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Satiating Meal

We landed tired and hungry at the airport after a five hour flight followed by car rental shenanigans that set us back an extra hour. Checking for restaurant reviews, I stumbled upon one with only five star reviews but only a handful of them. The pictures of the food showed the attention to detail - whoever cooked it had cooked it with love. We were a bit concerned about the neighborhood and the fact that the restaurant had its door reinforced with iron-bars along with a very big electronic lock. These folks did not take their security lightly. 

The place was run by a middle-aged couple and the food well-exceeded my already high expectation given the ratings. The portion size was very generous, the quality of cooking excellent as was the service. We came in famished and went away satiated. I told the man that we loved the food and wished we had room for dessert - which looked even better than the food. He thanked us very graciously and asked us to come back again. 

The experience reminded me of something I had heard repeated by a few different women in my family. If you feed someone who comes to you hungry, always make sure that you leave them feeling satisfied because that earns the person who provides the meal good karma. Conversely, if the meal leaves them feel underwhelmed or worse does not fill them, you would earn bad karma. The owners of this very modest establishment in a rundown part of town had by that measure earned plenty of good karma. 

While I may never come back since we were only passing through town, I hope their desire to feed people a memorable meal and a reasonable price will one day get them to a place where they are more visible and recognized, many more customers can enjoy the fruit of their skill and labor. I can recall many negative restaurant experiences - some so bad that I declined to leave any tip at all and even had to find something else to eat because the portion was so inadequate. I wonder if that feeling multiplied across a large number of unhappy customers ends up having outcomes like the women in my family claimed. 

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