Food, glorious food.

[yendi]

So, last night, shadesong and I went to Bacchanalia for the first time ever. We knew it would be good, but we didn't realize just how amazingly good it was going to be. I'm still full, and content.

As soon as we were seated, we were each handed an amuse bouche that was, essentially, the world's most perfect Cheezy Poof. It was warm and yummy and the perfect thing to get our appetites worked up.

The menu itself was a delight. You can see a typical menu at their website, and although this one was different (the menus change nightly), it was just as tempting. For each of the four courses, it was nigh-impossible to pick just one dish. I wanted everyone listed.

Before we even got to our starters, we were served bread (expected) and more amuse bouche (unexpected!), this time a demitasse cup of cold summer squash soup with truffle oil. It was superb.

The first course soon followed, consisting of a house-cured charcuterie (with tasso, mortadella, pepperoni, capicola, genoa salami, and duck) for 'song and a veal sweetbread and artichoke meuniere for me. Both were outstanding.

That was followed by the second course (or entrée, if you must). 'song had a summer squash ravioli with shaved black truffles in a butter sauce. It was unbelievably yummy. My dish was duck breast over lima beans, black-eyed peas, and bacon. It was both yummy and rich, and I adored every bite.

Our third course was the salad and cheese course. I'd ordered the tomato and mozzarella, expecting the traditional slices of both. Instead, I got a slice of the best freshly-made mozzarella I've had in years, along with at least four different kids of tomatoes. Wow. 'song, meanwhile, had gotten the cheese selection (she got to choose four from a list of twelve), two of which were very good, one of which was meh, and one of which (a Swiss cow's milk cheese whose name I can't remember) was one of the best cheeses I've ever tried.

While waiting for dessert, yet another amuse bouche: mint panna cotta with orange sorbet on top. mmmm.

Dessert (along with some wonderful French press coffee) arrived shortly thereafter. 'song had the cappuccino semifreddo with mini beignets. I had the strawberry soufflé with a tablespoon each of strawberry and black pepper ice cream. Both were not only perfect, but perfectly sized -- small desserts that didn't overwhelm us.

The waitress also brought us a mini-cake with a candle, saying, "Happy Birthday." When we explained that it wasn't close to our birthdays, she asked it if was our anniversary. It wasn't, but we explained that it was close to our dating anniversary (not that we'd noted that when we made the reservation either). At this point, the candle nearly burning her, she just decided that whatever the occasion, we needed the mini-cake. So we ate it -- it was a dulce de leche cake with cream cheese frosting. So damned good.

After dessert, there was yet another amuse bouch, this time citrus madelines, which went perfectly with the nice strong coffee.

When the check arrived, we had one final pair of amuse bouch: peach marshmallows (seriously good), and mint chocolate truffles, which might be the finest candy I've ever tasted.

Wow. No single course was huge, which was a good thing -- we got full gradually, without any sense that we were gorging ourselves. It was just perfect.

Afterwards, we wandered around the Star Provisions store, which could easily have tempted us to drop a few hundred bucks. Not only was there a great cheese shop, an amazing fish and meat shop, and wonderful gadgets of all sorts (including a gnome-in-the-box), but there was also the gourmet take-out store/bakery.

We were so damned full when we got home. Full, but content. Last night was what eating is all about.