I'm in the middle of packing for a holiday trip that involves a long plane ride. I love reading on the plane since it makes the time fly by fast and makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something after sitting there for so many hours. I'm actually lucky that I don't get car sick and I also enjoy reading in the car... when I'm the passenger!

I have an interesting book to read by Paul Gillin, titled The New Influencers, so I'm set to go.   It's all about how blogging, podcasting and other social media are profoundly disrupting the mainstream media and marketing industries. Might be interesting too for some of you bloggers out there.

Typically, when I buy books, I usually read non-fiction a specific subject, so I prefer to shop online.Since online retailers seem to have an unlimited section, I can find what I need easily and inexpensively. There are a number of great online bookstores:
Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Borders Abebooks Alibris Books A Million a1Books
Book Closeouts Powell's Books Waterstone's Blackwell Booksense
Bookfinder Alpha Craze Elephant Books Half Price Books

But, what about that pre-internet idea of actually going to a bookstore to buy a book? Do people still go? Do you?

I enjoy hanging out at bookstores, but I haven't discovered one in Bakersfield yet that has the right vibe for me. Which bookstores do you like? Which ones would you recommend?

Make sure to review them in the inside guide. Click here to get started. 

Ordering hot & fresh Papa John's pizza easier than ever since you don't even need to call or go online to order. They have gone geeky.  They now launched a text ordering feature that's made ordering Papa John's pizza as simple as sending  a short text message from your cell phone.

Have we really gotten that lazy?

I prefer a more gourmet pizza myself than Papa Johns. I was happy when California Pizza Kitchen opened in Bakersfield since I was looking forward to getting something other than a Pepperoni pizza. I found our CPK a bit disappointing, and it seems like other Inside Guide reviewers has as well since it is averaging *** out of ***** on the Inside Guide.  

The best pizza I've ever had was from a sidewalk vendor in Southern Italy. It was a thin crust pizza with buffalo mozzarella, zucchini flowers and anchovies. It made American style pizza seem like a joke. When I do order pizza (about every 6 months or so), it's usually a Hawaiian with pineapple and Canadian Bacon. I also must have it with a side of ranch for dipping. 

What's your favorite pizza? What's your favorite pizza place in Bakersfield?
Click this link to share your review.

 

 

I don't know what started it, but I just started daydreaming about Red Lobster biscuits. Something about all the butter, cheese, garlic and yummy carb goodness.

Here's what some Inside Guiders have to say about the Red Lobster biscuits and dining experience:
     
Posted by a27mac
*** out of *****

Not a big crab lover, but the biscuits; im still trying to make at home,,,Anyone got the receipe?

      
Posted by KATTBC
***** out of *****

Their biscuits are the best and we had the best server when we were at this restaurant for lunch one day. Never had service that good anywhere! Anything I have tried their is great. The biscuits alone I could eat for lunch and be happy!

Well, I have the recipe and boy, are they easy to make at home... if you dare!

2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk
1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1/2 c. melted butter
1/4 tsp. garlic salt

Mix Bisquick, milk and cheddar until a soft ball forms. Beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Drop by balls onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Mix butter and garlic and brush on rolls while still on the pan and hot.

I can’t tell you how many places I’ve wasted money and killed my taste buds on recommendations of friends. I’ve found the places they love totally disgusting. I started to think that my friends just had bad taste, but then I realized that they chose me as a friend. Yikes!

Word-of-mouth recommendations are great, but the best thing about the Inside Guide is that I can choose which knowledgeable reviewer sounds more like me. I trust their reviews the most.

 I asked fellow reviewer about why do they write review on the Inside Guide and she exclaimed:

“I would feel great if I knew someone used my review to eat somewhere…or not go to that place.”

The Inside Guide is all about you and your opinions. Finding a new favorite hangout is an immediate benefit for our readers and reviewers. It’s for people who are passionate about our local scene.

Have you ever tried a restaurant or business because of a review on the inside guide? So who are the reviewers that you trust the most? What reviews have influenced you? What places have you tried because of the Inside Guide?

Well, more than likely, you’ve been to quite a few restaurants here in Bakersfield. So why haven’t you reviewed them yet in the Inside Guide? It’s fast and easy. But where do you start? What makes one review better than another?

Here’s some example of a great review our own Jason did on Pho Vi:

 What is pho? Pronounced sort of like "fuh," it's Vietnamese beef noodle soup. It's actually a popular breakfast food in Vietnam, but me, I'll eat it whenever. I used to go to the Pho Pasteur chain in the Boston area whenever we were up there, and so I was so happy when Pho Vi opened up in Bakersfield.

While there are other things on the menu (and those big plates of fried pork chops over rice look mighty tempting, and my wife likes the salads of meat over cold rice noodles, called bun), the basic currency of a pho place is, well, pho. (They actually do have a chicken based version of the soup too.)

Listed by number on the menu are a whole mess of variations--basically, pho is a long-cooked beef-based soup, into which they drop a big spool of rice noodles, and then you pick your condiments, which is to say, what parts of the cow you want. The superduper combo one, which I think might be number 1 but I'm not sure, has everything from pieces of rare flank steak to slices of brisket to more interesting things like tripe and pleasantly gelantinous pieces of tendon. I usually go for the one with beef, tendon, but no tripe. (There are also ones with Vietnamese meatballs.) Don't worry, some of those numbered combinations are sans both tripe and tendon, for the squeamish.

Then you doctor it up. On the table is a beautiful platter of fresh basil leaves, bean sprouts, and limes, and a bunch of other condiments, like hoisin, chili garlic sauce, and sriracha. Put whatever you want, however much you want, into your bowl. You can also, if you like, mix sauces in a little bowl and dip the meat from the soup into the sauce.

There are 2 sizes, and though I go for large, small is pretty substantial too, and neither is very expensive. This is filling, hearty, and basic, good and warming--it's soup, it's noodles, it's beef--what else could you ask for?

To drink, try a Vietnamese beverage--freshly squeezed lemonade mixed with soda, or classic Vietnamese iced coffee (strong espresso over ice with sweetened condensed milk poured on top, yum). Next door, after you finish your pho, go grab yourself a boba tea. It's all good.

 

Jason’s got the mad reviewing skills, right? Well, here’s some steps offered by epinions for those of you out there without that need a little kickstart:

 

Talk about the food!

Now sure, I love hearing stories about good and bad experiences you've had. Sure, I'd like to know whether you feel the place is clean, or the workers are friendly. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But it seems, more often than I'd like to see, some people forget the most important part of a restaurant review: the food itself.

While it's always nice if the workers are good, you don't go to a restaurant to see nice workers--you go to eat. Yet so many reviews skimp majorly on talking about the food, or neglect it entirely! I don't expect you to list every single item, but do talk about those you've actually tried, whether or not you liked it, and why.

Don't confuse restaurants!

For the most part, what you are reviewing is the restaurant you're writing for. It's fine, and even encouraged, to make some comparisons with different places, but even still, the main part of the review should actually be the restaurant you're writing for.

Recently, I'd read a review where the person mentioned they didn't like Popeyes' honey-topped biscuits. There's a problem there: Popeyes doesn't make honey-topped biscuits. Churches does, and I'm sure some other chains I have not visited do, but Popeyes doesn't. This poses me a problem: for everything else in the review, I do not know whether you actually mean Popeyes, or this other restaurant. And I really can't find a review to be helpful if I don't know whether or not you're talking about the right place.

Don't overexaggerate!

Did you like something? Did you not like something? We want to know, and the more vivid the description, the better for those of us who may not know what the place is like.

But don't overdo it, either. I'm not going to believe it if you tell me that a certain menu item tastes like blood. I might believe that you found blood in your food (at a very unsanitary restaurant), but I'm not going to believe your food tasted like blood. Likewise, I'm not going to seriously believe that French fries taste anything like rice. You may not like how either tastes, but they're far from identical in flavor.

 
Don't complain about food you hate to begin with!

I'm not much of a vegetable person. I absolutely hate salad with a passion. So while I may mention that a restaurant has salad, I'm not going to make a big deal over it.

Why? Because I don't like salad to begin with. Being a salad-hater, it would do you, the reader, no good for me to complain about the salad at any specific restaurant. Obviously, if you loved salad, and you wanted me to warn you on which restaurants had the worst salad, I would not be the person to turn to, as I think every restaurant has the worst salad.

What it boils down to is this: if you don't like salad period, don't complain about the salad at any restaurant. If you don't like hamburgers period (a favorite food of mine, personally), don't complain about the hamburgers at any restaurant. It's pretty simple, really.

More opinions, fewer facts!

There's nothing wrong with telling us what's on the menu at any restaurant. There is something wrong, however, if you don't give us your opinions on those menu items, even if it's as simple as "I haven't tried this before." In the days of the Internet, it's pretty simple to just go to any restaurant's website to see what they offer.

But you can write a review that offers something their website cannot: an unbiased opinion on the food. Aside from food, you can give your opinions on other aspects of the restaurant as well, like the service, the prices, and the decor. But however you do it, be sure to give us some opinions with the review, and not just a long laundry list of facts.

 

If it’s your first time writing a review, start somewhere simple. Like Starbucks, McDonalds, or Red Lobster. You know you’ve been and you either love ‘em or hate ‘em.

Leave a comment and let me know how it goes or let me know if you can’t find a business you want to review.

Happy reviewing!