Best/Most Memorable Meals I've Ever Had

On a recent episode of The Dave Chang Show podcast, Dave and co-host Chris Ying listed their best and/or most memorable meals of all time. As I listened, I realized that I have lots of memorable meals, but they're not necessarily the best. Some meals are memorable because of bad food or service. Creating a list, even a short one, of truly great restaurant meals, is a difficult task for me. Perhaps I am jaded. Though I haven't eaten in the world's greatest restaurants--excepting Le Bernardin--I have dined in as many notable places as a person who doesn't travel much and who isn't wealthy can dine. 

Here's a list of restaurant meals that were highly memorable, even if they weren't the best, in alphabetical order.

pasta tasting menu for August 2004

Babbo - We celebrated Mr Minx's 40th birthday here, back in the early aughts, before we knew that Mario Batali was a rapey douchebag who stole his staff's tips. Mr Minx was somewhat of a pastaholic back then, so we opted for the seven-course pasta tasting menu with wine pairings. This was in the year before we started Minxeats, so there's no official write-up of the meal, but we did save the menu. I do recall that the starter was a bit awkward to eat. Whole cannellini beans on crusty bread might be a traditional antipasto, but it was impossible to take a bite without beans rolling off the bread and onto the table and the floor. Why not smash the beans? Dunno. Seems logical. In any case, the rest of the meal was fantastic, the first course being the best. So simple. So much butter. So good. We also enjoyed the wine pairing with the cheese course, a sweet sparkling wine called Brachetto d'Acqui. Sometimes we buy that to drink on New Year's Eve instead of champagne.  

foie gras with raw tuna 

The Bar Room at the Modern - I was in NYC for a Sniffapalooza event. I had not yet met my current NYC dining companion, Daisy, so I usually dined alone. One afternoon, I blew a wad of cash on a rather extravagant meal at the bar room of MOMA's restaurant, the Modern. The restaurant was an oasis after my morning of mingling with a crowd of chatty individuals amid clouds of perfume. Service was excellent--eager but not obtrusive--and the food was interesting and quite good. The unusual foie gras and raw tuna dish was particularly memorable.

Charleston is an example of a meal that has stayed in my mind for the wrong reasons. I had enjoyed a meal at Cindy Wolf's Savannah at some point in the 90s and looked forward to having a similarly splendid meal at Charleston. Instead, I found an oppressive atmosphere created by the ever-looming waitstaff. A "wilted spinach salad" arrived as a unadorned mound of barely cooked spinach with all its harsh tannins present. Cindy was at the pass and let this dish go by even though it clearly was not a salad and not particularly edible. Finally, the sauces for our entrees had been so over-reduced that it literally glued our lips shut. Even after eating dessert, I had to work to open my mouth to speak. The rest of the meal was unmemorable.

We've never been back, though we have eaten at other of Foreman/Wolf's restaurants. They may be run by one team, but I find the quality of them overall to be inconsistent. Pazo and Bar Vasquez were the best of the bunch; both are now closed. Petit Louis is a distant third. We haven't tried Cindy Lou's Fish House yet, and we miss the original Milton Inn. 

Harry's Seafood Grill on the Wilmington, Delaware waterfront was the site of a fun birthday lunch hosted by my best friend Kate, who had recently moved to Wilmington. While checking out the local restaurant scene, she had befriended a chef couple, one of whom worked at Harry's. Chef Applebaum generously sent out a couple of dishes in addition to the three courses we had ordered for ourselves. There was too much food, and all of it was delicious and of high-quality. I especially enjoyed my first sticky toffee pudding and my first taste of soft shell crab.

Herb & Soul is the site of another memorable-for-the-wrong-reasons meal. We had eaten there in the past and mostly enjoyed our food. It wasn't perfect, but the biscuits and fried chicken were stellar. On this particular occasion, we partook of a multi-course meal arranged by a member of the local Chowhounds board. I'm not sure whose idea it was to serve a selection of New Orleans-inspired foods, but it was pretty clear that the chef wasn't particularly familiar with any of the dishes he cooked that night. The first course of crawfish and octopus with brussels sprouts comprised two fingernail-clipping-sized shreds of crawfish on my plate and a dried-out, chewy octopus so small it was probably a fetus. Another dish was billed as an etouffee (which means "smothered") yet barely had any sauce. The bits of alligator meat in it were so chewy, if I hadn't washed them down with water I'd still be chewing them 9 years later. The fourth course was better: a well-prepared half chicken served with not nearly enough of a very good fig pan jus and a soupcon of cauliflower puree. The best course was dessert, French beignets (made with choux paste rather than a yeasted dough), and I could have eaten several more of those. Thankfully the dinner was dirt cheap. 

barely cooked scallop in brown butter dashi

Le Bernardin -- Mr Minx's next milestone birthday was celebrated with a 6-course lunch at Le Bernardin, a 3-Michelin star restaurant in NY. The service was impeccable, and the food almost perfect. I know, who am I to criticize a dish served at one of the "World's 50 Best Restaurants?" I'll tell you: someone who doesn't think a dark red wine sauce works well with wild rockfish. Mr Minx agreed with me. So there. The scallop in brown butter dashi, however, was mindblowing. So simple, yet so delicious. My one regret about the meal: I didn't take a roll every time the bread guy came around. There were about eight kinds of bread on offer, and I was only able to taste three of them. Le sigh.

NOLA - Back in the days before Minxeats, even before Mr Minx became Mr Minx, we took a trip together to New Orleans with a group of rabid Emeril Lagasse fans whom I had met online. Someone or other from that group was up our butts every time we tried to turn around. One person in particular stuck to us like a tick. After a couple days of eating at only Tick-approved restaurants, my beloved and I snuck off to have lunch at NOLA, one of Lagasse's more casual establishments. We ordered starters of gumbo and turtle soup, and a couple of pizzas to share. My soup was very good, but Neal's seafood gumbo was insane. We stopped short of literally licking the bowl clean, but we were tempted! 

As fate would have it, the man who made that gumbo now owns Cajun Kate's, a restaurant in Wilmington. We make a pilgrimage every year to keep our freezer stocked with gumbo.

my favorite course at Volt, tuna tartare in a delicate rice gelee wrapper. Photo credit: Kevin Eats.

Volt - We discovered Volt during chef/owner Bryan Voltaggio's turn on Top Chef. After our first delicious meal there, I was obsessed with getting seats at Table 21: a 21-course meal served in Volt's kitchen. We made our reservation ten months in advance, and the wait was worth enduring. For a measly $121 per person, we had 21 courses of surprising and delicious food. Sadly, this was back in the foodie stone age (2010) and I didn't have a phone with a good camera. Rather than bothering with my crappy little Canon, I sat back and enjoyed the meal. (Check out the post linked in the caption above for excellent photos of a meal very similar to the one we ate.) 

While the food was incredible, the service was a tad annoying. Servers replaced the silverware with each course, whether we had used a particular utensil or not. Remove clean spoon, replace with another clean spoon. Having disembodied hands appear over my shoulder or beside my forearm (we were seated at a counter in front of the garde manger station and couldn't see the utensil movers behind us) was a little disconcerting. It was like being served by Thing. I'm not a fancy-service kind of gal. Just give me my food and if I need a clean fork, I'll let you know.

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I'm sure if I thought about it a little more, I could come up with a few more meals to add here. These were off the top of my head, clearly very memorable. I hope to have many more meals like these in the future. The good ones....

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pasta, Pizza, and Burgers in NYC

Regular readers of Minxeats know that I love going to New York. I love getting lost in a sea of people who are not like me, people of various ethnic origins speaking languages I do not understand. I love the hubbub, the vibrancy, the museums, the shops, and especially the food. So it's not surprising that the thing I most want to do when I get to New York is eat, even if I am there for Fashion Week.

Earlier in the summer, I received an email invitation to various shows taking place on September 8, 9, and 10. The invite read something to the effect of  "let me know what shows you want to attend, and if you want to bring a guest, let me know that person's name." I invited my friend Daisy to accompany me to two shows on the 8th, both featuring former Project Runway designers.  A couple of weeks before the show I received a confirmation email, and the day before I received another. We were set.

Daisy and I had the day planned out. I would get into the city at my usual 10:45, walk a few blocks from the train station to check into my hotel, then meet her at Eataly downtown by the World Trade Center around 12:30. Only my train was seriously delayed. It got to Baltimore late, and to NY even later, which frustrated me to no end. I like being timely, and this train wasn't playing nice. I ended up meeting Daisy only 45 minutes later than planned, but the delay killed my good mood and made me a real crank for pretty much the whole day.

I hadn't been downtown to the WTC site since 2002, and a lot has changed. I managed to locate Daisy in the Oculus--a fucking huge shopping mall and transportation hub--without too much trouble, and from there we walked. We had an agenda: eating, Eataly, perfume sniffing, more eating, fashion, more eating, more fashion, possibly more eating.

We started off at Eataly, Mario Batali's Italian-themed food court/market. Lunch was at Le Stagioni where we were briefly tempted by the prix fixe menu before deciding we didn't need multiple courses at that point in the day. Daisy ordered the hamachi crudo with sea beans, lemon, and lots of Sicilian EVOO. There were also pomegranate seeds that added an intriguing tangy-sweet crunch. A side order of rosemary fried fingerling potatoes was lovely and crisp.

I ordered the cannelloni con pesto, because it's rare to see cannelloni on a menu in Baltimore, and they are one of my favorite pasta dishes. Stuffed with spinach and ricotta and topped with bechamel, pesto, and pine nuts, they were light yet filling and full of intoxicating fresh basil flavor. Quite delicious. We each also had a glass of delicious Bastianich Vini Orsone Sauvignon Blanc that I wouldn't mind drinking on a regular basis.

We then wandered to the Hermes boutique to smell their latest fragrance, Twilly, which was a complete bore. We also hit the Penhaligon's shop and the new Saks Fifth Avenue. Unlike the Saks uptown, this one was quiet and uncluttered, which allowed us ample room for chatting and sniffing. We spent quite a bit of time at the L'Artisan Parfumeur/Penhaligon's counter, despite having been to the stand-alone Penhaligon's store. The sales associate was very knowledgeable about both lines, so we were quite surprised she had been repping Penhaligon's for only 3 days at that point. We didn't buy anything, but may have fallen in love with a couple of scents before we left.

Wandering around such a large space as the Oculus takes up time, so we made the executive decision to skip the first show, scheduled for 6pm, and have a snack instead. I had wanted to go to Uncle Boon's, in NoLiTa, but it was packed, with a line out the door. I was still a bit grumpy from this morning and was not in the mood for a line. At this point my feet and knees ached. Also my back, because I was carrying several pounds of dry pasta around--a gift for Mr Minx. There are tons of places to eat in NoLiTa, though grumpy people just want to be grumpy. Daisy knew the perfect antidote: pizza and beer at Pomodoro.

We each had a vodka slice, which was perfect. Sweet tomatoes, crisp crust, the perfect amount of cheese. I guzzled a Stella, which was refreshing. Also, I was very thirsty.

After a trip to my hotel to change, we walked over a couple of blocks to the 9pm show. Despite the exchange of emails, they didn't have us on their "list" for a seat, so we stood. That was fine, even though my feet were screaming at that point. Afterwards, it was time for more food. Daisy thought the NoMad bar a few blocks away would be a good choice. The restaurant had a 45 minute wait, and the bar only 15, so I suppose it was. However, places like that--all hard surfaces, tons of trendy young people yelling at each other to be heard over the din of other young people yelling at each other to be heard over the din--are not my scene. I'm old. I like carpeting and padded banquets and quiet. Especially the quiet. If there is a hell, mine would be a room full of fashionable and drunk Millennials discussing the work week while hipster bartenders blend $18 cocktails that are mostly ice. In other words, the NoMad Bar.

That said, the food was fine, and we even got to sit upstairs somewhat away from the loudest of the noise. We started our meal with Scotch olives, which are like Scotch eggs, but much smaller and more expensive. The olives were stuffed with a sheep's milk cheese and covered with a layer of lamb sausage. They were pretty damn good, and I found an olive to be preferable to a boiled egg.

We both ordered the chicken burger. I normally wouldn't do such a thing because I find poultry burgers to be dry and uninteresting but our waitress was emphatic about the deliciousness of this particular sandwich. She said the chicken breast was ground, mixed with foie gras, and packed into its own skin before being fried and topped with black truffle mayo. It was indeed very juicy and quite good. We ordered a side of fries to go with. They were nice and crisp, but they didn't bowl me over.

For dessert we had the "cookies and cream." I didn't include a photograph because in the dark restaurant they looked like a bowl of turds. They're not much for garnishing at NoMad Bar--the olives were four small turds in a bowl, and the dessert was a larger version of the same. Thank jebus it all tasted really good. I suppose when one is drinking a $35 cocktail for two that is served in a giant brass rooster or a $14 beer, you're not really there for the food. The cookies and cream were quenelles of ice cream that had been coated in a thick Oreo cookie-like crumb that was miraculously crispy. I normally skip restaurant desserts because they are often too heavy, but this was just right, and perfect for sharing.

I had an early train to catch the next morning so for breakfast I strolled up 5th Ave to Maison Kayser for a scrambled egg and bacon sandwich in a dried- out top-split bun. It looked better than it tasted.

But these croissants from Paris Baguette, right next door to my hotel, were as crunchy and lovely as they appear. I bought several of them to take home and enjoyed one on the train about halfway through the ride.

This time, the train was right on time, which put me in a much better mood. Also the clouds were amazing. Take out that ugly building (which is probably a jail) and the power lines from the photo above and that's a great shot, no?

A shout-out to Daisy at CoolCookStyle for putting up with me. She is a gem.

Le Stagioni
Eataly
4 World Trade Center
101 Liberty Street
Floor 3
New York, NY 10007

Pomodoro Ristorante & Pizzaria
51 Spring St
New York, NY 10012

NoMad Bar
NoMad Hotel
1170 Broadway at 28th Street
New York, NY 10001

Maison Kayser
400 Fifth Avenue at 36th Street
New York 10018

Paris Baguette
6 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - 3.8.13

I made some gnudi this week, and they reminded me of Mario Batali's ricotta gnocchi. Same concept, really, just a bit larger.

This post was originally published on June 9, 2009.
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Ricotta Gnocchi
I was flipping through Molto Italiano last week, looking for nothing in particular, when I spotted a recipe for ricotta gnocchi. I have had past experience with gnocchi-making, and let me say it was not a good one. But those were the potato kind, what most of us think of when we think "gnocchi." (Should we think gnocchi at all.)

The ricotta gnocchi seemed easy - mix a few ingredients, make some balls of dough, cook them. Presto! Dinner. But it was a bit more involved than I thought. Even so, they were not difficult and the end result sure was delicious, if I say so myself.

I didn't follow the recipe precisely - I didn't do the sausage and fennel part at all, just the dumplings.


First I had to drain the ricotta overnight. Here it is, post-drainage.

Next I took 1.5 lbs of the drained ricotta and mixed it with two eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 cup of all-purpose flour. A symphony of white. I also added freshly ground pepper and nutmeg.

After mixing, the dough was still a bit sticky, so I added more flour. Didn't want to add too much though, just in case they came out as gut-busting rocks (a.k.a gnocchi). I then "rolled" the dough into balls using about 2 tablespoons of dough each. They're not very pretty, are they?

After I had every blob of dough rolled (well, what I could get off my hands, anyway), I commenced to boiling them. The recipe calls for two boils, one for about 7 minutes and another one for 6. One 8 minute boil turned out light fluffy dumplings that were cooked all the way through.

Here they are, chilling in an ice bath while waiting for the second batch to cook.

And here they are, browned in butter with onion and mushroom, garnished with parmesan cheese, some leftover salami, and fresh chives and basil from the garden. The plates I used (our everyday pasta bowls) are a bit busy, so I highlighted the food so you could see it better.

Though light and fluffy, they were quite filling. With a salad on the side, 5 made quite an ample serving.

Next time I think I'll try making semolina gnocchi.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Choice Bites 6.28.2012

On Friday, July 13th, Chick-fil-A is promising a free meal (entree/side/beverage) to anyone who comes into one of their restaurants dressed "head to hoof" as a cow. For those not bold enough to go whole cow, there's a free entree for those wearing at least a few spots. Check out cowappreciationday.com for more details.

Has Paula Deen really lost 30 pounds, or is she wearing a bigger wig?

Threadless' "Omnomnominvore" t-shirt is the cutest!

Tony Bourdain wrote a comic book--Get Jiro!--that's coming out July 3rd. Order it from Amazon, and check out a sneak peek here.

Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi have been spotted in Seattle. So I guess we know where Top Chef season 10 is being filmed. That's been the general consensus

Apparently it's the in thing for chefs to design shoes. Yes, shoes. And I don't mean Mario Batali's Crocs. Mozo currently offers shoes designed by Marcus Samuelsson, Chris Cosentino, and Aaron Sanchez, and they'll soon feature a line by Cat Cora. Would you wear them? I think Sanchez' are kinda ugly in an interesting way.

Vanity Fair has a "food porn" page on their Web site featuring cell phone photos of food taken by famous chefs. Check out cool pics by David Chang, Eric Ripert, and more.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Choice Bites 6.21.2011

Why is it not surprising that America's Next Great Restaurant, Soul Daddy, has closed two of its three locations (NY and LA) after only one month?

Martha Stewart is getting her own comic book. Now that's someone I'd like to see team up with Spider-Man or the X-Men!

Ruth Reichl dishes about Top Chef Masters and winner Floyd Cardoz' experience on the show at Gilt Taste. Apparently there was lots of petty backbiting behind the scenes. Who knew?

I have nasturtiums growing in my herb garden, but there are plenty more edible flowers. Find a slide show with recipes at Epicurious.

I always enjoy reading the Grub Street Diet to see what famous/semi-famous/famous in their own mind people eat. Scroll down and you'll find Chefs Mario Batali, Gabrielle Hamilton, and Marco Canora.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday 5.28.10

Wendi, of Bon Appetit Hon, has been doing a regular "Flashback Friday" post and I am so stealing her idea. Every Friday (that is, if I remember) I'm going to post something from the archives, most likely a post I enjoyed reading but that didn't get much love from my readers. Maybe because I didn't have any back then. Heh.

This week, my thoughts on celebrity chefs, from waaaay back on August 17th, 2005, my third post ever on MinxEats.

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Celebrity Chefs

As a foodie, I am pleased that chefs can now become celebrities. Why should actors with nice abs but negligible talent and whorish heiresses get all of the limelight?

Despite the trend in Hollywood, any old cook with a pretty face shouldn't become a Celebrity Chef. I believe a chef should be the equivalent of a culinary Picasso - well-versed in many techniques and styles, but perhaps perferring one or two over all others. An Artist. The celebrity should be worth oohing and ahhing over. He or she should be the creator of masterpieces that everyone strives to own - or to be able to replicate oneself.

Unfortunately, like in Hollywood, some Chefs are now famous for merely being famous. Take Emeril, for example. I'm sure he was a fine chef in his day, back when he still worked in a restaurant kitchen. Now, he comically fumbles his way around a set, preparing recipes created, prepped, and all-but-completed by Food Network staff. Half the things that come out of his mouth are either pronounced incorrectly or are just plain wrong. And the slop he dishes out is ludicrous. But he still has his adoring fans. Go figure.

I've eaten in three of his restaurants. One was very good, one was pretty good, and one, his flagship, sucked. Message to Mr. Lagasse: just because you're a big star now, you still need to remember that consistency is important. Your name is over the door, so don't blame your chefs and line cooks for the completely oversalted mess we ate. Have you heard of quality control?

Bobby Flay is another celebrity chef who is a tad overexposed. But hey - I think the man still takes cooking seriously. I've eaten at Mesa Grill, and it was one of the best restaurant meals I've had in my life. And watching him cook on Iron Chef America makes me drool. He turns out some seriously yummy-looking stuff in that frantic hour. I'm curious to try out his new restaurant venture, Bar Americain. Mario Batali is another chef who I'd let cook for me anytime. The pasta tasting menu at Babbo was magnificent.

Then there's the sad story of Rocco DiSpirito. Young, handsome, and talented, he thought he could rocket to superstardom via a reality show. The cruel reality was that it portrayed him to be a egotistical, lazy, lying, prick. Not only did his restaurant Rocco fail miserably, but he also got ousted from the highly-acclaimed Union Pacific (it was a mutual decision...riiighhht...) which closed abruptly soon after. Despite receiving a James Beard award for his cookbook, Flavor, the man is a laughingstock. Tony Bourdain, another celebrity chef perhaps more famous for his writings than his cooking, made a particularly nasty jab at him on the debut episode of his new Travel Channel show, No Reservations (a must-see). Poor Rocco now has to peddle his Mama's meatballs on QVC to make a buck.

So where am I going with my rant here? Well, let me tell you. I have a design client who is a local chef. He once owned restaurants, and got some acclaim. He's now still in the business, still calling himself chef, but I'm not feeling any foodlove from the guy. Perhaps he's been doing church supper-style catering for so long, he forgot how to cook? His collection of recipes seem to have been lifted directly out of a 60s copy of Betty Crocker - crab imperial, salmon in "champagne sauce" - there's no life in them, no spark, nothing new. And the one dish I've tasted that he prepared, chicken pieces in a sauce with pineapple chunks, tasted of dishwashing liquid, and wouldn't have been out of place at the Old Country Buffet. The funny thing is, he still thinks he's got what it takes to be a celebrity chef. Ok, so the guy was handsome in his youth, and had done some modeling. But even the Hollywood vapid wouldn't be impressed by his repertoire.

Baltimore is becoming a town full of interesting restaurants, thanks to chefs like Cindy Wolf (although I must comment here that she reduces her stocks a bit too much...cow bones become glue eventually, and sticky lips are not pleasant) and restaurateurs like Steve DeCastro. Let's continue to aim high, shall we? But lets not let sheer celebrity get in the way of talent.

Black Garlic

Last season on Top Chef, Hosea made a monkfish dish with black garlic. Always curious, I had to find some and use it. I figured it was some new variety of garlic, but it turned out to be regular garlic that has been fermented in a special process that not only turns it black, it gives it a sweet caramelized flavor and gooey texture.

I bought my black garlic online at saucenspice.com.

Two bulbs of very light weight garlic that looks like this out of the package:

See - I wasn't kidding - it's very black.

I decided to make something simple with it - black garlic olive oil to use on pasta. Since the garlic was kinda gooey, it was hard to mince. Above is three cloves in about 2 tablespoons of oil, and below is what it looked like on the pasta. (We had a leftover ear of yellow corn, so I chopped that up and tossed it in as well. I'm always trying to recapture the essence of perhaps the best pasta dish I have ever eaten, one made with squid ink pasta and corn, at Babbo. I always fail.)

One might think that three cloves of garlic would add a big hit of garlic flavor, but alas, it did not. The stuff is extremely mild.

Next time, 5 cloves.

Otto

In February, I tried to get together for lunch with my friend, NY blogger David Dust. I chose Mario Batali's pizza joint, Otto, because it seemed like a good lunch place, plus it wasn't that far from where David worked. The bad news is he wasn't able to sneak out of work that afternoon, so we postponed our trip to Otto. The good news is that we were able to go there for dinner this past Thursday, along with friends Laura K and Roz.

We started out with a caprese salad. I was wondering what it would be like considering it's not quite tomato season yet...and was pleasantly surprised. The tomatoes had been oven roasted to bring out their sweetness, and the basil came in the form of pesto. Delish.

Another starter was a fennel and cucumber salad. I had expected shredded fennel along with sliced cukes, but the only fennel in the dish was a garnish of fronds. Still, nice and refreshing, and the only real vegetable I would eat for two days. (I actually only had two meals in two days in NY.)

Next came pizzas. We decided to get one each. I chose the funghi and taleggio from the "Pizza Otto" section of the menu....

...and David thought that the asparagus and goat cheese version sounded like a must-try.

Laura K went for the quattro formaggi from the Pizza Classica selection...

...and Roz chose the quatro stagioni (asparagus, mushrooms, cotto, peppers).

All of the pizzas were great, with crisp crackery crusts and flavorful toppings. My mushroom was my favorite - it was heavy on wild-flavored 'shrooms, and the cheese was tangy.

For dessert, we all went for gelati/sorbetti. I *had* to try the olive oil gelato. In fact, it was the real reason I had wanted to go to Otto in the first place. I also had the salted caramel and the pistachio.

The pistachio was mercifully not dyed green, and it had a rich nutty flavor. One of the best versions of that flavor I've ever eaten. Oddly, the caramel wasn't salty (it was dark and reminiscent of a good caramel sauce, slightly burnt and not too cloying), but the olive oil was. Salt in ice cream? A revelation! It reminded me of my mother's habit of eating Utz potato chips with vanilla ice cream. Only without the potato. Loved it!

The meal was terrific, but the company was better - thanks for a lovely evening! Oh, and I would definitely go back to Otto....

Celebrity Pet Food

So you've probably heard about Rachael Ray's new Nutrish pet food line, huh? And remember Rocco DiSpirito was hawking cat food a while back? Who's gonna jump on the bandwagon next? Gallery of the Absurd's 14 thinks Mario might be next. Hey, he's already selling watches.