shiny-Dallas
Dallas was fun. Seeing Robin was great, and hanging out was even greater, and working at the restaurant all day on Monday and half the day on Tuesday wasn't so much great as it was educational and rewarding even (in terms of dumpling payment and spiritually too).

I must report that Kuai, the quick-food dumpling take out place put together by my very awesome brother and his two very awesome business school cadres, was nothing short of phenomenal. As I've told everything whom I've talked to about this, I would have lied to those guys and told them that the dumplings and food was great even if they weren't.

But they were really, really, really great. Plump and tasty and totally filled with quality and fresh ingredients.

So you want to hear about the menu? The dumplings include pork, chicken, and vegetable. They also offer three kinds of soups (hot and sour, egg drop, and won ton). Beyond that, there's also enormous and super fresh Viet garden rolls outfitted with two gargantuan shrimp and delicious, fresh chicken. There's also edamame, seafood salad, and ginger salad. Oh, and they sell boxes of Pocky, those little chocolate-dipped skinny cookie fingers that you see in Asian grocery store (unfortunately, Kuai does not offer Men's Pocky....yet.)

And nothing is fried, so it's super healthy. And cheap. A five-pack of dumplings is less than four bucks. You can get soup and a five-pack which will fill you up and under $6. I wish that they opened their first store near me (like, next door).

Oh, and the wonton soup? The guys make those wontons fresh too. I was thinking that they just bought frozen wontons, but they were just as freshly made as the dumplings. AND they have containers of fried shallots and another of chopped green onions for you to top your soups with.

So the dudes took advantage of my presence there at Kuai this week and worked me. I chopped an entire crate of tofu for the veggie dumplings. I helped peel half a crate of monstrous fingers of ginger (what a pain in the ass that was). I chopped mushrooms, celery, and onions. I helped pour sauces. I did a lot of industrial dish washing. I swept the floors. I helped lay out dumpling boxes. I took a phone order. I also watched them go through the painstaking process of making these dumplings. It was pretty sexy stuff, but all worth it since I got paid in food.

So, bottom line is that I'm really proud of them. And excited for what the future holds for delicious Kuai dumplings.

Beyond that, the rest of the visit was very laid back. The weather was flawless: sunny and in the 70s. On Sunday, I went to brunch with Robin and others where the restaurant offered bottomless bloody mary-s, bellinis, and mimosas for $3.50. BOTTOMLESS. $3.50. And now I see why there is so much drunk driving in Dallas because these people can drink a hell of a lot. The weather was also perfect enough to allow us to laze by the pool in the late afternoon (btw, weather in Chicago right now? Wind-warnings, overcast, and 30 degrees).

Dallas itself is full of shiny windows on its buildings. There is greenery and a lot of highway. Robin and I did exactly one touristy thing when we went to see the site of JFK's assassination. It took us like 15 minutes total to park, walk over, get a gander, snap a couple of shots, and then drive away. Someone marked the actual assassination spot with a medium-sized "x." I was surprised to see where it was since in all of the footage I pictured the spot being surrounded by buildings and a lot more flat. However, the place essentially appeared to be a highway exit. We had to take a few pictures of me pointing at the spot since cars kept on driving over the thing.

Although it was sad to bid Robin farewell, it's good to be home, to get back to my regular workout schedule, and continue tackling the slow unpacking of my place. The cable and Internet got installed today, and it's positively lovely to catch up on my Bravo shows and type here on my couch. I don't head back to work till Monday, so I have four more days free.