twenty-one?

Yeah, we ate at 7-11. I had two hot dogs and a slurpee. My favorites in order were probably the slurpee, the first hot dog, not getting the second hot dog, perhaps another slurpee, and yes, the second hot dog. For me, some foods just go well together. French toast and milk, steak and orange gatorade, and yeah, 7-11 hot dogs (with free chili and free cheese) and a slurpee.

Did I mention the free chili and cheese? I do wonder sometimes how far you could push that. What if I fill the whole container? What if I place the container in a bucket and then fill it? How about a garbage can? F150? F350? What if there were more than two trucks I could mention?

Sometimes, people tell me things. The other day "the dentist" wanted to see me, perhaps during lunchtime. We had exchanged an email or two and chatted on the phone a bit, so I guess he felt like he could open up to me. He said something like, "now just because it's going to be lunchtime, don't think that we're going to have any food. I could maybe bring some sandwiches. Peanut butter and honey?" Again, more than a little strange.

Today at 7-11 a couple folks chatted me up a bit. A xerox copy repair man who would rather be a programmer, and was going back to get his IT degree. He was saying that was maybe the first time he had seen someone that a picture of a cheese machine. I told him about this blog, and maybe he is reading this today. Hola, xerox guy! I would probably aim towards java, and I think this is a good book.

One of the 7-11 workers told me about his mom's garden, that she grew hot stuff that he eventually ate half of one of them. It was really hot. "Do you like hot stuff?"

Why did drew eat at two places today? Now that's a good question.

Thats a Wrap

It bothers me that they call the place New York Burrito when what it is they are selling is not my idea of a burrito. Evidently they ARE all burritos as per Dictionary.com which says a burrito is "noun: a flour tortilla folded around a filling". But it still bothers me.
It was good food. Didn't quite fill us up, but that is why they are located right by Great Harvest Bread that sells cinnamon rolls larger than the spare tire in the trunk of Cameron's Honda that you can grab for dessert.
Another thing that bothered me just a tad is that my "burrito" was supposed to be healthy, but it wasn't (my lunch's nutritional facts). Especially when you add the dessert (yum, they don't list it with the frosting, ha!)
It could be worse, it could be Jack-in-box's excuse for a burrito which is a flour tortilla folded around a breakfast, putting you well over your cholesterol limit for the day before it even gets started.

cold mug please

Must mean more to other folks, but I sure do like the occasional frosty mug of a&w root beer. I used to go a couple tuesday a month to state street's own a&w/kfc combo. Not sure how those two folks ended up together, but if you ever wished for a bucket of chicken AND a frosty mug of a&w with a single credit card swipe, wishes can come true.

This particular flavor of said combo is run by a guy nice enough seeming fellow. I was about to mention his name, but since drew (ages ago) said we should have nothing personal in the blog, I have mentioned, I believe nary a name. Now, I didn't go to high school with him, like I did the formerly unmentioned owner of our local chick-fill-a, but I am starting to feel like I know old troy a bit. His employees seem to like working for him, he seems to like what he does, his customers seem to like him, and there you go. Today he made the rounds just to ask us if everything was alright. Almost seemed like he really meant it.

Goatee tuesday means you get a free drink on tuesdays if you have a goatee. In the past, I pushed the envelope a bit on length (shortness), but I got the free drinks. These days, as my lackbeard self, I can't really even begin to ask. The routine for first timers goes a little something like this

"Would you like a free drink with that?"
"Huh?"
"Because it's . . ."
"goatee tuesday! woot! woot!" (said in unison by several of the workers)

It's perhaps a touch more than a little strange.

save a panda

I can't imagine that orem's own china bowl was real excited about a panda express opening in the same parking lot, but I am pretty sold on china bowl, so I eat there. In another life, I discovered cal's chinese (sorry couldn't find a link). Cal's was a couple of blocks from the cal berkeley, which may have helped explain the name. And yeah, for quite awhile, I thought the owner's name must be cal. Never did meet cal, but I sure did like his lemon chicken. For whatever reason, perhaps near-freakish height, folks seem to remember me. I lived in utah, and visited berkeley only occasionally, but the folks would give me a warm, smiling nod when I came, and another warm, smiling nod when I would order lemon chicken.

Same thing happens about half the time for me at china bowl. I have seen pretty well two people ever working at china bowl. One is warm and friendly, acknowledging that I have been there before, rhetorically asking if I want the lemon chicken, delivering chop sticks with my order, etc, etc. The other acting like it is my first time there, expressing no emotion when I usually order the lemon chicken, bringing chop sticks only after I ask, etc, etc.

That said, today I tried the peking chicken. It is pretty yummy and I guess I shouldn't always get the same thing. Try new things! Out with the old! Course, I used to get the peking chicken quite a bit, so I guess I mean try the things you used to try! How yummy is the peking chicken? Just take a look at the clean plate!

say hola to yamato!

I know that we started on our trek some few weeks ago, and the goal was to make our way south of twelfth north, hitting pretty well anywhere that served food. So far, we have made it to pretty well wendy's and one parking lot of restaurants. To date, our nemesis has been that darn new york burrito. I wonder if the owner knows how much potential revenue he has lost because of scimping on the rice/beans so many years ago. I think I ate there once, or maybe twice, and then nothing. Mostly because I was not impressed with my five-six dollar meal that left me wanting. "And a whopper," I call it. The meal was fine and I got plenty full. Well, plenty full if I ate the meal . . . .

Kind of funny that drew and I were more excited about 7-11 and the hot dog king than new york burrito. That said, we were even more excited about lovely yamato. Yum.

Yamato (the big sign, not the mattress store in the back) is one of those places that I kind of keep discovering over and over again. Not sure why I forget, but lately, it has definitely been in the rotation.

With few exceptions, I get the chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura. Pretty well each time, I finish and think, wow, that was awesome. I know, it is a total sellout meal. I took a break or two and got some udon, and something else a touch more autentico, but yeah, just keep coming back. And yeah, I don't really like nigiri.

Yamato is a call ahead kind of place. So very slow. Not that the drive to south orem speeds it up, but be ready to order when your waitress shows up. And it's not like we're getting anything that strange.

Got a cinnamon roll on the way back. Yum again.

pretty good harvest

Isn't great a little presumptuous? I mean, you don't really get to pick do you? Isn't that for your customers to decide? Also kind of hard to go back on as well: Formally great harvest, now well above average. Along similar lines, a place north of twelfth north on state street is called the new chinese gourmet buffet. Yes, new is in the title. Or at least it is on the sign. Uh, you're not new anymore, change your sign. And gourmet? Really?

So yeah, great harvest bread today. Yet another place that we wouldn't have ever gone to, but for our little project. Great harvest bread serves lunch, you may be asking? Well, kind of. They serve sandwiches. Back of mind, I am thinking, sandwiches? What kind of lunch is that? Turns out there are some few chains that really just do sandwiches for lunch. It might have been because great harvest didn't have fountain drinks. That hardly counts.

What did I order? Funny you should ask, cause I took a picture of my cute, little order form. Yip, peanut butter and jelly. Was pretty dang good though. So was the turkey. But the cinamon roll? I told the mrs tonight that I may need to get a second job to help pay for cinamon rolls. It was like $2.36 with tax. Pretty dang posh.

The fact that their seating consisted of two benches might have had some bearing on me thinking it wasn't a real restraunt. You can see the sandwiches poster that got us in there.

every day?

Kind of hard for me to blog anywhere near daily. Even when you intend to write about my near daily event of lunch. Seems like I heard Neil Gaiman say that the keys to having a successful blog are to write every day for ten years. Not looking real good for me, but I guess we shall see.

After eating at Quizno's, we wandered over to Macey's (or is it Harmon's?), which is pretty much in the same parking lot, for a little ice cream. Fifty cents on the nose. Yes, including tax! How cool is that? Kind of makes me want to go back there, just to reward their apparent tribute to base ten. $3.99 for a combo meal? So, like $4.29 with tax? What planet do you think I am from? Please help me feel comfortable, and maybe make it $4 on the nose, or maybe even $4.50, but I will need to think about that last one.

How about a nice big snowman to help with the whole ice cream feel? Just makes me think of that potentially world changing Lost punchline of

smells like carrots

For ages I have gone to chick-fill-a. It is pretty well my first choice for lunch, but alas, it isn't really on state street, though the mall is (kind of), and the chick is in the mall. I have kind of imaging our quest ending there, but it looks like we might hit there a few times before. I used to get the solid number one, with no pickles, lemonade, value sized. Somewhere along the way I made the big change to chicken nuggets. The little ones may not like curry too much, but at least there is one meal we could share. And I am a grown up! How cool is that?

Pretty sure that my chick experience has largely been served, by Margie, the nice lady in the blue. It is nearly always busy there, and if nothing else, I think it is busier than every other place at the mall. Mall food. Hmm.










A blast from the past is hopefully somewhere there on the right, mocking my pain, as noticed by the mrs.

Quizno's

We ate at Quizno's today. I really like the idea of the place. Take something that should be healthy, then prepare it in un-healthy ways until it tastes good. I like it because they say things like "toasting" the sandwich, even though it tastes like its been deep fried. My mind likes "toasting" even though my heart probably doesn't buy the marketing spiel.
I would like to see Subway Jared go on a Quizno's diet for a while then have the marketing department come up with a little phrase to explain what happens to his body. I am sure he would be happier, he just couldn't hold up his old pants anymore showing how much weight he lost, because he would go back to wearing them. At least he wouldn't have this scary disclaimer that I found out at Subway's site haunting him anymore -- "results are not typical. Your loss if any will vary. SUBWAY® Restaurants does not endorse the diet Jared created and cautions anyone embarking on a weight-loss plan to consult their physician." If Subway can't even endorse a diet eating their food, then Quizno's should not be ashamed of anything -- toast everything in site.
Just because they make food that isn't supposed to be eaten regularly doesn't mean we can't learn to eat it. A coyote wandered into a Quizno's in Chicago earlier this year and hung out for a while. The news story said it was probably looking for food and that "Coyotes are quite territorial and quite good at adapting to what their territory presents." If they can adapt to food like this, so can I...

apollo burger rulz!

I know that it wasn't up yet, but hey, at least it is on state street. Got to go with the mrs and the little one, and the mrs wanted apollo, so away we went. Next up on our quest is actually quiznos, which doesn't really thrill me, followed by great harvest bread, which I am a little more curious about. ghb sounds pretty dang good actually. I mean a sandwich is a sandwich, but from what I have heard some folks really like good old ghb. I have just gotten their free bread (my favorite kind), and maybe a cinnamon roll. But alas, that is for another day, today (actually friday), apollo.

While we're on the subject of yesterday being today, for years I have felt a touch dishonest writing about non-todays on today. On the mish, for the first like ten months, I had at least a page for each day, but many of those were written after the fact. I would actually make a mark on the page for a given day, on that day, just to kind of make it legit, but yeah, I guess I am a little bit weird.

Folks rave about in 'n out, but for my money, apollo burger is right up there. The fries are different, and each have their own favorable qualities, but I am surprised folks don't rave about state street's own apollo burger. That said, it is pretty dang busy in there some days, so I guess they can be our own little secret. It is also true that I have gone across the street to kfc for burgers before, so what do I know?


If any mushrooms wiss combos are reading today, and you're looking for a job, it looks like apollo is hiring.

a dead bird to go

A couple days ago, when walking back from la taquiera, we happened to see a dead bird in arby's drive-thru. And here we are, a couple of days later, doing what?, that's right!, eating at arby's! I had coupons though, and as I am a from-coupon orderer, you can see how I opted for the medium roast beef and ninety-nine cent vanilla shake. And yeah, the bird was gone today.

Since I have worked down the street for like eight years, I have been eating at this particular
arby's for quite awhile. Some time ago, I realized or was told by those mentioned below, that arby's didn't take coupons. I mean that they don't physically take the coupons. You can use them over again. What a country, huh? Today, all that changed.

The picture at the left shows absence. Ironically, two of the absences correspond to stains on the table we nearly sat at. Look what I almost stepped in!

Kind of funny, but the cashier was pretty meticulous about absenting my coupons. Don't bother with the tables honey, just make sure you take some time on getting that guy's coupons! I used two, and Drew used one. Drew's is the really good one, $3.99 for a combo meal.

Wow, how can they stay in business doing that? A couple certain IP lawyer friends of mine have used a similar coupon perhaps a hundred times. They actually got a personalized coupon from the manager because the normally awesome coupon didn't contain the sandwich they wanted. Well, it did for awhile, but was taken off. Perhaps to help retain their highly compensated clientele, arby's gave them their own coupon. Bargain.

In other news, it looks like great harvest bread makes sandwiches. See you soon.