So, what else is new?
I met up with a couple of friends last night for dinner and chatting. They're part of the local Stitch and Bitch group. I'm not a member, but I go along to see the two of them once a month or so.
This time we met at The Market at Larimer Square.
Larimer Square is a shopping/dining/see-and-be-seen part of downtown Denver. Just off the 16th Street Mall and close to LoDo (Lower Downtown), it used to have a reputation for being where the Monied went to shop. I hadn't been to the area in years and was surprised by how, well, trendy it seems to have become.
And popular, even on a Wednesday evening. I had to circle the blocks forever to find a parking space (no easy task in an area of pedestrian walking malls and one-way streets. Finally, and in defiance of my Unemployed state, I gave up on finding a meter (two hours for 50 cents) and had to pay a parking lot ($12!) for space.
The Market was like finding a little slice of funky LoDo right in the middle of swanky Larimer Square. The Market turned out to be a little grocery store/coffee bar/pastry shop/restaurant combination with some very good food.
Thanks to the kindness of a stranger, a man who took it upon himself to advise us about the menu as we stood at the counter and agonized over our choices, I ordered the spinach stuffed boneless breast of chicken. Tasty, indeed. The stuffing was thick and flavorful, the chicken moist without being undercooked.
Portions were ample. In fact, some dishes were incredibly generous. Ruth had them package up her leftover pasta dish to take home with her and she had enough left for one or maybe two more meals.
I pretty much finished my dish, but had I not passed on the dinner salad, I don't know if I could have managed it.
I was tempted to try the desserts, which included some amazing-looking cheesecake (served in giant slices, as I saw when two youngsters received their strawberry drenched orders) but I was mindful of one friend's diet and my own extra five pounds, so I passed.
I'm going back to The Market, some day soon, though. I didn't have nearly enough time to browse the pastry cabinet or drool over the candies or look at the strange and wonderful specialty packaged food offerings or sample the cappuccino and/or hot chocolate.
The meatloaf has to be worth a try. The BBQ beef brisket smelled fabulous. They have an extensive sandwich menu and I'd like to sample almost everything on it. The pastries and desserts...if they're half as good as they look, they must be fabulous.
Any restaurant that offers a dessert called "Chocolate Oblivion" is worth a second trip.
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.
So, last night, the R.C. and I did a Philanthropic Thing and supported the Denver Center for Performing Arts with a $25 donation (each) that, not incidentally, also garnered us access to the Sneak A Peek at our brand-new neighborhood Whole Foods.
What a very odd and interesting event.
Me, I could have lived without the group doing covers of Frank Sinatra standards. Yes, I understand there's some kind of performance of same running at the DCPA right now and it was, after all, a benefit, but still.
As it happens, I do like Frank Sinatra's music. As a matter of fact, I have a particular fondness for the old Big Band and Swing music.
I just feel that a group (with accompaniment) belting out standards through an amplifying sound system in a warehouse-shaped grocery store not designed for purity of acoustics was a bit much. I might have felt differently if they hadn't been miked. As it was, all I heard were echoes and distortion.
But Whole Foods! I hear you asking, "what did you think of the store, Anne? And what did they give you to eat?
The store was...expensive. The prices are, yes, approximately 50% over what you'd see in a normal grocery store.
And it was amazing. I loved the "natural" and "organic" and "unprocessed" signs everywhere. That kind of thing appeals to the cootie-fearing snob in me.
And I loved the food. They offered tastes of the brisket, meatballs, sausages, rotisserie chicken, summer sausage, and smoked salmon, and I tried them all. The brisket was tender, the sausage was spicy and had a good texture, and I'm a sucker for good summer sausage, which this was, being made in-house. (The favor was a teensy bit bland, but that probably had more to do with the fact that I'd just been eating jalapeno meatballs and sausage than to any problems with the summer sausage.) The chicken was moist and the salmon was, for smoked salmon, very tasty.
And the cookies and cakes. (The R.C. had cake. I was still working on a plate of mashed potatoes and chicken when we got there, but I found time to eat two cookies.) And the fruits.
And the pizza (I passed).
And the beef with balsamic vinegar onions. (Yum. I could have eaten a pound of this.)
And the wine (we passed).
And the salsa (we didn't, personally get to try this because the line was too long, which suggests to me it has A Certain Reputation, so I'll be trying it later.)
And some kind of tangerine punch or fruit juice.
And shrimp salad.
And some fabulous salad with greens, blueberries, and walnuts that I'll definitely be searching for in the future.
And chocolate-dipped strawberries that were only surpassed by the breathtaking display of brick chocolate and truffles that we got to see, but not sample.
And there was a giant display of cheese that we also weren't allowed to nibble on. Very sad.
The smoked salmon quesadillas are the only thing we tried all evening that we really didn't care for and that's mostly because neither of us are big smoked salmon fans. But we like salmon and they offer wild (not farmed) salmon year-round! (There was even, in the ready-to-eat section, a description of a prepared halibut that I'd be happy to try, and normally I can't stand "fish" at any price.)
When the store opens, they'll have a huge ready-to-eat section that will include Indian food, Mexican, "American" (the aforementioned chicken and whatnot), Japanese, pizza, sandwiches, and I can't remember what else. Polenta, fixed three different ways! I adore polenta.
I don't remember seeing advertisements for any of your rubbishy macaroni-and-marshmallow salads so beloved of Middle America's Picnicking crowd, which was another excellent sign.
There's an in-store dining area (and café tables outside) or you can take it with you.
And they roast their own coffee blends, in-house. (We got to watch and I tried the mocha java, a blend I'm particularly fond of.)
It would be far too expensive to use as a replacement for a "regular" grocery store, but I can easily see myself walking over 2-3 times a week and picking up something fresh and ready-made for dinner that night. Assuming the quality remains as high as it was last night, which, considering the reputation of the stores, I think can be assumed.
This weekend's Dining Adventure was the elegant Rodizio Grill.
We showed up on Saturday afternoon, around 1:00. The restaurant never got busy while we were there, possibly the $10 - $15 range for meals is a bit steep for Denver Diners during the lunch hour. The restaurant had been recommended to us by a coworker of my Dining Companion, and we were prepared for an adventure.
I wasn't sure what to expect from a "Brazilian Steakhouse" restaurant but since I'm back on The Diet and since I was told I'd be served a lot of protein in nifty, sample-sized portions, I was game.
To begin with, the location was delightful. The lower end of LoDo, with Union Station footnoting the north end of the 16th Street Mall promenade, is rapidly becoming a favorite area of mine. Not only is Tattered Cover's LoDo location part of the neighborhood, but it's dotted with restaurants and coffee shops in abundance and home to some of downtown's most interesting (if unsung) buildings.
We picked a perfect day for it, as well. Warm, but not too warm. A hint of a breeze. Mostly blue skies with a rare, high drift of clouds to help keep the heat down. If I hadn't been so hungry by the time we reached the restaurant, I might have wanted to walk around the block a couple of times just to enjoy the summer air.
Since I was hungry and my Dining Companion was starving, we elected to eat.
Once inside, we were shown promptly to an immaculately set table, glistening with white cloth and spread with the usual utensils and, my first hurdle, some kind of tongs. I foresaw Social Embarrassment in my immediate future.
There were no menus. Our waitperson recited the three dining options available to us.
There was the "Full Rodizio," an all-you-can-eat salad bar and unlimited meats. Then the "Limited Rodizio" with full salad bar and a sampler of any two meats. Last, but certainly not least, the Salad Bar option.
We immediately realized that the Full Rodizio was the only way to go.
We placed our drink orders (tea and water, we're not boozers, especially at lunch) and took off to examine the salad bar.
I saw the Feijoada and the Arroz Branco (Black bean stew and Brazilian white rice) but was unable to identify them, so I passed. In hindsite, I do regret that.
I dove in with enthusiasm on some of the other dishes, though. I was mindful of warnings about pacing myself, and took only a couple of bites of each dish:
Couve (collard greens and bacon, sautéed)
Salada de Frango (chicken salad)
Salada Rodizio (Rodizio salad)
Pastrami de Peru e Azeitonas (turkey pastrami and olives)
Caesar salad
Salada de Siri (crab salad)
Mixed fruits
They were all good and certainly at least a touch above the general "salad bar" offerings in Denver restaurants. Everything was very fresh and the presentation was worthy of praise in itself. (There were four times as many dishes as I've described here. For instance, quail's eggs were on the buffet. I eyed them for a moment, then decided that that was more adventure than I was prepared to undertake.)
The Rodizio salad had a lovely crunch with caramelized walnuts in a smooth, light dressing over mixed greens. It was a touch less flavorful than I hoped, the Caesar was more to my taste, but I'd certainly make a point of having both of them again when I return. Both salads were at a lovely temperature, not warm, but not so cold the greens seemed to be frozen.
Couve is a dish known to the USofA southern states but probably not their northern neighbors. It's a nice dish. The collard greens have a slightly bitter flavor, but the bacon comes across with a smooth, smoky taste that complements them nicely. It's not a dish I can eat a lot of, but the three of four bites I had were very good.
The Salada de Siri was merely...uneventful. I'm not a major fan of seafood salad, though, so that may be my failing.
The mixed fruits were noteworthy in that all of the fruit had been ripe before being cut for the table. Too often I find the fruit offerings in restaurants to be hard, bitter, and green. I didn't have that problem this time. If I hadn't been saving space for the rest of the experience, I could easily have gone back for seconds or thirds.
By the time I'd sampled only two or three of the above-mentioned items, the waitperson was back with the appetizers I hadn't realized were included with our meal. (All three options are accompanied by the Rodizio appetizers.)
The appetizers, like everything else we ate that day (except the salad bar) had been cooked fresh when we sat down to order.
We were served:
Bolinho de Arroz (spiced rice, rolled into a ball and fried)
Pastel (flakey pastry with a meat filling)
Mandioca Frita (Fried yuka root)
Polenta (fried in sticks with dipping sauce)
Banana Frita (sugar/cinnamon covered fried banana)
Sadly, the fried items were simply...fried items. Not many foods can stand up to being fried without developing a sort of bland taste and texture. Once I got past the fried layer, the rice was lovely. The Mandioca Frita was delicious, but I've never had yuka before and I'd no idea what to expect.
And...speaking of the unexpected...I certainly didn't expect a sweet, that early in the meal. The banana was a big surprise. It wasn't overcooked, it had been fried just long enough to give the coating a dark color (to which the cinnamon contributed) and to soften the fruit itself without turning it into paste. My Dining Companion, who has a sweet tooth and is very fond of bananas, surprised me by rejecting this dish. I'm not a huge banana fan, but I had a couple of bites. The flavor was interesting. Cooking the banana intensified its flavor without losing complexity.
The service was leisurely. We never felt ignored, but we didn't feel rushed either. We had plenty of time to visit the salad bar two or three times, if we'd wanted to, but two seconds after we signaled that we were ready to move on, the first meat course arrived.
Signaling was part of the fun. You were given three blocks, green, yellow, and then red, glued together in a stack. When you wanted the Grill Servers to stop by your table, you put the green block uppermost. Whenever a server brought a new course from the kitchen he (or, "they" in our case, since we had a trainee server being monitored by a more experienced employee) stopped by your table, explained what he was carrying, and asked you if you wanted it. (When you had enough for the moment, you turned the red block uppermost and they didn't stop. And then, when you were done, you laid the stack on its side.
We signaled, a server stopped by.
Coracao. Grilled chicken hearts.
We passed.
Next up, Assado, Brazilian pot roast. We both tried it. This was my Dining Companion's favorite dish of the day. My opinion was initially not so positive; by accident my first serving was all fat. I agreed that the chunk of potato was beautifully cooked and very flavorful but it wasn't until we got a second chance at the Assado later in the meal that I was able to taste the fork-tender meat. It had to have been slow-cooked for hours, judging by the way it wrapped itself gently around my fork. Lightly flavored, the strongest was the delicate taste of garlic, and beautifully moist, I could easily have made a meal off of that alone. It was lovely.
Of course, I felt that way about almost everything I tried.
Next up was Picanha, top sirloin. This is where the tongs came in. The meat server makes a slice in the steak, you grab the edge with your tongs, and then he finishes cutting off your slice. I got it wrong at first, naturally (the prophesied embarrassment), but I soon got the hang of it.
The menu on-line describes the Picanha as "sophisticated" and that's the perfect word. My mental notes got as far as Oh. My God. Seconds later I was calculating just how big of a glutton I was willing to be. I contemplated tripping the Grill Servers the next time they passed my table, but, as my Dining Companion said repeatedly, "you have to pace yourself," so I held back.
The presentation of the meat was as balanced as everything else. The Picanha, which I would have thought impossible to surpass, was followed by Peru Com Bacon, tender lumps of turkey, wrapped in bacon, and roasted over a slow fire.
I haven't been able to bear turkey since I ate it daily for six months when I was dieting, but I ate this. I ate it again when they brought it around a second time, and I'd have eaten a third helping, if it had been offered. It probably helps that the strongest flavor was that of bacon, but it was a gorgeous mouthful any way you looked at it.
The next offering was Lombo, a marinated pork loin. Mild, not at all salty, and as tender as the other meats we'd tried.
Then we were treated to Linguica, a pork sausage. It was moist without being greasy, flavorful without being so spicy that it overwhelmed the rest of the meal, and very tender. Definitely a '10'. When the chance for seconds came around later, I happily accepted.
At this point, my Dining Companion complained of getting full and returned to the salad bar for more fruit. I accepted the Grill Servers' fruit offering instead, warm, sweet Abacaxi, roasted pineapple. It was sweet beyond sweet with some kind of glaze, but the tartness of the pineapple (even the ripest pineapple has that tangy flavor) kept it from being cloying.
My only regret was that it hadn't been served when I still had some of the Lombo on my plate. Ordinarily, pork and pineapple make a great combination. It would have been interesting to see how Rodizio's pork and glazed pineapple complemented each other.
Next were chicken thighs, redolent with rosemary. Do I have to repeat that the meat was tender and moist?
The last fresh meat offering was Fraldinha, beef tenderloin. Mmmm. My favorite cut of meat and they did it justice.
There was a grilled veggie course, as well,Legumes Com Parmesao, grilled green peppers, onion, and two kinds of squash, all with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
It was after this vegetable course that the second meat courses came by. While my Dining Companion toyed with a few pieces of fresh fruit, I went through most of the meat menu for the second time. My Dining Companion accepted a second serving of the Assado. I accepted seconds on everything.
I could have gone on...there are few limits to my gluttony, but at the last moment, common sense held me back. We tipped the serving blocks on their side, leaned back, and sighed happily.
Moments later, our waitperson was at the table, asking if we'd like dessert.
If you're going to pig out, then pig out, I always say.
"What have you got?" we asked.
She wheeled up a trolley and started naming the dishes. My Dining Companion and I knew which one we wanted the moment we heard the description.
I've forgotten the name, but it was a warm cinnamon pastry with a cream/egg custard filling. On the side, a scoop of cold, vanilla ice cream, and the entire concoction was drizzled with caramel. An additional decorative border of chocolate finished the plate.
We waited a few minutes for this to arrive (the pastries, like everything else, were cooked when we ordered them) and gently digested the first part of our meal.
About the time we were looking around for it, the dish arrived. Two forks.
My sweet tooth is not large. I contented myself with one spoonful of ice cream and three or four bites of the unusual (but delicious) pastry.
We lingered over our so-swanky beverages of iced tea and water for a couple more minutes, then made our way back out into the Denver sunshine.
Two very happy hours, we'd spent in the restaurant, and I promise it seemed less than half that long. (I did, however, decide to skip dinner that evening.)
It's a leisurely dining experience, but I enjoyed it enormously. Now, all I need to do is to find someone willing to go back with me. (My Dining Companion claims she won't be ready to revisit the scene for at least a year, but I'd love to go back soon.)
Posted by AnneZook at 07:02 PM | Comments (7)