While Eric Slick and the Paul Green School of Rock Stars are in Germany performing at Zappanale 16...Robin Slick unemployed, days 3 and 4 Part I

Asparagus appetizer at Chloe Restaurant

Hi, there.

Well, I haven't posted in my blog for a few days because I've been too busy eating. This is sad but true. No, actually, it's not sad, it's fantastic. Eric and his daddy left for Germany yesterday at 12:30 p.m. and Julie and I immediately embarked on our latest culinary tour of Philadelphia.

We had dinner at Chloe at 2nd and Arch Street. Chloe may now be my all time favorite restaurant. Okay, okay, I know I say that about every cool place I visit, but my God, this is as good as it gets, and it's BYOB...people were showing up with a bottle o'red and a bottle o'white and drinking them all down with each course. Next time, I will do the same; this time, because I was with a 19 year old and it was 100 degrees out and she is making me walk everywhere (there and back...mapquested it...6 miles roundtrip) I decided to stick with water.

First up: A warm bread basket with complimentary homemade hummus. Hummus like I've never tasted. Not merely rank cloves of garlic and mashed chick peas, but a puree of chick peas, corn (yep, corn) and chipotle, rimmed with a circle of high quality olive oil. Julie and I started eating it with a spoon; they give you so much it was like eating the world's best mashed potatoes with half the calories.

Okay. Appetizers next.

Julie elected to have the daily special, which was a chilled peach soup with champagne. (Oh sure, she got to drink...I tasted it and there was like half a bottle poured in there so I helped her finish it bigtime). It was topped with an adorable miniature almond taco. It was tart, refreshing, and maybe the best cold soup ever.

My appetizer ended my search (at last!) for the best freaking mussels I ever ate in my life. These were from New Zealand, and each mussel was the size of my fist. There were at least a dozen of them, floating in a sauce made of white wine, tarragon butter, leeks, and dijon mustard. Came with grilled bread. When I was finished the mussels, I used an empty shell as a tablespoon to eat all the "soup" once I'd killed the bread. I will dream about these mussels for weeks to come; in fact, my birthday is in two weeks and this is what I will be having.

Pictured above was the appetizer I almost got and will certainly try on another occasion -- grilled asparagus wrapped with apple wood smoked bacon and boursin cheese, served with spicy tomatoes and reduced balsamic vinegar.

For entrees, Julie chose sushi grade tuna seared rare in banana ginger soy broth with jasmine rice, seaweed salad and crispy wonton chips. I don't even like tuna that much but went nuts over the forkful she reluctantly, well, forked over.

But mine was the real winner. Pan seared sea scallops served atop a crispy potato pancake with spicy watercress and red onion salad and smoked chile and sour cream drizzle. Oh my god, I never wanted that dinner to end.

Dessert? Oh yeah, we had room. I don't know how we had room, because the portions were so big they were falling off the plate, but we made ourselves have room because the desserts, which are daily specials and change every day (duh), were so spectacular. We did decide to share, though, which was smart, because that too was HUGE.

Hot banana bread pudding sitting in a pool of half caramel, half raspberry, topped with home made toasted coconut ice cream.

Sigh...

More later. I just realized how much I miss Eric and now I need to go upstairs and listen to the Rock School soundtrack so I can hear him play drums.

By the way, please buy the CD. You can find it at www.towerrecords.com or www.amazon.com, etc.