[speaker001:] okay Maureen uh could you tell me what type of uh dining out that you like to do
[speaker002:] well we're probably different from you folks down here we're into uh Mexican or Tex-Mex or something like that that tends to be one of my favorites is to go out to uh have some Mexican food we have like um El Chico's and one new place uh that's pretty good is uh Pappasito's so when I go out and I like to splurge on eating I usually like to go out and get some Mexican food and make sure there's a basket of chips keeps being replenished on the table
[speaker001:] is that that's because you're you're natives there and that's what you're used to you you've grown up that way
[speaker002:] no I'm not a native here actually um from Philadelphia originally and lived in uh Ohio for you know a good portion of time going to high school and college there so I've been down here for about eight years but uh I don't know that's just something that I really picked up on I really did like the Mexican food the other thing I like I guess um I don't eat it as often is maybe Italian food we don't have as many places around here to eat Italian food but um
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] I like Italian food
[speaker001:] yeah we've got a place down at Providence that's that's called Federal Hill and it's all the old old Italians and they've got some real nice restaurants down there but what
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] we usually like to do is is go out and and have something that we normally don't have at home
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] like you can have uh naturally we've got a lot of fish up here you know and shellfish and because we live right on the coast
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but that's readily available and we can usually have that at home or we usually throw a steak on our on the grill or something
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] but when we go out to to eat we like to go to a better restaurant I like I like jacket and tie um you know when you go out to dine it's we kind of make a night of it
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] but we try to order something that we don't usually have around the house
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and as far as um Mexican type we've got the only thing up here that we have anywhere close to that is Taco Bell
[speaker002:] that's not too close to the real thing
[speaker001:] yeah that's what I say because I I just last month I spent a week in Dallas
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] yeah that I hate you know and laser seminar that they had I don't know if you've seen the book
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and then some of the local guys down there they they took me out to all of these places you know and it's it's really uh it's unique and I think I don't know if it's psychological or not but I think the beef down there is out out of this world we we just don't get the quality up here like like you have
[speaker002:] where did you go for it did you go like to Hoffbrau Steaks
[speaker001:] no we went to uh uh uh I we stayed at the Park Park Plaza Park Suites
[speaker002:] Park Suite yeah right across the street yeah
[speaker001:] yeah so we ate there one night and then we went to uh Picci's one night and had Italian you know where that is
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] over in um can't really tell you what part of the what part of the town it was in but it was it's supposedly known it was up by one of the colleges anyhow
[speaker002:] uh-huh um
[speaker001:] and that was in the middle of the week and it was it was you had to wait in line to get in
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] like I said it was noted for you know it's food
[speaker002:] and what was the name of it
[speaker001:] Picci's
[speaker002:] um okay
[speaker001:] and then uh oh no let's see I went someplace I can't remember the name of it some other place we went um but we went to one and they serve you I mean the hamburger was a pound of meat and the hamburger I know it was it was a huge loaf of bread I couldn't believe it I thought if this is the size of a hamburger down here I'll order hamburger and then we went to some fast food places that you know during during lunch we went out to some of those and it was good it was um
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] like Mexican food I like the burritos and all that but I don't like the spice the hot I I like it spicy but I don't like it I don't like it hot you know where you your
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] roof of your head's blown off
[speaker002:] last night we went out and people we were with she uh had fajitas and she had this pepper on the plate and maybe she thought it was a sweet pepper but it wasn't and she ate it and I was wondering why her eyes were watering she and she had drank all her iced tea and she
[speaker001:] right and and it doesn't make any difference either if you if you eat some of that stuff and you can drink a gallon and it doesn't seem to put out the fire but and some people like that me it it seems like I don't know how about you do you like the extremely hot
[speaker002:] yeah no no I I can maybe eat some jalapenos but I really don't you know ask for those on there I'm more like into the enchiladas and and stuff like that but no I don't really like it hot um I remember meeting somebody a long time ago before I ever moved to Texas and he put hot sauce on everything he ate I mean Tabasco's and that kind of stuff on everything he ate I think he must've just had a a stomach that was iron or something
[speaker001:] uh yeah yeah that's incredible that and um I'm afraid to take the chance when I go down there to eat a meal like that
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] because once you get it what are you going to do with it if it if it's too hot and I'm not sure if you know if when they cook down there if they automatically just do that they throw a couple of red peppers in it and you know in the the sauce because that's what they're used to
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and up here we're not really well some people are I guess up here I mean they'll eat fire but I'm just not I'm not I don't mind the spices I love garlic and all the rest of that but
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] the hot stuff oh and that's all you mainly do t hen right Italians how about uh Chinese
[speaker002:] well those are my two favorites
[speaker001:] yeah you go out for Chinese at all
[speaker002:] you know uh yeah yeah there's one favorite place that we have called August Moon that's that's pretty good and uh I've got one thing on the menu that I really love but um we don't do that probably as often we used to do a a quick take out kind of place that wasn't real great Chinese but we used to do we just liked vegetable fried rice quite a bit
[speaker001:] oh yeah yeah
[speaker002:] just you know as a quick kind of dinner thing that's you know it's not real filling but you know get some veggies and rice and stuff every once in a while we go out to a little bit nicer Chinese place
[speaker001:] yeah that's what we'll do we'll take some we'll take take out like sometimes on the weekend um like snacks
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know like uh beef teriyaki or or chicken fingers or that type of thing uh egg rolls
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] or fried rice because it's easier to get out than to make it uh we'll do that occasionally um do you go out as much now as uh because the economy being such has that put a damper on you or does it make any difference
[speaker002:] well recently we've both been trying to do some diet so we haven't gone out because when they tell you about how much fat is in all that food you know it really kind of crimps your style there but um we probably you know maybe go out like once a week on the weekend usually with friends or something we kind of go out um not always you know sometimes we cook the meal at home and have people in
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] but I haven't really thought about you know the economy all that much and and eating out we we never really did it a lot but you know we do maybe go out a couple of times a month at least to eat out
[speaker001:] yeah you know up here it's it's the restaurant business has fallen off
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] uh pretty substantially because the the unemployment rate is pretty high
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] it's uh in Massachusetts it's almost ten percent now
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] so people don't have the discretionary incomes that they had you know overtime has been cut back a lot in certain areas
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but us I mean we still we live more or less like you and our kids are grown up and they're gone so it's just the two of us and uh we tend to go out maybe once a week maybe once every other week something like that but we'll we'll go out for uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh take out
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and bring it home um but it hasn't it hasn't it uh it hasn't stopped us yet
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I was just wondering down there it hasn't done anything to you either so your economy is a little bit better though I think down there now
[speaker002:] well though you know TI has laid off quite a few in this area and then General Dynamics has its woes too so that it seems like there's been
[speaker001:] well oh okay so there's
[speaker002:] a lot of people recently you know when big companies uh change their programs and and such that there's been an influx of some unemployed but probably when you spread it out over everybody in Dallas it maybe has not changed the percentage all that much you know maybe one or two percent possibly it's hard to say
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] it just seems like a lot when you hear about companies that keep continually advertising or stating that they're you know you know cutting out so many thousands of employees it sounds like big numbers of people out there
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] that's true
[speaker001:] and it depends on life styles too down there I'm not sure if you all tend to go out more down there than we do up here or or if we tend to go out more
[speaker002:] I think the people down here must shop for entertainment because we have more shopping malls within close proximity I mean it's like we could have shopping malls even across the road from each other there must be a lot of people with a lot of money who just like to go out and shop because we have plentitude of shopping malls within like a five mile radius I