Category: Reviews

I was on my own for lunch today, so I sallied forth to a place that recently opened up near my office, the Pita Jungle, which has taken over the spot that was once occupied by the now-defunct Off-The-Grill.

Since Off-The-Grill was configured for an order at the counter and sit down in one of the 5 tables, I was surprised that they’d managed to greatly increase the seating area and was a proper “sit down” restaurant. They had both inside and outside seating and Arizona’s total smoking ban that went into effect yesterday means there wasn’t a bad seat in the house; however, I chose to sit inside since it reached 103º this past weekend.

My first sign that this might not be my typical “I love any kind of flatbread with grilled meat on it” experience was when I noticed the menu said, “Natural Healthful Vegetarian Cuisine.” I was mortified, but I remembered a review over at FeastingInPhoenix.com that clearly mentioned gyros and chicken, so this is some new “loose” definition of the word “vegetarian” that I was not previously aware of. I am gratified to know that, by that same definition, McDonald’s is also a “vegetarian” restaurant.

A quick check of the menu revealed that all was well, there were beef, chicken and seafood dishes on the menu.

I chose the Mediterranean Roasted Chicken (Shawarma) because I’d never met a Shawarma I didn’t like. It was only $5.75 and was described as “Grilled marinated chicken breast in a pita, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, garlic sauce and tahini.” A Dr. Pepper was $2.25, which is just outrageous!

When the pita arrived (sans tomato, at my request) it looked wonderful: chock full of fine looking chunks of grilled chicken and slathered down with the garlic and tahini sauces.

One of the pieces of chicken had fallen off the top and had not come in contact with the sauce. I picked it up, popped it into my mouth and discovered something truly unique: I had finally met a shawarma I didn’t like. It wasn’t quite repulsive, per se, but it had an odd, unpleasant flavor in the spicing. I was glad that the pita had plenty of sauce to mask the flavor of the chicken.

Another weird thing: the pita wasn’t fresh. You’d think a place named “Pita Jungle” would at least serve fresh pitas.

Time to come clean, somehow, of all the various Mediterranean and Middle Eastern sauces I’ve eaten (and enjoyed) I must have never had tahini before. My apologies to fans of tahini, but it is repulsive. I could barely choke my meal down. It was only the unlimited refills of my massive over-priced Dr. Pepper that got me through 3/4 of the pita before I gave up and cut my loses.

It’s hard to describe the tahini sauce, it reminded me of nothing more than having my pita covered in hummus. I do not like hummus. Luckily, it did not look like hummus, which has all the culinary visual appeal of the contents of my son’s diapers. Turns out tahini is actually one of the major ingredients in hummus. Well, live and learn, I can’t blame Pita Jungle for my ignorance of the clearly-labelled ingredients, but it did make for a memorably bad-tasting meal.

Apologies to hummus and tahni fans.

I can’t blame them for my personal dislike of the toppings, but what I can blame them for is what happened next.

My bill was $8.65 and I was paying with cash, which I rarely do, and I put a $10 in the bill holder. (Has that little black fold over thing got a proper name?) My plan was the use the change to tip my waitress who, despite my dislike of the food, was attentive, pleasant and efficient. $8.65 * 15% = $1.30 and since the change was to be $1.35, that seemed perfectly equitable to me.

The problem is, I never communicated that to my waitress. She came and got that nameless black folder over thing and my $10 and took it back to the register. I could see her in the large mirror that dominates one wall. I saw her ring up the amount, put the $10 in the register, take the $1.35 change out, put it in her pocket and then returned that nameless black fold over thing to the pile for reuse.

She’s lucky my wife wasn’t there because there’d have been blood running down the aisles if she’d seen her take the liberty to decide that must have been her tip. The fact that I was fully planning on giving her the change is not an acceptable excuse. She couldn’t possibly have known that, and there are those (my wife included) who would go so far as to say that was outright theft.

Nonetheless, between the not-fresh pita, the odd-flavored chicken, over-priced soft drinks and the inexcusable behavior of the staff, (and not because of the revolting tahini sauce) Pita Jungle is forever off my list of restaurants. Maybe they just had a bad day, but that kind of screw-up prevents me from giving them a “I should try them twice to be fair” visit.

This constituted one of the three memorably bad meals I’ve had in my life. The last being in about 1986 at the Two Pesos, a once-popular mexican (thankfully now-defunct) food place near ASU, which just goes to show that college students really have no taste and a little mom and pop Mexican food place in Las Cruces, New Mexico sometime back in the early 1970’s that was actually able to screw up a bean tostada by, I can only assume, not cleaning the dirt off the beans before cooking them.

I never forget these things.

I’m disheartened though that there was a long line of sheeple waiting to get into the restaurant for lunch. I’m afraid they won’t go out of business fast enough at this rate.

Pita Jungle
4340 E Indian School Rd
Phoenix AZ

Not recommended.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Phoenix, Restaurant, Review

Postponed!

As this is a two-parter, I’ll reserve the review until next week.

But I’ll leave you with just a couple observations…
(more…)

Ben Elton is one of my favorite comedians, but let’s face it, he’s an aging lefty in a changing world…
(more…)

Martha’s joy ride continues…
(more…)

The Doctor and Martha meet William Shakespeare and trio of nasty witches. Does this, the series’ most expensive episode mean we’ll be treated to two “Love & Monsters” type episodes to pay for it?
(more…)

Winged terror arrives and strips the episodes writer to the bone.
(more…)

The plot thickens as Cutter finally meets up with his long-lost wife.

(more…)

Episode 2 of Primeval was another entertaining story; however, it either didn’t suffer from as many annoying scientific faux pas or I didn’t notice because I was sitting with my feet off the floor, curled up in a fetal position on the sofa.

Spoilers if you continue reading…

(more…)

I was doing some work down off I-10 on Elliot road about a year ago and every time I’d go there, I’d pass Kobe Teppan & Sushi. Despite a long-standing interest in Japan and things Japanese, my interest has never extended to the food.

I remember one of my Japanese teachers telling me that the first thing she did when returning to Arizona from a visit to Japan was to stop a Mexican food place to get some food with flavor. Ah, the facade is ripped aside. The Japanese like to think that (a) Nihongo(Japanese) is to difficult for Westerners to learn well and (b) the flavors of their food are too subtle for western tastes to fully appreciate. But my teacher’s confession tells me that they really know it hasn’t got any flavor, either.

All stereotypes of Japanese food aside, I do appreciate teppanyaki. It’s still not very strongly favored food, but grilled meat is grilled meat. It tastes pretty good no matter who is cooking it.

I had the Kobe Steak at about $40. Irene had the “Osaka”, which sirloin and lobster for about $36. We both choose the chicken fried rice option which ups the price $2 more. Irene had a Kobe Tofu appetizer which she thought was delicious.

Not the tofu fan myself, I tried some nonetheless. Must be a flavor I’m immune to because it tasted rather like flavorless mass marinated in an only slightly flavored sauce and then deep fried.

Teppan dinners are a set progression and a bit of a stage show. The chef, who works right at your table, not only prepares your food in front of you, but puts on a show juggling, spinning and just otherwise entertaining with the food, the spatula, the spices and, most worryingly, the very sharp knife.

The dinners are a set progression, they start with the soup (miso) and a salad (ginger dressing). The miso soup was just that, miso soup. The salad dressing was pretty good. I’m not usually partial to ginger dressing, but this was good.

Fried rice was prepared next and it was good, although not nearly as good as Benihana’s fried rice.

Each meal comes with the three grilled shrimp and they were just fine.

Finally the meat and seafood items are cooked, simultaneously, some green roughage, onions, mushrooms and the like are grilled.

My Kobe steak was good. It was properly prepared and very tender, but it wasn’t the most flavorful cut of meat. I snuck a chunk of Irene’s sirloin, and it was much more flavorful. I didn’t have any of the lobster, but Irene tells me it was really good.

All in all, we enjoyed out dinner. It was both filing and entertaining.

I will take a moment to say that both Kobe Teppan and Benihana’s (the only two Teppans I’ve been to in the US) are nothing like those I’ve been at in Taiwan. In Taiwan every department store basement has one (or more) teppan places, but those I’ve seen have all been very matter-of-fact and skip the entertainment portion of the show. They are also immensely cheaper, reaching the level of fast-food prices. Irene tells me they do have the entertainment style teppan also. Perhaps on our next trip there I’ll talk them into taking me.

Kobe Teppan & Sushi (receipt says Kobe Steakhouse)
1125 W. Elliot Road
Tempe, AZ
(Corner of Elliot & Hardy)

Technorati Tags: Blog, Food, Japan, Japanese, Restaurant, Review

The Hand of Fear
by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Story #87

Starring Tom Baker as The Doctor
and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

Farewell Sarah Jane, until we meet again.

Synopsis
The Doctor and Sarah arrive in a quarry. No, really, in an actual quarry, not a quarry pretending to be an alien planet. Too bad they arrive just as a charge is detonated, bringing it all down on Sarah. Sarah is relatively unharmed, but is unearthed clutching a strange fossilized hand.

Sarah, unconscious, is taken to the nearby hospital where she begins behaving oddly. The hand, when exposed to radiation, proves to be alive. Sarah, in possession of – and in the possession of – the ring that was on the hand, steals the hand and takes it to the nearest nuclear reactor.

She infiltrates the reactor and sets in motion the events that allow the hand to regenerate into Eldrad, a female, silicon-based lifeform.

Eldrad is somewhat standoffish, but since the humans have attacked her, the Doctor makes allowances for some of Eldrad’s behavior. Eldrad spins a tale of woe, about how her planet was invaded and she was betrayed by her people and sentenced to destruction, but the destruction failed. She convinces the Doctor to return her to her home world.

When they arrive, the world is dead, and traps have been laid to destroy Eldard in case she returns. The traps almost succeed, but just before death, Eldrad manages to use a machine to regenerate once again. This time Eldrad assumes his real form, as a male. His earlier body was patterned after Sarah Jane.

Finally all things are revealed, Eldrad craved power and wanted to rule the universe. His people revolted against him and, to prevent any chance of his return and starting again, they destroyed themselves, utterly, leaving Eldard the last of his kind.

The Doctor and Sarah escape, leaving Eldrad at the bottom of a chasm.

As they leave, the Doctor receives a telepathic summons to return to Gallifrey and he is forced to leave Sarah Jane behind on Earth.

Analysis
For Sarah’s final episode, this was a bit of pedestrian story, made more credible by some quality performances from the regular and guest cast. Sarah’s creepy possession has spawned her most memorable line, “Eldrad must live!” Which, to this day, she’s asked to repeat by fans.

For such a beloved character, even in her day, this was another unsatisfactory departure with no forewarning, tacked on the end of the story. Perhaps, if you’re traveling through time with the Doctor, that’s how it would really be – never knowing if this would be your last day in the TARDIS. Still, it’s unsatisfying for the audience and explains why Sarah Jane has been brought back time and again. (First in K9 and Company, then again in Doctor Who for “School Reunion” and now in her own Sarah Jane Adventures.)

DVD
The quality of the disc is good, but nothing extraordinary. The 1970s-1980s Doctor Who’s don’t seem to get a lot of restoration work, probably because of the better preservation of the originals and the need to marshal their resources to work on the older, more degraded episodes from the 1960’s.

There are still a plethora of DVD extras, including some promotional material from the time the episode was aired, plus new commentary by Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, and a 50 minute documentary on Sarah Jane’s time in the TARDIS.

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“Doctor Who – The Hand of Fear (Episode 87)” (BBC Warner)

Technorati Tags: Blog, Dr Who, Review