Day 10 - Restaurants, Old and New

Noodles & Company Penne Rosa and Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine

Quizno's Broccoli & Cheese Soup and Veggie Sub



Shaukin Indian Fast Food - Chaat Platter

The experiment is still trucking along. We've had lots of familiar foods, like Quizno's and Noodles & Company, but we've also branched out and tried new places that we haven't been before. One place we recently stumbled upon was Shaukin Foods, a new restaurant featuring roadside Indian fast food. One of the dishes we had was a bit too spicy for me, but it was good over all.  Even if a food experience goes awry, I am usually content just to have tried something new. For instance, we had dinner at Taqueria el Maguey on Wednesday, which was housed in an old KFC building. We didn't let that deter us but the fact that they got our order wrong and overcharged us will likely discourage us from returning again. Not the best experience, but eh, I tried something new, so I'll let it go. 

I once prided myself on having visited every single restaurant in town.  After moving to West Lafayette, that was one of my goals in the first year.  300+ restaurants later, I could give myself a big pat on the back for wiping out that goal. Of course, that didn't last long. Restaurants are commonly known to have a high failure rate, with many sources quoting statistics like "nine out of ten restaurants fail in the first year." That statistic has never actually been verified, and it looks like the restaurant industry has closer to a 60% failure rate (http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2007/sb20070416_296932.htm). The fact of the matter is that an average consumer will witness a lot of restaurants opening and closing each year in their community.  The most practical reason is that there are low barriers to entry and exit. It's relatively easy to start a restaurant, and if you find yourself not performing as successfully as you had hoped, it's relatively easy to close up shop and walk away.  So, alas, I can no longer say that I've been to every restaurant in town since that was only true in 2008. At least twelve have since closed, and at least eighteen have since opened. 

This weekend I am going to my hometown to celebrate my mom's birthday and my parents' 27-year anniversary. Our most recent birthday tradition has been gathering the family to go stuff ourselves at a buffet, which is something I nearly always regret afterwards. Since we are thinking of going to the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City, we will likely end up gorging ourselves on food at Ryan's buffet.  Earlier this week, I had asked Francisco if he was going to bake mom a cake since he's become quite the accomplished baker. He responded that it would be pure torture to create a cake and watch everyone else eat it and not be able to have any. I had to laugh out loud because I had completely forgotten that we wouldn't be able to eat the birthday cake - unless it came from a restaurant!