Living off the Fatta' the Lan

When I was about 19 I had this one boyfriend. One weekend we went to Tijuana, Mexico with a buncha his friends. We drove down in a honda civic filled with way more people than seat belts and got a hotel room on just on the inside of the US border. After getting all gussied up for a night on the town, we left the hotel walked across the border and hopped in a waiting cab to take us to Revolution Avenue.

Almost immediately after getting out of the cab I saw some street vendors selling hot dogs wrapped in bacon. I was so grossed out by them. They smelled yucky, the bacon was grey and the man who was cooking them had dirty hands. I told my boyfriend that there was no way I'd have one of those. He looked at me, smiled and told me I would be singing a different song 10 beers and 3 hours later.

Turns out I did sing a new song. After drinking and dancing all night I was dehydrated, inebriated, and hungry. I got a hot dog wrapped in bacon and boy did I enjoy it. I did not enjoy it about an hour later when my stomach admonished me for putting that greasy late night snack inside me, but boy was it yummy in the moment.

Which brings me to today.

I was looking at a menu this morning. There was a quote from John Steinbeck on the menu. It said "When they become delicious you've had too many." It comes from "The Short Reign of Pippin IV." I have to say right now that I've never read it. If I have completely missed the point of this quote, please keep in mind that I saw it on a menu that has offerings on it called "Candy's Ranch Chicken," "Lennie Small's Soft Polenta" and my favorite, "Living off the Fatta the Lan Molten Chocolate Cake."

My thought is this - Shouldn't the first bite be delicious? Why should delicousness take a while to kick in? Deliciousness should be there from the first bite, shouldn't it? Or was John Steinbeck referring to hot dogs wrapped in bacon, cooked on the side of the road in Tijuana and served to drunk teenagers who are too young to drink in their own country so they drive an hour to another one and drink there? I don't know.