Unnecessarily Cruel

Cibusts

This post is way way waaaaaaaaaay overdue.  Like two months over-due, so 10Bis - my apologies, you deserve better.

So I clearly had no idea how good I had it till now.

I recently moved jobs, and with this, lunch providers.

I am now a Cibus-ite, and I feel it is only correct to get down on my knees and beg forgiveness of 10bis. If only I had known what a terrible, un-user-friendly, and buggy website Cibus has...I likely would have been much kinder to the 10bis staff - who clearly care much more about their client's user experience.

Below are some screenshots, so you can witness the horror firsthand.

First off, if we want to talk horror - the Cibus website only works with Internet Explorer and Netscape! Yes, you heard correctly NET-FRIGGIN-SCAPE! (Those of you born after 1994 likely have no idea what this compound word means or represents.  I'm sure you understand both words individually - but lumped together...what could this mean?! It's a circa 1993 browser that died even before AIM and ICQ - may it RIP).  A guy in our office uses a Mac - and he hasn't eaten since he got here.  He's literally dying of malnutrition as I write this.  It's a really sad and unfortunate story.

What's more - just when you thought you couldn't find more frames within frames within frames - LO AND BEHOLD.  More frames!  And they're all this dark loop of death - where if you accidentally click on one link - there's NO GOING BACK.  AAAAAHHHHH.

The Superfluous Double Login

The Grotesque UI

And once you click on one of the restaurants - there's also no going back.  There are also restaurants that have NO MENU!!! WTF?!

Overall Experience: -3 

1. All of the restaurants are infinitely closer and the food takes longer to arrive.

2. The UI is the saddest and worst excuse for coding I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing in this lifetime.

3. They don't EVEN GET what's wrong with the website - i.e. shitty customer service that relegates the problem in an Apple-esque manner (minus the cutting edge technology) - "there must be something wrong WITH YOU!".  

It really gives me paroxysms.  And not the good kind.

Baba OJ

10Byte

The reason I haven't really posted anything lately is mostly because I haven't eaten anything new/worth posting about for a while now. I pretty much maxed out on all the restaurants available to order from... so you can imagine how pleased I was to have a new victim.

(And just as an aside, this is the first time I'm posting from the Nexus--so there may be glitches and formatting deficiencies.)

The PLACE: O&J Chicken Grill

The ORDER: Buffalo Wings Lunch Deal עסקית באפלו ווינגס
Buffalo wings with two sides ( baked potato and rice), vegetable salad, tehina, dips of choice (mayonnaise), and home baked bread.

The PRICE: 32 NIS

The DELIVERABLE: In the same way that the schnitzel foccacia was an over-sized schnitzel in an under-sized pita... the home baked bread was basically a small pita. The salad was a bit soggy, the about 10 or so buffalo wings (a respectable amount) were not spicy at all (a good thing to me), and the baked potato was a bit burned (but I happen to like it that way).  Most importantly though the wings  tasted gooooood... with a genuine barbeque taste and the rice was fine enough.

The VERDICT: Nothing mind blowing for 32 NIS, but a good and filling enough meal... and I would definitely order a whole 'nother helping of the wings.

Phew. I knew I wasn't crazy...

eBayism

While there was indeed some sort of change to eBay feedback, I think it may have something to do with my local computer (maybe some add-in or plug-in of the spouse's that I'm not aware of).

However, you do still have the option of leaving regular feedback too....So I get to leave like four cents worth of feedback.  Sweet.

PiNOTi.

I decided - in order to organize matters a bit - to label my posts more systematically.

So starting from this post - you'll know what you're in for.

10Byte

Pinati, it turns out, is above good business sense.  While I have fond memories, and a deep love for their kubeh chamusta - I must say their overall strategic business plan is quite lacking.

I get the whole office (i.e. the whole part of the office that actually listened when I spoke - approximately four individuals) in a Pinati frenzy.  As we come to order I notice, to my dismay, that hummus is not offered as a side to their lunch deal (and how can you eat kebabs without hummus?!).

Assuming this is a minor oversight, as hummus is indeeed priced the same as the other side dish options, I ask them (of course expecting none other than a cooperative reply) - to allow me to order hummus instead of another side dish option.  Our conversation (as with all conversations - this is slightly paraphrased):

Me:  Hi, I see that the website doesn't have hummus as a side for the lunch deal - can I just put it in the comments area?
Pinati Manager:  I'm sorry, company policy doesn't allow this. 
Me: But it's the same price as the other side dishes.
Pinati Manager:  Again, sorry.
Me:  You're aware that all of your competitors do provide this option, and they're cheaper.
PM: Yes, we don't care.
Me:  If I cancel, we're all going to cancel - would you rather lose 120 NIS, than 12 NIS?
PM: Yes.
Me:  Suit yourself.

And we cancelled the order.

The VERDICT:  Priced four NIS higher than Abu Muchta (חומוס פול אבו מוך) and Hummus Sayid (חומוס סעיד)+ unaccomodating = poor business sense and wholly unlikable.

Blink and You Missed It

Was there a fleeting moment where I spied a change to eBay's feedback (approximately the first Saturday night of 2010 - give or take a minute)?  Which, this time, I can't take any credit for instigating (unless of course they read my blog too - which wouldn't surprising considering the global reach of 70 or so readers I've amassed).

Unfortunately, I thought I would have all the time in the world to blog about the new phenonmenon - so I didn't instantaneously document the change...(I needed more time to process the new ability to leave comments about every element - and the extended 500 characters!! of feedback option...and properly formulate a fitting caliber of feedback), and by the time I was ready with my extended feedback.  Poof!  It was gone...

Was this a figment of my imagination?!

Gezundheit!

A new place opened up on our 10Bis this week called Bishvil HaBriut (roughly translated - For Your Health), and after looking over the menu, it became increasingly clear that food and health are apparently subject to interpretation. Despite the somewhat troubling/misleading name (the last thing we want is a healthy lunch) we decided to order from their, although less healthy, but rather tasty sounding menu.

The whole office pretty much jumped on board (this is only about half the orders...), so we got a nice impression of the entire menu.

The ORDER: Asado in Sweet Sauce with a Side Dish and a Personal Salad אסאדו עגל מתקתק בתנור מוגש עם תוספת לבחירה וסלט ירקות אישי

The PRICE: 30 NIS!!!!

The DELIVERABLE: Hooooooly mooooooly. I think we have a new winner for 2010...first off, they had to process maybe 20 orders from our office (and although this might have been the reason they arrived slightly late) - I have to say the packaging was phenomenal. Each order was individually packaged, with the person's name highlighted - and the packaging of the food was perfect - no spillage.

Onto the food...when ordering they had quite a few interesting choices, it was tough call - from Chicken in Date Honey (Silan), to Chicken in Sweet Chili Sauce, Homemade Kebabs, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Asian Chicken in Carmelized Sauce, Chicken in Curry and Coconut Milk...and the side dishes - Rice, four kinds of mashed potatoes (with fried onion, without, pesto, and wasabi- I took the latter...as I like to be adventurous), mejadra (rice with lentils), bulgur with pasta, pasta...and more (can't remember everything). A really diverse menu, to say the least - for a really ridiculous price.

First off, the dish itself was humongous.  It's hard to gather that from the angle of the picture - but the container was quite large.  It was a hefty portion of meat with an even heftier portion of mashed potatoes (and being a meat and potatoes girl - this made me rather happy).  The asado was soft and well-cooked, and the sauce was great (I think it was a silan-based sauce) - the perfect amount of sweet to salty. The wasabi mashed potatoes were a little strong - but definitely an interesting option (it's lucky I'm a little stuffed up - because it definitely opened my sinuses). The other options - rice/regular mashed potatoes/pesto mashed potatoes/mejadra - were taken by other people and were really liked (the mejadra - got a bit of less enthusiastic review - since it apparently had gratuitous inexplicable lemon pieces in it).

The meurav yerushalmi (jerusalem grill mix) - was also a little less liked - as it was a bit hard, apparently. But the chicken in silan, and the asian chicken in carmelized sauce were a hit.

Oh and the cute little salad on the side was great!  Corn/carrots/cherry tomatoes/lettuce/cabbage - a lot of investment for a small side salad. 


The VERDICT: Impressive. Crazy cheap food that is quite good. Five stars!

I am the cause of global warming...

Spoiler alert...this post is NOT PC.


I know that there's the whole "don't buy from China - their factories are destroying the world" camp - and although I do experience a tinge of guilt every time I purchase a new pitchefke (what's the singular of pitchefkes?) on eBay, knowing full well I am perpetuating and contributing to all of the world's woes...really how can you fight the force? (And isn't it better to live one less day with one more piece of junk you don't really need?!)

They sell all these cute and stupid little knick knacks for .99 cents and free shipping...you have to have a will of steel to decline such a steal.

Besides - I like to consider it a sort of charity...while I am well aware that the Chinaman working in the factory is likely receiving .99 cents a month for their efforts - if I weren't supporting this venture...wouldn't he clearly be out of a job?!

Steals of the week:

1) In Chinglish - "Lift the Vegetables Tool" - aka - Supermarket Bag Holder (how ingenious is this one?! Supersal would make millions off of this one in Tel Aviv! They'll probably charge 32 NIS for it though...)



2) LED Headlamp (for that off-chance that I ever get around to spelunking)



3) Laptop lock (for the spouse's all-too-often miluim - yes he takes a laptop to miluim - and no, I'm not telling you where he serves...)





I really don't understand how this pricing model works for these companies...but dare I complain?