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

I should have learned long ago to avoid romantic restaurants on Valentine's Day. Varanese is one of our favorite Louisville restaurants, mainly because it manages to be high end and sophisticated without ever losing that feeling of a small business. Owner John Varanese invariably comes out and says hello when we're there, and we have servers who remember us from visit to visit. The menu is great and the desserts are to die for.

So of course, Varanese seemed the perfect destination for Valentine's Day, right?

Not…really.

You see, one of the downfalls of going to a popular restaurant on a popular holiday is that, well, it's crowded. Even with reservations, which we wisely secured weeks beforehand, we were crowded into a packed room. The room felt tiny, and I felt like a giant lumbering ox as I navigated the tightly-spaced tables.

Quite obviously, because of the enormous amount of people dining, we were not really able to get the kind of service we'd come to expect from Varanese, which is a shame, because in my opinion, they have one of the finest staffs in the city. Everything felt rushed, and any semblance of romance the night might have held was washed away in the production line feel of the meal.

Still, to be fair, it's about the food, and the food is what I'm here to discuss. For Valentine's Day, the restaurant offered a special menu of aphrodisiacal entrees, appetizers, and desserts as well as an attenuated version of their regular menu. For some reason, neither Fey nor I felt drawn to anything on the holiday menu, so we started off with a batch of home-made potato chips, then had the grilled salmon with cream cheese grits from the regular menu for our entrees. The chips were quite good—the quick turnaround in the kitchen meant they didn't have time to sit around getting cold, and the chips we got were still hot and crispy. The dipping sauces were good, especially the dill sauce.

I'm not sure how I managed to go to Varanese so often without ever noticing the grilled salmon on the menu, but I now have a new favorite. The salmon on its own was quite tasty—perfectly grilled. However, it was just a touch salty for my taste. But when paired with the cream cheese grits, it was a perfect bite—balanced and delicious. Of course, I am a grits fan from way back—I prefer mine savory, with salt and butter (as opposed to the hideous concoction of sugar and grits some people eat). I'd never even considered putting cream cheese in grits—fried eggs, bacon, sausage, you name it, but never cream cheese. I am now in love with the concept and can't wait to try it on my own.

As it is, the salmon and grits were the high point of my meal. I didn't heed Fey's warning, and chose a dessert off the holiday menu—chocolate strawberry cake. Fey went with our favorite—the mocha crème brulee with chocolate and caramel spring roll.

Fey is wise, and I would be wise to heed her warning.

This is the first time I've ever had a dessert at Varanese I just plain did not like. The cake was bland, there wasn't a strong enough flavor of either chocolate or strawberry to make the point, and I came out of the experience wishing I had both the money and the calories back for a do-over. Thank goodness my sweetie is generous and shared her crème brulee with me. Because it's Valentine's Day, and that's what sweethearts do, right?

Please do not take this review to mean in any way, shape or form that I no longer love Varanese. It is still one of my favorite places to eat in the city, and Fey and I will continue to enjoy ourselves there as long as they let us past the bouncer. I think, though, in the future, we'll choose a less popular night.

Epilogue: The Taco Bell Tradition

I started this series by mentioning how badly I screwed up Valentine's Day last year. There is no way to comprehensively describe how badly I screwed up, but let's just say from now on I will always schedule Valentine's Day off from work at least two months in advance.

One thing that came out of last year's fiasco was our Traditional Taco Bell Valentine snack. Hard to believe, but none of the restaurants in Elizabethtown could seat us in a decent amount of time last year (reservations don't exist in the country, btw). Seriously, there was a forty minute wait at Golden Corral! Golden…Corral…folks.

So, we did what any rational couple would do in that situation—we put our name in at the best we could find (which was Red Lobster) and then went to the local Taco Bell for a snack and to wait. It turned out to be incredibly fun, and Fey and I decided that every year on Valentine's Day, we would have a bite from Taco Bell to commemorate our desperate attempt at salvaging the holiday.

Mmmmm….tacos…..

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

Day Two of our Valentine's Day extravaganza came with a choice for me—lunch at Just Fresh on Bardstown, or a trip to Dakshin to enjoy their buffet. I have to admit—Just Fresh sounded really tempting. Since I've been eating better, I really love this healthy little chain. Not only are the ingredients fresh and flavorful, but the staff at the Louisville branch of this chain will happily work with me to accommodate my food issues.

However…

If you recall my last post, you will remember that this is The Valentine's Day To Make Up for Last Year, and my needs/wants/desires do not count. It's all about Fey. And when I asked Fey which she would prefer (without telling her first of my preference), she chose Dakshin.

So Dakshin it was.

Here is where I must reveal my Secret Shame to you, dear reader. I am a wuss. I love flavorful foods, ethnic foods, various and unusual spices and ingredients. But I cannot handle heat at all. Coming from South Louisiana, this makes me a bit of an oddity. Sauce piquant, jambalaya, red beans and rice—I rarely order these dishes in restaurants because they usually make them too fiery for my wimpy palate.

Indian food is the same way, and Dakshin is no exception. I've learned a trick, however, to surviving a potentially five-alarm buffet—"Follow the Children."

Yes, it's pathetic. Yes, it's embarrassing. But it works. Parents aren't usually going to let their kids eat overly peppery foods, and kids (bless their highly sensitive young taste buds) aren't usually going to go for it on their own accord.

Since the restaurant was filled with families having a nice Saturday lunch, I had many survival guides for my meal. I followed a lovely little Indian girl of about six to the buffet and wound up with the following combination:

• Vegetable cutlets: a spicy mashed potato/vegetable croquette. A little on the hot side, but still delicious.
  
• Medhu Vada: fried lentil doughnuts. These were great (along with the iddly) for taking the burn out. And they tasted pretty darned good.
  
• Iddly: These are white cakes made of rice and lentils. Alone, they would be bland and unmemorable. But at the first sign of heat on my palate, iddly became my new catch-phrase for pain relief.
  
• Uppma: a very flavorful mashed potato and vegetable dish that was just a hint hotter than the other items I had, but ooh so worth it.
  
• Hakka noodles: basically, this was veggie lo mein, and it was delicious. I filled up twice on this one.
  
• Madras Fish Curry: I just took a piece of fish out of the sauce and ate it. I found that most of the heat is in the sauce, and the fish alone was exquisitely seasoned.
  
• Butter Masala Dosai: now, one of the things I loved about our meal was the dosai. The servers did not leave them on the buffet, but carried platters to the tables so diners could get them hot and fresh. I actually went back to get the name of this item, because I want to order it next time we visit. It's basically a rice and lentil crepe stuffed with uppma. The crepe is crispy, not soft, and you can eat it with your hands. This was hands down my favorite item of the day.

Fey, on the other hand, tasted everything on the buffet, because she's not a wimp. She swears the way to get past the fire is to take a spoonful of yoghurt and swish it around your mouth. This actually works--in fact, most cultures that enjoy tongue-seering spices often have their version of yoghurt--sour cream, mayo, you name it. It's a basic survival trait, and Fey is very smart to use it. And while that may be true, I think I'll continue to stick to the Kindergarten Method of Indian Food Survival. An ounce of prevention is worth an ounce of yoghurt, with no messy pain to get in the way.

Side note: One of the presents I bought Fey for Valentine's Day was one of those god-awful dancing/singing toys they sell in Walgreen's. You know, the obnoxious ones that play Love Me Tender or Tequila? I hate them, but Fey loves them, and (see above) it was all about Fey. This particular fellow, quickly dubbed Oscar, was a bright pink and purple monster who played Muh-num-a-nump (beep beep be-dee-deep) from Sesame Street. Oscar quickly became a favorite of the wait staff, and several stopped by our table to hear him sing…over and over and over.

I am such a great girlfriend.

Our pagan store jaunt and dinner at Varanese, coming up in part three.

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.