lovely dinner

Last night a bunch of us went to Zoe's for the Seattle 30/30 dining festival where you go to participating restaurant and get a three course meal for 30 dollars. Zoe is located in downtown Seattle in the Beltown area. The place is really contemporary and sparse with high ceilings and abstract art on the walls. It is relatively large for a Beltown restaurant, containing probably 20 tables as well as a bar area for drinks. The service was really nice, friendly, attentive but not pushy. The 4 of us all ordered different dishes so we can try everything on the menu. We started by ordering one of the famous appetizers that was not on the set menu. The veal sweetbread, which as the waiter explained, is neither sweet nor bread. This is the first time I even heard of this so I was very eager to try it. It was well made and very tasty. The texture is actually indescribable, it felt like a cross between very soft cheese and chewy rubber. now I can say I have tried sweetbread!

I started with a rather boring lettuce salad. I chose it because the other two choices are potatoe soup and the Ricotta Gnudi (cheese!!). But I tried one of the Gnudis and it was really delicious,. it tasted like a semi sweet cheesecake. Gnudi are basically cream puffs but filled with cheese instead of cream. I think I could have handled it. But then, it is always good to eat veggies first. The entree I picked is the pork loins because it was recommended as the house special. The pork was cooked medium and accompanied by polenta and pieces of cooked apple. It was pretty good because the skin was well salted and savory. But I think my favorite dish is definitely the beef short rib. It was amazingly soft and tender and the meat just melts in your mouth. I am definitely getting that next time! For dessert, I got the pineapple upside down cake. I know, it is shocking that I didn't went for the brownie sundae considering my love affair with chocolate. But variety is the key here. The upside down cake turned to be warm and sweet. I don't understand why it is named so since the pineapple was on top and I couldn't tell the up side from the downside. But it sure was tasty. The brownie sundae was definitely a favorite as well. I even had the courage to try some of the cheese plate. The cheese is actually really good considering it is, after all, cheese. If you eat it with crackers and apricot marmalade you can almost pretend it is not there. I enjoyed it but definitely not one of my favorite :)

To see pictures of aforementioned dishes, see my facebook :)