Review: Tower Cafe's Sangria

Tower Cafe
1518 Broadway
Sacramento, CA 95818
(916) 441-0222
http://www.towercafe.com/

I wish I had taken a picture!

Menu description: "Sangria - $6 Our famous recipe of Chilean Merlot, fruit juice, and spices"

I've had it before, and I will have it again. It's so tasty! Sweet but not too sweet, barely any bite, and such a pretty color. THe flavor is wonderful. No sangria mix--everything is fresh fresh fresh. If you're looking for a good sangria, this is the place to go.

Also, the color is really pretty. :]

ps: we're going there for breakfast on sunday--i'll try to remember to take a picture.

Extinah's Licks: It was a pretty damn good sangria--for me. You could barely taste the alcohol, and what you could taste was nice and smooth.

Review: Happy Hour at Mason's (sacramento)

Mason's, Sacramento, CA
1116 15th Street
Happy Hour

8/10: pretty good!

They have a pretty good happy hour deal: $3 beers and appetizers, $5 cocktails and wine. Usually, all food and drinks are over $8. here's the link for the happy hour menu: http://www.theparkdowntown.com/files/martini.pdf

The food and drinks
I had the chance to taste their lemon drop, their appletini, the spring rolls, and the
trio of mini bbq pulled pork sandwiches.

1. Lemon Drop. Mm mm!! I love lemon drops, and this was a damn good lemon drop. If you don't like sweet drinks, this isn't for you. On the other hand, if you like sweet, non-alcoholic tasting beverages, this is the right drink for you. The perfect balance or sweet, tart, and tangy. I think the secret is that they use Torani lemon syrup.

2. Appletini: Very fresh and crisp, and not too sweet. The only downfall for me is that it tastes too much like vodka. After a drink or two, I wouldn't notice. ;)

3. Spring rolls: It's funny because I think of spring rolls as cold rice wrapper, cold noodles, etc etc. These were definitely just egg rolls. Since they came from Mah Jong's next door, they were pretty damn good. They could've been cooked a little longer, but they were a decent size and came 4 per order. I wasn't crazy about the sweet and sour sauce though.

4. Pork Sandwiches: Tasty! The buns were tiny buns (the size of a lemon) and were nicely toasted. The filling was interesting: it was pulled pork that had almost a Chinese bbq pork flavor--but the fresh cabbage an the sauce added a "cole-slaw-esque" texture and flavor. not my fave, but definitely tasty and worth the $3.

Atmosphere
It's a bit trendy/business feeling. You would be a bit out of place if you wore your emo garb or ugly tennis shoes. You can tell that this is wear the people who work in the capitol hang out. Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that the well dressed guy coming into Mason's while we were exiting--was very rude and didn't hold the door for us--and just walked right by us with the door slamming on us. fucking ASShole.

Ahem.

Extinah's Licks: 1/2 The food is tasty (4 licks) and the drinks are tasty but not too strong. Still a great deal for happy hour--and what a nice atmosphere (in that legislators and corporate prep sort of way).

Recipe: Sesame Chicken

I've made this a few times, a few different ways. Just like ramen, you can spruce it up any way you'd like.

Sesame Chicken - not your typical sesame chicken.

Ingredients
-Some chicken, any cut (enough for 4 servings)
-1/2 cup soy sauce (add additional to taste)
-2-3 tablespoons of sesame oil
-1 minced garlic clove or 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
-1 cup of water (add additional to taste)
-Pepper, to taste
-Hot chili sauce/hot sauce to taste

Directions
1. Heat up the sesame oil and add the chickens, browning slightly. Add garlic. (about 5 minutes)
2. Add the soy sauce, water, and pepper. Let simmer until chicken is cooked all the way through. This ends up like a stew just not as thick.
3. When almost done, add the chili sauce.
4. I like to serve with rice and veggies.

Add-ons
-Hard boil some eggs for some nicely flavored eggs
-Add veggies
-Add seaweed
-Serve with noodles
-Use beef instead

I love this recipe--it's so easy, you hardly have to watch it, and it's yummy! I just made it up from a variety of cooking i've seen while growing up (thanks mom!).

Extinah's Licks:

My Tastes, in a Nutshell

A couple of times now, the gals at work have asked, "Is there anything you don't like to eat?"Typically, the only foods i really don't like to eat are:

• anything that tastes like horse radish (horse radish, wasabi, blue cheese, etc
• raw onions (they make my tummy hurt *sad face*)
• green bell peppers

I think...that's about it. I really enjoy eating everything else.

Foods I adore?

• Breakfast foods (eggs, potatoes, toast, pancakes, waffles, french toast, fruit, etc!)
• The real deal Chinese food
• Homemade Filipino food
• Spicy!
• Carnitas.....good carnitas
• Noodles in all forms (noodle coup, sauce dishes, etc)
• ________ over rice. Anything over rice is wonderful in my book, especially something with a good sauce
• WATERMELON and fruits in general
• Garlicky foods
• Seafood is bliss (fish, crab, shrimp, calamari. mm mm yum)
• Sushi! Any type: rolls, sashimi, udon, edamame, wakame, miso soup, tempura, and even the typical teriyaki chicken. sans wasabi, of course.
• ....and more

Other tidbits: I like the flavor of coffee but I'm not a caffeine person (it makes me jittery). I hate foods that end up mushy that aren't supposed to be (noodles, apples, etc). I like it medium rare. I love smelling cooking food. I like broth soups. Price is not always an indicator of good food. I love french fries drenched in gobs of ketchup. I like hot sauce on my hot dog. Wait, i LOVE hot sauce on ...most anything. I love Indian, Thai, Italian, Greek, Mexican....i love it all. I haven't had a lot of french food, but I want to try more french food. I also want to try Ethiopian food. I still enjoy the good ol' American food, too. I think that's it for now. Basically, I like it all.