If you’ve been keeping up with my blog and are familiar with my eating habits, you know that I hate eating hot liquids. You may be wondering what exactly I would get at a ramen house? Luckily, even restaurants dedicated to serving hot liquids have dry food options.

I occasionally ate eel back when I still lived in Illinois, as my mom would sometimes cook it Korean-style as a side dish. But, since moving to California, I haven’t had eel.

I like having variety in my life, so usually when I go to a restaurant, I’ll order something different every time. Because I didn’t have eel for so long, that was today’s dish of choice.

After having my first lamb experience while traveling in Las Vegas, my friend and I wanted some more lamb, so we sought out a Persian restaurant nearby that offered lamb. The prices were a bit high, but we managed to find an okay deal on a combo dish that included some lamb.

I had never eaten lamb before because it’s not very common in the United States. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2015, the top consumers of lamb were Sudan, Kazakhstan, and Australia, with Algeria trailing close behind. To put it in perspective, Sudan had a 10.5 kilogram per capita consumption of lamb, while Algeria had 7.1 kg. per capita, and the United States has 0.4 kg. per capita.

The lamb at this restaurant was a bit too well-done, especially compared to how much I had liked the rare lamb from the Cleo at SLS Las Vegas. It also contained bones, while the Cleo lamb did not. (In case you can’t tell, the lamb is next to the tomatoes in the photograph.)

I’m actually liking lamb, and will likely try to seek out some raw lamb so I can cook it myself at home to my preferred doneness level at much cheaper prices.

Karen did a pretty long Twitch stream today for her birthday, and we invited a few friends over. This was her sushi platter and mango cake:

I don’t have much time for commentary though, because we’re going on a trip tomorrow – we’ll be headed to Las Vegas for Heroes of the Dorm 2017.

I went to Los Angeles county earlier today with one of my friends to accompany her as she met up with some of her pre- professional gaming era friends. Apparently, they wanted to go to a restaurant called The Boiling Crab. After I arrived, I discovered that it wasn’t actually a real restaurant (at least, not to any decent human’s standards).

I’m not really a huge fan of seafood (unless I prepare it myself), but because I’m pretty open and not very picky with food, I was fine with going to a seafood place. But, considering the way that I got served, I wouldn’t really consider this a restaurant.

You know how generally, at a restaurant (or even at home), you get your food served on a plate? Well, apparently, the Boiling Crab thinks it’s normal to instead just throw your food into a clear grocery bag, squirt some sauce into it, shake it up, and throw it on your table. You might as well call your table your plate, because it seems to serve that dual purpose – the table just has a bunch of wax paper covering it, with no plates provided.

Eating utensils? You don’t get those either. You better be ready to get your hands dirty, unless you want to shove your face straight into grocery bag like the dog that they treat you like.

It’s beyond my comprehension how this is actually a thing, and how they haven’t gone out of business yet due to this repulsive concept.

This careless and reckless environment seems to also be rubbing off on the waiters. Never before have I seen containers of salt and lemon pepper be thrown onto tables from feet away. Want your container to be upright? You’re out of luck, because all of them are going to land upside-down or sideways, getting seasoning everywhere.

But the best part? It’s absurdly expensive. You don’t actually save money as a result of the Boiling Crab saving tons of money by not providing a proper eating environment. Instead, they charge a high price by the pound and end up just dumping a ton of seafood shell and waste on your table. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cost of the actual seafood meat ended up being over US$100/pound, considering how much of what you buy, you just send right back to the restaurant as garbage.

I’m sure you know by this point where I’m never going back to.

(The sauce is Spread from In-N-Out; the potatoes are seasoned with salt, pepper, and basil.)