Would You Eat Brown Guacamole? (Restaurant Experience)

Would something like this ever happen in the larger metropolitan areas, I wonder?

We had a hurried trip up to Anchorage yesterday/today, and went out to dinner last night with some friends. They picked an Asian/American "fusion" restaurant. Phil and I had been driving much of the day, and I'd had very little to eat. I also knew ahead of time that this restaurant didn't have much in the way of vegan or gluten free-friendly options (although, to their credit, they do have a 'gluten free menu'), so my expectations were not high.

I perused the menu, explained my dietary restrictions to the waiter, and asked if I could possibly have a plate of fresh vegetables and a side of guacamole, having seen that both were components of items on the menu. He said that the "Asian guac" had some spice added, but no gluten, so I thought that would be just fine.

When the food arrived, I received a bowl of limp shredded veggies, mostly bean sprouts, with a few pieces of bok choy, carrot and mushroom, and a little bowl of gray guacamole. I asked why it was gray, gave it a sniff and said "It's got sour cream in it, hasn't it?" He said no, certainly not. I took a tiny taste and said yes, it definitely had some dairy in it.

He disappeared for a few minutes, and returned to say that the chef said that there was no dairy in it, just that the avocado was really "milky." Phil and one of our friends tasted it, and said it tasted like guacamole to them. I was starting to feel embarrassed and stupid, took another taste, still felt pretty sure there was dairy in it. Whatever was in it, I couldn't eat it! There was this nasty dairy aftertaste, stink of dairy on the finger I'd tasted with, I was starting to feel queasy... I explained again that I'm allergic to dairy and asked him if I could just not have that item.

A few moments later, the waiter returned and confessed that yes, there was sour cream in the guacamole, and apologized. Credit to him for that! And some time after that, he came back by our table with another little bowl. "I had the chef make you some guacamole specially," he said. "Just guacamole (I assume he meant "avocado"), tomato, red onion." I thanked him, Phil thanked him profusely...

...and I accepted a bowl of brown guacamole!

At this point, I didn't want to ask why it was brown. I poked around a bit and ascertained that it was semi-frozen and, obviously, fully oxidized. My fellow diners were so pleased that I'd been given something more substantial, and I felt under pressure to eat it. But (even as hungry as I was) I could only force down a few bites. Phil, the pickiest person I know about food's appearance, asked me with some disappointment if I couldn't eat it. "Would you eat brown guacamole?" I asked him.

There was some rhetoric of disappointment that I was disappointed and wasn't satisfied, but the truth is, I'm not the typical clientele for that restaurant: I would never have gone there if it hadn't been my friends' choice. Although a plate of fresh veggies and a side of guacamole had sounded really good, my expectations were accordingly low. I was disappointed that after I'd told the waiter I was allergic to dairy he tried to pass off something that contained dairy as not having any: that was irresponsible. But the people I was eating with thought that gray stuff tasted like guacamole, and they are far more typical of this restaurant's target audience! If we go there again, I should plan to bring my own food, or to eat before or afterward.

Am I wrong to have such a lenient attitude? Should I be pushing for all restaurants to be able to produce at least a bowl of veggies and guacamole for the vegan/allergic friends of their target patrons?

Would you eat brown guacamole?

Back Home--Lessons (and Pictures) from the Trip

We're home! Not quite grounded yet, but the weather is beautiful here, we've been planting seeds and are gradually catching up on life.

First lesson: don't get caught empty-handed! This is a blogger lesson along with everything else: I'm disappointed to have blogged so little during the trip and to have been without my camera at so many picture-worthy moments. I should have made sure I was familiar with the camera-netbook interface before we left, had some posts up my sleeve for gap-times and generally been more prepared. And then, to arrive home and have blogger be out of action for the first day with this post _way_ overdue???

Finally, then--
I learned that rattlesnakes are well-camouflaged in the arid, tough soil of the desert, but can choose the trail itself as their lair.

 I learned how to paint ceilings, and perhaps how not to have an extremely painful neck by the end of it. How did I manage to miss out on painting pretty much my whole life up to now?

 I learned that you can hug a saguaro: you just have to wait for the right time in its life...

 ...and I wore shorts (or unzipped my zipoff pants) for the first time, I swear, in over two years! That's what happens when you live in AK...

I also learned that my exercise tolerance has improved markedly: I'm so happy and grateful for this. Plans definitely afoot for getting in shape (more on this soon) so that I can feel fit to be seen in shorts should the opportunity arise again.

I learned that I needed to be better prepared with food things. The baked yams and avocado held me mostly for our first two days of travel, but for our return journey, a similar strategy went bad. The dried goods went moldy because we hadn't had enough sun to dry them here--reinforcement of my recent decision to acquire a dehydrator...

...but I also learned that with a few requests and lateral thinking, I could get a very satisfying meal out after long hikes. (This was from La Salsa in Tucson--minus cheese and sour cream and plus their eponymous salsa, it was a hearty and nutritious bowl of veggies and black beans, with some brown rice that I didn't really get to.)

I learned that I love the topography and flora of Arizona--it feels so familiar and 'right' to me. It reminds me of Israel and that welcoming warmth and repelling prickliness, straight to my soul.

Heather leads the way

I learned that whilst good exercise is great preparation for a trip, I don't so much need very heavy, hard, muddy, grueling exercise at the very end of a long trip when there's unpacking and unloading to do too.
But that's what we got!
Our wonderful, gracious friend with whom we stayed in Anchorage when we flew home had an old apple tree that she wanted cut down. Phil decided to try to transplant it instead! With the root wad and all, the fully mature tree probably weighed several hundred pounds and it was all we could do to load it into the truck along with our luggage and Anchorage purchases.

Then, we had to roll it down our path, sitting on plywood with rollers (old pipe) under it that we had to keep switching out.

 Phil dug a big hole, and getting it into the hole and off the plywood, and getting the tarp out from around it, was challenging to say the least. The ground was mucky with decomposed kelp that we harvested (smells just like salty manure) and at one point, when tugging out the tarp, I slid all the way into the hole, under the tree!

 So, fingers crossed, the tree may survive. Phil put a cage around it so that the moose and bunnies don't dispatch it immediately. Oh, and you can't tell from the light, but this digging, tugging, heaving, mud-wrestling operation all took place around 10pm, at the end of a very long day of traveling. 

I don't mean to sound grumpy and I'm glad we got the tree moved. Just maybe next time we won't combine it with a long, tiring trip, OK?

The most important thing I learned, though, was how good it feels to spend time with friends and loved ones, to share their lives and what's important to them.

It was so good to see David and Heather...

 ...and David's brother John--and their other brother and sister-in-law (my bad no camera). We weren't the most skilled workforce but it felt so good to help with their house.

 I finally met one of Phil's oldest friends, who drove down from Montana to visit with us in Oregon. He's the same one whose wife is the potter who made us those beautiful bowls I pictured a while back and it was definitely past time that we should get to meet in person and that he and Phil should catch up.

 And of course, we had a great visit with Phil's mom.

So, now we're planting our gardens and I'm slowly catching up with work and writing. I'm so grateful that my writers' group met yesterday, our first day back: it felt grounding and familiar to be back among them. I'm hoping to feel more caught up by the end of the weekend.

How long does it take you to feel caught up after a trip? How do you implement the lessons that you learn from each trip?
much love