Eats
Looking for Restaurant Exclusives? Get Your Cheeky Card!Gastronomically speaking, January is a time of reckoning and readjustment. Many of us emerge on January 1st to the realization that the festivities and feasts of the preceding weeks have taken their toll, and the final night of the year may have been one of the greatest excess. The same voice seems to whisper to many of us on New Year’s Day, urging some restraint and suggesting that we rearrange our dietary priorities.
The obvious problem is that it’s challenging to eat healthfully without giving in to the bland. Challenging!!! But not impossible. I’ll share some of my thoughts for attaining satisfying flavors without pouring on the butter and fats.
Quartino is offering a vegetarian option of Winter Minestrone soup made without the usual pancetta, a satisfying small meal. It’s no secret that seafood is a popular source of protein among the health conscious. Therefore, I’ve included a menu with a variety of fish and cooking methods, from Seared Salmon with Oven Roasted Grape Tomatoes and Oil Cured Olives to Roasted Baby Octopus with Braised Escarole, Red Chili and Extra Virgin Olive Oil to Sauteed Trout with Warm Grape Salad and Fennel Salsa, just to name a few.
The trickiest category in this month of resolutions is desserts. I’ve kept things very simple on this front with a selection of fresh fruit Sorbetti which pack a sweet little punch thanks to the natural sugars found in the raw ingredients themselves. It’s my way of sneaking in one last holiday excess long after the official season has come and gone.
