Side note to start: Just when I think my dogs have officially reached monsters status – I get a ton of comments from ya’ll saying how good they are for knowing the “stay” command!   Who knew I was raising such little angels!

Last night – Kristin and I got to attend Flavor Tripping, put on by Stove Monkeys (gotta support and LOVE those Cleveland businesses!), thanks to a contest I won over at Poise in Parma!

Kristin – excited for Flavor Tripping, at B-Side Lounge:

Once you were in inside – there was a table where you had the choice to choose from:

A concentrated powder, that didn’t last as long but was more “intense”:

or taking the natural berry itself:

We picked the berry:

and then of course made lots of jokes how we felt like we were doing some illegal drugs.    I’m going to go ahead and guess most people could guess we were raised in suburbia…

After you “took the berry” (all I could think of all night was “the schnozberries taste like schnozberries” – anyone else?) you could go and try any number of the items they had out:

• grapes
• lemons
• limes
• grapefruits
• cherry tomatoes
• pipers (isn’t that the biology lab term???) full of hot sauce and other crazy things
• some sort of cheese/cheese cake thingy

My flavor tripping tasting plate:

The bar itself was pretty cool – it was in the “basement” but there was no upstairs – so the windows that you see were street level:

They had this huge mirrors on the wall so the projections could be seen by the patrons of the bar, as well as those walking by on the street.  I thought it was pretty cool/trippy but I’m also easily amused – I could totally see Mike teasing me for thinking it was cool!

Once we were at the bar – I ordered a tequila on the rocks (they said tequila would taste different while “flavor tripping” ) but I didn’t get a picture of my drink.  For reference – it looked something like this:

(picture: me, in Mexico, loving life, or maybe just tequila)

Honestly – tequila tasted EXACTLY like tequila tastes.  Delicious, and like you might forget the end of the night!

Next on the list of foods to try: Seviche (which was delicious, but no where near as good as the stuff I had at the Foodbuzz Taste Pavilion!)

The aftermath of it all:

Let me give you the run down…

Limes:  tasted like straight lime candy wedges (I was thinking those little fruit slices that Malley’s has to offer!)

Lemons: same as limes

Grapefruit: same as lemons and limes but EVEN crazy sweeter!

Grapes (both red and green): tasted like grapes

Cherry tomato:  Tasted like a tomato!

Jalapeno:  Tasted like a jalapeno!

I will say – the most “trippiest” thing of all – was the salt and vinegar chips that were sitting on the bar!  I grabbed on just because – HELLO – IT WAS A CHIP – WHAT DID YOU WANT ME TO DO?! – but it tasted sweet!!!  That was definitely weird, otherwise, nothing really blew my mind.

After the glass of tequila was gone – I may have gotten a little silly…

(Sorry if I scared you with the above – I have a frighteningly large noggin’…and don’t ask what’s going on with my left eyebrow, I have no idea!)

Kristin looks much more photogenic:

By the end of the night, after the berry had worn off – I’d eaten so many lemons and limes “straight up” – I felt like my face permanently turned to…

So we knew it was time to head home!   Not to mention – it was snowing the whole time we were there and the roads were pretty bad! Sure did look pretty though, huh?

A very big thanks to Kristin for coming with me (and buying my drink!!! ) and an EVEN BIGGER THANKS to Alicia & Stove Monkeys a fabulous evening!!!