Epic Portions

Tag: guiness

  • Jillian’s – Norfolk, VA

    Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste…I mean, I’m an old hometown friend of Todd and John who now lives in Norfolk,  VA, serving in the Navy aboard the mighty warship USS Nitze.  Recently, I was asked to contribute to the blog.  I have my own blog and will continue it, but also will be contributing here.

    Enough of the pleasantries, down to business.  This afternoon, my division on the ship had our Christmas party at Jillian’s, a Dave & Buster’s-esque restaurant in the Waterside building in downtown Norfolk.

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    For those unfamiliar with D&B’s, it’s like Ruby Tuesday’s meets Chuck E. Cheese.   Basically, a family restaurant/bar with a huge arcade.   Basically, you can eat great food, drink beer and play videogames and skee-ball all in the same place.

    I started my meal with a 23 oz Guinness

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    Never a wrong time…

    and ordered a BBQ Bacon Burger, one of Jillian’s signature entrees.

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    stuid blurry camera phone!

    Sadly, the only camera I had with me was my phone and the quality is lacking.

    My two oldest kids both got mac and cheese with fruit punch.

    almost as good as Mom's...
    almost as good as Mom's…

    My wife, Amy, ordered the damn near biggest taco salad I’ve ever seen (another Jillian’s specialty).

    Eat your heart out, Taco Bell...
    Eat your heart out, Taco Bell…

    My meal, as well as the girls’ included a $10 game card, so after enjoying our meals, we played some games.

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    After some gameplaying, which I neglected to  take pictures of, one of my fellow sailors ordered Jillian’s Killer Cake

    It's bigger than you think...
    It's bigger than you think…

    We all (about 10 of us) shared it and there was still this much left…

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    Overall, this place was pretty cool.  The girl’s meals were only $4.99 and with a $10 game card, it was basically free twice over.  Mine was $14.99 with the game card (would have been about $10 without it).  Amy’s salad was about $8. My ginormous Guinness was $5.95, which is pretty decent for the area.  Overall, with tax and tip, I spent about $50.   Pretty decent lunch for 4, plus games.   My kids won a bunch of tickets and we got some prizes.  I got some Bubba teeth, Audrey, my oldest, got a bottle pop.  Amelie, my middle girl, got a paper fan, and we also got some Mike and Ike’s.  I noticed after we spent all the tickets (357) that had I been selfish, I could have gotten a Jillian’s pint glass.  Oh well, next time…

    http://norfolk.jilliansbilliards.com/

    333 Waterside Drive
    Norfolk, VA 23510
    757.624.9100 Phone
    757.624.9500 Fax

  • Irish Car Bomb Cake

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    Now, I know the whole Irish Car Bomb shot is in terrible taste because of PIRA terrorism, but it’s so delicious that I ended up not caring.  Plus, if I’m ordering one of these things I’m most likely too drunk to consider Irish history.  I’m not much of a baker, but this sounds absolutely delicious.  I want one of these for my next birthday(March 15th).  Actually, I want one of these things tonight, damnit.  I’m actually going to have to get out my measuring cups for this one.  What a travesty.

    For those who don’t know – -the drink is made by filling a shot glass half full of Irish Cream, then floating Irish Whiskey on top of that before dropping the shot glass into a half-full pint glass of Guinness and chugging it as quickly as possible so that it doesn’t curdle in the glass. It is a variation of a boilermaker and for some reason whoever invented it thought it was a good idea to name it after a common form of Irish domestic terrorism of the time, which — understandably — pisses the Irish off to no end.

    Chocolate cake with guinness, filled with chocolate ganache with just a touch of Irish whiskey, and then topped with an uber rich Irish Cream butter cream frosting. The whole thing is incredibly rich and decadent. I made a layer cake — the base cupcake mix poured into to 8 inch round cake pans, baked for 15 minutes at 350, then lowered to 300 for another 10 until done in the middle — then doubled buttercream to ensure I had enough to go around. If you make cupcakes, go with Deb’s proportions for sure. If you go the route I did and make a layer cake you could probably get away with not doubling frosting sinceit is incredibly rich, but you might have to really stretch a single batch of the frosting to get the cake covered.

    For the recipe, head over to:

    http://biscuitpusher.blogspot.com/2009/02/irish-car-bomb-cake.html

    edit:

    My girlfriend found this rather disgusting, so I felt that I must include a recipe that is more to her liking.. Gin and Tonic Cupcakes.