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Gameface

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In my current job I will be working in the "western" U.S. including places like Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and California. Apparently New Mexico and Texas aren't on my list.

Next week I'm flying into Billings, MT. Then driving to Sidney, MT. Then driving from Sidney to Great Falls, MT. I've already been to Butte, MT and Helena (Montana's capital city, which they will remind you about at every opportunity).

Food in Montana is not fantastic so far. They have too many pizza places by a lot, too few independent restaurants and basically no ethnic options other than Mexican.

Anyone here have any tips?

I am a heat seeker. By that I mean I want to eat the hottest food offered by a restaurant anywhere and everywhere. I get that Montana likely isn't going to set any records for me. I'm not adverse to flavors of any kind. They don't have to be spicy. I love all the food from all the places that I have ever had. Nothing offends me or scares me. I'll eat anything... twice. I mean that. Give me Rocky Mountain Oysters, give me tendons and tripe, give me anything. If it is a mainstream food anywhere in the world I'll eat it.
 
Any idea where you'll be when you're in Oregon?

When you say heatseeker, do you prefer Meixcan hot, or Szechuan, Indian, Thai, Creole, etc, etc? Like what type of heat. I personally prefer Indian hot. While I love Mexican food, Mexican hot just always seems kind of one note, just all that capsaicin and nothing else, whereas with Szechuan, for example, you add a lot of the peppercorn flavor, or indian you get more creaminess with the cumin and chili and ginger. Etc etc etc.
 
gandalfe said:
Any idea where you'll be when you're in Oregon?

When you say heatseeker, do you prefer Meixcan hot, or Szechuan, Indian, Thai, Creole, etc, etc? Like what type of heat. I personally prefer Indian hot. While I love Mexican food, Mexican hot just always seems kind of one note, just all that capsaicin and nothing else, whereas with Szechuan, for example, you add a lot of the peppercorn flavor, or indian you get more creaminess with the cumin and chili and ginger. Etc etc etc.
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All of it. Honestly. I've become a huge fan of numbing spicy Szechuan food, I love the complexity of Indian Spices, Thai is usually where I can count on them saying "**** it" and just dumping on fresh chilis when I ask for full spice, Mexican is a mixed bag, because Chili Tepin and Habanero might enter the chat. I love the hottest Aquachili I can get.

I'm not trying to spice flex because this is not an indication of masculinity or anything else. I have pushed to become more spice tolerant for more that 30 years. So I can eat anything any sane restaurant would put on the menu for their general customer. I make my own hot sauces and my own recipes that are hotter than anything I eat in any restaurant.

I'm always looking for the thing I can't even eat because it's too spicy. I'm pretty sure, outside of food challenge dishes, it doesn't exist.

So that said, I also like good food. It doesn't have to be spicy. That's my special pleasure, but I can eat a BLT and be happy.
 
Where in Oregon? Some random Mexican joint in Tillamook (where the ice cream and cheese comes from) had the best shrimp a la diabla I’ve ever eaten. We were just up in Great Falls and Helena on our way back from Canada but can’t be of much help there since we grabbed the kids Little Caesars.

As far as Indian, they opened a new place (well, maybe within the past 18 mos) in Lehi/AF called Little India which I believe is the best joint in the state (eaten at at least 12-15 places in the state).
 
infection said:
Where in Oregon? Some random Mexican joint in Tillamook (where the ice cream and cheese comes from) had the best shrimp a la diabla I’ve ever eaten. We were just up in Great Falls and Helena on our way back from Canada but can’t be of much help there since we grabbed the kids Little Caesars.

As far as Indian, they opened a new place (well, maybe within the past 18 mos) in Lehi/AF called Little India which I believe is the best joint in the state (eaten at at least 12-15 places in the state).
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I work on ventilators, so I might travel anywhere they use ventilators.
 
I'll tell ya, Montanans sure do love them some pizza places. I have no reason to think any of them are any good but they have a **** ton. Here in Billings and in Helena.

Anyone ever had Pizza Ranch. Seems to be a chain up here
 
Gameface said:
I'll tell ya, Montanans sure do love them some pizza places. I have no reason to think any of them are any good but they have a **** ton. Here in Billings and in Helena.

Anyone ever had Pizza Ranch. Seems to be a chain up here
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We actually were headed to get pizza as we passed through Helena. Everywhere was downtown and impossible to find parking so we bagged it and ended up at a BBQ place that had already sold out of most of their meats.
 
Sidney, Mt is actually kind of a cute town. First town in Montana that is not overwhelmingly depressing. Helena wasn't all bad, but the sadness was always right there.

Billings was like taking a time machine to 1989.
 
bigb said:
I keep
Telling my wife we should move to Montana.
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Where would you go in Montana?

The fact that in any city in seemingly any quantity you can build a casino/liquor store, to the point where any major intersection or street you drive down you will see several of these crap *** casinos located in like an old Checker Auto Parts location or what was likely a bar or fast food place, means that other types of businesses have been squeezed out. You can almost smell the meth everywhere you go. There is no good food to be found yet dozens of crappy pizza places.

I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't what I found there. At this point I've stayed in 5 cities, Butte, Helena, Billings, Sidney and Great Falls and you couldn't pay me to live in any of them. I've also done about 15 hours of driving through Montana and while there are some nice looking parts I was actually expecting much more interesting and beautiful landscapes.

They need to get rid of the casinos. It's gross. I've gone into a couple to buy alcohol and they are sad. Sad sad sad. I thought Wendover was a depressing little **** hole. Wendover is like high roller fancy pants casinos compared to 99% of what I've seen in Montana.

As I've traveled around I've seen places I'd be happy to live, none of them are in Montana.
 
I went into a Hardees in downtown Billings, it was directly across the street from my hotel, and as I was looking at the menu while the person was asking me what I wanted I asked "Do you have a jalapeno burger?" I assumed their menu was basically the same as Carl's Jr.. The cashier said "I don't think we have any jalapenos in this whole building. You're a little far north for that."

I got a bacon burger and it was the worst hamburger I've had in at least 5 years.

I stopped by the next day and got some chicken strips. When asked for the sauce I wanted I said Buffalo sauce and the person made like a weird sound and said "Wow, spicy!"
 
Gameface said:
Where would you go in Montana?

The fact that in any city in seemingly any quantity you can build a casino/liquor store, to the point where any major intersection or street you drive down you will see several of these crap *** casinos located in like an old Checker Auto Parts location or what was likely a bar or fast food place, means that other types of businesses have been squeezed out. You can almost smell the meth everywhere you go. There is no good food to be found yet dozens of crappy pizza places.

I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't what I found there. At this point I've stayed in 5 cities, Butte, Helena, Billings, Sidney and Great Falls and you couldn't pay me to live in any of them. I've also done about 15 hours of driving through Montana and while there are some nice looking parts I was actually expecting much more interesting and beautiful landscapes.

They need to get rid of the casinos. It's gross. I've gone into a couple to buy alcohol and they are sad. Sad sad sad. I thought Wendover was a depressing little **** hole. Wendover is like high roller fancy pants casinos compared to 99% of what I've seen in Montana.

As I've traveled around I've seen places I'd be happy to live, none of them are in Montana.
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The casinos throw me off. I, like probably everyone, grew up believing gambling was only legal in Nevada and New Jersey. But then over time you had Indian reservations having casinos. It was always the same, bright flashing lights, etc. But then when we went to Montana back about 12 years ago, I noticed casinos that were clearly not on reservations. And it wasn’t bright lights and excitement. It was like a Hardee’s [note that this thought came to my head before I read your next post mentioning Hardee’s]. And I don’t mean the Carl’s Jr. Hardee’s that I now is. I mean the old brown building ones that Malone used to do commercials for. The ones that eventually got bought up by Burger King in the mid-90s. I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten an explanation on gaming in Montana. Isn’t that a newer thing? Montana isn’t know as a gambling state. And why do they look like a place you’d go eat a ******, generic breakfast?
 
There are a few amazing places in MT, none mentioned here so far. I have an awesome lakehouse here where I spend half the summer.

And yes, lots of pizza places, some good and some not. Pizza Ranch is on the not list, and close to the bottom at that.
 
Montana has Glacier, which is nice. The drive up there is pretty good as you’re maybe about 1-1.5 outside of Columbia Falls. Really between there and Missoula. But if you’re going to go up to Glacier, go ahead and go all the way up to Banff.
 
I have always wanted to fish that "River Runs Through It" river in Montana
 
Gameface said:
Where would you go in Montana?
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It’s more about getting the **** away from the city. Any city. And heat. I would love nothing more than to live somewhere that I’d want to hop on a 4 wheeler to go see my neighbor. My problem is I have no skills that make that plausible.
 
infection said:
The casinos throw me off. I, like probably everyone, grew up believing gambling was only legal in Nevada and New Jersey. But then over time you had Indian reservations having casinos. It was always the same, bright flashing lights, etc. But then when we went to Montana back about 12 years ago, I noticed casinos that were clearly not on reservations. And it wasn’t bright lights and excitement. It was like a Hardee’s [note that this thought came to my head before I read your next post mentioning Hardee’s]. And I don’t mean the Carl’s Jr. Hardee’s that I now is. I mean the old brown building ones that Malone used to do commercials for. The ones that eventually got bought up by Burger King in the mid-90s. I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten an explanation on gaming in Montana. Isn’t that a newer thing? Montana isn’t know as a gambling state. And why do they look like a place you’d go eat a ******, generic breakfast?
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The NDN casinos are not on reservations, but they are on tribal land. Not at all the same thing. There are a few here in OR - none that close to me, maybe 1.5 hours away? Not my thing, when I've gone to casinos I've been bored, mostly. The only thing I'd really be interested in would be poker, and I'd get eaten alive at even the kindest of casinos.
 
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