Fact: NH food is better than VT food.

A spur of the moment trip to New Hampshire this weekend led me to UNH to visit my childhood friend Theresa; it also led to some AMAZING dining experiences.  First of all, lemme remind you that this blog is supposed to be about found-food and dumpster diving.  Buuuut, I wanna talk about the food that I paid for too.  So deal with it.

On the night I arrived, we went to this little community place called "Waysmeet Center."  Every Friday night a group of volunteers fixes a meal of whatever they feel like making and anyone is welcome to come eat.  This week, there was soup galore.  Curried lentil, summer squash with white bean paste, split pea and ham, sweet potato and leak, black bean...  Some of the soups were donated from "What A Crock," a local soup restaurant in Durham, NH and there was a ton of donated bread from all over the place.  When we walked in, Larry, the head honcho or whatever, greeted Theresa by name, gave me a huge hug, and then took a bajillion pictures of us (I'll post one if I ever get ahold of them...).  We had never met, but he acted as if we were old friends.  It was absolutely lovely.   I can't think of anything better than a huge room full of happy, soupy people.

The next day, Theresa and I wandered over into Portsmouth to scope out some brunchybrunch after a night of typical college drinking.  Aka, we were hungover and grumpy and super excited to stuff our faces with reckless abandonment.  Oversized portions, here we come.  We ended up at a place called the "Friendly Toast," which was quite possibly the most minutely decorated restaurant in the entire world.  There were knick knacks, statues, weirdo paintings, and just generally bizarre shit everywhere.

What was REALLY great about this restaurant was they had stuff to distract you while you wait for the bathroom.  Like this mirror, for example.  There was also a holographic dog painting and a stuffed tiger that growls when you walk by.  Needless to say, I was entranced.

The food was better than I could ever have dreamed.  Theresa got the heurvos rancheros.  I got the "Guy Scramble," consisting of egg whites, avocado, salsa, black beans, and cheese all scrambled up together with a side of homefries and toast.  When asked what kind of toast I wanted, I decided to go all experimental and try the anadama bread.  Apparently it's a new england classic.  Apparently I live under a rock.  I pronounced it "ah-na-duh-muh" (to the tune of "mahna mahna" from the Muppets), but it's really pronounced "anna-damn-uh."  Embarrassment ensued.  But whatever!

(This picture makes our food look like barf, but let me assure you, it was heavenly barf.)

Both meals arrived and it became apparent that only a black hole could possibly demolish those dishes.  Buuuut, hungover teenage girls who hadn't eaten in 12 hours are basically black holes, so we obviously ate everything.  About half way through, we each hit a wall and had to take a break from eating, but did we give up?  Never!  We struggled and pep-talked each other and threw up (just kidding) and stuffed ourselves to the max.  It was disgusting.  I'm gonna have to head to the gym for hours and hours to work off the weight of that brunch, but ya know what?  SO worth it.  I may not be able to look at another piece of anadama bread for a few years, though.

Here's a before and after sequence for ya: