"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
07/24/2018 at 15:05 • Filed to: None
2
8|
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
07/24/2018 at 15:05 • Filed to: None | 2
| 8 |
I don’t usually go out to lunch from work, because my office is in Tyson’s Corner, VA. It’s a very busy area where all the big offices have big garages and the big main roads are full of cars. Going out to lunch takes time . But hark! A Chinese place less than a mile away!
There are several warehouse/industrial condo spots on the edges of Tyson’s Corner, in the shadow of many many office towers, condo towers, strip malls, and big box stores. Tyson’s Corner is like the DC area’s version of the northern Chicago suburbs where everything is too big and spread out and supposedly fancy.
Today I was craving some noodles for lunch, and the semi-crappy cafe in my office building complex has noodles, but they’re part of the salad/hot bar and you pay by weight. Some basic ass noodles cost too much! I searched and found this China Express place less than a mile away. 4 stars on Yelp with some negative ones thrown in. Cool.
I called and ordered and they said 15 mins. So I slowly drove in the general direction of the place figuring I’d scout out where it was. But Google Maps had me drive through the industrial block, like among the interconnected parking lots, rather than around the actual roads bordering the industrial lot. Then I had to go almost but not quite back out to the other main road in back, then back in to a different industrial block, where I wandered among several rows of businesses, looking for the place by sight, but I had to look up the number and letter of the place to find it. I did. It is in the back, back, back corner. This is how I should have gone.
I cannot describe the actual path that Google Maps wanted me to attempt through the parking lot but it was long and arduous with many speed bumps.
When I parked my car, it was not raining. After I walked 20 feet towards the door of the place, it started raining. I considered going back to the car to get my umbrella I’ve been using all weekend during torrential downpours, but I kept walking, and there was a 30 something guy and a 50 something lady, maybe his mom, peeling snow peas by hand. Good sign, I suppose. Not to stereotype, but when he answered the phone with an American accent, I was like hmm American accent huh, but all was well!
Got my food, looped back around the normal friggin way with the blue line above, and been eating at my desk. I should have taken an earlier picture I guess? It is above average for Chinese takeout/delivery. Not the best ever, but even the average Chinese takeout/delivery around DC is usually pretty decent. Here is a not particularly artsy pic I took of it after I had eaten too much of it to be able to present it artfully.
The veggie dumplings might have been pre-made, and were a little doughy, but they had tofu and cellophane noodles in them which was good. But they had only a little bit of carrot and cabbage and the best veggie dumplings in Rockville where I live are way better. Still, even a just-ok dumpling is still pretty ok.
These guys are turning out perfectly s erviceable Chinese takeout, and the location isn’t even trying to be seen from the road. Some folks come in for takeout because they’re like, whatever, I’m close, I’m not going to pay that $3 delivery fee. But otherwise, there’s I don’t even know how many offices around here and this place delivers to them all. Why pay for a real storefront when you can get a warehouse space tucked away behind mechanics for way cheaper, and tack on a $3 delivery fee on every order? It’s like Chinese food on demand for the modern economy.
If only my boss hadn’t swooped over to my desk at one point while I was making that screenshot above and made my heart race and harshed my MSG buzz a bit, it could’ve been one of the better lunches at this job, hunched at my desk.
I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
> Textured Soy Protein
07/24/2018 at 15:39 |
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I’m a firm believer in an direct relationship between quality of Chinese carryout and sketchiness of the restaurant location. The best Chinese I’ve ever had was at a place in Cleveland where I was 90% sure I would get shot. We were passed by a high speed pursuit on the way there.
haveacarortwoorthree2
> Textured Soy Protein
07/24/2018 at 15:57 |
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When I was a little kid and we went to visit Great Grandma, we always ate at The Canteen Lunch in Ottumwa, Iowa. It’s now developed a little fame ( making me feel very old) and the youngsters these days call it in The Canteen Lunch in the Alley as it literally is a little building stuck in the alley. They now have fancy stuff like picnic tables . Pre-internet (oh God) , you really had to know where it was to find it. Been there since 1936.
Rico
> Textured Soy Protein
07/24/2018 at 16:27 |
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Pay by pound salad bars are such a scam! I remember trying everything to get more for the money including draining liquids, removing bones, using the plastic tray rather than the cardboard one.
I’ll never forget how I discovered I could get two sunny side up eggs, 3 slices of turkey bacon, and a grilled cheese triangle in a plastic container for under $2.50 (which I would assemble at my desk into a bacon egg and cheese) in the pay by the pound spot by my job. The guy at the register looked a combination of confused and mad.
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Textured Soy Protein
> I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
07/24/2018 at 16:28 |
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The particular corner of the DC suburbs where I live is one of the hubs of Chinese restaurants for the area so they’re in generally fine neighborhoods. But my office, it’s not even that this place is sketch, it’s just in a location where they’re not even trying to be seen from the road. They’re doing delivery business to the office buildings all over the place.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Rico
07/24/2018 at 16:31 |
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Every once in a while I go get a salad but then I get pissed because it’s like 10 bucks. All them cucumbers and chickpeas and beets and whatnot are heavy!
Cash Rewards
> Textured Soy Protein
07/24/2018 at 18:21 |
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Have you tried sir sandwich? My friend and I had a debate about its menu, but neither of us have gone.
ThePlasticOne - no diggities expressed nor implied.
> I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
07/24/2018 at 19:09 |
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Less money spent on property, more to spend on ingredients.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Cash Rewards
07/25/2018 at 09:42 |
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Menu looks interesting but the veggie options are all heavy on the dairy so ehh for me.
Most of the time I make my own lunch from a stash of groceries I keep in the break room fridge. If I do venture away from my desk for lunch, it’s usually...
Walking down to the overpriced by-the-pound salad bar in the cafe in my building.
Going to Walmart since we only have Target in Rockville.
Going to Harris Teeter to replenish my supplies of groceries in the break room fridge because they have a decent selection of Tofurky products, if I run out of Tofurky or other sandwich ingredients in between grocery trips .
There’s a Roti and a Chipotle next to each other in a strip mall across Route 7 from my office that technically is walkable, but the few times I’ve gone over there it’s been on the way back to work from some other errand. Usually Walmart.
This is fine though. Keeps me from spending extra money on lunch all the time. I already have an overwhelming amount of options in/around Rockville at night and on the weekend.