When I created this category, I honestly meant to blog all of the cool and interesting restaurants I've eaten at in Denver. Because, while the Rocky Mountain region isn't famed for food, if you know where you go you can eat some fabulous food in Colorado's metropolitan areas.

There was the place on Boulder where I first tried and loved sushi. What was the name of that place again?

And that fabulous tapas place just off the mall that I still fantasize about. Also in Boulder. Someone, quick! Tell me the name of that place! I must go back there!

There's the place that used to be my favorite Denver restaurant, a little corner place called Saffron's where they served a saffron chicken dish that made my taste buds sit up, bed, and offer cash prizes. The sort of dish that you wake up in the middle of the night hallucinating about, if you go too long in between tastings. Sadly, no longer in business. The chef is at a new restaurant and serving a different menu, so my taste buds and I will never again taste the creamy tart butteriness of that saffron sauce. (It's been years, and I can still taste it....)

There's Samurai, thankfully still in business. It's a little hole-in-a-corner, "you have to know it's there to find it" Japanese restaurant that offers the best tempura I've ever eaten, bar none. And sushi! Lunch boxes to drool for. A Chicken Katsu sauce that has to be tasted to be believed. A teriyaki sauce with the perfect blend of tart and sweet.

There's the new place (the name will come back to me in a minute, I'm sure), Land Of Sushi, that just has to be a sister restaurant to Samurai. It serves the same fabulous Chicken Katsu and also offers an Oyster Roll that I gorge myself on every time I walk in the door.

There's Tokoyo Joe, which is a chain, but a purely local one I think. Good teriyaki chicken but what's really fabulous is their peanut sauce. They serve a chicken skewer in peanut sauce appetizer that's almost a meal (for me, anyhow). You can get the same peanuttier-than-peanut sauce in one of their bowl dishes, but I don't find white rice a particularly interesting addition to the flavor. (And it makes a dreadful presentation.) Also, since the sauce is very thick with bits of peanut in it, it's almost cloying if you eat too much. The appetizer size is perfect. Leaves you wanting more.

Maggiano's. I don't know if it's a chain or not, but there are two in Denver. One tucked into a nook on the 16th Street Mall and another in a castle-like building out south, by the Tech Center. Exceptionally good Italian Food. I've never had a meal there I didn't love.

We are gathered here today to listen to me babble on about my latest find. Thanks to Bernie, who insisted on taking me out for lunch yesterday to celebrate my 40th (shaddup) birthday last month, I can now add Le Central to the list.

Again, it's one of those only the cognoscenti know places. (Which, in this case, seems to mean, 'everyone but me' since everyone I've mentioned it to had already heard of it.)

Located in a garishly painted corner-block of older buildings on Lincoln, a bit north of 6th Street with the entrance tucked away on the north side, you probably wouldn't give it a second look unless you were wishing there were more zoning restrictions around tasteful paint choices for building exteriors.

The restaurant has the charm of two separate indoor dining areas and a closed-in atrium area that's drenched with sunlight during the day but protected from the winter winds. Simply and cleanly decorated, taking advantage of the building's structure but declining to participate in the shell of bad taste that houses it, it's a tiny, affordable French restaurant.

I selected a cup of the French Onion Soup and the Omelette du Jour, a "traditional French omelette with house smoked salmon, fresh basil and Brie cheese".

The soup was delightful. They used chicken broth instead of the more traditional beef, and it created a light but flavorful variation of the soup that was really delicious. The omelette was really too much of a good thing. Three eggs, four or five ounces of salmon, and a liberal melting of Brie. I managed about two-thirds of it before I gave up in despair. ($8, total)

Bernie chose the Panini du Jour, which was "Canadian bacon, basil and pine-nut pesto, tomato, red onion and fresh mozzarella within our house made fougasse bread." Vagaries of menu punctuation aside, he was very impressed. ($7)

Affordable, indeed.

There were many other items that tempted me. Paillard de Poulet (Pounded chicken breast, pan-seared, and flavored with basil and pine nut pesto, served over house salad tossed with tarragon vinaigrette. $7) Sandwich Jambon Fromage (Ham and Brie with tomatoes and pesto served on a grilled baguette. $7)

Among the starters that tempted my taste buds were two in particular. Escargots à l'Ail (Six escargots sautéed in butter and garlic and flambéed with Pernod served on baby red potatoes.) and L'Ail, et le Brie, et les Croutons (Baked whole garlic head, Brie cheese, and toast) ($7 each)

Filet of sole, grilled pork loin, numerous other salads, trout, there were so many choices! All of which looked fabulous.

But what the restaurant is famous for (and what I'll have to go back to try) is mussels. Les Moules et Frites

Basilic - White wine, shallots, garlic, fresh basil, and diced tomatoes
Provençale - Garlic, butter, parsley, Pernod; topped with bread crumbs
Petits Lardons - Shallots, white wine, butter finished with warm bacon and tomato vinaigrette
Safran - Shallots, cream, saffron, onion, garlic, and chopped tomatoes

And so many more....

The waiter explained that it's hard to say what will be on the menu - it changes twice daily. I look forward to going back (they're open for brunch from 11-2 on both Saturday and Sunday) to see what else they have to offer.

And, at $9 for a "bucket" of mussels (and I can't wait to see that presentation) I just gotta give them a try.

So. You know. In case you're ever wondering if I can talk about anything but drains and trains?

Yes, I can.