Tastes Like Food » Appetizer

The Other Den

Gluten For Punishment — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:44:09 +0000

Last night we dined at the Izakaya Den (owned by and located across the street from Sushi Den). It was fabulous. You can order the exact same sushi as is served across the street, and they serve additional contemporary meal options as well.

Here’s what I recommend if you go there:

Drinks:
-Pink Blossom – Hangar mandarin blossom vodka, St Germaine Eldeflower Liquer, Cointreau & cranberry juice.

-Shoshu Smash (and you can really get smashed on these, so watch it) – muddled orange, lemon, lime, vodka, Iitomo Shochu, fresh yuzu juice & seven.

Food:

-Roasted Red & Yellow Beets – with green tea smoked mozarella in a baked lemon-basil vinagrette.

-Grilled Panzanella Salad – with jumbo lump crab, Colorado goat cheese, pistachio & plum wine vinagrette.

-Baked Spicy Roll
-California Roll
-Vegetable Tempura Roll
-Red Dragon Roll

(the above rolls all have cooked fish for those of you who are sushi wimps!)

Izakaya Den
1518 S. Pearl Street
Denver, Colorado 80210
303.777.0691

sushi sasa

Mango and Sticky Rice — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:28:42 +0000

So a couple of us had a birthday recently. We decided to celebrate at Sushi Sasa. There were 13 of us and it was good that we had a reservation. Their small dining room filled up quickly as the lunch crowd came in.

positives:

• fresh, fresh, fresh. and yummy sushi.

• their space has a very nice clean design. lots of white. lots of natural light.

• they were very accommodating to our friend with special dietary needs. His special-request dishes were artfully laid out on his plate. It didn’t seem to be any trouble at all.

• good value. 8-12 bucks for a roll.

• edamame came with some type of spice mixture sprinkled around the edge of the plate. If i had to guess, I’d say it might have had cayenne in it. quite a tasty detail.

negatives:

• We were there for 2 hours! It seemed like an awfully long time to wait for our food. But, to be fair, I’m not sure how this compares to other sushi joints when you’re talking a party of 13.

• Our friend Mike pointed out that there were no fish tanks — something of a staple in sushi joint decor. But it didn’t bother me. Fish tanks are so 2007 anyway…

Wontons in a Blanket

Bacon Is Good — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:11:56 +0000

Last Sunday, we hosted the Front Range Supper Club at our place: a once-a-month get together of fellow Boulderites, Denverites, and Longmontians. We have a feast (everybody brings a dish or two) and discuss a scintillating book. This time around, my partner made these bite-size hors d’oeuvres.

How to make these beauties: 2 tubes of crescent rolls (cut each crescent roll triangle in half), a half a pack of pepperoni diced small and then mixed into half a tub of cream cheese. Load up each little triangle with a teaspoon of the cream cheese-pepperoni mixture and pink the corners of the dough together at the top. Bake at 350° until they’re lightly browned at the edges (8-10 minutes). The “recipe” he found for these appetizers called them “White Trash Puffballs”. I thought “Wontons in a Blanket” was a little better, combining the wonton look, with the meat-wrapped-in-dough “blanket” aspect. All the meat and dairy eaters in the Supper Club thoroughly enjoyed them. And I thought they looked super cute.

Guac at Lola

Bacon Is Good — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:09:50 +0000

Last week, Mango and I went to Lola with a friend of ours. Located in Platte River area, north Denver, Lola is a great spot for happy hour with a killer view of downtown. It felt especially decadent 10 minutes before 5pm on a warm, late fall thursday afternoon.

After the great company, the best part was the fresh guacamole: lightly mashed and still chunky avocado, liberal cilantro, sprinkle of coarse sea salt, and a lime wedge coated with cayenne.

Lola, 1575 Boulder St, Denver, CO 80211

Guacamole: A+
Chips: B-
Atmosphere: A
Happy Hour Prices: A-