#86

This is a recipe, but essentially a system for creating the ideal meal.

Get egg noodles, carrots, celery, cabbage, and cubed tofu.

Get sriracha sauce, soy sauce, olive oil, and sesame oil.

Start a pan with the olive oil, and fry the tofu with the sesame oil, sriracha, and soy sauce.

Boil the noodles, carrots, cabbage, and celery.

Once they’re boiled throw them in the stirfry pan and add more soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha.

Put in a few teaspoons of sugar and serve.

It’s very very close to the #86 at Da Lat.

Eating at Friendlys

Don’t eat at Friendly’s unless:

You want a tuna melt with french fries and really good pickles and you are in a good enough mood that you don’t mind spending a ton of money on what would cost way less anywhere else with that kind of quality and you want to feel warm and cozy like all those years when everything was ok in life and your mom took you to Friendly’s.

Or ice cream, from the outside counter, on a date, in July.

Dish Soap Dispensing

Since I’ve got to give props where props are due, this is not a system I myself have tried, but I think it holds great possibilities and I want to share it with people. Normative Norbert recommends:

Storing dishwashing soap in a glass bottle. This way you can’t squeeze the bottle. The advantages of this are one. Reduced soap waste.

Eat Apples Skin Off

Eat apples but be sure to peel the skin.

The advantages of this are that you can actually eat an apple now.

Cooking your Food

Some people don’t get hungry until a certain time in the day. Some don’t get hungry until 9am. Some don’t get hungry until 11am. Some, perhaps those that sleep until noon, don’t get hungry until 2:30p. The idea is is that stomach/body is in a slight fasting state when it’s sleeping. Your blood is getting purified and whatnot and just because you awake doesn’t mean your digestive system is all ready to go again.

At this point, however, you may have already gotten ready for the day, and now your energy is giving you that sense that the world is out there already churning its gears and you should go join it. But you know the second you sit down somewhere, in the next few hours you will be hungry. If you’re on a budget and you can’t run to the neighborhood burrito shop you’ve got a little problem on your hands.

You have a few options at this point

1. Take a granola bar
2. Take the ingredients you’ll need to cook yourself a meal (if the place you’re going has a kitchen)
3. Go to the neighborhood burrito shop

Menus

Using a menu properly can take some practice. There are three different types of menus. The first is a menu you look at while standing, another you look at while sitting, and the third is a sitting-style menu that is short and intentional, like you might find at a fancy restaurant.

With the first type (standing) you are standing while giving your order, and often times you are telling them exactly what you want as you point to it. This happens at Burrito places, fast food Chinese food places, and at street vendors. In these situations, if you can see the food you should trust your eyes, nose, and gut in deciding the food for you. If you cannot see the food, the menu above (or now more down near the cash register) you need to be able to quickly choose your food. If you are having a hard time, stand back from the line so people know they can go ahead of you.

With the second and third type (both sitting) you want to take the menu as it is handed to you, or lift it up from the table, and see what visually stimulates you. Still, the general policy is that you should follow systemsally’s number one restaurant rule, and along with that you should pretty much go to a restaurant already knowing mostly what you’re in the mood for. Don’t go to a mexican restaurant if you’re stomach is telling you sushi. That should be number two restaurant rule. I go to Italian restaurants usually because I want to eat a cheesy pasta dish, and then maybe I make the final choice in the moment whether I want chicken, shrimp, or vegetables. In other words, the main menu rule is that the menu should be there to simply finalize the craving you already had. Never look at prices. If you are out to eat, you already know you’re going to be paying way too much for food you could cook at home for 35 cents.

When you go out to a restaurant that someone else picks you should first follow the number one restaurant rule, be willing to try something new, or if that is going to work for you, most places have a fallback standard that you know you will like.

When you go out to a new kind of restaurant (like you’ve never been to ethipian) let the person you’re going out with make the call as to what to order. But learn the menu so you can repeat when you’re by yourself, or introducing someone else.

Ask wait staff what their favorite dishes are. You don’t actually value their opinion, it’s just that this an extension of the number one food rule, and it often uplifts the wait staff if they’re having a rough day.

Never read a menu from front to back. Always know there is something you have never seen before.

Aloe Vera

Do not use aloe vera as a general rule. Putting it on a burn will only serve to make the burn burn more, and in general it’s a pretty useless product.

Eating

Do not eat these foods:

1. Pig

2. Shellfish

Do not combine:

1. Meat and Milk

2. Fruit and Regular food

Gum

Do not chew gum for more than 20 minutes.

Lobsters

Eat lobster.