North of California

For winter break my family went to Arizona and Santa Fe. While we were in Arizona our friends who own an art gallery joined us for dinner at NoCa. NoCa stands for North of California and there were many choices on the menu that sounded good.

The chef gave us a special appetizer that was pomegranate seeds with fennel and orange. I personally did not like it because I don't like orange with other things. The Fennel tasted like licorice and it was squishy. The others at the table seemed to really enjoy it. For an appetizer both my mom and Peter ordered a Watermelon Radish Salad! It was very funny to see the radishes on the plate. I didn't try it but my mom rolled her eyes "in a good way" when she did. The rest of us ( me, my dad and Lisa) had Butternut Squash soup that was wonderful and tasted very sweet and creamy. I tasted even better with some Creme Fresh.

For my main course I had pasta that was shaped like flowers with a butter sauce. It was very rich and creamy, I couldn't finish all of the pasta because I felt quite full.

My mother had Veal Scallopini that I really loved because it was sweet and tangy at the same time and the Veal had a very strong taste of mushroom. My dad, Lisa and Peter all had scallops, that sadly, I did not try because I do not like the shape, color or texture of them. Sometimes scallops seem to move in front of me!

I may have been full, but not to full for dessert. We ordered a lemon tart with meringue, that was yummy with a capital Y. The meringue, was hard but when you put it in your mouth it turned soft. Also for dessert, every table automatically gets a big plate full of homemade cotton candy. " You can't brag about fluffy until you try this cotton candy!"

that's all for today!

check out the gallery at www.lisasettegallery.com