Simple Pleasures, April 2011 Edition

On Friday I caught up with some good friends over dinner.  We live in two different towns, so we rendezvous-ed at a big shopping center halfway between them.  The dining options were somewhat limited, and we picked a mass-market Asian fusion kind of place.  The food was not unpleasant, but really sub-par as far as Asian food goes.  I had a dish with tofu and broccoli, and the tofu was just as it would be if you opened a package of smooth tofu and cut it into pieces--bland and slippery, not crispy or flavorful like it often is at Chinese restaurants.  The sauce was thin and not particularly flavorful either.  Nevertheless, the whole experience was very pleasant because I was there with friends and the weather was great.  We got to be silly just like we always are when we hang out, and we got to catch up on what's been going on in each other's lives.  After dinner we had planned to see a movie, but nothing that was playing looked too good, so we just wandered through a bookstore instead.  The evening was a prime example of the power of simple pleasures to bring joy.

Burritos

I hesitate to say that burritos are my favorite food, but in the last few years they have certainly climbed right up near the top of my list.  I think it's largely due to Carrburritos, a superlative burrito restaurant in Carrboro, NC.  Also the Cosmic Cantina, which has locations at least in Durham and Chapel Hill.  The burritos there are much more straightforward than Carrburritos, but still completely satisfying.  In fact, come to think of it, I had one burrito from Carrburritos and one from Cosmic today, which makes it a pretty awesome day in my book.  The burrito has endless variety and potential, it's a neat and tidy package, and it's got all your food groups in one handheld bundle.  What more could you ask for?  My favorite burrito at Carrburritos is the regular black-bean burrito with guacamole filling and jalapeños added.  At Cosmic I go for the regular veggie burrito and use liberal amounts of Valentina hot sauce.  I've got more stories about burritos, but that's all for now.  I'm not thoroughly happy with this drawing, but I tried it a number of times, and concluded I'm just too tired to get it better right now, so up it goes.  Burritos, on the other hand, I am entirely happy with.  Mmmmm!  So good!

Desperation Dinners

I called this post "Desperation Dinners," because I'm a sucker for alliteration, but I prefer to think of them as "adventure dinners."  You know the kind, where you come home after a long day and open the cupboard to find nothing you're looking for and a bunch of ingredients that don't really go together.  For some people, that would mean it was time to go shopping.  For me?  It's time to get creative.  And that's how I end up eating things that I could never in good conscience serve to anybody else: scrambled eggs over rice with sardines on top, sandwiches with nothing but cheese and mustard, microwaved frozen veggies over spaghetti with hot sauce, and so on.  I honestly and truly do not mind these concoctions, but I will admit that they're not usually meals I would choose to repeat.  Tonight I had a perfectly respectable swiss cheese and mushroom omelette with some of the aforementioned frozen vegetables on the side.  And unlike this duck, I am careful not to leave things on top of inactive burners on the stove.  Fire safety, people.  Good luck with all of your future adventure dinners!