San Francisco Double Dutch Disco* (day 1)

*bonus points to whoever knows what song that is from! :)

My mom and I left for San Francisco at 4AM Monday morning- it was a bit crazy, considering I'd only gotten 1 1/2 hours of sleep. Not to mention we 'didn't show up' in the system and we had to buy new tickets! (thankfully we are now being reimbursed)

We arrived in San Francisco at 8AM, which was actually quite fantastic because now we could actually have the whole day there!


First stop was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art! This was where we picked up our Citypasses- we decided that we didn't want to bother with a car, walking and taking the bus is where it's at. This also included free admission to the SFMOMA, which was awesome!

I'm a big fan of Andy Warhol, so it was very exciting to see some of his paintings there.

For lunch, we walked down over to the Mission District. Before we left, I'd put together a nice little list of restaurants & addresses on an index card and circled them on a map. This really saved us a lot of time. Unfortunately, two of the restaurants we closed for lunch.... but finally we stumbled upon Udupi Palace.

This was a nice little South Indian Vegetarian place, and as soon as we walked in we were hit by the most heavenly scents of delicious food being cooked up in the kitchen.

My mom ordered the vegetable curry:
I had a few bites of her meal, and it was good. Not exceptional, but it was a good curry. The orangey sauce on the left was sort of citrusy and really yummy. We didn't even touch the yogurty sauce- my mom said that she'd go vegan for the entire trip, and she stuck with that!

I ordered the mix vegetable uthappam- a rice/lentil pancake with vegetables mixed right in. It was pretty good! I'd love to try making it on my own sometime.


The top sauces were some sort of spicy chili sauce, a coconut sauce, and what I think was a cilantro-y one. They were all pretty good, but I liked the green one the best.
The orange sauce in the metal bowl was okay- it tasted like my mom's curry, which doesn't mean that it was BAD, just nothing special.

*EDIT: it seems that the 'orange sauce' is actually a soup known as sambal. oops! That's what I get for not doing my research!

Overall, though, it was a great meal and very satisfying for two hungry travellers. :)

Then... we went shopping at a random mall we came across.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel, and then headed down to Cafe Gratitude! It's a mostly-raw, vegan restaurant. It's also the only 100% organic restaurant, according to or server (most restaurants that claim to be organic are only 'organic when available')
I started off with 'I am Bold', a tomato/carrot/celery juice. Yum!

My mom ordered the soup of the day, a bean & rice chili, as well as the 'I am Graceful' Thai quinoa bowl. I tried some of each, and they were good.

We ordered two sides as well, a carrot-flax cracker and the sprouted almond and sesame hummus. The crackers were especially delicous!

I ordered the Asian Kale salad... and it was SO GOOD. I was craving some greens, and this towering mountain of raw kale was definitely what I was looking for. Mmm!I really, really, really like Cafe Gratitude, or at least the Mission location. We ended up going back on Wednesday- more on that later!

Heritage Festival

(here's the post I wrote on the Heritage Festival last year)

Every year, during the August long weekend, Edmonton has a Heritage Festival down at Hawrelak park. It's a wonderful celebration of cultures from around the world: over 60 pavilions representing more than 75 cultures!

As you can imagine, not only is there dancing, music, crafts, clothing, jewelery, and anything else remotely cultural... but there's also AMAZING food. It's actually quite overwhelming how many vegan foods are offered. Just look at that menu! Food and drinks are bought using special food tickets, which can sometimes get annoying when you're stuck in a long ticket booth line, but it's not a big deal if you get a lot of tickets early in the day.

Usually, when we go, I'm there with my family for an hour or two for just one of the days. This year, I decided that there was so much to do and see and EAT that I would go all 3 days. Intense!

On Saturday, I went with my friend Jaime. We were there for 4 hours, which ended up being just a bit much. It was definitely a lot of fun, though, and I really liked going into every single pavilion.

We also discovered the 'freebie' tents set up by sponsors- radio stations, the army, the city government, the police service, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Enmax, Western Union... I managed to end up with a reusable grocery bag, some frisbees, a few pencils and pens, a notebook, a poster, bookmarks, a flashlight keychain, erasers, temporary tatoos... and more! Jaime said that she felt bad about taking all this free stuff, but I joked that "it's not stealing, it's just taking advantage!" (besides, I'm going to use most of this swag anyways, especially the frisbees)

What did we eat? I had alicha, Eritrean vegetables on injera bread. YUM. OH WOW DO I EVER LOVE INJERA.
In fact, it was so good that I headed to the Ethiopian pavilion for some more injera, but with two kinds of lentils instead.

Needless to say, I was one happy vegan. :D

One dish that Jaime had was an interesting sort of Japanese pizza/pancake, okonomi yaki. I had a feeling it wasn't vegan (and I was right), but it would be cool to make a vegetable-loaded vegan version sometime.

The next day, Sunday, I went with my mom and sisters. We were there for only an hour or so, haha. I still managed to get some great food, though! Heh.

From the Kenyan pavilion, I bought some kale with simmered cornmeal. The kale was delicious, albeit a bit oily, while I wasn't a huge fan of the cornmeal. Still a satisfying lunch, though, and I was glad to support the Kenyan culture. There wasn't anyone in line when I popped by their pavilion, which is unusual at Heritage Days, so I felt bad for them!

I had a craving for some more vegetables, of course, so I then headed down to the Taiwan Buffet for some mixed vegetable stir-fry. Yum! Still a bit oily, but still delicious.

At the Vietnamese tent:

Yay, gotta love that green tea!
When I biked back to Heritage Days today (Monday), I met up with a group of friends. Being the last day of the festival, it was a good deal more crowded than it had been on the previous days. When we were watched Jaime do her Irish dancing, which was definitely very cool. Actually, all the dancing there is really quite awesome!

Now, what did I eat? I had some fresh mango from Fiji, alicha again from Eritrea, and some Perrier water from the French pavilion. :)

Overall, I had an AWESOME time. I'll do my best to go all 3 days again next year, since it's such an amazing experience and only happens once a year anyways. Besides, there was some food that I didn't get to try because it ran out (namely, the steamed vegetables from Ethiopia! I was looking forward to those, but both times I went on two seperate days they had run out) or I just didn't end up getting (barbeque corn, Nepalese black bean & rice soup).

Can't wait for next year! :D

ACK. long time no post (and the meme, finally)

Oh dear, it's been ages since I last posted! After exams were done & school ended, I went to BC for a while for my brother's soccer tournament, then I just got caught up in work & summer fun...


Anyways, while I was in the Okanagan, we went shopping at this one mall and for lunch I had a delicious seaweed salad. I'd always wanted to try one, and I was quite impressed! The texture was different, but still good, and the dressing was sweet and sesame-y. Mm!

Here's a cellphone picture I took:
(I didn't think to take a picture until it was almost done... hehe)

I ended up buying 3 more salads to eat for dinner. Yum! :D

From now on, whenever we head out to a sushi place or japanese restaurant, I'm going to make a point of ordering seaweed salad, if I can.



Also... Cherry tagged me in a meme a while back, and so now I'll fill that out :D

1) LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE? Get Smart. I went with some friends, and boy that was funny. Steve Carrell is one hilarious man.

2) WHAT BOOK ARE U READING? Animal Farm by George Orwell, it's pretty good!

3) FAVOURITE BOARD GAME? Either Cranium or this one game I played once at a friend's house- Telepathy? I think that's what it was called.

4) FAVOURITE MAGAZINE? VegNews or Teen Vogue

5) FAVOURITE SMELLS? Vanilla, laundry, cinnamon, and tomato plants. And fava bean soup!

6) FAVOURITE SOUNDS? Music by Neutral Milk Hotel, my youngest sister's laugh, waves hitting a beach, the hilarious things my friends say..

7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Worrying about the future, or realizing that you've done something SO stupid but the soonest you can talk to the person is like the next day so there's nothing you can do but fret and worry and drive yourself INSANE.

8) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE? Breakfast (hehe)

9) FAVOURITE FAST FOOD PLACE? No thanks... If I'm forced to eat fast food, I'll have a dressing-less salad at Subway, basically a big plate of iceberg lettuce and vegetables.

10) FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? I like Waverly for a girl and Finnegan for a boy. I also once had this crazy idea of naming my kids after colours... Scarley, Rusty, Goldie, Chartreuse, Aquamarine, Cobalt, Violet... but that is just a silly idea I once had. There's no way I'd ever have that many kids :S

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D... save it for when I'd really need it.

12) DO U DRIVE FAST? Erm, I don't drive. I still don't have my learner's, ack!

13) DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? Nope

14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY? definitely cool!

15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? I don't have one :) I walk, bike, take the bus, and have my mom drive me as a last resort

16) FAVOURITE DRINK? Water, or my special stevia lemonade with cayenne pepper for a kick. SO GOOD.

17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD… start writing and recording some songs. I love playing guitar, and even though I'm not the best singer it's fun anyways.

18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? You bet

19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? I'd like to be blonder than I am now, but if it has to be a totally different colour than I'd say purple :D

20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN? Just Edmonton!

21) FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I don't like to watch sports on TV, but I like watching my brother play soccer or my friends play ball hockey

22) ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Cherry was probably the first person to comment on my blog, so that has definitely kept me going! :)

23) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED? some socks, a stuffed penguin I sewed when I was 12, the box from the tree I tried to grow last summer, and the headpiece to my sister's unicorn halloween costume (?)

24) WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?? I guess so, I could always try things differently... Although, it would be pretty cool to be someone else, or an animal. this is a weird question.

25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL? I bit of both, I guess! I always wake up early but I like staying up late too...

26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP? No eggs for me!

27) FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX? Running in the Edmonton river valley, or in the river valley having a picnic with friends.

28) FAVOURITE PIE? I made a yummmmy vegan berry pie once, that was good, although it was more of a crisp or crumble.

29) FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR? Lemon sorbet

30) OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?

(I'm not going to tag anyone, so if you're reading this meme and think it sounds like fun, go ahead!)

My cousin's wedding! & one last thing about the birthday

This past weekend, I went down to Okotoks for my cousin's wedding. It was quite lovely, despite the rain, but I'll only blog about the vegan-related aspects just to keep this short.

Anyways, this is the first wedding reception I've been to since going vegan, so I was a bit nervous about how this would go down. The dinner was at the Calgary Golf and Country Club, so naturally I assumed it would be a sit-down dinner.

Now, a month or so ago, my cousin contacted me on Facebook to ask me if I ate chicken or not. Of course, I said that I didn't and explained briefly what vegans choose not to eat. I was glad to see that he made this effort, to say the least, and I was excitedly anticipating exactly what I would end up eating.

Shall I put it simply?

The dinner was AMAZING. Not perfect, but pretty darn close!

First was a rich lentil soup. The only difference between my dish and everyone else's was that mine didn't have cream in it. And it was still amazing, of course! I'm definitely going to try pureeing my lentil soups, as it seems to add an air of sophistication, hehe.
(this picture doesn't do it much justice, unfortunately)


Next was a salad, and mine was just like everyone else's: grilled vegetables with lettuce and vinaigrette.
WOW that was good. I'm not a fan of artichokes or olives, so I left those, but the mushroom, zucchini, bell peppers, and tomato were fabulous! I just wish I got more!

And now for the main course...

What was on the other diners' plates? Some sort of chicken dish, vegetables, and scalloped potatoes. They all said it was very good, but I think what I had was WAY better!

Behold:
Potatoes, spinach, and mushrooms in a delicious tomato sauce, with steamed green beans and carrots on the side. Mmm! I don't like potatoes so I left those alone, but otherwise this was exquisite. I found myself trying to eat every last bit of tomatoey goodness and foraging for every piece of decadent mushroom. You don't always hear people describe mushrooms as decadent, but these were amazing! I was impressed with the steamed vegetables as well. They weren't overdone or underdone- they were JUST RIGHT.

And of course, dessert!

Strawberry sorbet and fresh berries- a PERFECT end to a great meal. What everyone else received was a chocolate mousse in a tall, fancy white chocolate 'glass', adorned with various types of chocolate shavings and fruity sauces. I didn't feel in the least bit jealous, as I only needed a light dessert anyways. In fact, I had my youngest sister eat the ice cream for me- I'm not used to food being that sweet!

All in all, I was extremely impressed with my 'special' vegan meal. I don't know quite what I was expecting, but what I ended up eating blew my mind! :D I am going to thank my cousin profusely for this!

Has anyone any wedding stories to tell- good or bad?


Now, I'm sure you're all growing sick of my raving about how awesome my friends are, but here's something else from my birthday party.

This was the card I received from my friend K:

(reads:
Grandma
You're loved so much)

Oh K, you are one silly guy.

And on the back, he wrote:

(No animals were harmed in the making of this card)

Hahahaaa, is that not awesome!?!?!

(as a side note, this K is the same guy who brought up the 'cinnamon challenge' back in November...)

Anyways, that's all folks, thanks for all the comments on previous blogs and I'm sorry for not replying to everyone. I'm still awful busy- final exams start in two weeks!!!- but as soon as things settle down, I'll try to get right back on track!

Heritage Festival!

Today, we biked over to the annual Heritage Festival at Hawrelak Park.

From their website:

"Edmonton Heritage Festival 2007 marks the 32nd annual of this premier three-day showcase of Canada's vibrant multicultural heritage. We will feature over 60 pavilions representing over seventy cultures from all over the world. Sample culinary delicacies, see creative performances, shop for crafts, artwork, and clothing, or chat with people eager to tell you a little about their cultural roots and their present-day communities in Canada."

Basically, it's a huge festival where each culture/country gets their own pavilion (or 2 or 3) and sometimes even a stage. It's real fun because you can learn about so many cultures and enjoy Canada's multicultural roots. There's music, dancing, crafts, and of course- food.

In so many ways, Heritage Days can be a vegan's nightmare... My dad is Croatian through-and-through, so we always go to the Croatian pavilion to meet cousins and such. What's for lunch there? Baby lamb flesh, pig flesh, pig-on-a-stick, and traditional elephant-ear donuts that surely contain eggs and dairy. :(

However, despite the infamously common meat-on-a-stick (seriously, shish kabobs are EVERYWHERE), there are some fantastic vegan-friendly cuisines on display. The Israeli pavilion even went so far as to proudly proclaim everything on their menu vegetarian! (falafel and more-yummmm)

The menu for all the pavilions came in the Edmonton Journal a few days ago, so I was able to plan ahead. Right away, the injera at the Ethiopian tent caught my eye. I've been wanting to try that traditional flatbread for ages!

Sadly, when we walked over there, they weren't making any food yet so no injera for Peggy. :(
BUT WAIT- what's this? The Eritreans are making injera too? So I eagerly strolled over to that pavilion.

The man serving me at the Eritrean tent was very helpful. I knew that injera was traditionally made out of a fermented batter of TEFF flour and water, but I asked him if there was dairy or egg just in case. Thankfullly, it was all good. :)

I chose the Alicha (mixed vegetables), but he was real nice and gave me a scoop of lentils too!
I'm so glad that he did, because the lentils were DEFINITELY the best I've ever had. The vegetables -cabbage, celery, and some unidentified greens- were okay. Just okay.

Eating with injera is fun, too. You take a little piece, scoop up some food with the hole-y side, and eat it. Who needs utensils?

The best part about this was that the injera soaked up all the yummy spices, so when I ate the 'plate' of injera it tasted as fantastic as the lentils did. I couldn't finish the whole thing, so my mom had the rest and she liked it too.

I bought the oh-so-manly-sounding TEFF grains awhile back, so I have just enough left to grind up and make some injera of my own. :)



At the Japanese tent, my awesome littlest sister, as obsessed with Pokemon as always, bought a Pikachu mask as well as a Pichu one.

Here's me trying one on:
I bet that you've been blinded by my beauty.


At the Arab site, a woman was making pita/flatbread, and it was fascinating to watch:

First, she'd take a ball of dough, then would twist & spin it in her hands to stretch it out.
She'd place it on a big pillow and stretch it out a bit more...
Then flip it onto a hot..thingy. It was like an oven with a big round top.

After a minute or so, the pita would be done. It was all done so quickly! She had a nice little crowd gathering around to watch.

One of my favorite parts about the Heritage Festival is the fact that it's at Hawrelak park. It's so beautiful there! The whole place is huge and has a lovely pond with paddleboats. You can skate there in the winter, too.

Aw, ducks!


You've probably had enough about our Heritage Festival by now, but I found some neat facts on the website:

(from http://www.heritage-festival.com/content.php?ID=32)

-The Festival's attendance record of over 350,000 was achieved in 2006

-The 1987 Festival was particularly notable for its theme of "Come-Along-and-Conga." That year, participants set a world record for the longest conga line ever of 10,442 people-an achievement recognized by a framed certificate from the Guinness Book of Records which hangs in the Festival offices to this day.

-Edmonton's "Black Friday" tornado struck just as the 1987 Heritage Festival was being set up in Hawrelak Park, severely damaging most of the Festival's tent inventory and therefore putting that year's entire Festival in peril. People involved in the Heritage Festival back then still warmly remember how an impromptu group of volunteers from different cultural organizations came together at the site and went from tent to tent making enough repairs to allow the Festival to proceed that weekend. Although the weather continued inclement throughout the weekend, 140,000 people attended that year.


We can't go back tomorrow (going to a friend's lake), but I'm excited already for next year! :D

Savoy's Health Cafe & Planet Organic

Today, my mom took me out for lunch to this nice little Indian place called "Savoy's Health Cafe". I was really excited because it was my first trip ever to a veg-friendly restaurant!

We both ordered the dossa with spiced veggies, sort of like a crepe made with 3 different flours. It was so good! The dossa itself was so intriguing... it was light and kinda crunchy and chewy at the same time. I've just looked up a recipe and I think that I'll try to make some dossa sometime, even though I hate rice. The vegetables inside were delicious too, except that there were potatoes and I hate potatoes. :( The spices. though, were AMAZING- I could NOT figure out what they were!

The dossas also came with a yummy dal (lentil soup) and a pair of deliciously spicy chutneys.

Needless to say, I ate well. :D I really should have brought a camera or something, because it all looked to amazing, too!

We also bought two fresh juices to share, one with carrot, beet, apple, orange, and ginger. The other had carrot, apple, orange, ginger, bell pepper, and daikon. And they were both amazing- great enough to convince me to buy my own juicer! I liked the first one -with the beets- the best (I think it was called the Energizer).

The verdict on Savoy's Health Cafe? I don't eat out enough to give a real evaluation, but I do know that it's a place I'll need to come back to. The menu isn't huge, but there are a number of vegan options. And the very extensive list of juices is impressive- apart from the specials (which are blends), you can get cucumber juice, or carrot, or beet, or melon, or spinach, or one of the many others...


Then, later today, I finalllllllly made a trip out to Planet Organic. They really need to build one closer to home, because it's a pain having to drive so far to get to a health food store. We had to pick up my brother from a friend's house so it was just a quick trip, but I managed to get a nice bunch of staples:

Egg replacer! FINALLY! It' s not the Ener-G brand, but who cares? At least I'll be able to bind waffles and make yellow lemon squares in the future. :)


Supposedly, iron is better absorbed when legumes have been soaked or sprouted, so I've decided to start sprouting again. Plus, wouldn't lentil sprouts be lovely in sushi?


I would pass by the agave nectar in the store, think about buying it, then just be like WHATEVER and turn around to grab a new bottle of flax oil. But not today! Finally, I decided to get some agave nectar, and I've tried a little bit and it's amazing. So good. My awesome littles sister tried some too and she loves it, woohoo!


Yesterday, I ate a few sunflower seeds... so today, my mom insisted on buying a biiiiiig, like FIVE-POUND bag. Uh, yeah.. "Mom, I like sunflower seeds, but not THAT much..."


TEFF. It just sounds so manly. Sure, those little grains may be tiny, but I'm sure that they pack a big punch of masculinity in every one. Plus, they're real high in iron (25% of your DV per 1/4 cup!), so TEFF's manliness just makes sense.

Anyways (I think that agave nectar is getting to me), I think that I'm definitely going to make a yummy porridge mix. TEFF, quinoa, amaranth, barley, oats, and wheat berries are all invited. Maybe millet too...

AND, if I'm feeling up to it, I might try making some Ethiopian Injera bread. I'll have to grind the grains, but that's no problemo. Plus, I was considering buying the teff flour, but it's 20 cents more than the grains! :o


I'm not a fan of processed or packaged foods, but energy bars like the Vega ones are great for those desperate times when you don't know if you'll be getting anything to eat, or if you're out all day. Case in point: I've been going to those FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer games for the past 2 weeks, and sometimes we'll be out all day then go straight to the game. I'm sometimes too lazy to whip up a quick salad to take with me, and the stupid people at Commonwealth Stadium take all your food away anyways. Argh.

So yeah, energy bars are great for desperate times. :)



And finally.... ALMOND BUTTA! My mom picked this out, and she never reads the packages, of course, so it's actually a roasted almond butter. I'd prefer it to be raw, in all honesty, but this stuff smells (and tastes!) soooooooo good...

In the rush, I forgot to buy nori, wakame, hijiki, millet, steel-cut oats, and a few other things. Ah well, I'll just have to go back sometime, then!

Lotsa stuff today!

Wowee... We're getting our deck redone and my dad's heart is set on a concrete deck, so he had some guys come today to drill holes and stuff. Last week, we had to rip out the old deck and argh that was so boring- I'd take an old, rotten plank of wood, walk around to the front yard, drop it in the dumpster. Then go take another board- over and over again, for 2 hours. :S

ANYWAYS.

Recipe Review: Time-Warp Lemon Squares from VegWeb

Last week, my mom went to this stuffy old place called "Rutherford House" for lunch, and of course she insisted on bringing me & my sisters along. My sisters and I. Whatever. So, of course I was real bored and couldn't eat anything because there were chicken and cream cheese sandwiches and then a salad with chunks of cheese and chicken flesh. Argh. And the vegetables were all touching the cheese, of course, so I kinda didn't want to each those. I was okay, though- I asked for green tea and that kept me happy. :)

And what do those ramblings have to do with lemon squares? Well, there was a dessert platter with cookies and scones and omni crap. Upon seeing th elemon squares, I said to one of my sisters, "Hey let's make lemon squares sometime" and she got all excited.

I don't have Ener-G so used flaxseed...

I was rolling the lemons on the counter to break down some of the membranes, and all the essential oils leaked out from the zest and onto the counter! I wish I could have taken a "picture" of how nice and lemony my hands smelled...
In the oven... Looks real flaxseed-y!
I ended up baking this for an extra 20 minutes, since it wouldn't set, then finally gave up. They did set a bit after an hour of cooling, but not so much. And of course, with the double baking timem the bottom crust was overdone. :(
My sisters and my mom all had some and they liked the taste a lot- yay! I didn't have any... Added sugars and refined foods and all. Blueberries are enough to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Maybe this recipe really does need a COMMERCIAL egg replacer? I'll try it again sometime.

The yummy salad I had for lunch- broccoli, tomato, grilled eggplant, spinach, carrots, liquid gold salad dressing plus a bit of extra lemon juice, and dulse flakes <3

I made a nice big stir-fry for supper. I had to make enough for me, my mom, and my dad, which was weird because I'm used to cooking just fo myself. :( I couldn't use any spices, either, since my dad likes bland food. I did go heavy on the aromatics, though- lots of garlic and ginger and onion.

My little piece of vegan propaganda & italian restaurants are all the same

:) My sister had this little handheld fan, and it's real neat because you can program it to display messages... How could I resist?

On another note... After watching a FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer game (It was real exciting- Congo and Austria tied 1-1), we went out for dinner with a bunch of my brother's soccer friends. Somebody decided to go to an Italian restaurant, so to Tony's Pizza Palace we went.

I verrrrrry rarely eat out. It's just not my thing. But I have been to a few Italian restuarants and they all seem to have real similar menus, in general. So I was pleased to see that this place did indeed have 'Insalata di Pomodori'- a tomato salad.

It was pretty goood- roma tomatoes, garlic, basil, and onions. Mmmm. There were only two problems: WAYYYYY too much olive oil (ugh!) and there was a random piece of CHEESE in it. (no cheese in the menu's description of the salad!)

I got my mom to pick out the pus, and I didn't eat any of the salad within a 6cm radius of the crime scene.

I could have asked the waitress for another salad, and probably should have. Ah well, I'll do that next time.