I eat a LOT

Apparently. I went to Boise last week for a Human Services conference. I was there Wednesday night through Saturday afternoon. I spent more on food during that time than I normally spend at the store in 2 weeks. But it was SO good. I ate at the following wondering Boise institutions:

Mai Thai (two times, I had a tofu veggie thai basil stir fry, and yellow curry with tofu)

Bardenay’s (one time, I had the best dish ever, their black bean and sweet potato chimichanga with chipotle sour cream and mango salsa. I like to walk around repeating that over and over like a meditative happy food mantra. In fact, I did just that so many times that several of my coworkers ordered it too and confirmed my opinion. also had a mojito, my alcoholic drink for this season, and proceeded to get tipsy halfway through it. my coworkers and boss thought this was funny.)

Guido’s Pizza (once, and my cheapest meal, $3.60 for two slices of basil pizza)

River City Bagel Company (three times, breakfast each day. Bagel +Fruit smoothie = best breakfast ever. Best bagels are: Blueberry French Toast (no eggs, I checked) and Parmesan. Best smoothie: Tropical)

Saturday Farmers’ Market (once, and I spent $15 on I have no idea what (ok, I do know, I bought a chocolate croissant, fresh apple cider, Zeppole’s ciabbata bread with rosemary, a homemade puppy bone for Ampersand, some neat hand painted cards, and some shiny rocks. But it’s still kind of a blur, and I must have bought some other stuff too) but walking around in the fall sunshine looking at art, trying food samples, petting cute fuzzy doggies, was the most fun I’ve had in ages.

I also went to lots of interesting classes and learned useful stuff that I can apply to my job. But if this post is any indication, you can tell what occupies my waking thoughts and enthusiasm much of the time. I truly did plan out ahead of time which restaurants I wanted to go to while I was back in Le Bois. And each day I woke up excited to go out and eat breakfast. And then I spent the morning looking forward to lunch. and then dinner. and then repeat. It’s likely that in a past life I was a starving peasant.

To top it all off, I didn’t gain any weight on this culinary extravaganza because we walked everywhere, and in our spare time we walked around playing tourist looking in all the shops. Coming back home everything seems a little bland now, but I think that’s a good thing. I need to remember that food is supposed to nourish my body, and eat accordingly most of the time.

But every now and then I need to eat to nourish my mind or my soul or my creative self or whatever. And it’s splendid.

Next month Mike and I might go to Seattle for the weekend. I better start saving up for it.