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Mar. 28th, 2003 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbSo, due to circumstances beyond my control, the gig at Cafe La Dolce VIta tonight didn't happen. Fortunately, it's a lousy place to play anyway. The only thing that bothers me is that I'd made an uncharacteristic effort to tell people about it, so I'll feel bad if anyone showed up to see it. Which is kind of the opposite of the way I'd usually feel.
On the bright side, I got to renew an old acquaintance, of a sort.
I used to work at Liquid Audio, a company that is now dead but hasn't stopped moving yet, in downtown Redwood City. It was great working in a place and not an office park. There were book and music stores I could walk to, the public library, and, most frequently, lunch.
With all the variety of a rejuvenating downtown at our disposal, we still ended up going to the same Mexican restaurant, Cuatro Milpas, at least twice most weeks. (A cuisine we could all agree on, a reasonable distance from the office, and, well, we liked it.) I suspect we were the restaurant's most regular customers, and although I occasionally ventured into the burritos and more exotic items, I mostly settled into a routine of enchiladas rojas con queso every time we went. And iced tea. The proprietress would say "The usual?" and I would say "Yes, please." She didn't even ask about the iced tea.
These enchiladas were nothing fancy, which is probably exactly why I liked them. Cheese, tortillas, a simple, smooth red sauce, just the right amount of spice, with rice and beans on the side. But, mmmmm. Just right every single time.
Eventually my employment at Liquid came to an end, and most of my lunch crowd left the company at around the same time. I missed Cuatro Milpas, but Redwood City is a long drive for lunch, and I had no other good reason to go there. I went back one Saturday a few months later, but I didn't recognize any of the staff and it just wasn't the same. And the next time I went, some months after that, it was gone! New name, new management, entirely different menu. (Hamburgers, I think.) I was aghast. No more best enchiladas ever!
And then, maybe a year after that, I was walking by Antonio's Nut House--a bar in Palo Alto that I'd always been vaguely frightened by--and noticed a sandwich board out front with a menu on it for "Azteca"--lettered in the same quirky Mexicanesque font they'd used at Cuatro Milpas! I walked in, and, sure enough, there she was. We caught up a little (I'm not good at catching up), and... I had those enchiladas I'd thought were gone forever.
I still hardly ever go there, even though Palo Alto is much closer to me than Redwood City. The only time I'm ever in that neighborhood is when I have a gig across the street, and when I have a gig, it's a bad idea to eat enchiladas beforehand--messes up my throat somehow. But tonight, my gig fell through, and the silver lining was, I could walk over to Antonio's Nut House, sit down at the counter, and, years after Cuatro Milpas, she still remembers what I'm going to order. Sadly, at the new place, they don't have iced tea. But the enchiladas rojas con queso--mmmmm. Just right every single time.
On the bright side, I got to renew an old acquaintance, of a sort.
I used to work at Liquid Audio, a company that is now dead but hasn't stopped moving yet, in downtown Redwood City. It was great working in a place and not an office park. There were book and music stores I could walk to, the public library, and, most frequently, lunch.
With all the variety of a rejuvenating downtown at our disposal, we still ended up going to the same Mexican restaurant, Cuatro Milpas, at least twice most weeks. (A cuisine we could all agree on, a reasonable distance from the office, and, well, we liked it.) I suspect we were the restaurant's most regular customers, and although I occasionally ventured into the burritos and more exotic items, I mostly settled into a routine of enchiladas rojas con queso every time we went. And iced tea. The proprietress would say "The usual?" and I would say "Yes, please." She didn't even ask about the iced tea.
These enchiladas were nothing fancy, which is probably exactly why I liked them. Cheese, tortillas, a simple, smooth red sauce, just the right amount of spice, with rice and beans on the side. But, mmmmm. Just right every single time.
Eventually my employment at Liquid came to an end, and most of my lunch crowd left the company at around the same time. I missed Cuatro Milpas, but Redwood City is a long drive for lunch, and I had no other good reason to go there. I went back one Saturday a few months later, but I didn't recognize any of the staff and it just wasn't the same. And the next time I went, some months after that, it was gone! New name, new management, entirely different menu. (Hamburgers, I think.) I was aghast. No more best enchiladas ever!
And then, maybe a year after that, I was walking by Antonio's Nut House--a bar in Palo Alto that I'd always been vaguely frightened by--and noticed a sandwich board out front with a menu on it for "Azteca"--lettered in the same quirky Mexicanesque font they'd used at Cuatro Milpas! I walked in, and, sure enough, there she was. We caught up a little (I'm not good at catching up), and... I had those enchiladas I'd thought were gone forever.
I still hardly ever go there, even though Palo Alto is much closer to me than Redwood City. The only time I'm ever in that neighborhood is when I have a gig across the street, and when I have a gig, it's a bad idea to eat enchiladas beforehand--messes up my throat somehow. But tonight, my gig fell through, and the silver lining was, I could walk over to Antonio's Nut House, sit down at the counter, and, years after Cuatro Milpas, she still remembers what I'm going to order. Sadly, at the new place, they don't have iced tea. But the enchiladas rojas con queso--mmmmm. Just right every single time.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-28 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-28 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-28 11:26 pm (UTC)now and then i've found good Mexican food here. Casa Lupe on El Camino around Bernardo is pretty good. there's a tasty taqueria down the street from my apartment here in SF. i'll even eat Chevy's occasionally (though calling that mexican food is blasphemy, really) - but when i go back to see family in AZ, i gotta get Mexican food. that's the real thing, to me, and man, is it ever gooooooooooood.
AZ trivia: a quesadilla is commonly called a "cheese crisp" in many Phoenix-area Mexican restaurants. say that anywhere outside of AZ and people will look at you sideways. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 09:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-29 07:48 am (UTC)