veg4menu

As I mentioned the other day the veg4fam planned on doing a lot of dining out in the upcoming days, in order to avoid making a mess in the kitchen.

Friday morning I was going to begin my city wide restaurant tour by joining two friends for coffee. Yet, I've got a sick 8 year old who woke up and looked at himself in the mirror and said "Mom! What happened? I used to be tan, now I look so PALE!"

Then he bent over and vomited. Looks like I was staying home.

Sigh,I don't even drink coffee anyway, so I cancelled the first stop and replaced it with a trip to get ginger ale and crackers.

For lunch I was going to visit a new grocer down the street and pick out a deli sandwich. Instead I am eating oyster crackers with him while watching "Tom and Huck".

Last night I thought we might visit a place downtown but instead we made homemade calzones. Miraculously we didn't make a mess, which is surprising given the combination of cornmeal, pizza dough, shredded cheese and pizza sauce.

Today I hoped to make a 2nd attempt at the culinary tour of Tucson. It's a great city to try different cuisines, I wish that more people who visited would steer clear of Cracker Barrel of Crap and such. However, we are the midst of a hell driven wind storm. Tumbleweeds are zinging across streets like wooden space ship frames. I walked outside chewing a piece of gum and it became crunchy with dust. Looks like that is going to be my lunch for the day because once again, the veg4fam ain't going no place.

So when the wind dies down, the children stop being contaminated and the stars align in a pleasing manner, I might try again. The following list is only partial at this point. Consider a good stepping off point if you should ever be in Tucson.

Maybe next time for dinner:

Hotel Congress: Located downtown on Congress Street. Saw a fantastic show there last fall, with the highly annoying Living Things opening up. Meal of choice: Portabella mushrooms stuffed with herbed goat cheese and pine nuts, roasted garlic white bean puree, sauteed spinach, & red bell pepper coulis.

Janos: Located in the wonderful Westin La Paloma resort. Meal of choice: Layers of roasted peppers, chiles, braised fennel, mushrooms, grilled eggplant and chevre with balsamic reduction, golden tomato vinaigrette and blue corn bread salad with heirloom tomatoes and panela, drizzled with tepary bean vinaigrette. If I could return a second time it would be to J Bar, adjacent to Janos. They serve mojitos, something I accidentally found out that the above mentioned barf boy enjoys. "Gee Mom, this is refreshing!" "PUT THAT DOWN!". Meal of choice at J Bar: Venezuelan corn cakes.

A restaurant that actually has more than one locale, North. Meal of choice :basically just their pizza, but the views are endless and the loft style decor makes it worth the $150 we spent last time we visited. And no, the pizza is not that expensive.

Another great place to grab pizza is the aptly named Sauce.  When five of the ten pizzas are veggie friendly, I'm bound to like it.

Okay, now I'm hungry. What's your favorite restaurant?