Chapter 8: Burgers... East Coast vs. West Coast

Don't let the title fool you. I'm pretty sure that there really isn't much difference between burgers on the east coast vs. the west coast. But it's more fun to title things that way.

Rather, I do think that there is a difference between what people consider good on either side of this country.

I've heard so many good things about In-N-Out Burger. It seems to have a cult-like following on the west side. I had to figure out what the big deal was. So going to In-N-Out Burger at least once was a goal of my trip out west.

I did fulfill that goal twice. Once in Vegas, and once in San Francisco.

My official verdict on In-N-Out Burger... pretty darn good.

First thing I figured out is that you really have to order a double from them in order to get a significant amount of meat on the burger. In Vegas, I ordered a single burger. While it tasted pretty good, I figured out it didn't have as much meat on it that I thought it would. In the San Francisco In-N-Out near Fisherman's Wharf, I went for the double and was more satisfied.

I do give it up to them. They do make everything fresh. It's important to do that at a burger joint. They do take some pride in what they do. It's definitely 2 or 3 steps above any McDonalds out there. And toasting the bun helps the taste, even if there is less meat.

I can see why people would love it.

But there's a reason I only said "pretty darn good" instead of awesome, or incredible.

No, it wasn't the best burger I ever had.

This is a burger chain, and anytime there's a chain restaurant involved, I will always judge them more harshly than an individually owned joint.

Let's just say that if you put an In-N-Out Burger in front of me for free, and told me I could have that, or pay 5 bucks for a Bartley's burger from Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, let's just say I'm going to shell out the 5 bucks for the better burger.

OK, who am I fooling? I'll find a way to eat both burgers.

Actually, if you want to compare chains, I'll walk away from an In-N-Out burger to get to a Five Guys burger. The Five Guys chain started in the DC area from what I am told, but they are taking the Northeast by storm. They might be the best burger joint in Philadelphia right now, which is saying a lot for a chain.

I might say that again, I'll find a way to eat both burgers, but in this case, a Five Guys burger is so satisfying, I don't need a second burger. They're that good.

Hell, my wife even loves Five Guys burgers... and she doesn't even eat a lot of red meat. She won't eat a steak. But put a Five Guys burger in front of her and she'll go nuts.

So don't get me wrong. Kudos to In-N-Out. It is a tasty burger.

But let's just say that if I get back to the west side of the U.S. and A. anytime soon, In-N-Out burger won't be a must-have this time. Though I wouldn't say no to one, I just won't go out of my way to get one.

Chapter 7: Vegas buffets

You were waiting for Vegas reviews, well I got a bunch of them.

Might as well start with the buffets I hit. Being a fat guy, of course I like a good buffet. And I managed to get to three buffets in my time in Vegas.

The first buffet I hit was for dinner at the Flamingo Hotel. It is called the Paradise Garden Buffet. It was $21.99 a person for dinner.

My first reaction to the buffet was, holy crap that's a lot of seafood. It is the picture I posted on my other blog. I mean, there was a mountain of shrimp, mussels, and crab legs with another mound of lemon slices just for the seafood. When the mound of lemon slices available is impressive, that's saying something.

I did partake of the shrimp, as well as a good hunk of the prime rib. The opportunity to get the end cut of the prime rib is always appealing to me, which I did get. It was definitely good prime rib. I also tried what they called the garden paella, which had a good mix of rice and peppers in it. I was a fan. I didn't try a huge variety of the food here as I was filling up on shrimp and beef.

The dessert impressed me. I don't often get to eat a freshly made crepe. But they had a crepe station with a chef on duty to make it however you choose. Tasted like a freshly made thin pancake with fresh fruit in it, which doesn't suck at all.

Definite thumbs up for the Flamingo buffet.

The buffet at the hotel I stayed at, The Stratosphere, is a little less exciting. They call it the Courtyard Buffet. I went there for a late breakfast, but wound up getting there at 11am, just in time for lunch. If I remember correctly, it was $12.25 a person for lunch.

The lunch food was out, but they did keep the omelette station active so that was a plus. The omlette was pretty good. Some of the other food I would put on par with Old Country Buffet, which is to say hit or miss. Probably more miss. I actually didn't finish a couple of things I got from the buffet, and for me that's saying a lot. I also decided to end the meal with a bowl of cereal. That should tell you something right there. When you're at a buffet, and you make a conscious choice to go to the cereal, there's issues. But it's not the worst buffet I ever ate.

Thumbs not quite up, and not quite down. Call it thumbs sideways for the Stratosphere buffet. Kind of like the whole hotel itself. It had some good things, and some not so good things.

Now, the piece de resistance, or something like that. We had heard great things about the buffet at the Bellagio. I'm told it was once featured on The Food Network. Good enough for me! We figured it was time to see what a high end buffet is like. So we go down there on Saturday night. They have a gourmet dinner buffet on Saturday nights. It is $35.95 a person. And when we got there, it was an hour long wait just to get into the thing.

I mean, when people are willing to wait an hour to pay $36 for a buffet dinner, it must be pretty damn good. But we were not willing to wait the hour. That's how we wound up across the street at the Flamingo buffet that night.

But we didn't give up on the Bellagio. We decided to try the buffet out for Sunday morning brunch. Best decision we made for the whole trip.

It was around $25 a person for the brunch without champagne. I could have gone the bubbly route for extra, but decided not to. I was more in the mood for straight OJ and coffee that day.

Let me tell you this much. The mark of a truly good buffet in my opinion is not that they make extra fancy food in abundance, it is when they make the simple stuff really good. When it comes to breakfast buffets, I tend to find that the eggs generally taste the same in every buffet. But believe me when I tell you that these eggs were a little better than normal. You could just taste a little extra freshness. The bacon was juicy and tender, not overdone. The sausage was thick and juicy, not dry and chewy. If you can get those things right, you're OK by me. Not every hotel buffet does.

You know, I could have partaken of some nice leg of lamb or some prime rib at 8:30 on a Sunday morning here. I didn't. I had a hankering for some breakfast food. Which reminds me... they make some pretty good breakfast pizza at this buffet too. I enjoyed a slice or two.

But let me tell you about what may have been one of the finest pieces of breakfast food I have ever had. I give you... the Bellagio french toast!


That's right... I took a picture of my french toast. You got a problem with that?

You see, I'm not normally a big french toast eater. I do enjoy it, but I tend to go more for the pancakes. It's just how I roll. And they had pancake options at the buffet for me to partake. But when I saw the chef laying these thick slices of beauty on the grill, I had to have some.

Now, the piece on the right is the regular french toast. They were using some thick pieces as you can tell. Thicker than the decks of cards they were using at the poker tables. But the one on the left is the killer. That is hazlenut banana chocolate french toast.

When you can fit three sinful flavors into french toast, you're doing something right. And I'm telling you, that was some damn fine french toast. Maybe the best I ever had. You don't even need the syrup, but of course I had some on it which only added to the goodness.

On top of all of that, we decided to have some fresh fruit to make us believe we were doing something healthy amongst all of this decadence. Even the fruit kicked ass. The friggin strawberries were staining our shirts they were so juicy. I'll give you a little visual taste...

That's the strawberry tart they were serving at the dessert station. Had a nice mound of vanilla creme in between the strawberry slices. Yeah, it didn't suck at all.

To top it off, the servers were highly attentive. They greeted you with smiles. I had full glasses of fresh OJ and cups of coffee at the ready. They cleared the dishes like champs. It's not often that a buffet server earns a 20% tip, but they did here.

Maybe this isn't the best buffet in the world. Maybe some people can find fault with this buffet somehow. In fact, I've seen a few web reviews out there that have complained about it. I've seen more who loved it, but a few who didn't. Maybe this buffet has some off days. Or maybe I'm just an idiot. But I'm never going to forget this experience. I loved it. Hell, the wife and I were leaving there talking about all of the stuff we didn't get to try.

Next time, I'll talk about my views on In-N-Out Burger. I did partake of them... twice.

Preview of future posts

I've been thinking of what my next posts ought to include.

I can tell you that my West Coast trip is coming up in a week and a half... Las Vegas and San Francisco to be visited within the same week. Plans have already been booked for that week including...

VEGAS FROM MAY 3RD TO 6TH
- Dinner at Emeril's Steakhouse in the MGM Grand (anniversary dinner)
- Comedy show with Roseanne Barr at the Sahara (the wife likes her, so I'm taking it for the team)

SAN FRAN FROM MAY 6TH TO 10TH
- Napa Valley Wine Country tour of at least 4 different wineries
- Baseball game at whatever the hell the Giants' ballpark is called right now between the Giants and Phillies (my reward for the Roseanne show)

I'm sure I'll have lots to review on those activities. And I'm sure I will come up with some impromptu things to do as well while out there (In-N-Out Burger awaits).

Otherwise, I'm thinking about posts for the future that would deal with such deep topics as good places for breakfast. Exciting, eh?

If you have any ideas, I'm all ears.

Chapter 6: Indian Food 101

This topic might intimidate a few of you.

I'm reminded of the line from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. When confronted with the scent of Brian Fantana's whiff of Sex Panther, a woman screams "It smells like a used diaper filled with Indian food."

Indian cuisine has a bad rap among some people, I do know that. I have memories of a former co-worker in the radio business who often used to bring in Indian dishes for lunch, and wound up stinking up the whole studio for hours. It turned me off to Indian food for some time.

Hell, I'm a guy who for 33 years of his life avoided Indian food. Of course, to impress the Indian woman I had started dating in 2005, I decided to let her take me to an Indian restaurant on our third date.

I found out later it was a bit of a test. Apparently, if I couldn't handle eating the Indian food, I was going to be deep-sixed. I mean, how could we really have anything in common if I couldn't handle her native cuisine?

Well, three years later, after marrying that same woman, I now consider myself to be something of a quasi-expert in Indian cuisine. And I'm here to help you.

I've seen more than one friend of mine go with me to an Indian restaurant with slight trepidation. But once they realize there are several pretty harmless dishes for beginners, they relax and find out they really like the food. And not all of the food is going to linger in your clothes for days like stale cigarette smoke.

Now I'm not saying that you ought to go out and try some goat curry the first time out (it actually doesn't suck at all). But I'm here to help you as a fellow red-blooded American who once considered exotic cuisine a pupu platter. I'm here to give you some good first time dishes in Indian food that don't reek of curry for blocks away, and won't make holes in your tongue from the spice. As a veteran of nearly 20 different Indian restaurants now, I know of what I speak (one day I will rank them all here).

If you ever decide to venture into an Indian restaurant for the first time, be forewarned that some restaurants are strictly vegetarian. But for the record, of all of the ones I've been to, I've only been to two that were vegetarian. Most do offer meat dishes. Maybe not beef, but chicken, lamb, and seafood can be had.

If you want to start with an appetizer, you can't go wrong with the samosas. Basically, they're the equivalent of a good knish in Jewish cuisine, or an empanada in Latin cuisine. They're generally spiced just right, and they are generally filled with potato or meat. And anything with the word "pakora" in it will make Americans very happy. That's the deep fried, batter-dipped stuff. You can get good vegetable pakora which are like onion rings or battered potatoes, and chicken pakora too if you're in the chicken finger type of mood.

If you're a strict carnivore, and you are a barbecue fan, then look for "Tandoori" dishes. Tandoori chicken is probably the most harmless dish anyone can handle, as well as Chicken Tikka which is the boneless version of tandoori. Tandoori fish and shrimp can also be quite tasty. They're made in a clay oven with a good amount of spice, but not normally too much. You won't get a huge curry taste with this dish if at all. Hell, you could make it on your gas grill. Some places serve Tandoori meats on a plate sizzling with onions and lime like a fajita plate would.

Anything with "biryani" in the title is also going to be safe. Basically, biryani is the equivalent of Chinese fried rice. Though biryani tends to not be fried and much less oily. I usually go for a good Chicken Biryani if available. And by the way... if you see the word "murgh" in the menu, murgh=chicken.

If you feel the need to go for a more creamy type dish, I have two recommendations. The thing is, they are very similar dishes. Chicken Makhani and Chicken Tikka Masala to the untrained eye look like the same dish. To give you an idea of what Chicken Makhani really is, the American term for it is "butter chicken". It's boneless pieces of chicken in a buttery tomato sauce. Now, in the same realm, Chicken Tikka Masala is also in a creamy tomato sauce, but tends to taste more of the tomato and spice while Makhani tends to taste sweeter. For the record, it is said that Chicken Tikka Masala is the most popular dish in England, where Indian food is like Chinese food here in America. They use some curry in these dishes, but not too much. Get either one of those dishes over rice. And be sure you have some naan to soak up the sauce. Naan is a pita type bread which tastes amazing when it is just out of the oven with butter on it.

If veggies are your thing, Navratan Korma is simply mixed veggies in a creamy sauce. Anything with the word "aloo" in it is a potato dish. Aloo Gobi is a mix of potato and cauliflower with curry. Dal is made up strictly of beans, and Sambar is basically a pea and vegetable stew. Those are good starters for you herbivores.

If you want dessert, I always say you can't go wrong with Gulab Jamun. But many of you might find it way too sweet for your liking. It's basically brown balls of as milk and light cheese mixture dipped in syrup. Believe me when I tell you it tastes like Greek Baklava. But if that's not your thing, many Indian places serve a nice mango ice cream, or a dish called kulfi which is pure Indian ice cream and a little more creamy tasting than what we get in America.

So if you're ever forced by someone to go to an Indian restaurant, and you don't know what to do, just print this posting out and use it as your guide. Go ahead. Your Uncle Rev gives you permission to.

Chapter 5: Italian chains

My good man, ElPadrino, touched on this subject on his blog. But I have decided to go further into this topic.


I am not a full-blooded Italian, but I do have Italian blood in my veins. I also grew up in my grandmother's house who made a kick ass meatball. So Italian food is an area I know a little something about.


The debate is whether or not a chain restaurant can deliver good Italian food.


My stance on this is yes and no.


When it comes to Italian cooking, I believe it is an art form. To do it properly, you need to have a desire to do it well and right. Now, I do not believe this is a difficult art form. I think anyone with a desire to succeed at it can do it well.


But here is a problem I see with these Italian chains. Their own popularity does them in.


You see, a lot of people when they want to go out for Italian food get lazy about it. They don't want to search out a good local hole in the wall somewhere. No, they'd rather go to the mall and get Olive Garden. It's an easy choice that doesn't require thought. And what that does is cause a logjam where you have an hour wait for a table at places like that, because a lot of people think like they do.


So what does the staff do? Being influenced by the corporate climate, they shoot for high turnover to get more business in. They have easy corporate recipies which the cooks follow to the letter without their own creativity (notice I call them cooks, not chefs). This allows them to get dishes out quicker than a lot of local Italian places can pull off. In some cases, this rush job creates a dish that is passable to most people who don't demand a little more.


By the way... the above opinion is not really based on any study. It's just my observation. And it may be full of crap. But I defy you to prove me wrong.


Now this isn't to say that local Italian places don't have a wait. They most certainly do. But in their cases, you're most likely to need a reservation to get in. I think that means that they know ahead of time what their business is going to be, so they don't shoot for the highest amount of turnover possible. So the chefs can prepare ahead a little better, and it helps that they themselves created the recipes they serve in a lot of cases. It makes for a more unique experience, and a much better one in my opinion.


Basically, what I see is that chains are less likely to take reservations, which means they go for highest amount of tunrover possible, and that leads to food that comes off of an assembly line. While local places take reservations, know a little more in advance what they're going to get business-wise, and plan ahead and staff properly which gives the chef a little room to do what they need to do.


Once again, my opinion based on no facts I know of whatsoever.


A couple of chains do pull this off in my mind. I have always been a fan of Maggiano's Little Italy. Maybe it's because they behave like a higher class restaurant. I think for an Italian chain you need to behave like a high class place on the ground level to succeed. I've always had a good meal there.


Now call me crazy, but I also like Bertucci's. But I don't go to Bertucci's for high class Italian. I go there for a good calzone and hot rolls. I don't have high expectations there. I tend not to order anything else. But I can see how that rushed atmosphere can hurt them. Case in point... I was at a Bertucci's this past Good Friday. Of course the rest of the world seemed to be there too since we couldn't get a really good parking spot and they had a 30 minute wait. People eat a lot of pizza on Good Friday of course, being the last Friday of Lent. (Consequently, the nearby Charlie Brown's Steakhouse was begging for customers that evening. You could park next to their salad bar for all they cared.) So I ordered a grilled chicken calzone. I got a sausage calzone. Apparently the cook couldn't read too well. When I asked how long it would take to make a new calzone, they said 15 minutes. Thank goodness I like sausage.


My official opinion on the Olive Garden is incomplete. Reason is that I tend to not go there. I've only been to one Olive Garden, and I only ordered a grilled chicken caesar salad which didn't taste too bad. But it's kinda hard to screw that up. I've had many people tell me that Olive Garden isn't really worth it, so I believe them. They do seem to reek of corporateness.


I have liked Carabba's in the past, but they have suffered from inconsistency. I have had a meal there where the cook was a little too in love with the pepper that day and had a heavy hand. It almost made the meal uneatable.


Now for a chain to really fail my test, they need to fail one of my two cardinal rules for a good Italian restaurant. (I got friggin rules for everything, don't I?)


1. They gotta make a good meatball.


2. They gotta make a good chicken parmigana.


Those two foods are essential to Italian food in my world. If you can't do those well, you can't do anything well.


One that failed... Vinny Testa's. I guarantee you haven't heard of them, unless you lived in Boston. They are a Boston based Italian chain with one outpost near Philadelphia and about 10 locations in Mass.

When I lived in Boston, I did enjoy the occasional trip to Vinny T's. I thought they were a quality place. So much so that I would brag to my Philly friends about it that they should go to the Philly location.

One night I recommended going with the woman that would eventually be my wife when we were dating. Anxious to show off my knowledge of good restaurants, I recommended we try Vinny Testa's out.

We both ordered the chicken parmigana. And they broke Rev's Cardinal Rule #2 on Italian Restaurants. It sucked. Not only was it burnt, the sauce had little flavor to it. Here I am trying to impress the lady, and they let me down... on one of the easiest dishes in Italian food to make too. Either I picked the wrong night, or they are slipping.

I have not forgiven them for it, and I have not been back since.

When it comes to local Italian places, I have more than a few recommendations in Philly or Boston. I may share those in the future. When it comes to chain places, proceed at your own risk.

Chapter 4: Barbecue

I'm becoming a barbecue snob. At least that is what my wife thinks.

Why does she think this? Because I had the gall to diss on Famous Dave's over the weekend.

Have any of you ever been to Famous Dave's? It's a chain restaurant that does barbecue type food. Perhaps you have one near you.

Now, do not get me wrong. Famous Dave's isn't a bad meal at all. In fact, I do enjoy their food. But it ain't real barbecue in my mind.

Why do I believe that? Because if you go to any Famous Dave's in America, you will get the same food each time. Now while there is something to be said about consistency, that doesn't mean real barbecue to me. That's corporate barbecue.

You see, one of the joys of going to a real barbecue place, and I'm talking one that is owned by some old geezer named Duke or some old mama named Koko, is that you get a different experience at each one you visit. Because people like that put a little extra into the food. And their individual recipes all have something that another place does not.

I'm becoming more and more of a fan of real barbecue as I go along. And I'm saying this while realizing that I probably haven't had the true real thing. You see, Philadelphia doesn't have a lot of real barbecue joints. Not like a place such as Memphis would have or Kansas City or Austin. You have to search them out around here.

When you find one around here though, it is a special thing.

Two rules I have about barbecue joints...

1. I need to see the smoker outside the place. A good barbecue place has a really big smoker, either on a trailer or in a house, outisde the joint. If I can't see the smoker that makes the meat, then it's no damn good. Then I tend to believe that it might be a corporate type joint that slathers Kraft sauce on meat and serves it with a Pillsbury biscuit. I will allow for any smoker that is located inside the restaurant, as long as I can get a good view of it from the front of the counter. If you're hiding where you're meat is coming from, then I believe you're hiding something for a reason.

2. The meat needs to taste good without sauce on it. Now don't get me wrong. I like me some barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce doesn't suck at all. But real good barbecue doesn't need the sauce. I believe this with every fiber of my being. Now, real barbecue with the added zing of a real good barbecue sauce can be a truly beautiful thing. And if you don't know what I mean, then you haven't had real barbecue.

Some have passed this test, some have not. One that passed this test in my book but is no longer in business is a place called Zeke's, which used to be in the Overbrook section of Philly. Poor Zeke just couldn't keep himself in business. But he had the best damn food I ever tasted.

In fact, I'm doing something to immortalize Zeke. Somehow, his famous wing rub leaked out to the internet. Maybe he leaked it out there, I don't know. But I'm posting it here just in case the recipe gets taken off the net for some reason. It must live on.

Here it is. I have used it myself, and it works like a charm.

ZEKE'S BBQ WINGS
4 Servings

Ingredients
1/2 C kosher salt
1/2 C paprika
2 oz garlic powder
2 oz granulated onion
2 oz black pepper
1 1/2 lb whole fresh chicken wings

Note
It is important to use Kosher salt because table salt will dissolve into the meat but kosher salt will draw out fat

Method
- Salt and pepper the chicken wings before applying the rub; it makes a difference.
- Toss wings with rub until they turn bright orange.
- Add more rub, a little at a time until they become slightly red.
- Let wings sit overnight.
- Heat coals until glowing in charcoal grill. Cook over medium heat. You should be able to hold your hand over the coals for 4 seconds.
- Arrange wings on a hinged grill basket so that you can turn the wings every two minutes or so until they become dark orange. Be careful not to burn the wings. The flavor will be very different.

Now maybe this isn't true barbecue because you're not smoking the wings for hours. But how many of us have that much time to do that? I use the rub on wings over a gas grill and they never let me down.

In Philadelphia, if you can search out a place called Sweet Lucy's on State Road near Cottman Ave, do it. They pass my two part test with flying colors. They are now my new favorite Philly joint.

And one more tip... every year the Phillies have a barbecue contest before a game, usually in August. You don't need a ticket to the game to go there and try some damn good ribs. And who has the best ribs at the contest? Former centerfielder Garry Maddox, that's who. One of my baseball idols growing up also makes some of the best damn ribs I have eaten. I went there last year, and I think I went back to his stand about 5 times.

I should have gotten him to autograph a bone.

Chapter 3: Irish Whiskey

So I did have my lesson on Irish whiskey on Thursday night.

And I did promise to report on what I had, so here I am to report.

Now, I'm not reporting to you as any kind of Irish whiskey expert. Far from it. I'm reporting to you as someone who tried a lot of this stuff for the first time.

I tend to be more of a scotch drinker when it comes to the hard stuff. And I don't drink it everyday. I consider it a special occasion kind of drink. But then again, scotch is just a form of whiskey with a different name. So I wasn't out of my element here.

The night consisted of tasting 4 different Irish whiskeys, and smoking good cigars. The cigars that were handed out were called Cuban Stock. These were the darker full bodied Cuban Stock cigars in this case. I actually didn't smoke them, since I had brought along a nice Dominican Cohiba to enjoy. So I kept the Cuban Stock to take home for the humidor. I wasn't in the mood for a full bodied cigar on Thursday, and the Cohiba I picked was just the right flavor for me.

For the record... Cuban Stock is made by a company called Crown David. Interesting company in my book. You don't find them everywhere. They can only be found at certain cigar stores. I'm not sure why that is. The one I frequent occasionally near where I live sells a boatload of them, but that's the only store I see them in. I usually bypass them for other brands. They're not like Montecristos or Partagas which every cigar store seems to sell. I'm looking forward to actually trying one soon.

Anyway, let me get to the 4 brands we tried, and my thoughts on each.

The first whiskey of the night was Tullamore Dew. The gentleman who was giving us the whiskey lecture started telling us about it, and then gave us tips on how to truly taste the whiskey, such as examining the color, swirling it in the glass, smelling the bouquet, and adding a couple drops of water to really bring out the flavor. He suggested that we let the whiskey roll across our whole tongue to get the full flavors.

Well, I did all that, and then I drank making sure to get it all across my whole tongue as he said. Problem is, the front part of my tongue didn't like that idea. It started burning like crazy as if to say to me, "What the hell are you doing? Just drink the damn stuff!"

It turns out the Tullamore Dew was probably the least smooth whiskey of the 4. He started with the cheaper stuff. It was not the type of whiskey that was aged over 10 years. The best was yet to come.

Second was the Bushmills 10 Year Single Malt. Now we are upgrading. I was told that while the Tullamore went for about $20 a bottle, this stuff was just under $40 a bottle. First thing I noticed, as well as the guy next to me who took a sniff, was that this whiskey had a much stronger aroma. It was so strong, we both backed off the glass and went "Whoa!" at the same time. It wasn't a bad aroma, it was just so much stronger than the Tullamore. We figured this stuff might go down like rusty nails based on the smell alone.

Then we sipped... and it was so much smoother than the last one. That was a very pleasant surprise. To have that strong of an aroma yet go down nice and smooth, that's quite the success. Of course they say the longer a whiskey is aged, the smoother it gets. Thumbs up to the Bushmills.

Thirdly, we moved to the Jameson 12 Year Old. Conventional wisdom says this would be even smoother than the Bushmills 10 year old. But I agreed with the gentleman sitting next to me. We both thought the Bushmills was actually a bit smoother. But definitely a step up from the Tullamore. No question.

Lastly, it was the Redbreast 12 Year Old Pure Pot Still Whiskey. I figured the best was for last. This bottle apparently costs in the $45 per bottle range and was the most expensive of the whole night. Of the 4 whiskeys, it had the most bold and distinct pure whiskey flavor. No question.

But surprisingly, I thought the Bushmills 10 Year got the prize for being the smoothest. I enjoyed drinking that the most.

And if you want everyone else's opinion that night, lust look at the raffle they had. You got to buy tickets and put them into a pot for each of the 4 whiskeys to be given away. You got to put them into the pot matching the whiskey you wanted to win. By far, the least amount of tickets was in the Tullamore Dew pot. I think that said it all.

And how do you like this... the guy I was speaking with the whole night and sharing the thoughts on the whiskey with that I mentioned before... he won the grand prize of the night. That was a bottle of Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskey. Whiskey that is so rare, each bottle has a serial number and is actually signed by the distiller. Regular price on that bottle... $140.

That stuff is so exclusive, there's an invitation inside the box that says if you bought the whiskey, you're invited to come to the distillery in Ireland to sign a special guest book dedicated to owners of the whiskey.

No, the trip isn't free. You gotta pay for the plane to Ireland. But that's still quite an invite.

And I was this close to winning it too. His winning ticket had 03 on it. Mine had 04.

Oh well, maybe I'll meet up with him again and he'll let me taste a glass. I do wonder what whiskey signed and numbered by the distiller tastes like.