Exercising My Taste Buds

Today I gave my taste buds a work out. It started with an innocent trip to the Spice House where I was only going to pick up a few items for my pantry. My day soon became a culinary adventure that worked my taste buds into a tizzy. Below are the details of what I bought and/or consumed. I should warn you...there is food porn below.

First stop was The Spice House where I went a bit overboard. I started with a list of a few ingredients and it just snowballed from there. Here's what I ended up buying:
dehydrated cilantro leaves
dehydrated minced orange peel (I'm really excited to use this for my cocktails)
garlic powder
telicherry black peppercorns
dried chanterelle mushrooms (going to try these in a soup)
chicken base
freshly ground cumin
sweet curry powder
rose water (once again -for cocktails)
black truffle oil (this stuff is like crack to me - now I understand addiction)
Bridgeport seasoning (for my taters)

and then I left with the intention of going to lunch and heading home. That's when I stumbled upon Old Town Oil (http://www.oldtownoil.com/) and what I like to call an orgasm in my mouth. So I walk in to find containers of olive oil and balsamic ready for tasting. The guy working there (sorta cute, but I may have been deluded by the access to olive oil and the fact that he had a shaved head, which is a major turn on lately) was kind enough to show me around and give me samples of the oil. From there he moved me over to the balsamic and fed me combos of oil and balsamic like Meyer lemon oil and strawberry balsamic. I ended up with two bottles of oil (a Castile from Spain and a Basil infused oil from Tunisia) and a bottle of 18 year old balsamic. On the way home I was thinking of all the naughty things I was going to do with my new friends and a baguette.

I was almost tempted to skip my lunch and head home, but I wanted to check out this new restaurant called Pho and I. It's right up the street and Ive been hearing so much about pho, a Vietnamese soup. I had a lunch of mango bubble tea, fish cakes and pho- all for under $20. Very filling on a bitter cold day like this.

I had one final stop - my neighborhood cheese shop, Pastoral. There I purchased a baguette, some French butter, Mexican chocolate, and a bottle of Chateau Coupe Roses Minervois which I am enjoying immensely. Right now I'm safe at home looking up recipes for all my new ingredients. I can't wait for later when I lower the shades, dim the lights, put on some Miles Davis and pull out the baguette, oils and balsamic.