Date Night

DATES WITH THEMES

Plan a fun date around one of these October holidays!

NOODLE DAY

National Noodle Day is Oct. 6, so we headed to Lulu’s Thai Noodle Shop. We always enjoy their food, and this time was no exception. But in addition to the food, we got to see their new robot in action. The owner purchased one to help out the wait staff with delivering food and busing tables. Though we didn’t witness any table busing, we definitely witnessed it delivering food to customers, including us. What the robot can’t do is hand your food to you. You or the wait staff have to unload it from the robot’s tray. As for the food, I had a big soup bowl packed with noodles and barbecue roasted pork and also the Thai lettuce wraps with chicken. My husband had the Lulu’s sampler: two spring rolls, four crab Rangoon, four veggie dumplings and four pork dumplings. Everything was so tasty that we didn’t have anything left for lunch the next day!

COOKBOOK MONTH

For National Cookbook Month, my husband and I picked out three recipes from Taste of Home’s 2019 Healthier Cooking Annual Recipes book. Then, on a Sunday evening, we made everything together. First up was cranberry wild rice pilaf. The recipe calls for chicken broth and dried currants, but we substituted vegetable broth and golden raisins, and it turned out great! Easy to make, flavorful and perfect for a potluck or holiday dinner. I also think it would be a good breakfast option. Next up were tuna and white bean lettuce wraps. We had had lettuce wraps out at restaurants but had never made them at home. Very tasty and can be customized in many different ways. The recipe didn’t include any kind of sauce, so we topped some of our lettuce wraps with lemon juice and some with soy sauce. Both choices were great. Last, we made grapefruit and lime yogurt parfaits, which ended up being a perfectly tart and sweet end to our meal.

TACO DAY

We enjoy tacos. But then again, who doesn’t? So for National Taco Day on Oct. 4, it seemed fitting to hit up some stops on the KCK Taco Trail. This culinary adventure includes more than 50 Kansas City, KS, taquerias that feature Tex-Mex style tacos, street tacos and more. Interspersed with the food is a good dose of history and culture. Two places we really enjoyed were Bonito Michoacan and El Camaroncito. The former is a grocery store, bakery and casual taqueria with delicious pastor, asada and carnitas tacos that are bursting with flavor and toppings. The latter is a sit-down restaurant with amazing shrimp tacos and equally-as-good chips and salsa. We hope to find more great tacos on a future Taco Trail date!

Hannah Berry is a freelance writer who lives in the Northland with her husband. They love to explore Kansas City and try new restaurants and activities.

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