Spicy Radish

On Thursday I went to the Italian restaurant, The Radish, in Grimes, Iowa. I was going to my grandma's house but I got hungry so we stopped for supper. We found a table right by the entrance. I have never went to this restaurant before. It looks like it's all made of wood inside. I thought it was a nice look.

Italian restaurants serve salads, seafood and stuff like spaghetti. I wanted a sandwich because I like to get sandwiches at restaurants. So I got the fried tenderloin. I picked it because I like tenderloins. They taste good. They look like a big piece of chicken that's fried, but it's not. It has breading on it and white meat inside. It is pork that's pounded out by a hammer so it's really big. Then they put breading on it and then they fry it. 



I like mustard on my tenderloin. And the sandwich is put in a bun. My sandwich came with cottage cheese on the side. There were also pickles and onions, but I didn't put them on my sandwich. I ate them separate. 


It was one of the best tenderloins I've eaten, but not the best. One of my favorite places to eat tenderloins is at Starbuck's cafe in Nevada. 


One funny thing at the restaurant was that they served one big radish with my tenderloin. I bit into it and it was really spicy and tasted kind of strange. I think they did that because it's the restaurant's name. 


Oh I almost forgot, we also got an appetizer. It was potato chips that were fried and spicy and they were seasoned with a combination of herbs. Cheddar cheese sauce was served with them and salsa. They taste good. The chips were crispy and the cheese sauce was hot.

I got a Diet Coke to drink with a lemon in it.



Photo 1: the rosemary bread, Photo 2: the spicy radish! Photo 3: the homemade chips

Restaurant rating: Thumbs up
You should eat here if you want Italian food and people don't always come across those kinds of restaurants so you could go there. And it's strange because it's in Iowa and it's an Italian restaurant. Can you believe that? 

From the Archives: Good Times

Originally published February 25, 2012

Today we went to Quinton's Deli and Bar in the East Village in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. The Iowa Capitol is near the East Village. I wanted to eat at a sushi place but it was closed. We originally wanted to eat at The Latin King, but it was also closed. So we chose Quinton's Deli and Bar.

Grandma Katy, me, Bo, Keesia and Shawn were there. The first thing we ate was chips and salsa. I wasn't a really big fan of them but I was still really hungry so I ate a lot. I didn't like it because the salsa  wasn't good enough for me and I didn't like the chips because they were just normal chips. I originally wanted hotwings for lunch but then I saw this gigantic sandwich and I said, "Oh yeah, I want this." So Grandma Katy offered to buy hotwings for another appetizer instead. The hotwings were very spicy. The breading was very delicious. And I liked the meat inside.

My sandwich was big!! And it was so big that it had to have toothpicks to hold it together! It was a club sandwich, they have lots of kinds of stuff in them. I can't remember everything in mine because there was so much stuff -- like lettuce, tomatoes, meat, bacon, mayo. The sandwich tasted great! I ate only one-half. It came with chips, and I ordered the spicy chips. I also ate some french fries. And then everybody was getting full so we left eventually. Oh, my drink was Diet Coke. Again.

 

The restaurant food took so long that I was about to say to give it a thumb's down! But then I tasted the food and I was like, "This has gotta be a thumb's up!" I was so hungry that day I ate hotwings, tortilla chips, spicy chips and half of my sandwich. I ate the rest the next day. And that's all.

Restaurant Rating: Thumbs Up

You should go to Quinton's in the East Village, Des Moines, Iowa, and beware, the food takes so long you might want to leave. I gave it a thumb's up because of how the food tasted. And that's all folks!

From the Archives: Fishes in the Tank

Originally published February 18, 2012

I went to Fuji Japanese restaurant in Ames, Iowa. I saw a fake whale skeleton and a fountain. We found our table. The table had a cooking stove and tools that helped you cook. The chef did the cooking at our table -- I thought it was pretty cool.

I also liked it because there was a fish tank and they gave me a hat for my head. It was a cooking hat like the chefs wore.

I ordered Hibachi Chicken because they would cook it in front of me. It came with appetizers. My choices for appetizers were salad or soup. I chose the miso soup. I like it because it has tofu in it and onions. We got sushi for our appetizer also -- there was a lot of different kinds of rolls. I liked the sushi.

Then the chef came. He put sauce in our bowls. Then he asked me if I wanted to see a big fire flame. And I said yes! So he put some cooking oil on and then he lighted it and it made a gigantic flame! Bo thought it was cool, too, because, you know, he likes fire.

Then he made some eggs. He flipped an egg into my mouth, but it didn't go in that time. So he tried again. And he flipped it and it landed right in my mouth and I ate it. Everybody at the table got an egg flipped into their mouth, except Bo. He didn't want to do it because he doesn't like eggs.

Then he made the rice. He mixed it up with the eggs and he put it on our plates. Then he made the stove hot and he threw on the vegetables. He used onions to make an onion volcano. He cut the onion into onion rings and he stacked them on top of each other. It looked like a volcano. Then he put some cooking oil inside and he made it light and it made a big flame. And then he cut them up and it made an onion island. And then he put them on our plates. Then he made our chicken and shrimp and steak and scallops. Then he put that on our plates and we ate it.

 

I thought the food tasted good -- it tasted spicy when I put the sauce on. The chicken was good. The whole plate was also colorful because of the rice and the vegetables. And that's all.

Restaurant Rating: Thumbs Up!

You should go to the Fuji restaurant in Ames, Iowa. You should go there because they cook the food right in front of you and you'll see an onion volcano!

From the Archives: Stars Don't Have Bucks on Them

Originally published: March 19, 2012

Today for lunch I went to Starbucks. It is not the coffee Starbucks; it is a restaurant Starbucks that has been around for 35 years in Nevada, Iowa. We went in and found our table. We waited for our food. We got cheeseballs, chili cheese fries and a bacon cheeseburger for me.

The first time I ever had chili cheese fries was last year at Adventureland. It was a day when it was raining. We went to the place where they serve food. My cousins Kael and Theron were there. Me and  Kael saw the picture of them and we wanted it, so we ordered them. It was waffle fries with chili and nacho cheese on them. Me and Kael ate them in no time. They were delicious. So then that tells you how they tasted at Starbucks, too. They were thin fries at Starbucks and shredded cheddar instead of nacho cheese. I like both of them. I can't make up my mind which is best.

I tried the cheeseballs. They were breaded on the outside and cheesy on the inside. They were good. Theron has had them before so she knows what they taste like. I had a bacon cheeseburger. It tasted like a normal cheeseburger with ketchup and mustard, except it had bacon on it. It tasted great! I've had them before, like at the food festival in Des Moines, Iowa. And I also got one at Americana restaurant, which is in the restaurant reviews, too.

My drink was Diet Mountain Dew. It isn't that good for you, but it tastes good. But you can only have it once in awhile. After I ate my food I got an ice cream swirl, with chocolate and vanilla, with a cone, too. The ice cream was delicious. And then after that we left.

It is my spring break this week. So that's why I was up in Nevada with my grandma, my grandpa and Shawn. Tomorrow I'm going to a Korean restaurant!

Restaurant rating: Thumbs Up!

You should go to Nevada, Iowa, and eat at Starbucks. Get the ice cream twist cone -- any kind you like because they taste great and the swirls always taste like a new flavor. See you next time on my next restaurant reviews!

From the Archives: Korean Foods Are Interesting

Originally published March 20, 2012

Today I went to The Scallion Korean restaurant in Ames, Iowa, with my dad Shawn. The restaurant was a street restaurant, not very fancy. But when you go inside it is very fancy -- it's clean, it's colorful and small. We both ordered the bi bim bop.

Bi bim bop is a mix of rice, vegetables and meat. Sometimes it has sauce in it. The sauce makes it very good. It was in a very hot bowl -- I couldn't touch it because it was super hot. I touched it once and it burnt my hands. The rice goes in on the bottom, the vegetables go next. There was zucchini, seaweed, carrots, bean sprouts. And then pork. That was the only kind of meat. And then an egg goes on top. It wasn't scrambled, it was like the white on the outside and yellow on the in part. You're supposed to stir it up so you don't have to take big bite. I tried the spicy red sauce. I didn't like it because it kind of tasted bitter and hot, and the flavor I didn't like. The bi bim bop was good. It was so colorful and it was a mix of funky flavors and that's why it was great.

 

 

We also got dumplings. The dumplings came with soy sauce. The dumplings had a wonton wrapper. A wonton wrapper is like a crunchy kind of good food. It was fried to make it crunchy. They put vegetables and meat inside the wonton. They tasted great with the soy sauce on them. Four came in the order. They were big. I ate three and Shawn ate one.

Restaurant rating: Thumbs Up!

You should go to Ames, Iowa, to The Scallion and try the bi bim bop and the dumplings.

From the Archives: Bells vs. Tacos

Originally published: March 23, 2012

On Friday I went to Taco Bell in Ames, Iowa. I got the Nachos Supreme and Dr. Pepper for a drink. I tried the Nachos Supreme -- it was good. It was delicious. It tasted like cheese, avocado, meat and beans and tortilla chips and tomatoes. It looked kind of like a taco that wasn't in a shell, but tasted great. All the interesting flavors mixed together tasted great. It tasted crispy and like there were lots of vegetables in it. The colors were pretty. That's why I liked it so much, because remember I told you that the colors of the food make the food better. The pop tasted like cherry and coke mixed together.

I went to Taco Bell because we were having a late start. We were originally going somewhere else but the time was so late that we had to just pick between that place and Taco Bell, and Taco Bell was the choice. It's one of my favorite restaurants. This is the first time I ever got nachos at Taco Bell so that's why I picked them. I wanted to eat something new.

That kind of food isn't that good for you but it's really good. It's OK to have every once in awhile, but it's not OK to have it like the guy in Super Size Me movie. I want to see that movie sometime. I want to see what that guy eats all the time. He goes to McDonald's for a month and that's all he eats. And I want to figure out what he eats there at McDonald's and what the effects will be on him.

Do you have any suggestions for where I should go to next? I'm looking for a place with dumplings and pupusas. I'm looking for the best sandwiches and I know one place I could look -- it's either Arby's or Hardee's. It will probably be Hardee's.

Restaurant Rating: Thumbs Up again!

You should go to Taco Bell anywhere, it doesn't have to be in Ames, Iowa, it can be in Des Moines or wherever they have it. Make sure to try the Nachos Supreme. Be thinking what my next review will be about. Bye!

From the Archives: Billy Is a Buzzard

Originally published: March 29, 2012

After school, Bo, I and Keesia went to a big bridge that is kind of shaped in a loop. It was kind of creepy if you looked down because you were like 25 feet up above the Des Moines River.

Then after that we got into the van and drove off to Buzzard  Billy's, we thought it wasn't packed, but it was packed a whole bunch and there weren't any parking spaces. And then a car moved out but another car took that space and we had to drive in circles and circles around Buzzard Billy's. When one woman finally moved out, we got the chance to get in. And the door was very, very far away from our parking spot. But I was still happy. Until I went inside and we had to wait. But I played on Shawn's phone and Grandma Katy was there, too. We waited for an hour and I spent most of my time on the phone.

And when we were about to just leave, BUZZZZZZ!!! Our table detector buzzed and that's how we knew when we were free to find a table. I got there and it was a BIG table, HUGE actually.But it was fine. It had steps on it because it was so high. The show, Big Bang Theory, was on -- the brand new episode. It had STAR TREK.

And then our appetizers came. It was breaded crawfish with some sort of sauce and breaded alligator with another type of sauce. The outside tasted crispy and crunchy. It was kind of tasting like a potato. The inside of the crayfish kind of tasted like a shrimp, and it also looked like a shrimp too. The sauce was spicy and it was kind of textury -- the colors were strange but it tasted good. The alligator's outside tasted the same, too. The inside tasted like normal meat. And the sauce was watery and it tasted kind of like salad dressing. It tasted GOOOODDDD.

 Breaded crawfish appetizer

 Breaded gator appetizer

I decided what I ordered because it had a variety of food and also because it sounded very good. I ordered Crayfish Combo. It might sound strange, but it had hush puppies, which are awesome, and breaded crayfish and some rice, lots of rice, and crayfish etouffee. Crayfish etouffee is kind of like a sauce except it's kind of like beans. It looks like beans but tastes like fish. It was kind of spicy and sweet at the same time. It's a flavor I've never had before. It tasted good and strange at the same time. The hush puppies, on the other hand, tasted delicious! The outside tasted like a corndog and the inside tasted like sweetness combined with sweet potatoes and muffins. And the rice, however, tasted great and it had some green onions in it and other stuff. It tasted like fried rice -- textury and sweet and kind of crunchy. And then the breaded crayfish, as I told you from my appetizer. I drank the rest of my drink, which was Diet Coke, as usual.

 Eating a hush puppy

 The end of our meal

We got our check. We got out of the table. I snuck two mints with nobody knowing because I really love mints. We got into the van. We drove home. And by the time we got home it was 8:20 OR SOMETHING!!!!

Restaurant Rating: Thumbs Down for the time we got to our table, but Thumbs Up for the Food!

You should go to Buzzard Billy's. It is brand new, right by Barratta's, Allplay and Forte. You should also try for appetizers the breaded crayfish and alligator. Make sure to get there early or else you will be  cursed by a thousand-minute wait.

My 10 Days in Kansas

This week I got back from Overland Park, Kansas. I was there for 10 days at my cousin's house. I had to be in the car for four hours. If you are in a car for four hours you can nap or watch movies on a DVD player or draw and other things that I don't know about.

I want to tell you about some fun things to do in Overland Park.

#1 The Farmstead
The Farmstead is a farm activity place where you can go through a hut that indians make, into a goat place where you can feed goats, and other fun stuff. The day we went it was hot, really hot. And you should go to the gift shop and the ice cream and snack place. I got mango raspberry sorbet. My cousin Theron got chocolate cookie dough. My aunt Heidi got water.

You can also go to the playgrounds, the fishing ponds, play areas, and the big barn slide. My favorite part of the Farmstead was the ice cream and the barn slide.

#2 The City Pool
The city pool (Tomahawk Ridge Aquatic Center) goes from 1 inch at the very, very shallow end and maybe up to as deep as 10 feet. On the slides you can either use an inner tube or just go down without one. I used an inner tube but finally I gave it up because when I first trying going down without one it was funner that way. You can only dive at the diving board end. But you can jump in at the shallow end or the other end if  you know how to swim or if you can touch there.

If you have a little brother or sister, they could either be in the shallow end or go to the little kid pool, which is for little kids. They can go on a little slide or play in the sand area. I'm not sure my brother could touch in the big pool at the end with the slides. But I can touch at that end. It's only 3 feet and 3 inches deep at that end.

#3 Lego Store at Oak Park Mall
You should try out the Lego Store at Oak Park Mall and get super hero sets, or any other kind of Lego sets. I liked this store because it was filled with Legos and I really like Legos. You might like to try the Disney Store at the mall. And girls could go to the American Girl store. My grandma gave me money to spend and I got this cool X-Men Lego set. And I picked out a Lightning McQueen and Finn McMissile set from the Lego store. And my cousin got two dolls from the Disney store.

 My face looks like this because the sun was in my face so I had to like close my eyes. 

The only new things that I really, really thought were awesome were the super hero Lego sets and the Avengers. 

#4 The Sushi House

The Sushi House is a place where you can get sushi and bento boxes and other Japanese food. I got a sushi combo #2 -- three pieces of sushi and three California rolls. One sushi piece was an egg on top of some rice, and it was wrapped up in seaweed. Another was eel with some good tasting sauce on it. Well, you know how the eel tastes, right? But the saucy stuff was new -- that sauce that tastes like barbecue, eel teriyaki. And the third piece was crab and the crab just was like, you know, it tasted crabby. It was good. And I got a cherry coke with a cherry inside of it and an umbrella was on it. It was good sushi, but I have had some great sushi too. I have lots of favorite sushi places. 

#5 Seussville University at Johnson County Community College

My mom and aunt signed us up for Seussville -- this college thing. It was four days long. We went for four hours each morning, it was a looonnng time. We learned about Dr. Seuss and we did crafts. It was pretty good. It got a little bit boring because mostly it was crafts and reading books and other activities. On the last day we went to Seussville.com and you could play games there. I liked that site. I think other kids might like it, but I'm not absolutely sure. 

#6 Hawthorne Suites

My mom and brother and baby sister came to visit me over the weekend. Me, my cousin, my mom and my baby sister were at the hotel. This hotel may seem like it looks like summer camp, and we got a cheap room but it turned out that we thought it was the best room. It had a whole bunch of things, even a sleeping sofa! Two big screen TVs, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. They had these bagels where you put cream cheese on them and they taste delicious! And they had cereal in their breakfast place and they have this awesome pool with little diving boards and I could go off them into deep water. 

One of my least favorite shows is on in this photo because my brother was watching it and he watches weird shows a lot and he didn't nap that day but I did. I'm holding Violet and I had to watch that show even though it was boring.

And that's pretty much my trip. I had a fun time. I hope to come back this fall and do other things, like for my mom to come, and go to Lego Land, and the Sea Life Aquarium. 

Here are other things you can do in Kansas City:

• T-Rex Cafe -- lots of model dinosaurs that move, lots of special effects and the best cafe that I have been to, well, almost. Well, one of my favorite cafes! My favorite cafe might be Zombie Burger in Des Moines.
• World War I Museum -- I liked the big tanks and the new exhibit, "Man and Machine," and the gift shop and all the guns
• Fireworks factories -- I like the fireworks factory because there are like a million fireworks there. And if my dad is there he would pick out like a million huge fireworks, big ones like dangerous ones. He is the fireworks man. The last time I was there I picked out a dinosaur firework and the dinosaur was on a little car thingee and it rolled around when you lit it. 
• The train restaurant -- Fritz's Railroad Restaurant -- this is a restaurant where little trains on tracks above you deliver your food, it's a good restaurant