Breakfast: It’s another travel day. Today we head back to New York. The Into the Woods auditions are done. Now we go home and figure out who gets what role. Some choices are obvious, the rest is tricky. We cleaned up the pool house and packed the car. We had had a challenging evening and morning with some upsetting news from a family member. Gary let me sit and console myself at Roy’s Station while he went to say goodbye to his dad. I had a comforting cup of Matte Chino (Yerba Mate tea) with Soy Milk.
Lunch: The last challenge before heading to the airport was where to eat. Vegetarian House is closed on Tuesday. We decided to go to Veggie Garden in Mountain View since it was on the way to the San Francisco airport. We’d been there before. It was lunchtime, so we decided to order from the lunch menu which came with soup. We both got the miso. I love Miso Soup and in a typical Japanese restaurant it has fish broth in it. I will only order it out in vegan restaurants. Gary glanced over at me, saying, “too salty?” I told him it was okay. I liked the Wakame in it.
Next we shared the Veggie Chicken Salad.
I ordered the Basil Eggplant with Brown Rice.
Gary had the Veggie Beef with Broccoli.
The Sautéed Spinach was required eating. I wanted greens!
When the main dishes were served, the trouble started. We had had an emotional morning and I did not want to add to it but I had to say something. I was having an MSG reaction. Have you ever experienced this? You feel pressure in the temples and the face can feel tingly like it’s going to swell. I used to experience this a lot when my family would eat at Chinese Restaurants as a kid. Gary was feeling the same thing. He was not as familiar with the feeling and thought he might be having a stroke! (Not long ago, we had experienced a milder MSG reaction at Tofu Com Chay in San Jose. When I wrote Tofu Com Chay a day later on Facebook, they denied using MSG!) Gary left his lunch and went next door to get a haircut. I spoke with the server. She concurred that there was MSG in the soup. She knew because she reacted the same way with MSG. But she assured me it was only in the soup that came in packets and not in the rest of the food. She brought me some Green Tea to calm my concerns. Meanwhile I was feeling awful and picked at the rest of the food. I had it all packed up to bring to the airport, which I ended up dumping. I could no longer trust this restaurant’s food.
Late Night: I worked on the plane during most of the five-hour flight. We arrived at John F. Kennedy airport at 12:30am and got home after 1am. A little Oatmeal topped with frozen Strawberries was a clean and comforting meal after a long day.
