LIfe is better yet again

Taco Bell is saving the day. They are restocking tomates at their restaurants..

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They are working to resupply their restaurants with tomatoes from areas that have been cleared of salmonella risk by federal health officials..

..now think about that meat!

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I ate tomatoes today..

I did. Really.

I didn't go to the store to get them. I bought local. I try to buy local as much as possible.

As a matter of fact, it was possibly the best tomato I ate in a while. I walked proud holding my basket.. Red.. really red. Juicy. Seeds.. Watery. . got home, put a little salt on the tomato, a little pepper, and just a touch of olive oil.

While the rest of the nation is frightened by the salmonella scare I ate tomatoes. And it felt great.

Also purchased: Asparagus.. red leaf lettuce. Strawberries. All grown locally. I left with confidence.

Buy locally. Eat locally. Get to know your food. You are exactly what you eat--and what your food eats, too.

PHOTO: A box of Louisiana creole tomatoes is seen on display at a roadside stand Tuesday, June 10, 2008, in Chalmette, La. With the nation gripped in a tainted tomato scare, Louisiana is just starting to bring in their crop of Creole tomatoes. Tomatoes harvested in Louisiana are not affected by the recent salmonella outbreak and are safe to consume, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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The dream is bigger than me..

How to open a restaurant. I've often thought about it--yes even with all of its problems, there is something about having a restaurant I find interesting.

I love to cook.. I would love to be able to make dinners that could truly quench a hungry body..

But where do I begin? I am broke.. I am working two jobs, bills like everyone else. No savings to start something of this nature.. Small? Big? A coffee shop? A donut shop? Fine dining? Hell.. a hot dog cart?! It's got to begin somewhere..
As I think and delve deeper in this thought, I'll keep people posted.
It's a dream, of course. It could become a nightmare if it happens. But it's a dream.

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HOT .. HOT .. HOT

The wedding was exceptionally uncomfortable.. Hot as hell.
The air conditioning system in the restaurant didn't work great, either. It was battling 180 people with hot breath, about 165 candles, and a heat wave outside so uncomfortable that parts of the body you didn't know had pores were sweating..

And in the end, it was fine. The wedding, as all others, work out.. even until the very end when the last few more curious bridesmaids stuck around trying to talk to the bartenders in order to do one of the following: 1) Get free drinks, 2)Get a ride to the next bar and ditch the bartenders, 3) make filthy love to the bartenders even though they really aren't attracted to them but 'we' are just slutty, or 4) all of the above.

As I drove away from work with the three bridesmaids competing over two bartenders, the bridesmaids' ride quickly pulled back into the restaurant parking lot. The bartenders dreams were about to be crushed.. And I was on my way home to see my wife and a cold bottle of Coors Light.

Another night .. soup on the fly..

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HEAT WAVE WEDDING

MEMO TO THOUGHTFUL BRIDES: Re-think outside summertime weddings..

Working a wedding today in about 45 minutes.. The ceremony, though it will be evening, will be outside with reception inside to follow.. It's currently 92 degrees with a heat index above 100. Outside wedding. No water. 186 guests.
Evening a ramped up air conditioning system won't be able to match up against the puddles of sweat that will be following the wedding guests into the restaurant. No, instead, throngs of hot people will limp their sweaty feet and legs up to the bar stool, sit down, get drunk quickly without food, and further compromise their own inside health system during the heat wave. Followed up with their choice of chicken, beef, or fish.

When I got married, I toyed with the notion of an outside ceremony. Though my wife and I got married in late October. When it's breathable and comfortable for the most part.

Perhaps if I was a guest at today's outdoors ceremony, I'd re-think that check I wrote out.. Punish me? .. punish you!

Weddings during heat waves.

Always fun.

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The $175 burger

Gas prices are through the roof, food prices are the highest in memory, but a New York City restaurant is offering up a burger for $175.00!

It's made of Kobe beef. It comes with black truffles, foie gras and Gruyere cheese in addition to gold flakes, and the burger shop owner thinks it's a "work of art"..

Guess what. It's a burger.

For my money, or lack thereof, the best burgers on earth can be found at the Jackson House in Harrisburg, PA and the average price there is about $6 bucks.

Really..$175..? The gilded age has returned apparently.

I know, I know, it's topped with Foie Gras (I've talked about Foie Gras before).. And yes, there are wild mushrooms on it. But it rained this weekend and there are wild mushrooms growing at the bottom of my yard.

Life is short. Try everything. But I would argue that a burger costing you $175 in some bad economic times may be the absolute opposite of common sense..

NOW.. With all that said? Would I try it? Minus the Foie Gras, yes. And minus the Foie Gras, it would be probably the cost of a $6 Jackson House Harrisburg PA burger, which I would eat happily any day.

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Saturday night at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone

I don't get it.. I just don't get it.

I have been watching the Hawaiian Tropic Zone live on Earthcam.com for the past half hour .. really .. I've watched bored waitresses shuffle around table place cards.. I saw a few people at the bar come and go. One heavy set fellow continuously walking up to people getting in their space until they moved.. It lost it's entertaining value after only a few minutes, but I kept watching.

The Earthcam preview of the video says I can catch pageants and beautiful waitresses.. streamed live online into my quaint Pennsylvania house.

Always live...

Fergalicious playing as another waitress yawns.

It got me thinking..

The whole idea of watching servers and customers eating and drinking is pretty natural in our modern day era of having no secrets. I would have to assume that customers to the Tropic Zone know beforehand that there would be a good chance that anyone in the world at any time could be watching them. If you have to scratch or pick your nose, the bathrooms don't have cameras.

But imagine if other restaurants go this route? I wouldn't mind it.

I'd like to see a few of them stream live into my living room.

Some could be a net sensation.. 1am at a dive bar in Anytown, USA, catch the latest fight. The latest fish net stocking ripped with Coors Light or Whiskey spilled all over it. The latest falling down drunk stumbling to the urinal behind a pool table..
Watch the wealthy as their pick their teeth with the finest of tooth cleaning instruments.. Watch the downtrodden in soup kitchens. You name it. Reality could be yours. The future is ours.

Fergalicious could play across the world! Live online! As the servers yawn away waiting for their shift to end .. so can they can be off camera and live their lives.

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When business lunches meet the restaurant world

For those that may not know, I work in two industries, two of them being polar opposites. The restaurant industry, obviously, and the business world in an office.

I worked in restaurants since the age of 15.. I got the "real job" at 21.. and still worked "part time" at a restaurant (the hours are of course, more full time anyway..)

Nonetheless.. The other day, I was pretty much made to go to a business lunch. One of those quick sandwich and soup type of things when men and women in business attire prance and dance into restaurants expressing their snotty and high browed faces. They act as though the restaurant staff doesn't breath oxygen.. maybe they live on some type of chemical, maybe they just breath in business workers' carbon dioxide.

I am usually the person at the business lunch that stacks the plates and hands it to the server.. the others at the table normally ignore the workers while they try to grab the plates.

I remember those days before my "real job" at the office when I was waiting on tables at lunch time.. It was the most dreaded time for me. These people are uptight, they normally eat tuna salad sandwiches, and they all want unsweetened ice tea. Really.. You think I believe you eat that way all the time? They go home and each McDonalds or gigantic dinners. They didn't get to be 300 pounds eating tuna salads with oil and vinegar.. who are they kidding?

In the grand order of all, I think business lunches may rank up there with class reunions on the list of "Types of events I hate working for" ..

But as a worker in both industries now, I feel comraddery with the restaurant worker much more than the office workers next to me at the table..

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HELL'S KITCHEN STILL STRONG IN RATINGS

The show doing exceptionally well with 18-49 year olds .. So far it appears the cast may be the worst of the series, but the show is continuously scoring well in spring time ratings..

I smell another season.

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One last note about Mother's Day

One of the most ignorant things a parent could do is leave their child's mess on the floor after the leave.
I know, I know. We're waiters and waitresses.. We can clean. We can re-set tables. But a giant pile of crackers, cookies, meat, spaghetti sauce, and chicken pieces littering the floor makes it a bit harder. Also, when there's carpetting? Yes.. Potatos do mash in when MOM AND DAD step on them..
Just a note.

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