What can you say about a week where one commenter uses the word "yum," another lets "yucky" slip into a post and someone else writes "to die for"? Oh, and to top it off, djs added the phrase "I like beets" to a story.
Weeks like this make us want to drink distilled beet juice.
OK--so it wasn't such a bad time: dinner at The Mansion...wait, that was last week. Well, we did stop by Canary Cafe...nope, that was two weeks ago. Let's see--there was Wendy's spicy nuggets, that jelly and avocado sandwich. And well into a staff party one of us tried to convince the boss (we mean, really convince him--by repeating it five or six times) that Richie Whitt should ignore baseball and cover the MotoGP season.
It was a horrible week, come to think of it.
At least we could count on the non-yum/yucky/to die for readers to pick up the slack. No prizes this week (which kinda goes without saying), just our silent nods of thanks.
So, on to this week's non-winners:
Several readers took the opportunity to admit to things they may or may not probably should admit (we couldn't find distilled beets, but the distilled potato juice seems to be kicking in). For instance, bruce says "The first time I went to Which Wich I may or may not have been under the influence of really good weed. And I may or may not have spent a solid thirty minutes reading brown bags before I could settle on a fucking sandwich."
And then there was Sally Albright, who was proud of this: "Hey, I gave the calf fries a try! Stepped right up to the challenge. Mmm."
Well, Sally, we hope it was consensual.
MD added this: "Love steak and eggs, especially chicken fried
steak and eggs. Best breakfast of all time! Get it anytime I eat
breakfast out, if available. Of course Friends look at me like I'm a
freak."
And cp got all nostalgic for wasted days past: "wasn't
that place called the Filling Station for years and years? They had
some things called gas pipes, which were 12" long hot dog wieners
rolled with cheese inside tortillas and deep fried and served with
honey mustard. They also had really good drinks but I think I was too
bombed to remember what they all were."
Yes, you would have to be.
The Filling Station inspired several comments, though we really like the first part of this comment from daveedt: "i
remember when the SE corner of Mockingbird/Abrams was a good spot,
until they opened an IHOP there. Filling station was a great
restaurant, except the "non-smoking" section was right by the bar,
where everyone smoked!!"
IHOP kills.
At least one comment bordered on the delusional, i.e. this from
Jeff: "Cubs fans aren't the problem, it's the lack of enough Cubs fans. Just wait til next, no no no, THIS year."
Well, from what we hear, Richie Whitt won't be covering the baseball season anyway.
Brent D. was concerned for the health of Patrick "Out Of Order"
Michels, adding this comment to Patrick's description of one disgusting
sandwich: "I hope the Observer has good health insurance."
We used to, Brent. Although Patrick doesn't know it yet, I somehow
forgot to sign the pages for covering maladies related to blog work.
Thanks for asking.
There were several good points and thought-provoking comments, as well. We selected one, from webra, because we've encountered the same problem in restaurants all over the globe (though mostly in France): "By
the way, what is the correct pronunciation of Bo Bia? We say bo bee-uh
when ordering, but the server always repeats it as if we're saying it
wrong. To ours ears, it seems close to what we say, but not exact."
And another from
billusa99, who reminded us that location jinx doesn't always start with the first restaurant: "Martini
Ranch was there for years and very successful. The only reason they
left is because the idiot-owners of Stolik made them an offer they
could not refuse."
Beets were unfortunately a hot topic. They spurred luniz to write "It
seems like at Arabic restaurants, half have sucky, slightly off
flavored, and a strange texture. But a lot of them have really good
pickled beets. Or maybe not a lot, but at least some."
At least luniz isn't wishy-washy. Not really sure, by the way, if "sucky" is a real word (outside of Stanley Kubrick films).
No waffling from chevytexas, either: "I grew up with a
sidebar Ukrainian grandmother --and russophile parents-- who ensured I
always had both hot and cold borscht, with potato and sour cream: so
I'd know when I had it good. For some folks, it's the bitter herbs of
nostalgia, for others it's comfort food on the order of sweet potato
pie. Or sweet potato fries, but I digress."
We were a little disturbed by this, from TLS--especially since we've now eaten Wendy's nuggets: "I
don't know how anyone would be enticed to try these things after seeing
the disgusting commercial with those heavy breathing guys. After all
that gasping I think I know what adheres the breading and the chicken."
It's a bit nauseating to think you may have eaten hair gel.
But the biggest non-winner this week is knottygirl, for summing up in one line pretty much every thing on City of Ate: "That is the most digusting thing I've ever read. And I've read plenty about the Donner Party."
