A slight shift in focus....

I started writing this post last week, and just finished it tonight, so sorry if it doesn't quite make sense....

I decided to post a new entry after listening to an extremely frustrating lecture this morning about eating disorders. Apart from the obvious problems with eating disorders and the difficulties of treating patients with this medical/psychiatric condition, I was especially annoyed with the presentation of the material, because my lecturer implied that vegetarianism, interest in cooking, and enjoyment of cookbooks are correlated with anorexia nervosa. However, eating Thai curries and Indian curries, which are laden with butter, as my Caucasian lecturer informed us, makes us less likely to be susceptible to an eating disorder. Right. So, I get what she was suggesting about behavioral manifestations of disease and lifestyle choices, etc etc, but somehow her meaning was muddled in my mind after hearing her associate my lifestyle with a chronic eating disorder. Some people just like to eat and cook and read cookbooks!

Somehow this lecture inspired me to write a new blog entry, because I tried 3 new restaurants this weekend! Rather ironic how a lecture on starvation made me want to write about food, eh? I am also avoiding reading my neuroanatomy lab notes, so this seems like the perfect distraction!

On Friday, we went to a place called "Suzie's Soba" in Hampden. Hampden is a super cute neighborhood in Baltimore that has lots of restaurants and cute little shops. This restaurant is Pan-Asian, which is a term I normally dislike, since it usually means that the restaurant is trying to encompass too many styles of food and ends up with loads of sub-par/average tasting dishes. I ordered a veggie don dish (a Japanese rice dish), because I miss the amazing veggie don from Cafe Mami in Boston. Unfortunately, it wasn't even close in taste. But, even though my dish wasn't good, I would still go back and try something else because everyone else's dishes looked tasty, the decor was cute (there was an "under the sea"-inspired theme), and the service was so good! the owner (i think she was suzie!) was so sweet and nice!

Ok, moving on to Saturday, L. and I went to Holy Frijoles in Hampden. Now, L. didn't love the food at all, but she's super biased because she was raised on quality Tex-Mex in TEXAS. So this food clearly doesn't compare to that. She ordered fajitas and didn't like them at all. I ordered a taco salad, and was pleasantly pleased with my dish. Granted, it's not that hard to make a good taco salad- beans, lettuce, cheese, guacamole, salsa, and veggies... pretty easy, but since I enjoyed my dish and my overall dinner experience, I will give it a favorable recommendation, and plan to try it again. Well, I'll try it again after I try all the other restaurants I haven't been to yet!

Finally, M. and I went to Miss Shirley's for brunch on Sunday and it was AMAZING! Definitely the best of the 3! I ordered the Athens omelet which came with biscuits and hash browns. SO GOOD. M. ordered a salmon omelet, which she loved as well. I wanted to try everything on the menu, so I will definitely be going back there. And as M. and I realized, we'll be in Baltimore for at least 3.5 more years, so I feel like there will be plenty of opportunities to go back! I should also mention that Miss Shirley's is super popular, and there was already a huge line at 10:30 AM on a Sunday. Luckily they had coffee waiting for us, which was lovely and very friendly of them. So, two giant thumbs up for this brunch place!