Year 2, Day 307: Nuts to the Crown Cafe

I was doing well until a thing blew up around 4:30pm today at work. Then, I hit the 50 almond mark. That really isn't good news. There isn't anything else to write. I really can't and shouldn't keep nuts in my office, or anywhere on the premises. I just can't be around them. I have given up a lot of things on my diet (sugar, milk, bread, pasta, potatoes, subs, pizza) but nuts are like the last hoorah. In the words of Brokeback Mountain "I just can't quit you" (said to any pile of nuts, even bad, sort of greasy planters peanuts in an airport cafe somewhere). I noted that about a year ago (March 8, 2006's post, to be exact, I was having the same nut-problem).

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Ikea Muesli
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
4 Beef Jerky Sticks
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
1.5 oz Boston Lite Popcorn
53 Almonds

Lunch: Crown's Cafe
Chicken Kebab Salad with Feta

Dinner
Tilapia Emily
Cauliflower

Dessert
7 Squares of Green & Black Espresso Chocolate

Another word about Crown's Cafe. We went for a very fast walk today (there were five of us) and the general consensus was that even though we all had bad individual experiences, we would all give Crown's Cafe one more try. Just to, you know, rule it out completely or realize that they had a few bumps in the road to greatness. Sadly, my report is not a happy one. The service was awful. I know there are bigger words to describe rotten service, but I have eschewed them because Crown's doesn't even deserve that. The food was not bad, per se. But their inability to properly wait on us at the counter, to get a simple salad order right, or to beat the very modest example of the predecessors have left me with no choice but to cross them off my list and return to Christos Seven-Star, which I have avoided for nearly a year (last post with Christos in it was February 2006). While their salad is overwhelmingly large, made with iceberg, and probably ill-washed, I do not feel I can support someone who thinks changing their restaurant from "Peter's" to "Crowns" is a good marketing decision. It just feels too wrong.

Don't even ask about the chocolate.

Year 2, Day 293: Demon Nuts Strike Back

I did go for a walk today, thankfully. It helps because the snacking was out of control. However, as you may have read, my usual routine has been interrupted by the loss of my beloved Peter's Kitchen and replaced by the still-mysterious Crown's Kitchen. When I first walked into "Crown's", I noted several things that were different—the printed menu, the new cash register (electronic) and the absence of the main woman/hostess, whose name was Denise. She was pleasant and always remembered my name. I knew her mom and dad (Peter), too. When I first spoke to someone on the phone they told me "Denise is coming in a few days a week" but immediately upon arriving INSIDE "Crown's" I knew this was a lie designed to give Denise fans a feeling of comfort but false security. Readers, I will try to get the scoop on this overnight takeover. I don't know who's behind it or who benefitted, but rest assured, I'm on the case.

Breakfast
5 Slices of Ham
1 SLice Multigrain Balthazar Bread
Bite of Banana
Coffee

Snack
1 Extra Smokey
5 Sticks Beef Jerky
30 Pistachios
30 Almonds
.5 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Lunch: Crown's Kitchen
Chicken Kebab Salad
Still with No Pepperconi

Dinner
Chicken Paprikash
Romaine, Cabbage & Feta Salad

Dessert
1/2 Pear (Split with Ruby & Magnolia)

Really, it's the holidays and if there are to be nuts on my desk THEY ARE GOING TO GET EATEN. It's really that simple. I don't mean to bore you with my nut obsession any more than I wish to bore you with my boring repeats of the same breakfast OVER AND OVER AGAIN, but some things are like tape loops, you just keep repeating them. For anyone reading this under 30—tape refers to magnetic strips that could be used to record things from other sources, like a phonograph hi-fi.

Year 2, Day 290: Beef Jerky's Back

First time for Beef Jerky in about a week. Right back up to four pieces. I guess old habits die hard. People often ask me about the beef jerky. It's from Buffalo BIlls (suspiciously also called ChooChooRoo Snacks). From their web site: "Introduced in 1990, our Original Hickory Beef Jerky is the product our company was founded upon. Premium, hickory smoked top round marinated in soy sauce, garlic, & black pepper." They're not long on marketing. When people learn that I eat a lot of beef jerky, they assume that I am some kind of trucker, southerner, or weirdo. I attribute this in large part to the ubiquitous presence of sub-standard jerky in just about all of the most unpleasant places in America. In fact, when it's done right, it's quite delicious, nutritious, and satisfying. There are very few people that were interested in trying it that haven't become fans. I'm warning you! It's like Green Eggs and Ham. Try it, you'll like it!
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Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Ikea Muesli
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee


Lunch Crown's Kitchen
Chicken Kebab Salad with Feta


Snack
4 beef jerky
old smokey
1 oz boston lite popcorn
30 pistachios

Dinner
Chicken Breast
Salad

"The only thing inevitable in life is change," the saying goes, and that's never truer than when one is faced with your typical urban square. I work in Watertown Square, and though it may connote visions of an exciting, urban center laced with great shops and places to eat, it is in fact, a lonely, poorly designed, traffic nightmare littered with sketchy, oft-closed stores and mysteriously empty eateries. Between those places there are a few places to eat, some of which we happy few at Domania have come to love, or at least regard as suitable. Certainly Peter's Kitchen fell into that category for me, because the previous owners of the place ran a not very impressive coffee shop with an even less impressive name: "Why Not?"

On the other hand, Peter's Kitchen was very nice. Though I have written about their 'poor man's salad', it was an embarrassment of salad—easily two pounds of salad. They really laid it on, and it had gotten to the point where I could just call and they would say "The usual?" and I would say "Yep," and that was it. It's a good feeling to be known, but that feeling disappeared when one day, almost without anyone noticing—they came under new ownership. No information is available about why they changed or who on God's Green Earth thought "Crown's Kitchen" was a better name than "Peter's Kitchen." It boggles the mind, really. With great suspicion I ordered the salad and naturally they got it wrong—no pepperocini. In addition, the salad was noticeably smaller and had no carrots, fewer olives and no cucumbers. I'm not sure I missed those things, but I did notice they were gone. I suppose the 'crown' needed them for something else.