Outing and abouting.

I thought I'd be coming up with lots of creative recipes in the kitchen after finishing my last exam on Friday.

No such thing happened...oh, except I made some salt and vinegar kale chips. I left them out on a plate. And then some of my friends came over and the entire pile of kale chips disappeared. I think I've converted several non-healthy eaters to kale lovers!!

Back to the outing and abouting. Remember how over spring break, I was on a mission to try local restaurants I'd never tried before? I've been doing the same thing for the past few days. So I thought I'd give you some new restaurant reviews!

I went to B Line for dessert, but I never had the chance to try the food there. A few of us went with the intention of getting brunch there, but by the time we arrived it was 12:30pm...so brunch turned into lunch.

The menu included too many vegetarian options! I sometimes find this to be a problem, as I'm not really used to having a plethora of options to choose from when eating at a restaurant. Finally, April and I decided to split two dishes:

Alla Vodka: pasta with spicy vodka sauce topped with fresh arugula with a side of crusty bread.

FetaJack Burro: burrito stuffed with pinto beans, rice, feta and jack cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, and greens.

Both of these were SO delicious! The pasta had a nice kick to it, and I really liked the creaminess of the sauce. Oh, and the bread was really tasty! April and I especially liked the burrito, though. It was really hearty, and guess what my favorite part was?

The spinach/arugula greens were literally overflowing out of the burrito!

So now I can attest to the delicious food and dessert that B Line has. The ambiance is also worth noting--it's really trendy, with something like "communal" dining. Pretty interesting!

Speaking of trendy, I got to eat at a downtown restaurant I've been eying for awhile called The Hub. A couple of months ago, Alyssa and I were wandering downtown and stumbled across the restaurant. Unfortunately, it happened to be opening weekend, so it was absolutely packed.

First of all, The Hub has really nice set up. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but it is definitely classy to the max. The menu is what I'd call American food, with lots of burgers and meat. But the best part is that there are four vegan items clearly marked on the menu! Apparently the owner has vegan friends, which is why he did this. I had a really tough time choosing what to get, until the waiter said that his favorite vegetarian dish at the restaurant was the vegetable hash.

Good thing he made my decision for me! (Apologies for the blurry picture; it's hard to be a sneaky blogger in a dark restaurant!)

This looks like a very ordinary vegetable dish. It was far from ordinary!! This was amazing, and my meat-eating friends even agreed with me! The dish included roasted potatoes, artichokes, and tomatoes topped with grilled asparagus. The artichokes were definitely my favorite part of the dish. I don't know how the chefs prepared this dish, but I am definitely going to try to recreate it. I am on a mission to figure out the spice combination!

In other news, I got a chance to go to the farmer's market today for the first time in awhile! This time, I was accompanied by my food-loving friend Akshay.

I ended up purchasing lots of greens (obviously) as well as a new vegetable to experiment with this week!

We also had a chance to get some tamales for lunch while we were there.

My tamale:

Blue corn tamale with squash/tomatoes/corn/green chilis/cheese

Akshay's tamale:

I liked how the tamales came with salsas that matched them taste-wise. These looked so small, I expected to still be hungry afterwards. Deceiving!! The little tamale filled me up for several hours.

Be back with more restaurant reviews soon!!