By Joey Lachman
My favorite food show is Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri. And somewhere I have always wanted to go is “Flavor Town”. Whether it be a juicy double cheeseburger or ceviche, if it is delicious, the way you know is when Guy tells you “Now this is flavor town right here.”
As I watched the episodes and grew up I asked myself, how do I get to Flavor Town, and more importantly what is Flavor Town? Being a virgin to flavor town it is hard to understand or even know what you are looking for. But once you have your first trip, it all makes sense. From the visible excitement on Guy's face to the saliva wisping down his beard, once you have been there, Flavor Town is hard to miss.
My first spiritual journey to the magic place they call Flavor Town happened late in life, and at a time when I was beginning to lose faith in the magical land altogether. The day was bright and hot as, my girlfriend, my brother, and I made our way into town for what my brother made seem like a can’t miss experience. The restaurant is called Lunchboxx and has been the topic of much raving and ranting from my family. My mom said this was the best chicken she had ever had, my brother said he licked the bowl clean, and my sister-in-law seemed to be distraught that she couldn’t join us on our journey. Even from the beginning, I felt I was in for a special ride. I had no idea.
After winding through city streets and ducking through alleys we arrived at what seemed to be a church of food in the heart of downtown Denver. The honorable bricks hold together what is the equivalent of a mecca to the local foodie; Denver Central Market.
A food hall if we are being inconspicuous but this place is so much more than that. From one's first entrance, they are overcome with sensory stimulation and pure giddiness. The smell of fresh croissants from the bakery seemed to high-five the aroma of wood-fired pizza and they both sang in harmony with the scent of the grilled meats that flowed through the hall.
It was like seeing your whole life in front of you, not knowing where to start or how to process it. And through the madness of it all was a hand. The hand of my older brother, who pulled my girlfriend and me to the back corner of the food hall.
We slipped and slid our way past the many other marketgoers or as one may say, those on their pilgrimage, and then arrived at the border of flavor town. It all seemed to move like a dream and the only thing I can remember was my brother saying the magic words “One Icky-Sticky Chicken please”. Within what seemed like seconds it appeared at our table.
Glowing and gleaming it had arrived, little did I know I was jumping out of a plane, headfirst, no parachute. Destination; Flavor Town
It was love at first bite, from the moment that food touched my lips I began to tingle and shake with excitement. The crunchiness of the breading is the first thing you crunch through and then the vinegary sauce coats your mouth and then as you chew the sweetness comes through and it wrestles with tanginess and then the acidity from the pickled cucumber comes in to break up the fight. But then you pop in another piece and the beautiful fight occurs all over again. Tasting each flavor note all the way through and then at its high point, another flavor takes the show.
My mouth was dancing, I know that sounds ridiculous but that’s as close as I can get to describing this dish. Your mouth is dancing and you want everyone to know and dance with you too, you don't even care how dumb you look, that's how good this stuff is. That is Flavor Town, where you're having a food epiphany and you don't even care how you look to other people you just want them to feel what you feel.
Eating this dish is like watching a war movie with no volume and a beautiful Mozart piece playing in the background. The flavors are so intense and they collide with each other like giant bomb explosions, however, there is an innate balance and harmony to the dish that makes it unlike any other. While I was experiencing this phenomenon first hand I took one look at my girlfriend who had the same sauce-covered, ear-to-ear smile as me and I knew we made it flavor town.
I took another look at my brother Dylan and said thank you, I love you. 5 words that seemed insufficient for the revelation I had received but was all I could muster, and that is saying something.
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