Fun & Food with Greg!

Yesterday, I blogged about how my bestie Greg was in town from Kentucky for the July 4 weekend. You can read about our grill-out and downtown fireworks excursion here. This post is dedicated to everything we ate last Friday and Saturday.

I took a vacation day from work on Friday so Greg and I could hang out (yay! 4-day weekend!). We slept in and then met up with our friend Stephanie at Pho Binh for Greg's very favorite thing to eat in Memphis — TOFU BUFFET! Here's my plate with Lemongrass Tofu, Green Bean Tofu, Black Bean Tofu, Curry Tofu Soup, and Cabbage Soup.

We were stuffed after lunch, and Greg had some work to do remotely, so we headed back home. He worked; I watched The Wire. Then, we had plans to meet up with our friends Vaughan and Nicole at the cafe at Crosstown Arts, where I work in communications and where Nicole used to work as the cafe manager. 

When Greg lived in Memphis, he lived in the Crosstown neighborhood (down the road from me), so I was excited to show him Crosstown Concourse. Concourse is a massive, mixed-use redevelopment project located in a formerly abandoned Sears headquarters — now home to arts, education, and healthcare orgs, as well as awesome vegan-friendly restaurants and some retail. I do communications for Concourse as well, and I'm very proud of this project. So I couldn't wait to show Greg! 

At the cafe, I ordered the daily Big Ass Salad to counter the effects of all that tofu earlier. This had romaine, pickled okra, tomato, fried kale, and green tomato dressing. That fried kale is my favorite thing! I ordered some fried chickpeas on the side and dumped them on the salad too.

After dinner, we enjoyed a drink with Vaughan and Nicole at Art Bar (the bar inside Crosstown Arts). Later that night, we caught an amateur drag show at Dru's Place, then a quick drink at The Pumping Station before calling it a night.

The next day, it was time to eat again! We met Megan at Imagine Vegan Cafe. Greg and Imagine owners Kristie and Adam go way back, so they were excited to see him! The special of the day was DONUT BURGERS!! Y'all know I had to get on that. Beyond Burger between two glazed doughnuts with special sauce. Mmmmmmmmm.

I was stuffed (yet again) after this meal, but by dinner time, my tummy growling again. I swear my metabolism is that of a 14-year-old boy. I can put away some food! Greg wasn't really hungry, but I convinced him to go on a picnic on Big River Crossing. That's the pedestrian/bike bridge that leads from Memphis to Arkansas over the Mississippi River. Btw, Greg is not unhappy here. He just never smiles in pictures. It's a thing. 

We had a ton of leftovers from grilling and other meals during the weekend, so we packed them for a Leftovers Picnic! Tofu & veggie skewers (July 4 leftovers), a yummy lemongrass tofu stir-fry (made with some tofu Greg picked up for grilling but didn't get used), teriyaki noodles (that Greg picked up otw to Memphis and never ate), cucumber salad (more July 4 leftovers), herb-garlic cashew cheese (picked up on clearance) and crackers, and vodka watermelon (also leftover).

We enjoyed our food (of course, mine is the loaded plate!) on a picnic table on the Arkansas side and then made the mile walk back to Memphis. Such a fun, food-filled weekend!! But I'm back on my whole foods regimen this week!