Buenos Aires Pizzeria- Gnocchi

Buenos Aires Pizzeria website

1307 22nd Street, Denver, CO

303.296.6710

I was finally able to return to the Buenos Aires Pizzeria on the 29^th of a month to try their homemade gnocchi.  I went with some friends after a visit to Water World, which meant that we’d worked up an appetite.

I suggested we order some empanadas to start with since those are quickly heated.  We each ordered and split the ham and cheese, steak peppercorn and chicken with pesto and tomato.  They were just as delicious as they were on my previous visit and helped take the edge off our hunger.

My friends ordered a pizza that was half one set of ingredients and half another.  One side was the Chapita: mozzarella, pineapple, jalapeno, and fresh mint leaves.  The other was the Alcahuete: mozzarella, artichoke, fresh basil and fresh tomato.  They also ordered pepperoni added to the whole pizza.  I tried some of the slices and the pepperoni tasted pretty strange with the mint.

I ordered the Gnocchi Special.  I could order it either with the plain marinara sauce or the Bolognese (beef) sauce.  I went with the Bolognese sauce.  The restaurant makes the gnocchi from ricotta cheese instead of potato.  I enjoyed trying them but I’m not sure if I would go out of my way to order them again.  The gnocchi themselves were a little soggy in texture because they were so fresh.  They also didn’t have a lot of their own flavor.  I think my personal taste would have liked more salt in the gnocchi.  The sauce didn’t quite cover it.  Again, it was fun to try, but I’ve enjoyed the other things I tried there more.

According to the website, they serve the gnocchi on the 29^th because of an Argentinian custom that was brought there by Italian immigrants.  The tradition includes putting money under the gnocchi plate to invite good fortune in the upcoming months.  The idea is to return the money to the wallet after the meal where it will multiply.  I forgot to consult the website before going so I didn’t try this.  I guess I’ll have to try to get my money to multiply the old fashioned way… by dressing it up and introducing bills to each other at a bar.

Fat Frog Cafe

2530 West Main Street, Littleton, CO 80120

(303) 794-8507

My family and I joined with family friends Peggy and her daughter Maura for lunch on a Friday.  It was a wonderful break from work.  We decided to eat at the Fat Frog Café on Main Street in Littleton.  This restaurant has been revamped from its previous bar reputation.  It’s now a pleasant place that serves sandwiches, salads and crêpes. 

I had the Main Street Breakfast Crêpe.  It’s a loaded crêpe that comes with scrambled eggs, ham, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes.  All crêpes are served with pesto and red pepper sauces decorating the plate.  The breakfast ones are served with potatoes and fruit.  The fruit of the day was honeydew melon.  My dish was delicious and quite filling.  The crêpes are quite expensive (around $8 or $9) but they’re a lot bigger than some that I’ve seen.  The other downside is that they take quite a while to make.  Whenever I’ve gone on my lunch break, I usually have to warn them that I only have an hour so that they can get my order in.  The orders took especially long with a table of six of us.  It meant that I didn’t have time to order a dessert crêpe.  Thankfully I was quite full!

Despite the cons, I find the Fat Frog to be a delicious and fun place to have lunch.

Bastille Day at Le Grand Bistro

Le Grand Bistro website

1512 Curtis Street

Denver, Colorado 80202

Phone: 303-534-1155

Bastille Day is a perfect chance to eat French food and appreciate the culture.  It is a French national holiday that celebrates the storming of the Bastille fortress on July 14, 1789 during the French Revolution.  I celebrated at Le Grand Bistro with my French conversation Meetup group.  I think there ended up being about twelve people.  I didn’t have a reservation because I wasn’t sure how many would show.  The restaurant was gracious, even though they were booked, and set us up at some high topped tables in the bar.

I arrived early to get the table so I started off with a glass of wine and a small appetizer from the charcuterie menu.  I drank a glass of Rosé wine: Montfaucon Les Gardettes 2010 (Provence) $8.  It was typical for the French rosé wines and was dry.  It was cold and refreshing on this summer night.  I enjoyed this with the Duck Prosciutto: house cured duck breast, greens, and spicy rouille for $5.  The prosciutto was served on a small black board with a finger hole in it, reminding me of an artist palette.  The duck was delicious but did not taste very different from regular pork prosciutto.  It mainly had a salty flavor.  It was served with thin slices of toasted baguette and a spicy sauce.  It also had some lettuce greens in a citrus dressing.

The restaurant was offering two multi-course meals in honor of Bastille Day.  The Peasant Menu was three courses for $35.  I went with the Marie Antoinette Menu that was four courses for $55.  It was a meal I will not soon forget.

I had a different wine to go with dinner.  I ordered a glass of the Bordeaux- Chateau Terrefort Lascalle 2009 for $8.  It’s a deep red with full flavor.

My first course was Parmesan Gougères.  These were two little cheese puffs served with a crème fraîche, truffle, and dill sauce.  I loved the cheese flavor of the puffs and they went well in the cream sauce.

For the next course, I chose the Foie Gras Mousse.  It’s Hudson Valley foie gras with Sauturnes, heavy cream and port gastrique.  The mousse was served in a jar with baguette toast on the side.  It also had a green salad with citrus dressing.  There was port drizzled on the plate as well as pickled onions.  I put that first bite of foie gras in my mouth and I thought I would actually start leaking out tears of joy.  With that first bite, I felt like I had never used my tongue before that moment.  I tried to keep up conversation but mostly retreated into my own world where only the foie and I existed.  Thank goodness nobody asked me for a taste.  It might have gotten ugly.

The third course was Beef Wellington.  This had tender beef and mushrooms wrapped in a crispy phylo pastry on top of sautéed vegetables.  The beef itself was extremely tender and had good flavor.  I enjoyed the mushrooms as well.  The vegetables that accompanied it were baby carrots and potatoes.  There was one spice in there that I didn’t like.  I believe it might have been tarragon.  I was able to mostly ignore that and focus on the other flavors though.

By the end of the meal, I feared that I was getting too full for my fourth and final course.  Luckily it was just the right size to finish off the meal.  I had Crêpes Suzette.  The crêpes were smaller, about the size of my palm, and folded in half.  They were in a small bowl swimming in an orange sauce and whipped cream.  The orange sauce was thick like a syrup but was more tangy than sweet.  There were about three of the small crêpes and I ate up every last one.