Barbazzu - Philadelphia, PA

http://barbuzzo.com/barbuzzo/

Friends of mine made reservations for Philadelphia Restaurant Week at Barbuzzo.  They touted it as a nice Mediterranean-style restaurant, so I was looking forward to it.  The Prix Fixe menu had some good options from the vegetarian perspective, but I would like the opportunity to go back and taste from their full menu.  The Prix Fixe option started with two crostinis for each person, one was a Smashed Fava-Goat Cheese Crostini with preserved lemon, mint, and extra virgin olive oil.  It was OK – a little too minty for my taste.  There was also a Smoky Chickpea Crostini with roasted garlic, cumin, and smoked pimento.  I definitely liked this one better (although the rest of the table chose the other one as their favorite).  It was a nice way to start the meal.

For my appetizer course, I chose the Roasted Beet Salad with goat cheese, orange, pistachio pesto, and tuscan kale.  An interesting combination for sure – and pretty good.  The crisp beets were a nice contrast to the goat cheese.  It was refreshing and light.  I ordered thePan Seared Gnocchi for my entrée (of course, without proscuitto).  It was served with kohlrabi and wood roasted mushrooms in homemade truffle butter.  I finished my meal before the other people at the table were halfway done with their’s!  It was really tasty.  The gnocchi was soft and chewy and the truffle butter was creamy.  The kohlrabi – or cabbage to us plebians – and mushrooms were a nice addition of vegetables to the pasta dish.  The dessert options were not appetizing to me – a Salted Caramel Budino or Tiramisu.  I chose the Budino because it had a dark chocolate crust.  It was a vanilla bean caramel pudding topped with even more caramel.  Not exactly what I expected.  I gave my husband the top layer of caramel – once I got to the pudding, it was good – not what I would pick, but definitely acceptable.  It was not heavy at all – a light pudding with a thin chocolate crust. My husband, who loves caramel, said that the all of it was just too much. 

I would like to try this restaurant again, if only to pick my own chocolate-lovin’ dessert!

Buckley’s Tavern - The End

My return to Buckley’s Tavern was bittersweet. The owners of the tavern chose not to renew the lease with the current chef there, so as of January 15, 2012, there is no more Buckley’s in Centreville, DE.  I actually had the opportunity to go there twice in the weeks before they closed.  Once with my husband because I wanted to go one last time. The second for a meeting (planned after I had gone with my husband).  I was really happy to show up and see that there menu had been expanded to include even more vegetarian options.  Of course, since they were closing, this really had no bearing on any future visits.

My husband and I went there for lunch on January 2.  They were already starting to fall short on beer and food supplies.  My Simple Salad was supposed to have some more veggies, but the arugula, tomatoes, and citrus vinaigrette satisfied my need.  The tomatoes were chopped a tad to large, but the sweet vinaigrette (not too sweet!) made up for that.  The salad was well-dressed, not dry and not dripping.  For my main course, I ordered the Vietnamese BBQ Tofu sandwich.  It had tofu grilled with BBQ sauce slathered on it, cilantro, chipotle mayo, lettuce, carrots, and cucumber and was served on a baguette.  It was too large and messy to eat as a sandwich, so I ate the various components of it separately and removed cilantro because I'm not a fan.  The chipotle mayo wasn’t too spicy and was actually pretty tasty (considering I’m no fan of mayo).  Overall, the meal was fine, but I kind of expected the tofu to at least be marinated in the BBQ Sauce. For dessert, I gave in and we ordered the Caramel Apple bread pudding.  It was a large, thick slice of bread drenched in caramel.  The bread was some sort of apple bread - some of the apples were crunchy, which gave it a weird texture.  The caramel was thick and gooey and seeped into bread.  For those who like caramel, it would have been nice.  For me, not so much.

My second experience was better.  I ordered the Chicken Sausage Pizza w/ veggie sausage.  The individual pizza was fairly large – about 6 slices.  The dough was not too crunchy and the base, instead of a marinara, was a garlic cream sauce.  Very tasty.  The cheese and vegetarian sausage made it even better.  The sausage was the crumbled style and slightly crunchy from being baked with the pizza.  I was much happier with this selection, but very upset when my husband ate all of the leftovers the next day.  J

Pescatore’s - Glen Mills, PA

http://pescatoresrestaurant.com/

I’ve had a Restaurant.com gift certificate for this restaurant for well over a year (possibly two years).  We finally ate there about a week ago.  When you walk into the restaurant, there is a large open seating area to your right, a private room on the left, and a barroom straight ahead. The walls have Italian carvings and pictures and the rooms (except the bar) are well-lit.  There is a little bit of a personality disorder here considering there is a sports bar, but hey, if you can sell it, go for it.

The craft beer selection is amazing!  We actually were able to try to beers we haven’t seen at other restaurants and they were pretty good.  I wish I could say the same for the food.  The vegetarian options are very limited (unless you remove some sort of meat from the meal).  I opted for the Tortellini Olvera without the Chicken.  So, tortellini with spinach and roasted pepper in a blush cream sauce.  Sounds good, but fell flat.  It was missing some sort of spice.  There was enough of it on my plate for two meals afterwards.  I added a heaping amount of garlic powder to one serving, but that didn’t do the trick.  To the other, I adde some Red Pepper Flakes, and that helped a little bit.  I think it needed basil and oregano to make it work.  It wasn’t bad, just not that good.  Before my main meal, I ordered the Insalate Capricciosa, but ended up with a side salad with no walnuts.  Not a huge problem.  The salad was lightly dressed and the raspberry vinaigrette dressing was spot-on, tasting exactly as it should.  I cleared my salad plate!  For dessert, we ordered the Peanut Butter Explosion.  However, it was not as good as it sounds.  It consisted of chocolate cake layers, peanut butter mousse, and chocolate mousse, with chocolate sauce decorating the plate.  The cake layers were dry, and the mousses were OK.  I would choose something else if I ate there again, but I don’t foresee going there again anytime soon.

Amazing Chocolate Trifle

This trifle looked delicious in the online pictures and sounded very yummy.  Well, let me just say, Mmm, mmm, mmm!  I have made this dish twice in a month and it has gone over very well both times.  Absolutely delicious and so easy to make – especially if you are short on time. 

Amazing Chocolate Trifle (expected time 1 hour)

Ingredients

·         1 (20 oz.) package brownie mix – I have used both Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate with great results!

·         1/2 cup vegetable oil

·         1/4 cup water

·         3 eggs or equivalent Eggbeaters

·         1 (5.9 oz.) package instant sugar-free, fat-free chocolate pudding mix

·         3 cups skim milk

·         1 (16 oz.) container lite frozen whipped topping, thawed

·         8-10 Oreos, crushed

Directions

1.      Prepare the brownies according to package directions, using the oil, water and eggs. Bake in a 9x13 inch pan (if you use a smaller pan, you will not have enough to fully cover the trifle dish). Allow to cool.

2.      When brownies are cool, prepare the pudding; in a large bowl, combine pudding mix and milk. Mix until smooth and set aside to thicken.

3.      Cut the brownies into 3 inch squares. Line the bottom of a trifle dish unevenly with 1/2 of the brownie squares. Pour half of the pudding over the brownies, then cover with half of the whipped topping. Repeat layers. Refrigerate as needed.  Sprinkle top with crumbled cookies prior to serving.

Not exactly healthy, but can be made healthier by using applesauce or mashed black beans instead of vegetable oil.  All of the ingredients meld together into one deliciously gooey mess.  It is a very smooth dessert with just a little crunch added from the Oreos.  The good thing is that a little of this dessert goes a long way on satisfaction.  Enjoy!