{"id":40723,"date":"2020-05-18T20:36:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T01:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/?p=40723"},"modified":"2020-05-18T20:37:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T01:37:03","slug":"this-is-what-i-got-for-trying-to-support-a-local-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/this-is-what-i-got-for-trying-to-support-a-local-business\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is What I Got for Trying to Support a Local Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Post 55 of 233. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

I walked over to my friend’s house this afternoon to drop off his Amazon package. We stayed well apart, but did take a few minutes to chat. We marvelled that it was exactly two\u00a0months to the day that I got back from vacation!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a taco place that I love that is just around the corner from him. I almost never order from there from home because I have to phone in the orders and, frankly, it\u2019s just less trouble to be able to use an app or to send a text message to another restaurant than to call them. But when I\u2019m around there and it\u2019s meal time, I love to pop in and either eat there or order for takeout. Like most restaurants, they are currently open for take out or delivery.<\/p>\n

They admitted to struggling and to having \u00a0to really reduce the menu to avoid waste, but they said they were still doing brisk business on what I wanted anyway, which was just an order of four tacos al pastor.<\/p>\n

I should\u2019ve known something was off by how heavy my bag was when they gave me the order, but I figured that maybe they were extra generous with the salsas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They were. And they gave me two free tacos. And they gave me double tortillas and extra meat on the others. So I basically got 12 tacos for the price of 4. \ud83d\ude33 Yay for leftovers! I can\u2019t get over how many restaurants are sending me a little extras every time I order. Usually, it\u2019s just a little scoop of guacamole with a few chips or some\u00a0grilled onions \u2014 something I sometimes order as a side but didn\u2019t that time. And sometimes, like tonight and in the case of my last order from my favourite sushi restaurant, it’s a a really generous gift that turns a meal into two, like extra tacos or a double portion of chicken fried rice! My favourite lunch place is also being sneakily generous, like sending me white meat instead of brown. It\u2019s really good business because it makes me feel appreciated as a customer, which extra makes me want to order again.<\/p>\n

The taco al pastor is by far my favourite fast food here. It is surprisingly nutritious, and while every place is sort of technically the same, a slight variance in the spices in the meat and in the sauces, plus the type of tortilla they use, can make a different experience from restaurant to restaurant. These folks have a spicy chipotle sauce that others don\u2019t. Another one that I really like has a tree chile sauce that I have never seen anywhere else. My neighbourhood taquer\u00eda up the street has the best garlic sauce of anybody in the city, I think. So I\u2019m not really loyal to anyone particular taco place, but I have a reason for ordering from one restaurant over another on a given night. It really depends on what sauce I\u2019m in the mood for!<\/p>\n

I was really amused recently when the taquer\u00eda up the street sent me a note with my order saying that the chef was bored and experimenting with salsas and what did I think of their new tamarind and habanero sauce? The lady who has the Chinese restaurant around the corner uses me for similar experiments \u2013 she figures that if the foreigner can handle the heat, the locals will also. I remain really surprised by how many locals do not eat spicy food. I still generally do not enjoy the feeling of the spicy foods, but I really appreciate that I can taste the flavour behind the heat now. So I said to keep the tamarind sauce on the menu! \ud83e\udd75\ud83d\ude0b<\/p>\n

So two months of lockdown locked down… Time marches on. I am so busy I don\u2019t even see the days go by. I feel really bad for my extroverted friends who are struggling and finding the days are very long…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Post 55 of 233. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!) I walked over to my friend’s house this afternoon to drop off his Amazon package. We stayed well apart, but did take a few minutes to chat. We marvelled that it was exactly two\u00a0months to the day that I got back from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[895],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-merida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40723"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40729,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40723\/revisions\/40729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}