Saturday was also the first day I ate mushrooms willingly...ever

Despite hearing about the post-Manilow win antics of Stephen Colbert at the Emmy’s last night (see below) I actually didn’t watch any of the show. Basically, unless I’m at a theme party organized specifically to watch said awards, I typically give the shows themselves a pass. I believe that most of the really good parts will be featured on Youtube or replayed on various entertainment TV shows and that all the boring parts won’t be worth watching anyway.

But that doesn’t mean I had a dull weekend. Friday night was spent watching my first game at US Cellular Field with fellow Twins fans from business school. After watching the Twins win we went to this bar in Wicker Park where I basically partied like a frat boy – consuming multiple shots, multiple beers, singing along to “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey*, and then walking/stumbling home, where I proceeded to validate my sexiness to the GF by impressing her with by drunken text-messaging skillz. Apparently, I only misspelled one word – but I’m not sure it’s possible to misspell anything while texting, since everything is shortened beyond all recognition anyway.

Saturday night my friend** A.Ja was in town with her husband so we went to Moto***. I had only heard of it but C.De**** was all excited to go. Dinner there costs about as much as three week’s worth of groceries, but they use all sorts of space-age technology to create really good food in interesting shapes and forms. For example, did you know that if you freeze carrots and peas in liquid nitrogen and then eat them they end up tasting sort of like ice cream*****? Or that you can get menus custom printed on crackers that you can eat after making your selection?

Almost more fun than the food itself was the table behind us. Despite the fact that it was Saturday night, there were only two parties in the downstairs dining area. When you dine at Moto you can get a 5-course menu, a 10-course, or the 20 course “GTM”. The GTM takes about 4-5 hours and the other table had ordered it, because they had apparently been drinking during the entire meal. Soon they were regaling us with comments like “I think it’s disrespectful to call him ‘Mr. President’.” There were many more but I’ve forgotten most of them. Damn my defective short-term memory! Anyway, it was an unforgettable dining experience that I’m certain I’ll be telling my grandkids about in about 40 years. Of course, by then food like this will probably be served at McDonalds, life in general will mirror The Jetsons in every way but fashion******, and my grandkids will be all unimpressed and shocked that I used to consider $100+ per person an “expensive” dinner.

* With more emphasis on volume than tonal accuracy
** And former college radio show host
*** For a nice review of a personal visit to Moto (with pictures) check out this link. Out menu was different, but this gives you an idea of what the food is like.
**** Husband
***** Neither did I!
****** Mark my words – Grunge will be back.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dude, mushrooms are the food of the gods. I highly recommend giving Trader Joe's frozen mushroom turnovers a try. (They're not frozen when you *eat* them, silly.)
Stacey Pelika said…
Oh yeah, those turnovers are tasty! I can't wait for our TJ's to open (only a month and a half left to wait!).