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.

Five for 2012

Five of my best meals of 2012 were:

5. Dinner at Bistro Bella Vita (Grand Rapids)-
On February 19, 2012, homegirl Stacey and I went to see Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert at DeVos Hall in GR. We ate at Bistro Bella Vita (which, apparently, in-the-know Grand Rapids people refer to as "Bistro") and I wrote about it here. I ate there again in September, during Labor Day weekend when I went to GR to go to a West Michigan Whitecaps game with a friend from law school. We had both just taken the bar exam and were probably insufferable.

Also, while we were wandering around GR, we went into some dive bar and a dude started talking to me. He was wasted, and he started YELLING things like "You think America isn't the greatest country in the world? Why don't you lawyer THAT!"

Normal.

*Anthony Bourdain is coming to this neck of the woods in May. You might want to buy your tickets now, because I am seriously considering going off my own fiscal cliff and buying every ticket so I can just have a private conversation with him.

4. Cousin's graduation dinner at the Knight Cap (Lansing- Downtown)-
In May, one of my favorite cousins graduated from MSU. His family and my family celebrated his accomplishment at one of my all-time faves, the Knight Cap. Ya know I love it.

The Knight Cap is one of my go-to places when people ask me for a favorite restaurant in Lansing. I qualify it- although not every meal I have ever had there has been incredible, enough of them have been. And the atmosphere can't be beat. It's cozy and fabulously 70s.

I had other great meals at the KC this past year in January, for the birthday of one of my favorite men, and in August, with one of my favorite doctors. I should get back to this classic, sexy place pretty soon. 

3. Pre-bar exam breakfast at Golden Harvest (Lansing- Old Town)-
A week before the bar exam, we were all grasping onto our last vestiges of normalcy. My study schedule was ridiculous and I would get up at 5am to do a quick 50 multiple choice questions just to get warmed up for the day. A group of four of us needed a little break so we decided to meet at Golden Harvest one morning in mid-July. We were the only ones there, which was perfect, because I'm sure we were obnoxious. But that sandwich with avocado on it was bangin.

2. Birthday dinner at Mitchell's Fish Market (Lansing, Eastwood Towne Center)-
Yes, a chain. Deal with it. My little group of friendsicles has been treated very well by Mitchell's over the past few years. Because we are ridiculous people, we have occasional group roasts of each other. The private room at Mitchell's is the perfect size, is free, and allows us some privacy so the rest of Lansing isn't subjected to dirty jokes about past indiscretions (not that I have any of those.)

We celebrated my 30th birthday a few weeks late but had another wonderful meal with wonderful service at Mitchell's. They've got my endorsement. Plus, you can buy mussels for $3.99 a pound, which I do every Christmas Eve to make cioppino.

1. Publican Bachelorette Brunch (Chicago)-
Don't even play like you didn't think this was going to top the list.

Honorable Mentions:
- Scarfing oysters on the half shell on my tour of the state of South Carolina in August
- Bridesmaid brunch at Dusty's in Okemos on the day before my bestie's wedding in September
- Dinner at Meat (Lansing- Old Town) before a show at the Riverwalk
- A friends birthday dinner at Ukai (Okemos) on the night before Thanksgiving
- Tavern 109 with my favorite veteran, and subsequent return visits to put my money where my mouth is
- My yearly dinner with a college bestie at The Laundry in Fenton on December 23 (the Brussels sprouts were fantastic. The coq au vin was disappointing. The chocolate cake and cinnamon-vanilla ice cream were worthy of making the drive to Fenton.)
- A Sansu lunch series with my tallest friend, @ruistom, where we invariably order too much and wonder how the check is a million dollars.

2012 saw some good eats. Not so much good photography. I will get better at that, my friends. Stick with me.

And Happy New Year. 

Bar 30 Micro-Review

Last night I went to a Grand River Connection event at Bar 30. This place. is. SWANK.

It's also super loud.

As I stood there talking to Lansing's young and gorgeous, I slowly devoured a bowl of guacamole. I don't know what the heck is going on at Bar 30, whether they have a direct line on the world's best avocados or what, but this was some of the most delicious guacamole I've ever had. It was creamy and a little spicy and I literally scraped the bowl clean.

As a friend of mine said repeatedly to everyone who approached us- Holy Guacamole!