Dance with Julianne

I highly suggest that everyone takes a look at this video. It's very... err, educational for work out... material. I heard Ryan Seacrest is dating Julianne. I've never had more respect for the man.

Part 5- Jive2

You know what time it is? It's sushi time!

Homemade sushi time!

Girlfriend got a babysitter for an entire weekend. 
What better way to spend Friday night:

starting off sushi night the right way!

the ingredients

rice you!

shrimps

prepping: sushi style

prepping: sushi style: 2.0

prepping: sushi style 3.0

prepping: sushi style 4.0

who cut the fish!?

don't forget to wrap it!

  

add seaweed

add fish

add shrimp

add cucumber

add avocado! nom

tofu? why not.

roll it like a Polaroid picture.

edamame

pan fried gyoza

looks so weird. tastes so good!

gf wanted nigiri. gf got nigiri

handroll, extra rooster sauce

plated!

my gf's great table setting skills

finally ready to eat!

after: ok, so we may have made too much

after: so much rice...

I want to be like Johnny and June

Johnny and June

Eric and Meggers

Analytical

View of the Capitol rotunda

• 66% of my readers are Windows users.

• 10% are Macintoshers. Mac’sters, where you at?!

• 34% use Firefox, which is no surprise.

• But what is disturbing is the 2 of you who are still using Netscape.

• The far majority of you are reading this from the United States.

• But a good chunk of you are from Russia and Germany, which is pretty awesome.  

•  A lot of you are referred from a Google search.

• My favorite search referral is: “trophy boyfriend”.

bad luck. bad iphone.

happened last week

happened last year

Asian infused awesomeness

The best Far East inspired restaurants in Sacramento.

Sushi Cafe

4491 Freeport Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 452-6888

Love this place! It is a great, fun, inviting sushi restaurant where the staff is always welcoming. They have a big variety of Japanese food, including sushi, bento boxes, Japanese beer and sake. It is fairly inexpensive and in a cool location across the street from Land Park.  If you're ever in the area, you should definitely stop by! They used to have photos of the regulars hanging up, but they’ve since taken them down. I’m a little bummed because I was obviously one of those regulars that prided themselves on their picture being up.

Thai Basil Cafe  

Fried.SpringRolls.nom

2431 J St
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 442-7690

Thai Basil Café is one of my favorite restaurants in Sacramento... well, one of my favorites in downtown... well, on J street...well, it is definitely my favorite restaurant on J and 24th... haha. Just kidding, this place really is one of the best places to go in Sacramento.  It's perfect for date night, casual night, fun night, sad night, break up night, drunk night, whatever, Thai Basil has it all.  They have a very kickass patio out back, plus the side patio, and tons of indoor seating. But don't sit indoors.  Be strong, brave the outside.  Live a little. It's nice!
Now, enough about the patio (did I mention there is a fountain??) and onto the food.
The food is perfect. Fresh, big portions, prepared quickly, big selections, and most of all, delicious! The chicken is great, the beef is great, the rice is great, the veggies are great... see a pattern? This place rocks. The servers are always fast and do their best to make you happy. They have some pretty refreshing Thai beers (didn't know they existed before drinking them here).
Oh and the fried spring rolls... as the ever famous Jack Donaghy once said, "O-M-F-G".
The food is moderately priced, but for what you get (portion size and quality) it is really worth every penny.  I go here in the winter too, but summer time is the best.
Tell them Eric sent you... that and $12.99 will get you a plate of red thai peanut curry.

Erawan Thai Restaurant

1180 35th Ave
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 391-8996

lamb and rice. yum

I went to Erawan this weekend and was really excited. I finally got to try it out.  I read a ton of good reviews, and had been dying to get some Erawan time.

I got some seasoned lamb with rice and veggies and friend spring rolls.  Dude, yes! So good! The lamb and vegetables were perfect, especially the vegetables, oh gosh, the vegetables! Yum! The rolls too! They were hot! Not spicy hot, but like hot, wicked hot, straight out of the fryer hot, which equals straight out of the fryer deliciousness.

I also had a good, refreshing Thai beer, a Singha, good stuff!

The restaurant is tucked away in the South Hills Shopping Center (or at least that's what I think it's called) it's a quite little shopping center that apparently hides a great Thai restaurant. The walls are decorated with cool, classy wood paneling and some cool paintings that look like they are from Thailand.  Also they have a huge fish tank with a big fish in it.  He just swims back and forth.  It is kind of hypnotic to watch him. This place is great! Will most certainly be back in the near future!

Futami Japanese Restaurant

dont let the sign deceive you

5609 Freeport Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 428-0975

Futami Japanese Restaurant is Futastic!!

The people who work there are outrageously nice! They were very attentive and they seemed happy to help.  I had some spicy tuna and a bowl of delicious udon.... more like u-nom-nom-nom.

The only problem I had with Futami is that it was just a little bit more expensive than Sushi Café is, but that's okay, I know they need to make money. Plus, it was worth it.

The restaurant has a very awesome little traditional Japanese eating room, except, it's been Americanized (aka: awesome-nized).  Last time I was there, they were still in the process of updating and remodeling the place, I bet by this point it is finished and looks awesome.

I would not hesitate to go back to Futami's.  Actually, after writing this, and thinking about my dinner, I want to go to there, like now.

Azukar Sushi

1616 J St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 504-1121

Crunchy Californian

Azukar Sushi is a trip.  During the day it's a mild mannered all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, but at night, it transforms into a club.

For an all you can eat sushi place, Azukar is pretty good.  The servers are quick and the food is fresh and tasty.  I've only eaten here once, but I dominated enough food for a lifetime. I went for lunch, so it was about $15.  The rolls are generally a little smaller when compared to normal sushi restaurant rolls.  They do this to combat wastefulness. The menu isn't all sushi, it has other types of Japanese food, and a pretty good assortment of desserts. My one complaint would be that if you don't like the roll you get, and you kind of pick and choose and eat around the bad stuff, they get upset and charge you for the left over rice and whatever else didn't get eaten. I get why they do it, but come on.

After lunch and dinner is over, the club appears.  I've only visited it once at night. It was... eh, clubish, which I'm not a huge fan of. I never liked going into places to drink where you have to get frisked and go through a metal detector first, but this place was cool.  Getting drinks was easy and quick and the dance floor, while pretty packed, had room enough for me... and I flail and twist a lot... it's bad.

Azukar is in a central downtown location, which is cool. The staff were all really nice. There were enough cabs out front for everyone to get home safely and as I remember, the drinks were reasonably priced for a weekend club.

I'd go back for sushi and I'd go back to dance the night away... although, I don't think anyone would want to see that. 

Wayne's Wok

7116 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 428-1234

lol. okay, yes this looks ghetto, but tasty ghetto

Wayne's Wok... more like blaynes block... ok, I understand that makes no sense, but I lack what most people call "cleverness".

This place has pretty good food.  I always call ahead and get the food to go.  It never takes more than 15 minutes and surprisingly it is always tastes so good and so fresh.  The price is always right, never too expensive. Wayne's Wok is your basic Chinese food restaurant, but more than that, it's my basic Chinese food restaurant.

my favorite: wor wonton

Panda Garden

Sacramento, CA 95831
(916) 399-1028

This place is really awesome.  It is small, (about 8-10 tables) but the staff is more than courteous and are always available to get whatever you need.

The food is very good, especially the string bean chicken, and the wonton soup! It is relatively inexpensive and it is always super fresh! Go to this place and you will not be disappointed, it is a new Greenhaven must!

Sacramento's Best Sandwich Shops

These reviews are based on a 5 star review system: 

Roxie Deli

3340 C St
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 443-5402

Roxie Deli... morelikemostdelicioussandwichshopinsacramento.

Roxie is home of the world famous "Pulled Pork Tuesday". Every Tuesday, rain or shine, these giants among men slow cook the best pork in the world.  They pull it, mix it with the best sauce in the world and then throw some jalapenos in the mix. They then pack it into the most delicious dutch crunch roll that has ever been made, and serve it with plenty of napkins. I always prefer to eat mine with an ice cold Arizona Ice Tea...nom nom nom.  I haven't been in a while, and now I'm mad that it's Wednesday. I have to wait 6 days until I can go get the best sandwich ever made.

Ok, as if that wasn't a great enough reason to visit Roxie, they also make dozens of other types of sando's too. Every day of the week comes with a different specialty. I can’t remember which day meatloaf is, but it's out of control good too.

If you're on the fence about this place... jump off and RUN to East Sac and nosh on one of these sandwiches asap! Tell them Eric D. sent you… they'll look at you like, who the F is Eric D? It will be funny because they have no idea who I am.

This place is also really close to McKinley Park. I've never done it, but you could easily get the sando to go, and eat it in the park.

They also have a great drink selection.

5 stars all day long.

roast beef for.the.win

Bud’s Buffet

1016 10th St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 443-6905

I work downtown and almost every day I contemplate going to Bud's for lunch.  The Ruben is probably the best in Sacramento... actually; every sandwich they make is probably the best one in Sacramento.  The coleslaw is awesome, the mashed potatoes are awesome, the workers are fast... and awesome... you get the point, Bud's is the BEST! It's pretty inexpensive, too.  Do yourself a favor and head to Bud's today!

La Bonne Soupe Cafe

920 8th St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 492-9506

La Bonne is La-licious!  The place had its minor setbacks, but that's over with; wow its time for some awesomely addicting soups and sandwiches!  Duck, lamb, sausage, cheese, this place has it all! The soups are out of this world, the garlic ones especially, although, afterwards you'll surely have some sort of dragon'garlic breath as your trophy of accomplishment.  Go check this place out. 

"World Famous"

Brownie’s Lounge

5858 S Land Park Dr
Sacramento, CA 95857
(916) 424-3058

If I could live at Brownies, I probably would.  They have everything you need to survive: awesome bartenders who know all the regulars, dice games, tall cans of PBR, jukebox with huge selection of some pretty amazing music, and on a rare night, one of the regulars may even buy the whole bar a round of drinks.  It has plenty of booth, table and bar seating.  Now for the best part... they throw one of Sacramento's best Saint Patrick's Day parties.  There is live music, dancing, Brownie will sing a song or too (which may actually detour people, but it's worth a mention).  Thursday’s is Corned Beef day at Brownie’s, aka: the best day of the week.  They make the world’s best corned beef sandwich. It is basically about 4 inches of straight beef (that’s what she said) on two slices on rye bread with pickles and tomatoes on the side. Mustard optional.  5 stars

              

 Dad’s Kitchen

 2968 Freeport Blvd
 Sacramento, CA 95818
 (916) 447-3237

Dad's Kitchen is awesome! I've only been there twice, but both times were great.  They have a really terrific outdoor patio/eating area that is way inviting.  The restaurant isn't humongous; so the staff is quick, responsive and helpful with any questions about the menu.  I've had the meatloaf sandwich and a chicken pot pie and they were both delicious.  Its real home cookin' at its best!

 

Nugget Market

1040 Florin Rd
Sacramento, CA 95831
(916) 395-2875

Sandwiches, sushi, meats, pastas, wines, beers, sodas, cheeses, veggies, Nugget has it all! And a good selection of it all! And cute girls who work there to help you with the selection! The prices aren't the cheapest in town, but you don't go there for the cheap prices, you go there for the awesomeness that is NUGGET.  Homemade pasta salads, pre-cooked dinners, Chinese food, pastries, cookies, cakes, yum! I wish I was at Nugget right now.  They have an awesome non-alcoholic drink selection, soda's from all over the world, and huge selection of delicious rootbeers (I've almost tried every kind).  Oh and they also have a good selection of premium cigars, average prices on those; and for those state workers out there, there is a Golden1 ATM machine.  My point is... go to Nugget and buy everything today!
Oh yea, they have a smoothie/coffee bar too.  Most importantly Nugget offers one of the best made to order sandwiches in Sacramento. They.have.everything. They can get pricey, which is sad because when Nugget first got there they were cheap, like $4.50 cheap and now they’re in the $7.50 price range; but worth it every once in a while.

***Disclaimer: this list is always evolving and I'll certainly be adding some honorable mentions soon.