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Published: June 16th 2017
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Bob in front of Traveler's Inn
We're in a really nice neighborhood across the street from the Spanish embassy. Geo: -0.223151, -78.5127
We've never actually spent much time at 9,000 feet. Like on Beartooth Pass: you go up, you come down. So we had no idea it would have any effect on us, but I'm starting to feel better this afternoon, and Bob only felt a slight queasiness to start with.
I got to watch him eat lunch while I drank tea. Then he got to watch me eat many hours later while he drank coffee. But let me tell you about my dinner spot. A little hole in the wall claiming $1.50 almuerzos (lunches). Since all I wanted was a leg of chicken and some rice I figured we'd try it.
We walk in and are met with the strangest bunch of folk all talking at once--trying to figure out what I'm saying, I guess. There are no menus, menus are for sissys. I tell them I want arroz y pollo, en la parrilla. Grilled chicken and rice.
What I got was my entertainment for the afternoon. The place is a bit seedy. On our left as we walk in grandma's sitting at a table whacking the daylights out of chunks of meat. There are plastic bags of some kind of red meat and chicken on the table in front of her, like this is her job for the night. Cutting this stuff up. Then there's mama who's trying to figure out what I'm saying, and a bunch of other people there getting stuff in bags to take with them--and they're all interpreting for me too. They're saying back to me a bunch of words that sound kinda familiar but just make no sense.
One chubby guy in a baseball hat looks at us reeeaaal slow with one squinty eye and one I wasn't sure he could even see out of. Two very chubby women try to find out if I want puro or pedazos...puro? That's the word they use when they mean mashed potatoes. I don't even want potatoes, I want arroz.
Si, but do I want puro? No. Thank you. No puro. Arroz.
Then do I want seco de pollo? Seco means dry...I definitely don't want dry chicken, do I?
Now we're seated and I can smell something frying--potatoes maybe. The kitchen's right at our elbow--we can watch mama cooking through the curtain they've scotch taped to the window. But you know how good fried potatoes can smell when you haven't eaten all day? However...I'm not smelling ANY parilla (grill).
So what I get is fried chicken, fried potatoes in their own little pool of fat, rice with a cute little dollop of something red on top (ketsup) and a salad. It actually looks good--it's not from the grill but I'm hungry enough it matters less now. I chew and chew my way through this chicken that has had it's turns around the block, I can tell you. But if I don't come down with the runs, the entertainment alone will make it worth it.
Here's the kicker: my dinner was $6.00. Bob had a 5 course dinner with linens and smiling waiters for $5.45 (including pecan pie w/dulce de leche), but without the show.
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Jeffrey Mitchell
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Hilarious. Dinner and a show!