foodbook #1

Problem: what to eat?

Solution: foodbook.

My wallet's too thin and my waist too wide to try every item on every menu just to find out what's good. I rely on good recommendations to find a good meal. And then I need a way to remember whether what I ate was worth ordering again. Enter foodbook. It's my own Urban Spoon or Zagat guide. And it starts with today's lunch:

Costco.

What to get: the "combo" pizza.

Best value: the hot dog and refillable drink for $1.49.

Costco's food court offers 3 kinds of pizza by the slice ($1.99): cheese, pepperoni, and combo. The cheese pizza is a hit with the kids. It's a thick layer of rich and gooey mozzarella atop a fairly thick crust with a medium chew, rich red sauce in between. The edge crust is just tough enough.

The pepperoni pizza is covered in pepperoni. Makes sense. And tastes good. It's what I ordered today, and I liked it.

My favorite is the combo pizza, which has pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, onions, etc. It's one of my favorite supreme-style pizzas. You can take home a whole pizza for $10. They're huge.

The hot dog is just a big hot dog. They've got sauerkraut behind the counter, onions, relish, ketchup and mustard.

They've got a chicken bake that I tried once, but it was burned and didn't seem like it would've been all that good even if it hadn't been. Never had the churro, or the steak bake.

For dessert, I like the pistachio and the strawberry gelato (if available). The chocolate and nut dipped ice-cream bar is good, but the coating comes off in chunks--just eat it quickly and carefully. The fruit smoothy and frozen yogurt and fruit parfait is a good walking around treat, if the samples don't suffice.

If we're shopping with the kids, we usually go at mealtime, and wrap up the trip with two slices of pizza, a hotdog, and a drink to share. For a big-box food court, Costco is pretty good.