Le Chat Gourmet for City Pulse

This place is seriously cool. And the kitchen is gorgeous. And it makes me wonder if I've made the right choices in life. . .

Anyway, read about it here.

A tout a l'heure, mes amis.

Tony Sacco's

I try to eat pretty healthy during the week. I stick with a lot of oatmeal, gussied up with chia seeds, peanut butter, and bananas, salads with an insane amount of spinach, eggs, fish, chicken, soup- normal, healthy stuff. I've been known to eat bags of spinach like they were bags of chips. I've also been known to be directed to stop doing this, because I was grossing everyone out.

Anyway, the main reason that I'm so hell-bent on eating healthy Monday through Friday is because I frequently go ballistic on Saturday and Sunday. Well, maybe not ballistic, but I give myself license to loosen my restrictions.

For the past two weekends, I've eaten huge, cheesy, garlicky meals at Tony Sacco's. And I've been so happy that I shoveled in all that roughage during the week, because I made up for it in pizza calories.

I know, a chain. I know. But not really. Tony Sacco's is only in six states. So just roll with it.

Both of my meals consisted of similar items. I drank a lot of this-

Club soda with lime, my old homie. 

We started with Garlic Rotolis (pretty sure that's a made-up Italian word). These are knots of bread, sprinkled with Parmesean, swimming in a bowl of oil. I ate about 17 of these and then kept the bowl to dip my pizza into the remaining oil. I'm trying to put on my winter weight.

Each time, I got to choose one of the pizzas. And each time, I chose the Capo. All of the pizzas are thin crust and this one is topped with pepperoni, sweet Italian sausage, roasted mushrooms and caramelized onions. The dang ONIONS are what takes this pizza to a whole new level for me. The tomato sauce doesn't have terribly a lot of flavor, so the onions perk it up and make you feel like you're really a fiery-tempered, chianti-swilling, fingertip-kissing Italian when you eat this. 

Look at that chopped basil. Drool. 

This one is the Marco Polo. The artichoke hearts were bland and blah. What am I, a California hippie?

And this was the Napoli. Much like the city of Napoli, I would be happy never revisiting this (see what I did there? ZING, Napoli! Your move.) I don't like ricotta, and I should have known better.

Tony Sacco's only offers one dessert- some kind of berry shortcake. If you intend on cramming something chocolatey into your mouth after you abuse yourself with pizza, you're going to have to go somewhere else. Maybe try Bravo, also in the Eastwood Towne Center. They have those cute little three-bite desserts (which I use to create a dessert sampler platter, because I can't leave well enough alone.)

I'm digging Tony Sacco's. We only waited for a table for about 15 minutes on a Saturday night. I'm not one of those people who is crazy for pizza, but if YOU are, Tony Sacco's should be in your rotation.

P Squared for City Pulse

A good Michigan company.

This month I reviewed P Squared for the City Pulse. Read it here. 

Want to know what a Ploughman's Lunch is?

Scenes from Early 2013

I made German Chocolate cupcakes for my boss's birthday. I know what side my bread is buttered on.

Housa, hash browns, and wheat toast at The Brunch House. 

Spinach salad from Holiday Market in Royal Oak. 

Dehydrated peanut butter- excellent for making smoothies with less fat. 

Egg bagel, light cream cheese, lox, from New York Bagel in Ferndale.

Mini chocolate cheesecake and carrot cake cupcakes from The Cupcake Station in Birmingham. Don't waste your calories on these.

Christmas Eve Fish Market Lunch

Every Christmas Eve, my bestie and I have lunch. We gossip, we talk about our plans for the rest of the holidays, and we exchange gifts. This year we tacked on an early-morning yoga class. I'm not even sure if she knows this, but working out with her is one of my favorite things in the world. Yoga in particular, but Pure Barre or even a boring session at the gym- I love it.

This year, like last year, we headed to Mitchell's Fish Market. I had to pick up the mussels I had ordered for my family's traditional post-mass cioppino, so we figured two birds with one stone. I knew the bartender, so we sat at the bar for lunch and I picked my bartender friend's brain over some additions to the menu.

I've never met a fish taco I didn't like, but she highly recommended the Codwich Sliders and I decided to give them a whirl. I'm so happy I threw caution to the wind and actually took direction this time, because these little babies provided one of the best lunches I've had in a long while.

The huge pieces of cod hung over the side of the puffy, yeasty bun. The coleslaw topping was a little bland but benefited greatly from a quick shake of salt and a healthy squirt of Tabasco.

The gumbo alongside was good but I barely remember it. The sliders commanded my full attention. The breading was light, the fish was flaky, I didn't get one Godforsaken mouthful of what I disgustingly refer to as "fry." You know what I mean. A mouthful of batter with no substance. It's a huge disappointment and you feel yourself gaining a pound.

Codwich Sliders at Mitchell's. You won't regret it.