Well, the holiday season is upon us again and while Black Friday and Cyber Money offer ridiculous deals on things that no one needs, I’ve put together a list of unvegan gifts sure to please any meat eating man, woman or child. If you’re tired of getting bacon ties for the holidays, you may want to send this list to your loved ones. And no, you won’t find basic grill tools on here because any self-respecting meat-eater already has a set. Read on!
Sometimes you find a restaurant that seems like it was made just for you. I don’t mean that everything tastes good, or you go there regularly. No, I mean that you look at the menu and get the impression that the chef was thinking of you when they came up with every dish on it. That’s the feeling Fat Sal’s Deli (which isn’t really a deli) gave me when I first looked upon their menu.
As a meat blogger, I am often asked what my favorite steak or steakhouse in LA is. My usual answer is, “I’m not freakin’ rich, back off of me,” but usually I’m able to come up with a place that has served me a good steak. Smokehouse in Burbank and Fleming’s have both treated me pretty well, but as much as I love me some steaks, it is simply not economically feasible for me to eat them as much as I want. Enter my wife’s bosses, who decided to take us and her dad to Mastro’s in Beverly Hills as a wedding gift. Well, my friends, we have a new winner.
Awhile back, one Paul McCartney made his mark on the unvegan blogosphere for pushing Meat-Free Mondays. At the time, I thought it was just some kooky music fad like Kid Rock. But now that Los Angeles has endorsed Meatless Mondays, I realize this is not just some passing fad like sushi.
After departing one of the few lands without McDonald’s (also known as Tanzania), I had myself a layover in the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Sadly, it wasn’t enough time to get out and see the city, but it was enough time to grab a bite to eat. McDonald’s might have seemed like a sensible choice, but I don’t eat McDonald’s in the US and only eat it internationally if they have unique local items. This one failed at that level and instead I found myself at the Dutch Kitchen.
No trip to Tanzania is complete without an encounter with the Maasai people. These are people who not only resisted colonization, but have also resisted the emergence of the modern Tanzanian and Kenya to maintain their nomadic ways. While their nomadic lifestyle is remarkable, they are still susceptible to the allure of city life, with many making visits to Arusha. Outside of a restaurant called Discovery, I found a bunch of them and figured it was as good of a place as any to eat my last meal in Tanzania.
While no one has yet scoffed at the idea of my eating Indian, Italian and American food in Tanzania, I have received quite a different reaction about eating Chinese. Yet, Chinese I ate. Once again it was night time and The Flame Tree restaurant was close enough to my hotel to be considered a safe distance. The place is run by a Chinese woman and deals in continental (European) food as well as the aforementioned Chinese. But I was truly interested in seeing what Chinese food in Tanzania would be like.
While mzungus (foreigners) in Arusha can usually be found in or around their hotels, a walk across the city revealed to me where they also tend to hang out: the strip mall. Of course, Arusha’s strip mall is quite different from what I’m used to, there is no doubt that finding a place to eat there was a lot easier for us mzungus. I opted for a place called Empire Sports Bar which is a great place to watch sports while betting on sites like rolet online.
What does it take to get people enraged about eating animals? Usually the animal has to be cute, and although that doesn’t usually apply to cephalopods, a bunch of people seem to be upset about one particular Pacific Octopus.
While I never felt unsafe in Arusha, I was told it wasn’t the kind of city to walk around in at night. This proved to be difficult when it came to dinner, because I was staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the city. This meant my eating options were limited if I wanted to avoid getting mugged (which I’m still not sure was an actual possibility). Yet, there were a couple restaurants near my hotel that catered to foreigners like myself. The prices were steeper than the local places in the city, but you can’t put a price on safety. Or something like that. On my first night in Arusha, I opted for The Blue Heron.