Harvest Restaurant, Tucson, AZ

I just got home from a very good but horribly overpriced dinner at Harvest Restaurant. The newest venture of a local restaurant group, it has a nice premise: Rely as much as possible on organic and locally produced foods and when it isn't possible, make sure it comes from a responsible source. I like the concept and that's why I wanted to eat there.

I was surprised to find a dearth of vegetarian offerings beyond a soup and a couple of salads. Apparently they've had a lot of comments regarding this and are going to add more vegetarian dishes. For now, they can make the fettucine without chicken sausage and chicken stock and they'll make up a vegetable dish for you. I opted for that option. I give them credit, they came out and asked what types of veggies I liked, etc.

What I received was good. It was very tasty. But, seriously, $19 for about 1/4 cup each of rice, kale, and mushrooms served on a smear of pear chutney? Seriously? That's ridiculous. There couldn't have been $3 worth of ingredients on that plate (and I'm being generous). What is that? It's over a 600% mark up. Ridiculous. Like I said, I liked the food but I won't be in any hurry to go back to pay $80 for $35 meal.

Directionally Challenged

I've always had issues with directions. I generally do OK out in the woods or wilderness or whatever. I have a good sense of where it is I need to go. But put me in a city, especially an unfamiliar one, and I'm useless, just lost. While I could probably do a passable job of placing the names of states on a map of the U.S., maybe not as well as a fifth grader, but passable, I still get screwed up when I think of where things are. For instance, probably because we took a trip there from Michigan when I was a kid, I still think of Salt Lake City as "way out west." That's just the way it is programmed in my head. If you were to ask me where Salt Lake City is, I'd say "out west." Of course, I know it's in Utah. And when pressed to think about it, I know that Utah is actually north of here. But I just looked at Google Maps and it still freaked me out that Salt Lake City is damn near due north of Tucson. Almost 800 miles due north. I still find that odd to think about.