Yet more food!!

I'm pretty sure I've put on a few pounds while we've been down here!! When we first arrived I lived under the delusional I thought that I might actually lose a little weight, get a little exercise, eat healthy. Yeah, right!! There's wayyyy too much good food that's too easily accessible down here! Not that accessibility has ever been an issue for me! No, I seem to be able to access food, and lots of it, no matter where I am!!

Night before last we went out for sushi. Steve got friendly with one of our campers who took us to a a great sushi restaurant where he is friends with one of the sushi chefs. It's called Mikado and it was great!! I've been trying to get Steve to go to a sushi restaurant with me since we arrived down here. One night when he was out of town, Ande and I ate at Green Tea Sushi and I've been wanting to do it again ever since. Of course he thought it sounded disgusting when it was my idea, but when a visiting camper talks about it, suddenly he's interested. Whatever! Our friend, Matt, alas, I'm afraid will never try it. He refers to it as "bait." I have to admit, that when I first got up the nerve to give it a try, the names of the entrees were somewhat intimidating. Of course some had rather innocent names like Butterfly Roll or Tuna Roll, but some of them start to sound like one of the Bizarre Foods you'd see Andrew Zimmer eating on the Travel Channel. Eel, squid, octopus......there's just no way to make that sound appealing to me.

The chef, Okki (not sure how it's spelled) was very patient with us and explained many things about the food. For instance, sushi is assumed to always contain raw fish, but that's not the case. Sushi is the word for a vinegared rice dish topped with other ingredients that usually includes fish. Sometimes, the fish component is raw, this is referred to as sashimi. And that's about as educated as I needed to get, I was ready to chow down!! As long as my meal's not staring at me, or still breathing, I'm not too picky!!

I do have to say that food is taken very seriously in most Japanese restaurants and that the presentation is as important as the taste. It's all considered an art form. I would love to visit some of the Asian countires someday to see the pottery and of course eat the food!! I find it pretty fascinating. I recently bought a DVD entitled Eat, Drink, Man, Woman that takes place in Taiwan. It's about a retired chef with 3 daughters. Much of the movie shows the methods they utlilize in that country to cook meals, many are primitive and somewhat graphic. They often start with the live critter and proceed from there to the table! Obviously our meat dishes here in the west begin with a live critter too, we've just managed to remove that step from the general public's concept of eating meat. I suppose we'd have a lot more vegetarians around otherwise. Rent the movie if you enjoy learning about other cultures and can stand to see a little fish gutting.

To top the evening off, Okki made us a special dessert (I don't think he put it on the bill which immediately made him Steve's hero du jour!) It consisted of fried bananas with chocolate sauce and whipped cream!! yum!

Today we went geocaching in a little town east of here called Old Fort. We wanted to be the "first-to-find" on a cache that was just hidden. We found it and then started searching for a place to eat. We don't need our GPS for that, altho I think I did punch "all food" in to the garmin in the car. It directed us to a restuarant on the outskirts of town that had a new name. It was called Tagi's BBQ Junction and that sounded pretty good to us!!

The owner (and chef) welcomed us warmly. His name was John but he went by Tagi. They weren't very crowded because it was late in the afternoon so we got all his attention. He was extremely friendly and recommended we try the sampler platter when we admitted we'd never been there before. He and his wife opened the place last January and he wants it to be the catalyst that puts Old Fort on the map!! He said he specializes in "fusion" BBQ, which means he uses a combination of secret spices. All I know is, it was pretty doggone good (and we were stuffed!!) The sampler included hushpuppies, french fries, cole slaw, baked beans, pinto beans and rice, a veggie burger, a beef brisket sandwich, and a pulled pork, plus 2 kinds of cake for dessert!!! SHWEW!!

I have to say that my favorite dish was Tavi's Special Cake. OMG!!! It was so good. It was a yellow cake with fried apple slices on top soaked in reduced balsamic. If you don't watch the food network, that balsamic part may sound a little gross, but lemme tell you, it was wonderful!! He even brewed me a fresh pot of coffee to wash it all down, no you KNOW that put him on top of my list!!

It was an unforgettable experience. One of many we've had down here. Most of them seem to involve great people and great food!! I suppose it's better for my health that we'll be waddling up to Indiana soon. Although, my son-in-laws family has a lot of good cooks, we may be in BEEEEEG trouble!!