I’m not sure who needs to see this but Rick Steves is doing Zooms every Monday night where he drinks and watches his own travel videos with you. If I can help just one person by sharing this, I’ve done my job.
I used Rick Steves for only one trip (Slovenia, Croatia) and his recommendations were very much like what you'd expect from a 60-something-year-old guy who has been there/done that and looking more for convenience/comfort than fun/adventure.
as I have always been middle-aged, this is what I appreciate about him. I appreciate his videos as a jumping off point for planning. I tend to get more out of vacations when I'm not trying to figure stuff out on the fly, and images / video help a lot with that.
65 and want a COVID vaccine? We've got appointments! Syringe
We're expanding eligibility at the
@Curative
mass vaccination site. Berkeley and Alameda County residents 65 and older can now register for an appointment on February 11 or 13. Sign up http://bit.ly/berkmassvax
I learned yesterday that Canada has ordered five times more vaccine doses than they have people (in the context of Taiwan not being able to order them). The Canadians on my other internet community have assured me that this is because the ones they originally ordered haven't arrived, not because they're greedy, and it's because the US is locking them out of the market.
We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
Sept 13, 1980 for the Cal @ Florida game at Tampa Stadium. Florida was 0-10-1 the previous season, Cal had first round pick Rich Campbell at qb, who would go 43/51/421. Game tied at halftime 13-13. Naturally we lost, 41-13. Regretted the trip.
The last airplane trip that I took was to Tampa at the end of February last year - mostly for Spring Training baseball but I also took a trip to Kennedy Space Center (the launch that I was hoping to see got postponed, however). Ybor City area was decent, although I have no interest in cigars. I did the touristy thing and went to the Cuban restaurant that had Flamenco dancing performances at night. The Dali museum in St. Pete was a fun 90 minutes.
I somehow had never been to Tampa before last year despite living in Fort Lauderdale for 5 years in the 90s. On the west coast of Florida, I have only been as far north as Fort Myers with my family. I did a summer program in high school at UF, but all the side trips from that or high school field trips never went to Tampa Bay.
Connecting to the other thread. Possibly because the Phillies have their spring training at Clearwater nearby, Tampa is apparently the lone region in Florida that has Wawa's.
Also, the Tampa area's Hooters is apparently separate from the rest of the country. Hooters started in the Tampa area too. I ended up stopping by a Hooters because they actually offered free beer when you show them a spring training ticket.
For the 93 Citrus bowl HSB and I flew to Pensacola, and drove to Orlando and back. That was back when AmEx had special airfare for students and the closest we could get was Pensacola. Was cool in that we saw the Naval Air Museum while we were there. Though the drive was boring. Also saw Cape Canaveral and Epcot for NYE.
That said, I have no desire to go back, though the only place I may consider visiting is Miami for the food.
Newellbany and I flew into Tampa on our FL baseball trip a few years back to knock the dreadful Tropicana Dome off the park list...don't see myself going back to TB, but the south Florida National Parks will have to be gotten to eventually....
Discussing Japanese Conbini bento here is just cheating, but I do love the different kinds of onigiri they have, and the fresh karaage they sometimes have. Also the Western ones I'm a sucker for whatever's roasting at the front. I'm all about the taquitos and Polish sausage!
Nope! I used to stop at a place in Hayward that had decent perogies for lunch when I was delivering perfectly LEGAL drugs. One day I made the mistake of asking for them to make me a burrito, it would take me 20 minutes to describe how truly awful it was.
depends where you are. A lot of Asian markets carry it nowadays, and I think you can even find it at Safeway in either the frozen aisle or whereever the tofu is. Imagine my surprise at finding that Safeway carried AgeTofu at mine.
depends where you are. A lot of Asian markets carry it nowadays, and I think you can even find it at Safeway in either the frozen aisle or whereever the tofu is. Imagine my surprise at finding that Safeway carried AgeTofu at mine.
Yeah Asian markets will have it, but I think I saw some at Berkeley Bowl, too.
Some hot pot places in Taiwan actually will bring you a bowl of the paste, and you can put clumps into the soup--it's kind of fun to make your own fish/squid balls!
"the USDA doesn't have the same strict regulations on defining bologna that the European Union has for mortadella — but there is one particularly interesting regulation that really separates American bologna from the more traditional and highbrow Italian mortadella: it's essentially mandated by law that bologna be made using a meat batter, rather than finely ground up or minced meat.
In Philly, people are super proud of Wawa's. They do freshly make your sandwich (like a Subway) even in the middle of the night (when you're studying/working late or after the bars have closed) so the food is better than other American convenience stores. I guess Sheetz which is in Western PA and Ohio also does food like that, but there isn't any conveniently located near where I live (have to go to the Pittsburgh suburb to find one). You can get people to have very heated debates of Wawa vs. Sheetz.
Another kind of regional gas station convenience store in the mid-Atlantic is Royal Farm which does freshly fried chicken that's better than KFC and comparable to Popeye's (when one's lucky enough to get freshly fried chicken there).
I was going to mention Royal Farms. The chicken is surprisingly good. East Coast gas station food seems to be much higher quality than its West Coast counterparts. I used to think Twist was nuts for always going to that South Carolina gas station at absurd hours for fried chicken, but I get it now.
They were everywhere in Saratoga Springs, and for years I'd go to the one up the street daily to get my Daily Racing Form, esp. in track season...it always had a borderline disgusting odor, like a peculiar melange of stale coffee, the chili & soup crock pots, and the pizza in the hot case all in one...it just made you wanna puke, tho I was hungover 90% of my visits, so that didn't help.
Oh definitely! Great ice cream...but you just never really know how long that pizza’s been spinning in the case....remember the Seinfeld ep where Kramer ate the old theater hot dog?
Part of my honeymoon was in Portugal. The first full day there, we were driving back to our hotel in Porto. It was getting late, it was pretty dark, and we were in the middle of nowhere. We were hungry and so we stopped at a little gas station/convenience store. The only thing that they had were the pre-packaged sandwiches. My wife speaks Portuguese, so she could mostly tell me what the sandwiches where, except for one. The other ones (ham, egg salad, tuna salad) did not look good, but the one that my wife could not recognize (labeled "frango") looked OK, so we decided to try it. It was yummy, but we still did not know what it was. It was not until we saw family in the Azores that we learned that "frango" was chicken...it was chicken salad! My wife grew up using "galinha" for chicken.
I don't think I've ever had food from somewhere like 7-11. There was a place near campus when I was in grad school that was kind of an old school general store & sandwiches place, I used to get sandwiches there... which was not yesterday.
If I should ever go to Asia, I would try food in convenience stores there. By all accounts its a vastly different experience to (trying to) eat food in American convenience stores. The shriveled hot dog slowly rotating under the heat lamp...shudder
Maybe I can convince the Bluetooth SIG to have an event there. Last Nov was supposed to be Bangkok and I don't know if it got moved to Nov 2021 (assuming we have a F2F event). Taipei would be cool.
I'm not sure I've ever had prepared food at a convenience store. Although No 1 used to like to get a couple of Tornados at the Speedway right up the street from the ballpark.
well, it's not actively working against us to quite the same extent - although there was plenty of hostility to the average citizen built in to the status quo ante.
I got an email about this today. With all the shuffling around and old blues possibly not re-upping their expensive seats there may be an opportunity to get seats on the 40 or 50 yard line. My existing season tickets are in EE at about the ten yard line I would guess.
I've always like Safeway's breaded Chicken Tenders growing up, sometimes I'd beg for a trip just to go to their Deli to get some. It has fallen off a bit in the last decade but it was good to have while at the peak.
Also who saw the Daytona 500 last Sunday, very underwhelming race but what a shocker of a winner in Michael MF McDowell (almost made the prior crap 499 miles go away).
Safeway deli is a good quick resource. Their chicken and jojos are solid, especially when time is short. Very serviceable sandwiches as well, reasonably priced.
I've been getting them recently when they have them $5/lb on Fridays. I end up freezing some so we can grab them for lunch sometimes. The boys really like them, although I have noticed that sometimes they have ones that aren't as good. Sometimes they make a Nashville hot chicken flavored one. I also like the salt and vinegar wings.
https://twitter.com/kristencheeks/status/1361500256354074624?s=20
I’m not sure who needs to see this but Rick Steves is doing Zooms every Monday night where he drinks and watches his own travel videos with you. If I can help just one person by sharing this, I’ve done my job.
I used Rick Steves for only one trip (Slovenia, Croatia) and his recommendations were very much like what you'd expect from a 60-something-year-old guy who has been there/done that and looking more for convenience/comfort than fun/adventure.
as I have always been middle-aged, this is what I appreciate about him. I appreciate his videos as a jumping off point for planning. I tend to get more out of vacations when I'm not trying to figure stuff out on the fly, and images / video help a lot with that.
Haha I've consumed zero Rick Steves material, but I imagine the drinking could be fun.
https://twitter.com/CityofBerkeley/status/1359307177823854592?s=20
65 and want a COVID vaccine? We've got appointments! Syringe
We're expanding eligibility at the
@Curative
mass vaccination site. Berkeley and Alameda County residents 65 and older can now register for an appointment on February 11 or 13. Sign up http://bit.ly/berkmassvax
There is/was a lot of interesting stuff for sale here. I mean, if you're into Hitler's toilet seat.
https://www.alexautographs.com/
Madison Cawthorn is ON it.
so to speak.
Interesting that the Trump signed Bible is right next to Hitler items...
I learned yesterday that Canada has ordered five times more vaccine doses than they have people (in the context of Taiwan not being able to order them). The Canadians on my other internet community have assured me that this is because the ones they originally ordered haven't arrived, not because they're greedy, and it's because the US is locking them out of the market.
USA! USA!
Soooooo... the rhyme is based on some truth...
https://twitter.com/DavidOvalle305/status/1361699898664624134
Oh man... Peak Florida
The ISIS bomber accidentally detonated at the group meeting because __________________.
M, as in "Mancy"
nobody gave him a trigger warning
Give the DBD a random Simpson's quote
"Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?"
"Yes"
"May I see it?"
"No"
We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
"You don't make friends with salad"
"Help me Jeebus!"
"I'm taking this baby to Mexico"
Tampa, Florida
Sept 13, 1980 for the Cal @ Florida game at Tampa Stadium. Florida was 0-10-1 the previous season, Cal had first round pick Rich Campbell at qb, who would go 43/51/421. Game tied at halftime 13-13. Naturally we lost, 41-13. Regretted the trip.
The last airplane trip that I took was to Tampa at the end of February last year - mostly for Spring Training baseball but I also took a trip to Kennedy Space Center (the launch that I was hoping to see got postponed, however). Ybor City area was decent, although I have no interest in cigars. I did the touristy thing and went to the Cuban restaurant that had Flamenco dancing performances at night. The Dali museum in St. Pete was a fun 90 minutes.
I somehow had never been to Tampa before last year despite living in Fort Lauderdale for 5 years in the 90s. On the west coast of Florida, I have only been as far north as Fort Myers with my family. I did a summer program in high school at UF, but all the side trips from that or high school field trips never went to Tampa Bay.
Tampa is good if you go to the right spots...otherwise it's a lot of Hooters and strip malls...
Connecting to the other thread. Possibly because the Phillies have their spring training at Clearwater nearby, Tampa is apparently the lone region in Florida that has Wawa's.
Also, the Tampa area's Hooters is apparently separate from the rest of the country. Hooters started in the Tampa area too. I ended up stopping by a Hooters because they actually offered free beer when you show them a spring training ticket.
I'm doing Tampa in '22 for Spring Training. Tour de Ruey seems like fun.
I have yet to grace Tampa, or indeed anywhere in Florida, with my presence.
For the 93 Citrus bowl HSB and I flew to Pensacola, and drove to Orlando and back. That was back when AmEx had special airfare for students and the closest we could get was Pensacola. Was cool in that we saw the Naval Air Museum while we were there. Though the drive was boring. Also saw Cape Canaveral and Epcot for NYE.
That said, I have no desire to go back, though the only place I may consider visiting is Miami for the food.
Newellbany and I flew into Tampa on our FL baseball trip a few years back to knock the dreadful Tropicana Dome off the park list...don't see myself going back to TB, but the south Florida National Parks will have to be gotten to eventually....
Convenience Store Food
Discussing Japanese Conbini bento here is just cheating, but I do love the different kinds of onigiri they have, and the fresh karaage they sometimes have. Also the Western ones I'm a sucker for whatever's roasting at the front. I'm all about the taquitos and Polish sausage!
Nope! I used to stop at a place in Hayward that had decent perogies for lunch when I was delivering perfectly LEGAL drugs. One day I made the mistake of asking for them to make me a burrito, it would take me 20 minutes to describe how truly awful it was.
if you have to say LEGAL then it totally wasn't LEGAL.
I read something last night and can't get it out of my mind, so please discuss: bologna is just hot dog pancakes.
i refuse to even think about eating it so I'm good.
I've known that for a while. What gets me is that bologna and hot dogs are made from meat batter.
As are fish balls, fake crab, and some chicken nuggets
I need to know where I can buy that fake fish patty with the pink spiral that's used in ramen
depends where you are. A lot of Asian markets carry it nowadays, and I think you can even find it at Safeway in either the frozen aisle or whereever the tofu is. Imagine my surprise at finding that Safeway carried AgeTofu at mine.
depends where you are. A lot of Asian markets carry it nowadays, and I think you can even find it at Safeway in either the frozen aisle or whereever the tofu is. Imagine my surprise at finding that Safeway carried AgeTofu at mine.
Probably chinatown. My sister bought some fish balls with green swirls that had probably shrimp or squid balls inside.
Yeah Asian markets will have it, but I think I saw some at Berkeley Bowl, too.
Some hot pot places in Taiwan actually will bring you a bowl of the paste, and you can put clumps into the soup--it's kind of fun to make your own fish/squid balls!
https://www.mashed.com/193323/this-is-how-bologna-is-really-made/
https://www.hot-dog.org/culture/how-hot-dogs-are-made
"the USDA doesn't have the same strict regulations on defining bologna that the European Union has for mortadella — but there is one particularly interesting regulation that really separates American bologna from the more traditional and highbrow Italian mortadella: it's essentially mandated by law that bologna be made using a meat batter, rather than finely ground up or minced meat.
..."
or conversely, bologna is just a thinly sliced fat hot dog.
In Philly, people are super proud of Wawa's. They do freshly make your sandwich (like a Subway) even in the middle of the night (when you're studying/working late or after the bars have closed) so the food is better than other American convenience stores. I guess Sheetz which is in Western PA and Ohio also does food like that, but there isn't any conveniently located near where I live (have to go to the Pittsburgh suburb to find one). You can get people to have very heated debates of Wawa vs. Sheetz.
Another kind of regional gas station convenience store in the mid-Atlantic is Royal Farm which does freshly fried chicken that's better than KFC and comparable to Popeye's (when one's lucky enough to get freshly fried chicken there).
I was going to mention Royal Farms. The chicken is surprisingly good. East Coast gas station food seems to be much higher quality than its West Coast counterparts. I used to think Twist was nuts for always going to that South Carolina gas station at absurd hours for fried chicken, but I get it now.
I did hear about Wawa from No 1. He also said the ice cream at Stewart's Shops outside Albany was really good, especially for a gas station.
Stewarts in upstate NY is ok...not awful, but at the end of the day, it's still gas station food.
for years I've been driving past Stewarts stores and never stopping in. Maybe this is the year I cave.
They were everywhere in Saratoga Springs, and for years I'd go to the one up the street daily to get my Daily Racing Form, esp. in track season...it always had a borderline disgusting odor, like a peculiar melange of stale coffee, the chili & soup crock pots, and the pizza in the hot case all in one...it just made you wanna puke, tho I was hungover 90% of my visits, so that didn't help.
Maybe it's good for gas station ice cream?
Oh definitely! Great ice cream...but you just never really know how long that pizza’s been spinning in the case....remember the Seinfeld ep where Kramer ate the old theater hot dog?
Japanese egg salad sandwiches
7-11 steak and cheese taquitos are bomb.
Part of my honeymoon was in Portugal. The first full day there, we were driving back to our hotel in Porto. It was getting late, it was pretty dark, and we were in the middle of nowhere. We were hungry and so we stopped at a little gas station/convenience store. The only thing that they had were the pre-packaged sandwiches. My wife speaks Portuguese, so she could mostly tell me what the sandwiches where, except for one. The other ones (ham, egg salad, tuna salad) did not look good, but the one that my wife could not recognize (labeled "frango") looked OK, so we decided to try it. It was yummy, but we still did not know what it was. It was not until we saw family in the Azores that we learned that "frango" was chicken...it was chicken salad! My wife grew up using "galinha" for chicken.
+1 for marrying a woman who is down for mystery meat
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I don't think I've ever had food from somewhere like 7-11. There was a place near campus when I was in grad school that was kind of an old school general store & sandwiches place, I used to get sandwiches there... which was not yesterday.
having read Tangtpt's comment, I have to revise my response: we ate gas station sandwiches in Iceland and places like Monop' in Paris.
If I should ever go to Asia, I would try food in convenience stores there. By all accounts its a vastly different experience to (trying to) eat food in American convenience stores. The shriveled hot dog slowly rotating under the heat lamp...shudder
Again, open invitation to everyone to go to Taiwan with me end of November/beginning of December (but only if it's safe)!!!
Maybe I can convince the Bluetooth SIG to have an event there. Last Nov was supposed to be Bangkok and I don't know if it got moved to Nov 2021 (assuming we have a F2F event). Taipei would be cool.
Actually tried a pepperoni pizza from 7-11. Not bad for $5. Never tried a tacquito though.
Icelandic hotdogs
https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-08-21/the-one-dish-to-eat-in-iceland
I'm not sure I've ever had prepared food at a convenience store. Although No 1 used to like to get a couple of Tornados at the Speedway right up the street from the ballpark.
A better government than before Jan 20.
well, it's not actively working against us to quite the same extent - although there was plenty of hostility to the average citizen built in to the status quo ante.
Pro
MLB: Way too early play-offs poll for 2021
Rockies: (SoYouSayThere'sAChance.gif)
https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1361724237074096130
NHL: Leafs lead 5-1 with 59 seconds left in the 2nd period. Then...
https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2021/2/15/22284641/recap-toronto-maple-leafs-blow-commanding-lead-to-the-ottawa-senators-who-take-it-in-ot
Reminds me of when the Sharks were down 4-0 to the Kings early in the second period during the playoffs. Came back to win 6-5 in OT.
Or of course Sharks down 3-0 to Vegas and the 5 min major a couple of years ago.
3x Pro-Bowl WR Vincent Jackson dead at 38.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30907010/ex-nfl-wr-vincent-jackson-found-dead-florida-age-38
Judging from the number of "check in on your people" tweets I saw last night, I'm guessing it wasn't accidental.
Cal
GO BEARS!
Deposits for 2021 FB season tickets now available:
https://twitter.com/CalFootball/status/1361767311787495424
I got an email about this today. With all the shuffling around and old blues possibly not re-upping their expensive seats there may be an opportunity to get seats on the 40 or 50 yard line. My existing season tickets are in EE at about the ten yard line I would guess.
I've always like Safeway's breaded Chicken Tenders growing up, sometimes I'd beg for a trip just to go to their Deli to get some. It has fallen off a bit in the last decade but it was good to have while at the peak.
Also who saw the Daytona 500 last Sunday, very underwhelming race but what a shocker of a winner in Michael MF McDowell (almost made the prior crap 499 miles go away).
Safeway deli is a good quick resource. Their chicken and jojos are solid, especially when time is short. Very serviceable sandwiches as well, reasonably priced.
I've never tried their sandwiches. I usually just get some lunch meat and make my own. And get the Baked Potato salad container.
I've been getting them recently when they have them $5/lb on Fridays. I end up freezing some so we can grab them for lunch sometimes. The boys really like them, although I have noticed that sometimes they have ones that aren't as good. Sometimes they make a Nashville hot chicken flavored one. I also like the salt and vinegar wings.