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 :)