Food, Fido and Football

The photo is a 2-page spread in the local paper which lists all the eateries in Davis. 146 of them! Jeri didn't believe me, so I confessed that it was really only 145, because #146 (a fish place) hasn't opened yet.

I was so intrigued by this list that I actually made a database out of it so I could break it down by category (and also see how many we've actually visited).

We are a town of about 65,000 people. I would bet that the vast majority are WASPs (though, thankfully, we are seeing more diversity in town in the past few years). We obviously like our ethnic cuisine. We have sixteen Chinese restaurants. Since I like Chinese food, I have eaten in several of them (though there were some on the list I had never heard of) and thought all of them were quite good.

In contrast, there are six Mexican restaurants and I wouldn't give rave reviews to most of them (admittedly I have not eaten in one or two of them). There are also two locations for Dos Coyotes, which is Southwest/Mexican.

We have 11 fast food joints. McDonald's and Taco Bell each have one "real" establishment and one "lite" place, offering only a partial menu.

There are six Japanese restaurants and an additional four sushi restaurants.

Other ethnic restaurants include four Thai restaurants, three Vietnamese, one Afghani, one Czech, one Filipino, one English, one Korean, one French, one Greek, one German, one Indian, four Italian, one "Middle Eastern," one "Mediterranean," and one "International." Fourteen restaurants are listed as "American."

We have ten pizza parlors, five ice creameries, nine delis, and nine coffee houses (including 3 Starbucks and 2 Peets).

There are also sandwich bars, wine bars, and a couple of bakeries. Subway and Quizno's each have two locations. The list does not include the delis which are located inside supermarkets, except for the Davis Food Co-op. Nugget Market has a quite good one and I'm surprised it was omitted.

I checked off the restaurants that I have eaten in over the past 30 years and it is something like 58 of them, many of which are the fast food or coffee house restaurants. I obviously have a lot of exploring to do in my home town. I wonder if I can talk Walt into going out to dinner.....

Sheila and her "mini-me"!

No, Mabel didn't leave on Saturday, BTW. She's still here and doesn't seem terribly upset about it.

I have to admit that I'm not sad about it either. I didn't have a clue what had happened at placement on Saturday. I was supposed to pick her up at 4 p.m. and Walt pointed out to me that it was 3:58. At the time it was in the last 5 minutes of the UC Berkeley-Oregon State game that we had been glued to. Cal was leading by one touchdown. As I pulled up to Petco, Oregon had the ball on the 1 yard line with 50 seconds to go. I didn't even turn off the motor, but leaped out of the car, grabbed Mabel and yelled to someone that I'd talk with Ashley later. I got back in the car just in time to hear the controversial touchback that ultimately won Cal the game (and the #4 spot in the country).

So Mabel came "home" again and was one tired little puppy. She ate and slept most of the night, and again last night went to sleep in my hair (though she was gone by the time I woke up at 6).

She's now become quite adept at untying Walt's shoelaces.


Ashley says there were no takers on Saturday, and there will be no placement this week, so she may be here another two weeks. Ashley also says she might want me to bring her to Petco to meet a potential owner, so... who knows...?