(SpoCOOL) A Spokane Blog

It's a great unknown what our fascination with Doritos and Taco Bell is. If I was to venture to guess, I'd notch it down to whole fascination with the bizarre, equivalent to how we enjoy The Twilight Zone.

Perverse speculations aside…

The DORITOS® JACKED™ Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Flavored Tortilla Chips might be the worst product name I can remember seeing, and I mean that quite literally. It is, if nothing else, the longest name I've seen. The idea, however, is at least somewhat commendable.

No longer do you need to cook up chickens, squeeze out ranch from a bottle, and dip the former in the latter. These Doritos have you covered. Some might say they're downright practical.

Well intentions aside, the flavor has little going for it. Shocking, right?! The chips taste like Doritos, with dusty coatings of powdered Frank's and ranch. The kinda stuff you would find in the potential-nuclear-war-rations aisle.

I'm not necessarily saying you need to wear a tinfoil hat to enjoy these chips, but then, I kinda am.

And in that sense, DORITOS® JACKED™ Ranch Dipped Hot Wings Flavored Tortilla Chips probably should exist. They're not for me, and probably not for you, unless you're expecting North Korea to live up to its promises.

If they do, you and Frito Lay will have the deserved last laugh.

Well, it might sadden you to learn that the Great Burger Chase is winding down, but then, we never said we'd try every burger in town.

Fear not, however, as we have a replacement will start June 1st; a replacement that will involve you.

During a strategy session with the man who inspired us to do Spiceavore, the Wing King, a concept came up which can be summed up with one hashtag: #summerofsandwich. And it is exactly what you would expect it to be.

This summer, you will eat sandwiches, take photos of them, and post the on Twitter or Instagram with the name of the restaurant, and the hashtags #summerofsandwich and #spokane. (The city hashtag is important, as this probably will be a national, nay, global event.)

As the summer goes on, we will gather the suggested sandwiches and post round-ups of them. Because, really, who doesn't want sandwich recommendations? (The terrorists, probably.)

It's a simple concept, and it's an informative event. And this is your chance to put Spokane on the sandwich map. Who knows, maybe the Wing King (which is starting to sound scarily similar to the Yellow King) himself will visit Spokane, just to try one of your sandwich recommendations?

So, starting June 1st: sandwich tweets/Instagrams, marked with #summerofsandwich, #spokane, and restaurant name. Be part of an event that will likely change the fate of a nation.

Updated to show the correct hashtag: #summerofsandwich.

As the name suggests, the last (for now) #SpoBREW will be the most impromptu homebrew contest we have ever hosted. #SpoBREW Impromptu will go down on Saturday, May 31st, 4pm, which pretty much means you must have your homebrew ready already.

This time, however, the game is different. Very different. We will not judge on one single type of beer; we will judge the brewers on whatever they bring. In other words, a brewer can bring multiple types of beer, whatever she or he wants to bring.

The rules:

1. Each brewer or team (we'll use the term «brewer» for simplicity's sake) enter beers they already have brewed. (Or brew it in a week if you want.)
2. It does not matter if each and every bottle you bring is a different type of beer. The brewer is the one who will be judged. Bring as many types of beer as you want.
3. The contest will be judged by the audience. The brewer will be judged on a scale from 1 to 6, and the weighted average wins.
4. Bring as many bottles (or kegs) as you want: running out of beer quickly just means fewer people will drink your beer.

And that's it. There are no other rules. You can be as creative as you'd like in this dog eat dog contest.

Why the short notice? Why not make it a meticulous-ish event like previous years? Well… why not? We might have one brewer, we might have ten, we might have some completely different number… We don't care!

Send an email to team@spocool.com if you are interested in competing; location will be emailed to you. Yes: the location, too, is impromptu.

For those who just want to show up and drink beer, details will be released soon. And, again, it will be done a bit differently than before. Stay tuned for more.

Oh, and just because. Here's the best thing you will hear/watch all week:

You know, we really like the work of HDG quite a bit. As far as their interior design goes, you get that odd mix of a minimal base, with a maximal finish. NUDO is a good example: here you get a light breezy feel, coupled with Roy Lichtenstein-style punches throughout.

In other words, NUDO's interiors (and exteriors, really) are awesome.

Luckily, and more importantly, the food fares rather well, too.

Their steamed gyozas, for example, filled with pork and chicken went over well during our visit. The meat had a spicy flavor to it, and the desired bite was there. Add the vinaigrette, which pairs nicely, and you have a good fresh appetizer.

The yakitori skewers are reasonably priced between $2-$4, and are surprisingly large. Our favorite was probably the asparagus, which came with a sauce that did not overpower the vegetable. The mushrooms -- nicely textured ones at that -- followed suit.

I wouldn't say the chicken wings lived up to their «spicy» claim, but the seasoning itself was quite good. The meat seemed just a little fatty to me, but that might possibly be a result of having the wings paired with the aforementioned vegetables.

Now, the ramen burger. It has been pimped pretty heavily, and I was sorta curious of how it would work, if at all. My opinions are mixed on that.

The flavor definitely was there, with a ramen flavorful enough for us to recommend NUDO as a ramen house in general. It had a nice bite to it, and was prepared properly for holding.

But! You still can not eat it as a proper burger. I guess some will claim you can, but I could not figure it out. The problem lies in the heat of the ramen -- holding it is nigh impossible, and it does not work as a bun replacement. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Use your fork, and you'll be OK.

Back to the flavor: Who would have thought the ramen and cheese would go so well together? Ramen and cheese is a great combination. I was surprised.

The beef patty was a bit overcooked for my liking, but had a nice flavor to it none the less. The tonkatsu sauce accompanied it well.

Finally, the mochi ice cream, both the green tea and mango, are excellent. The consistency was just right, as were the flavors.

All in all, our lunch was a very positive experience. Tasty food, each item clocking in under $13, in a great setting… Not bad at all. We definitely recommend NUDO. Go give it a shot. Your experience will, hopefully, mirror ours.