Seems about right. I don’t follow Eminem and haven’t listened to a lot of his music but one thing that almost everyone knows about him is that he seemed to have some serious differences with his mother.
(This was an old story so maybe they’ve reconciled by now?)
I’ve made the BA Adult Spaghettios many times, it’s a great recipe if you are looking for something spaghettio adjacent.
We rarely eat out in Austin, especially. Restaurant food prices are too damn up. We have far more urgent payables to contend with and our discretionary play-money is nearly zero, and has been, for decades. This has made me very selective when I do spend money going out; plus I used to work in a lot of high end restaurants, where I have long been trained to taste the quality of the fare.
That said, we don’t eat meat, drink alcohol, or require slick surroundings or luxe atmosphere, so as long as the food is authentic and delicious, we’re cheap to feed.
99 Ranch Market feels to me very cleaned-up and gringo-ized for mass appeal, though I do see plenty of fellow Asians shopping when I’m there. It’s fine. It’s ok. It gets the job done. It’s safe. It’s aimed at upmarket shoppers. It doesn’t smell strongly of fish. It’s not located in a complicated part of Austin where the crime rate is a bit higher.
Going to MT is a pilgrimage. It’s over 60 miles for me, roundtrip. It’s always worth it. I go twice a year, max. The people watching at Chinatown Center (where MT is a retail anchor tenant) is pretty decent.
I gotcha, in my case i go to 99 Ranch mostly for convenience because MT is just too far for me. Most of the stuff i get they usually have in stock at good prices, in particular their selection of fresh mushrooms is pretty excellent and fairly affordable (i always get a big ol bag of shiitake). But they don’t have everything, or sometimes might not have the exact thing i’m needing so i’ll hit up either Han Yang market right down the street or there’s a Honk Kong market on research that has some misc Chinese things i can’t find elsewhere.
There’s also a pretty good Indian market, because it’s also on the north side i haven’t been in a couple of years but i really liked it when i lived nearby. It’s Man Pasand Supermarket. Which reminds me i need to get back into exploring more Indian cuisine 
Really veered off topic here lol
I worked there for ten years. They were odd; for example they used tamari sauce when most would use salt, so that soysauce flavor tended to be a typical profile. Fortunately, I stole all of their recipes and fixed them, and often serve them in catered lunches, like the Mushroom Paté they once served many years ago at their West Lynn Café.
For me: creamed spinach. Not the fancy steakhouse stuff, but the cheapest of frozen, generic slop. Love it. It’s the culinary equivalent of a hug from Grandma for me.
I remember having them as a really young kid, around 2-3yo. The taste is nostalgic, so when i was in college i bought some because it was affordable and i thought it’d be a nice trip down memory lane. Taste-wise it was about what i remembered mostly but also tasted… cheap? Overly processed? Not sure how to describe it but i’m sure you know what i mean. By the end of it i didn’t enjoy it as much as i thought i would, and then there was the immediate retribution from my stomach. Had a similar experience with Chef Boyardee, though that one was worse on my stomach and no one can convince me otherwise that it’s not actually dog food.
There is a very specific reason why it’s my comfort food. I have a bone disorder, and when I was young, I was in the hospital a lot recovering from broken bones. This was late 70s, early 80s, and hospital food then was atrocious. But I liked spaghettios, as a lot of kids do, and my mom would occasionally bring some to me, heated, in a Thermos, and that would just make that day a lot better. So I just strongly associate that food, even now at age 55, with comfort and love. So I keep some cans in the house all the time. And when I have a particularly bad or hard day, I will eat a can. And I still enjoy them. I can understand your experience, though. I had the same experience years ago when I decided to buy a small can of Vienna Sausages. Ugh, those things were sooooo disgusting! I have no idea how I ate those as a kid. They’re packed in this jelly, they taste disgusting, they have a disgusting texture, they’re just horrible.
Ah yes, the West Lynn.
Tasty. Often outta my price range. Was always special going there.
Agree that everything at Mother’s more or less tasted of tamari… which has a homey quasi-Proustian profile for me since I grew up eating a lot of Chinese and Japanese food.
Thank you for posting. You made my day! Seriously.
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