Some Resolutions

Happy... 201g, I guess?

Seeing as it's a new year and all, I thought I'd pause and reflect on how things are going, and how I'd like to improve going forward. Here are some of my food year's resolutions. (Resolution #1: Fewer lazy food puns.)

100 posts. As long as I have time and stay motivated, this seems like a reasonable goal. This averages to just under two a week. That's extremely doable!

More Mexican. To my eternal shame, I really don't know all that much about San Diego's impressive array of Mexican restaurants, especially the hole in the wall spots. I have never been to Lolita's! Nary a single "Berto's"! If I am to protect my world-renowned (er... would you believe "house-renowned"?) reputation, all this must change.

Be frugal. This dovetails nicely with the previous goal. Other oft-cheap cuisine categories like Chinese and ramen will be a big help. Groupon will also be my friend here, as well as the Passport Dining card I got for Christmas. Of course, that's not to say I won't splurge when the situation demands it!

Tell a story. Food descriptions are undoubtedly pretty important. What I've been trying to do, and will continue to try, is to embed them in a narrative. People like food, but they get invested in stories. Even one as simple as a hole-in-the-wall joint exceeding all expectations creates an underdog to root for.

Get meaner. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But I do have a tendency to give restaurants a bit too much benefit of the doubt. I often find myself hoping I've found a new favorite, when of course that will seldom be true. While I haven't done a formal statistical analysis, I strongly suspect that the quality of restaurants would fit a bell curve distribution—that is, most restaurants are average, with a few bad ones and a few great ones on the margins. Sure, even average restaurant food is pretty good, and my research leads me to better places than if I were to choose at random. Still, I'm pledging to tell it like it is when a restaurant doesn't live up to expectations.

...And there we have it. Now I just need to avoid breaking these in the first two weeks like everybody else. Happy 2019!

Introductions

Fun fact: Tajima's carnitas ramen cures all known ailments,
but they've vowed never to make it again. Those monsters.

...Maybe I got ahead of myself. I'm Tim. I write a food blog now. It's about food, in San Diego.

Hmm? That's not enough info? Okay.

I'm a native of San Diego, married in 2017 to my lovely wife Amy. My biggest hobby is trying out new restaurants all over my city. I love Italian (pizza, pasta!), Indian (curry!), Japanese (sushi, yakitori, ramen!), Mexican (tacos!), small plates (try all the things!) and dessert (chocolate, ice cream, donuts!). I can be picky at times, but I'll eat most things if they're done well. I generally try one or two new places a week, usually for a happy hour late lunch, our weekly date night, or Sunday lunch with the family.

When I'm not eating, I'm teaching, tutoring, running, playing tennis, watching good TV, playing video games, or doing something else fun.

As for the blog, I'm tentatively planning to do a combination of quicker restaurant overviews and more in-depth reviews (e.g. my first one, Lola 55), with some other fun stuff sprinkled in. I'm gonna shoot for two posts a week on average. We'll see how it goes!

Other things! I apparently enjoy spreadsheets, because I have one called "What to Eat in San Diego," which you can find in the sidebar. It's got several hundred San Diego restaurants that I've either tried or want to try, and includes a bunch of general information, how much I want to visit (or revisit), and my rating on a 1–10 scale (which I'll also be using on this site).

Speaking of which, I've included my (admittedly vague) grading rubric in the sidebar as well. Generally I care most about the food itself, but service and other aspects do factor in. It's surprisingly hard to maintain a consistent, sensible rating system, but I try. I should also note that scores are by no means set in stone.

Anyway, I hope a few folks get some decent entertainment and/or information from my ramblings. Enjoy!