Plus Mexican restaurant endorsements.
Ten years ago, when I lived in Scotts Valley, there were really no good Mexican food places in town. For a guy who grew up on Mexican food, that’s some serious withdrawal I had to go through. I just had to live through it. (Taco Bell, by the way, is not a substitute. Confusing Taco Bell with Mexican food is like confusing McDonald’s with barbecue.)
So when I moved back to Scotts Valley a year and a half ago, I still had that attitude of “There are no good Mexican places in Scotts Valley.” It didn't help after going to Tucson Taqueria. Their slogan is “Mexican food made by real Mexicans.” That’s not a good sign. Real Mexicans cook at Café Bethany but they still can't make proper Mexican food. I suspect it's ’cause they learned to cook from culinary school, not mamá. Anyway, after eating there, I didn’t want to eat at any other Mexican places in town for a while. I'd eat in Felton, which has even more honkies per capita than Scotts Valley, before I’d eat here.
Last year I discovered El Faro Taqueria, which is located dangerously close to Taco Bell, but is an excellent restaurant. It had taken me a while to try it because I mentioned the place to H, and he said, “Oh, I’ve been there; I didn't like it.” So I stayed away. And that was actually pretty stupid of me, because I’ve since discovered that H has absolutely no taste in food. The man’s favorite restaurant is Scotts Valley Diner, for crying out loud. (SV Diner used to be a Denny’s, but went independent. Now, most of the time I’ve found when a chain restaurant goes independent, it's ’cause the owners want to do a better job than the chain will let them… but in the case of SV Diner, the food’s actually become worse, and Denny’s is pretty abysmal to begin with. Yet H still chooses to eat there. I actually had to talk him into eating at Quizno’s once… But I gotta cut it out with these tangents.) Long story short: H has no taste, El Faro is great, and go eat there. Seriously. 243 Mt. Hermon Road #A, Scotts Valley. Okay. NOW to my point.
So this evening I was on my way to the library, and I was trying to determine where to eat dinner, and now that I’m willing to try other local Mexican restaurants I considered eating at Taqueria Los Gallos. I hadn’t been there before; I figured I’d give it a shot. “After all,” I told myself, “you owe it to yourself to try all the Mexican places in town, just to see if they’re any good.”
Then the other part of my brain said, “Owe it to yourself? Owe what to yourself?”
What do I owe to myself? This is a saying that our culture uses all the time, but honestly, what does it mean? I owe myself what? What, exactly, did I deprive myself of that I deserve to get back? I don’t feel deprived. I certainly don’t deprive myself of Mexican food. If anything, I am deprived of the money I would save by not going to a restaurant.
But do I really “owe it to myself” to have a lot of money in my bank account? I don't owe myself any money. I owe my mother several hundred dollars; I owe Citibank several thousand dollars; and in two weeks I will owe my landlords some more rent. I don't owe myself anything; and if I deprive myself of anything, it's because I need to deprive myself of things. I’ve been depriving myself of Cheez-its for the past two months because I’m trying to eliminate trans fats from my diet; it sucks but I don’t want to have a heart attack in my thirties. (Thank God for goldfish crackers.) Plus the bloody things are $3 a box. So it’s for budgetary and health reasons, and I don’t “owe it to myself” to violate those reasons.
Yet that's a phrase that’s thrown around all the time, especially in advertising and psychology. “You owe it to yourself to…” and fill in the appropriate commodity. Psychology uses it more legitimately than advertising, but from what I’ve experienced in my own therapy sessions, not by much.
I owe myself nothing. I have two jobs I enjoy, an income I can live on, and I drink all the decaf I want. I went to Taqueria Los Gallos and ate two very good fish tacos, and I’ll likely eat there again. Not because I owe it to myself. Because I can afford to.
(And you should eat there too, because the tacos are great. 18 Victor Square #A, Scotts Valley. Compared to them, eating at Taco Bell is like eating out of a wet diaper.)