Schtick Restaurants -- was, Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Pho

[Stefan li Rous]

Duriel replied to me with:
 >>>
Yep, it's in far North Scottsdale (which has a shape not unlike
Chile).  That long road you were on is Scottsdale Rd, with the
restaurant North of Pinnacle Peak Rd (where you'd logically expect it
to be).  You actually never went through multiple cities...it was all
Scottsdale once you left Tempe.
<<<

Yep, that sounds right. After I wrote that I remembered that the  
multiple cities but one road memory was actually from San Jose and  
that string of suburbs. But then the suburbs north of Dallas are  
getting that way as well.

 >>>
    There really are bridges in Phoenix...a couple of them washed out
a few years ago in Spring floods, including one in Tempe (Mill Ave
bridge).
<<<

Yes, there are actually a few. I remember one or two on the way to  
the Tempe Airport. But of the dozen times I've been to Phoenix, a  
surprising number of them had rain. Unlike a lot of cities, the  
Phoenix area doesn't seem to believe in storm sewers. Even a rain  
that most places would shrug off as a light shower, means the roads  
fill up with wide, often surprisingly deep streams of water. And  
you'll have this nice grid of streets and the one you are driving on  
will suddenly end because of a shallow ditch.

 >>>
    And there are curved roads, but Phoenix is in a broad, flat valley
(ancient sea bed) with very few hills, so a grid of roads a civil
engineer would love makes sense.
 >>>

Ah, that makes sense. Yes, rather flat except for these hills which  
rise out of the flat terrain like pimples. No range of little hills,  
just flat and then these solitary hills sticking up here and there.

 >>>
    Throughout all of Arizona and California, there are very few old
buildings of any sort as there just wasn't much of a construction-
focused population before the 20th century.
<<<

Yes, you see that here as well. Often a building or street of them is  
declared historic, but they were built in 1910 or some such.

It's kind of a give-a-way though, when this old looking building with  
the weathered outside and filled with old rusted farm implements and  
such, is in a strip center or on the service road of an Interstate.  
And then there is the ingredient list on the bottles of the old  
fashioned barbecue sauce on the tables which reads like a chemical  
textbook. (Rudy's BBQ)

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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