FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Just Another Cafe Hey Day

by

Let me just start with…  It POURED today in Tampa!  So much so that I buckled a golf umbrella, spent 45 minutes driving four miles, and considered writing someone of importance requesting that Tampa now be called Atlantis.  And when it came time for lunch, I wanted only two things: something close and something cozy.

I speed dialed my favorite neighbor, Cafe Hey, and placed an order for the VLT sandwich and kale salad.  I butchered the VLT even more than usual (sorry chef!) by adding avocado (duh!) and nixing tomatoes and vegenaise.  The next modification would happen in the privacy of my desk…

I mile high piled the kale salad on my sandwich and went to town – cuban toast crumbs were a flyin’!  I didn’t care though, the dressing on the kale salad and the crunch of the lettuce and sunflower seeds were so darn good!

Here’s to hoping for a dryer tomorrow!

Urban Ma Dinner

by

My mom originally planned her big trip over the bridge to be followed by some stand up paddle boarding and then Pizza Fusion, but a lack of planning on my part led to just pizza.  Can you tell I didn’t mind??

We managed to fit in some exercise by walking the Birthday Tourist route.  As much as I enjoyed that solo adventure, it was nice to walk the walk with my ma!

Starting with the Flatbread and Dip Trio was a good idea.  It came with artichoke-like tapenade, olive tapenade, and marinara sauce.  Next time, I’ll Kristin complicate my order by asking for an extra olive tapenade in place of the marinara.  We used some of the leftover dip on our pizza and it was ridiculously delish.

This was my second time ordering the Very Vegan pizza, but this time I added roasted red onions and forgot to order multi-grain crust.  The upside to ordering the wrong crust is that now I can say with certainty that the multi-grain crust is the tastier of the two!

 

The Birthday Tourist

by

After an amazing birthday weekend spanning from wild, wild to super quality time, I was all sorts of overs: overloaded, overwhelmed, overjoyed.  I really couldn’t picture spending the last hours of my birthday doing anything other than…  Appreciating?  Holy mush pot!

I auto-piloted my way to The National’s Alligator album and began my touristy trek through downtown.  The child-sized Boston tee sealed my touristy getup.

In between snapshots, I had a brief moment of panic.  “Is Bamboozle even open for dinner on Mondays??”  A decent amount of cars, flashing christmas lights, and a sidewalk diner indicated yes!

Of my gazillion Bamboozle experiences, this was the first camera accompanied visit.  I couldn’t wait to take pictures of the real thing – the inspiration behind this feast and this feast.

I ordered my staples, read the latest TBT, and was on my way.

An odd birthday ending, it was.  But I enjoyed the solo celebration nonetheless.

Bring it 28!

Rock The Cinco In The Park

by

Rock The Park is an event in downtown Tampa where local bands play amongst a crowd of picnicking people on the first Thursday of every month.  When the May Facebook invite hit my inbox and the date read May 5th, I verified I had nothing else planned and quickly clicked Attending.

It wasn’t until the first of May that I realized that I had committed to an event on May 5th and that May 5th is Cinco de Mayo.

It took about two seconds before the sheer joy of not having to sardine my wristbanded way through an overly crowded Mexican restaurant set in.  Fresh air, music, FoodFash food basket, good company?  Heaven.

We settled in, kicked our flops off, and took it all in.

I stuffed a pita with homemade hummus, carrot salad with almonds, and mini cucumbers.  The rest of the gang walked across the street to get Pizza Fusion takeout, which was a huge reminder that a date between Pizza Fusion and KV is long overdue.

I was entertained by the little ones  that were entertained by…

Sombreros and stashes all around.

One could say Cinco de Mayo 2011 was muy, muy bueno!