A big day of yumminess

I'm in Pasadena now visiting my mom and stepdad. Yesterday I demanded to have some of my favorite culinary staples from my hometown.

First of all, let me say that I think the restaurant options here are so much better than they are in the suburb where I currently live. There are more places in one square block in Pasadena than there are in the entire town where I live now. And the places are varied ethnically, so you could have Greek and then Japanese and then Subway. Where I live now, you pretty much have Chinese, Italian, repeat. I think maybe where I live now, a hamburger is considered German food.

I also think there's much more of an eating out culture in SoCal than there is in Illinois. Like, in SoCal it felt like we ate out quite frequently, whereas in Illinois it seems like it's just assumed you are going to eat at home. Like, for all three meals a day. I really can't handle this much cooking, even though I'd say that breakfast and lunch are more "food assembling" than actual cooking.

Anyway, back to what I ate yesterday. In the suburb where I live, and in the surrounding suburbs, the Mexican food options are really quite terrible. Coming from the L.A. area, where you could spit and hit 50 mom-n-pop Mexican places (although of course you wouldn't want to eat at any of them after you spit in them), it's hard to go to a place where the most authentic Mexican cuisine you can get is Taco Bell. We do have some Mexican places, but they just aren't very good, in my opinion. So when I come out to California, I ask for Mexican.

Last night we went to El Chollo. It's this Mexican place that has been in the L.A. area since 1923. Good food. Good margarita.

Then we washed it down with some Pinkberry yogurt, which is actually a California-based love that I developed after I moved to Illinois, and that I hope will come to Illinois sometime in the near future. I like to have strawberries and mochi as toppings.

Now all I have to do is get to Del Taco and In-N-Out, and I'm set.

Oh, and next week I'm going back on Weight Watchers, I swear.