Minneaps - Day 3

Sorry, I know it's been awhile and you probably forgot already...

And now back to our regularly scheduled program…Minneaps – Day 3 “The Food”

I’m naming this day “The Food” because seriously, this day seemed to be ALL about food. As I mentioned, we were on some kind of quest to eat everything off our Minneaps Must-Eat list. Therefore, in anticipation, I woke up early to go the gym (while my husband was still sleeping, thank you very much) so I could go for a quick workout. (You may be wondering why I keep writing that I went to the gym? Well it’s because I want to record this for proof. I have pretty much NEVER in my life gone to a hotel gym. This is momentous.) Anyhoo, after that, I came back and he was still sleeping. Ha! (I’m also writing this down because he always used to make a big deal about getting up to work out while my lazy ass was still in deep slumber.) Finally he woke up and decided that for breakfast we were gonna have White Castle. I know what you’re thinking “A Crave Case for breakfast?!” Well it’s not unheard of (See: Harold and Kumar) but no, White Castle actually has a yummy little breakfast slider composed of an actual fried egg, crispy bacon and cheese...all slider-fied (ie. teeny tiny) so it doesn't make you feel bad when you eat like 10 of them. (they also have sausage ones). So...I was all excited for b'fast until Aldin came back with...breakfast sandwiches. Composed of the same thing but on actual bread. Boo. Apparently the girl at White Castle heard him wrong and that's what they gave him...He tried to convince me they were just as good. (Plus he wasn't gonna drive all the way back there), so that's what we had. Eh, they were aight, but I was really craving the breakfast sliders.

Anyways...we got ready to go to a different mall this day - Southdale, which was just across the bridge on the other side. It was a nice little mall and of course, I came out handed...which is to say, the shopping gods were smiling upon me. (My husband on the other hand, must've angered them somehow because he was getting NUTHIN). After a few hours of shopping, of course hunger began to set in. This was the day Aldin was looking forward to the most, because we were going to venture out to St. Paul to look for this burger joint he had seen on an episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives". (Do you guys ever watch that show? Note - don't watch it on an empty stomach because you will inevitably find yourself driving around the city looking for a greasy burger). So after plugging it into our GPS, we set off to find "The Blue Door Pub". Their specialty: The Bluesy Burger - a thick juicy burger stuffed with blue cheese (or whatever kind of stuffing you like). We found it easily (thank goodness for GPS!). It seemed to be in a quaint little neighborhood surrounded by houses and little antique shops and boutiques. It was packed which was a good sign! We got in and sat at the window counter which looked out onto the street (and front patio tables). The server was really nice and suggested some interesting beers (they have quite an array) which my husband chose from.



The Frenchy with tempura'd green beans - Yum-o!

However...we were here for the boigas. I ordered the "Bacon Bluesy" which was stuffed with bacon and cheese, with a side of tater tots. Tots!! I love tater tots!! Aldin ordered the "Frenchy" which was stuffed with cheese, onions and mushrooms and came with au jus to dip it in. He had the tempura battered green beans as his side. Money.

Afterwards, I convinced him to go to MOA one more time...I really wanted to have some dessert at Tucci Benuch in the mall because I knew they had creme brules and I love me some creme brules! So we went and because he felt bad for the server, he decided to order a dessert too. So I ordered the creme brules (obvi) but they kind of changed it to butterscotch or some such flavor, and even though it was still good, it wasn't what I really wanted :( Sad times. However, the tiramisu my husband ordered was quite yummy!

After this, we went back to the hotel for what else - a nap! What an idyllic life I lead when I'm on vacay...

zzzzz....

So guess what I woke up to? "I Love You, Man" again...and guess what else? We were havin dinner at Cheesecake Factory, so we were leaving at the exact same spot in the movie where we left the day before...we were never gonna be able to see the ending of this movie.

And of course, no trip to Minne is complete without a dinner at Cheesecake Factory with their humongoid menu of great food, not to mention their extensive selection of cheesecakes! The last time we went to Cheesecake Factory was in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the "island" menu was different from the "mainland" menu. Meaning, they didn't have the Chicken Bellagio (among other things). I know - out of all the ten million items on the menu, we wanted the one thing that wasn't on it. LOL. Of course. Anyhoo, since we were on the "mainland", Aldin was able to order his beloved Chicken Bellagio and I ordered the Bistro Shrimp pasta.

For a starter we tried the Ahi Tuna Tartare.



Ahi Tuna Tartare

It was good, except perhaps I would suggest asking for the soysauce on the side next time. But the tuna and avocado were awesome! Oh, and since it was our last night in Minne, I splurged on some San Pellegrino to drink while Aldin had a mojito. Good times. Also, I should mention that they give 2 kinds of bread - one is plain sourdough I believe and the other one, is this sweet kind of dark brown pumpernickel-y bread. It's so good. We got our food, which was great as usual (except that when I had ordered this Bistro Shrimp pasta in Florida the shrimp were much bigger). Anyways, after dinner we obvi had to order a cheesecake, but we decided to get it to go because it was the NBA finals and we wanted to watch the game. 

So out of all the cheesecakes that we couldn't agree on we finally settled on a special: Pina Colada. Yum.



Nice face. "Huh?!"



Back at the hotel we watched the game and when the Mavs beat the Heat we celebrated with the Pina Colada cheesecake and some coffee from our in-room coffee maker :) Another day of good shopping and good eating.

Now...if only we could finish that darn "I Love You, Man" movie...

One more day...and the best lunch on the trip...to be continued...