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S. Carter9 Comments

What’s next on my list? (in no particular order)

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#293: Tandoori Flame

S. Carter1 Comment

10:30AM 5/17/2023
https://www.rosevilletandooriflame.com/

For an early lunch on Wednesday I headed over to Tandoori Flame, located near the Starbucks drive thru on Pleasant Grove, in-between Foothills and Washington. This is an Indian restaurant located right next door to ZS Indian Market. Last time I was here was in 2014. At that time it was a little cafe type area within the market. Now it’s walled off, has it’s own front door and is distinctly its own thing. I asked one of the employees if this restaurant was in any way related still to ZS, but he wasn’t sure as he was new here himself.

The space is fairly small, with less than 10 tables. I think they set up a little outdoor patio area between the two buildings, though it was not yet put together when I arrived. Indian music, a few TVs and one piece of artwork make up the dining rooms ambiance.

I had a look over the menu the night before and had picked out a couple things. They don’t seem to have any dedicated lunch selections, like a smaller dish with two or three items, so I went in knowing I’d have leftovers to take home for dinner. Rolling in right when they opened at 10:30AM, I was the only customer throughout my stay. As soon as I walked through the door I was greeted by two workers ready to take my order, one of them handing me a paper menu as I got up to the counter. I had initially looked up expecting to see the menu up on the two TVs on the wall behind the counter, but they were playing video instead. This menu was identical to the one on the website and I quickly found the two items I wanted to try.

I had misunderstood the first item, the Saag Aloo Paneer (The comfort food of Punjab, Slow cooked spinach and green vegetables with ginger and garlic)[$13.99], thinking it was both aloo and paneer, but you actually choose one or the other. Looking closer at this item, there is a comma between them so I’ll give them that ;). I think a combo could be interesting though. Anyway I chose the paneer. For my 2nd item I went with the Lamb Biryani [$15.50], and then I got a Mango Lassi [$3.99] to finish off my order.

Between about five and ten minutes my mango lassi was brought out. It was served in a paper to-go cup with a lid and straw. Opening it up I saw four small ice cubes in it. I gave it a sip and yes, it could have been a little more chilled for my taste but it was fine. The major takeaway I had from this was that it was one of the most tart ones I’ve ever had. There was a bit of sweetness to it, though my focus on the tartness made me blind to it initially. At first it sort of turned me off. I only had about a quarter of it in the restaurant and took it with me, but it grew on me after that and it was finished completely not long after getting home.

About ten minutes after the lassi came my food. This was a slightly nicer presentation than I was expecting after the to-go cup. A plate with silverware and a napkin was brought out, followed by four dishes: (counter-clockwise from bottom of photo) Saag Paneer, basmati rice for the paneer, lamb biryani and a bowl of kheer, which I was not expecting. The saag came in a nice little metal bowl and the rest in ceramic white flatware. I had spaced that my saag would obviously come with rice and realized I was in for a rice-heavy meal. Naps would be sure follow later.

I dug in and made a little plate of the two main items. Both smelled great and were steaming hot. I started with the saag, which had a nice creamy texture and was rich in flavor. This was on the more spicy and bitter side of saag I’ve had before. The creaminess didn’t quite temper those elements here. The cheese was enjoyable – slightly firm bite-sized cubes that were fairly mild in flavor. I liked this dish but maybe not as much as I had hoped.

On to the lamb biryani, this one took me by surprise. This exceeded my expectations by a fair margin. The lamb bits were tasty, despite perhaps being a touch on the dry side. But the overall flavor of this dish has me still thinking about it days later. There was a lot going on here and this dish had a bit of heat to it as well. I ended up finishing off the saag in the restaurant and taking the rest of the biryani home for dinner later. I checked out the kheer with a few spoonfuls, but I’ve never really found one of these I was crazy about. This wasn’t any exception. Just like my first experience with it (back in 2011 for one of my very first posts on this blog at Swagat Indian Bistro), the sour note I picked up in this turned me off of it entirely.

Overall I thought this was pretty decent. Hard to say I would pick it over some of the very excellent other Indian spots in town though. The competition is pretty strong. If they had more lunch-friendly combos/portions, this would be something I could consider more.

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#292 Firehouse Pizza

S. CarterLeave a comment

12:20PM 5/6/2023
https://firehousepizza.online/

It’s been a bit of a struggle this year to keep up a good pace here. I’ve been working on some behind the scenes maintenance lately when I find time (updating the “completed” pages that I neglected for over a year, making a sticky post with all the new places on my updated ToDo list, etc). This last weekend I decided it was time to get back to it, and having seen a number of new pizza joints added to my list lately it seemed like an easy way to jump back in. I looked at a few and ultimately settled on Firehouse Pizza.

Firehouse Pizza is located in the awkward little shopping center, at Rocky Ridge and Douglas, where you’ll find Mario’s Early Toast and Sunrise Natural Foods. I hate this parking lot so much. It’s waaaaay too busy and cramped, at least while Early Toast is open for breakfast/lunch. I lucked out with a parking spot after only a lap and a half around the lot. The last time I was here, just over ten years ago, this was Master Pizza. Looking back at my photos from that visit, the space hasn’t changed much at all in terms of layout. It has, however, received a welcome facelift to the small lobby area, including a couple of counter areas facing the windows and some stools with a very satisfying pneumatic cushion action when you sit. Upon entering at about 12:20pm I was greeted by a lone employee manning the counter.

I looked at the menu online to pick out my pizza and planned to order it there for take out. The offerings are pretty standard for a pizza place (pizza, wings, pastas, salads). Their specialty (or “gourmet”, I suppose specialty is a Round Table term) pizza offerings are mostly standard with some interesting Hawaiian variations such as Hawaiian Sweet Corn (Marinara, Mozzarella, Ham, Corn, Pineapple) and Hawaiian Extreme (Marinara, Mozzarella, Ham, Pineapple, Corn, Mushrooms, Black Olives, Red Onions, Green Onion). I opted for a large with half Classic Chicken Garlic (Mozzarella, Garlic Sauce, Chicken, Cheddar, Red Onions, Green Onion) and half Fire Meat (Marinara, Mozzarella, Pepperoni, Salami, Ham, Sausage, Bacon). Since I had been looking at three pizza places earlier, I couldn’t remember if this one had a thin crust and asked the person taking my order if they did, to which he replied “yes we have thin crust”. The only reason I bring up this particular interaction is that they also have a thin and crispy crust, which I almost certainly would have ordered instead. So up a the counter they had a little one page menu, but it didn’t show crust types. I wish he had clarified, but also If I had looked up at the full menu on the three LCD menus I would have seen it. So kind of a goof by both of us here. Anyway, I paid up ($25.85 including tax, and as an aside – if I had ordered this online they had a coupon on their website to discount a large gourmet pizza to $18) and then headed back out into the chaos of the tiny lot to grab my photos while he started working on my pizza. Back inside I took a seat on the nifty stools until my order was ready. In total it just a bit over ten minutes. I was offered the standard accompaniments – Parmesan, red pepper, plates, napkins, etc. I got some Parmesan and then forgot I put them in my pocket until later in the day, doh!.

On my short drive home I opted to set the box in my trunk, something I don’t think I’ve ever done with pizza, and I was amazed at how much pizza smell still made it’s way into the rest of the car even with all four windows down. I was so ready to eat by the time I got home. Opening the box up I was pleased to see a nice topping coverage, with only a few bare cheese sections showing through. The most jarring thing about this pie was the cheddar cheese on the Chicken Garlic half. It was melted great, but the splotches of yellow just looked out of place to me for some reason. On the plus side it acted like a glue to keep the toppings on this side in place. I had a little bit of trouble with runaway sausages on the meat side.

Picking up a slice from each side I was a bit disappointed with the crispness of the crust. Aside from the edges, which looked nice and browned, the underside ended up much less done than I like and needed a lot of additional support (this is where my runaway sausage issues mostly stemmed from). Digging in, I found the chicken garlic to be pretty tasty. The garlic sauce wasn’t particularly garlic-y, but the chicken was perfect. Good sized chunks of tender white meat, usually one in every bite. The cheddar cheese added a slight bright flavor and the green onions a tiny bit of crisp texture.

Even though the chicken side was good, I have to say I was surprised that I enjoyed the meat side a lot more. Something about their marinara sauce just grabbed me. It’s wasn’t really spicy – it may have been a little on the sweeter side – but man it just worked so well. I usually prefer almost all other sauce options vs a red sauce, but this was excellent. As for the meats, they also delivered. All five were delicious and worked great together. This was a pretty greasy pizza, but that’s to be expected from all meat. I ate almost half of this pie before calling it quits and putting the rest in the fridge for later.

Two days later I fired up the oven and reheated the remaining slices for dinner. In my experience, even bad pizza usually gets elevated to decent, at a minimum, upon a reheat (see BOSS Pizza+Wings). In this case the floppy crust got nice and crispy, just the way I like it. If you don’t expect to have leftovers and like a crispy crust, I would suggest asking for this to be a little well done, or trying out their thin and crispy version.

Overall I was pretty well satisfied by this pizza joint. We have a lot of options for pizza here but for a solid, non-gimmicky, local joint I’d recommend them.

Just as I got home today to get this post uploaded, in a fun coincidence I had a Firehouse Pizza door hanger waiting for me 🙂

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#291: Tokyo Cream

S. CarterLeave a comment

5:30PM 4/4/2023 & 3PM 4/11/2023
https://order.snackpass.co/Tokyo-Cream-63210cec07778700cad35250

Now that it’s warming up, how about a cold treat. Last week I stopped by Tokyo Cream after a blood donation as a little reward (probably not the healthiest choice, but I’m still alive). This place is located at Taylor and East Roseville Parkway, right next door to the excellent Von’s Chicken. I knew that this would be a post that would need more than one visit. The menu has ice cream, cream-filled pastries, coffees and milk teas. I totally forgot to snap photos of the menu, but I recommend browsing through their ordering website or the hundreds of colorful photos on Yelp to get an idea of what they offer.

Inside is a bright black and white aesthetic with a splash of color in just one corner. The lighting is a very neat honeycomb design of bright LED bars. The overall vibe is just as bright, partly due to the upbeat Japanese pop music. On my first visit I thought I’ve check out the ice cream, which is like a soft serve in either a cone or cup. Even just looking at the ice cream I was a bit overwhelmed with choice. I wanted to try the black sesame swirl, the Purple Rain and other eye-catching creations. I ultimately settled on the Coffee ‘N Creme (Hokkaido milk softserve, espresso, cocoa powder and chocolate almond crush)[$6.50].

I was helped out by a friendly worker who gave me a quick rundown of some of their more popular options and rung me up. You also have the option of ordering via a kiosk near the front door. I had barely sat down and was admiring the reflection of the lights in my fisheye lens on the table when he called out my name and had my order ready. It had maybe been 3 minutes.

This was really nice. I had partly avoided the cone options because I hate messy foods and didn’t want to deal with dripping melting stickiness, but I’m not sure it would be a problem. The soft serve was suuuuuuuper cold, yet still very soft. I actually got a bit of a brain freeze towards the end. The little almond crush stick covered in chocolate was a nice little addition and the espresso went really nicely with the sweet ice cream. Not to spoil the rest of this post, but this was my favorite item by a good margin.

A week of procrastination later I’m back again, a couple hours earlier just after work. I knew I had to check out the Croquant Choux (Japanese crispy pastry topped with honey roasted cashews and filled with fresh vanilla cream)[$5.50]. To go with it I was split between the coffee and milk teas and had been thinking about it all day. Before arriving I thought I had settled on the very outrageous looking Cloud 9 (Cotton candy, milk, butterfly pea flower watermelon syrup, crema and boba)[$6.75], but once in the store it just seemed like too much and I asked the person taking my order his recommendation between that and the Creme Brûlée (Jasmine milk Tea, creme brulee, sugar and crema)[$6.75]. Almost without hesitation he answered Creme Brûlée, and that was that. I took a seat and once again my order was ready in less than five minutes.

The Choux reminded me a lot of Beard Papa’s cream puffs. The pastry itself is made in advance and then it’s injected with the vanilla cream. They differ a bit from there, with this once having a much crunchier texture. The almonds also lend a fair bit of flavor and crunch of their own. The vanilla creme was pretty mild. Ultimately this was good, but I prefer the Beard Papa puff, too bad they left the Galleria years ago.

For my milk tea I opted to add boba for $0.75. This was definitely on the sweet side, but not quite as sweet as a lot of milk teas I’ve tried before. It was smooth and flavorful. The boba was excellent, soft and chewy. A little surprise I encountered several sips in came in the form of an unexpected crunch. At first I thought I had somehow spilled some crumbs from my choux in it, but upon closer inspection there were bits of caramelized sugar at the bottom, like what you have to break through in a typical creme brûlée. Flavor-wise it was smooth and creamy, with hints of caramel. I certainly enjoyed this to the last sip, though I think I would try the Thai Tea next time. My favorite milk tea is a blend of Taro and Thai Tea, though they don’t seem to have Taro here.

Overall I think this is a neat little spot and I definitely will return to try more of the soft serve options, as well as the coffee. I think the prices are pretty good for what you get and the quality is great. Both visits had friendly and fast service.

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