Rice King Noodle, or RKN as I like to call it

Rice King Noodle. It's all in the name! This little Viatnamese joint on Provo Center St. It was a hard pick this night because of all the choices on that St but fate led us here. I walked in and recognized it. I had been there the year before, only it was a burger joint with nocturnal forest scenes painted on the walls and cutesy little pine trees and bears as decor. The Viatnamese owners did not bother painting over this which felt a little weird. Kind of like the Fong's near my hospital that used to be a 50's style diner. They didn't change anything, you are in this classic 50's style Diner eating sticky rice with chopsticks....more on that another day. SO we talk to the very friendly waiter about food choices. Mat decided on the Pho (pronounce FU) which is a soup type thing with all kinds of meat including but not limited to meat balls, tripe, flank steak etc. I got some sort of chicken and we got some egg rolls. Side note: one thing I am learning is to not always order the chicken because it never tastes all that different from place to place! So we set out to eat this food. It was A LOT of food as you can see. We kept eating and eating at Mat's and we were both stuffed and left a good portion in the bowl when we left. I loved the fresh veggies on mine and the chicken was good too. Nothing outstanding and too exotic. I did LOVE the egg/spring rolls, whatever they were they had a delicious sauce. So we enjoyed our meal. I really liked the place as we left. We took a nice summery walk down Center St. gazing in the shops and into each others eyes then we stopped in the Covey Art's Center to play a rousing game of "Guess My Favorite Painting" when mid-way through Mat excused himself to the restroom. I waited and waited and waited. Finally I figured something must be wrong and sure enough he emerged to reveal gastronomical distress. We didn't think too much of this and headed home. Shortly after my stomach pain started. My pain was not so quickly resolved however. We came home to clean and organize and my stomach got worse and worse. I was trying to be brave, laugh it off so I said to Mat "It feels like Vietnam is waging war between the North and South and I don't know who will win!" so he say's "That seems a little dramatic" that was it. I ripped his head off "You don't even know! Don't tell me how I feel!" and went and laid down. I later apologized to Mat, he went home. I will spare the details of the rest of my night, but I will say it was a long night. So my final take on Rice King Noodle....I don't know. It was good, but you know how getting sick after eating something taint's your memories.

The Skinny Man Syndrome

From a teenager to my early twenties I suffered from what I would call the skinny man syndrome. Eat-and-eat, and never gain weight. It was a tragedy that would haunt my dreams, and cause me to engage many a midnight milk shake. I couldn't wait for the day when my butt was rounder than my knuckles and my chin grew into two.

Now that has all changed and with quick succeeding years I enjoy a rounder, more “jolly” belly and fuller face. Having been cured from skinny man syndrome gives me a new look on life. I can see the effects of the food I eat and the joyous results that befall a man after a plump hamburger or simmering piece of pie. Albeit I have much to discover in the future years, our adventures of the gastrononimcal kind this year has brought us to such a place that embraces this foodological effect.

Chubby's Cafe, diagonally across from Macy's in Pleasant Grove, invests in all things chub. They serve out an assortment of foods. Hamburgers, chicken and soul inspired cuisine rounds the menu into a full service diner. Pearl and I ventured to this place after Pearl had noticed how run down the exterior looked. We were surprised to see that inside was much cleaner and neater. The cashier was cordial and as I peered in the back I caught a glimpse of the chef. He was not suffering from skinny man syndrome. We scanned the menu. Pearl ordered the jalapeno ranch burger, she is on a kick of spicy things lately, and had an order of fries on the side. I took on the cheese steak as recommended by the cashier, and couldn't resist the choice of jambalaya as a side dish.

The meal was as advertised. Flavorful, messy, and juicy. I really enjoyed the fries and fry sauce and I liked Pearl's hamburger better than my cheese steak sandwich. The burger had just the right tang to it and left my mouth watering. The jambalaya was ok. I felt the rice was a little dry and the taste was not as carefully crafted as jambalaya deserves. The cheese steak was good in flavor and served it purpose of filling my belly with delight. I sometimes think about this restaurant and long for next year when I can return and rejoice as a graduate from skinnyness.

-Mat

Thai Villiage

This little place in American Fork we went to on a very cold day in December. It was JUST before we started the once a year thing. It's very quaint with a pioneer handcart out front tho I'm unsure about what that has to do with Thailand but a few months later on Mat's birthday it's where I tied a balloon in part of his memory lane treasure hunt. I remember it was very cold because I was very cold in there. We ordered our food. I had yellow curry. it was very good. Mat ordered Pad Tai noodles and he liked it, he said he could taste the long fingernailed women of Thailand (I don't know, don't ask) It took awhile for our food because we had an extensive conversation about my mood ring which led to the great idea of hiding it in one of the decor basket's to see if it was still there when we returned. The food really was very good. I remember because when we started talking about not going back to the same place for a year I was sad about not going back to Thai Village, but alas it has no drive in window so in another 4 months we can return. Also a must for Thai Village is the sticky mango rice. It is very sweet and very sticky rice with coconut milk and sliced up mango on top. A really tasty dessert. Mat actually recreated this at home some months later and it was very very good the second time as well. Thai Village yummy.

The Comfort Zone

One thing I always noticed is how people like to go to the same restaurant's. My family gets together its Fong's. When we order out at work it's Cafe Rio. With this person its this place that person that place. If you go to this town its the same place all the time. Don't even get me started on chain places.

Steak = Texas Roadhouse

Chinese = Panda Express

Mexican = Cafe Rio

Pizza = Papa Johns

Italian = Olive Garden

I like trying new places!! Most of the time its difficult to convince people to try new and unknown places to eat. A fact Mat and I talked about on our first date (extremely ironically this conversation took place in a Starbucks) and I found it an attractive quality that he also likes trying new and obscure places to eat. Further more two consecutive family eatings at Mi Ranchito where we ended up in intestinal pain and turmoil both times lead us to start eating at the same restaurant only once in a year. This excludes places with a drive in window, hey we have to make it easy on ourselves somehow! So far it has been great fun. Only 1 and 1/2 food poisonings with I'm sure more to follow! So here we are to share our adventures thoughts and amateur food critic opinions and maybe to inspire a few people to try the unknown.