Hello.

Vegan "steak bomb" from Fiori's Bakery. It's a C-.  Sliced bread 😯 It's a bakery, and they have whatever bread they bake there, so in retrospect I get it. But cheesesteak to me has to be on hoagie roll. The filling reminded me of breakfast scramble type of dish. I make a fine cheesesteak with Impossible beef and Follow Your Heart shredded parmesan. (Which isn't a chef brag as much as it's a statement that there's this other way of doing it which works quite well.) Consistent and gooey, loaded with peppers and onions and mushroom and jalapeno if desired. Theirs is more mushy with some occasional pepper pieces. It didn't really accomplish what I was looking for in a steak sandwich. Full-disclosure: I had to walk a couple miles, and it cooled before I ate it. What happened is I lost my manners. We'll blame it on being recently single, I've felt active and flirtatious. Girls, guys. If you're an adult and squarely under 35 or so, you're...

I'd like to see Argentina get freed from the IMF.  To get a better grasp of what's at play, I thought "what exactly is the IMF?" It's a Fund. Which to me seems more ominous than if it were a Federation. "Fund" is like they're trying to be faceless. I don't know the specifics of what was borrowed by who and what's been paid back etc. But I do remember a time when this guy in a house of 4 of us had a chores rotation. (The whole house had it but it was the one guy who really believed in it.) And if you didn't leave a clean sink, if there's still 5 dishes to go, your week of dishes hasn't ended yet. The rules were purposeful and complete. The system was kind of naturally installed against me given that I wasn't home much and wasn't using dishes but would still have my turn in doing them. Our assignment was to rinse them from the sink, stack, run, and unstack the dishwasher. I accepted this as a burden of living there, but prop...

Nothing beats the vegan Reuben from Pressed Cafe.  It's thoughtful.  They have a homemade vegan kebab going on in their other dishes, and I don't know if they marinate it or season it differently or what, but it doubles as an all-star corned beef substitute. The bread is nicely toasted. Greatest restaurant menu item ever for me. Previously I'd have said maybe Massaman curry from Le Thai II in Las Vegas. In general I'm a fan of the vegan item at non-vegan places. All-vegan restaurants serve their purpose, but they don't compete for greatest items. Simply put it's like you'd rather have the Italian guy who figures out how to use vegan cheese than the vegan guy who figures out how to make eggplant parm. Vegans might disparage me for that statement, but supporting non-vegan places as they offer good vegan options is probably a stronger way to inspire vegan change. $18 quesadillas that you could make yourself at home won't inspire anything. Everything at Pres...

 " You're wasting your money ," they tell me. It's because I've been living in hotels.  It does add up. Whereas if I had a big house with high taxes, HOA, and country club fees, we'd think of it as being fiscally responsible. We all have our leaks. Really what they mean is it blows their mind to not be a person who lives somewhere. Try to buy a condo and it's bidding wars, which means you can't really focus on what you want. You just have to fire and try to get it. Fun for a minute but it's no way to live. It's no way to plant roots. Residence Inn by Marriott has become my best friend, and always feels like home. I try to keep my eye on all Marriott brandings (shoutout to Fairfield Inn and The Courtyard), and move as prices dictate me. Hilton. Choice Hotels. La Quinta. I role with all of them. Where I draw a line is really only that I like to be in a building rather than facing the outside. A label from Marriott just tends to win out a lot of t...