This morning I woke up feeling stressed out, short tempered, and negative. I woke up at 6am on a Saturday and was wide awake. So, I watched a couple of online lectures and did work for a class I’ve grown to passively detest. That did not improve my mood. I had no desire whatsoever to run, but thought it might make me feel better. It helped a little, but I was still just feeling drained all day. You know those days when everything just feels like too much effort? “Ugh, why do I have to clip my nails? Why do I have to use deodorant? Why do I have to prep myself every day? Why can’t our apartment clean itself? Gaaahhh.”
It dawned on me that I hadn’t had a good meal in a while. The hubs and I don’t treat ourselves by going out to restaurants very often. So, tonight I thought, why not? We ended up at a newer restaurant in the North East end of Minneapolis called Ginger Hop, which we’ve gone to a couple times. The wait staff is great, the restaurant has a a nice modern Asian vibe, and they have a wonderful selection of East Asian cuisine. The best part: they have several vegan options (even marked with a little “v” on the menu). I was craving Pad Thai. Like, GOOD Pad Thai, unlike the stuff we attempted to make for Valentine’s Day that looked great, but tasted like nothing! Seriously, no matter how much flavor we added, it tasted like noodle air.
So I ordered the Pad Thai with tofu (sans egg) and it was sooo good! Oh, it just really hit the spot. And I have leftovers now, which is, of course, another bonus. Sometimes I think it’s easy to take for granted the importance of a good meal in morale boosting. It gave me a second wind and now I’m ready to conquer the world! Or at least have a very relaxing, stress-free evening with my favorite person.
Side note: if you haven’t seen the movie Inception yet, you really should. It’s absolutely fantastic. Though, upon seeing it, I can’t decide if Chrisopher Nolan is a genius, or bordering on schizophrenic. Or both. But yes, go see it!! View the trailer here.
Ginger Hop
612-746-0307
201 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Marty Krutolow Says:
Hi,
Love your blog. I actually reviewed a restaurant in Minnie right before I went and watched the Twins beat the Yankees. (Go Mets).
I was wondering if you would put a link up with my blog. Pics and posts of vegan meals I have on the road.
See the full post and pics at Marty’s Flying Vegetarian Review:
http://martysnycveggiereview.blogspot.com/2010/07/soul-vegetarian-east-chicago-il.html
(excerpt)
I ordered the dinner special for $11.99 but unfortunately they were out of the Lentil Carrot soup so I got the veggie noodle instead. I also ordered 2 sandwiches to go for the red eye-ish flight out of Midway at a rolling departure time of between 2130 and 2330. I so wanted a BBQ twist sandwich but they were out so I ended up with the Prince Elkannon (Garvey) Burger. I generally shy away from burgers but I had a few bites in the plane and downed it later at 3am and it was divine with sauteed mushrooms and onions in a sweet whole wheat bun.
Later I also had a few bites of my Jerkfu Wrap, (a caribbean delight made with sautéed onions bell peppers and our specially seasoned jerk tofu, wrapped in a spinach tortilla). this sauce reminded me of the sauce boneless spare ribs used to come in … sweet and succulent.
July 18th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Tracy Says:
Hey, we could eat there! I wouldn’t mind
. And it doesn’t sound too expensive.
July 19th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Erika @ Health and Happiness in LA Says:
Oh man, Pad Thai and Inception all in one night. Sounds like a winner. I reallllly want to see Inception but I am super poor so I’ll have to wait forever and ever until it’s on Netflix.
July 19th, 2010 at 7:19 pm