Blowing It On a Phenomenal Meal

Sometimes, a meal is so amazingly wonderful that worrying about calories or fat content or anything "guiltifying" is out of the question. Last week, I traveled to Napa, California with a close friend and we enjoyed such a meal. We went to Ubuntu, a wonderful restaurant that prepares the best food I've ever had, all of which just happens to be vegetarian. Both my friend and I are vegetarian so we were really looking forward to being able to select anything from the menu.

They prepare what they call "small dishes" where a small amount of food is beautifully presented on the plate, and everyone shares and samples everything. I hope you're not too hungry, because I'm about to list the wonderful dishes we ate.

(The dish to the left is the fingerling potatoes.)

Chickpea fries with herbs and romesco sauce (vegan)

Heirloom tomatoes, assorted basils, 25 year balsamico, wild fennel crackers (vegan)

Chilled watermelon and lemon grass soup (vegan) - this was incredible.

Fingerling potatoes, lightly smoked, sauce gribiche, ficoide glaciale (that's a green of some sort), black garlic, capers (vegan)

Cauliflower in a cast iron pot, roast-puree-raw "couscous", vadouvan spice (somewhat curry-like), brown butter toast. Pictured at left.

Local stone ground polenta, finished with corn pudding, 3-day tomato soffrito, fried peppers (vegan)

Pizza with local chevre, torpedo onions and a romesco of friarelli peppers (we each had a slice and topped out, my husband got the leftovers)

Two ridiculously delicious desserts, the first with lightly roasted strawberries, and creamy things (at right), the other a chocolate number to die for.

I suppose it was very very touristy of me to take pictures of the food but I wanted to remember it.