Ruffles and Onion Dip

 

I stopped in Winslow, Arizona, much earlier than I normally would (TBH, normally I would have done the whole drive in one day) because I wanted to watch the Chiefs at Bills playoff game. 

There is one great restaurant in Winslow: The Turquoise Room at La Posada. But there were no available reservations and even if there were, I doubt I would have taken one. After 10 days of drinking more beer and eating more restaurant food than I had in years, I just wanted to watch football and go to bed at an early hour. 

There were three options by my hotel: McDonald's, Taco Bell, and a grocery store. Neither of the first two sounded good. So I walked around the store. 

Nothing there looked good either - all I had in my hotel room was a microwave - so I bought some Ruffles and French Onion Dip. (Tracie had been talking about that the day before, and it sounded good.) 

It wasn't. 

A couple of hours later I needed to eat again and the store was closed. 

So... 

In-n-Out

I should have bought an extra burger for dinner. 

More on that tomorrow. 

Mama Lu's Dumpling House

My last night in town. After an afternoon - and evening - of drinking and watching football, I wanted Asian food. 

Mama Lu's sounded good. 

Tracie and Murph told me to do the ordering. Which I was happy to do. 

(I'll tell you right now I ordered way too much food, because I was drunk and hungry. But that just meant there were leftovers for Murph.)

The fried pork buns were good, not great. If I had to redo this dinner and remove one item, it would be these. 

The hot & sour soup was the best I have ever had. 

The Szechuan-style shrimp were great, though I wished for a little more heat. 

The spring rolls were good, too. They were nothing special, but fried crisp and full of veggies. 

I got two orders of the juicy pork dumplings. We probably only needed one. Whatever. We loved them this night and Murph loved them the next day. 

The chive & pork dumplings were delicious, though I wish I had ordered the spicy wontons instead. (Although Tracie is a delicate flower so I'm not sure she could have handled those.)

The food was much better than Din Tai Fung and much less expensive.

I really liked Mama Lu's with one big exception: I have never been given the bum's rush at a restaurant like we were here. 

They are open until 9:30 on Saturdays - a bizarre time to close, but certainly their right. 

We walked in at 8:59, a full 31 minutes before their posted closing. 

As soon as I ordered the food, the server brought me the check. Before we had been served a single iten. 

"We close soon," he said bluntly. 

Starting at 9:15, the servers stood hovering over every occupied table in the place, like a strict schoolmaster watching students take an exam.

I do not remember the last time I was in such an unwelcoming place. 

But the food was so good, I would still return. 

I Introduce Murph To Bresaola

Murph claimed he had never eaten bresaola, which is certainly possible, though I find it more likely that he has just forgotten about it. 

"It's basically prosciutto, but with beef," I told him. 

"THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!!!" he said. 

(Can't you just hear him saying that?)

Barnaby wanted some, too, but it's just too salty for him. 

The other two flatbreads, in case you are wondering, are pepperoni and green onion (Mt. Etna, of course), and pepperoni and green chile jam (left over from the burgers).

Roma Market

I was driving around on my final morning in town, a rainy Saturday morning, kind of doing errands but mostly just driving aimlessly around Pasadena, remembering some of my favorite things. I found myself right by Roma Market and decided to pop in. 

It was busy, as it always was in my memory on Saturday mornings. 

I only bought four things. 1) Two pizza crusts to bring back to Santa Fe. 2) A vegetarian sandwich because I was going by Tracie's place an hour later and she was giving me something valuable and I wanted to at least give her a $7 sandwich as a thank you.* 3) Bresaola. More on that tomorrow. 

*See if you can guess what Tracie was giving me. I'll give you a hint: It was either her virginity, one of her cats, or an ergometer. 

A Little Voice Inside My Head Said Don't Look Back You Can Never Look Back

This was my fifth return to Pasadena since moving away, though that is somewhat misleading, as this was only the second trip for fun. 

(The first three were 1) when my brother was in a coma and about to die, 2) his memorial service, 3) taking my dad to his dentist and oncologist during the height of the pandemic. None of those trips were "fun.")

On the previous four trips I had avoided this place and I had no plans to return on this one, but one night I was drunk and my friend Amy kept nagging me to come with her. "It will be fun," she said. "Just one drink."

So I relented. 

It was not fun.

In the first decade of the millennium, I came here more than a thousand times when it was fun. 

Those days are gone forever. I should just let them go.

Alfred Coffee

After lunch, Emma said we should get coffee at Alfred because it's "the best." 

It was fine. Expensive and nothing special. But fine. 

I vastly prefer Starbucks, and there is a sentence I rarely use. 

Himalayan Cafe

 

We were going to get Indian food when I mentioned that this place has lots of vegetarian options.

"I've never had Himalayan food before," Emma said, 

"I've never had it sober," I confessed.

"Then let's go there. It will be a new experience for both of us!"

There are plenty of vegetarian options for her - though admittedly I like many of them, too. 

Veggie samosas.

Vegetable pakora. 

Shrimp pakora. (All for me!)

Veggie momo - Tibet's take on dumplings. So freaking good. 

The pickles were the only item of the afternoon that I did not like. 

Garlic naan.

Vegetable tandoori. (Yes, we ordered way too much food but Emma was able to take a lot back to her apartment in Westwood so it's all good.) 

"Because you're a whore, get it?"