I'm tired of cooking... Let's eat out!

It was my first night at home since the beginning of the summer.  My small hometown does not have a lot to offer in the way of exotic or elegant food.  We have a strip of fast food chains and local greasy spoons.  However, we have a few hidden gems.  There is a small butcher shop outside of town that will cut steaks for you right when you order them.  Now that is fresh.  My favorite is an extra thick cut filet mignon vacuum sealed in marinade.  It is the most tender and flavorful filet I have purchased.  Just a quick sear on a hot grill later along with some sautéed mushrooms and you are in heaven.  As well, we have quite a large proportion of hispanic residents so in the past few years a lot of great, authentic mexican restaurants have popped up.  This is true and real food, no Tex-Mex here.  There is a grocery store that sells homemade tamales (made by the mother of the shop owner) every Friday and Saturday.  There is another restaurant that is called Dos Arcos that my parents frequent at least once a week.  It is simple, cheap, tasty mexican food.  It has a pretty vast menu.  Our meal usually begins with housemade salsa and queso fundido, which is crumbled chorizo sauteed in a super hot cast-iron skillet until some of the great, telltale red grease seeps out then queso is added until it melts.  "Hot plate, hot plate!" the waiter warns as he lowers the still sizzling pan onto the table.  It spicy, cheesy and salty with chips: my favorite dish.  My grandma ate almost an entire dish of it before my family could get a few bites. For my main course I usually get the chile verde, a dish made by stewing pork shoulder in a green, tangy chile sauce.  The food is all fresh made and so tasty. The staff is friendly and I can get a huge meal for under ten dollars too.

Once a year my town hosts a huge event that brings people from across the country.  The population of my town triples for the weekend of Marian Days.  The celebration is basically like Christmas but for Mary; the date seems to have been arbitrarily chosen to be a weekend in August.  It attracts thousands of Vietnamese to my town each year.  It is quite a site to see all the camps set up surrounding the church.  Traffic basically shuts down for a week and extra police force has to be brought in from surrounding towns.  It provides a lot of irritation as well as excitement to the local community.  Some people hate that time of year and leave town.  On the other hand myself, I like to wander around the camp sites to see the variety of shops and people.  One perk for the town is that the visitors set up restaurants tents that serve Vietnamese delicacies.  Each year I try to find a dish more unusual and exotic than the last.  Vermicelli, whole fried crabs, shrimp rolls, bulls balls in broth, but this year trumped them all.  I could only read three words describing the dish as "fried whole fish."  I thought "hmmm this could be interesting." I've had fried fish many times on my fishing trips to Canada but this was entirely different.  When they say whole fried fish, they mean the whole thing.  They gutted and descaled some of it but fins, eyes, tail, TEETH were all left intact.  It was a beastly fish that was a foot long with big, ugly teeth.  They slashed the sides to promote even cooking, put on a light batter, and flash fried it... about a day before I ate it.  The whole fish was served to me on a plate with chop sticks, carrots, parsley, and fish sauce.  It was pretty good but a little plain.  The appearance set a stage that the flavor of the fish did not live up to.

Yesterday, I was in KC.  I started off the morning with my usual greek yogurt and berries.  Then we went to see the cheap show of Dinner for Schmucks.  The movie looked hilarious from the commercials, but it was full of painfully awkward situations that were simply not enjoyable.  Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords was the funniest part of the movie but he just had a supporting role.   After almost walking out of the movie, we ate at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Eden Alley.  It's a very unusual place because it serves no meat but is located on an expensive shopping district in a area that loves red meat.  But to my surprise, we walked in and it was very busy.  The restaurant is in a big room that is filled with vintage, antique shop tables and chairs designed by local artists.  Everything they make has the option of being vegan, but it does not taste vegan.  I once had mushroom loaf (like meat loaf) and would never have guessed that it did not have meat.  For our meal, I had a tomato based black bean soup with sirachi sauce and a salad with beets, green apples, couscous, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, feta, and a poppy seed dressing.  The soup was the best black bean that I have ever tried.  The beans were not overcooked and just gave way with the right amount of pressure.  The tomato base provided a much deeper texture and flavor than the traditional broth base.  The sirachi gave it a nice bite as it went down my throat.  Their dessert tray looked amazing, and I was shocked to find out that most of the cakes were vegan.  Now I am not usually a cake person, but I just had to try a piece.  I got a huge slice of avocado-lemon poppy seed cake and my girlfriend had coconut cloud cake (not vegan).  The cake was a funky yellow color and incredibly dense (it's hard to get a fluffy cake without butter or eggs).  It was covered in florescent green icing.  I was a little skeptical but on my first bite I was blown away.  I never thought vegan cake could taste like it.  It was moist and flavorful with tones of lemon and the subtle creaminess of avocado.  I think they might have used the avocado to replace the butter, which is genius.  It was delicious, but definitely not cake in the traditional sense.  The texture was very heavy and had varying density which provided a lot of different textures.  A new word is needed to describe this "cake." The coconut cloud cake was just like the name describes.  The white cake was like and airy with a pillowy coconut frosting floating on top.  When we first got the massive slices we were intimidated and prepared to have leftover cake to take home.  But after those first bites everything changed. Ten minutes later and even forensic specialists wouldn't have been able to find a trace of cake.  It was so amazing we cleaned the plates.  And afterwards, I didn't feel weighed down like I usually do after eating cake.  I will definitely have it again.  They sell a cookbook that I am excited to try out, hoping they have the recipe.  Eden Alley is a must try if you ever visit Kansas City.