sunshine0221's Diaryland Diary
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Hork!
Hork!
There is a fairly newish sub shop in town, right down the street from where I live. Until this week, I had never eaten there, because it looks kind of hinky. It's also in a former gas station - and it looked kind of shabby and run down even when they had just renovated it.
On Wednesday I had to take my car to the shop again, so I could find out why she is cylinder-challenged, and at lunch time, because apparently I like to live dangerously, I talked new coworker into us going to lunch at Hinky Sub Shop. The main attraction for HSS is that their sign says that they they have eggplant subs. If you have not had a real eggplant sub, you haven't lived. They are GOOD. Basically it's eggplant parmesan with cheese and sauce on nice toasty bread. Here's the best picture I could find:
So we walk in and New Coworker orders a 6� eggplant sub. The woman behind the counter walks over to a freezer, pulls out a bag of something, and throws in the microwave. I was somewhat horrified � if other dining establishments prepare my food in this manner at least I do not have to watch them do it. Then the woman opens up the bag, and pulls out what looks like pieces of boiled eggplant, pokes at them a little and throws the whole shebang back in the microwave. I can only imagine what comments Gordon Ramsay would have made if he had seen this. �Dog�s Dinner�, or �&%$#@*&^%�, I�m thinking.
Once the eggplant had been nuked, the Hinky Sub Lady asked New Coworker if she wanted white or yellow cheese. Again, most restaurants at least try to pretend they have real cheese, but not Hinky Sub Shop � their cheese selection comes in white and yellow. And then New Coworker asked what the difference was and was told that the white �cheese� kind of had some flavor.
One of my flaws is that I am way too damn polite. Any normal person would have run out of this place screaming when the bag o� boiled eggplant hit the microwave, but no, that would have been rude, so we stuck it out. I had rapidly come to the conclusion that the �Eggplant Parmesan Sub� was actually a �Hunk o� Boiled Eggplant Nuked in a Bag With White �Cheese� Sub, and optimistically ordered the �Chicken Parmesan Sub�.
My optimism died, spun in its grave, and threw up when out came a plastic bag o� frozen boiled chicken and into the microwave it went. Chicken Parmesan is really good, and a slimy boiled microwaved chicken is not even a distant relative of real Chicken Parmesan. Again, my politeness was not my friend, as any sane person would have made a run for it, but no, we took our �subs� and sat down at one of the tables. And there were flies. Big tame, well-fed flies. Everywhere. New Coworker took one bite of her sub and turned green. She said it tasted like worms. I gave her half of my sub, thinking that at least it couldn�t be worse, and we watched as an enormous fly sat down on her �sub� and started chowing down. If Hinky Sub Shop ever does commercials, maybe they can get a testimonial from the fly.
We made it through a bite a two of our subs, realized that we were completely grossed out, and left. Now you would think that this would be my grossest culinary experience this week, but you would be wrong.
I got a really nice Gevalia thermal carafe coffeepot a few weeks ago. I hate burned coffee, and the carafe thing is an absolutely fabulous idea, and it was only 20 bucks including shipping, plus I got coffee too. The carafe is stainless, and this is a great coffee pot.
Due to my frequent tragic lack of getting up early enough to make coffee at home in the morning, I only use it a few times a week. Now I know that Martha Stewart would wash out the coffee pot after each use, but I tend to wash it out before each use, which, hey, it works. Errr... usually it works. This morning I got up at the crack of dawn (7:30), carefully washed out the removable filter thingie, and made a nice pot of coffee. I sat down in the living room and watched part of an Amazing Race rerun and drank my coffee. As I was getting up to get my second cup of coffee, I realized that I had not emptied the old coffee out of the carafe before I made my new coffee!!!!!. I was not aware until this morning that the downside of a nice stainless carafe, is that it is not glaringly obvious that THERE IS 3 DAY OLD COFFEE IN IT. I have no idea how much was in there, and I am totally grossed out, and I am afraid that I will get a rare Columbian coffee disease, and ewwww.
But I have learned my lesson � no more eating at sleazy looking restaurants � and you can bet your ass I will be obsessively cleaning out my coffee carafe after each use.
And I have my car back! The mechanic has no idea what is wrong with her � sometimes she runs on 3 cylinders, and sometimes she runs on 4. And the mechanic wants to BUY her. For the DEMOLITION DERBY! AT first I was horrified, but after I thought about it realized that that would be a very cool way to go out in blaze of glory.
1:36 p.m. - August 05, 2005
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