Backflip

I sent the following e-mail to my friendly neighborhood Chipotle the other day. I greatly enjoy Chipotle but have always been bummed they don’t have Queso (cheese sauce) to go with their chips. I decided to ask them why:

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From: Luke Lindeman
Phone Number:
Sent: 1/15/2009 9:17:07 AM
Store Visited: Ohio, Centerville, 1051 Miamisburg-Centerville Road
Date Visited:

Comments:
Hey Lyn, Patrick, Dawn and Joe,

First off, I think your food is great and the whole Chipotle experience is very enjoyable. One small change that would help enhance my experience would be to provide the option of Queso or cheese sause with your chips. I’m not in the restaurant business so I have no idea what this seemingly small change would entail but I think a lot of people would benefit from having the option to get Queso.

Thanks for listening,
Luke

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Joe was very informative in his reply below (for the record he replied the very next day):

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Luke,

Thank you for writing us, and we appreciate your suggestion, but alas, queso is not our kind of food for a number of reasons. The most important part though is that in order to keep cheese at a semi-liquid state like that, you need to add chemical stabilizers that prevent it from becoming too runny and also prevent it from becoming too thick. Many places also kick in artificial colors (why not?) to make it look like real cheese too (it’s not, although there are sometimes “real cheeses” in it).

We believe that real food comes from a variety of unprocessed, sustainably raised ingredients. Foods raised in this way have greater nutritional values than foods raised in industrial ways that are so reliant on chemical fertilizers and other synthetic inputs. For example, food crops that are grown using chemical fertilizers grow much more quickly than the same crops grown in more sustainable ways. That gives them less time and opportunity to accumulate nutrients. Also, industrially grown food crops develop shallower root systems than their sustainably grown counterparts. That is important in that deeply rooted plants have greater access to the minerals in soil. In fact, according to the USDA, the nutrient content has been declining in the 43 crops it tracks since the 1950s; good evidence as to how the industrialization of our food supply is adversely impacting the nutritional content of many of the foods we eat.

And our customers choose from among food that is exactly what you see: salsa made with fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro; chicken or steak that is simply marinated and grilled; and rice that is steamed in small batches throughout the day and tossed with fresh cilantro, citrus juice and salt for example.

We call this vision for our food “Food With Integrity,” and it has us looking at every ingredient we use and how we can get foods from more sustainable sources that raise animals and grow produce in ways that respect the environment, the animals, and the people who raise and grow the food. It’s really a new perspective on eating.

Already, we serve more naturally raised meat (meat coming from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormones, and fed a pure vegetarian diet) than any other restaurant in the world. All of our cheese and sour cream is made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH (used to stimulate milk production in dairy cattle). And an increasing percentage of the beans we use are organically grown (increasing as additional supply becomes available). And we keep pushing ourselves to learn more about all of the ingredients we use and how we can improve them. It’s one of the ways we’re changing the way the world thinks about and eats fast food.

I hope that helps explain why we do what we do a little more.

Sincerely,

Joe Stupp
Chipotle

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While I’m still bummed there will be no Queso (who cares if it’s healthy or not? It’s so good!), I must say I now greatly respect Chipotle as a company. If they are willing to go this far in ensuring their customers receive only the freshest and best foods I am more then willing to give them my business. As you can see Chipotle is pretty much an amazing establishment and I know I’ll be goin there more in the future.

Seems like the world we live in is always on the go. Waking up to an alarm clock, driving to work listening to the radio, talking on the phone, working on a computer, MP3 players, Pandora-ing, projectors, the Internet, fast food, more driving, TV, games, meetings, etc. Seems like there is no time to take a deep breathe or slow down (at least for me).

That’s why it’s so nice to just get away from it all. To be surrounded by nature, get away from the noise and madness of our society. Today I was able to do just that. Dan, Jordan and I went hiking at Glenn Helen State Park. Being out in the crisp cool air did wonders for me. I think there is something very energizing in going back to my roots. To nature.

I’d say I’m a bit of a tree hugger. And I love gettin’ out in nature and just recharging the internal battery. I can’t remember who I first heard that analogy from but I think it’s very fitting. Everyday is draining a little bit, it’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It’s very refreshing to be able to take a step back and stop. To gain a little perspective. Gettin’ out in nature is what does it for me.

What about you guys? Any rituals or getaways that help ya slow down?

Troy just got hit by a big snow storm yesterday and it is awesome. Winter is probably my favorite season because of snow. Without the snow winter can be somewhat draggy (especially when it’s freezing ice) but once the snow starts and sticks it’s awesome. Jordan, Dan, Jesse and I wandered around in the wintery wonderland of down town Troy, taking in the snow and the vastly different landscape. We ended up stopping over at the Twiss’ and hanging out for a bit (and eating some cookies and brownies, yum!) and then headin’ back out.

Snow to me is energizing and pure. I honestly think I would enjoy living in a climate that was snow year round.

Update on World of Warcraft, I’ve found recently that my obsession with the game has vastly decreased in recent weeks. Not to say I don’t play anymore or that it is not enjoyable. But my wanting to play is more on the lines of something I choose to do rather then something I have to do. I think there are a few factors contributing to this change in attitude. The most apparent one being my sister and Brian have drastically reduced the time they spend in WoW. This has made me want to play less since a big reason for playing was hanging out with them.

Also, all my characters are in what I call a PvP void. PvP is divided into brackets with usual brackets being characters ranging in level from x0 to x9 (such as the 20-29 bracket, 40-49 bracket, etc). My main characters are all in the lower portions of the brackets at the moment (such as lvl 74 or lvl 71) which means they get demolished by higher level characters in PvP. Since this is the main appealing aspect of the game to me I find it hard to log in when I can’t PvP on my chars.

And truth be told, I’m quite happy with scaling back on WoW. Being completely obsessed by something causes quite an imbalance and I’m happy to be free of it.

If you’re still readin’ I’d like to tell you about one other thing that is going on in my life. Growing up, I was a part of Boy Scout Troop 1033 which was an amazing troop and an awesome experience. Yup, I did get the rank of Eagle and it has helped in countless ways (social skills, leadership skills, finding jobs, relating, opportunities, etc). Well my old troop kinda dissolved since it was sponsored by my church and there was a period where there were no boys in the age range of 11-18. Well a new troop is being formed and I’m gonna have the opportunity to give back. The boys will be starting out in Cub Scouts and once they hit 1o 1/2 or 11 moving onto Boy Scouts. I’m not sure how much I’ll be involved just yet but I’m gonna be on the Troop Committee (oversees the troop) and hopefully help out on camp outs and with merit badge work. It’s pretty cool being able to see how an activity was such a benefit to me while growing up and to have the chance to give that same opportunity to others. I feel as if I’m in for a rude awakening to how much work my leaders did to ensure an enjoyable experience. But I’m ready for the challenge.

I took some time to try to figure out what I did during the past 365 days and came up with a pretty accurate list. Boy, what a year! Disclaimer – some of these event might not have taken place in 2008 but according to my spotty memory I think they did.

Hold onto your seats, here we go in no particular order:

Mazda 3

Washington D.C.

Miami Camping

Cedar Point x2

Michigan Bike Trip

March Blizzard

California

NCR TPI #2

New Church Hall

Cincinnati – Lis’ and Greg’s

IKEA

Dry Hurricane

Ryan’s Wedding

ATO

Miami – Scruff, Amy, Lynsie

Miami Camping

Boston – Liz & J

X-mas Festival

WF1 – SAP, iSeries

Smoky Mountains

Lis’ Wedding

Ben’s Birthday

Hospice

NCR QTP

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King

Lake Erie with fam

Ben’s Graduation

Promotion (woo!)

Biking

Soccer

1st Speeding Ticket (well deserved unfortunately)

Moving – Lis, Shulers, Liesa, Camm’s sister, Larry’s cousin, Allison + Rachel, Becky & Jordan, Nate & Dana, Lutz’s, Matt, New Church Hall

<deep breathe>

New tent

Thanksgiving + X-mas with the fam

Bowling Green Trips – Whitney

Easter with the church

1st choir solo

Alexander Technique

Magic the Gathering (thanks Glenn)

Year of Bible Study

Year of song practice

Baby sitting Mark & Hannah

House sitting for Suzy

House sitting for Lis

Painting

Laughing Ogre

Half Price Books

Wendy’s (yum!)

Blog

Rock Band + Guitar Hero: World Tour

Guild Wars

Google Chrome (is awesome)

Five Finger Shoes

1st time Hitch Hiking

Josh’s Wedding

Nate’s Bachelor Party

Fall Festival

Columbus Zoo

 

Thatz about the x-tent of it. It was a great year, and I’m lookin’ forward to the future.

Some people do resolutions for the new year, I don’t like to since 1) I usually fail in the first few days and 2) The vicious cycle of failing, feeling bad and trying again seems to be depressing. Instead I just focus on each day. I know what I have to work on to improve myself and it’s just a matter of doing it. Heh, I guess that works as a good resolution – improve myself over the upcoming year. I think I can stick to that. Anyone out there make any resolutions or have any success at sticking to past resolutions?