YUM!! All I gotta say is go to El Nuevo Frutilandia out in the Mission and get the mofongos with the pork and garlic sauce. It's basically fried plaintain that's trying to be a potatoe salad but warm (for lack of a better description), but also has pork and instead of mayonnaise as an added "liquid" to prevents complete dryness, it's drenched in a light, but flavorful garlic and herb sauce.
3077 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
It's a Cuban and Puerto Rican joint on 24th in between Folsom and Treat. Catch the BART and get off at 24th Street. You'll be glad you did that instead of doing the usual San-Francisco-circle-around-the-block-for-an-average-of-15-minutes-until-someone-leaves-their-space thing.
oh mah goodness....mofongos.
I had dinner there tonight with a friend from outta town and it was definitely a place I'd go back to. Everything tasted like someone's abuela was in the back cookin' just for you. Their chicken soup was rockin' like a rock star, too. and so was the ropas viejas. Juuuuicy and mmm, mmm, good!
Thanks to Geri (and Chris?) for suggesting it. They haven't been there either, but it was a good risk to take. yay!
The other night, I was having dinner with my parents. It's 7:30p and the phone rings.
Ring ring....ring ring...
Dad: Hello?
[Mom and I lower the volume of our conversation, but continue on just the same..]
Dad: Who's calling?
[Me and mom still talking....]
Dad: This is he. What do you need?
[Mom still talking...]
Dad: No, no. I don't want to refinance. [slightly raising his voice] What? Why do you need to know who my bank is? I said I don't want to refinance.
[now mom and I start giggling, trying to see how Dad's gonna get outta this one.]
Dad: Sir, I said no. I don't want to refinance. Good night. What? Huh? No. No. What? No. I said no!
click.
Dad will humor them for maybe 30 seconds *if* they're lucky, but that's about it. Mom, on the other hand, likes to have a little bit more fun with them...you know, keep talking like she's interested or gonna buy something, and then sike! She figures that she's "letting them down easy" using that method whereas Dad's just straight up no-nonsense "No!".
My advice to my parents was that if a telemarketer calls, they're better off using Dad's method. It saves everyone time, plus is probably a courtesy to the telemarketer so they can move on to the next call that might increase the 1 in a 1,000 odds that the next call will sincerely "bite". Within a matter of seconds, I immediately flashed back to my first college job as a telemarketer for a financial planning company down in Orange County (SoCal) who, for the sake of anonymity, we'll call "Whoa is Me Financial Planning".
I'm 19 years old and frantically looking for a job that isn't retail, is close to home, and pays more than $3.75/hr (minimum wage back then). My friend, Kiki, sees an ad in the school circular that says, "pays up to $15/hr." $15??!? To talk on the phone? Sign me up!
A phone call and interview later, we find ourselves sitting in a small office each in neighboring three-walled cubes at 5:50pm on a Monday night with nothing but a phone, highlighted phone book, and a stack of empty lead sheets. I got my headset on my head, my handy dandy script with my intro and list of responses for any possible kind of negative reaction and I'm ready to go! I've rehearsed the script, got my pencil on the empty lead sheet, finger on the number and am dialing my first *ever* telemarketing call. Oh yeah, bring it on. Just 3 short hours and I'll be rollin' in my $45 paycheck for the night. Eaaasy money, baby. Easy money.
Ring ring...ring ring...
[a lady's voice answers pleasantly]: Hello?
Me: Oh, hi. Is Mary* home? [in my pretend-like-you're-calling-your-old-buddy voice]
Mary*: Yes, this is Mary [in a happy-and-ready-to-be-surprised voice as if she just got a call from her old buddy]
*Names have been changed---as if I'd remember what the real name was anyway.
Me: Hi, this is Sheila from Whoa is Me Financial Planning, and...
Not even 3 seconds in my opening line and Sybil busts into full force:
Mary [EXTREMELY pissed off]: What?!? Who the h*ll is this?!? How did you get my number? Who the h*ll gave you my number? You know I can sue you for calling me? Don't you know it's dinner time??!? Don't you have a conscience?!? How can you have the audacity to sit there calling and disturbing people during dinner time??!? Don't you have a life?!? Take my phone number OFF your list IMMEDIATELY before I call the Better Business Bureau on you. I know my rights! I can send you AND your boss to jail for this.
Me: [freakin' the frick out cuz I'm believeing everything she's saying] uh...uh....[scrambling through my script of quick comeback responses to negative reactions. "No thanks", "Not interested at this time", "I'm already investing." Dangit! Where's the "Crazy Lady Who Wants to Bite My Head Off And Put Me In Jail" response?!?] uh...uh....I apologize for disturbing you, ma'am. uh...uh...
Mary: well? What do you have to say for yourself?
Me: [click.]
oh. my. gawd. I'm going to jail. I'm only 19 and I'm going to jail for calling some lady during dinner time. What kind of illegal operation is this?!? But wait, she couldn't possibly remember the company's or my name. I didn't give her my number. Why am I shaking? Huh, what? Calm down...calm down...it's just a phone call.
...but then, my phone rings. I pick it up...and guess who decided to try her phone's brand new *69 (call-back) function? Yup, Mary.
crap!
Mary: Who in the world do you think you are calling ME during dinner time and then hanging up?!? How rude!!! I'm going to call your company tomorrow and report you! CLICK!
She did it, too, and chewed the managing principal out while she was at it. My first ever telemarketing call and it's some woman who wants to send me to jail. All I could think about was, "Damn. I'm gonna get fired, go to jail *and* I have 3 more hours of this?!? crap."
But in retro, I'm oddly glad I did it. The benefits were just realized later in life. See, when she called to chew out my boss, he didn't even flinch. In fact, nobody did. That's what sales was all about---making those calls, keeping up the motivation, getting those leads and believing you can do it. It actually built character. It toughened my skin to rejection and taught me how to be persistent without ever losing sight of the goal. I know I sound like one of those motivational posters with the eagle soaring high above the plains with the blurb about Teamwork at the bottom, but it's true.
That night, I only made $24.75. Turns out that they pay on a sliding scale: 0-10 qualifying leads pays $8.25/hr (still higher than min. wage), 10-15 qualifying leads pays $12/hr. and 16+ pays $15/hr. I stuck with the job for quite a few months after and on occassion did get the $15/hr (and two job offers over the phone from the occasional entrepreneur looking for tele-sales people for his startup). In the end, it wasn't such a bad job after all.
Would I do it again? Heck no.
Move over Glaceau Green Tea Vitamin water. Make way for: Veggie & Flaxseed Tortilla chips from Trader Joe's.
oh. my. gawd. Is it odd to blog about tortilla chips? Oh well, I'm gonna anyway.
At first glance, they look all granola and *too* healthy, with it's green, red and orange triangles speckled with barely crushed flaxseeds and grains peeking out at you from inside the red-trimmed bag. They look dry and bland and almost make you wonder if it's some corporate TJ marketing person's sneaky way of making you feel like you have to buy salsa or some other saucy dip to get you through one bite. Added to that, having a bag of flaxseed anything would run you the risk of looking like a poser, hippy-type (as if it wasn't too late). In my case, it'd be worse because I look like one that was born 15 years too late. See like this:
Me (pushing my cart, with my canvas shopping bags ready to be filled and my patchwork bohemian skirt on that I picked up on Telegraph Ave.; my hair in braided pigtails, strewn with small, white-petal flowers that I picked in the parking lot outside on my way in): [with a hippy/california drawl] "Ummm, like hiiiiiii. Do you know where I can find the Veggie & Flaxseed Tortilla chiiiiips?"
TJ guy: "Uh, yeah. They're two aisles over from the the eggplant hummus. Second shelf on the right, sitting between the Inka Roasted Plantain Chips and the Reduced Carb Soy Flaxseed Tortilla Chips. You know, above the Pirate's Booty?"
Me: "Oh yeah. I guess I must've missed that aisle when I was looking for the soybean butter. And I also noticed that you guys are out of the Organic Brown Basmati Rice . Do you think you might have some in the back?"
TJ guy: "Hmmm, let me check. If we don't, you might want to try the medley. It has a mix of California and Jasmine Brown rice grains. Then again, there's always couscous."
Me (laughingly agreeing): "Oh yes. hahahaha Couscous! How could I forget? [tossing a pigtail to the side]. a-hahaha. Ok, thanks."
TJ guy: "No problem at all [with that always-friendly-and-ready-to-help Trader Joe's smile on his face.] Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with."
Me: "Will do. Oh, and [holding fingers up like a V] Peeeacccee. [as I skip merrily off to pick up Matcha Green Tea muffin mix along the way while reminding myself to pick up some free-range eggs]"
...all of that without blinking an eye about how crazy that sounds.
Ok, so that's a completely exaggerated way of how I shop, but still--you *know* it happens. Crazy Californians.... anyway, what was I saying? ah, yes...tortilla chips.
So, when you finally open the bag, you smell this wonderful scent of not-too-spicy-but-just-spicy-enough flavor of garlic that you immediately grab for one and boy, let me tell you--once you bite into one, it's over. You can't stop! The texture is perfectly firm that if you did want to dip it into something (which you wouldn't have to because the garlic-ness of it all is flavorfully satisfying), you could with confidence that it wouldn't break. Ok, I don't wanna pump up the tortilla goodness too much (too late), but check them out. They're surprisingly good....and they're on TJ's gluten-free food list. (whatever that means). :-)
