Vendors

Strange French food

"Here in Cologne
I know I said it wrong."

-- Ben Folds, "Cologne," Way to Normal


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For fingers on the pulse of Cincinnati, some interesting links:

http://www.urbancincy.com/2010/05/cincinnati-enquirer-abandoning-city-interests/
http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2010/06/21/daily36.html

I guess what gets me about only okaying 20 mobile street vendors is that a lot of existing ones will obviously be out of work. This seems like a shifty ploy by the city to squeeze money out of people who are poor already, employed by literally the smallest of small businesses. The local NPR's report this morning hinted that the city would soon take control of the vendors entirely.

Also, it's an easy way to cut down the street vending industry, which arguably helps downtown restaurants. Then again, most of those restaurants aren't really competing with the vendors, who sell hot dogs and lemonade slushies and such. How is a diner selling coffee and eggs, or a Mediterranean bistro, or a sit-down chili joint, competing with the guy with the aluminum cart across the street?

Seems to me, the vendors handle the visitors, fans and families who just want to eat, who don't want to stop and eat. Restaurants get the locals, who are probably sickened by the idea of "street food" anyway.

Vendors have always had to fend for themselves.

Not that it affects me in any way, but I think it's a pointless decision. You want to control the real commerce on the streets, tackle the real problem? Go after the drug dealers, not the food vendors. Give the dealers 20 permits to use. Get your hands in something that matters.

Or, you know, don't. Just leave it alone.

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Also: Salt of the Earth, an "upscale comfort food restaurant" near work, is really terrific. Co-workers have been prompting a visit for months. Just had their roast beef sandwich and blue cheese cole slaw. Delicious.

Oh, and I also had a scrumptious macaroon, the first of my life. Now I know why the Victorians wrote plays about macaroons.

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As a college senior, once I realized I was going to have to cook for myself on a regular basis, I started doing so to practice. Sometimes I'd invite people over to up the ante. It was largely a performance--flirting with enticing recipes, really trying to impress. I'd spend a whole week thinking about what I'd make on Friday night.

That changed when I actually moved out on my own. Granted, a house with seven women isn't the greatest place to perform culinary experiments, but whenever the place was vacant and the kitchen was empty I tried my hand. Sometimes the results were good, and sometimes I just pretended they were. (One bizarre concoction combined Ramen soup, rice, peppers, garlic, chicken, beer, and honey. It tasted very, very weird.)

As my living situation improved, so did my cooking. While a sad budget makes for elemental meals, I'm still proud to make my own stuff. I went through a meatloaf phase, buying and baking a pound of ground beef per week. (This was back when I was trying not to eat carbs.) I went through a cabbage phase. I'm just now emerging from a cream of chicken phase.

Now that I'm trying to fast like an Orthodox, the restrictions are much more, well, restricting. No meat, fish, wine or animal products of any kind on Wednesdays and Fridays. And technically, since we're in the Apostle's Fast right now, devout Orthodox are fasting for the entire month.

I asked my priest about it a few weeks ago. "We are in the middle of a pretty strenuous fast," he said. He looked at me. "You...heh, you just do the Wednesdays and Fridays for now. Once you get that, you can do more."

Wednesdays and Fridays, that's all. It's been a challenge. The main results have been a) I go to Chipotle at least twice a week now, b) I try to eat fruit a lot more, and c) Thursday is my "oasis day," the day I can splurge and glut myself. It's the feast between fasts.

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Two days until Indianapolis and Seattle. With vague plans in the works, including an excursion of sibling appeasement to wherever they filmed the Twilight movies, I'm starting to pack my bag and my carry-on. Megabussing to Indy, then flying to Seattle. Got a week in the Pacific Northwest before a leisurely road trip back to Omaha and my parent's 25th Anniversary, a renewing of the vows ceremony. Gotta get my new suit's pants hemmed at some point.

I will wake early on Saturday. I will drag my bags across the river to a downtown corner and wait. And if possible, I will buy something from a street vendor.