Category: food

Making Fast Food Look Edible

Upscale restaurants are known for their beautiful presentation of food. Fancy Fast Food is a web log that applies these techniques to present fast food. The Colonel’s Chicken Corn Chowder looks pretty good to me. The sidebar explains:

These photographs show extreme makeovers of actual fast food items purchased at popular fast food restaurants. No additional ingredients have been added except for an occasional simple garnish.

Black Bear Restaurant

June 13, 2008 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

While I was looking for a place for us to celebrate our 30th anniversary as well as Jack’s birthday, I came across the website for the The Black Bear Restaurant, a four-star restaurant a short distance from Colorado Springs of which I had never heard. The Chef’s Table (a fixed price meal) seemed interesting, so Jack made reservations.

I thought it slightly odd that there was no photo of the restaurant building on the website, and when we made the drive to Green Mountain Falls, I could see why: it certainly didn’t look like any four star restaurant I had ever seen before. Stated bluntly, it looked like a dive.

Appearances are deceptive. We chose the six course meal, and it was some of the best food I have ever had. We had fennel salad, which was very spicy; bison stew; caramelized onion frittata; a creamy pasta dish; Limousin steak and potatoes; and chocolate. I think it may have been the best steak I’ve ever had. The portion sizes were quite restrained, so we were full when we left, without being stuffed.

Borscht

Today I had a cup of cold Borscht from the deli across the street. I had forgotten that borscht can be served cold, and it was a freezing day. Once I got over the shock of cold soup when I was hoping for hot soup, I enjoyed it. I am fairly certain that I had borscht before and liked it, but can’t remember if I had the cold or hot version.