Many times I would do the same, however, this spring morning years past in a time when the economy was good; people were spending money they didn’t have and being approved for things they ought to have known they couldn’t afford thereby inching us, unknowingly, ever closer to the current and horrible predicament; I did find myself giving one of the tempting “30k-50k no experience necessary” ads a little more than a once over. I love periodicals, probably due to my never ending searches, and pick them up where ever I can; coffee shops, restaurants, shopping malls, book stores, where ever.

On this day I settled in, with my hot coffee, at one of my favorite cafes in my area, Ryan’s Cafe in Linda Vista of San Diego California, where they carried free copies of the Reader (a common SD periodical which I always found helpful) and where I was never bothered by screaming babies nor annoyed employee.

Being a very skittish sort, I have come to be used to finding job after job after job, ever looking for the ONE. The one that will make me happy and sane, with as little customer contact as possible; because let’s face it, in a perfect world there aren’t any customers, only a paycheck. I daresay I’ve become a regular professional at job hopping…I mean ‘hunting’.

I opened my Reader first to the crossword puzzle page; if there is another joy in my life besides constantly hunting for jobs it’s got to be crossword puzzles; then to the middle portion where they keep all of the coupons for waxing, spas, bars and more, when I glanced downward at a particularly blue and green ocean, with white sandy beaches (or as white as one could get them in a book where the black print-ink rubs off onto everything) and gorgeous palms.

I know, I know. I’m in San Diego. How could I possibly be drawn to this drab-by-comparison rendering when I have this all around me? Trust me when I say not all of San Diego is created the same, but also there is a certain gravitation between the average American and palm tree and clear beaches, you can’t deny, no matter what form they’re in. This wondrous sight has always drawn from it’s viewer a sense of the serene. How many times have you simply looked at the ocean? Or maybe a painting or picture of the ocean, with sunset, palms in the wind and crystal blue waters and not sighed under your breath at the pure contentment of a serene heart (from memory of your last vacation) and the pure regret (from the memory of your present schedule) that you were not on that beach at this moment?

Alright, enough about the ocean. I will just say this, as much good feeling as these images evinced from me, I should have known that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Reading this ad was my first step on the path into a world of business and ethics gone wrong and in many ways I wish I had never laid eyes on it.

To be continued…

Monday-Friday 7:00am-11:00pm
Saturday-Sun 8:30am-11:00pm

Warranted 3 stars out of 5 on Yelp.com

Overall I liked this place. It’s not a chain and so the owner is there all the time and if you have an issue he’ll right the situation. I used to live right up the street and walked down the “hill” to the strip mall which also contained Ballast Point Brewery (I’ll write about that one too), with my laptop. This place provides free wi-fi, which only recently went secured, for customers as well as a friendly pressure free environment. I used to spend all day there with my computer, buying cup after cup of coffee and usually one greek salad (fabulous!), or falafel (also fabulous!), during the time when I was feverishly job searching. Yes, I, Jubar was unemployed for a time.

I was dedicated to finding a position ANYWHERE, so I spent quite a bit of time there and neither the owner nor the staff bothered me about hanging around…of course I spent a good $15-$20 every day to show my appreciation of not being distracted.

They are very close to USD and the trolley station AND they deliver. It is really hard to find any place that will deliver for under $20 purchase, not to mention something other than pizza. Thank god for that! I felt their menu (which consists mostly of sandwiches) covers pretty much every taste and they make their food well. Not to mention they are veghead friendly and will make whatever you want pretty much however you want.

The atmosphere is sort of barren like a cafeteria, however they have repainted in the last few months and added giant tvs table centerpieces and ice cream. It is much more handsome but is still missing something. I know that the owner is going for the nice cozy little Mediterranean cafe look but I’ve told him that those plasmas kind of undermine that idea. There is outside seating for smokers, an assortment of bottled drinks, including healthier substitutes, lemon for tea/soda and french vanilla or real cream. Also, ask for the Ryan’s Card, if you buy 10 meal items over $5 you get one free AND if you are a student you get a discount! I treasure the small stuff

Overall I’d recommend eating or dining here; the only downside being that some of the people who work there are under the table and don’t speak perfect English, so if you aren’t sure that one of them has heard you correctly ask to see the order ticket before they hang it for the cook.

What I would NOT recommend anyone do is work there, the owner tends to be overly abrasive to his employees. I have never worked there, but I know someone who has and I’ve seen him yell at employees before when I was the only one around. I guess he just forgot I was there or something but it made me very uncomfortable. Yes, I know, why would you spend money at a place where the owner is a known prick to his underlings…well, social apathy being what it is now-a-days, I’m sort of used to it. I’ve been yelled at before in the workplace too and while that’s no excuse; no one ever bothered to stick up for me. Besides, I doubt that there are many mom-and-pop places anymore where the employees don’t hate their bosses, so don’t be fooled by how nice the managers are to the customers. They are dragging the poor lowly workhorse backstage to verbally abuse and humiliate them. That’s a different story anyway.

In summation, great food (when they get the order right), good service, quiet atmosphere, $7 will get you lunch, free wi-fi, tv (usually sports), limited seating, veghead friendly, healthier food, no public restrooms, very near a beer brewery, near USD, great breakfast menu, different specialty foods (that you won’t find at EVERY cafe in SD), clean kitchen (oh yes I’ve seen the kitchen) and crappy bossman. Plug your ears and go try something new! 6 out of 10 fabulous tail feathers.

I got this recipe off of the back of a Nestle Semi-Sweet Morsels bag used it yesterday. Sometimes I’m not sure why people waste money on recipe books when they can just grab a box/bag/can of something they enjoy and 8 times out of 10 there is some cool recipe on the back.

“Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips”

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (you can sub unbleached baking flour)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt (meh, salt is bad for you but 1 tsp out of 4 dozen cookies is NOT BAD!)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (or margarine, but I will definitely not touch the subject of butter v. margarine…there is a LOT of controversy. Ask your doctor which YOU should be eating)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (any grocery store will sell sucralose sugar sub like Splenda, which is measured the same, though I find it is sometimes sweeter than sugar if you are worried about the effects of artificial sweetener

www.splenda.com has some excellent non-sugar recipes though and really you can use the sweetener of your choice.

Happy Baking!!

I have just endured three days of the most horrible illness. What is it? I have no idea. No medical insurance. What do people like me (people with a job, who pay taxes, keep their noses clean and have amassed a crazy amount of debt due to the state of thing), do when we fall ill? There are but two options. One, we can hunker down in our homes bundle up, call work (even though we can’t really afford a sick day), and pray for our health to return; or we go to the hospital and hope they will see us and if they do, pray they will prescribe enough meds to get us through whatever it is, because you can be damn sure that the doctor they refer you to will not even see you if you don’t have insurance. I’m wondering when this “change” is coming. Because the decent, hard-working folk of this country do not deserve to suffer.

I am a single person, and I get sick, break my leg, develop cancer, etc. I am SCREWED. Whereas a person who has kids or is a kid or is old as the hills can get medical help “with no cost to you”. That’s bullshit. I hate those commercials. These people who want power chairs can get them by charging the tax-payer…not only that but they can also get erectile dysfunction meds. So gram and gramps are getting it on while the people who paid for their erection are dying in bed with pneumonia because they don’t want to tack on another 5k onto their “you’ll die before you retire” fund. Not to mention here comes the eviction notice. Ironic, no?

I am tired of paying for other people to live healthier, fuller, happier, lives when I haven’t seen a dentist in 7 years! Where the hell is our health care? And when our generation retires will there be anything left for us in social security? Seems that what we are paying for now is just to cover what the government has already spent and it won’t come close to covering it not for a very long while.

Whatever happened to the “America needs to pull itself up by it’s own bootstraps…” idea. Now it seems everyone (including non-Americans) are just looking for the next hand out.

I will try to get to a few of these this week but I don’t have a car right now so forgive me if it takes a little longer than that.

El Chaparel

Chuy’s

Salsalito’s

Canyon Cafe

Papacita’s

Fire Hut Buffet

Mind you I haven’t the foggiest notion of where I am let alone these places but from what I gather from my clients, these are worth trying for.

If I can find a few decent Mexican food places (honestly I don’t care if they are taco stands!), I may be able to survive a little longer.  Finding vegi food is not as easy as some might think; after more than a decade of meat-less stomach, I react very poorly to anything my body now considers foreign.  So, no, vegetarians and vegans are NOT making it up when they say meat will make them sick.  It WILL.  Not because they are being righteous and trying to be pig-headed, they will literally become physically ill, so no sneaking chicken broth or pig fat into anything, we will know in a matter of hours if not sooner.  Besides which it’s simply rude!

Happy hunting!

This is a recipe I got from the underside of Athenos brand natural (reduced fat), feta cheese and it is fabulous!

“Cranberry, Feta and Toasted Walnut Salad”

1 pkg or 10 oz. mixed greens (spring mix is my favorite)

1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (I used non-sweetened fruit is sweet enough on it’s own)

1 and 1/2 cups ATHENOS Reduced Fat Feta Cheese, crumbled (says this equals 6 oz. but I say the more the merrier and since when is a cup less than 8 oz.?)

1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts (I used candied walnuts instead YUM!)

KRAFT Balsamic Vinagrette Dressing (umm…I don’t like KRAFT but obviously Athenos is affiliated with them somehow.  If you want to really give it a punch use a light raspberry vinegrette; you cut calories but not flavor).

**For the non-vegheads add some cooked chicken strips and you have a great lunch salad**

This is an awsome salad.  It really take about 10 minutes to prepare but the Athenos people say it’s 20.  Just being on the safe side I geuss.  If you need to be taught how to put salad ingredients together you need more help than I can give you.  There are instructions for toasting walnuts though:

Spread walnuts in single layer on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 5 minutes or until lightly toasted, “stirring” occasionally.

Not really sure what you’re supposed to “stir”; they’re walnuts.  Also, they say it makes 6 servings, which I love because there wasn’t enough for myself!  Feta is one of those things that if you like it you loooove it and it is hard to share. 

Don’t know if this is poaching but I got a picture of it off of kraft’s website so you can see the hottness!

Sweet nectar!

Maybe it was just a bad move on my part, being that I’m a Vegitarian (NOT a Vegan there is a difference), but I wound up in San Antonio Texas; to top it off I moved here in the middle of July of THIS YEAR!  If you don’t know what I’m talking about just search “longest drought and reocrd breaking high temperatures in Texas” at your convenience.

Since arriving, in my pack of gum with 60 people in it, I’ve spent as much time indoors as possible.  I’ve heard they are quite superstitious and I fear that they might hang me for being a vampire.  Also, almost everything worth doing shuts down at about 9:00pm, so I am stuck with dingy bars (where everyone knows you’re from out of town) or restaurants (where the have to be nice to you because you’re paying them).

Because I am desperate and have no friends here, I have been to a fair share of the eateries around the NW and downtown areas with little hope of getting some bang for my buck.  I hate paying five dollars for a grilled cheesse sandiwich, no matter what cheese you put in it, or what garnish you choose it’s still a grilled cheese sandwich!

As a Veghead I find it down right appalling if the only thing on the menu for me to eat is a “garden salad” with stale iceberg and three tomato chips and gobs of ranch and it will cost me seven dollars.  Mind you I am forced to order it now that we are sitting at the table and my boyfriend is excited about the giant slab of cow carcass he’s going to suck down (I often joke with him about his “burned animal flesh” habit), but  for the sake of comfort I’ve ordered this expensive mush pile that I dread shoving down my throat.

My favorite places have veggie options or sometimes an entire vegitarian section.  I do not really care that they use the same grill or if the cutlery has been in contact with meat before.  I’ve worked in resturants before and know there are guideline to keep food pure, I also know that not everyone cares to follow those laws.

Many cultures around the world know the importance  of a well-balanced diet (or maybe that’s all they had and realized if they didn’t want to die of starvation they could survive on potatoes alone) and therefore have created recipes that contain just veggies, rice, grain and legumes.  Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and many more have  dishes that are very palatable, satisfying and (intentionally or not) vegetarian!  I rarely go to steakhouses or seafood restaurants, because I simply don’t want to eat their bland horrible vegetables that have been sitting under a heat lamp or are deep fried within and inch of their lives, or smothered in a thick greasy sauce that you can’t tell what it was to begin with.

People often ask me “so, if you don’t eat meat do eat just like, salads?” or my favorite “how can you live on stuff like that?” I just smile and tell them “I don’t…this is what a Vegitarian eats at a steakhouse.”

I am Jubar (pronounced joo.bar), I buy stuff, I rate stuff and normally I will call the company with my feedback…why?  For a few key reasons; one, I am bored; two, I figure I can get some good use out of my unlimited cell-phone minutes; three, while I’m staring at the bottle/can/box the 800 number mocks me; four, I really wonder how many people actually contact the company; five I wonder whether or not companies care about comments or if it is just a rouse to placate the common consumer.  Hmmm.

If you have a social life, STOP READING…

…if you don’t continue:

I apologize in advance for the useless crap that I will be writing about.  Sorry, can’t be helped but you can call my shrink and yell at him if you like.