A bored Foodie afternoon...

After getting back from breakfast with some friends at The Good Egg, Tara decided to take a nap. I was kind of restless, so I decided to drive semi-aimlessly and see where I wound up.

My first stop was Midwestern Meats on Main Street in Mesa. We'd heard some of the Chowhounders talk about it and we tried to go last week, but of course, they are closed on Sundays. I looked through their fairly large meat selection and grabbed a ribeye for Tara, a piece of marinated "carne asatha" for me, and for comparision to Vonhansons, a half-pound of bacon.

Next up, I made my way to Pop's Soda Shoppe at 74th St and McDowell. I hadn't made it to their new location yet and was surprised at the much roomier layout. After browsing their large selection, I picked out four bottles to try. Jones Pure Cane Soda MF Grape flavor, Jackson Hole Soda Co's High Mountain Huckleberry, Empire Bottling Works Grape, and Moxie Original Elixir. Being from Maine, Moxie has always been around, but I remember I didn't care for its, to put it mildly, "acquired taste". I got it so Tara and I can see exactly what it tastes like. As I was about to check out, the guy in front of me was told there was a $5 minimum for credit/debit cards. Since that is also how I was paying, I went back and grabbed a bottle each of Capt'n Eli's Orange Pop and Capt'n Eli's Parrot Punch. I was looking for soda made with sugar/pure cane sugar. I haven't tried them yet. They are still chilling.

I then headed up to Souvia Tea at Miller and Camelback. I'd found coupons online for a free pot of tea at each of their locations. Last week at the Moon Valley store, I'd talked to the person behind the counter about a tea I'd had from a coworker years ago in Dallas. From my description, he'd narrowed down the probable tea (I never knew the name) to a couple candidates. I got a pot's worth of Tung Ting Premium oolong tea leaves that day and it's a great tea. Hideously expensive compared to the likes of Lipton and Bigelow, but worth every penny. Today I opted to get a sampling of Jasmine tea. I've tried it and it's not bad, but I prefer the nice oolong.

Souvia is in the same strip mall as Bread Basket bakery, my next port of call. I got there 4 minutes before 4pm, their closing time. I got a three-pack of their crack-like macaroons and a loaf of their even more addictive cinnamon pecan bread. Since it was closing time, the lady behind the counter also let me have the diced up sample oatmeal chocolate chip cookie as well.

My final stop was west on Camelback to the AJ's at Central. I grabbed Tara a Vosges Barcelona Exotic Candy Bar and a Black Pearl Bar (wasabi, ginger, and black sesame seeds in a 55% cacao dark chocolate) for myself. I also snagged a loaf of Simply Bread's Kosher Challah for use as French Toast tomorrow's breakfast.

Total mileage for the excursion: about 100 miles. The things I do for food. :)