Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for May 06, 2009

Mothership? You mean Food- Giver- Outer.

Claude, buddy, you have to let your taste buds branch out. There are sooo many good spicy flavors out there if you’ll just give them a chance.

Hullo, everybody!

Hi Farside… and the rest of you when you get here….

Thanks for your help and attendance yesterday…

and now it’s time to talk about

the May 6th  2019 “CLEO and COMPANY”…..

Which looks like a new one to me…. see for yourself on Sherpa:

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy

I know I’ve been wrong about it before……

But I don’t remember any discussion of spicy cuisines…

or anything as “meta” as Claude directing attention to a previous panel, which made me laugh.

I understand about needing to avoid spicy food…. in fact, I’m having to eat less of it than I used to….

but I don’t get the impression that’s Claude’s reason, though it might be his excuse…. which is kind of a different thing.

No…. it’s just plain stick-in-the-mud stubbornness…. clinging to the tried and true.

That “My mama didn’t cook no Pakistani food and I ain’t gonna eat none…..” kind of attitude.

But the world is changing, Claude.

I’m starting to wonder what restaurants we’ll be able to find in 2029.

I’ve only recently realised the gap between my baby-boom diet…. even though I do eat all sorts of ethnic food, and love Thai….

and that of the Millennials, and the Gen Z, young adults, who all live on quinoa, exotic herbs, acai bowls and air.

Oh yeah…. and avocado toast, of course.

While we still can… I mean, while such food exists….

Shall we head back to the Tiki, where the little monkeys have helped to do a wonderful job of cleaning up, refrigerating leftovers, and generally making everything ship shape again?

There’s still an abundance of cole slaw, yak ribs, eggs, and other party food…. including birthday cake.

There_are_ always plenty of vegetarian and vegan options there, too, if that’s your thing, you know.

But if you feel like you spent too many hours there this weekend….

and you’d like to start out today with a visit to my bakery, for sandwiches, pie and coffee…..

we could do that instead.

Just let me know.

Meanwhile…. Todd…. he sees himself as their godfather, does he?

Well the owners of that stubborn rascal, Scuffy, fussy eater Murphy, and spoiled little Muffin are not too happy about all those afternoon treats.

It took months to figure out why their dogs didn’t want their dinners,

and they’ve asked over and over for Todd to stop.

But he enjoys what he considers to be his surrogate pets.

How do we convince him he’s not doing them any favors?

Of course, when they complain to Sheriff MonkeyBlues and he suggests that they keep their dogs safe at home….

that goes nowhere either. Sigh…..

I like that “See panel 2” bit. The car in panel 3 looks different from the car in panel 1 (taillights).

I guess Cleo will have to cook up some exotic foods for Claude. He wouldn’t turn Cleo down.

In the midst of the party yesterday, I think the Ballard Street May 5 2009 got overlooked. That was a funny one!

Claude should be ashamed of himself. He just let Clara and Cleo know that they were in a cartoon. Two cows and a chicken are also back.

What a stick-in-the-mud Claude is! Culinary wimp! Spicy and flavorful doesn’t have to mean spicy hot.

When I was just a little muffin myself, my parents best friends were a trio of Indian MD’s and their families. So I got used to eating Indian food as soon as I got an intro to solid food. To this day, it is my favorite cuisine in the world. And Mom was a skilled and inquisitive chef. But any Asian cooking is (potentially) great; Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Korean, Mongolian, etc. And “Indian” covers a lot of geography. Every region – and there are a boatload of ’em – has its own style and characteristics. YUM!

And that’s the mother load.

Claude must be a meat and potatoes kind of guy.

We tried two new restaurants after they were around for a few months. Won’t go back. Nothing original. Not that that is what Claude is thinking about. He’s just being picky.

(Or, he was heading for that outdoor BBQ joint that let’s you bring your dog with you. Poor Cleo has to eat, too.)

For someone who so daringly pushes the ‘Do Not Push’ button, Claude, you are not very adventurous in dining.