Results tagged “restaurants” from DesMoinesIst

Among the advantages to living in the Des Moines area is our high density of unique restaurants. (Based on state licenses, there are well over 2,000 restaurants in the metro area...or about one restaurant for every 200 people.) On one hand, you can find yourself waiting for hours to get seated at popular chain restaurants -- ever tried getting a table at Texas Roadhouse on a Friday night? And, sometimes, that wait is well worth it.

On the other hand, it's nice to be able to get into a place like Cool Basil (one of the best Thai restaurants around) any night of the week with practically no waiting. Never been to Cool Basil, you say? Then find your way to its peculiar strip-mall location (right by Toys 'R' Us and Half-Price Books in Clive) and be amazed. There's not a bad item on the menu, and as long as you order the mildest preparations, you'll be pleased even if you aren't into spicy foods. One star (out of five) is still enough to give you a little kick.

The prices are better than reasonable, they're outstanding. $25 will get you two entrees and a plate of terrific crab rangoon. And the only excuse for leaving hungry is having the metabolic rate of Bruce Banner.

Has any establishment ever had a more appropriate name?

Allow me to say, first off, that I hope we never get into a shooting war with Minnesota. Sure, we get our jabs in here and there, but I hope we're able to keep the rivalry isolated to an annual football match between the Hawkeyes and the Gophers.

But I have a recurring nightmare that some day, a Canadian prime minister, flush with oil wealth and high on Tim Horton's, will go positively insane and annex the land of 10,000 lakes. Smelling the sweet corn and coveting our butter cow, it would only be a matter of weeks before the shock troops from Manitoba would be preparing to use I-35 as a wedge and drive straight for our dear city. I fear we have been complacent too long along the northern border of this state, and I just don't have the confidence in Mason City's defenses that I require.

Thus, as a first step towards fortifying the Des Moines metro area, I demand that our city elders fortify every Tasty Tacos outlet in the region. They can have Saylorville, Sec Taylor Stadium, and the Wells Fargo Arena, but for the love of God, don't let them take our Tasty Tacos.

There are things that earthly reason can understand, like particle physics, the Laffer curve, and even sometimes US tax code. But how a modest restaurant chain from Des Moines can convert flour, water, lettuce, meat, beans, and cheese into a culinary indulgence with an addictive power rivaling crack -- with no methadone-like substitute in sight -- is completely beyond the realm of human understanding. Would that a man like Norman Borlaug could find the secret ingredient inside those blessed tacos, we could put all of our state's resources into synthesizing and duplicating it. Forget ethanol and biodiesel: If only we could make Tasty Tacos our state's #1 export, we could rule the world!