San Antonio Part Two: The Eats

Obviously, my favorite part of vacations is the eating, much as my favorite part of any given day is eating, so I tend to put a LOT of thought into planning where we will have meals, even for a 24-hour vacation 100 miles from home. A lot. Browse through countless online menus a lot. Consult various "best of" lists a lot. Go to bed ruminating on Mexican versus Tex Mex versus Latin a lot. I was thinking there was a chance we would have Saturday lunch and dinner, then Sunday breakfast and lunch, so I was determined not to waste any of our four meals.

We ended up getting into town a little too late in the afternoon for lunch, but there was still optimistic talk  of an early dinner/late dinner move. Unfortunately, by the time we hit the ground running there was rain, so we ducked into the first Riverwalk spot that looked good, which was an Irish pub.

And here's the other unfortunately. The reason the pub "looked good" was that it was playing the UT game, regarding which Dan had recently informed me, "I didn't think I cared about this game, but then I remembered that I do." It's possible there was more elaboration on the subject, but that was the gist. In case you don't know, the goings on weren't pretty, but all I cared about was that my when-in-Rome policy was being put to the test: Guinness because I'm in an Irish pub or something more Texy Mexy because I'm in San Antonio? Difficult times. I went with my more immediate surroundings, and the Guinness. Temporary detour from my beautiful, beautiful culinary plans.

Next we moved on to....another sports bar.

Early dinner.

Saving grace? Back to the Future themed I.D. sign.

Losing grace: people born in 1989 can drink beer and I am old.

Eventually, mercifully, the game was over and I was stuffed with popcorn and beer. I was going to take a picture of the post-early-dinner-pre-late-dinner espresso that we had at a little local coffee shop but by then I was just too down to find it funny.

No worries, we rallied. Late dinner came through like a champ. We decided on Biga on the Banks, which ended up being very good for our 9:00 date. Sorry about the picture quality, but I'm not quiiiiiite obnoxious enough to attempt good pictures in a nice dark restaurant. Yet.

I think it was called a Cuzco salad. And it had giant corn-looking things that, having just this second Googled, turn out to be...Giant Corn.

Salmon. Boring choice probably, but nice crispy skin and saffron mashers underneath.

Sticky toffee pudding, sticky toffee pudding, sticky toffee pudding.

Breakfast at the Guenther House was no slouch, either. I went for the, uh, platter thing. That was a good idea.

Here is one decision in my life that I will never regret. It looks like biscuits.

Dan went for waffles, and if I hadn't tasted the biscuits, I wouldn't judge him for this at all.

Jalapeño jelly! I always suspected I would like you, and I do. Call me.

For lunch I figured we'd go simple, and hit up The Cove. Texas Monthly AND Guy Fieri both told me it was a good idea. It's a restaurant, car wash, and laundromat.

DUN DUN D--no, just our beers, it wasn't scary.

I got the Texas Burger and Dan got the Lamburger. Natural light makes it less awkward to take pictures of food.

It was good, but I'm a little bit sad if it's really the #5 burger in the entire state. The corn chips were stale, maybe? Totally lost in the mix. And I didn't even realize there was avocado on it until I saw a bit peeking out of the back. Waste of avocado is a punishable offense for sure.

I still bought a T-shirt.