I finally joined Yelp.com!
Yeah, took me awhile, but I’ve finally found my sweet spot. A group of egotistic, self-appointed critiques hobnobbing together to share honest, scathing reviews that will make any restaurateur quake in his/her shoes? Ooh yeah. I totally belong.
You know, this is something about human nature. We love to bitch. We love to gossip. And we love to share our experiences, both good and bad. And sometimes, there is nothing more powerful than the word of the common mouth. Take those companies hounding bloggers to review their products, for example. Now, how smart are they? They recognize that a stamp of approval from a group of average citizens can hold enormous clout, perhaps greater than a “professional” reviewer, who would tend to be less enthusiastic and personable. I, too, would much readily trust the opinion of a fellow blogger rather than glossy advertisements.
But at the same time, sometimes the words of the average citizen can be misleading. Because when you take away the professional objectivity and the legal restrictions, you’re left with raw human emotions and personal preferences…which might not always be right.
I’m sure some of you have experienced the negative effects of the human word first-hand. Ever been caught in the bull’s eye of a gossip scandal? Ack, not fun. Or perhaps you’ve done some talking behind somebody’s back yourself, too. Well, so have every human being on earth.
So one of my 2010 prayer topics is to be more prudent— to speak not out of rash temper, but to slow down and think for a few more seconds before speaking. That ties in with another more critical prayer topic of mine: to pray more.
I’ll admit it out loud: I’m a Christian (a pastor’s daughter no less) and I still struggle with praying. In fact, sometimes I just plain don’t like to pray. Perhaps some of you non-Christians might find it hard to understand, but prayer is integral in a Christian life. It’s an essential way to stay in touch with God, to communicate with Him and to preserve our relationship with Him. And personally, I’ve found that a day without prayer is just…so…human.
Human, as in: I think without the wisdom of God. I speak without the guidance of God. I act without the power of God. Everything, I do by my own selfish motivations and natural instincts…which isn’t good, since I am by nature a brash, vicious individual.
That’s why I’ve realized once again how desperately I need to recover my prayer life. Any Christians out there who would like to join me? I’m compiling a prayer list of all the people I want to pray for, and tee hee, a great number of you are on there. But in case I’ve missed you out, please send me an email so I can include you in with your specific prayer topic.
Anyway, back to the topic of Yelp. Once again, I was deceived. I believed what those reviewers said, and ended up with a rather disappointing experience. I’m talking about my trip to The French Crepe Company in the Los Angeles Farmers Market with Kathryn.
After watching Julie & Julia (three times), I’ve been craving French food. Specifically, boeuf bourguignon and French Onion soup. Oh, and butter, because as Julie Powell said, “Butter makes everything better.” Well, I’ve got tons of butter at home. Boeuf bourguignon is hell expensive. French Onion soup? Now that’s easy to find, and easy on the wallet, too.
Apparently, The French Crepe Company has good French Onion soup. In fact, people who were disappointed with their crepes still raved about their soup. And Kathryn picked the place as her top choice, so The French Crepe Company it was!
We went on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and as usual, the Farmers Market was packed. But with Kathryn’s super sharp eyes, we scored a seat within 5 minutes. Thanks, girlie!
Look! Evidence that it’s been rated high by our fellow diners: 
It took a while for our order to come, but meanwhile I amused myself by staring at this big-ass jar of Nutella: 
Oh. Em. Gi. Wouldn’t I like to lug this home?
When our order came out, I was immediately disappointed: 
Look at it. It’s TEENY!! And no bread on the side? Those darn yelpers promised me there was a basket of French bread on the side! This tiny appetizer portion of soup cost me over $8, too. I asked the employees where my bread was, and they gave me some attitude. “It’s in there,” they scowled. I scowled back. 
Whatever. At least there was like an inch thick of cheese in there. Seriously. 
Look at that cheeeeeeese!! The cool thing was that they broiled the cheese on top with a blow-torch. I’m not sure that’s the classic way to do it…but I don’t think it’s classic for French food to be served by Filipinos, either. Ah, only in L.A… 
Now, the cheese part I liked. The broth? Not so much. It tasted bland, which was annoying and suspicious because there were quite a lot of caramelized onions in there. So where’s the flavor? 
As the employees said, there was bread in there, but just a small slice. So basically, I had ordered a hunk of cheese with a drizzle of ditch water. Nice. Thankfully I’m a cheese-whore, or it might have been a very unpleasant afternoon for both the employees and me.
Kathryn ordered a plain crepe with strawberries and bananas: 
Dang, it’s pretty. I should have ordered a crepe too. 
Ah, well, it’s my fault for listening to them yelpers. And not ordering crepe in a specialized crepe shop.
Back to Kat and I. After our lunch, we went window-shopping. If there is anyone who might get me interested in shopping, it’s Kat. This girl is quite the Fashionista, and she shares the same interest in stores like Sur La Table. We also hit up Anthropologie. Interesting place that seems to have a fetish for roosters.
By the way, Kathryn is the sweetest girl on earth. She gave me a box of home-baked cookies: 
A very, very late Christmas gift, but she made sure those cookies were freshly baked! It was such a pleasantly weird feeling to receive baked goods, when usually it’s the other way round. 
My favorite was the red velvet whoopie pie. Ain’t it cute? 
I’ve got you in my prayer list too, Kat! 
And for those of you who would like to join me in my prayer list, let me know!
Question of the day: Do you pray? Or anything like it? Care to share any personal experiences with prayer?
Oh, and ever been caught in a gossip scandal before? Do tell! (Okay, this is gossip itself, haha)
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I think I talk to God randomly on a daily basis more than I actually sit down to pray. I don’t really know why that is.. but obviously we all need a little help in our lives and I think you said it very well in this post about what that help is. We’re all human. None of us are really ever wise- I don’t know why some of us claim that we are. We all need God.
Love that you’re starting a prayer email list! Agh you amaze me. Every single post.
As for the review- doesn’t that piss you off when something is Zagat rated- but fails in comparison to the review or rating? I usually trust Zagat every time too. So glad you joined Yelp! You needed to- you do so many reviews!
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