Frank Chen

Frank Chen

email newsletter #6

chinese montana, crazy food

travel

This week I'm typing from Bozeman, Montana. The company I work for scheduled an offsite here, so I'm freezing my ass off walking around outside on black ice and snowy roads.

boundless by paul millerd

I haven't been doing as much reading as I want but I've been perusing articles from Paul Millerd's site. He's the author of "The Pathless Path" that I was reading a while ago.

for your viewing pleasure

"Poker Face" on Peacock. It's about a girl with an impeccable bullshit detector and goes around accidentally being curious and solving crimes. Every new episode is a new crime.

chinese montana

Apparently Butte, Montana has the longest standing Chinese restaurant in the United States, called Pekin Noodle Parlor (est. 1909). While eating breakfast with the work gang, there were half-jokes about illegally hopping on trains to go eat there. At the time, our group was sitting down at Western Cafe, another long-time establishment (est. 1943) serving up heart-attack diner food.

There's something very soulful about a business that's passed down the generations. It might not be modern and hip, but it sure is comfy and historical, and that's a vibe I can get behind.

crazy food

Double layer crème brûlée. I had a crème brûlée last night. Done right, there's the super nice crispy ice skating rink of sugar on top of soft sweet custard, but I've always thought the custard base wasn't deep enough. I want a voluminous scoop of custard. So, how about a deeper dish of crème brûlée but with a layer of crunchy sugar in the middle and on top?

"But Frank, that's basically two crème brûlées stacked on top of each other."

Yes. And what if someone made a large enough crème brûlée that I could skate on top? If I fall in, I get to eat my way out.

quote of the week

"Any self-thought that you are valuable to a company or irreplaceable is merely a self-told lie to make yourself feel comfortable and stable in what is naturally a hostile and self-serving environment." - a reddit comment 😂