Text 30446, 61 rader
Skriven 2015-08-31 04:45:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Alaska 176
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There are two Texas Roadhouses in Alaska. They seem similar to
the ones down 48, but the prices are maybe 1/4 higher.

There are differences that are not so apparent, but our waitress
Shalise noted a few of them, no sweet potatoes on the menu, for
example. She also proudly pointed out that the chili was Texas-
style, meaning no beans, but that it was normally served with
onions and shredded cheese (I didn't point out that in my Texas
days one could be strung up for serving chili with onions and
shredded cheese). Apparently they get a lot of transient traffic
from the lower 48 here.

Drinks: I went with the well-regarded local brew Denali Chuli
stout, a rich, bitter liquid that would have been great as a
quaff but was too strong for the food, as it turns out; Swisher,
ever classy, had a large Coors Light.

I ordered the "hearty cut sirloin" - 11 oz of that fleshy muscle
aft of the real sirloin that often goes under that name these
days, sides of chili and chili - one of my usual orders. Shalise
asked if I wanted the usual toppings (after I had grimaced when
she did her exposition earlier), and I thought about it and said,
sure, why not, I have pills.

The chili came out, both cups at once, a bit more tomatoey than
I am accustomed to and a tad less gristly. No beans, though I
thought there was a bit of a beany flavor under all that. I gave
Swisher a taste, and he found it not spicy enough. Problem was
that the stout was overpowering and made the onions taste bitter
and the liquid sweet. My fault - with food I should have ordered
the much less hoppy and somewhat sweeter Sam Adams Octoberfest.

My steak came out beautifully done but cold. It is a particular
art to getting a nice raw interior up to room temperature. Plus
there seemed to be extra steak seasoning, which of course is
rather salty, plus the miraculous transformative power of the
stout made this taste bitter, too. Somehow the coating wouldn't
scrape off even with a knife, so I ended up taking a napkin and
wetting it in the ice water and rinsing the steak off, which
improved things (still tasted a little bitter with the beer)
but made the meat even colder. Ah, well, cold steak is fine.
I eventually got tired of this and had to choose between
abandoning the stout or some of the meat. You can take meat
home, so I left about 3 oz of that and drained the beer.

Swisher had the chicken-fried steak, a sizable chunk of meat
but neither so imposing nor so good as the one I'd had at
Rocky's early in the week. It was perfectly okay, just not
handmade, so the texture was a bit toothless. Its brown
gravy tasted like plain salt. Baked potato and sauteed onions
were the usual things; he ate every scrap of the former and
just a few of the latter. But left half the steak.

Shalise asked if we wanted dessert, of which the choices were
apple crumble, cheesecake, or brownie. We gestured at our
unempty plates and our bulging tummies, and she got the idea
and brought the check, which was about $10, maybe $15, more
than what I'd have paid in America.

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