When the NHL went on strike back in 2004 I was a bit surprised to discover that professional hockey wasn’t as popular around the U.S. as it was in Detroit. With the Tiger’s yearly battle against the Kansas City Royals for last place in the American League, the Red Wings caught fire in the second half of the 90’s giving way to a new spring tradition of playing street hockey after school until 7 O’clock, when the wings would take the ice. Hockey players have a repuation of being superstitous, especially goaltenders.

 

Chris Osgood was the first player to introduce me to the playoff beard via locker room interview on WDIV. Every year those who believe in the beard will shave before game one of the first playoff series and let their facial hair grown until their team wins the cup or are bounced from the playoffs. The marketing folks over at the Joe have decided to make this a rallying cry for this year’s playoffs coining “The Beard is Back” as the 2009 postseason motto.

Since the Tournament of Sandwiches was so moderately successful and I respect a good beard I bring you…. Battle of the Beards.

BATTLE OF THE BEARDS will run until the end of the Red Wing’s playoff run, whoever has the most votes at the end wins.

For more playoff beard skullduggery visit Red Wings Beard Central

http://redwings.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=31385

or

www.playoffbeard.com

Mazel Tov (or is it Mazal Tov?). Passover, the week long Jewish celebrtation commemorating God killing the first borns of Egypt in order to free the enslaved Hebrews, begins today. In the Old Testament God unleashed ten plagues on the Egyptians which would result in the death of every family’s first born child. The Jews were instructed to mark their door steps with the blood of a spring lamb, letting the  vengeful Lord know they were Jewish and to pass over their homes with his ten plagues shenanigans. Even though God was kicking ass and taking names the Jews had to escape in such a hurry they couldn’t wait for their bread to rise, making passover the “Festival of Unleavened bread.”

For years coke has been made with high fructose corn syrup, a low cost sugar substitute made with…well corn. Corn is a leavening agent which means it’s to be cut out of the Jewish diet for a week every April. Since the Jewish population is so prevalent here in the United States and around the world, the Coca Cola company opens  a special production line, supervised by a Rabbi to make a Kosher Coke alternative with sucrose instead of corn syrup to. Passover Coke is hard to find but flies off the shelf wherever it’s sold.

In a blind taste test, 2 out of 3 participants were able to indentify the difference between passover and regular coke. The passover coke has slightly less fizz and a lighter, barely distinguishable hint of citrus, it also doesn’t feel as heavy in your stomach after drinking. Most people who tried the Passover edition liked it except for one hardcore Coke drinker who said “If Coke tasted like that, I wouldn’t drink it.”

Passover Coke can be found locally at One Stop Kosher Market on Greenfield Road, right off 696 north of 10 Mile on the border of Southfield and Oak Park.

25155 Greenfield Road

(248) 569-5000

*To my Jewish readers*

I did my best to be thorough in my reasearch for this entry. If there are any inaccuracies don’t hestitate to correct me in the comments and I will edit them accordingly.

2009 Tournament of Sandwiches Champion

The origin of this sandwich, which is most often associated with hotels around the world, is all a matter of speculation and guesswork. The name probably comes because of its popularity at resorts and country clubs. It definitely existed in the United States by the late 19^th century. The Club Sandwich was the favorite of former King Edward VIII of England and his wife, Wallis Simpson. In fact, she took great pride in preparing this sandwich.

-http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Sandwiches/ClubSandwich.htm

One hot debate that raged throughout the tournament was whether or not the hamburger was infact a sandwich.

My friend Stevie, whose part of the mainstream media conspiracy decided to do some investigative reporting. He stumbled across a 2006 court case between Qdoba and Panera Bread where Massachusuetts Judge Jeffrey A Locke ruled that anything edible, placed between two slices of bread can be classified as a sandwich.

“In his ruling, Locke cited Webster’s definition of a sandwich and explained that the difference comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla: ‘A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos, and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans,’ he wrote”

-http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/11/10/arguments_spread_thick/

Detroit is a buzz this week about being the host city for the Final Four (of sandwiches.) 75 votes, which is about 74 more than I was expecting, have been tallied from first round, round robin action. Peanut butter and jelly mounted a late game rally but in the end the hamburger, grilled cheese, club sandwich and reuben made it to the promised land.

Final four action will be more tournament style pitting sandwich vs. sandwich. The staff here at Mike Eats Detroit.com have been working dilligently: rounding up and hiding the bums, putting up fake store fronts in abandoned buildings, picking up trash on the side of the information super highway and increasing it’s police presence in hopes of making this week an enjoyable experience for tournament goers.

Vote early, vote often; if millions of people can vote for something silly like American Idol or the President, they can take a few minutes out of their day to vote for something that actually matters like their favorite sandwich.

P.S. It turns out the NCAA has ripped off my idea and are slapping a couple of exhibition basketball games together down at Ford Field this weekend.

MIKEEATSDETROIT LIVES!

Much like everyone else in these hard economic times I have been hoarding my money and not spending it on restaurant reviews. It’s March and to be honest i’ve never had much of an interest in basketball, let alone college basketball but i’ve always had a keen interest in sandwiches. So what the heck, in the interest of the March tournament and sandwiches, I present to you

The Tournament of Sandwiches

 

 

 

The Contenders

Club Sandwich

 

 

 

 

Grilled Cheese

 

Ham and Cheese

 

Hamburger

 

Peanut Butter and Jelly

 

Reuben

 

Slim Jim

 

Submarine Sandwich (could include the cheese steak)

 

Turkey and Swiss

 

Knuckle Sandwich

Cast your vote

So I log onto Digg.com yesterday and see that this picture is the #1 dugg link of the day. 

Seems like a pretty good idea doesn’t it? I wish somebody would have thought of it sooner. Oh wait, I did.

http://mikeeatsdetroit.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/recipe-pregnant-construction-worker/

I can’t really classify this as a “man meal recipe” since it’s more  like something a 3rd grader with the munchies would eat, but I tried it, liked it and decided to post it.

Ingredients:

1 Rice Crispy Treat

Peanut Butter

Jelly

Some kind of cutting/spreading device

*Ignore the bottle of cough medicine behind the JIF as it is not an ingredient in the PBJRCT.

Procedure:

1. Cut rice crispy treat in half.

2. Spread peanut butter and jelly onto Rice Crispy Treat halves as desired.

3. Stack Rice Cripsy Treat halves onto of each other with the peanut butter and jelly facing each other.

I ran this idea by my buddy Mike at work.

He suggested that the size of two rice crispy treats stacked on top of each other might be a bit much for some folks, so for those who can’t unhinged your jaws like a python eating a medium sized rodent, theres an option where you can turn the Rice Crispy Treat over on its side and cut it in half like so.

If you are a big fan of marshmallows feel free to experiement with some peanut butter fluff between the PB & J. If you’re feeling real adventerous or just hope to become more obese, try topping  with whipped cream and cinnamon. In the Peanut Butter and Jelly Rice Crispy treat, the peanut butter is neutralized by the rice crispy treat itself but is neccesary for texture and to highlight the flavor of the jelly. It is best to use both a butter knife and some sort of steak knife, the steak knife for cutting the rice crispy treat and the butter knife for applying the PB and J.

For the past few months I have heard Glenn Haege (America’s Master Handyman heard on News/Talk 760 WJR Saturday and Sundays Noon-2pm) talk about Hippo’s Chicago Style Hot Dogs in Troy.

I’ve never heard of “The Vienna Beef Hotdog Hall of Fame” or really know what it is, all I know is that Hippos is in it and has been voted best hot dogs by The Detroit News, Detroit Monthly Magazine and WDIV. Hippo’s menu boasts 8 different types of hot dogs along with various polish sausage, italian sausage and italian meat selections. I would have loved to try all 8 hot dog selections but I decided on the three most enticing and name them….The Gauntlet.

#1 The Hippo Dog-I’m guessing since this dog shares it’s name with the restaurant it must be the calling card. The Hippo dog is a Vienna Beef frank topped with mustard, relish, onion, tomato, pickle and sport peppers which kind of sneak up on you. It may take a little work but I would suggest eating the Hippo Dog the old fashioned way, sans fork since the toppings compliment each other so well when eaten together. One dog down, a light snack, two to go.

#2 New York Dog-To be honest if there is a geographical location tagged onto the beginning of something edible, chances are i’m going to eat it. Topped with relish, mustard and grilled sauerkraut the New York Dog is a classic case of sweet and sour(kraut.) Sauerkraut is a polarizing side dish, people either love it or hate it with a passion, take this into account when ordering. Two down, an adequate lunch but still going strong.

#3 Ultimate Dog- I have to admit, this one almost put me out of business. With it’s quarter pound frank, tomatoes, saurekraut, double helping of chili and mixture of olives, onions peppers and carrots known as gardiniera, I was feeling like Rocky in the latter rounds of prize fight against Apollo Creed. I often pride myself on being able to eat anything by hand but I had no choice but to eat this with a fork, piece by piece but I overcame.

The Aftermath

Hippo Dog

1648 Rochester Road (North of Maple) in Troy

248-524-9778

www.hipposhotdogs.com

*Stop at the ATM machine since Hippos is ca$h only.

Deminski and Doyle are back on the air, mornings 6-10 on 94.7 WCSX.

Since I am not up early enough in the morning to catch the show, I visit their page on wcsx.com quite often for podcasts and madcap zaniness.

The other day I logged onto their page and found a link they had posted to an online service they may become bigger than craigslist: The McRib Locator.

The McRib, not be confused with the RibWich is a cultural phenomenon. Eating a McRib is sort of like watching porn, it’s kind of frowned upon, the religious right denounces it but more people do it than are willing to admit it. For those of you who aren’t affraid to step out of the McRib closet the locator can be found at:

http://kleincast.com/maps/mcrib.php

The McRib locator allows users to enter sightings and breaks the McRib sightings down into 4 categories:

Hot and Spicy- McRib spotted in the past 10 days.

McRibs are Getting Cold-McRib Spotted more than 10 days Ago.

Questionable McRib Sighting- in the Past 10 Days

Questionable McRib Sighting-More than 10 Days Ago

The bad news is that the only sightings on the map are questionable sightings in the past 10 days with Pennsylvania being the closest. The good news is that there have been 160 McRib sightings in the past 7 day. Heres hopin’.