Natty Noshers - CRAFT style

MES and I were lucky enough to be given a $250 gift card to Craft for our wedding which we decided to use for our annual Christmas dinner out.  We love a good excuse to dress up and dine out since we rarely do so and were really looking forward to going out for this.  And boy howdy was it worth it!

Let's get down to business with the first course - they served us a delicious amuse of cold shrimp with a chunk of grape fruit on top.  What an interesting and delightful combination!  Then we had the pork ravioli with steen's cane syrup.  It wasn't nearly as sugary as cane syrup suggests and while the pork ravioli was a tummy pleaser, I would say that the Crispy Bacon and Honeycrsip Apple was by far my favorite.  (no surprise there with my love of anything bacon).  The apple slivers added just a hint of sweet to the nice crisp chunks of pork.

 For our entrees we decided to split the Braised Short Rib and the Pork Porterhouse.  The ribs were AH-mazing!  So incredibly mouthwatering and tender, really you didn't even need to chew.  The Pork Porterhouse was more a walk on the wild side for both of us since we've never tried a pork porterhouse, or really in my case I didn't even know pork had a porterhouse cut.  The filet portion was delicious and really the best part.  We were a little disappointed the rest of the porterhouse wasn't more tender.

Our wonderful meal was topped off with Olive Oil Cake and the Chocolate Souffle.  I've had a thing for anything olive oil since I started eating the olive oil gelato at Otto a couple of years ago and when the server assured us it was his favorite on the menu, we had to ante up and try it.  As a cake it has the texture of pound cake, but isn't quite as heavy.  It has a surprising nutty flavor and I would totally recommend this.  The Chocolate Souffle came with a coconut anglaise which had us hesitating, but it was surprisingly not coconutty, which is good since we both don't like coconut.  I love ending a meal with something chocolate and this really hit the spot.

Natty Noshers: Ginny and Jane

 

Last weekend was K's wedding down in Anna Maria, Florida.  I can't even believe that we're all grown up and that J is having a baby in all of 2.5ish months!

While down there, in between sneaking in work (whole other story), MES and I ventured over to Ginny & Jane's.  This cafe, internet stop, and ... thrift store! was the cutest thing ever.  Fantastic breakfast on an eclectic mix of tables and desks, all for purchase, made this place just absolutely adorable.

I was a big fan of the sausage and provolone omelette while MES went the route of waffles with fresh berries and whipped cream.  Both delicious.  My fluffy omelette was made whole with unlimited refills of coffee.  Nothing super spectacular there, french roast, hazelnut etc, but the drinks of the day looked amazing and I wish I had gone back to get the watermelon and strawberry smoothie.  Doesn't that sound delish?

If you ever find your way down to Anna Maria, definitely stop by this cafe, pull up a chair, and dig in.

Natty Noshers UK Style

With my 4th trip to London since the end of June underway, I'm feeling like a veteran Brit.  I'm lucky enough to have C&P as my tour guides and live Google for anything GB.

We made plans to hit up The Modern Pantry, just a hop, skip and a jump from Farringdon Underground.  This was such a cute place and I had a real hard time choosing between a main and what is the Brit version of brunch.  Disappointed after realizing tea isn't served on Sundays, I did opt for the more traditional British Sunday and went for a "roast", ie panko crusted pork belly in red cabbage.  Quite delish I have to say.  I never would've thought to coat pork belly in panko, but it did add for a nice textural difference.

And of course, since a main with a 2nd dish was only 20 quid, I had to order dessert.  Bread pudding always has my name on it, so off I went with chocolate gelato on top.  Yum yum!  Not my favorite bread pudding in the world, still think The Red Inn takes the cake on that one, but it definitely held up.

Next time?  Go during a day they have tea.  I have a feeling it'll be Ah mazing!