A Saturday afternoon quickie

Artsplosure.

Let's acknowledge the obvious: major crowds, traffic jams of human and vehicle varieties, long lines, spendy food.

Then, let's take a moment to acknowledge the sublime: people-watching, downtown revitalization at work, funky arty stuff, good music.

The food wasn't too bad, either, though I kind of cheated. I was meeting a friend and we wanted to sit and talk and *try* to avoid the lines. So we went to El Rodeo at City Market. Mexican that's cheap, hot and fast. *insert crude joke here* I got a beef enchilada; it tasted like a beef enchilada. No surprises there. We were so busy talking I forgot about the delicious guac until afterward, when I exploded in a flurry of guac haste -- dipping it off my plate with the remaining chips as fast as I could, lest a zealous bus person snatch my plate away in a busy-day frenzy.

The best part of the meal was the salsa, delivered as usual in a mini carafe. It was spicier than usual, with a wonderful consistency -- not too watery, not too chunky. My mouth did a small victory dance.

Then, it was on to the fair food. I only partook of a lemon cream crepe, which was worth the short wait. It was served in a folded piece of waxed paper with a napkin, and it was h-o-t. But the lemon was the lemon I desired, a lemon curd-like filling. The cream wasn't so evident. The crepe itself was light and crusty and lovely.

Finally, we ended up at Crema on Fayetteville Street, where my companion wanted a milkshake but changed her mind when we started perusing the Cold Stone-style ice cream menu. Two flavors of ice cream, a few dozen mix-ins. The counter folk were harried and none too pleased by the crowd, it seemed, but hey, it was an ice cream kind of day. I got vanilla with brownie and toffee bits mixed in. It was cold creamy perfection.

And with that, I was stuffed.