A little Miel for ya, honey?

It's been a foodie's delight for me this week. Starting off with Saturday night's awesome home cooked meal, and seguing into Monday night's anniversary dinner at Olivio's and topping it off with last night's dinner at Miel with Cris, who is in town for work. (Tonight is Lean Cuisine night, my friends, there will be no winners there!) So for our anniversary dinner, I indulged in the Pollo Bona Bocca, which is a chicken breast filled with prosciutto & fontina cheese, breaded & pan fried and served with marsala sauce, vegetables & an Arancini ball (risotto cake) on the side. Todd had a two pasta tasting of the gnocchi and lasagna, which is described as containing ricotta, assorted mushrooms, spinach and mozzarella, with a tomato, basil and cream sauce. For dessert, we shared an espresso panna cotta, and of course, I had a macchiatto.

Last night, I met up with my friend Cris who is in town for work from San Francisco. She is staying at the Intercontinental Hotel so we met up there and went to Miel for dinner. For you romance language folks out there, you'll recognize Miel as meaning Honey...and yup, many of the dishes are infused with honey. Starting with the bread basket!! It was so unassuming, just dropped in front of us as we gabbed away and mindlessly dipped in for a starchy treat. And then Cris' eyes lit up and widened as she exclaimed, "You must try this!" It was a pita looking bread, but very soft and brushed ever so slightly with a delicious variety of honey, and it was warm...oh! What a wonderful start! We both opted for the prix fixe menu as the choices seemed endless and it was 9pm after all. I started with the Scallop and Roquette Salad (served with Lemongrass Acacia Honey vinaigrette), followed by the Sea Bass on a bed of whipped potatoes and olive tapenade, and finished with a poached pear wrapped in phyllo dough, or as they called it, Feuillete de Poire, served with olive oil ice cream and a lavendar sauce. I also had a taste(s) of Cris' Lavendar Honey Creme Brulee. As we were leaving, we took in the lovely Provence style decor all around and various honey jars and products everywhere and noticed this chandelier in one of the private dining rooms. It was shaped like a beehive and suspended all around the iron structure were little bottles of what looked like honey!!! How ingenious! We asked our server about the little bottles and found out that it was actually olive oil in the jars, which doesn't go through the same crystallization changes that honey may experience. All in a all, a lovely meal and both Olivio's and Miel, and Chez Koster-Zarry, are highly recommended!!!!