In my hometown of Camarillo (my parents' hometown actually and where I go for free food, my favorite type of food) there is a specialty pizzeria called Toppers Pizza, which sells specialty pizzas like Creamy Garlic Chicken, Carnitas Chipotle Pizza, etc. Something about their pizzas are different than others: they just have a great texture on the bite, and each bite is packed with flavor. They don't even use tomato sauce: it's a mix of different cheeses and sauces that differentiates itself from the average pizza. Our family has been a regular customer (once every 2 months or so) for several years. If I had any advice to anyone opening a restaurant (I've said this before I think in a blog post), it's MAKE THE FOOD TASTE GOOD. A lot of people get caught up in the grand opening and the ceremony and the newness of stuff, I actually don't buy that as much. I personally think 85 degrees is not that good taste wise (it has great pomp and circumstance and hype and colorful bags to surround the bread/pastries, but other than the red bean paste stuff, it really just isn't that good), and it doesn't make me come again and again to get it. Pizza does.....once every 2 weeks or so, I'll want pizza, and if I want quality pizza, I'll go to Toppers Pizza. It's really that simple for customers like me. That's how businesses stay afloat, it's what I believe those in the business call "a sustainable business model."
As I grow older, my tastes have also changed. When I was a kid I used to swear by peanut butter sandwiches (just peanut butter, not jelly)......and I still do. But I also loved cheeseburgers and hot dogs and McDonald's and fast food and ice cream, and those things just don't appeal to me anymore. Part of the reason is of course the caloric content and now understanding what kind of things I put in my body, but it's also cuz I just don't get any gratification out of eating bland hot dogs and whatnot. Maybe when I'm really hungry after a big sports event and need to fill myself up, maybe, but I've really started to get the delicacy and subtle flavor of salads and sushi. Sure the juiciness and unadultered sweetness of ice cream make me feel good, but I realize those are sort of "easy fixes," guaranteed to make the body happy because the body craves those things. Sushi, though, has a certain texture as one is chewing that makes me crave it some nights when I'm just a little hungry (it certainly doesn't fill one up) and the soy sauce just really brings out the flavor.
There's a Poke restaurant my girlfriend and I go to on Tuesday nights after Japanese class (I'm a man of habit I guess) that really hits my taste buds. It doesn't exactly make me full to the brim, but I come out of it feeling very satisfied and not overly fattened (not too many calories). It's a hard balance to strike, feeling satisfied taste wise and both not too much food and not insufficient so as to still feel hungry, especially with Poke. Pizza.....can fill me up for most of the day due to the cheese and dough content.
I think as adults get older their tastes evolve but also their budgets evolve (I can afford a lot more than I can when I was 13 years old), and so I take more chances with food and figure out what I can and don't like. Then you have people who worry about animals and food preparation methods (rightly, as I've heard a lot of horror stories in those arenas) and get introduced into a whole wild world of salads and vegetables. And just wait until I am over 30, when my metabolism changes and I can't eat as much! O man that's gonna be a really tough pill to swallow, especially for me who obsesses over every bit of weight gain to not go over the imaginary boundary of 180 pounds that I promised myself not to go over (the suggested overweight line for 5-9/5-10 men like myself is right around there).
There's a Poke restaurant my girlfriend and I go to on Tuesday nights after Japanese class (I'm a man of habit I guess) that really hits my taste buds. It doesn't exactly make me full to the brim, but I come out of it feeling very satisfied and not overly fattened (not too many calories). It's a hard balance to strike, feeling satisfied taste wise and both not too much food and not insufficient so as to still feel hungry, especially with Poke. Pizza.....can fill me up for most of the day due to the cheese and dough content.
I think as adults get older their tastes evolve but also their budgets evolve (I can afford a lot more than I can when I was 13 years old), and so I take more chances with food and figure out what I can and don't like. Then you have people who worry about animals and food preparation methods (rightly, as I've heard a lot of horror stories in those arenas) and get introduced into a whole wild world of salads and vegetables. And just wait until I am over 30, when my metabolism changes and I can't eat as much! O man that's gonna be a really tough pill to swallow, especially for me who obsesses over every bit of weight gain to not go over the imaginary boundary of 180 pounds that I promised myself not to go over (the suggested overweight line for 5-9/5-10 men like myself is right around there).
So pretty soon I'll have to cut back. But for now, more, more pizza!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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