Righting London

A little over a month ago, my girlfriend and I made a stop in London, Ontario. We were nearly short on the bill, but promised ourselves we'd go back and tip our excellent server.

Prince Albert's Diner by Slack pics on flickr

Yesterday we imported just about everything into Canada. Along the way, we made a stop at Prince Albert's Diner. I parked the U-Haul in the parking lot, walked directly into the counter and made a rare request:

• "Hey, I was in here the week after Christmas with my girlfriend and there was a shorter guy doing just about everything — do you know who that would be?"
• "Dark glasses?"
• "Yah"
• "You're probably talking about Ken. Why?"
• "We didn't realize it was cash-only until we ordered, the ATM wouldn't take our cards, we only had $23, and the bill was $22.85"
• "Ah, so you want to leave a tip or something now?"
• "Yes! Would you be able to give it to him?"
• "Definitely. I'll actually be seeing him tomorrow, so I'll just make a note with this right now."

So Ken, if by some chance you happen to read this one day, sorry about the delay!

Lunch in London

In another few weeks, I'll be making my way to the ThoughtWorks Toronto office. Having never been to the city before, the end of December seemed like a perfect time for Ginger and I to head north while visiting our families in Greater Detroit.

Since 2005, 1.8 million acres surrounding Greater Toronto have been deemed a greenbelt in an effort to prevent urban sprawl. As it happens, once you get out of that protected acreage, it's mostly farmland as well on the drive from Detroit. London, Ontario is one of the few towns along the way and felt like a good stopping point for lunch.

Just like you'd expect from a city, parking in London isn't free. It took $3, and while we nearly paid cash — I handed Ginger the $3 I had and a folded up $10 fell out of it — I went with my American Express.

The first restaurant we stepped into looked delicious, but clearly said cash only by the register. We both prefer the cashless life, and knew it'd be tight anyway, so we moved on to the diner across the street. With no clear mention of cash only, and an ATM right there, it was a safe option. Or so we thought.

Me: "I'll have the chicken tenders... and do you take credit?"
The server responded, quickly: "Okay. No, but we've got an ATM right there."
Me: "Any chance you take US cash?"
The server, quickly again: "At par, so a dollar is a dollar."

Not feeling great about our cash situation, I headed over to the corner to try the little non-bank-affiliated ATM. I wasn't concerned about fees, because Ally Bank is awesome and just reimburses them. It let me get all the way through the transaction, and then denied me as an Invalid Acquirer. I let Ginger know and she headed over to try her bank card. Same thing; those little ATMs must not like international cards.

Turbo Button ATM by *USB* on flickr

We scraped at our pockets and came up with $23. Doing the math in our heads, and not knowing the tax rate in London, we knew it'd be close; closer than ever before.

Heading to the register the guy tallied the bill and came up with $22.85. Just barely made it, but only with the awful feeling of stiffing the guy who was so nice to us. We'll be back, just with a giant tip.

For more on our Canadian restaurant experience, check out Ginger's Float Me Down the River.

Singular y'all

Lunch during the first week is often a troublesome proposition. It's all too easy to get stuck in one's consultant cocoon, never branching out or making new discoveries. I'm glad I didn't get stuck in that trap. Had I never ventured to ZAZA Fine Salad + Wood Oven Co with two client developers, I never would have been introduced to the singular form of "y'all."

Now I'm plenty familiar with y'all, not least because of frequent road trips through Florence, Kentucky; perhaps home of the best watertower ever?

The FLORENCE Y'ALL Water Tower by J. Stephen Conn on Flickr

Kyle Kyle	So what kind of music do y'all like?
Me	I think the team probably all likes different kinds of music.
Kyle Kyle	I know different people like different kinds of music. I'm asking what kind of music y'all like.
Me	Oh. Uh. What?

---

DISCLAIMER In the interest of representing both sides of the story, Kyle Kyle claims to have never said the above and that y'all's singular form doesn't exist. That's not how the other two passengers remember it, however, and I now believe the elusive singular form of y'all to exist.

NOTE Our team consists of two Kyles. The project manager differentiated them early on by naming one "Kyle" and the other "Kyle Kyle"

Fun Fact ZAZA's has some tremendous gelato.

Burritos: "Why Would You Do That?"

There continues to be surprising interest in the food here from the West. I'm happy to report here on a few more things I've discovered.

New for me during this trip is eating breakfast. While it's often too early for me to have something spicy, I make sure to always get juice. The best mixed fruit juice I've ever had is here. The mango juice is quite good as well, and this is the first time I've tasted the extra-sweet litchi.

Lunch is something different every day, with a common element of laughter. In the US we have Chipotle, Qdoba, and the like everywhere. What makes this important? A burrito like this is a common meal.

"Chipotle Beef Burrito" by Khaz on Flickr

We don't have tortillas here, but we often have chapati. Chapati is like a tortilla made of wheat. Rice is also served, so I tend to make mini burritos. This always encourages stares and inspires laughter with a quote.

"What you're doing there...with the rice and chapati, is just too weird. Why on earth would you have rice and bread? Nobody does that."

Which is a fair point. They are both of the same food group. Unsurprisingly, I'm not the only American to be pulling this maneuver.

For dinner during last night's Pecha Kucha, we ordered some excellent wraps from Kaarti Zone. The wraps came in a box in several types. I went for paneer last night, which is supposedly similar to cottage cheese (though it doesn't taste it). It was so good that some of us ordered it again tonight. I went with the also-delicious chicken.

Fun Fact paneer is completely lacto-vegetarian (no eggs).

The Metal Scene

One of the best things about being here is the emphasis on work/life balance. Once 5:00 hits, the day is done and it's time to stop working. On Friday, I was content to continue finishing my story for as long as it took. Colleagues had other ideas in mind.

The Place

We headed to Legends of Rock, a pub in Bangalore. A metal pub in Bangalore. I can't be sure what I was more surprised to discover, the giant metal scene here or the cigarettes prominently displayed on page one of the menu.

It's worth mentioning that the bar was separated into smoking and non-smoking sections. The non-smoking section is directly above the smoking section. Seriously.

Kingfisher is easily the most popular beer here...though it must not have had to win any taste contests for that title.

waiter Something to drink, sir?
me I'll have a Coke in a bottle.
waiter Diet Coke?
me No...

Ten minutes later, my flat soda in a glass arrived.

The Photoshoot

Soon it was time to meet the locals. It's amazing how friendly the average person is here (or at least the average American-pub-attending person is). These three gentlemen were behind me for quite a while, so I opted for a photo to celebrate the randomness of the occasion. As you can see, varying degrees of excitement to be taking a picture with me were demonstrated.
Possibility: The Beatles are also considered metal.

Factoids

• Everything closes at 11:30pm here, even pubs
• This place has karaoke on Wednesday nights
• Alanis Morissette qualifies as metal here

Hong Kong Hustle

Last week, some of us were in the mood for something different. We decided on Chinese and headed out with the restaurant Saigon in mind. It was in the building where the first clue for TWU's Amazing Race landed us -- the place where no one knew they were supposed to give us a clue.

When we arrived, the sign on the door was something completely different: Hong Kong Hustle. We asked if this used to be Saigon. The place was empty and the answer was an eager enough "Yes!" that one had to wonder if the answer would've been the same no matter what we asked. As it turns out, the name change is true.

Please enjoy this Google Map.

View Larger Map

Recently, I'd been surprised to discover Orange Chicken doesn't exist in China or Hong Kong. From the very same colleague, I found out on this day that Szechuan Noodles weren't a real thing from China either. Still I ordered and realized that "Szechuan" is more often than not a synonym for spicy.

Two of our party went with the featured buffet. It wasn't like a Western buffet. The orders were placed by putting vegetables in a bowl, choosing rice or noodles, a sauce, and handing off to the chef. Appetizers started to come soon afterward. Then appetizers continued to come -- seemingly without being ordered. Those of us who hadn't had the buffet basked in the genius of this system; we were all clearly going to see how wonderful the buffet was even if we hadn't ordered.

After the main courses finished there was an ice cream dessert for our buffeteers. Then the check arrived, in a Hollywood film canister.

Our goal was to pay with a credit card and break a Rs. 100 bill. We got halfway there -- paying with a credit card...and receiving the same Rs. 100 bill, folded differently.

Finally, I was able to cross something off my to-do list: getting a picture with a red-belt waiter.
I'm a bit on the tall side here. I like it.