Salt City Girl

Raves and rants about the Salty City's food, film and alcohol.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Eva

This is a great new place in Downtown. The small plate diner has been open for a couple months now. They say they serve Mediterranean food, but they seemed more strictly Italian to me.

The restaurant is fabulous! They have really cool, modern tables and chairs. Plus, some awesome artwork on the walls. I'm pretty sure it's from a local artist. The bright neon colors of the work bring in some much needed contrast with the dark wood of the tables, chairs and floor. The small space could easily be put to the test on a busy night, but there were only few tables when I was there so I had plenty of room.

Our server was a little shy, but she was great. She knew the menu really well and answered all our questions. She was helpful and made good recommendations. I wish I could remember her name.

For our appetizers we ordered calamari and french fries. The aioli was great! I'm pretty sure aioli is only code for fry sauce, but either way it was delicious. The calamari was fried perfectly nice and crispy breading surrounding a soft squid. Yummy! The fries had rosemary on them which is a stroke of genius. I must try this at home.

I ordered the octopus ravioli for my entree mostly because I'd never had octopus. It ended up being surprisingly good. Octopus is a little chewy, but the fried skin was nice and crispy. The texture paired really well with the artichoke pasta. I'm fairly certain the pasta was fresh and made by hand. It was fantastic! I would've been happy with just the ravioli and the sauce. The adventure of the octopus was just a plus.

Ava and Erin also had pasta entrees. I can't remember what they were, but I remember being impressed by the consistency of the dishes. All three were delicious! Like I said, homemade pasta.

When Ava, Erin and I were there last week they were still working on their alcohol menu so we had sodas instead.

All in all, I'm guessing our bill came under $50. I'm not sure because the fabulous Miss Ava bought us dinner. She is AMAZING! Oh yeah, and she has sexy, new hair to match.

If you're Downtown and want a quiet place for a sophisticated dinner, Eva would be a wonderful place. I hope you love it as much as I did!

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Saturday, April 18, 2009

The Soup Kitchen

The bipolar weather of April in Salt Lake City makes me want to cry. So while I wear my sundress in the snow, I enjoy a nice cup of soup. One of my favorite soup places is the Soup Kitchen. The shop is right off Highland and 2100 South. So it's super close to my house and my school.

I love going in and grabbing some soup on my way to class. It's great! But the last time I was there I made an amazing discovery, onion rings!

We all know, I love onion rings. Rings are indeed deep-fried, golden goodness. At the Soup Kitchen, they are beer battered deliciousness. So good! Hmmm...

I got a full order for about $2.50, which ended up being enough onion rings for two people. The fry sauce was okay, not the best, not the worst. The onion rings themselves were amazing. They were hand-cut onions, dipped in a beer batter with some great seasoning and fried to the perfect level of golden, brown, crispy good.

I also had a cup of broccoli and cheese soup with two free cheese bread sticks. The bread sticks were great! As always a nice fluffy homemade bread. The soup was pretty good, but after the onion rings kind of a let down. It's probably still one of my favorite soups, but not the best cup ever.

In all I spent about $7 for a drink, soup, bread sticks and onion rings. It was a fantastic on the go lunch for cheap. I will definitely be stopping by again. If nothing else for the onion rings.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Drunken Oreos

It's not like there could possibly be enough posts about alcohol, right?

I thought today I would share with you one of the most simple and delicious deserts I've run across. This recipe is rip-off from Meditrina's own Drunken Oreos. Mine is not as delicious as the original, but does a fair imitation.

Drunken Oreos
To begin you will need the following tools:

Hardware:
One 2-quart sauce pan
One mixing spoon
One ice cream scoop
One shallow bowl
One fork
Two desert plates

The yumminess comes from the following:

Ingredients:
1 Cup port wine
1 Tbs. lemon zest
8 Oreo cookies
1/2 cup of red wine
Vanilla Ice Cream (a real ice cream with actual cream and vanilla bean is best)

First, you will make a port wine reduction sauce. This is the trickiest part of the whole dessert and requires patience. Pour one cup of port wine into a 2-quart sauce pan over medium low heat. Add one tablespoon lemon zest. Let the mixture boil for about 1/2 hour constantly stirring. When the mixture is close to being as thick as sauce, but still thin it is done. There should be about 1/3 the amount of the original liquid left in the pan. Turn off the stove.

Now, the sauce is done, so onto the the dunking. Pour 1/2 cup of red wine (whatever you have will work) into a shallow bowl. Using a fork, dunk an oreo into the wine then flip the oreo over so both sides are soft. You want to dunk the oreos quickly so they're soft, not soggy. Place four oreos on each dessert plate. Now the oreos are ready.

The next step is the ice cream. Top the oreos with couple scoops of ice cream. Now, using your mixing spoon drizzle the ice cream and oreos with the port wine sauce.

Bust out your spoons and enjoy.

A couple of things: First, this dessert sounds, tastes and looks far more expensive than it is. Second, This dessert is also very easy to add or subtract from to serve however many people you have. The recipe I found for port wine reduction sauce also suggested an orange zest. I haven't had an opportunity to try that out, but it sure sounds yummy!

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Sunday, April 5, 2009

On a side note

Always, always say no to cheap vodka.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Murphy's

They say they're a step down in social clubs. It's a clever play on the fact that their bar is indeed a few steps down from the sidewalk.

On the day, I learned I'm editor for next year's student paper at Westminster, Ava was sweet enough to take me out celebrating. She really likes Murphy's and had been there before with some work friends.

Murphys has some cool stuff. For one thing, it never got too crowded so I always felt like I had plenty of space. They also have a dart board. I totally suck at the aiming and throwing thing. Luckily when I'm the right amount of buzzed, I throw it and hit something.

The Long Islands I had were incredibly strong. The bartender used tequila instead of vodka. They were yummy, but at $8.50 each I probably should've stuck to drinking just one.

Ava ordered a Cape Cod and a Newcastle. I'm not a big fan of Cape Cod's, but as far as I know these are her favorite. The Newcastle is an English beer. It's heavier than most the beer I drink, but it's so smooth you wouldn't know the difference. I wonder if there's a different place to buy it.

For dinner, I had a hamburger and french fries. The food was okay. Pretty much what you would expect from a bar. The hamburger was well-done and I don't think you get to choose. Although it was served open-face there was no mayonnaise, so the bread was a little dry.

The fries were NOT fresh cut. Why do people even bother with these? Seriously, fries are so much better when you cut them. I'm pretty sure they're just as cheap and they make my tummy happier. I was very disappointed by the fries and the lack of fry sauce.

So next time I want to throw back a few drinks and play some darts I probably will go to Murphy's. I'll just have dinner someplace else.

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