I Hate Bananas

Yes, I know it is strange to hate a simple thing such as a fruit. However, I have always disliked bananas, for various reasons, and as I grow older, they do not "grow" on me, if you will pardon the pun.

But I DETEST bananas. I especially hate banana flavored things: popsicles, pudding, candy, gum, liquer, pie, etc.

My friends like to mock me for my strange and seemingly un-American distaste for the banana. (Although I do not think bananas are very American.) One day, as I was minding my own business at work, I got an email from a friend. It was entitled "Goodness." When I opened said email, this is what I saw:

Just thought I would share some goodness with you on this fine Friday.

I'm a Featured Yelper!

I decided (by Tracy's request) to join Yelp Reno, which is a rating/review website for restaurants, bars, shopping, everything! And today I went to review some things, and I was a featured Yelper!!

I am super pleased about it. I never get awarded anything, except bad dates, and this is really cool.

Anyway, Yelp used to be only in major cities, and now they are branching out to smaller markets, so check it out to see if they have one for YOUR city and join the Yelpers!

PS: Then I navigated away from the page, and my picture was gone, so they must cycle through often, but I was there, dammit!

Good Food in NoLa at NOLA

Every time I go to New Orleans, I want to go to an Emeril restaurant, and this time, I got my wish!

Grandma and Grandpa gave me a shiny, crisp Benjamin to spend on a nice meal for everyone. They said, dine in, take out, nice, fast-food, you decide! So, I used it to my advantage and decided that we should all go out to NOLA, Emeril's most family friendly and laid back restaurant in the French Quarter, so we could take little Aidan with us.

We made the reservations and dressed Aidan up in a cute little man outfit, and headed out. I, of course, got some pictures, but I was more distracted by the wonderful food!



Let's see, I had the duck, Steph had fillet mignon, pronounced as it should be, and Nate had the rib eye. He really, really wanted french fries and Steph and I had to literally beg him not to be annoying and obnoxious and ask for a substitute. He didn't like what the CHEF had paired with the rib eye. I told Nate that the CHEF, the one who EMERIL hired, knew more about food than Nate had ate meals in his life, but he still asked for the french fries. Much to my dismay.

But Aidan was the hit of the restaurant.

Look What I Did

I never knew what El Pollo Loco was until I moved to Reno. But then I had the amazing experience of having their black beans, which are full of pseudo-Mexican goodness.

And then they took them away! Freaking bastards.

So, I wrote them a (not-so) nice letter stating that I would never, ever, not in a million years! eat there again until they brought back the black beans! (Pinto beans being so over-rated, of course. Unless you are from New Mexico, where apparently everyone eats pinto beans like they are going out of style. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Literally. I, however, am NOT from new Mexico, and I detest pinto beans. But I digress...)

The Evil Crazy Chicken himself emailed me his apologies and mailed me a gift certificate for $5 to El Pollo Loco. Trickers! They tried to trick me into eating there again! Well, I would not be fooled. I gave the gift certificate away to someone who likes pinto beans. I WILL NEVER BETRAY MY PRECIOUS BLACKS BEANS!

And then, many months later, during a particularly bad drought of black bean goodness, a blessed miracle occurred. I got an other email from The Crazy Chicken Himself, stating that black beans are back. They realized the error of their ways and are now giving the public what they want! The Black Bean!
Ha! Take THAT Crazy Chicken! You lost money on that one, my friend, and now you will reap many rewards from realizing that I, as usual, am right.