Cirque du Soleil & OliveGarden

Tonight we went to Cirque du Soleil. It was very strange. I loved some parts of it, but didn't like other parts. It was the show in which a lot of the performers were dressed as clowns or were wearing quite garish facial makeup or masks. I know it's a style, but I just find it creepy. OTOH, I loved the main singer and the music, and I also loved all the acrobatics and all of that. It was a lot of fun to watch. They also do not abuse animals as part of their show (in the show or behind the scenes), so they get a lot of imaginary points for that.

We went to dinner first at Olive Garden. Our companions suggested it, and we tried to find someplace else, but we didn't know the area well, and couldn't find anyplace on short notice. On their website, Olive Garden is not vegan friendly at all, which was why we tried to find someplace else to go. My husband called them early in the morning before we went, and the manager was very nice and tried to be accommodating, but basically what they have that is vegan is salad, bruschetta, or bread sticks (which you must request be served without butter, because they brush the tops with butter).

I ordered the bruschetta and some bread sticks without butter. What they call bruschetta is esentially toasted bread with a side dish of chopped fresh tomates, olive oil, and fresh basil. When I was growing up, the Italians that I knew that made bruschetta actually cooked the tomato stuff on a fresh dough--essentially a thick pizza with tomato stuff on top, or they'd put it on thick slices of Italian bread. In the grocery store here, you can buy a jar of bruschetta topping to put on bread and you end up with something similar. What Olive Garden called bruschetta is exactly the same thing as what California Pizza Kitchen called "checca."

It wasn't bad, but if I'd known they'd toast the bread, I'd have asked for it untoasted, only because it was toasted hard, and I don't really like dry, hard toast like that. I brought the bread sticks and most of the bread home with me. I would have taken the checca/not!bruschetta home with me, too, but we were going to the show after, so I didn't want to leave it in the car all evening.

Oh wow. This blog is boring. heh I think I can boil it down to:

Olive Garden is not vegan friendly even if they try to be nice about it. Cirque du Soleil was interesting and fun; I'd consider going again to a different show that didn't have clowns.