While recapping past trips is a time of joyous reflection, recaps from the present are way easier! I recapped the beginning of this past weekend in my Santa Cruz post. The rest of this weekend carried on with the same energy and zeal as the first half. Sunday night we geared up for the Sean Mendes concert. This is one of the girls’ favorite artists, and it worked out great that we were with them this weekend to take them to the show. With the show being at 7:30 in San Jose, we decided to try to find somewhere to eat dinner in that area. DJ put me on find-a-restaurant duty. I had way too much fun scouring Zomato and TV food maps for a one-of-a-kind place. Most people know of Zomato which provides ratings, easy filters to choose what types of food you are in the mood for, and menu options, while TV food maps tends to be less well known. This handy little app has all the restaurants that have been on TV shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Unique Eats, Cupcake wars, etc. It also has a road trip option that we constantly checked when we did our road trip cross country. No surprise, but the number of featured eateries in the Bay area are endless. In San Jose, I narrowed in on one pretty quickly. This little mexican restaurant named Mezcal is known for it’s Oaxacan regional cuisine.
They were featured on Bizarre Foods America- for what you ask? Well this post would be no fun without a little suspense! I made sure there were normal things on the menu that the girls would like too and booked us a table for 5:30. I told the girls that we were going to hide what the “Surprise dish” entailed until it was placed on the table. They were dying to know. They swore they were going to try it no-matter-what. When the waitress came up to greet us she asked if we had been there before. I stupidly said, “No, but we found you on TV Food Maps!”. She responded, “Oh for our _____” and said the item. DJ and I both said the booming, slow motion, “Noooooo!”. And the girls shrieked in realization of what this surprise item consisted of. We ordered and waited patiently for this dish to arrive. In the meantime, one girl knocked over her water and the other lost a tooth. I am beginning to get a glimpse into motherhood (a VERY EASY taste) by seeing the true inability to predict the next moment in time. All our food came at once including a salmon with roasted veggies for the girls to split, scallop ceviche and tacos pastor for DJ, and a prawn salad with avocado and mango for myself.
Now the moment of truth…
These delicacies are called chapulines. They are actually grasshoppers and not too bad! I don’t know if I would order them again but we had to at least try them! Also I am not sure where insects fall in the pesca diet?! The girls were not too keen on participating in the taste test 😜.
After making sure the tooth was safe and sound in a paper towel resting in the depths of my purse, and laughing about the hilarity of eating grasshoppers for dinner, we headed to the concert! It was in San Jose’s event center just a quick walk from where we were. Talk about estrogen overload. Not only did the massive number of preteen and teenage girls flash me back to the awkwardness of middle school, but my ear drums took a beating. The concert opener was James TW from London. I was astounded by his talent. Then SM took the stage and the crowd went wild. While DJ sat and tried his best to remain obscured, I had a ball getting into the music with the girls. They seemed to have an absolute blast and that was all that mattered.
We got home super late and hit the hay. The next day was pretty chill. We slept in, I had a beautiful run in the balmy sun, and then we all had fruits and veggies with hummus for lunch.
For dinner we took the girls to The Counter. I mentioned this scruptious little chain in my New York post if you want to skim the full review. I love it because it has something for absolutely everyone; from the vegan to the carnivore. I ordered their vegan burger with smoked gouda and all the fixins. The girls had basic burgers with ketchup and mustard and DJ ordered the 1/3 lb. burger with a fried egg. Everyone loved their meals and we even had some milkshakes to boot. The girls loved that they could create their own milkshakes and burgers. The milkshakes were runnier than normal which was a bit disappointing as we all love dipping our fries in them, but I think the restaurant was having an off-day. It seemed that things kept going wrong for the staff (like trays dropping, ornery customers, and the general vibe). I know from working in the industry that it’s best to just give them the benefit of the doubt. We also ordered some regular and sweet potato fries. I am convinced that these are the best potato fries I have ever had. 
After dinner we had a slumber party at our new place. The girls made themselves right at home in “their room”, which made me very happy. We decided to watch a movie and finally settled on a Walk to Remember. I popped some popcorn and excitedly awaited the start of one of my favorite childhood classics. As it played, I slowly began to watch the film from a whole new perspective. I did not realize how dated that movie had become! I did not realize the complete cheesy, sappy, cliché plot this entire movie was built upon! They were sweet about it though and I think generally enjoyed it.
Now, if you know me you know what Monday means….. BACHELORETTE. Oh I hate to admit it, but yes, I am one of those. So to all my friends out there- no spoilers! My in-laws fly back to San-Fran later today, so we will be watching it Wednesday!
Wishing you many opportunities to try Chapulines,
xo <3
Mack