BobBuskirk.com » Food

Tim Ferris is back with the 4-Hour Chef!

Bob Buskirk — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:49:31 +0000

If you follow me on twitter or Instagram you know I love food and I love cooking, that is why I am super excited for Tim Ferris’s new book the 4-Hour Chef! Tim’s book the 4-Hour Workweek really changed how I thought about time management and made all of my businesses more successful. I really like Tim’s writing style and the way he is straight forward with things. Here is what the 4-Hour Chef is all about…

The tagline for the book is, “The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life”. Time says, “The book is intended to be “the cookbook for people who don’t buy cookbooks,” The 4-Hour Chef will use food as a vehicle to teach the art and science of meta-learning–the skill of learning skills. Whether you want to learn a new instrument or a new sport (or anything in between), you’ll have a field-tested and research-backed blueprint. In addition to insight from world-class chefs, we’ll have an unreal cast of characters helping you to multiply your learning potential.”

For a limited time, to celebrate the announcement, you can pre-order The 4-Hour Chef for 50-80% off. Instead of $30 for print, you can reserve a copy for $15. Instead of $22 for Kindle, you can get it for $9.99.

If you have read any of Tim’s books you know this one is going to be just as good. I can’t wait to get it and learn so much more about cooking and food!

Pho Thai Nam

Bob Buskirk — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:03:21 +0000

If you have been reading this blog for any period of time or you read my tweets you know I’m a huge fan of Pho. Pho is Vietnamese beef noodle soup and over the past few years has become one of my favorite foods. This past weekend I was in Philly for theGXL and it was dinner time and being in a new place I decided to see if there were any Pho places. A few came up and the closest was Pho Thai Nam. I went there with my good friend Colin. The menu was quite large and they offered a lot of different items. The first thing I ordered was the deep fried spring rolls, which were very good.

Next was of course Pho. They have about 10 different choices, but I went with the rare beef with tripe, which is my usual at almost every Pho place I eat at. Many people think tripe is weird and I guess you can say that it is. I really does not taste like much and has a really weird texture, but for some odd reason I do enjoy it.

Our Pho came out very quickly and was nice and hot. Everything had a good taste to it and I was very impressed. The broth was very tasty and for me it did not need any of the sauces you normally get with Pho. If you are ever in the Philly area and want some good Pho you will not be disappointed with Pho Thai Nam. I wish we could have went back so I could have tried something else!

CES Swag Contest Over

Pho Van

Bob Buskirk — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:30:02 +0000

One of my favorite types of food has to be Vietnamese food, more specifically Pho. Living in Pittsburgh there really is not a large selection of places to get Pho. I’ve already told you about Pho Minh, Vietnam’s Pho and Lulu’s Noodles. Well there is a new Pho place is town called Pho Van!

I actually found out about Pho Van through Groupon, where they were offering a $20 gift certificate for $10. Obviously I had to get it and check this new Pho place out! Pho Van is located 2120 Penn Ave. in the Strip District. The first time I went there I went with fellow ThinkComputers staff member Colin. We have been to many different Pho places together. I decided to order the #24, which is combination beef. They let you pick 3 different types of beef, I decided on rare eye of round, well done brisket and tripe.

I’ve had a lot of Pho from many different places and I was quite impressed with Pho Van! The broth tasted excellent and the meat was perfect. I like that I was able to pick 3 different types of meat as well. The #24 Pho combination was only $9 and you can’t beat that! I’ve been back to Pho Van twice since my first visit and if you like tea I would really suggest getting their Dragon Eye Oolong tea. It has to be some of the best tea I’ve ever had! If you are in the Strip and are looking for some great food definitely check out Pho Van!

Adagio Tea’s IngenuiTEA

Bob Buskirk — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:45:11 +0000

[ad#right]Since first getting into tea I have really come to enjoy it! I’ve tried so many different types of tea’s and been to quite a few tea stores here in Pittsburgh. If you live in Pittsburgh I would suggest you check out the Teavana store in Ross Park Mall, it is a great place if you don’t know that much about tea. Anyways when I first started brewing my own tea I used the Adagio Glass Mug and Infuser, which worked really well, but was a pain to clean. So I was looking around for other options and I came across the IngenuiTEA teapot from Adagio.

The thing I really liked about the IngenuiTEA was that it is very large, which means it gives the tea leafs room to fully expand as you steep your tea, which brings out more flavor. Also the way the IngenuiTEA works it makes it so less of the tea leafs and debris goes into the actual tea your drink. Here is a video of me showing you how it works…

When I made this video it was the first time I’ve ever used the IngenuiTEA so you can see how easy it is to work. Also cleaning the IngenuiTEA is easier than any other diffuser / teapot that I’ve used before. Right now the IngenuiTEA is only $15 from Amazon so I would definitely pick one up!

Vietnam’s Pho

Bob Buskirk — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:30:25 +0000

[ad#right]I’ve become a big fan of Pho over the past few years, from my first Pho in Vegas to finding out about Pho Minh in Pittsburgh. I was browsing the Pittsburgh Tweetup website and I noticed they had a Pho event coming up. My first thoughts were that it would be held at Pho Minh, but it was scheduled to be at a place called Vietnam’s Pho. Being a big fan of Pho I was surprised I had never heard of Vietnam’s Pho before. I looked it up and they even had a website! I definitely wanted to check it out so my friend Colin and I headed down for the Tweetup.

Vietnam’s Pho is located on Penn Ave. in the Strip district and by 8PM we were able to find a parking spot right in front of the place. Inside we were greeted by a very helpful staff and to my surprise it was very nice inside. The staff was nice enough to pull tables together to fit our entire group. I ordered the #11 which is the Pho Tai-Sach, which has beef and tripe in it. I’ve really come to enjoy tripe in my Pho. In no time at all our food was done and we were served. Just like most Vietnamese places the portions were quite large and the food was great. It definitely contends with Pho Minh, but I haven’t been there in quite some time so I really cannot compare the 2 yet. I would recommend that anyone looking for good Pho in Pittsburgh try Vietnam’s out. I need to go back and try some of their other dishes! Here after some photos of the food and our group.

Pho Van

SUSHISAMBA at the Palazzo

Bob Buskirk — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:19:41 +0000

When you think of Las Vegas you think huge casinos and gambling, but Las Vegas has some of the best restaurants in the county. Hell even some of the buffets are really good! I’ve had some of the best meals of my life in Vegas. The Rodizio Fire Pit at Rum Jungle was awesome, my monstrous shrimp cocktail and 22oz porterhouse at Envy Steakhouse was just great and the 5-course meal I had Zeffirino was simply amazing. Oncec again this year in Las Vegas I had one of the best meals of my life, definitely the best sushi of my life!

It was pretty late at night and Colin, Jack, Ramzi and I were originally going to go to the Pho place at Treasure Island, but it was closed. So we walked across the street to the Palazzo and ended up at Sushi Samba. Sushi Samba isn’t just a Japanese sushi place its a mix of Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine. The inside of Sushi Samba is very chill and relaxing. I started things off with a Mojito, which is becoming one of my favorite drinks.

The menu was quite big, they seemd to have a lot of things that I might have wanted to try, but I was here for Sushi! They had most of the normal Sushi you would find most places but they had many unique rolls that were a mix of Japanese, Brazilian, and Peruvian all in one. I first ordered the BoBo Brazil which is comprised of seared american kobe beef, avocado, kaiware, shiso, red onion and chimichurri. Then I was about to order a shrimp tempura roll, when our waitress told me they had this special which was a shrimp tempura roll topped with seared Japanese Kobe beef and avocado spread. So I decided on that instead.

When the Sushi was brought out I tried the BoBo Brazil rolls first and they were just great! One of the better rolls I’ve had in a long time, it had quite a lot of different flavors to it. After trying to BoBo Brazil roll I tried one of the special rolls. When I put it in my mouth it just like melted! The Japanese Kobe beef was so tender and had a taste that I never experieced before, it was amazing! There have only been a few times in my life when I ate something and was like, “Wow this food is just AMAZING!” this was one of those times. There is definitely a difference between Japanese and American kobe beef too! This was the best Sushi I’ve ever had in my life and would fly to Vegas just for it! Thats how good it was! If you are in Vegas you definitely have to check out Sushi Samba!

In Vegas for a Week

Bob Buskirk — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:48:49 +0000

Well it’s that time of year again, off to Vegas for CES. This trip is always a lot of fun and it sure gives me a break from all of the holiday madness of the past month. It also is good to get out of Pittsburgh and the cold, although it is only around 50 degrees in Vegas it is sure a lot better than like 15-20 degrees in Pittsburgh, and there is no snow!

Getting through the Pittsburgh airport was very easy, there was no line at the security check at all. We went right through and were in the terminal within 10 minutes. Instead of going right to our gate Colin and I decided to grab food so we stopped in O’Briens, which is sort of like an Irish Pub. The food wasn’t that bad, I got a steak salad.

Once we boarded our plane we seriously waited for over 30 minutes waiting for them to load luggage on to the plane. After that our plane had to be de-iced, which took another 15 minutes. Takeoff was a little bumpy, but we are finally up in the air.

If you want to track my trip you can easily do that by following me on Twitter, friending me on Facebook, following my Flickr stream, or just by checking back to this blog. Also if you want to meet up when you are in Vegas please email me or shoot me a message on twitter.

I am in Vegas for CES, which I go to every year for ThinkComputers so make sure you follow the ThinkComputers twitter account as well.

My 2009 Year in Review

Bob Buskirk — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:16:57 +0000

Wow it’s 2010! Not only a new year, but a new decade! This past year was a very good year for me, there were all kinds of ups, downs, and in between’s. If you have a blog you know how great it is that you are able to look back on things you have done and be able to see the good times, reflect on your mistakes, and just remember some things you may have forgot. So here is my 2009 year in review, hope you all enjoy it!

2009 started off like most year’s with my trip to Las Vegas for CES. Some of the highlights from that trip were the Night before CES Party, IANteract Dinner at Rum Jungle, and the PC Race for Charity. While in Vegas I also experienced my first In-N-Out Burger! It’s the best fast food ever!

The Steelers won their 6th Super Bowl! They have won more Super Bowls (6) than any other NFL team! I talked about being productive on the road. It is very important, the first couple times I tried to do work while on the road it did not work out so well!

I’m really hate negative people and I hate when I get in a negative so I gave you some ideas about how to get out of a negative mood. Celebrating St. Patty’s day in Pittsburgh is something I think everyone should experience, it was so much fun! Crazy Mocha is a local Pittsburgh coffee company and I started going there a lot.

It is always nice to get out of town, so I took a small trip to Great Falls Park and Washington, DC. I definitely need to go back there soon! As many of you know I’m a big hockey fan so I went to Pittsburgh’s first NHL Tweetup. I discovered another great sushi place, Sushi Too in Shadyside. When you work online your income streams can change a lot so I let everyone know what was making me money in 2009.

Twitter really exploded in 2009 and I showed you how to easily get 1000 followers. Brand recognition is very important and I talked about how to get that brand recognition. Star Trek was a big movie in 2009 and I gave you my thoughts on it.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been building their team for the past few years and it all payed off when they won the Stanley Cup this past year! Since I’m a hockey fan I went crazy! I was out that night too and Pittsburgh was sure a party city! Working from home can be annoying so I told you some of the things I do to escape.

Since the Pens won the Stanley Cup they had a parade downtown, you know I wouldn’t be missing that! I moved once again, this time to a more urban area very close to the city, I really like my new apartment. I was invited to Pittsburgh’s first TasteCasting at Melange Bistro Bar and it was great. I was able to give myself a vacation this year. I went to Myrtle Beach with some friends and it was a blast!

I turned 25 this year and it really gave me some time to reflect on the past 5-10 years of my life. Over the past year I really started getting into tea and now I drink it almost daily. I went to another Pittsburgh TasteCasting, this time it was at Castaways Outside Inn.

The G20 Summit was held in Pittsburgh this past year and those few days were full of surprises. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience! I started using Seesmic Desktop in 2009 and I’m still using it. The best twitter app that I’ve ever used! This summer was really a fun one for me and I did so many things, Labor Day weekend was no exception!

I finally attended PodCamp this year in Pittsburgh and it was definitely worth it! I can’t wait to go next year! I hung out quite a few times at Schenley Plaza over the summer, it is a great place to relax and even work since they have WiFi! I did some maintenance on the blog and I changed the header image to ones that rotate every hour with different sayings on them.

bit.ly is a great URL shortening service and I use it basically every day. ThinkComputers finally got a new redesign and we moved the site over to WordPress. It was an annoying process, but totally worth it! Everyone likes ThinkComputers so much better now!

Well that was my year, crazy to think that I’ve been blogging since 2005. Here is to 2010!

Awesome Labor Day Weekend

Bob Buskirk — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:59:23 +0000

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend and I sure took advantage of it! When you run your own business it is very stressful and being able to have an escape from all the craziness is nice. I started the weekend out celebrating my friend Cory’s birthday down at the new River’s Casino. If you haven’t been down there yet it is a great place to spend some money and have fun! The next day I went to a cookout at my friend Nick’s house. It was sure one hell of a cookout too, we had 3 grills going at once! All of us just relaxed, enjoyed the good food and had some beers. It was great being able to just relax.

After the cookout I headed home for a little bit then headed down to Pitt. The 2009 school year at Pitt just started and my friend Will was having a party so I decided to check it out. College parties are always fun and Will’s was no exception! It was a great first party, I think I was there till 4am!

The next morning I had to wake up early to go on my friend’s boat. We took it from the dock all the way up the river to PNC Park. Once we were there we parked it and walked up to the Rib Fest that was going on at Heinz Field. It was packed! I decided to get food and head back down to the boat. I got a half-rack of ribs from Armadillo’s and they were awesome! They fell right off the bone and the sauce was amazing! We took the boat back down the river, which was enjoyable. I’m surprised there were not that many boats out, it was a beautiful day!

After the boating trip I headed out to my friend Matt’s birthday party. With any big birthday party there was food, I think I ate more this weekend than I did all of last week! We all just hang out at Matt’s and enjoyed the nice weather.

It was great being able to spend all weekend with friends having a good time! I had 3 solid days of relaxation! If you didn’t get out this past weekend you should take a weekend and totally relax and have a good time. It is a great way to charge up for the work week!

Castaways Outside Inn

Bob Buskirk — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:05:26 +0000

Last week I headed out to Bridgeville for Pittsburgh’s second TasteCasting event! This time it was held at Castaways outside Inn, which is located right on the main drag in downtown Bridgeville. The place really isn’t hard to miss with the bright yellow awning. Castaways calls themselves a sports bar / restaurant and that is exactly what they are. Some of best food that I’ve had has been at a bar! When you come into Castaways there is a large bar area and some restaurant seating in the back. If you walk around the corner there is a door that leads to the outside area. Most of the outside area is covered, which if you know Pittsburgh weather that is a good thing! The outside area has another large bar and quite a few tables for people to sit at.

Instead of us ordering food we were served buffet style, which is nice because you get to try quite a few of their selections and you may try things you might not order regularly. They had potato salad, wings, ribs, pulled pork, and fried green beans.

Castaways is known for their wings and on Thursdays from 5:00-11:00 PM they have FREE WINGS! That’s right free wings! I don’t know of any place in Pittsburgh that does this! No one can complain about free food! I started off with a plate of wings and pulled pork. Castaways had all of their sauces out and I tried all of them. My favorite was the honey jalapeno, which has a very distinct flavor; nothing that I have tasted from any other wing place. The pulled pork was great, I could eat it all day! My second plate was mostly the ribs, which had caramelized onions on top. The ribs were cooked perfectly and fell right off the bone! I think I almost ate an entire rack myself!

The atmosphere inside and outside of Castaways was great and I wouldn’t mind spending a night here just relaxing and having a few drinks with friends. This place definitely has to be packed during Steelers and Penguin games! If you are local to Bridgeville definitely check out Castaways, you will not be disappointed!

Are you a local Pittsburgh blogger and want to be part of Pittsburgh TasteCasting? We are looking for more members so if you are interested please contact me!