T's Diner Style – Provo UT
Posted: March 24, 2011 Filed under: James and the Giant Peach 2 CommentsOn an especially hectic night, both Roni and I couldn’t muster the energy to cook a meal at home. We were thinking of places that we could try and T’s Diner came to mind, as it was near the house and had recently opened. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from a place that bills itself as “American and Authentic Colorado-Mexican” cuisine. Having tried both sides of the border on the menu I was left with mixed feelings.
On the one had, our first visit led to us discovering the best burgers in Provo. No joke! I had the guacamole bacon burger and the meat was well-seasoned and perfectly juicy. The guacamole tasted fresh and it was the best that I have had in a while. Roni’s burger was also well seasoned and expertly prepared. The fries were also quite good, but don’t expect crisp perfection here. These fries were a bit soggy, but were good enough that both Roni and I loved them. The restaurant itself is simply decorated, and seems to dance the line between casual diner and fast food. Perhaps that is the reason that it is merely “diner style” instead of a “diner.”
On the other hand, our shakes were a disaster. I had a caramel shake and Roni had a chocolate shake. These shakes were so watery that they were scarcely able to be called shakes; it was more like flavored milk. Based on the burgers, we ended up going back to try the Mexican side of the menu; we were quite disappointed. Roni ordered a carne asada burrito. While the flavors were nice and the food tasted quite good, she could barely get through a bite without a rather large piece of gristle. I can understand a piece here or there, but almost a full quarter of the burrito was inedible connective tissues (FYI: “inedible connective tissues” is rarely a good thing). This speaks to laziness in preparing the meat and poor quality control in the kitchen. In my dish, I ordered a green chili sauce to go over my burrito, but red sauce was put on. Otherwise, there just wasn’t anything special about the burrito; it was immensely mediocre.
Our service also left much to be desired. We sat at our table for several minutes after we were ready to order without anybody coming to the table to check up on us. There was only one other table seated, so I doubt we were lost in the crowd. Also, the server never came back to check up on how our meal was doing. If she had, we would have told her the issues we had with our food (Roni with the gristle, and me with the wrong sauce on the burrito) and moved on with the dinner as happy customers. However, the most unnerving thing was that when the waitress brought the receipt for me to sign she just waited there and STARED at us while we filled out the tip amount. Not just in a friendly “let me get that for you” kind of way, but in an awkward “I want to see the how much of a tip you leave AS YOU WRITE IT” sort of way. Furthermore, she wouldn’t give back the credit card until we had filled out the tip amount. It. Was. Weird. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in a restaurant setting before.
With that being said, I really cannot say enough good things about T’s burgers. If you want a the perfect diner-style burger, then this is the place for you. However, I suggest that you get you steer clear of the Mexican menu and that you get your order to go.
Category: Fast Food
Food Quality: 3.5
Portion Size: 4
Speed: 4
Flavor: 4
Overall: 3.5
Price: $2-$8
tl;dr- Great burgers, mediocre Mexican.
T’s Diner Style
520 N 900 E St
Provo, UT 84606
Law School – Good Choice or Bad Choice?
Posted: March 4, 2011 Filed under: Law School Leave a commentIt seems like recently there have been a lot of articles criticizing law schools. To be fair, the articles do bring up some valid points– for example, the high cost of attendance, the inflated employment rates, and the depressed legal market. But if law school has taught me anything, it is to examine arguments critically.
Law school is expensive. Taking information from the US News and World Report, the average cost of attending a top 25 school is approximately $40,000-$50,000 a year. And that is for tuition alone. When you factor in that many of these schools are in large cities with high cost of living, and it is not uncommon for students to take out $60,000-$80,000 in loans in one year. Even schools which are relatively unknown are not shy about charging $30,000 (or more) a year in tuition. Much has been made of the fact that many law students graduate with over $100,000 in loans that do not go away, even with bankruptcy. In fact, over the past 25 years, law school tuition has increased at twice the rate of cost of living.
But is this any different than the inflation of cost for undergraduate courses? Higher education in general is becoming more and more expensive. The average cost of college tuition went up nearly three times as fast as the cost of living in the period from 1978-2008. I believe this is due to the increased availability of loans to students and the government backing of those loans. I will say this as plainly as possible: there are too many law schools out there. The current system allows for schools to charge whatever tuition they want. The schools walk away with cash in hand, and lenders are stuck with grads who can’t find jobs in a saturated market.
Many law schools add to the problem by intentionally inflating their statistics. This makes the law market market seem more active than it really is. Some of the third and fourth tier schools still manage to report 99.9% total employment after graduation. So why shouldn’t students want to go those schools? You have to keep in mind that many of these schools count ANY employment as “being employed.” Working at a top 100 international law firm making $180,000 a year? Flipping burgers making minimum wage? Employed. Relatively few students, even at large prestigious schools, end up making over $100k a year. I have even heard of schools hiring grads to work in the copy room of the law school so that the school can count them as “employed.”
The legal market is depressed. But so is practically every other market in the US right now. The American Bar Association has even issued a “warning” encouraging students to think twice about law school. It reported that while grads entering big firms were previously making an average of $160,000 by 2009, the average salary for a grad was down to $65,000. But look carefully at the report, because they are comparing vastly different jobs. Large firm salaries have always been disproportionate to the average starting salary of all law school graduates. Large firms may not be paying $160,000 any more, but they still paying over $100,000 for a starting salary. As I have said before, this is like holding a lime next to a pomelo and shouting, “LOOK AT HOW SMALL CITRUS HAS GOTTEN!!!!”
So what should a conscientious, intelligent individual who is contemplating law school do? Think about it. Make sure this is something that you are interested in. Law school is an arduous adventure, but I got into it knowing this. I have enjoyed my law school experience, and came into it with no delusions about the profession I chose. Be sure to weigh all of the factors that are important to you. For me, that meant looking at the cost of attendance, and making sure that the school had an honest and complete record of employment. Note how the BYU career report lets you know how many students got into degrees that are “non-professional” (that means burger-flipping jobs, folks). Law school can lead to a rewarding career in a number of fields. Like with many of important life-decisions, the decision to enter law school should be carefully and thoughtfully considered.
@12 Chinese Cuisine – Provo
Posted: March 3, 2011 Filed under: James and the Giant Peach Leave a commentIt was a bright and sunny day, and Roni desperately needed to work on a paper for class; the Bwun would have none of this. I decided to take him out for a drive in hopes that he would fall asleep before things got REALLY bad. I hadn’t had lunch yet, so I figured I would try a local fast food place that is relatively new on the market, @12.
I drive by @12 quite frequently, but had never tried it before. I think ever since Roni and I got some mediocre food at Panda Express, she has been very wary of fast food Chinese. Seeing as Roni was not with me, this seemed like the perfect time to try it out.
The menu was fairly limited in what it offered, but I decided I would get a two entree combo. I had the tangerine chicken, Mongolian beef and chow mein. The tangerine chicken was similar (if not identical) to orange chicken at most Chinese food restaurants. However, the batter on the chicken had become soggy. I am guessing this was due to the fact that it was made far in advance of my order. The Mongolian beef was well-seasoned and the meat was tender, though there was little beef to be seen in the dish. There were, however, lots of undercooked onions in the dish, and little else could be tasted. The chow mein was also disappointing. It was under-seasoned, and slightly over-cooked.
In summary, I wasn’t expecting much but the food still failed to live up to my expectations. You are probably better off getting Chinese food from the deli in your local grocery store.
Category: Fast Food
Food Quality: 1.5
Portion Size: 3
Speed: 3
Flavor: 1.5
Overall: 2
Price: $2-$8
tl;dr: Skip the fast food and save up for P.F. Chang’s.
@12 Chinese Cuisine
1298 N. State St
Provo, UT 84604
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 