Wherein I admit to the cardinal sin of foodies

I don't always have time to make dinner.

What can I say? I live a jet-set life, full of adventure and interesting people. People who wear glasses unironically, places that set my soul ablaze with gastronomical delight, full of bright shiny objects to distract me from an existence which is increasingly about selling things. 

I'm rarely home. And even though I have three grocery stores within walking distance of my apartment, I've been known to do that which must not be named, from time to time.

Eat. Frozen. Dinners.

I'm constantly searching for a good frozen dinner (which I hold myself to one a week). We're not talking WW, or Hungry Man, or anything like that CRAP. Although I have been known to enjoy a Chicken Philly flatbread from Lean Cuisine. Try it. You might like it.

This is about it in the frozen food department. Which means, once a week, I have a date with one of these Chicken Philly Flatbreads and a Caesar Salad. I'm so sick of it.

So last night, I decided to drop $5 on a real frozen dinner. And fell in love.

Kashi's Sweet and Sour Chicken is actually really good. Don't hate. Try it. You might like it. The brown rice is savory and mixes extremely well with the S&S sauce in the package. The chicken is not dry, and the veggies taste like they actually lived in the ground at some point. It's expensive, but not more than you would likely spend on making yourself dinner or going out for a quick meal. It's better for you than eating a hamburger. And it tastes great.

Swimming Pretty in Denver

I visited the Downtown Aquarium, Downtown Denver that is.

Years ago I visited the aquarium and was not very impressed. This time around I was pretty pleased so either they've changed things or I'm just more easily entertained these days.

Let's do this one Sara style:

Biggest Mistake:
We accidentally started the tour backwards. We thought we were rather clever (at least I did) going in reverse but I wouldn't recommend it, there is a reason it's set up the way it is and it all has to do with building suspense. We saw the romantic ending between human and stingray before any of the back story. Follow the path for a proper story build-up.

Biggest Silly Girl Moment:
The Stingrays are there to touch. Definitely shrieked like a little silly girl the first time I got a finger on one, they are pretty slimy, you've been warned. Also some of them like to splash, you've been warned, again.

Biggest Surprise:
A really large amount of good sized sharks. They would swim right next to the glass for a very up-close look at some serious teeth, yikes!

Biggest Tip:
The Aquarium closes at 9 PM, we went a little after 7:30 on a weeknight. This was plenty of time to see the whole thing and aside from one or two other groups we had the whole thing to ourselves.

Biggest Bummer:
The Aquarium boasts awesome Tigers. I have not yet seen any evidence besides an empty space. Perhaps they go to bed early or were quarantined for the Swine Flu.

Biggest (cool) Amusement Park-like Feature:
I was rather entertained by the simulation of flash floods in the desert, especially because it caught us off guard (lesson learned).

Biggest (lame) Amusement Park-like Feature:
The animatronic Orangutan, although the sign saying "Don't Feed" made me giggle a bit.

Biggest reason I'd go back:
There is a restaurant on the first floor of the building that smelled like it had some very tasty food.

I think the place is overall worth a visit, especially if you're trying to impress your date.

How About A BBQ Off?

I don't think much of bars in Broomfield, CO, I have constantly been shocked then that even during daytime hours when I drove by The Old Man (just east of Sheridan on 120th Ave) that there were always cars in the parking lot. Unemployment, I thought, turns out it's BBQ.

Guess what I had, Sara? Get ready..... BBQ Sliders! That's right, point me. Three adorable little sandwiches, roast turkey, beef brisket and pulled pork, all insanely tasty. I liked the pulled pork the most but had trouble dividing my attention between the three, just like if you have kids, I'm sure. To top it all off, the best baked beans I have had from any BBQ restaurant, probably ever.

I also sampled off of my willing relative's plates (for the sake of research, of course). Fried Okra=yum, French Fries=yum, Sausage Links=yum.

I will no longer mock you Old Man.

This is just to say…

I ate the cheese fries
That you put on my table
They were delicious
So melty, with bacon.

Yeah I made a William Carlos Williams joke just then. But the cheese fries at Rib City are seriously delicious.

So delicious I couldn’t finish my super delicious pulled pork sandwich.

As far as BBQ goes, this ain’t no Rib House (I will always carry a torch for the Rib House) but it’s pretty fricking good for the Western Slope. Plus, within walking distance of my house, and work (that means downtown, such as it is in Glenwood).

Worth pulling off the highway for if you need a snack.

Especially if you like cheese and bacon as much as I do.

Just try not to think of these little guys while you’re eating it.

Good and Not so Good Ideas, Denver

Good Idea:
Emilio's Superchef Mexican Restaurant, Margaritas 4 pm-close, Thursday thru Sunday for $1.75. I'm no tequila snob but I had no difficulty enjoying these pint-sized babies and even less trouble getting drunk off of two.

Not So Good Idea:
Being too tipsy to fully enjoy my always delicious Steak Bowl with yakatori sauce, white rice and add on veggies from Tokyo Joe's. I did somehow manage to eat all the edamame out with chopstiks, so Margaritas must not kill all fine motor skills.

Good Idea:
Getting a pedi-cab ride to Liploss to get my hipster dance moves on. Drinking a delicious drink titled "Pink Pussy."
~Not so Good Idea:
Arriving after 10 PM, thus having to fork over $6.

Not so Good and Good idea:
A large buffet of Italian food for brunch at Cinzetti's. I conqured eating 4 different forms of potato in one sitting (mashed, rosemary roasted, hashbrown and soup), it's a tie between the mashed and roasted for the best. Disappointed by sub-par pastas. Annoyed to the possibe point of no return by fellow diners. Ate tasty tiny creme puff that was completely worth excruciating food baby pain that was to follow.

Good Idea:
Sunshine Cleaning at the Mayan (probably my favorite movie theater in Denver).

Not so Good Idea:
Dinner at Sputnik. The BLT is very tasty but no matter how often you ask to add the add-on avacado it never seems to show up with it on it. The sweet potato fries were ok but nothing to write to mom about. Also probably had the worst waitress in recent memory. Being hipster is one thing but it shouldn't translate to crap/lazy waitress. "Uhm excuse me miss, I know you're super busy rubbing up on your boss behind the bar but we've been finished eating for about 20 minutes and were wondering if it would kill you to let us pay you, since obviously you aren't going to offer to get us another drink?" Perhaps I'll sit at the bar from now on.

Good Idea:
Iced Coffee with Caramel from Fluid

Good Idea:
Relaxing in the Colorado sunshine with friends at Cheesman Park. The grass is already in loungeable condition. Do apply that sunscreen and watch out for ghosts as it was formerly a cemetary.

Albuquerque here I come!

Booked flight/hotel for my trip to beautiful Albuquerque NM this morning.

Front desk clerk: "Would you like a mountain view or a city view from your room?"

There are mountains in Albuquerque? Wtf?

This led me to wonder what else there is about this city I don't know. I'm gonna be there for three whole days - plenty of explorations time.

So, dear readers, I am soliciting your advice. If you comment here and tell me what to do in the desert, I promise I will, to the best of my abilities, attempt to try it. And take photos. Because right at this moment the only thing anyone has suggested is that there is a really awesome lesbian bar. Hm.

Orlando - The Happiest Place on Earth

Before I go any further, I should tell you that I travel a lot for work. So when I'm going to exotic locales such as Detroit, it's because my boss told me I have to put on my producer hat.

The good news: work picks up the check for almost everything. Travel. Hotel. And food.

The bad news: I don't get to enjoy myself nearly as much as I should.

So for every three times I have to go to places like Detroit, Des Moines or Parsippany, NJ, I get one chance to go to a good place.

THE HAPPIEST FRIGGIN' PLACE ON EARTH.

Orlando is what I imagine heaven is like if you die as a young child. Minus the evilness that is Donald Duck. (side note: Watching a Donald Duck cartoon is like watching a train wreck in slow-motion. You can see the crash coming, and you know you can't stop it, but you can't stop looking at it because you know there's going to be dead bodies all over the track.)

I won't bore you with work details except these: 3 days, 2 tapes, The Kennedy Space Center, Epcot, The Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney.

Food in Orlando, IMO, is hit or miss. There are some really good places to eat, but lots of places that suffer from the Chuck E. Cheese Syndrome - you know, just because it's pizza doesn't mean it's edible.

We ate at four places I will, however, admit to. 

1) Nine Dragons, a Chinese restaurant in the World showcase at Epcot, was delightful. The atmosphere is so-so, pretty much like any restaurant inside a theme park, but the Sweet and Sour Pork was to die for. "Just like we got in NYC," my cameraman Keith said. I agreed. They don't make S&S like this in Denver.

2) Grill's, a seafood joint on Cape Canaveral, was decent. Keith had the Mahi-Mahi, and I had a bowl of Clam Chowder which was a bit too sweet for my liking. We had mild heat stroke from shooting 6 hours in 90 degree weather with 85 percent humidity. I might have been delirious, but I think I saw a dolphin go into the kitchen.

3) Wolfgang Puck's Cafe in Downtown Disney, good value and good food. When I was a child, I had the good fortune of visiting Disney World a lot and we ate at the upstairs Wolfgang Puck a lot. (We were poor kids. But my mom knew what was important. Traveling and food.) The upstairs food is to die for. The downstairs food is simpler, but good. I had a Chicken Aioli sandwich and the Butternut Squash Soup, both of which satisfied. Keith had a Cobb Salad, and didn't look too impressed. Oh well.

4) Bongo's in Downtown Disney shockingly didn't taste at all like a chain. I had the Vaca Frita. Delicious fried shredded beef with onions and a side of adobo rice. It was seriously busy with mostly adults, which was great. Kids and Disney are synonymous, but not here - sometimes you just have to get away from it.

That's me on the far left. Keith is on the far right. That's our camera.

Favorites in Seattle

Because I was asked today,

My 3 Favorite Seattle Tourist Activities:

1. Experience Music Project
~ Crowded fun; don't be afraid to fight a child for an interactive exhibit.

2. Underground (Walking) Tour
~Creepy fun; bring a jacket it gets chilly.

3. The Duck Tour
~Cheesy fun; roll with it and see Sleepless in Seattle beforehand so you don't end up pretending to know what they are pointing out, like I did.

Add-On for fun:
Summer Solstice Parade in Fremont, get there early for the "unofficial" and naked start. For added awkward fun, bring your father.

For Uptight Oxymorons

As I laid face down in a High School on the outskirts of Boulder, I thought to myself, "more people should know about this, had I known about this while I was at CU I would have been here all the time."

The oxymoron quality of the idea of a back-facial has already been pointed out to me. I'm promoting it anyway. It appears that only old people know the benefits of going to a Tech school for cheap salon type services. While I'm not offering up my hair anytime soon (even though I'm sure it would be fine). How much can a girl (or in the case of this semester, one guy) screw up a massage with river stones and exfoliate cremes? Not enough to stop me and my crew of 50+ year-old buddies.

Advice today, spend the $8, plus tip, go to the Boulder Valley Tech School and de-stress for an hour.

P.S. Only during most weekday mornings in the Spring semester.

The saddest place in America

You want to know what the saddest place in America is? No, it's not a puppy-killing factory. It's Detroit, Michigan.

I'm sure Detroit was a nice place at some point. (Okay, that's a stretch.) But now, it's a cesspool, filled with potholed streets, sub-par graffiti (yes, there is a such thing as good graffiti) and ghosts. 

How scary is Detroit? Me and my cameraman, Jeff, got lost at one point. In the middle of the day. And we were petrified.

Don't go. Don't ever go.

We were fortunately there only 24 hours. We ate dinner at Big City Bar and Grill, found it to be alright, if standard. We split a ham and pineapple pizza - it was edible. But we had been traveling for 4 hours. A brick would have tasted good at that point. But the beer was cold and the Nuggets game was on TV.

We skipped breakfast, and for lunch before we caught our flight, decided to get out of the bleak and visit Ann Arbor.

Ann Arbor is a broke-ass Boulder. That's the best way I can put it. It has its charm, and is probably the best town for 300 miles in every direction, but that's not saying much. Pueblo would be the best town for 300 miles in every direction if plopped in Eastern Michigan.

What the city lacked in flair (or yuppies) it made up for in our dining experience. We ate at the Red Hawk Bar and Grill in Ann Arbor. I had the Cuban Hero and found lots of pork, great ham and swiss cheese and just the right amount of pickle. The chorizo was a little burnt, but tasty. The place is classy, but I think it tries a little too much. Exposed brick gave way to enameled floors, and too much local "art" on the walls. 

Feeling adventurous? Give Downtown Detroit a try on a weekend night? Sure, you might get shot, but that's part of the fun of trying new things.