Part 1-- The Girl with Big Eyes, Small Stomach

While most of you were buying your 30-rack Keystones, playing dizzy-ball, and subscribing to ESPN, all in preparation of Super Bowl XLV-something-something, Tim and I were preparing in our very own way.

Adventure #1: 17th Street Market

T and I found ourselves amidst alien foods of all kinds: funny-shaped legumes, brightly packaged foods with some kind of asian script detailing the joys of consuming such specialties, whole fish lying in a display case, ready to be consumed--or gawked at. 

Yes, my friends, this was the 17th Street Market. Aside from stocking more ramen noodle varieties than a college students' pantry, the store houses all sorts of eclectic foods from around the world and also hosts aspiring musicians in one section of the store.

We bought some foodstuffs to aid us in later adventures only to emerge out of this world foods mecca into the sun of one of my most favored delicacies--the food cart. Now before all of your faces get stuck making that look of utter horror and disgust forever, I want you to stop thinking about paramecium and bacteria under those white plastic microscopes your teachers let you look at one time in your freshman biology class and listen.

I was, at one time, just like all of you, skeptical of the validity of the food handler's licenses onboard these cramped culinary carts. But last year, I spring-breaked (yes, that's a verb, my friends) in Portland, OR and used couchsurfing.com to find my lodgings. I ended up staying with several nice, strapping young men in the southeast quarter, one of whom worked at a food cart ten blocks away from the house. The very night of my arrival, I traveled to said cart, had delicious food-cart crepes and food-cart fried pies, and wanted to eat food-cart noodles, breakfast burritos, and Mexican food. Maybe this doesn't help your disgust. To that, I can only say, simmah down!

Okay, so this 17th Street Market food cart, right? It was a tantamount tastery of the tastiest tastings. Tim and I had the Mahi-Mahi fish tacos and the Philly cheesesteak, but there was an array of foods I wanted to eat, of course. Catfish po'boy, bacon cheeseburger, chicken shawarma--the humanity!

Of course, this provided us with the healthy base it took to continue our adventures. Come back for parts 2-5.