Wednesday, May 21, 2008

THE BEST THING ABOUT MINNEAPOLIS

I haven’t had much to say lately, which is strange because I feel that I have been very busy. I guess I have enjoyed playing word games on Facebook more than blogging lately. Therefore, during my lunches I sit down to have a quick game of something and then notice an hour has passed and I have no time to write anything. Again, not that anything interesting would be said. Maybe I should change my blog name back to “I Have Nothing Interesting To Say: Read Me”.

I had a wonderful time in Minneapolis, as I always do. It is truly a great city. On Thursday I went out for Thai food with Roxanne, my oldest friend. She isn’t the oldest of my friends but I have known her since I was about 6mo old so she is really more like family than friend. I mean I’ve known her longer than my sister. It is amazing that we still enjoy each others company as much as we do. Anyway, the point of my story was that we went out for Thai food and I got to eat mock duck. I don’t know what it is about Minneapolis that every Thai and Vietnamese place has mock duck on the menu but it is a wonderful thing. Maybe there is a mock duck factory in the twin cities somewhere that I have never heard of. What I wouldn’t do to get some proper mock duck here in Chicago. Sure my family lives in Minneapolis. Sure I love the quiet vibe of an ever more cosmopolitan city. Sure I get to see old friends who mean the world to me. Regardless, mock duck is quite possibly the best thing in Minneapolis.

Of course I have no idea if the mock duck tastes anything like real duck but I do know that it tastes delicious. It’s moist and firm and chewy all at the same time. It has a fantastic flavor and it makes me incredibly happy. I ordered mock duck pad thai at a level five spicy out of five and didn’t even need to put more hot sauce on it, although I could have. It was nice and red with spice when it arrived on my plate. It even had big tofu pieces along with the mock duck! Usually they just put some little crap pieces in there if it isn't your main "meat". I have to do some research and find out where I can get some of this wonderful product and make my own mock ducky dishes. I actually just did a google search for "mock duck chicago" and found a restaurant that serves the stuff. Dharma Garden here I come. I should also mention that the first entry on google was from someone who went to college in Minneapolis and was lamenting the mockducklessness of Chicago.

On Friday the entire family (parents, aunts & uncles, cousins, and grandparents) went for dinner at Cristos, a Greek restaurant. The food there was incredibly delicious as well. I ordered dessert, which I never do, and tasted a little piece of heaven called milopita. This thing was filo dough wrapped around baked apples in a ricotta/cream cheese mixture. There was some kind of sweet wonderful sauce all around it. I won’t want another one for about five years because it was incredibly rich but it was certainly something wonderful to store in the back of my, “delicious things to eat” corner of my mind.

I also saw two movies, Iron Man and Prince Caspian, which is insane because I never go out to the movies. It was great fun even though I took a benadryl, which never make me sleepy but miraculously did that day, before going to see Iron Man and dosed a little bit. Oh well, just gives me more reason to see it again. I now have to reread Prince Caspian because, while I think it was similar to the book, if it didn’t follow the story closely it was a total Two Towers rip off. Then again, the first one was very true to the story so I’m not really sure why it wouldn’t be. If anyone remembers and will let me know so that I can continue to read Atlas Shrugged (which I am enjoying immensely although not as much as The Fountainhead) and not have to bother with minor literary distractions. Then again, literary distractions can be cool as I just read a book called Running With Walker, which was a father’s memoir of taking care of his autistic son and was incredibly glad that I did.

Now for the song reveal

2. Now for all ya’ll who ain’t heard of me/ Mr. M-O-E the Barre Baby/ I’m a South Side living legend/ A third ward /bone hard/ Street veteran. Barre Baby, Big Moe.

5. They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom/ For trying to change the system from within/ I’m coming now I’m coming to reward them. First We Take Manhattan, Leonard Cohen

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what is the mock duck made out of? Is it a meat-substitute like tofurkey?

Anonymous said...

Don't change your blog name. At least not to its former name. Even if you don't write as often as you used to, it's still interesting to read. Maybe "Occasional Musings on Life"??? "Occasional Musings of Moderate Interest"??? "Intermittent Musings..."??? Hmm...

Glad you enjoyed Minneapolis! It was great to spend time with you. Sorry we didn't get to Midtown Global Market -- next time, with luck. (I wonder if they sell mock duck there...)

dmarks said...

Did it taste just like chicken?

Mrs. Loquacious said...

I've been Scrambling on FB too! It has replaced my blogging as a time-sink. ;)

I've never had mock duck. Or maybe I have but I didn't know what it was and just ate it without question. Sometimes it's better not to ask questions, I have learned. Ignorance allows me to be a more adventurous diner.

Foofa said...

Citizen of the World- It is made out of wheat gluten. Funny, I had to look it up and I have been eating the stuff since high school.

Mom- I won't really change it. Also, mock duck isn't really the best thing about being home.

dmarks- Nope. Not that I have tasted chicken but I have tasted soy protein chicken and it doesn't taste anything like that.

Mrs L- OOHH! You should friend me. I always need more people to play with. My email is on my profile. I think the only drawback to being a vegetarian is missing out on some food choices, I could never judge Iron Chef :(

waylon solos said...

i hadn't connected the dots until now, but it's true! there's mock duck at like every vietnamese restaurant in minneapolis. but i've never had it out here and i go out for vietnamese food often. the world is a very strange place.

Foofa said...

Waylon- So it isn't just Chicago? Huh...this may warrant some investigation.

Anonymous said...

Friend, I was very excited when I first saw dharma garden's menu, so much fake meat. I had it once (it was only ok) and shortly after I read that they were shut down for quite a long time due to many, many, disgusting health/rodent-related violations. beware.

terry said...

shouldn't it just be called muck?

kim said...

Just came back from Minneapolis myself. It was awesome. Spent a lot of time at my folks on the golf course (they don't play, they just look at it). But made it downtown to buy a cool graduation gift for my niece. I miss South Minneapolis. It hurts my heart everytime I am there. Cristos is on Nicollet isn't it? I used to live there next to the Black Forest. Whittier neighborhood. Gotta love it.

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

I live in Minneapolis. The variety of good food is one of the things I love about this city. It's right up there with the accessibility to all the wonderful lakes. Cheers.