Easy come, easy go...

Yesterday, this blog received it's 1,000th view in under three weeks.  I'm still floored by that, but at the same time very pleased that people seem so interested in the local food scene.  Of course up to this point I've mostly written about street food and that, by necessity, is going to have to change.  First of all, I'm simply running out of cheap, quick places to go.  Secondly, I've been unable to convince my girlfriend that eating on a patio set in a parking lot in front of a taco truck qualifies as dining al fresco.  I've been running to inexpensive places within a fifteen minute drive of my office, and she wants to go to places where you sit down indoors or on a permanent patio with a nice view, take your time, and enjoy your meal.  Can't say I blame her, but those kinds of write-ups will require more time and money, so the posts will probably start coming less frequently as we hit up more of those.

I'm also learning things about my...audience?  The three most accessed posts have been my original Boise Fry Company write-up (in first place by a wide margin), my rant about Taco Time's "street tacos" (apparently Taco Bell is doing this now too, so there is a strong possibility of another diatribe soon), and my review of Chau's Burgers and Sandwiches.  The first one doesn't surprise me as the place is good and is getting a lot of attention, even on a national scale soon.  The second, I don't know whether to be horrified or amused.  Perhaps people were as flabbergasted by the idea of Taco Time trying to serve up something resembling authentic Mexican street food that they searched for reviews and found mine.  Then again, it could be people thinking it's a wonderful idea and looking for more information.  For all the recent traffic, I get relatively few comments or e-mails, but I'm hoping it's the former.  The last one just plain makes me happy.  When I stumbled across Chau's, I was immediately curious and as soon as I could get to a computer I was searching for information, menu, reviews...all without success.  I decided to go, write up the experience, add them to the Urbanspoon database, and I don't think there's a day that goes by where I don't get at least a handful of hits on that particular write-up.  The place has definite potential and I hope they have the chance to do well, though I can't help but wonder what will happen once the school year starts back up.

Okay, enough about me and my silly ramblings.  There's some things to be aware of in local food news...

The Melting Pot in downtown Boise will be closing its doors for the foreseeable future on August 15th.  In their own words:

The Melting Pot of Boise will no longer be open for business as of Monday, Aug. 16. We welcome you to experience fondue at this Melting Pot location one last time. We sincerely appreciate the patronage from our guests over the past six years.

 Boise will become an open market, and we hope to re-open either at this existing location or in another site in this market at some point in the future.


You can reach the Salt Lake City location, our closest Melting Pot, at 340 South Main St., Salt Lake City, UT 84101, 801-521-6358.


Please visit meltingpot.com/locations for location information.

So another of the higher-end restaurants is going away.  I've never been there, but it's the girlfriend's favorite so we already have reservations for the last hurrah weekend.  On a more positive note, the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant's new branch in Meridian opened for business on Sunday.  It's located on Eagle Road just south of Fairview in Meridian.  So far it's been packed, and it looks like it's going to be a while before I get to try it so if anyone reading this gets the chance to sample their wares, let me know how it is eh?  Pho Tam, which is on Orchard just north of Emerald in Boise is also open for business now, and since they're a little Asian noodle shop within a quick drive of my office, you can probably expect a write-up on them in fairly short order.

Other than that, you can expect the plethora of posts about street food to dry up a little in the next few weeks as I'm reserving funds for this weekend's Boise Soul Food Extravaganza (check the menu here), the aforementioned Melting Pot excursion next weekend, the Western Idaho Fair the weekend after that (who doesn't love fair food?), and likely the last weekend of the month will be a belated birthday dinner for yours truly at Tucano's Brazilian Grill to enjoy many courses of meat on a stick.  I will, of course, try to get pictures of all of this to accompany forthcoming write-ups, once some of the blood returns from aiding my digestive system and starts fuelling my brain again.