Battle of Benedicts

In the right corner we have DJ's Berkeley Cafe and in the left corner is reigning champ Snooze .....so i think it was basically a knockout.  DJ's Berkeley cafe has been a local sunnyside neighborhood favorite for a couple of years and had a full page feature in 5280 magazine's brunch selections.  We only waited 15 minutes for our table on a beautiful sunday morning which would have been at least 60 minutes at snooze.  I ordered the california benedict which was sliced avocado, tomato and poached egg on a housemade english muffin.  The first time it came around the eggs were less than warm so I sent it back.  The benedict came with dime sized roasted potatoes.  Overall the flavor was plain, no additional spices and i left uninspired, i actually have to say that the roasted veggie sandwich i had another time on their housemade french bread was much better than this popular benedict.

Ah then there was snooze......the bella benny is a beautiful housemade english muffin topped with proscuitto, brie poached egg, arugula, and cream cheese hollandaise and balsamic syrup.  The shredded hashbrowns were formed perfectly into a 3 inch ringmold, with a nice crispiness which complemented the benedict and the 8 inch blueberry pancake.....The saltiness of the proscuitto and brie worked extremely well with the english muffin and the spicy greens.

I love SNOOZE. case closed.

My next post will be from chicago! stay tuned

First bite boulder

First bite boulder is November 12-20. 3 courses for $26 at some of the best restaurants in boulder.  Check it out and I can certainly consult on suggestions!

Oinks

So once again my groupon experience was sub par.  This time it was oinks on East colfax about a mile past Colorado.  We went on a wednesday night and were the only customers around 6:30.  Located in a strip mall, the lady at the counter was friendly and suggested we order the smoked pork since it came out of the smoker this morning.  It certainly made me wonder how old the other meats were.....Anyways i settled on the pork platter with coleslaw and my friend had the pork sandwich with ranch dressing and fried onions.  Drinks are served in mason jars and service was quick.  Upon our food's arrival,  my friend's first complaint was the cold bun, my first complaint was how dry the meat was.  I couldn't say much since the lady was 10 feet from us shredding the "freshly" smoked chicken behind the counter.  They have a whole collection of do it yourself sauces at each table including texas or kansas style sauces.  They all sort of tasted the same to me.  My friend said her sandwich when piled together with the lots of ranch, bbq sauce and fried onions was actually quite enjoyable.  Our sides were less than memorable, mine was a fancy coleslaw with a little sriracha and sesame seeds and my friend had a sweet potato salad with eggs.  The sweet potatoes were slightly undercooked and covered in mayo.  We finished our meal with a heath bar brownie bite which was wonderfully soft and chewy.  Overall Groupon, you disappoint me again....


Plate score:  3

Granola and sandwich

Pressed carrot and apple juice pairs perfectly with a half order of their unique texture tuna sandwich from Parsley.  The tuna is mixed with ginger, miso, black sesame seeds, red pepper aioli and sesame oil spread on their housemade ciabatta with organic cucumber, onion and tomato.  Yummy :)

Plate score: 9.5 The only down side is the juice is almost $5 for 16 oz

Wooden spoon bakery opened this summer on the corner of 32nd and Zuni next to Pasquini's and across the street from Duo.  This past weekend, i finally decided to stop in after reading about their granola on 5280's food blog.  Behind the antique display case were freshly baked croissants, muffins, tarts and quiches and a display fridge with beautifully decorated bite sized cheesecakes, brownies, citrus bars, carrot cakes and cupcakes.  I purchased a mushroom cheddar egg sandwich on a toasted brioche bun and their pricey granola ($6.99 for a small bag!).  The egg sandwich was nothing special mostly because i don't enjoy egg beaters and I'm in love with masterpiece deli's roasted mushroom and egg sandwich on an english muffin, a place that uses real eggs!  In general, most granola i usually eat have the prominent cinnamon and honey notes but Wooden Spoon Bakery does theirs differently.  They mix in freshly grated lemon zest and raisins both before and after the granola comes out of the oven, resulting in a fresh citrus flavor.  Don't know if i can consistently shell out $7 for 2 cups of granola but it could be a nice treat once in while.  Nevertheless, I look forward to trying their baked goods some time soon!

Burgers and Salt? yes please

I constantly read about the amazing restaurants in boulder so i was super excited to dine at Salt this weekend.  Voted as one of the top 10 best new restaurants in 2009 by 5280, i had high expectations for this place.  Located on the popular Pearl st mall, it does not take reservations so we decided to go at 6 to avoid a wait.  Too bad, the place was packed already and the projected wait time was quoted as 30-45 minutes.  Instead of one of those buzzers that constrained you to a 200 foot radius of the restaurant, they took down my number and would call us when our table was ready.  We decided to walk down the mall, but to our surprise 15 minutes in, we got the call!  We hurried back and were seated right by the bar where they dropped up water and a dish of pink himalyan sea salt and cypress sea salt which apparently forms as pyramid shapes.  There were at least 3 different menus placed our table including a make your own drink chart.  This sounds like a disaster because you pick the alcohol, the mixers and garnishes....isn't that the bartender's job?

We decided to share the roasted beet carpacio salad, housemade gnocchi and the late summer vegetable tasting.  The strawberry vinaigrette dressing on the salad really gave it an extra kick, cold and refreshing over the thin circles of roasted beets, local greens, walnuts and haystack goat cheese and was a nice complement to the gnocchi with roasted mushrooms, local corn and tomatos, cream and truffle oil.  The gnocchi was slightly larger than most that I've seen but soft with notes of sweet onion and garlic.  It was the star of the mealdelicious!  The vegetable tasting came with 6 things:  ratatouille, curry pinto bean cake, sweet corn cake, crisy wild rice risotto cake, green been salad and panfried eggplant rollatini with housemade mozzarella.  The ratatouille was classic and the corn cake was the best, resembling in flavor to the gnocchi we had a few minutes ago.  The green bean salad was refreshing, a nice complement in texture and temperature to the other warm items but the creme fraiche tasted like creme fraiche, could have used some spices or herbs.  The curry pinto bean cake was a little dry like it really needed some type of sauce.  The wild rice risotto cake was texturely pleasing but boring in flavor.  Nevertheless we still ate everything on the place.

For dessert, we quickly honed in on the ice cream sandwich (something i've craved since missing our opportunity from Ian Kleinman during the food truck event last week).  Whiskey butterscotch ice cream was sandwiched between 2 thin bittersweet oatmeal chocolate cookies, drizzled with creme anglaise and fresh berries to garnish.  WOW.

Plate score: 8
Pros: excellent appetizers (though prices for apps $9-15) and dessert even though we never tried the different salts.
Cons: Does not take reservations

This summer, Atzec sol on 32nd right by North High school in the highlands shut down and converted was converted into Highland Tap and Burger.  It opened last month and is definitely a sports bar with at least a dozen 40 inch HD TVs mounted to the sparse walls playing college football and post season baseball.  Highland tap carries many local beers but the burgers are also damn good.  There are salads, sandwiches, make your own burgers (choice of meat and bread with at least a dozen topping options) and 6 designer burgers.  For $9 i ordered the "chimi" burger which was cooked a perfect medium with white cheddar, shredded lettuce and a chimichurri sauce on a soft roll that soaked up all the meaty juices (reminds me of a brioche).  Burgers are with served pickled cucumbers and skin on fries that tasted fresh out of the fryer.  I inhaled the entire thing and i'm not ashamed.....

Plate score: 9
Pros:  delicious burgers and at least 25-30 beers most of them local, outdoor patio with a fire pit for the cooler nights
Cons:  Our waitress initially forgot my order and they don't have happy hour specials for those of you who like $1 PBRs.  The mac cheese that my friend had was sub par, too watery and needed salt.

breakfast east and west

EAST
dim sum at star kitchen this weekend was mostly disappointing, the covering of har gow (shrimp dumpling) was falling a part and the pineapple buns were stiff.  The only highlight was the glutinous rice in a lotus leaf which had nice chunks of pork, mushroom and salty egg.  I hope this is just a phase.....


WEST
$2 breakfast burritos from Santiago's, a homegrown chain famous for their green chile.  I visited the one on 25th and Federal which includes a makeshift drive through.  The tortilla was filled with egg, cheese, chorizo and half and half (mild and hot) green chile.  So satisfying! Westword and 5280 were both right on target for best breakfast burrito!

Plate score:9.5

Food trucks

With food trucks popping up like fro-yo places in the last year, i attended my first food truck party which had an 80's theme.  The justice league of street food hosted their 3rd event of the season in an empty lot behind coors field.  In attendance were many food trucks including fat sully's, the little orange rocket (the people behind deluxe), pinche tacos, steamin demon (folks behind watercourse) and denver cupcake truck, denver biscuit bus, biker jims hot dog and the great divide brewery.  I went with my roommate and her friend around 7:30 last friday night.  Upon arrival the place was already pretty crowded as we immediately jumped into line for fat sullys pizza.  The lines were long and we quickly decided that the best way to get the most food in the shortest amount of time was to split up.  I waited in line for pinche tacos and was soon greeted with a thin slice of cheese pizza, crispy and hot from my roommate and her friend.  It was amazing! a great slice even if you are sober.  Pinche tacos were $3 each, i ordered the beef tongue which was triple cooked, served crispy, with avocado, onion, cilantro roasted tomatilla salsa and guajillo honey mayo, yummy! The creamy chipotle chicken taco however was easily forgettable.  


While my roommate waited in line for the little orange rocket, I waited in the steamin demon line which was considerably shorter.  Coincidentally my old roommate was standing right behind me double fisting two beers from the great divide.  I had a sip and it was pretty hoppy, not exactly my thing.  I was excited for the thai rice noodle dish but was disappointed when they were sold out.  I settled for the loko moko which was white rice, pinto bean cake, fried egg, avocado and some sort of gravy.  It was good and homestyle, not exactly what i was expecting but still good.  when we finally got up to the little orange rocket, my roommate order fried truffled mac and cheese balls and the lamb sandwich.  We were given one of those restaurant buzzers and were informed that the wait would be 25 minutes.  We quickly found  we parked ourselves at a nearby patio table as we people watched including some individuals with ridiculous 80s outfits.  When the buzzer went off, my roommate lept from her seat to retrieve her food.  I took a bite of those cheese balls and could definitely understand why people really enjoy them: FRIED, CHEESE and TRUFFLES a sure win!  My roommate complained that her lamb sandwich which was a ground patty had too much dill yogurt sauce on it.  I thought it was good and her friend devoured the naan bread it was served on. I was pretty full by this point as we sat right by the inventing room stall, Ian Kleinman's catering company who uses liquid nitrogen to make ice cream. We watched group after group order the ice cream sandwich which was two 4 inch espresso fudge cookies with strawberry ice cream and housemade marshmallow....maybe next time