I'm gonna turn dining back into eating.

Antipasto plate from a couple weeks back:

Now that's it's warm, we've been grilling (and eating on the porch) nearly every damn day.  Grilled chicken satay with garlic broccoli and Bell's Two-Hearted:

Early weekday breakfast:

Murray's steak sandwich and fresh kettle chips from the Townball Tavern at Target Field:

That was from tonight's opener.  More on that later.  Also, woodchuck madness, rock-raking weekends, homebrewing...

...and, like the rest of us, you got those old eternity blues.

If they don't win it's okay...

Dear Food Diary,


We hit up the Twins' exhibition game last night and got our second up-close look at the new ballpark.  It's a lot more exciting (and a little more annoying) completely packed with people than it was mostly empty at the open house a few weeks back.  Equally pretty, though.

The Cardinals felt right at home:

Much to your delight and/or stern disappointment, they have food at Target Field.

Oh right -- also they play baseball there.

MSTF3K:

I actually have a lot more to tell you, but I need to get outside and start some springtime chores.  It's been a crazy glorious few days (aside from a little rain yesterday afternoon).  Remind me to tell you about these things:


Mutant squirrel 
What happened to Sarah's hair in Mexico
Lots of food
Spent a half hour last Saturday chasing a woodchuck


Most sincerely yours,
Matt

Is this the best idea?

So that first picture from the other day -- of the tacos?  They were made using the Puerta Vallarta equivalent of a  gyro spit.  There was a stack of mystery pork cuts, heavily seasoned and tightly pressed together onto a vertical rotisserie.  That spun slowly in front of a charcoal chimney with a thin slot of super-heated coals.  And smoke came out of it, glorious smoke that seasoned the pineapple that rested on top of the pork spit.


I told Sarah, and I was serious, that that one meal was worth our entire trip.  I don't really mean the cost of the trip, though the other fun and experiences were worth that, but the ordeal -- the airport lines, the removing of our shoes, belts, and basic dignity (sidenote:  though Sarah apparently looks like a tweeker, I'm happy to report she was found to be drug-free and not a flight risk).  All of that was worth it just for the new experience of those tacos.  I'm hoping to find a way to recreate them here this summer.


We'd expected Puerto Vallarta to be less touristy than other relatively popular Mexican vacation spots.  That's what we'd heard, at least.  And it's weird how it was.  There was a polar divide between the very-touristy spots/shops (the Malecon, the beach front resorts, etc) and the decidedly non-touristy rest of downtown.  One side of a block would have Senior Frogs (actually one side of every block seemed to have a Senior Frogs), but then just across the street would be a second-hand shop, a farmacia, an animal farmacia, and three empty storefronts.  Then some graffiti and a stray dog.  Then a trinket shop, a beautiful gallery full of skull art, another farmacia, and a nice set of row houses with literal shacks alongside.


The patience for English varied widely, which I actually appreciated.  The hotel and nicer restaurants were fine with it, but a few blocks back from the ocean or at any of the taco stands it was a different story.  I felt like an asshole a lot of the time with my very limited Spanish, but I also felt good about not being accommodated for.  I didn't want to be the Ugly American (insomuch as I could avoid it) expecting to be met on my own terms.  So there was a lot of gesturing and polite nodding, on both sides, often.

Maybe you should travel with me.

Fuimos a México. Comí como una cabra.

and i will talk about this year... if there was something to talk about

Super Bowl chili above.  With cornbread muffins and Surly Darkness.

As an app/side, we tried version two of the sausage burgers from before.  This time, sausage meatballs on a mushroom with basil and carmelized onion.  Reduced balsamic over that.

Um... I'm not sure what these are, Food Diary.  Probably a faulty linked image from another site.  Maybe your computer has a virus or something.

Everyday is like Sunday

Dear Food Diary,


There are things we've seen, or partially seen, that we'll always wonder about -- times where we caught a passing glimpse of something beautiful (or horrible) and quickly turned our heads.  Instead of facing the full glory of the mysterious, we backed cautiously away.


Lots of these choices, or non-choices, are life-changing.  But some just leave gnawing, insignificant questions -- questions that could have been easily answered if we had just chosen to step towards the unknown.


For instance:  Two years ago I was in line at Cub Foods behind a guy who had a cart full of beef jerky and disposable cameras.  That's it.  Two-dozen packs of beef jerky and three disposable cameras.  




Look what I've eaten recently:

That's homemade pork sausage on top of a grilled portabello mushroom, on a bun with reduced balsamic vinegar and a tomato slice.  Also some potatoes.