Text 31454, 62 rader
Skriven 2012-11-28 22:04:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Sheraton report 631
===========================
Contrast the Sheraton Herndon, which is nowhere in particular,
and when I called for the shuttle, I was put on infinite hold.
Eventually I flagged down a guy from the Hyatt next door.
Check-in took about 30 seconds, but I wasn't given a club
floor room (the club is actually a few tables and a Coke
cooler in the sixth-floor elevator lobby). The rule is that
golds (moi) get to use the club only if they're on the club
floor, but platinums (Lilli) get to use the club any time -
the rule is analogous at the Hilton, where I have top status
and she has second-level, so we of course are the ideal travel
buddies (also, I have top status on Star, she has top status
on OneWorld). Anyway, my corner room on 5 being next to the
stairs, I just went upstairs and stole a Coke from the
so-called club anyway.

No drafts at the bar, but a bottle of Sam is only $5, a
bargain by hotel standards.

Update: I guess I wasn't as racy as I thought I was - as an
experiment I tried my room key in the elevator, and it turns
out it was coded for "club" access, so I didn't end up having
stolen anything.

==

There's a lot of buzz about Blue & White, a soul takeout on the
edge of the crummy neighborhood of Alexandria (yes, Virginia,
there is a crummy neighborhood in Alexandria). As it was on the
way to the subway station, I decided to try it: it's on the
corner of Wythe and Henry, in a truly shacky shack. You can
tell it by the line out the door. The outside says something
like Sandwiches. Anyhow, the word on the street is that the
fried chicken is great, the other meats okay, and the sides
out of a can, so I ordered accordingly.

I got a chicken leg sandwich, $2.25 net, and a pork chop
sandwich, $3.50 net, prices unheard of in the urban east.
The guy asked me if I wanted hot sauce, and I said of
course, and it was maybe a mistake, as it was Texas Pete
or the vinegary and somewhat unspicy equivalent.

The food is exactly as described - the former is a fried
chicken drum and thigh slapped between Wonder-type bread
(did you see that Hostess has filed Chapter 7? I wonder who
is going to take over the manufacture of Wonder bread and
Twinkies), that's it. The chicken is lightly salted, heavily
peppered, extremely juicy, and fried deliciously crisp, but by
the time I got to a bus bench three blocks away to eat, the
bread had molded itself inextricably to the chicken, so I could
get only a few bites of crunchy skin around the edges. The hot
sauce added nothing but a vague salt and vinegar taste.

The pork chop was my supper, and it arguably suffered from
its few hours of neglect. It was a half thickness chop, though
from a big pig - the bone had been sawn exactly down the middle
in some miracle of frugality - and so naturally overcooked. It
was underseasoned and tough, though some untrimmed fat around
the edge almost redeemed it. This time the hot sauce helped,
as the pork was kind of nothing. Maybe I should have gotten
a liver sandwich, $2.60, instead.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 And Still Here. Join Us: www.DocsPl (1:123/140)