It is a known fact among our friends that I love to eat. There is a catch. I will qualify that with, “I love to eat that which I do not cook.” There are a few exceptions to that rule such as a couple of hotdishes that I make that I absolutely love. It isn’t that I can’t cook; it is that I would rather be doing something else.

Again, I do like to eat. One of my favorite pastimes is eating in restaurants when the budget can squeak out a little extra for culinary excitement. I do have my favorite places.

It was always a treat as a child to journey to Albert Lea and dine at the Canton Café. The Canton Café was my favorite place in all of Albert Lea. I always ordered the same thing. Apparently variety was not the spice of my young life. I absolutely loved the pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and gravy. The breading and taste was out of this world. I also loved the oxtail soup. What I wouldn’t give for the recipe for the Canton Café’s pork tenderloin and their oxtail soup. I would even be happy to cook if I had those recipes. The memory of those delicious dishes lives on in my taste buds.

As a grown-up, I do have a few favorite places. Albert Lea has a few of my favorite restaurants. I love Trumble’s because I love its pork tenderloin. It isn’t the little generic patties that you get at many places. At Trumble’s the pork tenderloin almost reminds me of the Canton Café except the tenderloin is thicker.

The Lakeside Café also holds a piece of my taste buds. I love everything there including the coffee, ice cream, etc. etc. Of course we can’t forget the view from the Lakeside Café. The view complements the food.

I did venture out of my safety zone to check out the new Great Grains Café. I can tell it is going to be another favorite of mine. I’m getting hungry and drooling just listing these restaurants, and there are so many more great places in Albert Lea.

Traveling to Ankeny, Iowa, to visit my grandchildren always finds me at IHOP for at least one meal. It is my grandchildren’s favorite restaurant, too, so it is not hard to persuade them to visit IHOP when we are enjoying their company. Of course I always gain many pounds at IHOP because I always have a breakfast with lots of fruit, cream cheese and whipped cream depending on the chain’s new concoction.

I live in Wells and so of course I frequent Wells eating establishments when there are a couple of cents in my wallet, establishments such as Jake’s Pizza and the Wildcat. And I can’t forget about the Wells Dairy Queen. It is its fault that I have to have ice cream with my fruit. I am addicted to the banana splits.

I do have a tendency to keep going back to my favorite places instead of trying something new. Recently, while in Mankato on the way to Panera, we drove past a restaurant that recently had changed hands. It is in the former Timber Lodge Steakhouse. A local couple bought it, and it changed from being a chain restaurant to a locally owned restaurant. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop, and we were so glad we did. The restaurant is the Northwoods Cafe & Grill.

I wasn’t in the mood for anything huge so I ordered clam chowder and a burger. Who would guess that anything that sounds so generic could be so good? The clam chowder was not a mix. The burger was huge, made of Black Angus beef and had the best flavor ever. We also got to meet the owners, who made everyone feel like you were dining in a local neighborhood restaurant where everyone is your friend. I can tell it is going on my list of favorites.

What keeps us coming back to our favorite restaurants? There are many excellent restaurants that I didn’t mention. Chain restaurants such as Perkins, Red Lobster, Applebee’s and others have great food, too. IHOP is a chain, and I love it. So is Panera, and I love Panera.

I think food is in the mouth of the eater. Yes, restaurants have to have good food and good service for people to come back. Yet it also has to tickle your taste buds, and it depends on what tickle your taste buds like.

My friend Dianna loves Mexican food. If you are with Dianna, you will frequent Taco John’s, Taco Bell or whatever Mexican restaurant is available. I have another friend and she will visit any Chinese, Mongolian, Vietnamese restaurant that she can find. Her favorite happens to be the Wok & Roll in Albert Lea. My husband would choose a good steakhouse. Another friend loves Famous Dave’s.

My two granddaughters would pick Panera, and my two grandsons would pick McDonald’s. So the kind of restaurant that we like is in the mouth of the eater. I would have to say that it wouldn’t matter how good the food was if a person did not like that type of food. I would shy away from a bowl of chili and lap up oxtail soup.

Aren’t we lucky to have so many choices to tweak our taste buds? Aren’t we lucky if our budget allows us to eat out once in awhile so we can experience these tempting morsels?

A chance encounter with a cafe and grill taught me a lesson. I need to be more daring and tweak my taste buds in new and tempting ways and perhaps I will find more favorite restaurants. Tweak your taste buds and discover a new adventure.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net or visit her blog at www.justalittlefluff.blogspot.com.