The Friday night we spent in California we were with our friend Jenn (a PhD tango dancer who loves Disneyland…no, she wasn’t genetically engineered) and trying to figure out where to eat. In a stroke of genius, I googled (love how this has become a verb) “vegetarian restaurants orange county” and came up with Native Foods Café – an all vegan restaurant that was only 10 minutes away from Jenn’s house. PERFECT!!! I got so excited about the menu that I instantly began begging to go there for dinner. Now, I was with two people who are very much NOT vegans, so I was a little worried about getting my way convincing them to go. However, being the master persuader I am, I hoodwinked was successful.

But going was conditional – I had to not show any excitement at all over going. Which was super easy to do. Okay, that’s a lie. I was SO EXCITED about going to a restaurant where I could eat EVERYTHING on the menu. We got there and were greeted by the most welcoming and informative greeter I’ve ever met, who told us all about the menu, the chef, how the cheesecake was the best, and that my choice to get the Baja Surf Tacos was an excellent one.

I didn’t come to that decision right away, though. It took an agonizing 5 minutes for me to decide what I was going to get. Usually when I go to a restaurant, I identify the 1-2 vegetarian options within 10 seconds and basically know what I’m going to order immediately based on the lack of choices. Now I finally know what it’s like to be a regular restaurant goer and have a seemingly infinite amount of dishes to choose from, and boy, do I pity them. It’s so difficult! Was I going to choose the fish tacos (something that always sounds so good to me but I can never order) or get the Rockin’ Moroccan Bowl? But what about the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger? So many choices! The smile was plastered on my face. So much for showing no emotion.

I finally settled with the fish tacos (delish!!), Reid chose the Classic Deli Reuben, and Jenn went with the Twister Wrap, supposedly one of the best-selling items on the menu, but I have to say, after tasting it, I liked it the least out of all our orders. So I’m sorry, Jenn, if you didn’t like the vegan experience as much as I did. Thank you for being adventurous enough to go and appease me 🙂

Earlier during the day, Reid and I went to Newport Beach and Laguna Beach and spent the day walking along the ocean, eating way too many donuts (something I never eat) and just being total tourists. It was a wonderful day.