Tag: Sprinkles Cupcakes

Have You Ever Tasted Food Meant for a Dog?

I’m a fan of the show “Shark Tank.” If you’re not familiar with the show the basic synopsis is for entrepreneurs to come before a panel of five potential investors to pitch their projects and companies. If the “Sharks” like their business, or sometimes just have faith in the people, they will offer an investment in the company. There are four people who are the regulars as investors, namely Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, and Robert Herjevec, with the final spot rotated by Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner. Each potential investor has their field of expertise and unique personality so for most of the dreamers on the show there is someone there, if the business seems like a good fit and the partnership seems workable, that they will get the mentor of their dreams, or at least a reasonable offer for the smart ones to take and the idiot ones to turn down.

With the show’s simple format, my love of seeing new ideas and projects, sometimes quirky personalities of the entrepreneurs, and the attitudes of the investors, its an entertaining hour of “Why didn’t I think of that?”, “That’s a perfect fit for so-and-so to work with them!”, “That person is an idiot for not taking that deal!”, and “Good for them!” comments. It was the other day that I saw something I never thought I would see, however, and it wasn’t Robert Herjevec dropping a dog. Nope, it was seeing Matt and Meg Meyer, two quirky dog lovers, with their business of frozen yogurt treats for dogs, getting the “Sharks” to taste dog food. Okay, technically it wasn’t dog food, it was doggie yogurt, but it is always fun to also see the investors “try” the products and this was no exception, especially the reactions of Mark and Robert. Matt and Megg didn’t get any takers for their business, as seems to be the norm for people pitching dog products (It keeps looking to me like it’s a bitch of a business to get into on a national scale), however, the episode did stir up an old plight idea I have had for a while, as every now and then, since we have a dog and sometimes see interesting treats for him (the cupcakes at Sprinkles seemed like the closest I would have gotten to do it), I sometimes wonder how those treats taste. I mean, his beef jerky treats don’t seem to be any different from some of the jerky you would find in the candy isle, his little cookies smell wonderful with their pumpkin aroma, and in looking at the ingredients for most of the things we get him, nothing looks that horrible, but I have yet to bridge that gap into dog treat taste-testing as the “Sharks” have seemed to now crossed. And so I plight: Have you ever tasted food meant for a dog?

If you have, I would also love your comments if you found it any good, or if your reaction was one of “Yuck” as was the reaction of the “Sharks,” but in any case…

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!!!  L8R!!!

Have you ever had an egg roll with peanut butter in it?

The other day my wife said the oddest thing, or so I thought. She said that she was craving a good egg roll, which I must admit that every now and then I crave a good egg roll as well (My go-to when I was working in Chicago for an awesome egg roll was Chinatown Cafe at 2604 S Wentworth). That wasn’t the odd thing. The odd thing was her saying the best egg roll she ever had was made with peanut butter. I looked at her with confusion, and she told me that in her travels, she found that “authentic” egg rolls are made with peanut butter in them. And so our quest began

As our travels yesterday took us into Chicago, we had three goals: 1) Get a free cupcake from Sprinkles Chicago when they tweet their word of the day. 2) Get an italian lemonade from Mario’s on Taylor Street. 3) Find a restaurant that put peanut butter in their egg rolls. So the internet search began.

It turns out there were a few restaurants that put peanut butter in their egg rolls, but for convenience and decent reviews, we decided on Seven Treasures Cantonese Cuisine at 2312 S Wentworth in the heart of Chinatown in Chicago. My taste buds were delighted that our goals were achieved this day, my diet plan – not so much, but with the Sprinkles Whisper-of-The-Day being “Jackpot” we scored free vanilla milk-chocolate cupcakes, had a watermelon italian ice at Mario’s, and I was able to try an egg roll made with peanut butter in it, and I must say it was very tasty, tasty enough to make me second guess the next time I’m craving an egg roll and now I’m going to have to decide between Chinatown Cafe and Seven Treasures.

With the day complete my plight is this: Have you ever had an egg roll with peanut butter in it?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!