Posts Tagged ‘mexico’

I wouldn’t call myself a foodie.

I mean, sure.
I look at food porn.
I read recipes like novels.
I have a serious collection of cookbooks.
I post picture of dinners that I’ve made on twitpic.
I have recipes that I’ve made up posted on cool sites.
I have daily discussions about food and cooking with a certain friend.

But um…

Okay, so maybe I’m a bit of a foodie.
Whatever.

Today’s list concerns food. Namely, foods that I have eaten that are so good that other people could hear how much I was enjoying it. I assume this means that I was so audible in my enjoyment, that it was plain that the food was simply delicious. The alternative – that I eat with my mouth open, making icky slurping sounds – isn’t something I do, no matter how good the food is.

Shrimp Scampi, Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck in Haleiwa, Hawaii. I am a fan of seafood. I am a bigger fan of fresh seafood. And it doesn’t get fresher than Giovanni’s. Yeah, this ‘restaurant’ looks like a hippie nightmare, but honestly it was the best meal that I had in Hawaii, and that includes the restaurants at the five-star resort that I stayed in. When I took the first bite of Gio’s Scampi I thought I was going to die of mouth induced tastebud-gasms. Thankfully, I was not the only one moaning like a virgin with a vibrator. And yes. My name is scrawled on that truck someplace.

Seafood Platter for Two, somewhere in the jungle in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Yeah, I don’t know the name of the place. I also couldn’t take you there if I had a map of it tattooed on my ass. This was the day that Laurie and I went on the tequila factory tour, so admittedly by the time we got to the restaurant, we were a little on the tipsy side. All I do know is that it was in the middle of nowhere, and there was a river, and a jungle. I also know that the seafood that we ate that day was to-die-for tasty, and that both Laurie and I died when we saw the size of the platter. There was moaning. There was licking. There was sucking. And that was just the crab legs. Just sayin’. Oh, and yes. That picture is the actual platter that we were served. Just in case you were wondering.

Barbecued Buffalo Ribs, Chez Moi, Alberta. So, um… Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I am an awesome cook. I tend to just toss things together and have them work. I picked this particular dish for two reasons. The first reason is that I love it. Beef or pork ribs, this freakin’ sauce is fall-off-the-bone, finger-licking, straight-up fucking stellar. The second reason is that everyone else thinks so, too. In fact, the best friend loves it so much that every time she calls to tell me that she is coming out to visit, and I ask her what she wants for dinner, this is the meal that she asks for. I have to make lots, because they are also so good that eating them cold out of the fridge for brekkie is de rigeur around my place.

Yeah. Lots of yum happening right here at home.
Okay, maybe I am patting myself on the back.
But just a little.

Oh. There is one more thing that I very audibly enjoy.  The first sip of a cup of coffee, anywhere, first thing in the morning. Yeah. I moan every single time. Mmmm… coffee.

What foods make you go yummmmmmmm?

The 50-50 Challenge is an idea that Chrissa from A Little Wicked and I came up with. It is based on a list of 50 Lists to Write to Lift Your Spirits, which can be found at Demanding Joy. We were inspired to make it a blog challenge. If you’d like to participate, please do. Be as inspired as we were.

Seeing as yesterday’s post was about the best gift’s I’ve ever received, it’s fitting that today is about the best gifts that I’ve ever given.

It’s kind of weird, though.  I don’t know that the gifts I would consider the best gifts I’ve given would be the gifts that anyone that received them would call the best.  Because sometimes, for me, the best part about giving the gift is the fun I had finding it.  Or the look on someone’s face when they open it.

Things that don’t have much to do with the actual gift at all, really.

Okay, so with that in mind, here are my favourite gifts that I’ve ever given, with a little explanation as to why they are my faves. The explanations are my favourite part, after all…

Most recently, I had some very memorable experiences picking out some little gifts for friends while I was in Mexico. I cracked the hell up looking through six million off colour t-shirts looking for JUST the right one. I dove into market after market looking for that little thing that screamed out that it had to travel back to Canada, then elsewhere. It was a blast.

I once gave my Mom a necklace in Hawaii. It was a gold necklace with a pearl pendant. The thing is, the pearl was one that I had found myself. I had found it in an oyster, got ridiculously excited by that, and decided that my Mom really needed a necklace made out of it. So, I went and had it made. She loved it, but I think I had way more fun with that gift than she did.

The dress. This ranks as one of my all time favourite gifts given. Laurie and I had a party to go to. A Christmas party. A fancy fucking dress Christmas party. I already had a dress, and when Laurie and I went shopping together for hers, she found one that she fell in absolute love with. She tried it on, and she looked… stunning. But the dress was kind of out of her price range. By kind of, I mean completely. I bought it for her. We had a blast at the party and everything, but that didn’t even touch how much her reaction meant to me, and how great she looked in that damn dress.
I think the bitch even cried. Heh.

Finally, one of the best gifts I’ve ever given was a re-gift of something that was gifted to me. It was a slow-cooker that was given to me by an online group of ruffians that go by the moniker of The Dobernerds. My slow cooker got broken (because I’m a klutz) and they all grouped together to buy me a new one. However, I had already gotten one. So, I donated their gift – with their support – to a local charity. That? One of my favourite gifts I received, but also one of the best ones I’ve ever given.

What about you?
What are the best gifts you’ve ever given?

The 50-50 Challenge is an idea that Chrissa from A Little Wicked and I came up with. It is based on a list of 50 Lists to Write to Lift Your Spirits, which can be found at Demanding Joy. We were inspired to make it a blog challenge. If you’d like to participate, please do. Be as inspired as we were.

We had to pop into the supermarket yesterday for some stuff at the pharmacy.  For the most part, things weren’t all that much different in a Mexican Supermercado than in a Canadian one.

It was the exceptions that made the trip hilarious.  Because there are some things that we just never see back home, and seeing as how we did happen to have a camera with us, well of course we took shots of some of the more entertaining things that we saw.

First up, the bakery.  It took up a third of the store.  They love their pastries out here.  Considering the fact that the only bakery item we’d seen was this shot in a magazine, we really weren’t sure what to expect.

I mean, this item seems a little odd to me.

Certainly not something you’d want to…um… sink your teeth into.

However, all worked out fine when we found the Mexican equivalent of a donut.  Yes, it probably had a very cool Spanish name, but we didn’t notice it.

We were too full of the smell of sugar to take note.

Also?  The cakes contain booze.  Not a shock, I know.  But it was the delightful way they made sure that you know that cracked us the hell up.

Because it would totally suck to accidentally eat tequila cake when you meant to eat Kahlua cake.

There were some strange items at the deli.  I mean, yeah.  It’s to the point and all, but really?  Couldn’t they at least name it something slightly more appetizing?

Like “Tasty Fud”?

They might as well have just called it “Shut Up and Eat It”.

Please note that Fud comes in different shapes and sizes, too.  You know, for those times when you want something round or square.

Overall, I think we’d have preferred the other brand of weiner available.

Beer and hot dogs.  Now packaged together.

For your convenient enjoyment.

Finally, as we checked out we noticed that in Mexico, they have nuts.

In many varieties.

Whether you like ‘em hot or golden…  Mexico has your nuts.

And let me tell you something.

Your nuts are really cheap.