The Amazing Graze 2011 Part 2

In part 1, I went over some background info and the rules for "The Graze". Things started heating up pretty quickly. Team 'Q' and Ange went straight for the Blue line along with team  XiangJiao and Trang. John decided to go along with XJ and T while I waited with YY and Peter for the Orange line. By this time Peter and Kim had made out their first stop, item # 3  Spam Musubi. The hint for this one was, "who is the father of Geometry?" Well, it's Euclid. And there happens to be an L&L right on Euclid. I was surprised to see XJ and T jump on the trolley after two stops....it turned out that they didn't read the instructions completely and went to Pho Xpress downtown for the Pho. Unfortunately the rules stated that "all of the places listed have to be on either the Orange line East of 25 & Commercial or South of the Barrio Logan stop on the Blue line." so they had wasted a bit of time. As everyone got off at Euclid, I stayed on....well....because I was getting hungry. The clue for item #5 -Braised Oxtails, Beef Pattie, Jerk was a song by the Nguyen Le Trio called "Encanto". Guess what the next stop was?

While I was waiting for my Oxtails from Caribbean Taste, I decided to send a clue out and took this photo and sent it......

 

About that time, I received a text from Q and Ange, attached was a photo of them eating a fish taco from place #4. The hint for that stop was the song by the GooGoo Dolls.....titled "Iris". It was a hint for the Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos truck. Which happens to be located right across...ready now, the Iris avenue trolley stop.

 
Meanwhile I notice two individuals running up the parking lot...it's Peter and XiangJiao! They are actually racing to Caribbean Taste. They come running in to take a look at the menu and take a photo, without noticing that I'm sitting at one of the tables! Finally XJ sees me and starts laughing and since Peter is blocking her access to the menus she takes a photo of me as "evidence". Crazy, huh?

It seemed like the teams had a good handle on the location based on the various hints...except for #1, the Pho. The clue I sent out was a sample of Hungry Heart and I was getting worried when I started hearing "Spring Street" and "Spring Valley" mentioned. The objective was a fun and stimulating time and I didn't want to be sending out search parties. Most folks knew that #2 - the Sesos, Buche, Suadero Tacos was Tacos el Gordo, even though my hint, a sample of the 1978 hit "Bluer than Blue" (yes, I actually have that song on my iPod...laugh away my friends, I even have Don't Give up on Us Baby, ok!!!) by Michael Johnson was pretty weak.

So I jumped on the trolley, with take-out orders of food from Caribbean taste (I knew folks would be pretty hungry when they finished) and headed down to the Imperial Transit Center to get on the Blue Line. I was a couple of minutes too late for one of the funniest moments of the graze, when all three teams ran into each other at that very stop!

I headed down to Iris avenue then got back on the Blue line North to where the Pho shop I had in mind was located........

 

The song Hungry Heart is by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band! and the place I had in mind was this.....

 

I'm thinking the grazers were pretty thankful they didn't have to eat here!

I then headed back up the line and went to Crab Hut to get us a table. It was 1325, I had estimated a  4 hour "graze". At 1341 I saw Peter run into the door of Crab Hut....I never knew Pete was so competetive! So the team of Peter/YY/Tammy C took the title, and 90 bucks! At 1357 Xianjiang walked into the restaurant......their downfall was hunger. By the time they hit Tacos el Gordo team XJ and T were so hungry they decided to stop and eat! Right at 1401 Q and Ange came strolling in.....and they had skipped two stops, a penalty of two hours. The reason? Well, they decided it would be fun to eat at each stop and after three stops was too full! They paid for the the mega-beer on the right. It's called a "shipwreck" and at Crab Hut you can request any draft beer to be part of your "wreck", so we had 96 ounces of Ballast Point Yellowtail ale. Man were we good or what? All the teams finished right around the estimated time of 1400, great job!

What I found interesting was that every team went for the extra points at the Lemon Grove stop. Though the photos were kinda interesting, like this one of Peter....that little thing that looks like a peanut in back of his giant cabeza is indeed the Lemon Grove lemon! It was a nice little study in human nature....and I think we got to know each other a little better!

In the end it was a fun time for all...with more stories than there is time, to tell. Now the question is....what's next?

I'm not quite sure, but I'm getting a bit of inspiration from this rendition (of a part of) one of my favorite Jeff Beck songs done by Lee Ritenour and Mike Stern:

Did you guess right? Thanks for coming along!

Comments

[caninecologne]

hi kirk,
i liked how you used song titles as "clues". very cool indeed! what a fun and innovative way to do a food crawl!

[kat]

wow that was some beer at the end! exciting stuff!

[The Food Detective]

Peanut and the giant cabeza=picture of the year.

[Kirk]

Hi CC - The funny thing is, with the generation gap and all, many of the folks particpating had never heard some of the songs before!

Hi Kat - It's called a Shipwreck...96 ounces. The great thing is, you can order anything on tap, even local brews. Plus there were nine of us, so it wasn't too bad!

Hi TFD - It sure is a nominee.....

[caninecologne]

hi kirk - hungry heart is one of my fave springsteen songs! good choice!

[Kirk]

Hey CC - Thanks! I like that song a lot as well.

[Ange]

That was really a fun day. Q and I totally lost time eating, but it was worth it.

That picture of Peter is hilarious! His yoga classes must have helped his speed, ha ha.

[Kirk]

Hi Ange - Actually, I thought that was pretty cool....you were having a good time! And the is the main thing.