I doubt this is up to par with anyone else's stories...not that I've read anyone else's stories yet. But I just thought I'd share.
I was in Oakland, CA for a month taking a class. One day, like so many other days, I found a flyer taped to my dorm room door. It was for a group Thai breakfast thing that weekend. I decided to go mainly because I figured it would be an opportunity to save the little food in the minifridge and therefore save myself a trip to the grocery store. I'd really never had Thai food before and had no idea what to expect.
When I got down to the lobby it was just me and one other person and then a few RAs (aka college students working at the precollege program thing). We headed out to Berkley, walked through a sketchy looking flea market, past a library with many people sitting and eating on the lawn, and came to a Thai buddhist temple. Round the corner behind the temple was where they were serving the food. It was run by the temple and since they couldn't directly accept money you had to give them money as a donation and they would then give you tokens that you would use to pay for food. There was a long line for food and tables everywhere outside.
I didn't get anything fancy. Just pad thai. It was very good though and I'd never had it before. There was pretty much no empty seats in any of the tables under the tent where we got the food or at any of the tables along where the line was so we went and sat on the library lawn. Aparently the library didn't care. Maybe they thought random people eating on their lawn brought them more bussiness. Who knows...
After that we went and walked around the flea market. I had to prove to myself that I had at least some self control when I passed by the piles of swords and other ninja like tools that I thought only existed in the movies. I had to show some more self control when I passed by the people selling instruments too. I think if I lived there I would have bought several swords and another guitar. I did end up buying several old comic books (from before I was born too).