Did you ever have the experience where you inadvertantly set the bar unreasonably high for yourself in some given category, thereby establishing a lifetime of disappointment whenever you try to compare? I've done it twice, and got a reminder yesterday.

The first time was with this Italian place called Tony's, in my hometown. They make a sauce that is worth picking up the plate and licking it clean, and they serve a full meal with salad and bread and enough pasta to make you whimper, all for about $6 a person. I grew up with this, and got used to it, and then felt all adrift and bereft when I moved away and learned that the combination taste/price is unheard of anywhere else in the universe. Not that I've stopped searching, mind you; but I have wracked up a good-sized pile of disappointing meals since then.

The second also has to do with food, this time a little Chinese restaurant called Ru Yee in Newton, MA. I started going there with the Ex Who Must Not Be Named, who'd discovered it through work. We would go out on Friday night, wake up woefully hungover on Saturday morning, and stumble over to Ru Yee because their green tea is a Magical Hangover Cure. And it was there that I first tried hot and sour soup, and fell in love with it.

You can imagine my delight, then, to discover that they make it in a unique and special way, obviously borrowing some of the magic ingredients from the tea, because no one else makes comparable hot and sour soup. Woe is me.

The good news? We still live close enough that, every once in a while, we're able to dip into Newtown and get a meal... and yesterday, after his Weekend of Masculine Debauchery, Willem stopped in and brought me home two big things of it, one for now and one for freezing.

As for Tony's, I can still get my fix when I visit my mother, but somehow a 6-hour drive seems excessive for a casual dinner out.

So, how about you? Have you done this to yourself? Started off with literature and been unable to adjust to tabloids? Introduced yourself to Godiva and then can't accept the plebian nature of Hershey's? It's just horrible, isn't it?