This story is part of a cross-post between Indefinite Articles and The Eaten Path.
You can read James Boo’s “Preemptive Strike” on Chili’s here.
For all the amazing food we have in the Bay Area, the little holes-in-the-wall and the grandiose temples to flavor, every once in a while there’s something appealing about the strip mall meal. [...]

The first part of this cross-post can be read here.
In this day and age, it is almost a crime to admit to liking good, greasy food. It is especially fitting in SoCal that the salad—throughout most of history a side dish or appetizer—has taken the place of the baptism: that which serves to wash us [...]