rice king noodle house

go.

holy cow!

i discovered a very versatile condiment today: the chik-fil-a "chik-fil-a" sauce. i believe it is a honey mustard/bbq mix, heavy on the honey mustard side.

i put it up there with nick's house dressing. no joke.

ethical considerations: mountain west burrito

the other day a handful of us hit up mountain west burrito. myself, cass, wiems, gheybin, greg, other meg, and brit p all crowded around a table in a room adjacent to a convenience store (read: smokeshop & beer). for some reason the owner chose that location to open where other tiny resturants had either closed, fled, or bailed completely (lookin at you taco r.). the near steadfast rule in opening a resturant is to never open where another had just failed seems not to deter the owner (haven't quite gotten on first name basis, which everyone should at their fav food spots), who goes about happily greeting, serving and cleaning.

somehow i think he knows what he's done.

here's why:

first he's a good looking white dude, and very affable. the picky locals are drawn towards pretty white men. and he smiles at everyone. he oozes the good kind of confidence.

second, he seems quite business savvy. i've had a couple of conversations with him about previous endeavors and he's helped start and may still be involved with a few similar operations, didn't get that far in convo with him. he's opened places like these in other college towns and he seems to be banking on their model in provo. not such a bad idea.

third, he's smart enough to buy locally, and organic when available, another selling point to the picky locals, not because its more healthy, but because its a buzz they can all understand. either way, we all win, because: his food is killer. it definitely is not autentico mexicano. but it is so good. which brings me to my last point: the staff.

the food at this joint is good because his staff respect and appreciate that he respects them. i don't know if i've ever seen an owner treat his guys with such dignity. the first time me and cassie ever tried him out he was sitting out in the dining room with one of his guys playing dominoes. i'll never forget it. the owner took our order while the other guy made his last move before he got our food ready. to see latino worker treated as a person and not a commodity gives me just the tiniest bit of faith in people. it's really all i need to help keep this place going.

cornel west made this statement:

"A Leftist looks at the world through the lenses of those who are dominated, subjugated, devalued, demeaned and marginalized...."

when i first read it i felt its meaning throughout my body. whether you subscribe to leftism or not, we can find places run by businessmen who believe in helping the marginalized maintain dignity as people, and we should support them.

hey folks, it's been a while.

i noticed the last post was part one of my tour "diary". fail. i don't even remember the rest of tour, so suffice it to say i had good food in portland.

for a second i thought blogger was gonna delete all my stuff because some "thing" changed with the internet and i don't know what goes on inside the internet so i don't know how to describe it. but i guess everything is cool.

the last 6-7 months or so've been pretty strange/rough.

i don't really wanna talk about it. some ups, lotsa downs, lotsa wasted time and money.

i got a new job. so i don't work at nicolitalia any longer. i barely made it through that. graywhale is my new home. i like my new job. i like my co-workers. i like my superiors. i wish it wasn't at the mall.

which brings up my first point:

i have a love/hate relationship with mall food. you can only get chick-fil-a at the mall here. they have pretty good biscuits and gravy. iceberg makes an "ok" burger (the buffalo chips are worth it). free refills all day. i can really only stomach sbarro's cheese slice. charleys subs are very mediocre. i will not pay $2.39 for a hot dog at orange julius. when the chinese food is fresh it is killer. mixed veggies 4 lyfe.

now on to my second point:

i don't really get out much anymore. except to go to petes. pete's and el salvadoran are about the only 2 places i want to eat any more. usually i go to pete's.

which brings me to my third point:

i have my own table at pete's lunch. he called me back into the inner sanctum and asked me what my last name was. had me write it down. next time i came in, there it was. come sit with me at my table sometime.

the 4th and maybe last thing i wanna say:

self loathing is rampant in provo. maybe the world. i can only see its effects in provo. i see it mostly in women, probably due in large part to the self loathing in men, projected onto the women they're around. 2 things can save us. food and music. i think long and hard on these two things on a very frequent basis. the histories of the worlds cultures can largely be documented by their food, their wars, and their cultural output, but not how they treat women.

ok, the 5th:

why the fuck do i know so many women who are scared to eat? i think i know. you know too. if you don't know, it's likely you're a part of the problem, so please stop.

sorry to get serious. i'm meeting my buddy mel for pete's soon. i'm looking towards a new phase in my life and i love you all.