Poor Boy Restaurant – Kankakee, IL

5 10 2008
  • 1514 E. Court St.
  • Kankakee, IL 60901
  • (815) 939-1880
  • No Known Website
  • No Online Menu
Poor Boy Restaurant on Court Street in Kankakee, IL

Poor Boy Restaurant on Court Street in Kankakee, IL

After twelve hours, I finally got to welcome my niece into this world.  Needless to say, after twelve hours, my sister-in-law was exhausted and hungry.  Her first meal post delivery was Wendy’s, but the next day, she wanted something deep fried.  I went back to the hospital hoping I could hold her again, but she was put under the blue lights due to the jaundice, so instead, I just got to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law. 

About 3:00, the new mom decided she was hungry, but the hospital kitchen stopped serving.  No bid deal.  LIke I said, she was really in the mood for deep fried anyway.  When she worked at a flower shop on Kankakee’s southside, Poor Boy Restaurant was a frequent stop for lunch. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chicken, Illinois, Kankakee, Restaurant, Reviews

YaYa’s Flame Broiled Chicken – Saginaw Hwy.

30 09 2008
  • 5415 W. Saginaw Hwy
  • Lansing, MI 48917
  • (517) 886-0995
  • Website
  • Menu
YaYas Flame Broiled Chicken on Saginaw Highway near the Lansing Mall.

YaYa's Flame Broiled Chicken on Saginaw Highway near the Lansing Mall.

What a great idea for a chicken restaurant.  Just the other night, I was craving chicken and considered going to Popeye’s.  Knowing I was kind of bad on my diet over the weekend, I didn’t want to splurge on fried chicken.  This afternoon, J asked me to run out to Horrocks to get some more of them delicious honey crisp apples.  She went to work a little early, so I just waited to eat lunch until after she was gone.  I made my stops at Wal-Mart and Horrocks then got thinking about lunch.  When I was working this weekend, one of the guys I worked with had said something about YaYa’s near Frandor.  For some reason, I remembered there was one near the Lansing Mall, so that’s where I went for lunch.

YaYa’s is a chain of 17 restaurants with locations in Michigan and Florida.  The first restaurant was opened in Seminole, FL in 1985, but the first franchise location was opened in Flint, MI in 1988.  There are two locations here in Lansing and both are on Saginaw Highway.  There’s this one by the mall and the other is farther down Saginaw near US 127.  This particular YaYa’s is located in a shopping plaza in a very commercialized area of Saginaw Highway. 

It was a little after two when I went looking for lunch.  There were no cars parked in front and the inside was empty.  The store is not very big.  It’s longer than it is wide and there are a handful of tables in the space to sit and eat.  The counter is located at the far end of the space.  The menu board is behind the counter above the grills where the whole chickens are butterflied and grilled.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Chicken, Lansing, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews

Munchies

30 08 2008
  • 4100 S. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
  • Lansing, MI 48910
  • (517) 887-2500
  • No Known Website
  • Menu
Munchies on MLK in Lansing. Serving up the Cheapest Wings in Town....Period!

Munchies on MLK in Lansing. Serving up the "Cheapest Wings in Town....Period!"

A few weeks ago I had to run to the Walgreens on MLK instead of the one I usually go to on Cedar.  As I’m driving down MLK, a small restaurant with a big banner out front catches my eye.  A lot of times, you’ll see stuff like “Best Wings in Town” or something similar boasting about the taste.  Not this banner.  It read “Cheapest Wings in Town.”  There’s something to be proud of….I guess.  When I got home, I told J about it.  She looked at me a little funny and said I was on my own for that one.  If all they can advertise is the cheapest wings in town, she wanted no part of it.

J had to work in Kalamazoo today so I waited until she left to get a late lunch.  I pulled into the parking lot and parked up front.  There was only one other guy there and he was leaving.  I went inside looking for a menu and didn’t see anything about wings.  When I got to the register, I noticed a piece of paper taped to the counter.  That’s where the wing prices were.  There were serveral options, but I went with six wings and wedges.  They weren’t kidding.  These probably ARE the cheapest wings in town.  The whole deal cost me about $4.50.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chicken, Lansing, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews

McDonald’s – Holt

20 08 2008
  • 2400 S. Cedar St.
  • Holt, MI 48842
  • (517) 694-9431
  • Website
  • Menu
The McDonalds on South Cedar St. in Holt

The McDonald's on South Cedar St. in Holt

Surprisingly, McDonald’s is one of my favorite fast food restaurants.  I don’t eat there often because I don’t eat fast food all that much, but I do really like their “burgers.”  Since moving to Lansing, I haven’t eaten at one even though there is one right down the road from our place.  J and I needed to make a run to Target this morning to get a diaper bag and some bottles…..for my brother who’s wife is expecting my first niece in about seven weeks.  While we were out, we decided to just run and grab lunch instead of coming home and trying to make something.

J wants to get back on the Weight Watchers diet and the only way it will work is if I get on it too.  I’m not super excited about it because it takes away all the foods I like and makes me eat larger portions of the foods I don’t.  But, she wants to do it and I want to help her, so I’ll do my best. 

Since she wants to start this diet, my usual double quarter pounder with cheese value meal isn’t really an option.  For the first time since I was five and ordering happy meals, I ordered something other than the #4.  I didn’t really know what any of their salads were so I just ordered what J did.  We both got the Southwestern salad.  I got grilled chicken and she got crispy chicken. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Chicken, Fast Food, Holt, Restaurant, Reviews

Aldi – S. Pennsylvania

11 08 2008
  • 655 S. Pennsylvania
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • No Phone Number
  • Website
The Aldi store on South Pennsylvania in Lansing.

The Aldi store on South Pennsylvania in Lansing.

A few weeks ago, I decided to give Aldi a shot for the first time in many years.  I went to the store on Saginaw Highway (review HERE).  The only thing I picked up was a bag of frozen chicken.  We finally ran out of that chicken and I needed something for dinner, so I headed to the Aldi on S. Pennsylvania to pick up the same thing.  I said in my last review that chicken was a test.  It totally passed the test.  It was just as good as chicken we’ve gotten from somewhere else and it was much cheaper.

The Aldi on S. Pennsylvania is set up like all Aldi stores.  Since I was just going for chicken again, I didn’t grab a cart.  It took me a little while to find what I was looking for this time.  I went to the fresh meat case first hoping to find some ribs.  There wasn’t a whole lot left there.  Just a few pieces of chicken and some ground beef.  I didn’t find the ribs, so I went looking for the frozen chicken breasts.  I finally found the bag I was looking for after doing some digging in the freezer.  Someone had put some flavored frozen chicken breasts in the box for the regular ones. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Grocery, Lansing, Michigan, Reviews

L & L Food Center – Saginaw Hwy.

24 07 2008
  • 3800 W. Saginaw Hwy
  • Lansing, MI 48917
  • (517) 321-4392
  • Website
L & L Food Center on West Saginaw Highway in Lansing.

L & L Food Center on West Saginaw Highway in Lansing.

When I visited the L & L Food Center in Holt a few weeks ago, the thing I noticed is that their meats are much cheaper than the other grocery stores.  After hitting the Farmer’s Market at the State Capitol, I needed to find some chicken to go with some of the things we bought.  We needed to go out near the Lansing Mall.  I rememered seeing an L & L on W. Saginaw, so that’s the one I hit up. 

The thing I noticed about this L & L is that it’s much brighter and much more inviting than the one in Holt.  The layout is pretty similar, but the aisle’s seemed much longer here.  Unlike the one in Holt, the frozen foods are at the end of the store instead of in the middle.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Grocery, Lansing, Reviews

Aldi – Saginaw Hwy.

24 07 2008
  • 5625 W. Saginaw Hwy.
  • Lansing, MI 48906
  • (636) 278-4700
  • Website
Aldis on Saginaw Highway

Aldi's on Saginaw Highway

It has been years since I’ve been to an Aldi.  We didn’t shop there much when I was growing up because there was kind of a stigma to shopping at Aldi’s.  On top of that, it’s kind of a pain in the butt.  They don’t have the conviences of a modern mega-mart, but that’s how they keep prices down.  The stigma is gone now and more and more people are taking advantage of Aldi’s low prices.

The one thing I always use to go to Aldi’s for was their animal crackers.  I know that sounds stupid, but when I was in high school, my distrcit swtiched to the Eight-Block schedule.  Instead of a regular school day with eight 40 minute periods, we had four 80 minute periods each day with an every other day schedule.  Because of the schedule, there was always one group that would have three morning classes before lunch which means we didn’t get to eat much before one o’clock.  The teachers would let us bring snacks in and Aldi’s animal crackers were a big hit or some reason. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Grocery, Lansing, Reviews

L & L Food Center – Holt

1 07 2008
  • 2380 Cedar St.L & L Food Center in Holt
  • Holt, MI 48842
  • (517) 694-5929
  • Website

L & L Food Center is uniquely Lansing.  Founded in 1931 by the Levandowski family, L & L Food Center has grown to eight Lansing area locations.  While I was at the Lansing City Market last week, I saw a booth for Moomers Ice Cream and a sign saying Moomers was sold at L & L.  I was sitting on the couch watching Family Guy (again) and wanted ice cream.  There’s an L & L just down the street so I thought I’d go check it out.

L & L isn’t a huge grocery store.  It’s sort of a hybrid between a local grocer and a chain supermarket.  The layout shares some design elements as the large stores, but I had a hard time finding what I was looking for.  However, that did give me a chance to check out other things in the store.  I sort of blew through the produce section and found my way to the meat section.  Most of their beef is cut by their own butcher department.  Their line of beef is packaged under the name of the founders and sold exclusively at L & L.  Besides a butcher shop, there’s also a line of smoked meats, hams, and sausaged packaged under the brand Levandowski Sausage Company.  They also carry the same line of chicken as the Kroger down the street, but the prices were much cheaper.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Grocery, Holt, Reviews

Merindorf Meats & More – Williamston

28 06 2008
  • 500 Williamston Center Rd.Merindorf Meats & More
  • Williamston, MI 48895
  • (517) 655-2898
  • Website

If there’s been one constant on this blog over the past week, it’s been commentors that keep telling me I need to shop at Merindorf Meats.  They kept talking about the store in Mason, but somehow, I ended Williamston instead.  We were at Frandor Shopping Center where my girlfriend sold some gold.  After getting more than she expected, she suggested going to the meat shop everyone kept talking about on the blog.  Since we were already out and didn’t have an address, we put “Mason” and “meats” in her GPS.  Merindorf popped up, but the Williamston store is the only one that came up.  It wasn’t all that far and not being familiar with the area yet, we thought maybe people were saying Mason but it was really in Williamston, so we went. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Grocery, Reviews, Williamston

Attacks with Food

27 06 2008

Sometimes I have to wonder what people are thinking.  First, there’s a story out of Jackson County where a man assaulted a woman with a 10-lb bag of frozen chicken.

In Jackson County an Ypsilanti man has been charged after stabbing his mother with a fork and assaulting a second woman with ten pounds of frozen chicken.

Prosecutors say Frederick McKaney, 40, stabbed his mother in the back of the neck with a fork Monday night. 

About an hour later he hit a woman in the head with a plastic bag of frozen chicken.  The woman needed five surgical staples to close her wound.

But the craziness doesn’t stop there.  In Maryland, a man robbed a convience store with a banana.

A man walked into a 7-Eleven store in Monrovia just after midnight Wednesday and demanded money. Investigators said that when the clerk refused, the man became so agitated that he started grabbing items off the counter.

He snatched up a banana and began hitting the clerk, the sheriff’s office said.

Oh man.  People are stupid.


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Categories : Food News

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