Conference Food

So I'm at this thing in LA. This was our lunch yesterday. Behold:

It really sucked. Terrible combo of flavors. Dry salmon with Italian spices. Italian boiled tomatoes.  Some sweet celery stuff. Orzo ruined by excessive lemon zest.  Mostly in edible. Thanks convention center. Losers. 

Something New!

I think I mentioned I got a new job. It's in a different part of town that I am wholly unfamiliar with. But. It's next to a strip mall with a good grocery store and some decent places to eat. So the other day my secretary introduced me to Adair. No idea what food category it falls under. Casual fresh if that is a thing. Salad soup and sandwich mostly. A bar for dinner. They have coffee and breakfast. Breakfast looks good. Oh we also had an exec admin with us and a younger dude attorney that I am borrowing from a firm for now. And I should clarify my secretary is really a paralegal. And by the way, she rules.  I think Im calling her Snaps bc everything she does gets three snaps.  

I got this salad. Some chicken with butter lettuce, avocado and goat cheese. Dressing was some sweet green stuff.  It was fantastic. Could have lived without walnuts but not fatal. A little pricey but nice portion and tasty. Good vibe inside too. My lunch companions were hilarious.   The Young Turk kind of looked shocked for part of the meal or at least like he knew staying quiet would be his best option. 

Adair gets a 3.5 and recommended. I will consider upgrading as I eat more there but I don't really do salad for lunch and I would totally get this salad again. 

Next week, business trip to LA with side trip to Disneyland.  Whoop!

Desperate Times

Saturday afternoon. Nothing in the house to eat and two nippers are asleep. I am about to do this:

Seems like both a great and a bad idea at the same time. I mean, it's certified Cajun. What could go wrong?  I will say the entire package is one serving and only 260 calories. Those are solid stats. If this is even like, 50% good it will be money.  

Started new job on Monday and as far as I can tell there is not a tree beards in sight. Previously I was within striking distance of three I can think of. A certain amount of withdrawal this week. Hoping this could fill the void. 

Had lunch with new boss like 4 days I think. Luckily he is entertaining. He reminds me of Jim Cramer with a fuller goatee. A more low key Cramer. He is from the Midwest after all.  

Whoa.

Not lying. I just bought these pickles at the store and about cracked them open in the car to try. They look good. Real good. 

10/15: ok. Pickles were a huge bust. Well, not huge but it was not awesome. spicy kick but not enough garlic and dill for me.  They were like the essence of pickle with a chili pepper. So whatever. Now I have a whole jar of these to get rid of. Not sure if new job has the same level of food scavengers that would ensure consumption. Oh yeah. I got a new job! Started Monday. The commute could make me stick a fork in my eye. So far so good though.  New eateries and new coworkers to enjoy them with although Twist and Ducky Momo will be sorely missed. 

I raise my pickle jar to you boys!

Mmmmmm

Hola! Tuesday I had lunch with the Unsinkable Molly Brown at Asia cafe in the Heights.  First let me day a quick piece on why she gets this name. Molly does not take shit from anyone or sugar coat it. She makes me think of the Kathy Bates version of MB in Titanic. Lest you can't tell I mean this as a high compliment. UMB is hilarious and I'm not sure why we haven't had lunch more up to this point. 

Back to Asia Cafe. We got an assortment of small plates to share. All super tasty for the most part. Exception was "crab puff" which was really just a subpar crab wonton.  Our server was an awesome shriveled up dude who looked like he could have been about 95. 

We left AC pretty happy. Alas. It was not to last. Maybe 2 hours later UMB sent me an IM asking if I felt ok. Well, since she mentioned it I was nauseous. She was also experiencing some gastro discontent. Nothing more serious developed on my end. Need to check with UMB.  So, boo in that but it was good going down. You can believe that. 

Xanadu

Lovely excursion today with Ducky Momo, Twist, and Chungry today for diner food.  Avalon Diner looks new on the outside but with an old soul like someone scooped out an old diner and took the interior to a strip mall. And chungry says that is pretty much the deal.   And there you go. 

Twist and I both opted for frito pie. The other two had some version of breakfast with hash browns.   The side of bacon was kind of pricey at $3.25 leading DM to spend a bit of time haggling with Chungry over sharing bacon.  

Chili was nice. Much better than canned. Although I eat that too on frito pie. Could have used more Fritos.   The bowl was too much for me sonTwist and Chungry ate my leftovers with hash browns. 

Had to make a phone call during lunch and was pleased to be able to use an old phone booth as refuge. Noticed several of the staff using said phone booth as resting spot as well. 

Biggest drawback for me is location. Avalon is on Westheimer. I hate driving Westheimer.  Half of it is under construction. It's just never pleasant to drive. 

Avalon Diner gets a 3.5 and recommended. I need to try more good. Oh. Wait! Almost forgot. Avalon makes killer homemade lemon and limeade. I had a limeade. Came in a big silver mixer like a shake. Very tasty. They also have excellent crushed ice.  This will sound stupid but it was like hand crushed. It was awesome. 

Return of the Mighty Wing.

I have to admit when Twist told me McDs  was putting Mighty Wings back out I was pretty excited. That's right suckers. The Mighty Wing is not new.  I fondly recall noshing on these at a McD in Switzerland   Let me tell you they were GOOD. No lie. Twist was a baby the first go round so he's been chomping at the bit to try these but hasn't found a McD near him yet that has them. I promised to cruise the one by my house and see if they were in. They were!!

Behold 

Spicy. Bold. Delicious. 

That says it all. Even better, it is accurate. They were spicy. A little too much for me but not fatal. Crispy and juicy.  Delicious? Yes. Yes they were. I'm not sure what sauce these come with but ranch would be good.  I was in the drive thru and didn't feel like quizzing the order dude on it and he didn't offer anything helpful.  Plus I got cheated out of the fries with my meal.  Booo. 

If you don't like spice I wouldn't bother with these. I'd also only order these during peak meal times. Lots of potential for these to be dried out and nasty if not made fresh and just sitting around waiting to get served.