Christmas - Tenderloins & UFOs

Photo by: Photographer Alexandre Sophie (who is amazing!)

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Shopping has exceeded all my expections.

It was worst than I ever expected.

I've had to explain to Catwoman my irrational fear or sales ladies and merchandisers at retailers in general and perfume counters specifically. Boils down to going to Macy's with a cousin of my mothers when we were young.

She was insistent on getting this sampler.

Man did she want this sampler. And she wanted a lot of them.

Perfume lady refused and it was a test of wills.

I would have done anything to remove myself from that situation.

So much for historical and freudian explanations for irrational fears.

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Flash-forward to a couple of weeks ago, my british brother in law is in the home country.

We all are there for a wonderful family celebration.

We need to eat. Yes, we need to shop.

However, there are actual food merchandiser ladies who push product to customers.

They are nothing like Trader Joe's or Costco sampler where they stay within a restricted periphery to convince you to try their product -- gently typically with a smile and a sampler.

There, there is no samples. It is only a one liner.

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British brother in law walked in supermarket aisle and was stopped abruptly by a Merchandiser.

Merchandiser: "Would you like to try my tenderloins??"

British Brother-in-Law: "How do you know they are tender??"

Of course, this is a recounting of the story and we are beyond ourselves in laughter.

My sister starts to look for this portly or skinny merchandiser

(it's fuzzy now how she looked but we know she is real).

But lemme tell you, we went back to that supermarket several times in search of that merchandiser lady to check out her tenderloins.

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Hey, it's Christmas gimme a break!

Love home. Love the family.

Love the tenderloins but in this last trip I discovered Butcher's steak / Hanger steak as prepared by my Taiwanese brother in law.

Man, that was super super super.

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If you have a butcher, you have to get the uncut hanger steak and google a recipe for yourself ... his involved lots of cilantro, spices and marination time.

If I can only give my brother in law a Michelin star.

It's better than any Capital Grill steak I've ever taste.

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Now why did I post Alexandre Sophie's UFO photos -- ah, it's Christmas. Chill out.

You might have some arguments at the dinner table at Christmas time, keep the food on your plate and avoid sending each other UFOs across the table and follow Golden rule No. 5:

IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE, SHUT UP!