The Great Minnesota Food Tour.

No, there's nothing specifically Minnesotan about the list, other than I ate it all while I was in Minnesota. No walleye, or lefse, or anything on a stick. No wait, I ate chicken satays at Big Bowl. But that's Asian-esque. And I ate it sitting down, not wandering through the Miracle of Life barn at the State Fair. But it was in Minnesota.

Anyway, we don't spend a lot of time dwelling on food we used to eat when we lived here. We always ask for some things we can't get and enjoy them when visitors come, but I think we've adjusted quite well, gastronomically speaking. But since I've spent the week meeting friends for lunch and visiting some old favorites, and everyone always asks what I've missed most or how I like the food here, I'll review a few favorites.

*Diet Coke. Absolutely wonderful. Exactly as I remembered. I'm drinking it by the gallon. Seriously.

*McDonald's fries. See previous post. I am not going to apologize for how much I love these things. And they were good every time I ate them.

*Anything else by McDonald's. I don't know that I liked it so much as it was always there when I was driving somewhere. I had a stomachche for an hour after a cheeseburger. One's plenty.

*Chipotle. Specifically, chicken soft tacos. It's not really Mexican food, but if you like cilantro (and apparently there are some misguided people out there who don't and therefore don't know what they're missing) it's wonderful. I made Mark take me there for our anniversary once because the kids hate it so I never get to go.

*Bruegger's Bagels with honey walnut cream cheese. Heavenly. I can get a bagel in TZ, I can get cream cheese in TZ, but these guys know their bagels.

*Einstein's lox and bagels. See above. No disapointment here.

*Chicken soup (canned but dressed up with extra veggies) and biscuits (refrigerator). OK, I can make (and have made myself) homemade chicken soup with all natural ingredients and I can make (meaning I can tell the housekeeper to make) biscuits from scratch and probably 90% of the people reading this would rather do the scratch thing, but it was really good eating biscuits from a tube. Sorry, but sometimes the processed thing works better for me.

*Fondue. Yeah, I know I could make this back in TZ, but actually Lisa made this and having someone else make food for you is always cool, not to mention she completely rocks at hosting anything and whenever you go to her house you always feel so relaxed and comfortable AND she has an amazing new kitchen, AND we were a little on the obsessed side with fondue in our past so all of that made it really great.

*Hot Tamales. Dang, these things are good! They were always a favorite, even when I was a kid.

*White Cheddar Rice Cakes. Go figure. I was in Lund's, there they were.

*Movie popcorn. "Bee Movie" is not all that reviews are making it out to be. Seinfeld humor but not all that interesting, I thought. And I've learned that the Arusha Cinema's popcorn is pretty darn good because my movie popcorn at MOA was not a big thrill. Plus the Arusha Cinema has caramel popcorn. Bring your own extra bag and mix the two together for a great sweet/salty taste.

*Big Bowl, Shrimp Pad Thai. One of the bigger disappointments. I LOVED this once upon a time. Now, "eh." And their DC was on the flat side. Very ho-hum, surprisingly.

*Woody's. My big ol' salad that I've been craving forever, I thought. It was good, but HUGE. Turns out the Greek salad at Stiggbuck's in town is perfectly great.

*Yum. At the former the Lincoln Del spot on Excelsior and Minnetonka Blvd. Think D'Amico atmosphere but with American food. And being someone who loves dips, what's not to love about fries that automatically come with 3 dips?! And they have excellent soups, toasted cheese, and desserts!

*Edina Grill. My first time but fish and chips with malt vinegar and tartar sauce is one of my absolute favorites. I'm not sure I needed an entire sturgeon on my plate though! And for that matter, portions are just waaaaay too big. There was nothing that I could completely finish. Including salads. They also have tempura battered green beans with plum sauce. Definitely delicious.

*Biaggi's. I'm the kind of person that always orders the same thing at restaurants. So when I'm in the mood for linguine and clams, I'm off to Biaggi's. Sadly, they don't have 1/2 portions so I couldn't do that and appetizers. The best part of the meal were the friends, though!

The only thing really missing from the list is pizza. We eat pretty decent pizza here--it's good but it's not the same. Sigh.