Try anything new since the Pandemic?

[Montrose1100]

Since the Pandemic has wiped store shelves of certain brands or products, I was curious if you've tried something new either by force or choice? And did you like it better? Tried a new restaurant? 

 

Normally purchase Charmin, but the store only had Scott. It's amazingly softer and nicer than Charmin. Won't go into too much detail here.

 

Sabre Hummus as I've learned is garbage, so are Stacy's Pita Chips. H-E-B Brand organic hummus and Pita Chips are delicious. Who knew?

 

Lentil Pasta is gross, any and all brands apparently. Modern Table was good a few years ago, but now all of them are soft and sticky. Don't like it anymore.

 

Tillman's Ice Cream is the creamiest, most delicious one I've tried. Cookies & Cream, Rocky Road, and Hazelnut Caramel are crazy good.

 

Phoenicia's Deli and Bread are top drawer. Good Hummus as well I stopped by there after a HAIFer tipped me off to them having Paper Towels when they were no where to be found. Picked up some items and I am never getting cold cuts from anywhere else. I just picked random ones, and had the best sandwiches. BTW Home Depot has Bounty now I am so grateful. Also got some bleach there.

 

As for Restaurants, I haven't really tried very many new ones. I'm very sad to see Downtown's S & T and Local Foods no longer on Door Dash or Uber Eats. Definitely my go to's when I don't feel like anything in the House. Hope they make it through this.

 

Kim Son is actually pretty gross. It always smelled like plugged up toilet in the restaurant and when I ordered some dishes it smelled really bad. The food has gone down hill.

 

Les Givral also smelled horrible. Ordered the chicken bahn mi and the meat smelled like sewer. Kind of like that Hibachi place in Greenspoint. Change your name to "Les clean your Grill".

 

Surya India remains as my favorite Indian place. They've dropped off Uber Eats so again, I hope they make it through. Tarka Indian Kitchen is an okay 2nd choice. 

 

I keep trying to get into Red Wine but it's just not working out for me. All I can taste is Sangria. It gives me flash backs to being 21 and hurling up a bag of Franzia Sangria. 🤢 Didn't enjoy Dark Chocolate until 2 or 3 years ago so maybe I'm just a late taste bud bloomer.

 

Anyways, please share some things you've tried. Suggestions are welcome too.

[samagon]

9 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

Normally purchase Charmin, but the store only had Scott. It's amazingly softer and nicer than Charmin. Won't go into too much detail here.

 

....

 

go on.

 

heh

 

we've been lucky, the kombat kroger has been pretty well stocked, so any of my choices for new things weren't out of necessity.

 

we've been cooking a lot more on the grill. over Easter we had lamb chops on the grill. as a side I wanted brussel sprouts, so I tossed some sprouts, a lot of halved garlic cloves, sliced onion, and chopped bacon in some foil that was wrapped pretty tight. placed it on the top rack of the grill for just over 20 minutes. the thermometer on the grill said 450, still not sure I trust it though. that was amazing. really juicy, but not too soft. the onions were just a bit before caramelizing. super sweet. you don't need a grill to do this.

 

um, we ordered some crawfish from a guy that delivers Clutch CIty Crawfish on FB, really great crawfish and a really reasonable price delivered.

 

other than that, we haven't really gone out of our way to try new things. I've been doing a LOT of chores around the house, I made a cookbook stand out of some bamboo butcher blocks my wife was going to toss. 

 

been playing a lot more WOW lately, I've been eyeing a set of bocce balls on amazon, just to get us doing something different outside of the house.

[hindesky]

Finally tried Oui Banh Mi on Richmond. Been there 2 times since.

[august948]

Got stuck on the Westworld series last week.  Best thing since GoT finished up.  Still working my way through season 2.

 

Found a Timmy Chan's on Bissonnet that has a pretty good grilled fish.  Not on the normal menu, but instead they have some other stuff plastered in the take out window.  Will have to go back and try some more of it.  That reminded me that I need to seek out the Original Timmy Chan's.

 

Wife and kids have been cooking up a storm so we've had homemade bagels, cookies, macaroons, cakes, cupcakes, etc.plus whatever entree dishes my wife gets inspired to make (she made coq au vin last week).  Our fridge is absolutely stuffed with leftovers.

 

There's a couple of boba tea places on Bellaire we've tried and some we've gone back to after not going for a long time.  One of them (boba island) makes calamari that will make you breathe fire.

 

I've discovered our local super target is social distance friendly.  Since the prices are slightly higher than kroger or heb, not as many people shop there and since the store is physically larger there's plenty of space between people, even at the checkouts.

 

Never used curbside pickup until a few weeks ago.  Now that's our primary grocery shopping venue.  Been able to get toilet paper most times we order, though it's usually some random brand.  But, I'm not picky about that.

 

Saw plenty of paper towels at two different krogers on the west side of town today.  And some toilet paper (though not much) as well.  Flour is still hard  to find.  Had to buy a 25lb bag to keep the baked goods coming. 

 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

1100, did you look for paper towels upstairs at Phoenicia?

Their deli is still open, I swing by every once in a while if I'm downtown.

[trymahjong]

Working my way through the Brenè Brown talks on YouTube.

 

one of my kids is a furloughed restaurant worker, who is lucky enough to get very donated posh food boxes each week that is shared with us. I cook and make single servings for take home( it is very rough going for the furloughed). So I have made and shared  baked beets and white radishes with single bottle Cabernet with marjoram sauce, over a bed of freshly wilted Swiss chard and fresh pearl onions.......pretty good. This kid is vegan so no meat in the box  but “from the farm” cheese, kale, apples and fresh made pasta were also in box as well as a tube of chocolate chip cookie dough......the culinary adventure continues.

[Montrose1100]

18 hours ago, samagon said:

 

....

 

go on.

 

heh

 

we've been lucky, the kombat kroger has been pretty well stocked, so any of my choices for new things weren't out of necessity.

 

we've been cooking a lot more on the grill. over Easter we had lamb chops on the grill. as a side I wanted brussel sprouts, so I tossed some sprouts, a lot of halved garlic cloves, sliced onion, and chopped bacon in some foil that was wrapped pretty tight. placed it on the top rack of the grill for just over 20 minutes. the thermometer on the grill said 450, still not sure I trust it though. that was amazing. really juicy, but not too soft. the onions were just a bit before caramelizing. super sweet. you don't need a grill to do this.

 

um, we ordered some crawfish from a guy that delivers Clutch CIty Crawfish on FB, really great crawfish and a really reasonable price delivered.

 

other than that, we haven't really gone out of our way to try new things. I've been doing a LOT of chores around the house, I made a cookbook stand out of some bamboo butcher blocks my wife was going to toss. 

 

been playing a lot more WOW lately, I've been eyeing a set of bocce balls on amazon, just to get us doing something different outside of the house.

Kombat Kroger was the first grocery store to have their stock "return to normal". Found soups, bread, pasta, and rice. It's an easy stop, plus they usually have St Arnold's Lawnmower in stock. Plus Tillman's Ice Cream.The patrons though are the worst I've seen at "social distancing". Worse than Home Depot. I needed air filters and picked up some stuff to do around the house as well (installed fans, dimmers, re-potted some plants, stuff to keep me busy).

 

Do you play any other games? I've created 3 huge metros in Cities Skylines. It's a trap though, could be playing for 5 minutes and you look at the clock and it's midnight.

16 hours ago, hindesky said:

Finally tried Oui Banh Mi on Richmond. Been there 2 times since.

Their menu looks good. I do need to pick up some stuff at Crate & Barrel so I'll have to check it out. How have your rides been? Traffic seems almost normal (except Downtown).

14 hours ago, august948 said:

Wife and kids have been cooking up a storm so we've had homemade bagels, cookies, macaroons, cakes, cupcakes, etc.plus whatever entree dishes my wife gets inspired to make (she made coq au vin last week).  Our fridge is absolutely stuffed with leftovers.

 

 

Saw plenty of paper towels at two different krogers on the west side of town today.  And some toilet paper (though not much) as well.  Flour is still hard  to find.  Had to buy a 25lb bag to keep the baked goods coming. 

 

You lucky dog. I've been getting my macaroon fix from Toute Suite. Paper Towels are becoming more common for sure. The initial scare was a couple weeks ago.

13 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

1100, did you look for paper towels upstairs at Phoenicia?

Their deli is still open, I swing by every once in a while if I'm downtown.

Yeah when I went they had 6 packs. Last time I was there, they were only selling individual rolls. Ordered some of those jumbo office bathroom type rolls on Amazon and made it work.

 

Their Deli is the best. I seriously grabbed random pre-packaged stuff and spoiled myself. Never going to get cold cuts elsewhere. The vegetables are crazy good as well. Paying for parking and a premium for the items seems worth it. Might change my mind when my office opens up.

[mollusk]

Just a passing thought - the various delivery services charge the restaurants for making the deliveries, which cuts way into their already thinner than usual margins.  I've heard that Favor (owned by HEB) is better than the others.

 

Not to mention, when you place the order directly with the restaurant you've immediately reduced the chances for errors and delays.

[gmac]

We have been getting curbside takeout from our usual local independent haunts, has worked very well and there's no chance of a delivery fee cutting into restaurant margins. Plus, can plop a big tip on top to help servers some.

 

Did try Popeye's chicken sandwich for the first time today, wasn't too shabby! 😅

[august948]

4 hours ago, gmac said:

We have been getting curbside takeout from our usual local independent haunts, has worked very well and there's no chance of a delivery fee cutting into restaurant margins. Plus, can plop a big tip on top to help servers some.

 

Did try Popeye's chicken sandwich for the first time today, wasn't too shabby! 😅

 

Yeah...I tried it a couple of months ago to see why people were shooting each other over it.  It's good, but mainly it's that it's a bigger chunk of chicken than anyone else.

[kbates2]

18 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

Their Deli is the best. I seriously grabbed random pre-packaged stuff and spoiled myself. Never going to get cold cuts elsewhere. The vegetables are crazy good as well. Paying for parking and a premium for the items seems worth it. Might change my mind when my office opens up.

 

You pay for parking for Phoenicia?  I assume you mean meters because they have free parking in the garage.

[Montrose1100]

1 hour ago, kbates2 said:

 

You pay for parking for Phoenicia?  I assume you mean meters because they have free parking in the garage.

Yes, pay for the meters. I guess the garage opening is on McKinney. Usually take Austin straight down to Texas, but Caroline will do. 

[Houstonier123]

Does anyone happen to know the link to the GIS map that has all prospective and upcoming developments in Houston marked down? Every box marked on the map is color coded with a description, and whether it's in construction or rumored and has a link to this forum.

[zaphod]

Since most of the good kinds of soup were gone as the panic buying hoards cleaned out that aisle, I tried two different kinds that were Amy's brand(aka 'organic'). The carrot and ginger soup is awesome.

 

I'm surprised that toilet paper is still low. How much TP do people need? What are you people eating, gag.... I bought a 12 pack before this all happened and I still have most of it left.

[august948]

10 hours ago, zaphod said:

Since most of the good kinds of soup were gone as the panic buying hoards cleaned out that aisle, I tried two different kinds that were Amy's brand(aka 'organic'). The carrot and ginger soup is awesome.

 

I'm surprised that toilet paper is still low. How much TP do people need? What are you people eating, gag.... I bought a 12 pack before this all happened and I still have most of it left.

 

You might be surprised how much some women can go through.  I know this TP shortage has been much more stressful for my wife than for me.

[samagon]

On 4/23/2020 at 1:36 PM, Montrose1100 said:

Do you play any other games? I've created 3 huge metros in Cities Skylines. It's a trap though, could be playing for 5 minutes and you look at the clock and it's midnight.

 

 

I stumbled upon some video tutorials of this game on Youtube, so I totally understand and think I would get sucked in easily.

 

my wife barely tolerates me playing wow for 30-45 minutes a day, so it's not going to happen. probably for the best

[jermh]

5 hours ago, samagon said:

 

I stumbled upon some video tutorials of this game on Youtube, so I totally understand and think I would get sucked in easily.

 

my wife barely tolerates me playing wow for 30-45 minutes a day, so it's not going to happen. probably for the best

 

City Skylines, Anno 1800, and Civilization are the in a category of "Oh god, where did my day go?', games.

[Luminare]

Honestly, been working my tail off. I'm certainly not going to complain about it, but I've been working more these past couple months than the previous 3-4 months. Haven't really had the time to try a boat load of new things. Heck I was so busy I was pretty much MIA from this forum during that time as well. I did watch a bunch of stuff when I would take a break from marathon sessions of work though.

 

The Midnight Gospel (Netflix):

 

This just came out. Its animated, and from the creator of Adventure Time, but way crazier, and more adult in its themes. I'm not going to spoil it because its a trip. Its a very deep show, and it explores everything from very deep general themes about self, to other deep topics about reality, multiverses, and simulations. The first episode will break you just because the format it establishes will trip you up. Just get through that, and you know exactly what they are going for. Its pretty unique. Watch it!

 

Waco (Netflix):

 

I was hesitant at first to even watch this because the vibe I got from the trailer, and images was very "made for tv / lifetime channel" vibe, but this was had the look of quality and felt like a work of quality. Obviously its about the Branch Davidians, and there compound in Waco. It approaches the story from multiple angles. At one point you are looking at it from the leaders perspective, then a new recruits, then the ATF, then the FBI, etc... I will say it falls more on the side of the Davidians than the FBI or those on the outside, but it was nice to see that other side for once, since I've always thought of the Davidians as only wack-jobs (and they definitely are), but there was a lot of fishy stuff going down by the FBI, and a lot of forces were at play that created the iconic moment that happens later in the series. Definitely worth a watch.

 

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness (Netflix):

 

...do I really need to say more? haha

 

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Netflix):

 

If you don't like Anime, then of course this one will be hard to recommend. I absolutely recommend this one if you have been out of anime for a bit, or feel outta love with anime at some point. I would even go as far as to say that this is a foundational work of anime to understand the current generation of anime that is out there right now. Yeah the manga has been out for a long time, and the same with this anime, but I had no idea just how influential this anime was until I watched it, and then could see it being referenced elsewhere. It's also become a kind of cult series for those of the Zoomer Generation, and even the younger Millennials. Again I don't want to spoil this one because it really is bizarre as the name suggests, and it goes in directions you don't typically think a story will go in. All I will say is, expect the unexpected at every turn. Watch it!

 

Star Trek (The Original Series)(Netflix):

 

Been watching this since before COVID, and right now I'm in the middle of Season 2. I had always thought of this is a cute, campy show from clips I had seen before, and just put it off to the side as what I thought it was. Then I just said, to heck with it, and started watching the whole thing. Wow. What...a...show! Science Fiction? More like Science Horror! Yeah there is some camp and cheese in it just because of when it was made, but honestly it just makes it charming as hell. Plus the stories, and characters are extremely well written. I was shocked at how wonderful this show has been thus far. At the same time, I don't know if people have really watched this show with a critical eye, because when I watch this show I don't see the so called "post-scarcity" "utopia" world that I think kinda turned me off to the series previously. Its a much deeper show than it lets on. Its also further from the bs people have described it because its a galaxy with a lot of problems and issues that are just different, but it doesn't mean that its "post-scarcity" or even close to a "utopia". What I do admire is the idea that the liberal world order, and modernism (both of which we have abandoned since the dawn of neo-liberalism, and post-modernism) that was at a height in the 1950's and 1960's was a really great ideal that if projected into the realm of space would have been a great way to continue onward into the final frontier. Did the liberal world order, and modernism had its problems, absolutely, but those two things had authenticity in its ideals and what it put out there in the world where as we are finding out that neo-liberalism and post-modernism won't provide.

 

...got on a slight tangent there. Anyway its a great time to get back into Star Trek. My prime reason for getting into it was that I've gotten back into everything space with SpaceX have success after success, and the first American crewed rocket launched on American soil happening at the end of May.

 

Thats about it for now. There were others, but these definitely stood out during this time.

 

[hindesky]

Fargo-The TV Series

 

My nephew turned me on to Season 2, Episode 1and 2. But since then I've streamed Season 1 and am currently working through the remainder Season 2. Didn't realize what I was missing. Looking forward to catching up with season 3 and I hear they're about to restart filming season 4 with Chris Rock. They supposedly filmed 8 of the episodes and will film the last 2 in the series. Each season is a separate story, so it's easy to catch up. Well worth it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_(TV_series)

[dbigtex56]

Bought a couple of typewriters (one manual, one electric) and am attempting to regain some of the dexterity that I had before backspace and delete keys, and automatic spelling verification allowed me to become a slipshod typist. Turns out that it's just as hard to break bad habits as it was to learn how to type correctly the first time. 

It's fun, though. The banging of the keys makes me feel like something important is being accomplished.

[hindesky]

37 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

Bought a couple of typewriters (one manual, one electric) and am attempting to regain some of the dexterity that I had before backspace and delete keys, and automatic spelling verification allowed me to become a slipshod typist. Turns out that it's just as hard to break bad habits as it was to learn how to type correctly the first time. 

It's fun, though. The banging of the keys makes me feel like something important is being accomplished.

Don't wear a tie while at the typewriter 

[corbs315]

lived a few blocks from Kim Tai (McGowen and Fannin) for years and never been. Figured there was never as good a time as now. It was great! Good spring rolls, egg with rice flour cake, and bo luc loc! Hope they survive though the building sure does stand out..

[mkultra25]

15 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Bought a couple of typewriters (one manual, one electric) and am attempting to regain some of the dexterity that I had before backspace and delete keys, and automatic spelling verification allowed me to become a slipshod typist. Turns out that it's just as hard to break bad habits as it was to learn how to type correctly the first time. 

It's fun, though. The banging of the keys makes me feel like something important is being accomplished.

 

If you ever wish you could use a computer or tablet with a keyboard that's more like a manual typewriter:

 

USB Typewriter Conversion Kit

[august948]

17 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Bought a couple of typewriters (one manual, one electric) and am attempting to regain some of the dexterity that I had before backspace and delete keys, and automatic spelling verification allowed me to become a slipshod typist. Turns out that it's just as hard to break bad habits as it was to learn how to type correctly the first time. 

It's fun, though. The banging of the keys makes me feel like something important is being accomplished.

 

My grandfather was a journalist and worked for years with a manual typewriter before trying to switch to electric.  He had to go back to manual after destroying an electric because you have to pound so hard on the manual to get a good impression and he couldn't get used to the lighter touch.

[Ross]

7 hours ago, august948 said:

 

My grandfather was a journalist and worked for years with a manual typewriter before trying to switch to electric.  He had to go back to manual after destroying an electric because you have to pound so hard on the manual to get a good impression and he couldn't get used to the lighter touch.

My grandfather had the same issue with electric typewriters, and refused to learn how to use a computer. He hit the keys so hard, that electric typewriters screamed in pain, then died. Decades as a clerk starting in the ;ate 1920's would do that to you.

[august948]

On 8/2/2020 at 8:52 PM, hindesky said:

Don't wear a tie while at the typewriter 

 

Or when using a shredder.  Early in my first career my office was next to the shredding room.  One day I heard someone crying for help and rushed over to find one of my colleagues in a life-or-death tug of war with our large shredder.  He survived, but the tie was toast.

 

On a side note, wearing a tie is also deadly in the delivery room when a contraction hits....