Sparrow's Chuncky Veggie Dip

Last night I made something amazing, so amazing that I felt it necessary to share it with you today.  After a tasty trip to my local Grower’s Direct, if you’ve never been I suggest you look into it; I had a refrigerator full of fresh veggies that were just begging to be munched on, but what to eat first?   In truth they all looked amazing and it was all I could do to keep from eating it all on my way out of the store, so now that I was home I wanted it all!  I craved fresh and crunch, also I really just wanted to chop something, and thus “Sparrow’s chunky veggie relish salsa thingy” was born!

So what’s in it?  Well here’s what you’ll need:

1. ¼ a white onion
2. Half a large cucumber
3. 1 medium vine ripe tomato
4. 4-5 radishes
5. A few dashes of lemon juice

Now please take out your aggression by chopping the crap out of each tasty morsel!  I took the time to get out my issues with my credit card bill being due and the fact that it was going to be Monday in a few hours.

Next place all of these in a container with a lid.  I chose our “Mr Lid” tall container because the lid is built on.  Amazing invention, horrible company… That’s a stink for another day…  Placing a dash or several into the container you may now close and shake.  Shake with the vigor of a thousand suns!

Once you have shaken the life out of that container, open your bag of tortilla chips, I recommend the Have’a Chip corn chips because the salt in the soy treatment give it a real pop!  Scoop and enjoy!  

Dirty Dogz: A Great Take on an Old Favorite

As I venture out into the world in search of new fun and exciting activities I found myself once again at the last Arcade on the Planet for another night of 80’s vintage arcade play and a little surprise that was the Dirty Dogz Hot Dog cart.  Relatively new to the cart game opening March of this year, they’ve created a bit of a stir in Long Beach.  I’m not one who really likes hot dogs, it’s a texture thing, but I was really surprised by tasty selection.

When we walked up I was a bit confused due to the simple signage and lack of posted menus but was greeted quickly with a clear lay out and vast select ion via laminated menu.  Being as I’m near sighted I was really happy to see this because I hate not knowing what I want and then being pressured to make a snap decision.  I’m a Libra weigh like to weigh the options.

Speaking of options, this cart doesn’t skimp on selection with several options from chili to a garden option.  Starting with the “dog” itself offering selections like a 100% beef dog to a polish sausage, you immediately feel like you are in control of your hot dog destiny!  After that they have quite a few different options as far as put together combinations some even involving everything from buffalo sauce to chopped cucumbers.  However, if you cannot find one that you’d fancy, no worries for they have the option of building your own.

So for the two of us, that is adorable Adam and I, we settled on trying each side of the spectrum.  First mine, I selected the garden dog with a polish sausage, no pepperchinies or feta cheese.  What I received was a polish sausage covered in cucumbers, diced tomatoes, onions and red wine vinaigrette on a king’s Hawaiian roll.  To say that it was a glorious dog, from someone who generally hates dogs is no easy feat, but I’ll be damned… it was good!  What I was most impressed with was the amount of fresh toppings, they make sure you get what you pay for and in today’s food truck world that’s nearly nonexistent.  The only draw is the vinaigrette soaked the roll so that it was soggy and didn’t hold up under the weight.  Perhaps if the roll had been toasted, it would have held together a tad better, not complaining… more of suggesting.

Adam settled on the “Dirtier Dog” which was a chili cheese dog with Fritos chips crumpled on top.  It’s a classic staple in the hot dog world.  Not really much to say , it was a well-cooked dog with a lovely element of crunch.  Once again however, the soft bun had little support and it seemed soggy and cold at the end.

In the end, I have to say it was a pleasure doing business with them.  As for the value, for the two dogs we paid 10 and a 2 buck tip which was more than fair.  The speed of service was proof enough that this outfit is going places, and I hope to see them again real soon.