloves garlic minced
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans

The Chubby Gnome's Review-o-tron: Grinders 13

2 Locations: (1618 South State Street, SLC and 2125 South 3200 West, WVC)

State St Location:


WVC Location:


With both locations in the Salt Lake Valley, this local sandwich shop is dedicated to the subtle art of a handcrafted, inexpensive, wonderfully tasty sandwich. Most of their meats are either cooked or sliced in-house, and even what isn't is of considerable quality.

Sandwiches come in 2 sizes. 6" and 10". These sizings are a bit misleading as the 6" is actually a lot closer to 8 or 9" and the 10" is easily a foot long, not that I'm complaining, mind you. The more sandwich I get to stuff in my face per dollar the better.

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Started a Fist Fight Shepherd's Pie

Now I'm not saying that this is the best shepherd's pie. I'm just saying it is the best I've come up with it. It is very different from traditional and slightly complicated but I hope you enjoy.

Fat Kid Review: Roger's Bakery

I'm not a baked good kinda guy generally. I mean, I'll eat cookies or cakes if presented with it, but they generally aren't something I actively seek out. You can't lure me with a doughnut or brownie the way so many others can be coerced. Hell even bread doesn't do it for me. I've never said, "Oh man... I'm just craving some bread."

But that being said, I understand quality. And though I don't care that much if offered a fritter, a quality one will always having me coming back for more.

Down-Gnome Cooking: Cream of Racism

Cream of Racism soup is a time-honored tradition in the Fat Kid household. While it’s great any time of year it really flourishes in the winter. The creamy, starchy soup combined with the satisfaction of surviving yet another winter unstarved is a wonderful experience. And now, I share the love with you.

The Fat Kid: Pregaming on Chopped Champions

So I'm sitting here waiting for the finale episode of Chopped Champions. It's like the Rose Bowl for me. Or at least that's what I've been told by folks who are more familiar with sport ball.

I talked about this before about my love of these competition shows. And by watching the sheer amount of food shows that I've watched I've figured out who will likely win. Cause at any given episode whose going to win is sort of dependent on fate. Who gets cut? Who burns themselves? Drops their food accidentally? Buggers up some minor technical detail? Is the food cooked? These are all factors in the nature of the show itself.

But... at this level. When EVERYBODY there has already won once. They've all got the luck and the technique. So what's the x-factor that shows what a proper Champion is?

The Delivery Guy's Lament

You have to smell it all day, but you can’t eat it...

The Fat Kid's recent Food Jock post got me to thinking around this question "What am I really 'into' as a foodie?" Some people, like the Fat Kid, love seeing competition. For many seeing an art in creation is just as beautiful as the finished product.

While I do enjoy a good food competition now and again, I can't say that I'm part of this demographic. For me food is a full sensory experience, and seeing it on a TV screen just isn't going to get me salivating.

To smell freshly grilled meat just barely pulled off a grill, or a smoker that's been running for a few hours and the fat of the roast inside has just begun to render out. That's what gets me drooling. In fact I think I may run out of paper towels to protect my keyboard with before I finish this article.

Food Jock

I've never been into sport. The moving of the sphereoids about the rectangular fields (Courts? Arenas? Trapezoids? I get it all so confused) does nothing to stir my heart. I haven't sat down with the intention of watching a sport ball game since I was ten or younger.

For years I honestly didn't understand why or how people could care about sports. It just didn't do anything for me. I always felt that the level of fanaticism devoted to it was at best a waste of time, and at worst a dangerous symptom of the fall of our way of life.

But then... I discovered something wonderful, something that pulled all those crazy fans with their favorite teams and their custom jerseys into the realm reasonable reaction.

I discovered Food Competition Shows.

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Sweet Pork Chilli

Sweet Pork Chili
(Now this is not your typical chili. It is kind of like a Southwestern Cantiloni Bean Soup.)

Recipe Corner with Chef Fatty: Vegan Sloppy Joes

Vegan Sloppy Joes

(I will let you all know I am a proud carnivore, have a pathilogical fear of pigs, and think all things living are delicious. But I have some vegan friends and I came up with these in a jam.)

Gas Station Gourmet: Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, but they mix a damn fine drink.

At the Fat Kid's behest, I'm tasked with an article on the best thing I've ever eaten from a gas station.

This one is pretty difficult for me. I try not to engage my higher brain functions if it becomes necessary to pick up food at a gas station, and chips, Cheetos, and jerky only come in so many variations.

But the beverages. Oh my the beverages (note- beverage is a very fun and obnoxious word to use). Sodas and juices, energy drinks and cheap booze of all kinds! It's a wonderland of insulin-spiking proportions.

I could spend all day talking about soda alone, but I'll leave that for another time. For now I want to focus on things you can only find (for the most part) at a gas station. Here we go.

Gas station Gourmet (Or Hot Dog Hallelujah!)

I've spent a great deal of time in Gas Stations in my life. I've worked in several and eaten all kinds of the crap they have in there. Chips, cookies, questionable breakfast sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, various candies and nuts, nachos, and the all important Hot Dog.

That's what I'm talking about today, the old Tube Steak.

I'll wait a moment for you to giggle.

Ok, now I know that it's hard to believe, but I'm going to tell you that the way that a gas station prepares hot dogs is the best way to cook.

I've eaten a great deal of sausage in my time. (pause for giggles) I've had it grilled. I've had it sauteed, steamed, boiled, in beans, under chili, and just about every other way. And the best way to eat one is off a roller grill.

Now that doesn't mean that any wiener pulled off the hot rollers is going to be ideal. There are times when they'll be on there for hours. I know this cause I've worked there in the past. But... there's a magical window, it's for about twenty or so minutes, where it is a proper gourmet experience. The outside will have the perfect snap and the inside is just warm enough to enhance the overall flavor. With even a moderately quality sausage it's something fantastic. Even your Bar S or other cheap wieners (snicker) will be at their absolute best.

"But how? How will I know the mark of its coming of great Sage of the Questionable Tubed Meats?" I hear you asking with truly odd syntax.

Well it's actually pretty simple. You look for the beginnings of a sheen on the sausage. You want a little bit of a caramel color on the outside but not too dark. And it'll look nice and plump. If there's cracks then it's overdone.

So slap some mustard on that and you're good to go. I'll sometimes put a little bit of mayo, relish, and sauerkraut on mine but that's cause I like some vinegar and fat with my nitrates.

Mmm... Nitrates.

See you in the Chow Line.
-The Fat Kid

I Am The Chubby Gnome

Greetings, Internet. I am the Chubby Gnome

The Mysterious (and Fictional) History of the Pastrami Burger

Once in the old country there was a jewish man who wanted to try ham, but the laws of kosher being such, he could not try the magical ham. But it stuck with him. He went to learn the dark magic of brining and smoking and on a dark and stormy night he smoked his prime beef and pastrami was born.

It later came to the new world and was brought strength by the delicatessens. Jews and everyone alike were captivated by this delicious creation.

Then in in the western plains of utah a Greek-American man boiled it and put it on his famous burger. And thus it was forged! In the charbroiled fires of fatty amazing. The Pastrami Burger! It traveled to many resturants til it came to the little township of magna were one great morman man perfected the ideal combination for this burger forged in tradition and tasty.

Pastrami everywhere...

So we're starting off burgers.  Awesome.  I love burgers.  I know a few who don't, but they're all weirdos.

Thing is, I don't really eat burgers all that often.  On occasion though, there's nothing better in the world.  On occasion, it's the only thing that will really satisfy.

We focused this time specifically on the Pastrami Burger.  I don't really know the genesis or history of the pastrami burger.  I don't know how or why this particular food item happened, but here it is...and thank all the crazy gods for it.

The Pastrami Burger

When I was little, on Fridays we would go to a little hut that made burgers and fries. My father would always  ALWAYS get a pastrami burger. I can remember (vaguely) the first time I ordered one on those special nights that we got to eat the Grub Box. It was so big and tasted so good. I felt like such a grown up. Years later when I started a food blog, the very one you're reading in fact, I wanted to start with a food that was near and dear to me. Give me the chance to share the passion I have for food and show what it is this whole thing is about. So I went back to those thoughts of the little boy and the big burger and this is where we begin.

They Call Me Chef Fatty (spoken with a fake french accent)

People say that you should never trust a skinny chef, and though I am not saying that weight has anything to do with good cooking. skinny is something you would never accuse me of. Even before I went to culinary school I loved food and food reality television (Go Iron Chef Geoffery Zachrian!).

What is the style of my cooking I hear you ask? Well it would best be described as rustic with a twist. (The Fat Kid calls it Experimental Comfort food) I find that food, whether it is simple or complicated, needs a perfect balance for it to truly sing. I once took two months to perfect my garlic bread recipe.

Now there is a misconception that all chefs only like fancy food. True chefs like all types of food. From the cheap to expensive all food has its place. The one thing we can all agree on food is that it brings us all together and unites all of humanity. Besides being good, it also brings culture and goodness to everyone it touches. To our fat and skinny kids alike we hope that you can be a fat kid with us.

I'm the Token Skinny Guy

Truth is I'm not THAT skinny, but in comparison to other contributors, I'm the token skinny guy.

 Also, I'm not a foodie.  Don't get my wrong I LOVE food.  Just as much as anybody, but my tastes aren't as discerning.  I don't really watch food or cooking shows.  I can throw some crap in a pot and see what happens.  Sometimes its even delicious.

I know how to cook, but rarely do.

I'll eat pretty much anything that's put in front of me.  Some things bring me more joygasms than other things, but I'll eat almost all things without complaint.

I do know how to form and offer an opinion though, and I'm very happy to be part of a place that allows me to do two of my favorite things.  Eat, and talk about the things I eat.

 This promises to be an exciting little voyage.  I can't wait to eat all the things, and then tell you all about it, and how you should have been there.

I am the Fat Kid

Welcome! I'm starting a food blog. If you know me then you likely know I've been contemplating this for longer then I care to admit to. (That means it's been awhile)  But look at me putting stuff on the internet.

But anyway, I'm the Fat Kid. I say that because I'm a big old fat guy. I know a thing or two about food. My mother taught me most of the basics and both my brother and his best friend (all who may show up here at some point) are in culinary school and between that and a deep and passionate love of food network competition shows I may have gained some knowledge about what the hell I'm talking about.

In all that watching and talking about food I have absorbed by sorcerous osmosis perhaps, a pretty refined understanding of food. On this blog I'm planning on right about the delicious food I eat. Also the horrible stuff I choke down cause why the hell not? It's in arm reach.

See you in the chow line.

-The Fat Kid