A Brief Trip Involving Food Porn

I had to interrupt my daily routine of painting to take a business trip.  I thought you might want to go along!

Naturally when I arrived and met a friend we had to eat.  It seems the more expensive the food is the more unrecognizable it becomes with descriptions I cannot pronounce let alone spell.

This dish my friends contains fried squash blossoms stuffed with seafood ( don't remember what exactly) and goat cheese and topped with micro greens.

I love the little clover looking thing!  Micro greens I gather is a fancy way of saying sprouts that are too old to be called sprouts anymore.  Very clever don't you think?  And the sauce was superb!  Roasted red pepper coolie (please do laugh at my spelling).  It was so good we sopped it all up with our bread.  You can take a girl outta the country but you can't take the country outta the girl!

Yes!  I love home grown tomatoes.  These were chilled then tossed with just a bit of vinagrette, onion, cucumber and feta cheese.

By the time the waitress had described all the options I had no clue what we were ordering.  I don't remember the high falutin' name of this but it is basically sea bass, spinach, fried oysters on cheese grits (polenta in Italia) with some delightful sauces.  

By the time this was taken we had already nailed one of the oysters each!

We also had some chianti but for some reason I didn't get a picture of it! 

My friend liked it.  Can you tell?  Once again the bread came in handy.  The green stuff was olive oil infused with something very tasty.

I was stuffed by this point, but not my friend!

I bit its little wings off immediately.  Chocolate bourbon gelato with berries and uh, a rosebud.  I usually drink my bourbon rather than eat it and smell my roses rather than eat them as well.  But I did taste the gelato and I have to say it had just a tiny hint of bourbon and was quite good.  I got the raspberry and my friend ate the blackberry.  The rose and two little blueberries were left floating in melted bourbon gelato with chunks of dark chocolate driftwood.

I think we were such enthusiastic diners they gave us a treat.  Macaroons!

Light and fluffy on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside and just the right amount of sweetness.
I rarely indulge myself with such flagrant food so it was LOTS of fun.  The goal for me was to eat at an Italian restaurant and not get the typical fare.  Success was mine!  The owner, my friend noted, looked like a young Omar Sharif.  They could have served him up on a platter sauce or no sauce and we would have been just as happy! 

After a walk I went back to the hotel.  The next morning dawned outside my window.  Not the best view but not bad either.

 I stole away from the conference later because one can only hear about pavement design, maintenance traffic schemes, and bridge design options for so long without needing to recharge with a stroll by the river.

Painters!!!

I love barges.

Hmmmmmm. Wonder where the road goes?

Any racing fans out there?

And finally and uncooperative "Cocoa".  Neither me nor the owner could get a good picture.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to see me!