The Great Valentine's Day Food-a-Thon, Part One

Every once in a while, you really do a holiday up right—the perfect gift, the perfect meal, the perfect everything. Last year's Valentine's Day? Not so much for me. In fact, I screwed up pretty seriously, so this year I was looking to make up for it in a big way. So I took off the day from work and Fey and I decided to have a Foodie Bliss Valentine's Day in Louisville. The entire thing lasted two days, and while we wound up broke for the rest of the week, it was more than worth it.

Our festivities started out, as all good holidays should, with dessert. We stopped at Sweet Surrender Bakery on Frankfort Ave. Sweet Surrender is a rarity in this day and age—they offer sinfully delicious products, ecologically sound work practices, and good-old fashioned good service to boot. Fey had the chocolate strawberry cake (hands down the best dessert of the weekend) and I had a conversation heart sugar cookie (both pictured below).

Chocolate Strawberry Cake and Conversation Heart Sugar Cookie (above)

We then headed off to Corbett's on Brownsboro Road. Corbett's is old-school fine dining, with glorious table settings (see below), exquisite food, and excellent service. Fey started with fried calamari and I had the roasted garlic and mushroom bruschetta (pictured below). I have to admit, I was torn between a salad and the bruschetta, but I'm glad in the end I got the latter. The roasted garlic and mushrooms were slightly salty with a tender texture that matched well with the crispy toasted bread.

Table Setting (Corbett's)

Roasted Garlic and Mushroom Bruschetta (above)

For once, Fey and I decided to get the same entree—sauteed shrimp, linguini, spinach, tomato, lemon, feta and herbs (see picture below). I gave my feta and shrimp to Fey, and she held the spinach and tomato, but we both enjoyed the delicate flavors and textures.

Sauteed Shrimp with Linguini (above)

Dessert was excellent, although not as good as that cake from Sweet Surrender. There were two lunch offerings, the banana bread pudding with bourbon sabayon and carrot cake with orange cream cheese icing (both pictured below). I got the bread pudding and Fey got the carrot cake, and we each thought we got the better of the deal. I normally pass on banana desserts, but this was so incredibly good I didn't mind at all. Fey's carrot cake was spicy and dense, and the icing was very rich.

Carrot Cake (above)

Banana Bread Pudding (above)

We ate dinner at Fazoli's that night, mainly to save up cash for Day Two's extravaganza, which included lunch at Dakshin and dinner at Varonese. More on that in part two!

Note: All photographs in the post (c)2009 by Fey Becker.