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Saturday, January 15, 2011

Gainesville An-Other-Go-Go

I spent the last 5 days in Gainesville, so unfortunately, that roof top pool won't exactly be around again anytime soon.

I ended up having some pretty good eats for my second visit to Gator Country. (You can read about my first taste of G-ville here.) I wasn't able to take any pictures the first day, but I can recap for you.

Day 1: Lunch at Bahn Thai. From the outside, Bahn Thai looks like a decent enough place. Inside, it smelled kind of funny (couldn't quite place the scent) and the interior decorating was hilariously atrocious! Walls with mismatched purple stripes painted in various directions, funky 80s-style leather chairs, and they played what my dining companion called "Kindergarten Nap Time Music." Luckily, the food was really good. I received perfectly-lightly-fried tofu on a bed of assorted, colorful veggies. Perfect.

Dinner was random, since I'd been running on just 5 hours of sleep and had a long, long day. I popped into Mother Earth health food store and picked up a green drink (apple, cucumber, carrot, spinach, parsley). I was impressed with the variety of products on the store's shelves. Neat store!

Day 2: Went to Sandy's Place, a Greek-American restaurant on a colleague's recommendation. I was expecting typical Greek fare: hummus, babaganoush, falafel, dolmades, etc. Well, they had dolmades and a Greek salad, but everything else was quite meaty. It was a cold day and I wasn't really feeling a dolma platter, but was thrilled to learn that their Garden Lentil soup is vegan ("All veggie!"), and ordered a bowl of that. It was perfect and hearty and delicious, especially on such a cold, dreary day. I was a bit tickled that I could find something vegan in this little strip mall tavern that looked like a hunting lodge, complete with mounted fish on the wall. Between the decor and the weather outside, I felt like I was back in Missouri!

That night, a couple gals and I went to Boca Fiesta, and this is where my camera emerged from my bag. I was really impressed with Boca Fiesta's menu; they had something for everyone, which was perfect, because I was the only vegan of the group/the week.

Don't you love it when vegan items are clearly labeled? I know I do!

After debating for just a few moments, I went with a taco salad, because I have a hard time saying no to taco salads. I went with the "stir-fry veggies" as my main ingredients (other options were okra, tempeh, and TVP). The salad also came with black beans, rice, lettuce, and avocado, and cilantro pesto on the side.

THIS WAS SO GOOD. It was filling, too, which meant I just couldn't tackle the VEGAN DESSERT NACHOS. *sigh* Next time, Boca Fiesta. Next time.

If you're wondering, Where's breakfast?!, they mostly consisted of Larabars and Pure bars. These two flavors were particularly nice for breakfast:





My typical breakfast consisted of a bar OR lukewarm instant oatmeal and lukewarm black tea. (The Holiday Inn where I stayed didn't offer any breakfast, just coffee and tea, and they had a warped opinion on what "hot" water really is.) It got me through the mornings decently enough, though. At least they had free wifi (but is that so rare anymore?).

More good G-ville foods coming soon.

1 comment:

  1. really? dessert nachos? Now my curiosity it piqued!

    ReplyDelete