It's been decided: my Dine Originals Week discovery of the week is DeepWood's fried mac-and-cheese spring rolls. It's the side dish to their Sloppy Joe lunch special, and it's a perfectly brilliant concept I can't believe more restaurants don't serve. Baked macaroni and cheese is wrapped, Asian-style, in a crunchy spring roll wrapper. A puddle of cheese sauce to the side provides extra cheesy goodness. Yummm.
It came with this Sloppy Joe, made with ground Angus beef in a sweet, oniony tomato sauce. What follows is a quick look at the other Dine Originals Week dishes I sampled this week (unfortunately I had time for mostly lunches and didn't get to try any of the fancy $30 dinner menus.)
DeepWood's Shrimp Po'Boy with fried shrimp, aioli and oven-roasted tomatoes on a French-style roll
DeepWood's Veggie Melt: Eggplant, mushrooms and bell peppers with gruyere on whole-grain bread. Served with awesome slightly sweet beet chips.
DeepWood's lunchtime dessert: mini cookies in oatmeal, ginger and chocolate flavors
Pistacia Vera's Mushroom Quiche: Housemade pate brisee with a mix of Emmentaler Swiss and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses and crimini and shitake mushrooms, served with a green salad.
These Pistacia Vera pastries (a canele and a palmier) didn't technically come with my $10 Dine Originals brunch. But I couldn't leave without them.
Tasi's Crab Cake Benedict with Jalapeno-Potato Hash
Tasi's miniature chocolate-lemon tartlets
Surly Girl's Wasabi Cream Cheese Ball with cucumbers and sesame crackers. I also ate Cowgirl Carmen's Cherry Cola Ribs (with coleslaw and poblano mashed potatoes) and tried a few bites of the Butternut Squash Ravioli with chile-pumpkin cream sauce, but the photos of those dishes turned out even worse than this poorly lit cheese ball. All were delicious, though!
There's still time to partake in Dine Originals Week: special menus will be offered through Sunday, Nov. 13. Check out the full list here.
