Roadfood junkie at Shriner’s Surf and Turf Cookout

Roadfood by boat, are you kidding me? I was invited by friends to attend the 33rd annual Shriner’s Surf and Turf. Wasn’t that a party?
They sure know how to put on a fund raiser.

Who are the Shriners? They are an organization who raise money for kid’s hospitals. The branch holding this cookout were the Parry Sound branch.

The Surf and Turf was held at cottage country in the Georgian Bay area near Snugs Harbor in the District of Parry Sound. I really not sure if it was on mainland or one of the 30,000 islands. Yes! You heard correct, there are 30,000 islands and maybe more, we travelled by boat to get to the party. A Shriner member donated his property for the event and a beautiful piece of property it was. It was a well planned event with a large barge docked with at least six outhouses.

During the course of the day they had plenty to eat. Trays of smoke fish and smoked sausage were passed around continuously, along with huge veggie trays and dip. It was hard to leave room for the main event; Hips of beef and battered Pickerel along with four or five salads.

It was a great day and a good time was had by all. That is what these events are all about, good food, good times a day out with good friends.

The Shriners’are an organization that do good work to provide a better life for kids through medical care and hospitals. They wear those funny looking sand pail hats with a tassel and are not from the Middle East. Just a great group of guys who work hard to raise funds for less fortunate kids.

We travelled to the party aboard the red Tug.

On our way out of Snug Harbor on Georgian Bay. Day started out overcast but the sun came out for a great day.

The Snug Harbor Lighthouse.

The boys are arriving, the party can begin.

The beef is on the barbi.

The Turf part is looking good, another hour and we can check out the results.

Pickerel is the Surf part of the hungry equation.
These boys are cooking up a batch of fried Pickerel.

It was a great couple of days in the north country. Ontario has some of the most beautiful cottage country.

Roadfood cooks, How hungry are you?

Road food junkie sometimes wonder if collecting recipes is an addiction.
Do you search for recipes?
Do you save recipes?
How many of those saved recipes would ever make it to the table and they never quite turn out the way they look in pictures. Some don't even rank as edible recipes and don't forget there is the clean-up afterwards.

Maybe that is why I like to dine out but then again -
where am I going to get a Spam sandwich? Fried Spam, fried onions, fried sauerkraut,mustard....so good and my cholesterol never went over the top.

Now I better go find a good recipe for my next diet meal.

Eating out roadfood diners and dives

Reviewing the places one eats at, certainly has its pit falls.On a recent roadfood roadtrip I gave glowing comments for a excellent dinner at a little known place. The place was small but the price,food,and service were great.We chose to go back a second time a week later for a breakfast buffet.
What could go wrong with a breakfast? In this case, it was a disaster.

Read the full review A Roadfood junkie review

Very unfortunate because their dinner was so good. I am sure they had a bad day that can be easily corrected.The roadfoodjunkie will give them a couple of weeks and then go back for another review.

Roadfood junkie Travel Tip

Roadfood junkie loved Texas and South Padre Island. It is a great place to go for a vacation and really good roadfood. The prices and service are exceptional, there are always specials to be found. Tons of places to eatout at, satisfying most hungry vacationers.

A car rental misadventure.
You need to get there. We flew into Huston, Tx from Detroit. Our travel arrangements were made through a local travel agent whom we had never dealt with before. A return flight that included a rental car(Alamo) for two weeks. May have to pay some local taxes. Sounded good, we had used Alamo rental before in Florida.

Alamo Car rental gouged us.
We were shocked to find those local taxes added up to $219.20. They really weren’t taxes, more like additional expenses that we had never been told about.
Customer Facility Charge $3,00 per day = $42.
Alamo busing recovery fee.(shuttle to kisok) 4.49
Concession recoup fee @ 11% 45.59
Vehicle License cost recover 2.34 per day 32.76
Motor Vehicle retail tax 10% 47.48
Harris Sports Auth tax 5% 23.74
Fuel service option 23.14 (this one I agree with- fuel)

3 months after returning I got another charge of $35 supposedly for a violation which I have no recollection of. Thanks to Visa they refused payment.

Roadfood junkie Travel tips.
Call Visa or other(credit card company) and advise them of your travel plans; When leaving and when returning. Tell them to accept no further charges from the travel destination upon your return.

Know complete details of rental agreement; the taxes, hidden or otherwise.

Know your Travel agent, get all travel details up front. Dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Beware! when the agent say’s there may be an extra charge. They should know all the details of your destination. Ours told us it was a couple hour drive from Houston to South Padre. It was a six hours drive with no stopping in between.

Unfortunately, the travel agent and Alamo Rental has lost our business forever.

A roadfood junkie beer review

Roadfood junkie while surfing for information regarding a good White Ale happened to hit upon a beer review site (a forum). I don’t know what the heck the review is talking about, I am not sure whether to laugh, or shake my head in confusion. I have come to the conclusion after reading the beer review over several times, that the writer has inspirations of becoming a politician and practicing fork tongue conversation.

Roadfood junkie warns you up front,the following is not my writing but some beer connoisseur wannabe whose write-up I have copied and pasted below. You will shake your head like a bobble doll and walk away talking to yourself as I did. Nothing has been changed, neither spelling, nor grammatical errors.

The Beer Review
For a Molson product it’s pretty good considering the route they are trying to go down. But this is no more than a poorman’s White. I could realistically rate this anywhere between 1.8 and 2.8. I wouldn’t even put a bottle of this on the same table as most others but I am very happy that I am not assaulted by ripe bananas cause that is just freaking annoying after awhile. I’ve had this on tap before but this review is from the White poured out of a bottle. Decent Metamucil appearance and a large white cap (too rocky) that has steady retension just above total surface cover with so-so spotty and minor ropy lacing. I was very suprised to see a bunch of brown sediment pour out into the crown. I remember the aroma on tap being alot better. This is an odd citrus scent with cardboard, something spicy (not sure if it is coriander) but maybe has a nutty quality - not too sure about that as there is something here that I cannot nail down. I know there was more lemon scent on tap. Taste is fake in comparision to anything else of the style. The dominant fruit flavour would be oranges. There is a decent ammount of spices as well. The flavour finishes with some sourness. Mouthfeel is fairly smooth with ample carbonation. Finishes with a slight spice and a bit more bitterness than expected but overall it’s not a bad thing. With all the negative things said, this is still a drinkable beer, but I cannot see myself bothering ordering it. I’ll order a Rickards Red and be less dissapointed....but still dissapointed. Now I’m wondering if a 1.9 is too generous...I think it is. As a Wheat Ale this is 86% crap and obviously a terrible attempt to copy the style. As an alternate to other brews from the big 2 breweries here in Canada this is a decent product and I’m glad to see some progression towards flavourful beer. Per style this is a very low end beer. As for drinkablity and enjoyment it does pretty good. I’ve rated on style.

I believe,I have been too generous in my expectations and review of my favorite beverage.

So the next time I want a beer,I am going to consider the crown that is not too rocky but with a decent Metamucil with a large white cap that has retentions and minor roping with a so-so spotty that is not fake on the mouth feel so I will be less disappointed. As for drinkability and enjoyment it does pretty good but is crap.

For more great Ontario reviews

Time out with friends

A great day dining with good friends. Family and friends kicks dining up a couple of notches.There is nothing more enjoyable than meeting at a restaurant and discussing world events and the happenings on the home front. The menu gets well covered as much as world events. Laughter and fun times is what dining out is all about, seconded by good food. If the mood isn't there, the taste isn't there.

As the old saying goes, "take time to smell the roses". In this case, take time to appreciate the hard work the staff goes through every day to bring food to your table. If your unhappy there is no sense trying to ruin some one else's day; Stay home or write the restaurant off your 'dining-out list'. You know, the one with the heading - Places to never go back too.

Your first choice could be, go to www.roadfoodjunkie.com for recommended restaurants, we certainly don't fall in the category of food snobs.We just enjoy having a good time, eating good food, with fun service and still have a little change left over after paying the bill.

Roadfood Junkie asks, To tip, or not to tip

Basically, I consider roadfood junkie a good tipper. But tipping has become a habit, a requirement, no reason, other than being served food.The staff work for wages same as everyone...Why tip?

The thoughts behind tipping is because a person receives extra ordinary service. Friendly efficient service, with a smile.
Many of today's servers are untrained and putting in their time. They don't go that extra mile to earn a tip. Travel to other countries, you will see there is little tipping.

Why have we adopted the American way of life and tip for any kind of service, good, bad or downright ugly?
We need to get back to tipping for good service.

A hard day on the water

Fishing has been tough this year. We hear, "you should have been here yesterday", quite often this year.
Our favorite lady is one who fillets our fish for a small fee. While she is busy we slip into Port Dover and have a bite to eat. Usually our favorite stop is the Norfolk Tavern. Two major reasons,they have room for us to park truck and boat, and the lady behind the counter is one of the nicest(remembers us year to year).
But fortunately, the food is not great at times. The beer is always fine.This weeks chicken wings were raw in the middle. Yuck.