Most people who transcend subsistence living have a hobby of some kind, and a very popular choice of hobby concerns food. Some like to cook or bake, some like to grow what they eat, some make their own beer or wine, some collect recipes. The plethora of cooking shows on television only proves how pervasive food-related hobbies really are. More power to such folks, but me, I just like to eat. More specifically, I hunt cuisines, and I spice my cuisine-conquering hobby by making a game out of finding the best restaurant values I can.

In recent years I have learned that the best hunting grounds may be found in unlikely places: suburban and exurban strip malls, in particular. For instance, where once there was Foot Locker, now there is Meaza. In June, Ethiopian-born restaurateur Meaza Zemedu moved her eponymous eatery down the street into a former Foot Locker outlet on Columbia Pike in Falls Church, Virginia, a prosaic suburb of Washington, DC. When I asked Zemedu why she chose her location, her first answer was “parking.” Sure enough, next door to the restaurant is a U-Haul dealership. Not that she needs that much extra parking, since it’s the one thing this area has lots of. That, and neon signs.