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Where can you get the best $22 bowl of steamed white rice

Friday, October 5th, 2012

There are times when Kelly and I are pretty certain we’re on a hidden camera show. Tonight we went to our favorite hibachi place; it’s just this local run joint hidden off main streets at the end of a strip mall in our home town. We’re pretty sure its mostly family run, but its definitely authentic and they definitely make the best fried rice anywhere. It’s not like you can just run into this place though, you have to know its there; but they are all so friendly and the food is always great.

Of course being a hibachi, you get seated at community tables for 9, so the nights can always end up interesting depending on who we end up with. Tonight we ended up at a table with two older ladies and a guy, roughly 50 or so year olds. For the sake of storytelling, let’s call them guy, Grumpy lady and Pissed lady (literal descriptions of their attitudes all night from the very moment we sat down at the table). All of the following proceeded to actually happen:

- Pissed lady had a bluetooth thing in her ear the whole time so we’re already off to a good start

- They took more than 10 minutes just to figure out their drink selections

- Both ladies ordered pina coladas but Pissed lady wanted it virgin. They got switched and rather than just realizing that and swapping, Grumpy called the waiter over complaining hers didn’t have alcohol while Pissed lady, who wanted hers virgin, apparently just kept drinking hers

- The waiter tried 3-4 times to tell them he thinks he just switched them up, they finally switched and the one wanting virgin said “yeah I guess it tasted funny”

- Then they debated if they needed new straws, or if they could just switch their straws

- When ordering food, Pissed lady said she didn’t want broccoli or mushrooms in, or touching, her vegetables (remember this is a 50+ year old, not a 5 year old)

*side note, Kelly and I usually hate when people do this cause they end up removing the item for the whole table to make things easier for the chef, happily they didn’t this time

- When asked if she wanted fried rice or steamed rice, Grumpy responded “I just want rice,” so the waiter tried to get her to clarify, which she wanted and she said again “I want JUST rice” which he said “ok so just white steamed rice?” and Grumpy responded “I guess…”

- At this place they include a free appetizer (mushrooms, shrimp or chicken liver); Grumpy didn’t like that they kept asking her questions, and finally said “I don’t want anything” but the guy jumped in and said “Can I have hers?”

*note 2: by this point we felt so bad for the waiter, and knew we were in for a fun night; he was being so nice to us so we were trying to be extra courteous back to make up for Grumpy and Pissed

- After ordering food, Pissed lady in the middle said “I don’t like the smell when they cook in here”

- When they brought out miso soup (which come with everything) both ladies just let it sit in front of them and said they didn’t want any

- When they brought out salad, Pissed lady folded her arms all disgruntled and mad and didn’t want any while Grumpy told the waiter she didn’t want any dressing (keep in mind these people are known for their special ginger dressing)

- When the waiter brought Grumpy a dressing-less salad she just looked away all grumpy and didn’t eat any anyway

-When the chef came out and started asking the people who ordered meat how they wanted it cooked, I said “medium” the other guy said “medium well” then both Pissed and Grumpy said in their pissed and grumpy tones: “VERY well done.”

- So the chef does his show-off routine, they were not impressed, and I have to say it was some of the best cooking we’ve had there; so we probably missed even more stuff happening here. When it came time to dish out vegetables though, he accidentally gave full vegetables to Pissed; who let him know she was getting the “no mushrooms or broccoli.” But she gave the vegetables to the guy, and the chef was like, no give those to Grumpy (cause there were no more vegetables to give out). Grumpy then explained she didn’t want any, though she never told anyone until now.

- Pissed proceeded to not even want her non-mushroom/broccoli touched vegetables now, because some had previously been on her plate

- The chef (as often happens at a hibachi) had extra fried rice and vegetables; so he asked Grumpy if she at least wanted to try his fried rice “just small try, I promise very good” but Grumpy would have none of it sternly “NO! I don’t want any”

*note 3: for those keeping track, at this point fried rice, salad, soup and vegetables have been served and Grumpy’s plate is still empty.

- They bring out the white steamed rice for Grumpy in a bowl, which she then promptly sets to the side.

- So now it’s the main events. We’re all being served our main course, and Grumpy finally has something, Filet Mignon, on her plate; kid you not she promptly says: “I can’t eat that it’ll be too salty.” She didn’t try any of it and say it was salty, she just looked at it and said it would be salty and never tried any. So now she finally starts picking at her steamed rice. Keep in mind the chef is standing not but 2 feet away.

- Pissed has like 2 pieces of shrimp and then quits and folds her arms, so at this point the guy just starts taking food from their plates.

- While the chef is still finishing up cooking chicken for Kelly, the guy and Pissed ask Grumpy if she wants anything on their plates and she says loudly back to them “we can just stop at McDonald’s on the way back home”

…

(Yes this is the same person who just said the Filet Mignon would be too salty)

…

So in short, we’re pretty sure Grumpy had a $20+ bowl of white rice, Pissed had $20+ fried rice and 2 shrimp while letting the guy go to town taking the rest of the shrimp and meat off her plate.

So at the end of it all, Grumpy turned to her side and said “well, happy birthday…”

She had to be talking to the guy right? He got everything he wanted and was as happy as could be…

So of course we got our finale… Pissed turned to Grumpy said “oh thank you.”

Posted in D.C., Recreation, Virginia | No Comments »

Sad But Cool – Discovery Moves to its New Home

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

One thing about living/working in the D.C. region, is that it generally lends itself to the giant pain and stress of ridiculous amounts of traffic and congestion on a regular basis… Oh there’s a protest today, that’ll be an extra 2 hours to get into work and get home. Oh there’s some kind of small unheard of holiday today, that’s 3 hours you’ll spend in your car pondering how much quicker it would be to walk. Oh it’s Thursday and people woke up today… yeah that’s an extra 5 hours.

Obviously being in this region means there’s always stuff going on, and sadly whether its important or not, the slightest thing seems to bring all travel to a standstill (we attempted to go to the ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’ not only did using the Metro take almost 2 hours longer than normal, but another 3 extra hours on the way back home).

Today was one of those amazing reminders that its not always bad.

Yeah, that picture was taken from the parking lot of my office today without any fancy zoom lenses. The space shuttle Discovery made its way from Florida to Dulles Airport, which is maybe 600 yards from where I work, so it can take its place at its new home, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (the Udvar Hazy Center, the one with all the full size planes including the SR-71 etc., not the one in downtown D.C.). That meant me and thousands (millions?) of others got to see a space shuttle strapped to the top of a special 747 do repeated loops around the city, showing off, escorted by fighter Hornets. And it wasn’t a ‘need zoom lens or binoculars’ to see it kind of thing. They flew it in the 700-1500 ft. above ground range. You felt like it was within reach, and it was above your parking lot.this wasn’t like watching it on CNN (who were off by about 56 minutes telling us when this thing was landing), so I totally get when people say how awe inspiring it is to see a shuttle take off for space.

Its totally sad that the shuttering down of the space program is why this was happening. I really hope this isn’t the last opportunity in my lifetime to see a live space craft in flight, but nonetheless, even with the extra 2 hours of traffic this caused today, the awesomeness made it totally worth it.

Posted in D.C., Events-Entertainment etc., Virginia | No Comments »

I Don’t Buy Trendy Hipster, I Buy Local

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

So it’s been a while since I’ve written, but there has been no shortage of travel and addition of pins to the map. The Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood Boulevard, Scottsdale Fashion Square, Pebble Beach … Shake Shack, McCovey’s, Lefty O’Doul’s and more, yum. But I’ll delve into that another time, for now I feel the need to plea with hipsters.

Dear trendy hipsters,

Stop it.

Best regards,

Wedge

I realize there is a very blurry line between art and “art” and being unique and “being unique,” being green and “being green,” but for those who are unaware of it let me put out a scenario that, I guess, in retrospect I should have been expecting seeing as it was L.A.

If I travel to a region, let’s call this place Scmollywood or Dos Jangeles (yeah that disguises it enough), and everyone from the area is bragging about the oldest most awesomest farmer’s market in the area and how super awesome it is, I don’t expect to only be able to find root beers mass produced in New Jersey and Texas!? WTF!?

Look nothing wrong with Boylan and A&W root beers, they’re good, in fact Boylan is in my top 5 all time, and A&W which was founded in California but hardly local anymore, but what the heck is the point of a farmer’s market that doesn’t sell local or at least regional products?

What is more astonishing is that 2 of the more popular trendy eco root beers are from California (Natural Brew and Virgil’s). Those are even some very good brews. Though the whole “we’re natural and eco friendly” idea goes out the window when the only place I can find your products are at the Mecca of “green” Whole Foods around the nation, be it Nashville, D.C., N.Y.C., Louisiana, it never fails, you find those 2 brews shipped anywhere, just not in the California farmer’s market apparently.

This is coming off quite rant-ish, but what I’m getting at is the beauty and should be the point of travel; it is to find something new, unique or distinct to wherever, not to create safe haven bubbles that you can travel to. I’m probably a little more aware of all these idiosyncrasies when I travel because I’m a marketer by day. But, the distinction is between what is different and unique and what is a relaxing destination which is what most Americans confuse for –travel- basing it solely on whether or not a distance exists between point A and B, and usually complaining when people have accents or don’t speak English.

So back to the market, how should it be done? I don’t think there’s a definitive answer, but I’ll tell you one good place for a farmer’s market: Boise, Idaho. You can go out on the weekend and meet all the locals showing off what they’ve grown, raised, sewed, brewed etc. I got to meet the 2 founders of BuckSnort Root Beer there, who poured me a cup right out of their keg; and who I hope will begin bottling soon so I can add it to my root beer bottle collection. Kelly bought a nice handbag from a woman who (we think may have been high, but) designed and sewed them all as her job/craft; not because its was a decided non-trendy trend.

And more important, they take showers! For the love of all that is holy, all you hipsters being dirty and smelly on purpose doesn’t make you cool or non-trendy trendy, it just makes you dirty and smelly. Just like shopping at Urban Outfitters doesn’t make you homely, it just makes you support a corporation that is profiting off of you. Save money, buy at Wal-Mart and then wear clothes out yourself. But anyways, here in northern Virginia, I visit the local Buckland Farm Market where they sell their own products, or regional products from their partners, and also bring in random regional brews from time to time; always something new and unique to try, not something shipped across the world because it’s a safe marketable sell for hipsters.

Posted in California, Recreation, Virginia | No Comments »

The Best … Yet Also Worst Last Minute Travel Idea We’ve Had

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

While many of the pins we add to our map are planned out well in advance, I’d say a good 30% are spur of the moment ideas. The Mid-Ohio race weekend would be a perfect example, we knew we had a free weekend coming up. Thursday of that week I’m talking to Kelly about wanting to watch a race on TV, and Kelly asks how far away that track was from us… Suddenly we’re buying General Admission tickets and finding the closest/cheapest hotel. Friday as soon as work is done we immediately hop in the car and drive. Saturday morning we arrive at the track have an awesome time getting to see 6 different racing series over both days of the weekend, then immediately after the races on Sunday we drive back home, getting in at roughly 3 a.m. and go to work at 7 the following morning…tired as heck but happy with the experience and memories.

It sounds crazy, but those trips define us just as much as the planned ones Its also how we ended up on our first date (a story of cross-country travel on a whim, but for a later time); and it lands us great life experience, great sights and memories.

This past weekend was one of those weekends, it went something like this:

Me: “You know I really miss doing hiking trails to see waterfalls; my parents did those occasionally on vacations when I was young.”

Kelly: “That sounds cool, I’m definitely up for trying some out.”

One day later of me on the internet researching, and the next free moment we get three days later we find ourselves in Shenandoah National Park hiking the trail for the White Oak Canyon Waterfalls. It was certainly worth it, the falls are gorgeous, and I can only imagine how it must look in the fall with even more color or in the winter at a frozen state. For the sights (falls, foliage, rock formations, deer and other wildlife) it was totally worth it, one of our best trips, and it only cost us gas and a $30 annual membership to the Shenandoah National Park (a park that we’ll be re-visiting a lot as it has much more to offer including 5 more waterfall trails).

Alas, here comes that “but” you were waiting for since the title of this post. In the rush I had forgotten to charge the battery for my Nikon DSLR, doh! Luckily for a trip like this we bring along our small handheld Cybershot too, which while it does good photos, just isn’t the same. Then halfway into the hike, my seven year old hiking shoes started coming apart! Unfortunately these still weren’t the “worst” part; the worst-ness all falls on the hands of myself, who simply failed to fully research the grade and direction of this hike.

Firstly, we got an official trail guide which is greatly helpful, but the problem is that we’ve never done any of this guy’s trails before; so when he tells you easy/moderate/difficult, we have no way of really knowing what to judge that off of. Then the few people on the internet who talk about doing this trail mention how it’s a gradual/moderate hike, but nothing too strenuous. Sounds perfect for our first hike in a very long time right?

The problem is that most/all of them only did the half hike to reach only the first main waterfall. The problem for us is we intended to see all six waterfalls. This trail is roughly 2.3 miles just to the first waterfall; and then there are 2.8 more miles if you chose to hit the other 5 waterfalls, which we did. While the trail to the first main waterfall is graded “Easy/Moderate” the grade of the remaining trail, that no one did online, to get to #2-#6 waterfalls is “DIFFICULT.”

The miles alone are quite a distance hiking with slight elevation changes, but from what I’ve now researched, the elevation change you do is roughly 2,800 feet! About 80% of this is direct decline/incline without much in the way of switchbacks to make it less steep.

Waterfall #4

Its all downhill (literally) to get to the many falls, and you’re happy with the beautiful falls, you can even take a fresh/cool swim at waterfall #6, but after you’re done having fun and taking pictures, begin the torture. The trail from #6 to get back to #1 is 2.8 miles of Grade DIFFICULT… uphill! Pardon me for a second, I think one of my calf muscles just exploded just thinking about it.

Now Kelly and I aren’t totally out of shape or anything but we’re hardly near being triathletes; I think if we did this trail again next weekend it’d be a much different story as we’d be a lot more prepared than 2 bananas and 2 bottles of water with a dead battery camera and shoes that are falling apart. The lesson? Listen to the Boy Scouts and ‘Be Prepared’ because it’s totally worth it in the end. In total it was five and a half hours of hiking and rest stops that we’ll never forget; not the beautiful waterfalls and the wildlife, nor the sensation of kneecaps imploding

Posted in Historic, Recreation, Scenic, Virginia | No Comments »

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Archive for the ‘Virginia’ Category

Where can you get the best $22 bowl of steamed white rice

Sad But Cool – Discovery Moves to its New Home

I Don’t Buy Trendy Hipster, I Buy Local

The Best … Yet Also Worst Last Minute Travel Idea We’ve Had