Kevin and Joel's Meal of the Week: El Paso I

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Kevin and Joel's Meal of the Week: P.F. Chang's

Bronchos Edition: With special guests Lee Scheide and Cindeka Nealy, the OA's Odessa High reporting team

For the first time in two weeks, OA photographer Kevin Buehler and I are ready to sample some fare from outside the confines of Odessa, and with two games, this is the first of two editions of Kevin and Joel's Meal of the Week.

And we have a few special guests.

Not only do we have OHS beat writer Lee Scheide and OHS beat photographer Cindeka Nealy, Lee's son, Ryan, is along for the ride. So this might be the most comprehensive look at the first choice of the fans for El Paso.

By now, loyal Meal of the Week readers know the score. You guys vote. We eat.

And this time, the top two choices were Chico's Tacos and P.F. Chang's (regrettably, P.F. Chang's is a national chain; not sure how that oversight happened. Blame it on Kevin). Due to the early time of Permian's Class 5A bi-district playoff against El Paso El Dorado, we decided to hit P.F. Chang's today and check out Chico's Tacos -- the fan's first choice -- in the morning.

Darkly lit, a nice place with a classy Oriental feel, we took a seat at the front of the dining room.

And started looking to fill the food. For an appetizer, Lee chose the chicken lettuce wraps. Not sure what they taste like, but Ryan wolfed down his version, and Lee swears by the wraps, which feature chicken, peanuts, scallions and plenty of sauce wrapped in the lettuce.

Kevin and Cindeka both opted to try a little egg drop soup, and both loved the cup of warm goodness that came out of the kitchen. "This is the stuff that I need to get when I'm sick," Cindeka said. Never thought of that myself -- and neither had Kevin -- but it does sound awfully good parked on the couch with the sniffles.

For my part, I waited until the main course. And here at the Meal of the Week, every once in awhile we try to think outside the box a little bit -- at least I do -- and this time, that resulted in the wok-seared lamb. Look, I love lamb. Few slabs of meat are quite so tender, so pliant and so receptive to taste, but I'd never had the Chinese version. Piled on lettuce and covered in cilantro (another personal favorite) the lamb came through. Still tender, the lamb managed to have a slightly flame-seared taste, and after I added the mix of soy sauce that our waitress, Bobby, mixed up, it made the lamb, which I poured over three different kinds of rice, exceptional. As an aside, out of my three rices -- steamed white, steamed brown and fried -- the steamed brown rice complemented the lamb perfectly.

Tip to the readers: If you order the lamb, you'll get a prodigious portion. Go easy on the rice when you make the rice. The lamb should be the focus.

Kevin chose the kung pao chicken, a personal favorite for the OA photographer. And although he got a much smaller portion than I did -- you could have fed a family of four with my lamb -- he had plenty to get satisfied. One thing, though. While the kung pao chicken was top-notch, it can be beaten. "This is pretty good kung pao chicken," Kevin said. "But Quo's in Midland does it better." Makes me think we shy away from the national chains for a reason.

Cindeka got the sweet and sour chicken, Lee opted for the mandarin chicken, and both left the place satisfied. For his part, Cindeka had enough food that he probably wants to take a nap right now, and Lee loved his blend. "A nice blend of chicken, vegetables and sauce." Ryan hit the fried rice. In my experience, the fried rice is solid, not spectacular.

But we all had plenty of food.

And after the main course, Cindeka covered his plate in his napkin.

"I like to put my plate to bed," Cindeka said. "That way, you're not staring at all that food you couldn't eat."

Kevin's Dessert of the Week

P.F. Chang's has a nice inexpensive option for dessert. Picture a dessert built in a shot glass, and you've got the idea. Called mini-desserts, they have 10 options, almost all of which look pretty darn good.

And the five of us split it up.

Ryan, being a kid, hit the smores version, and nearly lost it when he realized that there was actually a marshmallow packed inside that shot glass.

Lee hit up the Great Wall of China, a mini-version of P.F. Chang's signature six-layer chocolate cake, and was pretty impressed by his portion. "You get your sweet, but you don't over-indulge," Lee said.

Cindeka ordered the strawberry cheesecake, my first option, and liked the dessert so much that he polished it off without a whole lot of talking.

Kevin nearly lost it when he realized that P.F. Chang's offers an apple pie mini-dessert. Loyal Meal of the Week readers know that OA photographer and dessert aficionado Kevin Buehler loves apples more than anything. Especially if cinnamon is involved. And he fell in love with the apple pie mini-dessert. "So much cinnamon," Kevin said. "And little bites of apple. Ooooh."

Trying to get a full range of desserts, I tried the tiramisu. And loved it. Creamy, sweet but not overwhelming, the tiramisu made me wish i had the dessert in a normal-size glass rather than the shot.

Final Analysis

Outside of the Permian Basin, P.F. Chang's aren't hard to find.

And that's a good thing. Few national chains do Chinese any better, and the prices are pretty affordable.

So the next time you're in a bigger city, take a look for one.

By the way, you do get a fortune cookie, complete with a message like the following...

"Life always gets harder near the summit."

We are in the playoffs