bowlinger qua bowlinger

at the A2 farmer’s market, January through April: Saturdays Only, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Knife Sharpening while you shop!

Bring your knives, scissors, tools, or anything else that could need sharpening to market with you, and have it sharpened while you shop by a third-generation knife sharpener!

i’ve always wanted to shop in the vicinity of a 3rd generation knife sharpener. this is big news for me.

Since I won’t be able to enjoy any sightings this fall…

GS, driving down my street in a light blue Honda Odyssey mini-van, looking very annoyed with all the traffic and constructions on this particular road.

DH (the one married to EK, not the one with the really tight jeans), walking behind me as I left the pita and kabob grilling place, talking animatedly to two people I’ve never seen before, probably about some hoity-toity European stuff, and looking like a model.

JP (the one who judged the karaoke show, as opposed to JJP, the one who looks like he is 12), walking in the arb wearing a big white brimmed hat with a black ribbon, he said “hi” which was nice.

GS and RP, bursting out of the doors of the RR as I came up the steps, looking like Starsky and Hutch or something. RP wore shorts and socks that were pulled up dangerously high.

Feel free to expunge this post after a few days if you think my information will be discovered by those it shouldn’t be discovered by. I was just really excited, particularly by Starsky and Hutch.

Gandy Dancer Taps into Staff Tips

From the article:

Earlier this month, the upscale Ann Arbor restaurant began charging its servers 1.5 percent of the tips patrons leave on credit cards to help the restaurant pay credit card processing fees.

Turns out The Gandy Dancer is owned by a restaurant conglomerate, Landry’s, a “Texas-based chain that operations a casino, five hotels and more than 180 restaurants in 30 states, including seven others in Michigan.”

As if we needed another reason to hate Texas.

So, there’s an amazing article you should read in the Michigan Daily. dm’s certainly aware, as are we all, of the pathetic state of Thai food in the Ann Arbor area. I had some masaman curry yesterday that cost close to $15. FIFTEEN DOLLARS  (?!?!) for extremely mediocre curry served in the restaurant portion of a nearly-abandoned hotel out by the highway.

Anyway, maybe part of the difficulty Thai places are having in Washtenaw county is related to issues like these:

Rackham student Sirarat Sarntivijai said she was confused and offended when a restaurant called No Thai! opened on South University Avenue in September 2005. She thought the name suggested that Thai people were not welcome in the restaurant.

Members of the Thai Student Association, including Sarntivijai, its president, said they find the name deeply offensive.

I could go into a lot of the details of the article, but the gist is that the Thai Student Association thinks that the (admittedly stupid) name of a Thai-owned Thai restaurant signals that Thai people are discouraged from eating there. The TSA helpfully suggested some (even more insipid) names for the place, including “No Thai!: by Mr. No”.

As long as we’re suggesting bad names for a crypto-racist Thai restaurant, how about “White Thai” or “Black Thai” (depending on how formal the table service is), or maybe “Colombian Neck Thai” (for the forthcoming Latin-Thai fusion endeavor).

my dear pastor smackdown fans, it is with a heavy heart that i inform you that my dream of visiting Fiesta Mexicana on Cross Street in Ypsilanti and reporting back to you on it today was dashed by the misfortunate event of the restaurant being closed on mondays.

undaunted, i deftly switched cultures and hemispheres and went to Dalat Vietnamese Cuisine on Michigan and had the beef noodle soup(you may know this soup to be called pho). it was good. not Pho 777 in Chicago good, or Pho Pasteur in Boston good, but for the middle of stinkin’ Michigan, i’d say it hit the spot.

i’d give it better marks if it had come with a better assortment of condiments.

here’s what you get at Dalat: a bowl of noodle soup with sliced beef(you can also order it with meatballs or tendons or tripe), a dish of condiments including a wedge of lemon, bean sprouts, and sliced jalapeños. there are squeeze bottles of hoisin sauce and chili sauce on the table.

i’m partial to having basil in my pho, so i would give Dalat higher marks if my little side dish had included basil.

i also got a vietnamese iced coffee. the total came to $8.70 before tip. god bless ypsilanti.

of course, now i’m tempted to go try Miss Saigon on Stone School road tomorrow for a proper pho smackdown… unless of course popular opinion merits a re-visit to Fiesta Mexicana and a continuation of the pastor smackdown ASAP.

let me know, dear readers. let. me. know.

i shall do your bidding.

update:
Fiesta Mexicana Hours : 4-9 p.m. Mon., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tue.-Thu., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

take a look at this google search result stat…

versus this one:

that’s all for now.

oh May 2009, you’re so far away.

travel to toledo hobo-style on the ann arbor railroad!

paddle down the huron river!

get a texas-style couch dance!

enable your local skater punk!

the mission: 4 days, 4 taquerias
the menu: 2 tacos pastor, rice and beans, orchata
the objective: investigate the ‘authentic’ mexican food joints in the greater a2 area and don’t get sick.

day #1: Taqueria la Loma on Michigan Ave in Ypsilanti

• tacos: good, but too weirdly saucy and moist to be a true taco pastor the way i remember them from my favorite chicago taquerias
• rice and beans: dissapointing. beans tasted straight from the can.
• orchata: ok. thicker, fruitier, and sweeter than i prefer.
• ambiance: feels like sitting in someone’s living room that has been outfitted with vinyl tile and changed into a restaurant. telenovelas on tv in the corner a plus.
• miscellaneous details: free chips, but not home made. decent, semi-spicy salsa verde. red salsa is mild and sweet.
• the bill: $9 including tip

day #2: Taqueria la Fiesta on Packard just east of Carpenter

• tacos: really good. reminds me of home. i’m going back for more of these.
• rice and beans: nice. beans had a nice texture and flavor, red salsa provided a nice kick for the rice.
• orchata: perfect summertime orchata. thin, but not too thin, not too sweet. refreshing!
• ambiance: a tiny little slip of a place, i think there are 3 tables in there. from what i’ve read around the tubes, this place is owned by two sisters who also have a place on cross street in ypsi.
• miscellaneous details: no free chips, but the salsa verde is really, really good. it looks and feels like everything here is home made. the flan i saw in the fridge looked tempting.
• the bill: $10 including tip (this was including a dollar discount i got for being patient at the register)

day #3: Senior Lopez on Stadium in the same strip mall as Ace Hardware

• tacos: tbd. they were out of pastor!!! i got carnitas instead, which is kind of like mexican pulled pork. they were good – bland on their own, but with the thick salsa (see below) they were dee-lish. stay tuned for a pastor re-visit of this place.
• rice and beans: mmmmm-mm good. the beans were whole beans, and the rice had bits of carrots and peas in it.
• orchata: another good orchata. not too thick, not too sweet.
• ambiance: more ‘restauranty’ than the others. there’s a mural of a pueblo, and latin music on the sound system.
• miscellaneous details: free chips plus three kinds of salsa: a fresh pico de gallo, a mild, smokey smooth salsa, and a slightly spicier, thick salsa with a texture not unlike tomato paste. the tomato paste one was my favorite.
• the bill: $6 including tip. they have a two tacos + rice and beans special for lunch. i also think they may have cut me a break for being out of pastor

day #4: Taqueria Tacuba on Washtenaw across from the Hua Xing Asian Market

• tacos: imagine taking Taqueria la Loma’s pastor and drying it in the sun.
• rice and beans: dissapointing and forgettable.
• orchata: i got like a big gulp size portion of it. crazy. anyways, it tasted slightly metallic.
• ambiance: kinda feels like if a subway restaurant served mexican food. a big flat screen was showing soccer. i think it was chelsea.
• miscellaneous details: no free chips, salsa comes in a little mini to-go cup. it was ok. they have a large menu of tortas. maybe that’s what they’re good at – it’s certainly not tacos and rice and beans.
• the bill: $9 including tip

The Rankings: Taqueria La Fiesta slightly edged out Senior Lopez, perhaps only because they were out of pastor the day i went. While Taqueria la Fiesta’s tacos were better, and the orchatas were neck and neck, i prefered Senior Lopez’s rice and beans slightly, and they also have free chips and salsa. Taqueria La Loma, whose tacos were mediocre, might be worth another visit for tortilla soup and pupusas acording to local blogs, easily places third above Taqueria Tacuba, a forgettable place.

after all that pork, i’m really looking forward to eating nothing but salmon in seattle.

besides picking blueberries in dexter, there’s something else you can do there on saturday mornings. you can go on a sailboat! for free!

there’s totally a lake there. and the university of michigan sailing club will take you out on that lake on a boat propelled by the wind!

here’s what you do: wake up relatively early on a saturday morning, take some aspirin for your hangover, drink some coffee, drive down the gravel road leading to the boat house(the gravel road is named strawberry lake road, although you will be going to baseline lake), get out of your car, find the guy with the list, and have him put your name on the list.

if you’re lucky, there will be a guy who reminds you of a kind marine drill sergeant on the shore teaching a bunch of you how to put the sails up on the boat and what all the different ropes and sails and parts are named. he will tell funny jokes and question why ropes are named sheets. you will break into teams of people and practice putting up and taking down the jib and the main sail.

then you’ll be taken out on a little two person boat and you’ll be taught to sail. after you’ve had a few lessons and paid your dues, you can take sailboats out whenever you like, it seems. (it’s probably not whenever, but it sure sounds like it’s pretty much whenever)

hot damn. ann arbor ain’t so bad.