What the heck is this?

“Number 22 and a beer” aims to be the most unusual dining guide on the web and needs your contributions to make it a success. After all, how often can a single human go out to eat?

It is simple enough. When dining out in “fine” establishments that use numbers to make the ordering process simpler, no matter what ethnic direction the restaurant might adhere to, do the following:

1. Order a number 22. And a beer, if possible. 

2. Take a photo of your “Number 22 and a beer”.

3. Let the world know about it by submitting your contribution by email to: number22andabeer(@)me.com

You can write as much, or as little about the meal as you wish. For continuity, I ask that contributors adhere to the following, simple guidelines.

If you cant eat it, then don’t post it.

Really, honestly, truly  only submit a Number 22 you have ordered. If that happens to be eel’s head soup in a restaurant in Tajikistan that might be difficult, I understand. But people will use this guide (I hope). They will find out. And you would have to live with the eternal shame that you lied about your Number 22 and are a culinary wimp. This also excludes second-hand accounts: “My dining companion ordered number 22 and it smelled horrible. I went with the sweet and sour.” That just doesn’t cut it.

 

No picture? No posting. And don’t mess with the meal.

It doesn’t matter if the lighting is a bit off, or the dish looks a tad grey or the peas can’t be seen. Shoot it as is.
(Flash, of course, is allowed) 

Have a beer.

Or, at least a beverage of some sort. That is the only way of guaranteeing a certain visual continuity on this site. 

Your Number 22 is worthless without “the info”.

So you just barely managed to eat the chicken feet and wash it down with the local version of what passes for beer. While fighting the gag reflex, you even took a picture of the fowl smelling offering? Don’t waste that effort by forgetting what’s important! This is a guide, mind you. Guides point the reader in the right direction. Therefore the following information must be included with your submission. (If not, all that work was for naught. Sorry.)

Price of the dish. In local currency, please. It adds to the mystery.

Address of Restaurant. If appliccable please include a phone number. Internet-addresess are appreciated. If no address is used in the place of origin of your Number 22, include easily identifiable landmarks, or the phone number of a savvy riksha driver in your post.

How was it?

Here at Number 22 and a beer, everyone is a critic. So let us know how it was. You can be as brief (“Great” or “sucked royally”) or lengthy (“the fried toad’s ears were paired with a creamy sauce with a faint scent of moshus, reminding me of my childhood in Burma in the late 1940’s where my father had been transferred to over-see the construction of that country’s first pay phone….”) as you wish.

If you want to rate your Number 22  please indicate your system. “I give the parrot’s egg omelette, 4 out of 10 possible stars” would be what I’m thinking here.

So where is the catch?

There is only one. Well two. Your picture becomes property of the site and could one day appear in print. But hey, look at the upside: Your name and work in a book. Right there on the beststeller table at your local book-mega-market, next to “Stuff White People Like, Vol 9”. Huh, sounds cool? I though so.

Ok, three catches. I choose what gets posted on Number 22 and a beer. And I will edit, if neccessary.

 

And so Number 22 and a beer is born.

 

Hope you like it.