As for myself, I seem to end-up in a lot of old Kerouac haunts for whatever reason.

Sometime during the last summer I started making changes in the things that I eat and gradually I’ve been eating more and more organic foods. Not that I’m anywhere close to even eating organic more than 50% of the time, but in general I now attempt to avoid processed & refined foods, drink organic juice, avoid anything which has corn syrup in it, etc. Generally speaking if it’s not fresh or has things like dyes, colors, sweeteners other than real sugar, preservatives, etc, I try to not consume it.

With these and some other minor changes (such as only eating glycose friendly carbs) I’ve surprisingly lost about 20 lbs since the Summer without even trying, and continue to slowly lose weight. The best part about the change in what I eat is that I’m probably eating better than ever and still enjoy terrible things like soda (though I prefer natural cherry and vanilla soda), the occasional bit of chocolate, coffee, etc, and am still managing to shed weight. As long as I stick to the way I’ve been eating for the last 6 months or so, I’m pretty certain this will finally be the magic bullet to make my weight loss much more permanent rather than some crazy fad diet.

It’s also fun to find-out what things taste much better as organic products. Among my favorite discoveries– dairy products, pretzels, soda, fruit juice (particularly apple juice), and beef. A couple of things which I’ve not liked– organic peanut butter, and the Annie’s organic salad dressings.

Being that I get more liberal with age and grew-up in a farming community, I can certainly also appreciate that organic farms also practice sustainable farming practices and keep the small mom & pop farmers in business with much less land than traditional farms.

I’ll try and update this list later with the places I have eaten as well, which might take awhile…

• Joseph’s Southern Food: Mmmm.. fried chicken! I’ve read somewhere else about this place too it seems. I dig the Park Hill neighborhood and seem to find myself more often than you’d think (going there again this weekend actually).
• Tom’s Home Cookin’: Some more “down home” type fare
• Jack-n-Grill: Supposedly the best green chili in Denver. Tried going once with a friend and it was PACKED… opted for somewhere else because of time constraints.
• Kabul Kabob: This place sounds more middle-eastern fusion than middle-eastern to me, but I’ve heard good things about it and need to check it out sometime. I think one thing that separates the US as far as cuisines from other countries (and really, it’s about the only thing.. very few cuisines have been invented here other than Creole, Barbecue, etc) is the wide variety of fusion cuisines available.
• L&L Hawaiian Barbecue: We had a Hawaiian style picnic for work a couple of summers back, and it was amazing (though I would of preferred an entertainment free picnic). I’m not sure if it was these guys or not (though I do remember them being from Aurora), but I’m certainly ready for some more swine and sweet bread.
• Moongate Asian Grill: One fusion cuisine that I think is completely overdone is Asian-fusion, but perhaps I’ll have to give this place a try sometime.
• New York Pizzeria: Though I have yet to take a trip to New York, I certainly dig on their style of pizza.
• Oshima Ramen: Ramen to most people conjures the thought of the twenty for a dollar packages of Top Ramen they survived on while in college and in their early 20′s. Unfortunately what they don’t know is how yummy fresh Ramen noodles are (which is really what Ramen is), and that they have little in common with their bastardized counterparts.
• Pint’s Pub: I love brewpubs– I think a co-worker recommended this place once as well.
• Playa de Oro: Actually their second location is just down the street from me. I’ve considered going in there, but have yet to try it. Apparently they specialize in the seafood dishes of Mexican food.
• Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe: Sounds like a good family owned place to get some tasty Mexican food. Yes please.
• Spicy Basil: I love the Thai. One of a few Thai places I have yet to check-out.
• El Taco de Mexico: One area that I’ve not spent much time in Denver is the Santa Fe district. It seems like a cool combination of small galleries, lots of great Mexican food places to explore, and various shops (sort of like the southwest version of Broadway). Anyhow, this place is in that area, and I need to give it a try sometime.
• Tommy’s Thai: Yet another Colfax eatery that I need to check-out sometime. The wide variety of great places to eat on Colfax always astounds me, and I don’t think it’s really that bad of an area. Granted I’d never ride the bus there at night, but the same can be said for my neighborhood. Well, I mean I’ll never ride it at night again.

At that moment, I made it my mission to track down a singularly authentic pho recipe. Now, after tireless investigation, and just when I thought I had a pho worthy of showing off to experts, I learn there is no such thing: It seems that everyone, whether from northern or southern Vietnam, whether raised on his own mother’s pho, or recently converted to Vietnam’s national soup, has a firm and personal idea of how pho should taste.

In its native country, pho is simply great street food — inexpensive, thick with noodles, fragrant with an array of Asian herbs and spices, onion and ginger and eaten nearly 24 hours a day, especially for breakfast. Vietnamese immigrants introduced it here in restaurants after the war ended in 1975: You can hardly pass a strip mall in some parts of the Washington region without being propositioned by a neon pitch for pho.

I’d been wondering what the key ingredients were for Pho for awhile to further refine my palette, as well as perhaps try to cook some myself. Really as a bachelor it’s much easier just to buy it when it comes down to it, but I would like to give it a try just for the experience if anything else. Perhaps this will happen sometime after I’ve thoroughly tried out my new Thai cookbooks.