Birthday Burgers and Tofu Tacos with Suki (Take Two)

First person to come back for seconds! Today was lunch with Suki at Seven Saints. And it just happens to be both of our birthdays’ week. I am 50 and she is younger. Don't say a lady's age. Ha.

Some of the restaurants in the area are making special vegan dishes for the month of April, which is right up Suki's alley. As a vegetarian/vegan she was happy to have so many options to choose from. Maybe even too many options because it took her awhile to narrow it down to her choice of restaurant. I was not looking forward to doing a vegetarian meal myself, but I was thinking about it. Fortunately, Suki was nice enough to order both the portobello mushroom slider and the tofu tacos and shared some of the taco with me. That freed me up to order a bacon cheeseburger slider and some chili.

Turns out that I had nothing to worry about. That tofu taco was delicious. Usually not much of a tofu person, but this was shredded an had a flavorful spice that made it great. I agree with Suki's rating of a 50 out of 10.

Since this was our second go round for an It's My Treat meal, we got into things a little deeper than we could last time. Had a good discussion about religion and spiritually. She came from a religious upbringing and is fine-tuning her beliefs as she is getting older. She summed it up as she is cultivating an amazing spiritual connection with God and finally understanding her worth. I love that she is finding out more about herself as she is figuring out her relationship with God.

I am not much of a believer in the Bible and going to church, but I feel like there is a connection with people and nature. That is the closest thing that I can relate to God. Going out into the woods or somewhere without the chaos of the city is a good way for me to recharge and feel better about things. That is my church. And spending time connecting with people is my communing with God. I'd rather have a lunch with someone and really listen to them than spend an hour in a church listening to a sermon.

When I said that the singing in a church is spiritual because everyone is connected together and having the same feeling at the same time and that same feeling can be seen at a good music concert where everyone is singing along to the songs, Suki pushed back a little and said that they word have meaning that move you too. It isn't just the people gathered singing, but also the message in the song. So, I'll leave it up to you to determine whether a Taylor Swift concert counts as attending church for the day.

I also mentioned my love of service. Of doing things for people without any expectation of anything in return. Might seem odd, but for me it feels right. It isn't a religious thing for me, just something that I like doing. Not really an altruistic thing because I do get enjoyment out of it, but I don't really expect anything from those who I do acts of service for. But that was the case when I started this project. I started it because I wanted to just get out and do more and see people. It was purely about myself, but as I have done more of these, I think the person I am dining with gets something out of it too. (more than just a free meal :)

We also talked a lot about family and how to deal with teenage kids. It is tough to know the right way to do things. But I can tell that Suki comes to it from a place of love and caring so you can't go wrong with that. I come to it from a place of love and confusion, so who knows what I am doing. Ha.

Thank you, Suki! Another great meal. Thank you for sharing that delicious tofu taco with me. It was so good. Maybe it pays off to try something new. That is probably a lesson that I will forget the next time I am tempted by a juicy cheeseburger, but I will try to be better.