The motorcycle helmet rule for finding lunch

Here's the thing. Google Maps is useless. TripAdvisor in a new city is a different kind of useless. [pause] So here's the system. Walk the block. Look for motorcycle helmets parked outside. Not one. A cluster. That means locals who ride for work came here on purpose, on a schedule, with limited time. That is a Michelin star in a language that matters. [pause] You go in. Three things to confirm. Plastic chairs — actual plastic chairs, the kind that cost four dollars. No printed menu in English. And a handwritten board with four items, maybe five. If there are four options, one of them is today's thing. The fish that came in this morning. The stew that's been going since six. You order that. You don't ask what it is first. [pause] I've eaten this way in Tbilisi, in Hội An, in a bus depot outside Konya with no name on the door. Every time. This is the system.