Last Friday night, Diana Hsue, the reigning queen of our “Guess Where?” game received her latest prize: dinner with me. When she reached a milestone of 15 wins, Gustavo gave her a ticket to anywhere Southwest flies (she chose a trip up to her native Bay Area). For her latest win, her 17th, according to Gustavo, it was decided it was time for her “to enter the inner sanctum” because, simply put, Gustavo had long run out of things to give her.
So far for dominating our Guess Where game so many times, Diana has won movie tickets, tickets to OC Weekly events, more tickets to museums, books, and literally everything we had to give in our prize vault. She's won so often, there were times she actually turned down prizes. So this time Gustavo left it up to her: dinner anywhere she wanted, with me, who is a significant downgrade from a plane ticket as I kept telling her while we deliberated over e-mail on where she wanted to go.
See also:
– An Interview with Diana Hsue, Queen of “Guess Where?”
– OC Weekly Reader Wins Plane Ticket for Winning “Guess Where?” So Many Times!
– Guess Where Archives
]
After mulling it over, she narrowed it down to THE RANCH.
She brought her husband John (who turned out to also be an avid Stick a Fork reader, as I found out) and I, my chica. We feasted on escargot, lamb chops, steak, seabass, stuffed ourselves silly on cheesecake and had a blast trading stories about food, life and everything else. Though I was part of her prize, it was my honor and pleasure to spend the evening with them; Diana and John are just about the coolest couple I've met. Before we knew it, it was close to midnight.
If Diana continues to decimate the competition (she currently leads the pack with more wins than anyone) she will look forward to collecting her next big prize: dinner with Gustavo at win number twenty. At thirty wins, as Gustavo has promised in the past, she will earn herself a ticket to Japan! Congrats, Diana, and remember: Gustavo is the REAL Edwin…
Follow Stick a Fork In It on Twitter @ocweeklyfood or on Facebook! And don't forget to download our free Best Of App here!
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.