culture

It's not all skiing and beer here at WWW (although it mostly is): sometimes we get a little culture too!  A week ago Saturday, because we weren't feeling all that well plus it was snowing like a banshee up in the canyons, we decided to check out the Pioneer Museum at 300 N. Main Street in Salt Lake City.  This museum, run by the International Society of Daughters of Utah Pioneers (i.e. the Mormons), houses an impressive collection of artifacts focused on the Mormon pioneers who ventured forth starting in 1847. 

The museum definitely has a small town historical society feel to it.  The collection of stuff - ranging from furniture and handmade quilts to oil lamps and buttons and Indian baskets to handcarts and fire engines and Brigham Young's own wagon - is quite broad but it's organized strangely, with less information available than you might think.  Dates for most things would have been nice - it wasn't that long ago.  We spent a good amount of time there, even though two floors were closed off due to renovations.  Admission is free, the Daughters on duty were pleasant and friendly, and it was a good opportunity to learn a little bit more about our adopted city.

And it's not that far from Squatters so we went there afterwards for a beer.

Also we tried a new restaurant that night.  We tried to order pizza from Wasatch Pizza but after being put on hold interminably we gave up on that.  Then we tried that Indian place we'd tried on my birthday but nope, still closed: 'til February 22, actually.  So there was a Chinese place, the Szechuan Garden, right next door with a bunch of folks inside and we gave that a go.  The menu was impressive, including such delicacies as pickled chicken feet, jelly fish with chili, pig's feet and several dishes featuring intestines.  We went with the more plebian szechuan beef and hot and spicy shredded pork.  I had very high hopes based on the menu's offerings but H's szechuan beef was more sweet than spicy and my spicy pork was hardly hotter-flavored, and both dishes were drenched in sauces that were very sticky and syrupy.  Perhaps we'd been better off with the jelly fish and intestines; Salt Lake City Magazine chose Szechuan Garden as the best Chinese in the city, and City Weekly gives it a big thumbs-up.  It's pretty close to where we live so I guess we'll have to try it again.  But I'm still not ordering the intestines.