The Relationship Between Family, Tacos, and The Fast & Furious

It's truly been a hot minute since I've written a food post, partially because I haven't had time and partially because I haven't had many emotionally vibrant meals in the last few months. Today though I had a meal which was certifiably ~mealy~ enough to warrant a food post!

However, before I get into the specifics of the meal, I must preface the story with a brief discussion on the movie "Fast Five", the 5th entry in the Fast & Furious series which I watched for the first time on the plane today. While the movie is known for it's high-speed cars and fiery explosions (side note: why is fiery spelled "fiery" and not "firey"), a further analysis of the character dynamics within the movie supports the idea that family relationships are among the strongest of bonds which keep the team members together. This can be seen in both verbal and non-verbal communication between characters throughout the film.

With this discussion of family in mind, I now come to the meal which I had a few hours after watching the movie. While most of my food posts have historically been about burritos, today's meal involved tacos. Although a food post about tacos is a break from tradition, this turns out to be a non-issue, because I would consider tacos to be in the same family as burritos, and, as we have seen in the analysis of "Fast Five", family relationships are indeed significant.

The tacos I had were from a place called "Not Not Tacos", a restaurant run by Sam The Cooking Guy (a youtube chef). As someone who watches Sam's videos regularly, I knew I had to go to this restaurant (despite the 30 minute walk each way) since I am not in San Diego often. When I got there, I ordered two tacos and a side of tater tots (with GARLIC AIOLI dip) and brought my food to the table. Let me just be honest with you: the first bite of the Korean Short Rib taco was Nikhil-certified delicious, as were the tater tots (with GARLIC AIOLI dip).

I finished that meal very quickly, partially because I was so hungry and also the food was just that good. Shortly thereafter, I was faced with a game time decision: do I go back for a third taco or just call it a night? I was certainly full enough that I didn't need a third taco. However, as I was pondering the situation™, I recalled a quote (attributed to Jaden Smith) that I had seen a few years ago:

"How come you can drink a drink but can't food a food?"

This turned out to be the critical factor in my decision. You see, I usually have access to my favorite drinks like Dr. Pepper, Thums Up, and water (sup hydrohomies) when I'm in Chicago, so it's possible for me to "drink the drink" if I so desire. However, I'm hardly ever in the area to eat at Not Not Tacos, so I can't just "food the food" any time I want. Since this was the only time in the foreseeable future that I'd have the chance to eat there, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go for the third Korean Short Rib taco.

Just as the analysis of character dynamics in "Fast Five" uncovered a message about family, so too does analysis of the Jaden Smith quote uncover a message about living in the moment. Time always seems to move quickly (like forreal it's already 2020), and so we must take advantage of the opportunities we have in life to "food the food". This does not apply only to physical food, but to emotional, mental, and relational food as well. Whatever the "food" represents for you (whether it's talking to a friend, listening to music, getting a full night's rest, or actual "food" food), my hope is that you would be able to "food the food" in your life and truly make the most out of every moment ❤