Bulldog Taqueria - Chico, CA

During my visit to Chico this time I decided to try a new local taqueria called "Bulldog Taqueria". The location and venue was nice, spacious with many tables and TV's. We ordered a chicken, cabeza, and carnitas taco, along with a carne asada super burrito.

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  Tacos (in order from closest to farthest: Cabeza, chicken, carnitas)

Carne Asada super burrito

The food was average, however forgettable.  The cabeza (cow's head) taco was a little gamey with a more tender, fatty consistency; I was not a fan.  The chicken and carnitas were good, but like I said, nothing special.  The burrito was tasty, but more because of all the other things inside of it like the sour cream and beans.  The meat was just of average quality and flavor.

Ryan's Fiery Roasted Salsa

If you like delicious, spicy salsa, this one's for you!

This recipe is courtesy of Ryan Marchand.

10 Roma tomatoes, sliced in half longitudinally

6 Jalapeno peppers, sliced in half longitudinally with seeds

2-3 Habanero peppers, sliced in half longitudinally with seeds

1 large or 2 medium white onions, sliced

Salt and pepper

1 bunch/bushel of cilantro leaves

4-5 cloves of garlic

Juice from 2 limes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice tomatoes in half longitudinally, and cut the middle hard triangle section out of the center of each tomato.

Place all the tomato halves on a baking sheet, middle side up.

Slice the jalapeno and habanero peppers longitudinally, leaving the seeds in, and slice the onion(s).  Place those on a baking sheet as well. 

Put salt and pepper on all of the vegetables on each baking sheet.

*If you don't want the salsa to be as spicy, remove the seeds from half of the peppers.

Place each baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees, for 15-20 minutes or until tender.  

While the vegetables are roasting, pull the leaves off of the cilantro, and peel the garlic.

When you take the vegetables out of the oven, they should be soft enough where the outside peel of the tomato can slide off, however do not peel them off.  Place the roasted vegetables, along with the cilantro and garlic into a blender.

Squeeze the juice out of the two limes and add more salt and pepper into the contents in the blender.

Blend until desired consistency, and chill overnight.

Finished salsa!

Woodstock's Pizza - Chico, CA

"Woodstock's Pizza" is a local pizza joint in downtown Chico, CA that I've tried once before and enjoyed, so I decided to try it again.  We decided to go simple and order a pepperoni pizza on a whole wheat crust and an order of buffalo wings.

The buffalo wings were tasty and had a hearty amount of meat on the bone.

Bone-In Buffalo "Man Cave Wings" with Ranch (12) - $9.95

The pizza had a very nice flavor.  The sauce was nice and tangy and  it had adequate amounts of cheese and pepperoni.  I like how they put the sauce all the way to the edge of the crust and fold the crust over at the ends.

X-Large Pepperoni Pizza with Whole Wheat Crust - $20.05

2 criticisms I have about this place:

1. Although they do a great job of delivering your pizza to your table piping hot and fresh, the pizza dough is too flimsy and thin to hold up to the weight of the cheese and toppings, so often times  they slide right off, especially when hot.

2. I'm the biggest pizza fan there is, however this is a bit on the greasy side.

Despite the criticisms, I really enjoyed this pizza and it was definitely worth trying!

Sierra Nevada Brewery: Seasonal/Specialty Beers - Chico, CA

Today I tried 4 different seasonal/specialty beers at Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, CA.  Keep in mind that I am not an IPA lover, so these ratings may be a little lower than average if you're a fan of IPA.

Audition Pumpkin Ale:

$4.00/Pint

   There is no description or pictures on their website, so I will just give my rating.  I am not a huge fan of pumpkin flavored foods or drinks, however I really enjoyed this beer.  You could really taste the spices mixed in as well rather than just an overpowering flavor of pumpkin.

RATING:

Estate Home Grown Ale:

$4.00/Pint

  "From the sun-drenched fields of California's North Valley comes our Estate Ale.  It's rich with the flavors of the valley-hops with earth, grapefruit-like flavors and layered spicy aromas, and barley with mild sweetness and smooth, toasted flavors.  Enjoy this remarkable homegrown ale, made with organic wet hops and barley grown at our brewery in Chico, and one of the few estate-made ales produced anywhere in the world.  Together, these crops grow alongside the brewery to make a truly unique brew."

  

RATING

Harvest Wild Hop IPA - Neomexicanus:

$4.00/Pint

  "A Few years Back, we caught wind of rogue hop heads in the Southwest who began collecting some of the wild hops they found while scrambling down hillsides near their home in New Mexico.  These bizarre, multi-headed, native U.S. cones, have a flavor like nothing we've tasted, and for the first time, we're showcasing their unusual melon, apricot and citrus aromas and flavors in our beer.  Neomexicanus is the literal wild card in our five-bottle harvest series which features single hop, fresh hop, wet hop, and wild hop beers"

RATING

Celebration Ale - Fresh Hop IPA:

$4.00/Pint

 "The start of celebration season is a festive event.  We can't start brewing until the first fresh hops have arrived, but once they have the season is officially underway! First brewed in 1981, Celebration Ale is on of the earliest examples of an American-style IPA and one of the few hop-forward holiday beers.  Famous for its intense citrus and pine aromas, Celebration is bold and intense, featuring Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops-honoring everything we have at Sierra Nevada."

RATING

Sierra Nevada Brewery: Kellerweis - Chico, CA

Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico CA offers a variety of awesome beers that are definitely worth trying.  One of which is the "Kellerweis" which is one of my favorite beers of all time!

KELLERWEIS:

"Inspired by traditional Bavarian techniques, Kellerweis is a true artisan experience.  With Kellerweis, we brew in open fermentation tanks- a process rarely seen today-to let the ingredients truly shine.  The result is a hazy wheat ale-untamed, raw and alive.  With a full, fruity aroma and notes of spicy close and banana bread, Kellerweis is a truly unique brew."

Kellerweis in a half-hefe glass (Equivalent to a half-pint) - $2.75
Growler - $11.25

Can you guess what I filled my growler up with?

RATING:

Brody's Hawaiin BBQ - West Covina, CA

Ryan and I decided to try a new restaurant in West Covina called "Brody's Hawaiin BBQ". It was DELICIOUS!!

I got the Aloha Chicken Plate:

Aloha Chicken Plate - $6.99

All of their plates come with rice, coleslaw and macaroni-potato salad mixture which were both really tasty.

Ryan got Spam Musubi and the Chicken Katsu plate:

Spam Musubi - $2.50

Mama Myrna's Chicken Katsu - $7.49

PRICE RANGE:

RATING:

Homemade Soft Pretzels with Sierra Nevada Beer Cheese

Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, CA is one of my favorite breweries and restaurant, with the best beer cheese and pretzels EVER!! Since I do not get to go to this brewery enough, I decided to take a stab at the beer cheese recipe myself! Ryan came down to visit for my birthday, so he was kind enough to bring down the "Porter Dijon Mustard" straight from Sierra Nevada Brewery.

First, I'll start with the pretzels.  We used the "Almost Famous Pretzel Recipe" from foodnetwork.com.

 Ingredients

For the pretzels:
1 cup milk
1 package active dry yeast
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
1 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons coarse salt

Directions

Make the pretzels: Warm the milk in a saucepan until it's about 110 degrees; pour into a medium bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let the yeast soften, about 2 minutes; stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup flour with a wooden spoon. Dice 2 tablespoons butter and soften; stir into the mix. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour and the fine salt to make a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Finished dough before rising

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. (If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes.) Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 30-inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a pretzel shape.

We did not stretch out the stated "30 inches" of dough, so our pretzels came out a little thicker than desired.  If I were to make these again, I would take the time to roll our the dough thinner and longer before creating the pretzel shape.

Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the coarse salt. 

Pretzel after dipped in baking soda and salted

Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Recipe courtesy Food Network Magazine
© 2014 Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

For the beer cheese we used the "Sierra Nevada Beer Cheese" recipe from BevMo's website.

Torpedo® Extra IPA Beer Cheese 
from Sierra Nevada Head Chef Micheal Iles

6 oz. Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
1/2 pound aged farmstead white cheddar, diced (I was unable to find this cheese so I used "Unexpected Cheddar Cheese with a hint of Parmesan" from Trader Joes)
1/2 pound cream cheese
2 Tbsp. Sierra Nevada® Porter mustard or Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. finely chopped garlic
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ryan dicing the cheese

Using a food processor, pulse the cheddar until pea-sized. Add all remaining ingredients except Torpedo. Resume pulsing until all ingredients are well mixed. While the processor runs, slowly add Torpedo until the mixture is a smooth puree.

Pour cheese into a baking dish and place in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.  Serve with warm pretzels.

We ended up leaving it in the oven for about 30 minutes due to the depth of the corning ware we used, and broiled it for a couple of minutes to brown the top.

It did come out verrrrrry close to the original! We could taste a very slight difference due to the cheese we used, however it was very tasty and similar to Sierra Nevada's recipe.

RATING: