J and/or John dot com

Cioppino!

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:50:26 -0800

I had the pleasure of enjoying some fish stew the other day. Normally you would see a review of Cioppino from the sites co-author John Mendoza but being that he was the chef, I thought it was only appropriate that I bring the pain (or in this case praise)! Cioppino is a fish stew originating in Southern Italia and derived from the various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine. Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish's place of origin is typically a combination of dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. The seafood is then combined with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, and served with toasted bread. I love the heat that John usually brings with his dishes (think wings!), and I expected it here but he intentionally didn't deliver... instead he let the mix or herbs and fresh ingredients do all of the talking... and talk they did, it was fantastic! The base was rich and flavorful, the small portion of pasta at the bottom of the bowl was a nice surprise, and the variety and quantity of seafood was just right. He served his guest up family style with plenty of wine and toasted garlic bread!
Folks, this is not like your favorite restaurant used to make quality.. This is like mom used to make quality! (assuming your mom is an italian woman living in San Francisco in the 1930's)

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Starbucks Eggnog coffee

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:36:00 -0800

Being that were so close to Christmas I thought I would give the eggnog coffee drink from Starbucks a shot. I won't be doing that again anytime soon! Granted when I get a 'special' drink from Starbucks I always make it a Venti (largest they offer) and a quad (4 shots of espresso vs the normal 2 for that size drink) so perhaps it was the tweaking of this particular drink that didn't work but this just didn't work for me. It didn't taste like coffee yet not at all like eggnog either. It was just blah. I looked up the calorie/carbs etc on the Starbucks iPhone app and would be really depressed over wasting so many calories on such a bad drink had I not had to visit the restroom an hour later. Yes it was that bad; perhaps it was bad or spoiled ingredients. Anyway, I'm feeling brave this morning so I may just go try a different holiday drink. Cheers to hoping it's better

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Blazin Jalapeno

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 10:57:57 -0700

Can you believe that it has been over a year since our last post…what the hell is wrong with us? Well I cannot speak for J but this damn economic crisis has affected my writing. Right now you are asking yourself how could this affect someone’s writing? Well when you are putting in as much time at the office as I have you just don’t feel like getting anyplace near a computer if you do not have to. Well this is not about my problems, this is about the Doritos 1^st Degree Burn Blazin Jalapeno. First off just walking down the chip isle the bright yellow bag really catches the eye then as you get closer you notice the chip surrounded by fire and your first remark is good advertising and how hot can these really be? Now for anyone that does not know me, I can handle hot or spicy foods and in all reality enjoy foods that make you say damn! I also know that my wife and kids also enjoy hot and or spicy foods so thought that this would turn out to be a fun snack for all of us.

So the first one to open the bag was my oldest son who opened it while looking for a quick before dinner snack. I had been outside BBQing and when he opened it and once I realized the bag had been opened I decided what the hell one quick chip could not destroy my appetite. As soon as I started eating the chip I noticed the sharp burn of spice that had a very familiar taste of jalapeno. Sometimes with other chips or snacks that claim to be hot it usually takes five pieces to start feeling the burn or even taste the spice but not this chip. I had also noticed that after a few minutes the burn still continued and almost seemed as though it got hotter. Within a few moments I needed a glass of water to wash down the rest of the spice and cool the burn. I immediately went in to my sons room to see how well he did with the chips. I started off my telling him that I just tried one and how did he like them and his response was, “They are pretty hot!” I just laughed and told him I agreed.

After dinner we challenged my wife and youngest son to try these new amazingly hot chips and they accepted this challenge with great excitement. As they proceeded to eat a handful of chips their response was the same…HOT! Since our initial trial I have enjoyed these chips a few more times and noticed that this chip starts out hot and ends even hotter. I would also recommend these chips to anyone that enjoys a spicy treat. When I purchased this bag of Doritos they also had one called 2^nd Degree Burn which had something to do with buffalo flavor as well as 3^rd Degree Burn which had a habanero flavor, I am planning on trying both of these in the near future and will try to post about both of them soon. Once again sorry for the long period of inactivity and hope to keep these posts coming.

John Mendoza

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Everybody's Nuts! Pistachios

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:12:42 -0700

The other day I find myself in Costco, now the only thing great about Costco is they always have new stuff to try and I like trying new things! So here I am at Costco wandering aimlessly through the isles dodging all the people there just for the free food while trying to look for miscellaneous items for work and I stumbled upon a bag of pistachios. Well first of all I love pistachios so without looking at the bag I just grabbed it and tossed it into the cart then when I got back to work and unloaded my treasure of candies, sugar, creamer and everything else is when the discovery was made that these were not your run of the mill ordinary pistachios they were something new. The first thing that grabbed my eye was the bag it says "Everybody's Nuts!" www.everbodysnuts.com the first thing I thought of was Vince Offer in his commercial saying "Your going to love my nut!" so I then began acting like a two year old and was walking through the office asking if anyone wanted to try my peppered and salted nuts? So before I had a chance to try them myself people were already coming back to me and stating how good that they were and wanted some more. At this point my joking became serious and I decided that I had better try some before they are all gone.

So I pour a bowl full of theses new Salt & Pepper pistachio nuts grab me another bowl to throw the shells into and sit back down at my desk to start enjoying this new concoction. On first look they did not look any different than a regular pistachio nut but that did not last very long because as soon I tasted one it was completely different and new. The taste was incredible they seemed like they actually had less salt than regular pistachios but the pepper actually made them taste incredible. I was a little worried that the pepper would over power the taste of the pistachios but to my surprise it was not over peppered and seem to compliment the natural taste of the pistachio. the only thing that I can say bad about these Salt & Pepper pistachios is that they are almost impossible to put down. Now while I have been writing about these I found out that J has found and tasted a Chili Lime flavored pistachio and has promised to write a review on them and post it soon. Until that day comes check out the website above and give these nuts a try first!

John Mendoza

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iPhone Starbucks App

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:09:17 -0700

Starbucks finally released its very own iPhone application! As you can see from the screen ‘shots’ it has a latté of features. From the home screen you can easily access your favorite drinks, stores, coffees, or food. You ‘favorite’ them by clicking on the appropriate menu item at the bottom of the screen. The filtering by amenity feature is helpful, especially if you prefer drive-through locations like me J

Building your drink was pretty straight forward, of course seeing the final nutritional values for your usual drinks is somewhat bitter-sweet. My usual, quad venti non-fat no whip white mocha was a whopping 350 calories!

Of course what’s better than a cup of Joe? Sharing your favorite with a friend so they can buy it ;-)

Cheers,

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Nitrous Monster Energy

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:07:13 -0700

I remember about a year ago I was an energy drink freak. Anytime I saw a new energy drink I had to drink it and I was drinking two or three energy drinks a day. Well the old phrase is true too much of anything can kill you, I know right now you are saying bullshit you can drink all the water you want, well people have even died from drinking too much water. Well I stopped drinking energy drinks because they were just too hard on the body not enough sleep, gaining weight because of all of the extra calories and also not eating because I was never hungry. In my travels and experimentation of different energy drinks I came to prefer Monster over all the rest now do not get me wrong the others were good but for my pallet I preferred Monster over the rest. So today I am getting my car washed and going through the little convenience store that they have when I came across something new called Nitrous Monster Energy www.monsterenergy.com the can states that it is a combination of nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and their Monster Energy base. Well how could I resist trying this new energy drink from my favorite maker of energy drinks.

The first thing I noticed about the can was it had a twist off cap which is something that I really liked with any beverage because it always seem that just when you open it you have to go and do something and when you come back you wonder did anything fall in my drink or maybe a bug felt like some energy drink and then couldn't get out. Now the can mentions a smooth drinkable flavor and I would have to agree kind of a mild citrus taste. I could compare it to an orange soda but not so bold the one thing I did notice was the carbonation felt different almost like it had been mixed within the beverage. At the same time it was not like one of those fruity type energy drinks that make you feel like you are drinking Kool Aid it had a very adult beverage taste that made us enjoy Red Bull and Vodka. I noticed a jump in energy that seemed to last about three hours just enough time to watch Monday Night Football the Colts vs Dolphins. All in all a good energy drink in a 12 oz can that did not give me the jitters and also had a great taste but do not take my word for it try it yourself and see if this energy drink is appealing to your pallet as well.

John Mendoza

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NFL Red Zone

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:11:36 -0700

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As a recent subscriber to AT&T Uverse I was pretty disappointed last week when I realized there was no NFL package; That once again I was going to be stuck watching either the Raiders or 49ers week after week. I surfed around in hopes that I had missed something, that somewhere there was (even if at a premium price) an option that gave me more of a choice in what game(s) I chose to watch. Touchdown! Included in my package with AT&T U-verse was NFL Red Zone. Sounds cool but what was it? I flipped on over to channel 1629 and for the next 6.5 hours two things stayed the same... the channel and my position on the couch.

NFL RedZone is a commercial free broadcast of all the best parts of all the Sunday afternoon games. Have you ever flipped back and forth between two games hoping not to miss anything? Well think of that experience minus the frustration of missing that fumble or touchdown. Think of that experience but add EVERY game to the mix... with someone else doing the flipping for you! It is pure genius. Attached is a quick clip showing the service in action.

If you have AT&T U-verse I highly recommend checking it out next Sunday. If you don't have it... I would recommend switching from your current cable provider to get it (yes its that good!).

Till Next Time,
J

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Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:49:58 -0700

Well here is the first post at jandorjohn and you are probably wondering what the hell is jandorjohn, well that is simple, we are two regular guys that will be giving reviews on anything that might be related to guys. My first review will be on Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka www.fireflyvodka.com for years I used to drink Stolichnaya Vodka on the rocks which in my opinion if you are a guy that is one of the only vodkas you should drink. Now do not get me wrong Gray Goose is not bad if you do not like the taste of vodka but I like vodka because of the taste. Today we are going to talk about Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka we can discuss Stoli later. I used to drink iced tea with vodka and what a great drink that was you never tasted the vodka so one day after a round of golf with my friends I walked into the club house and ordered an vodka iced tea. The bartender told me that there was a new vodka out the tastes like a mild sweet tea and that it might be something that I might like. I was a little skeptical but said what the hell I will try it so she mixed it half water and half sweet tea vodka and to my surprise it was great. I was a little worried about being too sweet but it was just right and within fifteen minutes the first one was gone and had already ordered a second. Within the hour three were gone and I was feeling no pain and shocked that a drink this good could could get me feeling alright in such a short time. As I left the golf course I had to stop and get a bottle for home so that I could continue to enjoy this new drink.

I have been drinking this drink for a few months now and tried a few variations to the drink my favorite as of today is Firefly Sweet Tea and lemonade it kind of tastes like an Arnold Palmer which if you do not know is tea and lemonade. There are also many different vodkas that Firefly makes such as Lemon Sweet Tea, Mint Sweet Tea, Raspberry Sweet Tea and Peach Sweet Tea which I have not tried yet but planning on it. Their website also contains numerous drink recipes to try, some stronger than others but this drink is so good that you can actually enjoy it straight on the rocks. So if you are a man that enjoys drinking as much as I do I highly recommend this 70 proof vodka and I recommend trying all drink recipes. This drink is great to drink by yourself but so much better with friends and definitely a drink for men.

John Mendoza

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