Before I get into the hazards we encountered yesterday driving into Salt Lake City, I just want to do a quick overview of Denver….
SammyB did a great job with the restaurants in Denver…hats off to him for his two Japanese picks:
Domo - Traditional Japanese Country Cookin’ at it’s best…I had a big bowl of chicken, beef, and pork cooked together in a savory, spicy soyu broth with vegetables and glass noodles…amazing with rice! Thin slices of beef and pork, meltingly tender and juicy and larger pieces of chicken all just a little bit spicy and delicious on rice.
The main course came with 8 different little appetizer dishes including marinated and pickled vegetables, slow cooked meatballs, stewed beef with potatoes, sauteed peppers…etc…
The restaurant is also a fully functioning dojo for aikido with a museum and a beautiful rock garden. Definitely a must-eat if you’re ever in Denver.
Oshima Ramen - a Hole-in-the-Wall Japanese ramen restaurant…Amazing yet so simple! The restaurant is just a narrow bar with counter seating and a few small tables. The menu really only has 5 choices and then variations on those (more meat, different soup base, with our without a side of pan-fried gyoza). The best seller is probably their main ramen: perfectly cooked ramen noodles with Japanese char-shu (bbq) pork, a whole egg, and veggies in a light soyu broth with bits of slow cooked ground pork and onions. The side of pan-fried gyoza is a must. 5 gyoza lightly pan-fried and served with a mustard-vinegar sauce. Deee-licious!
*e-mail us for directions to these wonderfully delicious restaurants
okay…so them two Sam boys got themselves into some fun on the drive from Denver to Salt Lake City…
We were heading out of Fruita (right on the CO/UT border) and got some advice from a local boy to head down local highway 6 instead of Interstate 70 to get to the state border….so I’m driving down this little two lane highway (and by two-lane I mean one lane in each direction) and it’s starting to get dark…kinda that dusky light where you can’t really see that well and your headlights are still kinda useless…when suddenly there’s a brown cow staring at me down the road!
It took me a second to realize that there was a COW on the road before I hollered at SammyB and slammed on the brakes! For the next few minutes we did about 5 mph through a herd of cows in the middle of nowhere Colorado…mind you, there are no other cars on this road and by now it’s barely even paved…so really, we can only do about 40mph without shaking the car apart.
We finally get past the cows and drive right past the connecting road that will take us back to the interstate….I pull a u-turn in front of a lone farmhouse and the car is suddenly attacked by two dogs (one mottled white and one black as night)…they’re barking their heads off and running alongside and in front of the car…i’m doing 2 mph trying not to hit these dogs or run over their feet….the big black monster is barking right at my window as it runs alongside my left front tire…I’m freakin’ out and laughing at the same time and trying not to hurt these dogs….SammyB is screaming at me to watch out for the white dog as I’m trying not to kill the black dog…we were so freaked out we forgot to film (probably too dark anyways)…HOLY COW!!!
Finally, we’re getting close to Salt Lake City when the snowstorm hits…I’ve never driven a car in a snowstorm…the snows flying at the windshield like we’re in Warp or something….all this on curvey mountain roads….awesome! When we finally get to SLC, the roads are all covered in ice and snow and I’m hydro-planing all over the place! I don’t respond well to the brakes not working when I step on them…really trippy….you step on the brakes and the car keeps going and then you kinda steer the glide away from other cars….scary fun..but we arrived in one piece and everything….guess you can’t keep those Sam boys down!