fish tacos really do exist

i hung out with alisha for a little bit today, after work, to shop for books and get a bite to eat. i knew she would want to go to kona's before i asked, especially since she's become a vegetarian and that trés chic café caters to such cultured palates. i don't think i would do to well as a vegetarian, mostly because i would forget, eat something laced with meat then beat myself up over it later. plus meat is far too integral to the domain of the sandwich and i could never give up the joy of encapsulating things in bread so i can eat without sitting down or grabbing a plate.
kona's really is a nice place to eat and they have some great food, but it has kind of a pretentious bourgeosie vibe, reminiscent of disconnected beatniks and english professors who take themselves too seriously, that i can never really fall in with. perhaps it's my own aloof sense of self superiority, but i always feel slightly ridiculous in there, a wandering yokel stumbling through a sake bar, like a hillbilly in the hamptons...insert class-based exaggeration here. nonetheless though, some of their food is quite wonderful, and i think i've liked about everything i've tried there. most of it anyway, because there is always eight or nine different materials that go into any one of their meals - often colorful vegetables with strange italian names (see note about pretentiousness) that taste just as odd, and this weird carrot stuff on the side that sucks because it's raw (raw carrot is of course, rabbit food), but the entree itself is usually quite delicious. they have this chicken and pancetta (italian bacon, basically) pasta dish that is great despite the pine nuts, and they used to have a barbeque/chipotle tofu thing i loved, but they changed their menu so that the only tofu dish they have now is slathered in too many sucktastic vegetables to consider trying.
so anyway, i met alisha after she got off work and we hit the bookstore first - i only have eight books to buy for my six classes, even if they do seem more expensive than usual. alisha had about 80; oh the wealthy burden of the literature class...
after the bookstore we went to kona's and i ordered, of all things, the salmon tacos. it was one of the new items, replacing the shrimp quesadilla i think, and since it took so long to get to the table (along with alisha's garbonzo burger) we got free soup. i finally got to try the corn and crab chowder i've wondered about since i noticed it on the menu...it was pretty tasty despite the onions. our food got there about ten seconds after the soup, and i have to say there is something inherently unnatural about the salmon taco. i think it falls back on my relationship with the restaurant, the intersection of the stolid and distinguished fish with the earthy simplicity of the baked tortilla only seemed to alienate the other's flavor. a strange taste, but still enjoyable because i like both.