June 5, 2012: Bad dining karma!

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June 5, 2012: Bad dining karma!

I believe the food gods are trying to tell me something. Lately, my dinner outings have varied from middling to highly disappointing. Several of my formerly dependable favorites have failed me. Still, I held out hope that some of my old standbys would come through and deliver the positive dining experience I desperately needed. And so, yesterday, after dropping Akemi off at her class, I decided to venture out for a solo lunch. The service was terrific. The food…fantastic. I enjoyed a platter of lamb ribs. Lamb ribs! Hell, the last time I sat down to lamb ribs was years ago when the Memphis Barbecue House used to prepare them on the rare occasion – so rare, in fact, that, back then, I was on what I called “the lamb rib hotline”. Whenever I got the call, I would drop whatever I was doing to drive down and pick up a rack before they sold out. They were delicious. And, yesterday’s platter was equally great. As I sat back, satisfied, I eyed the lone rib sitting on my plate. It seemed a shame to let it go to waste. I picked it up, stripped it clean and, as I was finishing up the last bite – CRUNCH! Lamb bone met tooth – and lamb bone won.

I went to the bathroom to check and, sure enough, one of my teeth was broken. Fortunately, it was a molar and not one of the front teeth, the loss of which would have seen me walking around town sporting a gap-tooth hillbilly grin. And, fortunately, my dentist had an opening that afternoon.

Yes, I think the food gods are clearly trying to tell me something: “Eat at home!” Which is what I plan to do – after tonight because I already have dinner reservations. My recent outings have graduated from bad food to bad service to injury. What’s next? Am I going to eat a toxic mushroom? Bleed out on account of a mussel shard? Choke on a fazzoletti? I don’t mind telling you that I’m VERY nervous.

I should just go back to the days when Akemi used to cook for me, preparing those adorable bento boxes with the peanut butter bears and egg yolk chicks. Though, given my luck of late, the bento boxes would more than likely run along the lines of something like this:

Or maybe I should just stick to chocolate. My new fave chocolate shop, Beta 5 (http://shop.beta5chocolates.com/), has been pretty damn consistent in its sweet, sweet offerings. The other day, Akemi and I dropped by and picked up a new-for-June banana split chocolate bar (containing chocolate, banana, and cherries), and a “box of rocks” -

A collection of aerated chocolate rocks in 45% milk and 72% dark chocolate.

I figured we’d start with a box and come back for more next week when we were done. As it turns out, we were done by the time I pulled into my garage.

Finally – received a text message from my buddy, Ivon, the other day. “Perogie food truck,”he wrote. ”1o different kinds like “Thai curry” and “classic”. That’s a money maker!” and “It would rule the food truck wars.” ”Holy Perogy,”I texted back. ”Love the name,”he replied. “No,”I texted back. ”That’s the name of the Perogie food truck in Vancouver. It exists.”