chicken strips
1. recently, i was at stockbridge pub (west siiiiide!) with tommo and kankakee. i came from the pew campus after the goodbye party for jcp's retiring director. a few things were notable about that event:
you can make a meal from appetizers, but you have to make an embarassing number of trips to the cheese platter in order to do so.
there is a professional equivalent to a kiddie table.
after devoting the best years of your life to meaningful philanthropic labour, you can expect a small yet attractive mantlepiece clock.
i get lost on the way to stockbridge because i've had too much wine, followed by too much gin and juice at the monkey bar courtesy of spna faculty. and i don't know the west side. (spna loves boozing and bobbing.)
i stop to get cigarettes at the gas station next door. they sell glassware of the blown (the fuck out) variety. i get into the pub and order a gin and grapefuit.
the waitress was not memorable.
tommo's friend k is there. she's stylish with ginormous blackdark eyes. her face wears an expession of holokaust sadness, la infinita tristeza. if i didn't know how shitty she got treated i'd say this whole sad face thing was an elaborate hoax to make her smile all the more engaging.
the waitress comes back with my drink and i ask if the chicken (read "kitchen") is closed. it's still open and i order chicken strips with a side of fries. (tommo is like my mother. he says he doesn't want anything then when the food arrives he sneaks fries. really, i can't blame him the smell of fried food is intoxicating.)
the strips are rather flat, possibly created from particle chicken. they're allright but they don't have quite enough crunch. not $7 worth of crunch for damn sure.
2. every time i go to meijer (which, since i moved in by myself, is like every two days) i reward myself with chicken strips from the deli. chicken strips:meijer :: godiva truffles:mall (watch out for that post, ladies.
the best meijer for chicken strips is cascade, hands down. i got some real wonky ones the other day at knapp and, well, i just don't trust anything coming from that shabby-ass deli at kalamazoo meijer. cascade also carries my moisturizer (iman for acne-prone skin $9.99), has the best ethnic food section, and is laid out in a coherent way. seriously, even if you prefer knapp don't go there until they finish rearranging. it's madness.
i drove all the way from downtown to cascade meijer after work to pick up an avocado, fake taco meat, and moisturizer before heading over to the vindicator's for gourmet mondays. i told myself such a small trip didn't warrant the strips... but from the produce section i could just glimpse that little case of fried goodness, just shy of deli meats, in between cold salads and organic juices.
the case looks a hundred years old, the glass is amber-coloured, totally slimed with years of grease. there are different industrial trays, like in a lunchroom: bubblebubbletoilandtrouble macaroni and cheese, slimy b-b-q chicken, and steak fries with large rectangular flecks of spice (pepper??) next to a bunch of marshy collards. in the center, spotlighted by the heat lamp are my strips. they're the darkish golden brown of my lover's hair with little black dots (pepper?)
i used to only order two. but, recently, i've been ordering three (roughly $1.56). sometimes they're just so small... i tell myself it would be nice to have one left over to snack on later, particularly in case of hangover.
i always finish all three by the time i get to the fuller exit. i wash them down with meijer brand bottled water ($.50).