tibetan restaurants and other goings on

First off, Pink Floyd fucking rules. I'm listening to Wish You Were Here right now and you can't really beat that intro and the first words. This guy Tim Nebosny from Huntingdon PA had some terrific insight into those first few words. First he pointed out how full of character they are. They are rich no doubt. Then he notes how you tell Roger Waters must have just finished smoking a cigarette. Good stuff.

Anyway, so Serena and I went to the Snow Lion last night. We were pre-empting her birthday this Monday. Anyway, the Snow Lion is one of only a handful of Tibetan restaurants in the country. When it was founded in 1987 it was only one of two. Well this is interesting. I mean, Bloomington has a rich Tibetan cultural tradition what with the Dalai Lama's bother or nephew or whatever living here. But why aren't there more Tibetan restaurants?

Well, I think it's because real Tibetan food kind of sucks. This is from the menu at Snow Lion:



They pretty much admit as much. I think that's funny. I mean, there were a bunch of Indian curries and Cajun dishes. Weird.

I actually heard a story one time about traditional Tibetan cuisine from a famous climber who had been to Tibet and Nepal several times climbing the big mountains there. Anyway, one of his most memorable experiences was being invited to a sherpa's hut for a traditional dinner. He was very honored. However he said it was not the most enjoyable experience. The hut was poorly ventilated and the cooking/heating fire was just an open fire in the middle of the floor. And they burn exclusively yak dung. Or whatever kind of dung they have there. Anyway, he said it was pungent. And it burnt his eyes really bad. And the embers and ashes were getting into everything. Everything was cooked in a big pot over the fire and all the shit-ash was getting into it. He said the food was not very good and kind of tasted like burnt shit. So this is one reason why there are no traditional Tibetan restaurants I guess. Instead you end up with these weird non-descript fusion recipes. Eh...whatever. Serena's curried beef noodle cabbage concoction was decent.

And now for the other goings on...Jen and Brian and I are going to Encore. Fuck it. I'm going to get some cafeteria style dinner and some Arrogant Bastardi. It will be good.