If You Want Chinese Get to the Sesame Inn

A few months ago my dad brought home Chinese leftovers which I consumed like a vacuum once I dug into it. The dish was General Tso's Chicken. The source was the Sesame Inn in Mt. Lebanon.

Before I ate that, some of the best Chinese/Oriental cuisine I've had was from Me Lyng in Homestead. Up until last night it was a very even debate on which place cooked up the best Chinese food to its customers.

I paid a visit to the Sesame Inn at Station Square last night and was blown away, as I seem to be when it comes to food and beer. I started off my meal with a good beer, as I usually do, the choice being a Tsing Tao. That review is another story for another day.

A point I want to quickly make is that this place also served domestic beers aside from the few foreign ones. I just want to let you know that if you're the type that goes to a foreign restaurant and refuses to try the local drinks then you might not have a pulse. That never makes sense to me.

Anyways, there is a plethora of food on the menu. You can pick from any type of concoction such as orange, amazing, lemon etc. along with the type of meat/seafood you wish to enjoy it with.

That definitely isn't butter.

One interesting addition this place had on its menu that I've never seen before is the option of some Thai foods. Yet another reason to return to the Sesame Inn.

I went with the lemon chicken and was very pleased. When you get a chicken dish at your typical Chinese restaurant the chicken always looks the same. Not with this one.

My dish came out as fried chicken strips. You had to put the sauce on it yourself. The difference in taste was amazing. Make a note that not every meat dish is like this. The General Tso's I tried and my date's sesame chicken looked like you'd expect it.

Get to the Sesame Inn at either Station Square or Mt. Lebanon and try it out. Let me know what you think.

McRib: Heaven for Some, Hell for others

Fear not. I always said that I would get to a few posts specifically about food. I feel one food in particular deserves its share of airtime, regardless if you've enjoyed it or not.

For reasons that I still can't understand, the McRib has a cult following just like some movies out there do. I think that McDonald's only contributes to that by returning the sandwich to its menu just for a month or so out of the year. McDonald's retired the sandwich in 2005 and then only made it available for limited times each year after that.

Let's say you and a friend head to your nearest McDonald's for lunch. You eventually find out that your friend is a part of this mysterious underground clan we refer to as the followers of the McRib. You let him convince you to try this sandwich you've heard so much about.

Forgive me for what I'm about to do.

You fork over your hard-earned cash and open your box that features the word "temptation" on it to find what's pictured above. It looks like an appetizing sandwich. The bun is golden. The meat in between actually appears to be meat, even though that deep down we all know that doesn't exist at this fast food chain. If you ask me, it isn't anywhere close to real meat if the substance that makes it up has to be molded into an approximate shape of said meat.

Your mouth waters for a second until you take the top bun off and reveal what you're about to consume. Primanti Brothers' sandwiches are less of a mess than the McRib (they also bear real meat). As for the onions and dill pickles? Who the hell eats pickles on their ribs when you grill them on Memorial Day?

The barbecue sauce is the only thing appetizing to me. It had a decent amount of spice and tang. Just the thought that I might have been eating processed pig ears made me sick to my stomach. Thank god there was about six pounds of sauce, four pickles and a handful of diced onions to cover up the taste of the fake pork patty.

If you're apart of the McRib Occult, hurry up. It disappears from the menu Nov. 14.