husband, dad, son. american, korean. seoul, ann arbor, san francisco. dev, colleague, em. christian…ish

Tag: food

  • bagels

    bagel bagel bagel
    I just love this place

    Do ones favorite hole in the wall type places make themselves known immediately, or just grow on you? When do you know?

    There’s this bagel shop we frequent because we have weekly appointments at the place right next door. It’s the definition of peace. What looks like a menu created in the 70’s, well over 30 difference sandwiches/bagels, and the couple behind the counter look like they’ve married and worked together happily for the last 30 years. To top it off the wall has a map of Silicon Valley… produced in the early 00’s. So only a few years old yes, yes.

    Here’s the thing, I don’t even like bagels. Nor bagel sandwiches. I guess I do like cream bagels, but that’s more the cream probably. They’re tough, tasteless, filled with empty carbs, and way too thick to use as a sandwich. Remind me what was the point again with these? It wouldn’t surprise me if whoever invented this felt deeply ashamed disappointed in themselves.

    Yet over the course of a year or two… I somehow now find myself starting to look forward to the place. The peaceful predictability, the cozy interior, the outdated decor. The barely comfortable bar seats, that old map on the wall. The box of toy cars…. yes the plastic slightly heavy toy cars every boy played with as a kid. Also the prices are cheap. Like best deal in the bay area cheap. Ten bucks say the couple owns the-

    So here I am, munching away happily away at bagel menu number 17c… I think. It’s the classic salmon with cream cheese. It tastes exactly like how I expected it to, the coffee tastes exactly like I expected to, the cheerful aforementioned elderly couple working as usual, always a few people in a line, no doubt enjoying it just like me. Is my subconscious yearning for peace having long dealt with rewarding but also at times chaotic workplace dynamics?

    Yeah I guess I’m a regular now and its my favorite place, I just didn’t know it, or want to admit it.

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  • rotating sushi

    My kids’ favorite restaurant—hands down—is a local chain rotating sushi place. They love it. A few taps on a screen, no need to talk to anyone, and like magic, food shows up at the table. We actually don’t go too often as its not particularly cheap, but sometimes special occasions do arise and we give in.

    They order the exact same thing: udon noodles. Every single time. And vanilla ice cream for dessert. Despite our many attempts—asking, encouraging, even flat-out pleading—I’ve yet to see either of them eat a single piece of sushi(To be sure, I hated it as a 14yo too… until I realized how expensive it was and it suddenly, magically started tasting much better)

    That said, it’s honestly not a bad choice for me and Kacie as we’ve always enjoyed Japanese food. I pick a few rolls here and there, and she loves uni. The entire family doesn’t eat too much curiously, so the bill is actually manageable enough.

    And apparently, we’re not the only ones that like this place. It’s is always packed; by 5 p.m. on a Friday, the waitlist is already 30+ minutes. Yes, we have the restaurant’s app. Yes, we collect rewards points. And yes, I more or less know the wait times by heart depending on the day and time. So at least we get seated in less than 5 minutes by planning ahead.

    As for quality? I was never a Michelin-star kind of guy anyway, so I always leave happy. So do my daughters—mainly because they’re obsessed with dropping empty plates into the counting slot, which tallies your dishes and adds to the bill. Enough and this plastic egg drops with something inside.

    It makes me wonder—what is it about places like this that appeals to adults, too? Maybe it’s the freedom of choice, the low stakes of trying something new (if you don’t like it, it was only a few bucks), or the sense of control when everything’s literally at your fingertips.

    Going on a wide tangent, maybe that’s why we gravitate toward dashboards at work too—the desire and requirement to know what’s happening at any given moment, to feel like we’re in control. Just with fewer sushi plates and more charts though yes I’ve seen many a dashboard be silently retired.

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