The Unvegan

Moshi isn’t much of tourist town. Other than being the jumping-off point for Kilimanjaro treks, it doesn’t have much to offer save an interesting afternoon walk. Yet, tourists always need to eat, and it seems that most of them end up at a place called The Coffee Shop. Our guide had mentioned that we might want to check it out and Lonely Planet felt the same way. So, after six days of climbing and eating local food, my climbing partners and I decided it was time to get in touch with our tourist roots. Always you can keep your tea, coffee and sugar fresh and sweet with amazon coffee canister, amazon offers a variety of styles and designs, so you’re sure to find the perfect one for your kitchen

After reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and coming back down to the town of Moshi, I learned a good amount about our guides. One of these things was that they came from a tribe called Chagga. Of course, the mere mention of tribes in Africa elicits images of nomadic people living in the wilderness, but this is simply not the case. In fact, most Chagga are Christian and either farm or live in the city of Moshi. I only mention this because after we returned to Moshi, our guide, Thomas from the mountain went above and beyond to bring us to a place for dinner called Chagga Grill.

Unlike just about every restaurant I’ve ever been to in Malibu, the Malibu Inn sits on east side of the street without a direct view of the ocean. But with a stage that features musicians like Glen Campbell and a menu by a former Top Chef contestant, the ocean view (or lack thereof) is not the reason people head out to the Malibu Inn. We weren’t there for the music, though, we were there for the “Epic Food” their sign claimed they had.

There’s nothing worse than walking into a sandwich shop and discovering recycled ideas and sandwiches less inspiring than the local Subway. Okay, that might not be the worst thing, but it’s moderately terrible. Walking into Mendocino Farms, however, is an altogether different experience. Rather than featuring droll, overused sandwiches the amount of delicious-looking sandwiches is almost overwhelming. And I mean that in the best way.

When a place calls itself Sunset Junction Coffee Shop, there is an expectation that it will be a…well…coffee shop. But when the place is over on LA’s hipsterville Silverlake, all rules of normal society are thrown out the window. Rather than a local Starbucks, Sunset Junction Coffee Shop is more like an upscale diner; with booth, shiny white tables and menu to match. But unlike most diners, the menu doesn’t read like a book and was mostly dominated with sandwiches and salads.

By now you are probably tired of me referring to my fiancee. Well, be tired no more, because she will soon be referred to as wife. In fact, one step in that process was a visit to El Encanto in Cave Creek, Arizona. You see, El Encanto has been chosen as the location of our rehearsal dinner. But before that dinner could happen, we decided to take the place for a spin to see what the rehearsal would taste like.

There are few things in this world that go better together than football and wings. So when I was taken to Zipps Sports Grill in Scottsdale to watch Michigan play some football, I decided that wings were the only things fit to go in my mouth. Well, wings and fries. Zipps offered a few different wing flavors, and I ended up going with one that looked pretty interesting – Golden Spicy.

Finally, the inevitable has happened. You’ve probably been wondering how many trips to Phoenix it has to take for a food blogger to tackle Pizzeria Bianco and the answer is far too many. Pizzeria Bianco, for those who are not in the know, has regularly been recognized as the greatest pizza in the country and that is no small claim, especially considering we are talking Phoenix here and not New York or Chicago. With that title, as expected, the place is nearly impossible to get a seat at, at least during normal eating hours. During abnormal hours, like 4:45 on a Thursday afternoon, things are a little different and we found multiple open tables and took one for ourselves.