Hell is Myrtle's Beach Bauble Stores

A nice scene from a recent trip to Myrtle Beach:

And another one, from inside:

Somehow Myrtle Beach had at least one of these disgusting, nauseating stores on every block. Many of these were from the "Wings" chain (which I was disappointed to find out: does not actually serve buffalo wings! Lies!). Along the beach, it was sometimes possible to see two and even three Wings stores from a single vantage point.

This reminded me of a trip to Vancouver B.C., where I found two Starbucks kitty-corner from one another at the same intersection (one was for business-folk, the other was jazzy-hip-folk, as I understood it). I guess the Pacific Northwest has its sickly amounts of coffee shops, and Myrtle Beach has its sickly amounts of beach bauble stores. And mini-golf stores. And doughnut shops. And...

Ahhh, Myrtle Beach.

Not in Seattle anymore

Earlier today on a trip to Krankies:

DW: "What would you like to drink Doodles?"

Doodles (note: former Seattle barista): "Oh... I'll take an Americano. Ooooh, a double-short Americano, mmmmmm...."

--Doodles leaves to snatch a table, leaving me to think "What the hell is a 'double-short Americano?' Oh well... maybe its a barista thing." --

DW to barista: "I'll take two medium Americanos. And can I get one of them *double-short*?"

Barista: **stares at DW blankly**

DW: I don't know what it is either.

--Awkward silence until Doodles comes back--

DW: "What the hell is a double-short Americano?"

Doodles: "Oh, it's just an Americano with two shots of espresso."

DW: "Oh. I see." (*thinks, thinks*) "So a double-short Americano is a double-shot Americano." (*thinks, thinks*) "What do you need that extra 'r' for?"

Barista: "You Seattle people think you are so cool with your high-falutin' coffee terminology."*

* Didn't actually say that, but I'm sure that's what he was thinking.

Beyond Tacos? Yes, ¡Sopes Deliciosos!

One of the first things Doodles was looking for after getting into town was some good Mexican food. Apparently Koreans are very good at providing good Korean food options (kim chi, kim chi soup, kim chi burgers, kim chi.. other things...), and their foreign food options don't expand much beyond McDonald's.

I was more than happy to oblige in helping her find some good Mexican food, and took her down to Waughtown St., where they have at least two excellent taquerias: La Perlita (which I wrote about previously) and El Paisano... which is a bit harder to get to (an extra couple minutes down Waughtown St.), but which I think has the better tacos.

My friend Pamphilia insisted that I give La Perlita another try, and so Doodles and I found our way there for her inaugural trip to Waughtown St. It was then that I was hit with a strange sensation to order not just tacos, but something else... (I know... I almost didn't recognize myself), and ordered a couple sopes to snack on after the tacos.

Sopes are sort of like open-faced sandwiches, starting with a puffy corn-flour tortilla which is topped with a lot of stuff. La Perlita's were topped with refried beans, lettuce, onions, carne asada (steak strips), sour cream, queso fresco (a mild cheese that might be described as something between mozarella and feta), and a nice piece of avocado.

I don't know... despite the fact that we had already devoured nearly half a dozen tacos between the two of us and were thus adequately satiated, those sopes were so delicious I almost cried. My eyes have been opened: should I be eating and writing more about Mexican food than simply tacos? Si, debo.

¡Viva la Sopes!

Doodle Dispatch: Week 1 in Winston

My sister Doodles and I summarize her first week in town (click to enlarge):

Bruce Rocks Steensboro!

I'm not a particularly big Springsteen fan, but I do like a good music concert, and somehow my friend Paul was able to score four $100 tickets to get us onto the floor of the Springsteen show in Greensboro for about $40 a piece. So I rustled up Doodles and DJ Dan, filled my trusty flask with whiskey, and we headed off to the show at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Three hours later (including a six-song encore), the flask was empty and we had a lot of great memories from the evening:

	I love to see weird old people come out of the woodwork to rock out with bands that were big 30 years ago.
	Bruce goes through the crowd picking up signs for musical requests -- pretty much any song was game, even if not a Springsteen song. He played "Seventh Son" and "Hang on Sloopy" and a couple others. Sloopy was really fun...
	Town is renamed! (Photo from the Smith Family Times... check out their account of the concert.)
	Just Bruce looking like a fucking rockstar. (Photo by Nelson Kepley (News & Record)

The Cool Kreme Trap

Doodles and I wandered into Krispy Kreme on Stratford to redeem a coupon I had scored for a free Cool Kreme ice cream cone. We wandered in, and were greeted by a cheerful cop who was on his way out.* "Make sure that you ask for a sample cone," he said, "it's free!"

So we ended up going to the counter and getting a cruller and a custard-filled doughnut and our free ice cream cones for a little over 2 bucks. After we handed her the money, the cashier handed us two MORE coupons for free Cool Kremes, meaning that we'll have to go back, I suppose.

As we were walking back to the car, eating ice cream and donuts:

Doodles: "I think that living in the south is going to turn me into a heifer."

Me: "There is no Doodles any more... There is only Helga."

Doodles: "I ate Doodles... she was tasty."

* Krispy Kreme was also running a promotional campaign at the time called "Cops on Doughnut Shops." Go figure...