As always, I turn to you, Internet, to solve all of my disputes.
My So Called Life
Urban Belly
We were looking for somewhere new for lunch and Sara vaguely remembered hearing about a restaurant by the name of Urban Belly.
It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
I think I can say that with some confidence too, since we ordered about 50% of the menu. Each dish was more amazing than the last. Seriously. There wasn’t a one that I tried that I didn’t like. We had Asian squash & bacon dumplings, duck & pho spices dumplings, and pork and cilantro dumplings. Pork belly & pineapple rice, phat rice and sticky brown rice. We had udon (shrimp, coriander, and sweet chili lime sauce) and Asian egg noodles stir fried with spicy garlic chili, tofu, and Chinese eggplant. And finally we had wrinkle beans and kimchi. I wasn’t kidding when I said we sampled half the menu.
As proof of the fact that all of the dishes were equally good, everyone had a different favorite. We were all eating off each other’s plates, but my dish was the phat rice, and I thought it was the best.
It’s Asian food, but Asian like I’ve never had it before. It’s kind of hard to describe what it is exactly that makes it different, but whatever it is, it’s kind of awesome.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the decor, which was also amazing. Everything is made of rough, old, reclaimed wood. The decoration on the walls, the table tops, and the “stools” which are sort of like sitting on a pile of old, stacked logs. The dining room is set up to promote “communal dining”, which it certainly would do, except it wasn’t very crowded when we were there.
Despite it’s pedestrian appearance on the outside (it shares a strip mall with a laundromat and a dollar store), this place is highly recommended. Well worth the trip.
Boys Rule
Sometimes I think it must suck to be a girl, because you’ll never be able to carve up a floating piece of toilet paper with a laser pee stream, or sand blast something icky off the side of the toilet and shepherd it down the drain with a urine fire hose. And also you have to be paid less and don’t get to be CEO.
But honestly? I think you’re missing out on more with the urine thing.
5 things I used to eat that I wish I still ate
In honor of the things that I used to eat that now disgust me, I thought it would be appropriate to list some of the things that I used to eat that I don’t anymore, but I still wish that I did. There are reasons I don’t eat these things anymore (as will soon become apparent…they are far too dangerous), but I’m not necessarily morally opposed to them the way I am the things on the other list. Still, when I was thinking of things to put on this list, it was surprising how some of the things I thought of really could have gone on the other list (such as honorable mentions Poptarts and Lofthouse Cookies…both so delicious, and yet both so artificial). Anyway, on with the list.
5) Chocolate covered almonds from Trader Joes
Oh man, you want to talk about addicting? I just could not stop eating these things. Unfortunately, they come in a giant container, so you almost have no choice but to keep eating them until you puke in a pillow case (or so I’m told). They’re deceptively simple: almonds covered in chocolate. How good could they be? A little too good, if you know what I mean.
4) A bag of sour cream and onion chips
I am a salty snacker. If you put a bag of chips in front of me, it’s going to be gone, end of story. When I lived by myself, it was not at all strange for me to eat an entire bag of chips in a sitting, and call that a meal. At first I was always begging Sara, who is not a salty snacker, to buy chips at the store. I just didn’t see how you could go into a store and not come out with a bag or three. Looking back on it, I guess I was a little crazed, but I think I’m more or less recovered now, other than the occasional setback with a bag of tortilla chips. But even then, I’m not eating the *whole* *bag* anymore.
3) Pappy’s grilled cheese sandwiches
Pappy’s Sweet Shop is a fixture in the basement of the Student Union at Purdue. Several times a week, I would order the grilled cheese basket, plus an extra grilled cheese. Oh, how I miss those days. I think the thing that puts Pappy’s grilled cheeses over the top, was an amazing invention that I have not seen elsewhere: the butter wheel. Basically, there is a tub of butter with a wheel half-submerged in it. Before throwing the sandwich on the grill, they would slap the bread against the wheel and turn it. This instantly and efficiently coated one side of the bread with butter for grilling, without taking unneeded time and bread-rippage of actually using butter and a knife. I smell a Nobel Prize caliber invention here, people.
2) The Pepperjack Bacon Stack from Champps
Champps is a great place to watch football, and if you’re watching football you want the biggest, most ridiculous, over the top meal there is to gorge on. The Pepperjack Bacon Stack is that meal. It’s the kind of thing that, when they bring it out, people are looking over from other tables to see what’s going on. And don’t forget the waffle fries with extra pepperjack dipping sauce! You can also add a Mile High Ice Cream Pie while you’re at it, which would kill you. It would kill you because to eat anything after eating a Pepperjack Bacon Stack would be ridiculous to begin with, but it would also kill you because it would fall on you. If I remember correctly, it is literally a mile high.
1) Maggiano’s family style
Ah, here it is, the granddaddy of them all. The legendary family style dinner from Maggiano’s. There was a time when I went to Maggiano’s so often, that I had the menu memorized. I had tried every item on the family style menu, and I didn’t mess around ordering the lemon cookies, or anything like that. I came to get it done. I would plan my trip days in advance, including what to eat to expand my stomach in preparation, what to not eat the night before, what to wear, etc. We even famously used to tell them up front, “Just bring the salads out in a to go box.” Those were the days, my friends, those were the days.
She’s like a newborn
Sometimes I think my wife is so much smarter than me. But then we talk about something important, like Star Wars or comic books or Internet memes, and I realize that she just fills her head with trivialities. I’d probably seem that smart too, if I didn’t have to worry about keeping the Internet afloat and I could just concentrate on silly details, like how the stock market works.
Shane Halbach 