Bella Vita Bistro

And now to brag a little on Wichita. Went to this Italian restaurant in Boston's North End:

Pretty.  And Wichita's Bella Vita Bistro blew it out. of. the. water.

It all started with a lovely blush wine.
And then the salad....ohhhhhh, the Bella Vita House salad. Look at those beautiful curls of carrots and beets:Look closer...

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I need a real camera.  But it was art.  Edible art. The house basalmic vinaigrette redefines salad dressings.  Lidia, I love you, but we have a contender here...

Linguini Puttanesca...
Don't you love that they serve it with the spoon?  Beautiful, with a bite from the greek olives and basil coulis.  When you go (because you simply must), ask (if you dare) the lovely server/owner about the R-rated  story of this dish and its name. (Those of you who know a little Spanish might recognize the interesting root word in there...)

And then the Chicken Bella Vita...

Prosciutto and mozerella tucked gently inside, a buttery mornay sauce, tenderly toasted breadcrumb shell...just order it, OK?  You will thank me.  And make it a new line item in your budget.

  

The vegetables were different (carmelized onion potatoes and fried eggplant) and perhaps not brilliant, but the chocolate dessert and the charming finish were:

Isn't that the cutest mint you ever saw?

Let's keep this place alive, Wichita:

Bella Vita Bistro (reservations recommended - it is small)

If you're lucky Chef Prud Homme might even sing to you.

Boston Wrap-Up

1. Legal Test Kitchen - three words "go to there."  I couldn't slow down for pictures, sorry.


2. Best. Cod. Ever. At the Atlantic Beer Garden just before hopping the Charlie to the airport.  Cucumber slaw was...interesting.  And just a few fries to balance all the fiber bars...

3. Cheers bar.  GREAT service, good food, nobody knew our name :P  Light a bit low for the camera phone.

4. Mike's Pastry - everyone on the subway had a box so of course we had to investigate...busy place!:

A fun experience but not the highest quality pastries, FYI.  See those strings from the ceiling?  They were pulled down to wrap the boxes:

Not a big fan of the black and white cookie so far, but this I can UnEquivocally advocate:

5. UBerry yogurt from UFood - the perfect way to end ADA: organic, high-antioxidant, delicous.

Thanks Boston!

Boston - Part B

Did I imply soon?  I meant eventually...
Now that I am excited about my next WWR report, let's do this:
Boston Part II

Almost as interesting as Anthony: Jeffrey Taylor, creator of Monster.com:

Does he look 50 to you? Still full of ideas and visions for the future. (Two words: Social Media).

The Expo floor:

A thousand booths with every sample, substitute, food fact and dietetic innovation you can imagine. Pam and I never needed lunch. Lean Cuisine, Cliff bars, Choboni Greek Yogurt, and Vitamin water were staples, the extra calcium frozen yogurt and stevia drinks were fun to try.

The pre-conference culinary tour wasn't a brilliant as hoped for, but I did meet a lot of fun people including Karla, a Puerto Rican NYU grad student in culinology, and some gen-u-ine Boston-ers...

I'm a sucker for unusual and pretty produce...I'll spare you the full extent of the photo library, but I had never seen these karela before, and who can't appreciate those cute baby eggplants and cucumbers?  Perhaps coming soon to a WWR near you...

So even minus the tableside chat with some clam chowder master chef of Boston, we had fun.  And wound up the tour with Lizzy's delicious mango sorbet (highly recommended by our country club chef guide). Je suis bon :)

Brilliant Boston

I haven't been to New Haven yet, but I had a hard time not instantly pledging my allegiance to this ivy league hometown.  Edible-gold-leaf-topped cupcakes at Hahvahd Yahd...now that is a happy place.  It was a great beginning to a great week.  And this guy was there to wrap it up...

That's right, ANTHONY BOURDAIN.  W-O-W.  The dieitians laughed...we cringed...we laughed some more...it was magic.  And he left us with this great quote:  "The best meal is the one you get when you are desperately hungry."

Amen.
And appropriate even amid the embarrassment of riches that is the West Wichita Restaurant scene :)

More to come.

First Time at Felipe's Jr.

I'm just home from Boston, and hope to blog a little about it, but first want to recap the delightful end to the WWR dry spell with Felipe's Jr. at Maple & 119th last week.  

I was so hungry that this was all that was left of the jalapeno poppers by the time I remembered to take a picture:

They were worth every calorie.  Every gram of saturated fat.  YUM-MO.  The salsa was excelente tambien, and I like to think provided at least a few lycopenes to war with those naughty oxidants....all foods can fit, all foods can fit... 

Guacamole - delicioso; chips - perfectly thin and crispy; salsa - si!; margarita - the perfect strength and fruitiness; pork chop carnes a la mexicanas...a little less than tender...but the hot and mild salsas, the not-so-authentic-flour, but-oh-so-soft-and-warm-homemade tortillas...MOST marvillosa.

A shout-out before I continue for the great service also:  Up in the corner you can see the garnished sliced jalapenos our waiter graciously brought out when we didn't think to say we wanted pickled.  So we tried them both ways! I still liked pickled better, but the fresh add a nice crunch and are even mild without the seeds.  But now, the best for last:  Tapatios.  One with chorizo, one with chicken, and yes, my new favorite Mexican dish.  Five words:  creamy roasted poblano cilantro salsa.  If you're not a salt-lover, stick to the chicken filling, but you like me may just want to suck up the salsa with a straw anyway.  W-O-W.  (For the record, over half of this meal came home...you know, moderation & portion control...kind of...  And I immediately had to look up "Tapatio" - why did it sound so familiar? - and realized it was what the regional people called themselves in Guadalajuara, where we had visited our friend in July.  So it is not only a delicious dish I can't wait to revisit, but a delicious dish linked to many good memories.  Ole!

State Fair Krispy Kreme Burger

It's that time of year again...and being a very thorough Foods Agent, when our yearly attendance at the Extension booth came around, I had to take advantage of the opportunity to personally investigate the Krispy Kreme hamburger making local headlines.  One of our communications personnel documenting this caloric conundrum for Extension's website:

Extreeeeeme closeup of the sandwich in question:

Note the full complement of lettuce, onion, pickle, tomato. I opted out of the bacon and cheese (even this girl has her limits).  I also asked for a regular bun, knowing the I would probably not make it past the first bite of the original sandwich. I didn't end up needing the extra bun, as I had several taste testing "assistants" that made more than one bite unnecessary. First assistant Tonya noted a slightly seasoned flavor to the patty that made us think of a McGriddle, but despite the fact that we both like sweet and salty combinations, we decided that this combo just didn't work for us.

 Also eaten separately:  Nitro Ice Cream.  Frozen in less than 1/10th of a second, it is the creamiest frozen treat you will ever try.  No caloric benefits to the Nitro process, unfortunately, so I will stick with gelato for my lower-cal creaminess, but once a year...you know it: all foods can fit! :)

Food Waterloos

As I watch No Reservations, I realize I will never be a true foodie because of the following foods rites of passage required:

1. blood sausage
2. sweetbreads
3. kimchee
4. lutefisk
5. durian (I actually bought it at our Asian market but just...couldn't....do it)

Oh, and an unshakeable aversion to mushy peas and raw onions.

What is your food waterloo?