The Dark Side

A friend of mine who works downtown in a hipper, more socially-responsible job than me, had the day off and decided to come up to the 'burbs to have lunch with me.  She's a vegetarian and so I figured she'd want to go to the panini place or the cheap-but-excellent Industrial Park Indian buffet. (The Indian buffet in the industrial park just south of the business park really is very good, but I was unable to take a picture when I ate there.  I had gone with civilized people and it's not OK to take pictures of empty, filthy place when you're in polite company.)

But for some reason my very cool, very hip, very vegetarian and very anti-establishment friend wanted to go to a chain restaurant that was reminiscent of the movie Office Space, only a bit more upscale.

We walked in and she exclaimed, "This place is full of men!"  And I was like, duh, it's a high-tech business park, what do you expect?  If we had gone to the panini place just outside the business park -- which, incidentally, makes an awesome veggie sandwich -- there would have have been more women.

Anyways.  I had the fish and chips because it seemed safe.  She had the fish tacos because there were no reasonable vegetarian options (surprise!) and she's actually a fishetarian.

She finished her fish tacos, but I couldn't finish my two giant, extra-oily battered fish fillets with extra-salty fries, so I got a doggy bag.

"Fat, I am your father."

The panini place might have been better, but I would never have experienced a black take-out container that reminded me of Darth Vader's dirty helmet at the beginning of Star Wars. (Though I suspect George Lucas scrubbed it for his digitally remastered abominations).

Is that a fish stick I see before me?

Today's lunch was brought to you by sitting at home alone, somewhat sick.  Because of this, I didn't put much effort into lunch.  Instead I just warmed up a Jane's something-something frozen pollock fish fillet thingy.  It was OK. I prefer the beer battered fish that tastes mostly of oil and fat and sad desperation.  This one just kinda tasted of fish, breaded.

I washed the whole thing down with some coffee, natch, and some chocolate.  Now, a note about coffee: I usually buy Kimbo espresso coffee in the black packaging (Napoletano?  Who the fuck knows), but it's been kinda scarce lately, so I've had to buy other coffees.  The before-last time I bought coffee, I bought Illy coffee that costs $14-$16 a container, about $10 more than the Kimbo.  

Now, many people have said to me, "Snaddy, Illy coffee tastes no better than regular $5 coffee.  You just think it tastes better because you paid more for it."  To those people I say "Pffffffffffft!" Especially after I essentially did a blind taste test with Kimbo Gold Medal coffee.  

As the Black Kimbo was still unavailable the last time I went grocery shopping, I bought Kimbo Gold Medal coffee ($6).    That evening, I asked my Spousal Unit to make me an espresso.  I figured he was making it with the Illy since there was still some left.   When I went to taste the coffee, I was amazed at how bitter and tasteless it was.  So I says to the Spousal Unit, I says, "Dude, did you make the coffee with grey water or something?"  And he's all, "Dude, no.  I made it with the new coffee."  And there you have it:  there is a difference between Illy coffee and Kimbo Gold Medal.