Unfair Travel Fare

While flying back from a show in the Mid-West yesterday, Seth reminded me that I had once pledged to write about both the good and the bad things I eat on the road. This item falls with a wet "plop" into the latter category.

Leftover from dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Rolla the night before, this dish wasn't good fresh, let alone after a hot day of sloshing around in the backseat of a rental car and then in my carry-on. Maybe it's time to let go when you have to wipe off your lunch in the bathroom of an airport, but it still beats Chili's Too!

At the restaurant I had ordered a tamale deluxe and a carne asada burrito to go. The tamale deluxe was more deluxe than tamale, which only accounted for about a fifth of the total mass, the remainder being sour cream.

A little hard-up on provisions, I ended up eating the burrito for breakfast the next day. Granted, by "hard-up" I mean hard up in the first world kind of way, which means I relax my ethics and eat steak burritos. Because it was so difficult to excavate the entree from beneath the strata of sour cream, cheese, refried beans, sour cream and cheese, I actually thought I was eating the tamale when I was eating the burrito. You can imagine my surprise when I popped open the to-go container at the airport only to find the tamale, still intact.

Me: Oh, I think this is the tamale.
Seth: Can't you tell?
Me: No.
Seth: Didn't the burrito have chicken in it?
Me: I don't know.
Seth: Didn't you eat it?
Me: Yes.
Seth: Does that have chicken in it?
Me: (looking at it) I don't know.
Seth: If only we still had the menu.

There's a lot of talk about knowing where your food comes from these days. I think that especially rings true when you can't tell even tell what your food is.

As long as I'm eating meals on my lap in airports or airplanes, I would have much preferred another cucumber and cheddar sandwich like the one I ate at the gate while waiting for our departing flight.



Its only drawback was that I was able to make it, which means security didn't get catch the six inch kitchen knife I forgot to take out of my backpack.