The Munchie Report: Rocky Mountain Road Trip- Part 1

Posted by on

The Munchie Report: Rocky Mountain Road Trip- Part 1| By Penelope Puff

 Buckle your seatbelts folks! This week, we head on a 1300 mile road trip to the west! We traveled across the country to stay high as hell, eat delicious meals, and possibly fill the freezer. Join me as we talk edibles, munchies, remote dispensaries, and finding free-range food!

DENVER

Our journey starts in Denver. We arrived late in the afternoon and found a dispensary close to the hotel. They didn’t have a huge selection and the cartridges were kind of pricey. We were able to procure a Binske Pure Fortunato Dark Chocolate bar and a Green Dot live resin cartridge. Neither of which we had had before and were stoked to try!


Fortunato chocolate 

There is a cool story about Fortunato chocolate. This particular strain of cocoa, Nacional, was believed to be extinct from Ecuador in the 1920s. It was discovered in 2009 that plants with identical DNA existed. Farmer, Don Fortunato, had been growing this famed treat on his farm in Peru. Apparently, chocolate has purplish beans and white beans. Learning is fun. Zzztt. White beans lack the anthocyanins that make the purplish color, producing mellower and less bitter chocolate. The beans from this region are around 40% white.

 Binske mixed in some cannabis oil, and here we are. The chocolate was delicious. The high was great. You will definitely notice the difference that high-quality cocoa makes.

Beast +Bottle

For dinner, we decided on Beast + Bottle. It offered seasonal farm to table food with an emphasis on lamb and wine. I like lamb and wine. Alas, I did not order wine. I ordered the “Your Own Pear-sonal Jesus” cocktail. I love the song and pear and violet flavored alcohol. Overpriced for the quantity but tasty for sure. I think I still got another one.

Appetizers


For appetizers, we ordered the fried zucchini and pickled beets with feta and dill spread. We also ordered the Smoked Trout Waffle. The fried zucchini was cut a little thick and it was lightly battered. This left it lacking crunch but the dish was much lighter because of it. Beets, I’m continually on the fence with. I can’t decide whether I like the taste of dirt or not. Pickling the beets gives them a wonderful acidity and flavor that really enhances the taste and cuts down on some of the dirt funk. The dill and feta came together into a creamy and salty complement to the fats and acidity on the rest of the plate. I really enjoyed this starter.

The smoked trout waffle was a smoked trout waffle. It was lemony and it kind of resembled tuna salad on a waffle slice. The first bite was slightly fishier tasting than I was expecting. Trout is a great fish because it’s light delicate flesh absorbs the beautiful smoke flavor while leaving minimal fishiness. After the first couple of bites, this mellowed out and tasted decent. The waffle was well cooked and the dish was a’ight but I probably wouldn’t order it again.

 

 

 

Entrée

Lamb Pappardelle and the Lamb French dip were our entrée choices. I had the pasta.The pappardelle was a little dense but the lamb ragu was just awesome. The flavors were great, the meat was tender, and the ricotta had a hint of lemon that was delightful. This rich hearty dish fully satisfied my munchies. Yum…..

 

The French dip was definitely a more elevated sandwich than what’s usually served at the local pub. The baguette was really crispy. This is the kind of bread you need to stand up to au jus without it totally disintegrating. The lamb was beautifully tender and the rosemary jus was thick and rich. Rosemary and lamb are besties. (Just like Best friends t-shirt) There, unfortunately, wasn’t enough cheese on the sandwich to give it that gooey texture. We would definitely order it again but with extra cheese. 

 Dessert

Dinner ended and we were craving something sweet. Google to the rescue. Big Tuck Ice Cream was walking distance from Beast + Bottle. We got two-scoop cups. Mine was Salted Oreo and Buttermilk Cupcake. His was Salted Maple Pecan and Espresso Fudge. All of them were real af. Nothing is better than legit, whole ingredient ice cream. I could taste the buttermilk and there were chunks of an actual cupcake in my buttermilk cupcake. The salted Oreo tasted as expected but they put in a substantial amount of Oreos. God bless you! The fudge espresso was the first coffee ice cream in awhile that tasted of espresso and not just coffee flavoring. It was creamy and spunky. Maple pecan ice cream at Big Truck definitely tasted of maple and pecans. It was chewy, sweet, and salty with the added crunch from the pecans. 

 After lighting up our live resin cartridge and snacking on some more cannabis chocolate, we got a great night sleep before our next eatery and last leg of the long trip across the country.

 

Breakfast

I was ultra yazzed for breakfast in Denver on our way out. I knew where I wanted to go. I had been planning this fat kid stoner moment for a long time. We were going to the f**king Denver Biscuit Company! YAY!!

I am so happy to say I was not disappointed! It was so good and so much food! Kat (the owner of Universe In The Clouds) and I had tried to eat there a few years ago but they stop serving biscuits at 2 pm (heads up if you’re planning your own fat kid stoner moment). A separate pizza place occupies the same building in the evening. The pizza slices were massive and it was good. Anyway…..biscuits. These biscuits. I just can’t even.

 

 I ordered “The Franklin”. Are you ready for this? Buttermilk fried chicken, bacon and cheddar cheese smothered in house-made sausage gravy, all on a big ass fresh biscuit topped with a fried egg. I’m almost drooling typing this. The chicken was seasoned and fried fantastically while remaining juicy. The egg was perfect and runny. The sausage gravy was not too thick and not too thin. It was also packed with flavor. The bacon was good bacon. We literally pick our breakfast spots by the quality of the bacon. A big thumbs up, Denver Biscuit Company. The biscuit was crusty on the outside and fluffy in the middle. It was able to stand up to a huge amount of awesome drippy toppings while keeping its bite. I’m pretty sure The Franklin has somewhere between 700 and one million calories but damn, worth it.

 

My partner in crime ordered a more savory dinner type biscuit dish. Totally a staple throughout the country and one of our favorites, shrimp and grits. Rock shrimp, Logan Mill grits and poached pancetta in a biscuit bowl topped with a fried egg. Deep, developed, southern flavors permeated the sauce. The shrimp was tender and sweet. The pancetta added a great texture and saltiness to the creamy grits. Also, an amazing well-played biscuit dish. Service was fast and helpful. Denver Biscuit Company is super generous with their portions.  My only complaint is that they made us get our own coffee! After we took care of the check, we basically waddled to a dispensary before venturing further westward.

After Breakfast

Luckily the biscuit company is centrally located and there was a dispensary closer than we thought. We picked up a couple more cartridges, a gram of Kaviar, some Cheeba Chews, and a CODA Pecan & Maple Chocolate bar.

I have a friend massively into Cheeba Chews. Anytime I see them I have to grab them up. They are pretty effing tasty.

We went with the strawberry sativa this time. The CODA bar was good but didn’t have as much pecan flavor as I would’ve liked. It includes pecan butter as opposed to whole pecans. There are no tender nut pieces in the bar. We were actually warned ahead of time by the budtender, which we appreciate. The maple was also subtle. This bar did its job and was pretty tasty but doesn’t compare to the Pure Fortunato from Binske.

 After this last shopping trip, we headed over the Rockies to our final destination, Ashley National Forest in Utah. I am going to wrap up this blog post of The Munchie Report at the halfway point of our journey. Next week we will talk about a little known dispensary on the edge of Colorado. They hold a sales claim to fame involving Willie’s Reserve. We stop in Steamboat Springs for some great food truck action and again back to Denver for some fire pizza!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Rocky Mountain Road trip.

 


Share this post



← Older Post Newer Post →


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published.