Lunch Blog in the UK, Part 2: Café Rouge

"Hey brother, can you spare some change for a down payment on a croissant?”

Since it’s right by the London Underground station, Chris and I stopped at Café Rouge on Tottenham Court Road for breakfast. My croque madame was tasty. I also had a rather delicious Americano, because, hey, I’m American, and regular coffee isn’t on the menu anyway.

But what I really want to talk about is the bum that was there.

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30 Rock's Buffalo Chicken Shake

All that wingy deliciousness, now with significantly less of that annoying chewing.

As previously mentioned, WGN America invited me to New York for a 30 Rock Superfan roundtable last month. However, they had an ulterior motive for extending an invitation to this Superfan in particular -- three days before I flew out, WGN America issued me a challenge.

Make the Buffalo Chicken Shake.

You read that right -- the Buffalo Chicken Shake. It's from the beginning of the 30 Rock episode "Khonani." Liz Lemon sees a sign on the door of a restaurant that says "The Buffalo Chicken Shake Is Back!" It’s onscreen for maybe three seconds. I told WGN America that clearly when 30 Rock’s writers put that sign in the show, what they were doing was daring me to make the Buffalo Chicken Shake a real thing. I accepted the challenge.

Here’s the video from WGN America of me and 30 Rock writer Tracey Wigfield making the shake. Keep reading after for the recipe and how I came up with it.

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Fast Food Mascot Halloween Costumes That Aren't For Kids

Shaw did some new illustrations for this guest post I wrote for The Pitch's Fat City last Halloween. Enjoy...if you dare.

Ronald McDonald is a friend to all children. Ronald McDonald with an ax? Not so much. Here are five Halloween costume ideas based on fast food mascots and how to make them.



5. Wendy the Roller Warrior: Rebelling against the wishes of her father, Dave Thomas, Wendy is trading in old-fashioned hamburgers for a life on the track. Who knew she was such a badass?

Dress like Wendy, and add elbow pads, knee pads, a helmet and roller skates. Or, to go a more traditional Halloween route, just be Slutty Wendy.

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Lunch Blog in the UK, Part 1: The Jack Horner

Here we go, guv’nor.

So I got to go to London the other week for my job. I believe the official reason I was selected for the trip was because my agency wanted to send our foremost expert on both Doctor Who and British Alternative Rock of the ‘80s & Early ‘90s. (Who’s got two thumbs and is totally psyched for The Stone Roses reunion next year? This guy!)

And since I was going, of course I’d have to make a point of checking out some of the native cuisine -- even though it’s frequently described as “lousy.” Before I left for my trip, I figured British food had probably just caught a bad rap. But then I saw “mushy peas” on a menu and I realized they’re not even trying to make their food sound good.

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Lunch Blog & 30 Rock on WGN America

As seen on TV!

If you’ve checked out our recipe for Cheesy Blasters, you know that we here at Lunch Blog are 30 Rock Superfans. As such, WGN America recently invited me to New York for a 30 Rock Superfans roundtable. While I was there, we filmed a bunch of spots and other stuff that'll be appearing in the next few weeks.

The roundtable was all kinds of awesome. I got to hang out with 30 Rock writer Tracey Wigfield, plus a couple of my fellow Superfans, Nancy Alligood and Michael Wandling.

And as you can see above, I also got to meet Katrina Bowden, who plays Cerie on the show. Just look at that picture of the two of us -- she’s so into me, it’s embarrassing.

More 30 Rock action is coming up here at Lunch Blog and on WGN America. Don’t you want to go to our Facebook pages and “like” them so you don’t miss any of the action?

• Lunch Blog on Facebook
• WGN America's 30 Rock Facebook Page

Plus, you can subscribe to the 30 Rock Superfans YouTube Channel and be notified when new videos debut -- including a cooking segment with me and Tracey making the Buffalo Chicken Shake. Here's a preview.



In the meantime, take a look at some of Lunch Blog’s greatest hits over in the Popular Posts on the sidebar. I think we can all agree that Liz Lemon would be a big fan of Carny Surprise.

Thanks for visiting Lunch Blog!

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Catch 30 Rock on WGN America! The show airs:

• Mondays, with four episodes back-to-back starting at 7 p.m. CST  
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays with two episodes starting at 7 p.m. CST  
• Every night Monday through Saturday, with an episode at 10 p.m. CST
• Sundays, with an episode at 6 p.m. CST

Big thanks to WGN America and Story Worldwide for flying me out to New York. I sure am happy this whole thing didn’t turn out to be an elaborate organ-thieving scheme.

Walsh’s Corner Cocktails

The shuffleboard is free. The beers aren’t much more.

The worst answer you can get when you ask what the night’s drink specials are, is that there aren’t any. Unless your server follows that answer with these four beautiful words: “It’s all pretty cheap.”

Excellent! A $1.75 Busch draw for me then, please, and keep them coming. And my good man Casey here feels like splurging, so he’ll have the Michelob Amber Bock for fifty big cents more, thank you very much.

Walsh’s Corner Cocktails was exactly what we needed for Guys’ Night this month, after fancy drinks at The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange our last time out. Adam, McHugh and Voytek were also in attendance on this Wednesday, and a good crowd was already at Corner Cocktails when we arrived.

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QuikTrip’s Loaded Potato Rollers

The latest creation from the QT food Frankensteins is a garlicky monster.

About a month ago, I saw a sign at a QuikTrip for some kind of new mac and cheese something or other coming soon. First, I wondered if the rolling food geniuses had devised a way to make a Cheesy Mac Log. Second, I got frustrated that if they had made that breakthrough, they were just teasing me with it and I couldn’t try it right that very second. For the waiting, as they say, is the hardest part.

I kept checking back at the roller grill wonderland for weeks to no avail, when out of nowhere QuikTrip blindsided me with the brand new Loaded Potato Roller. While it wasn’t a Cheesy Mac Log, I wasn’t about to wait to try it.

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