CHESTNUTS ROASTING

To celebrate another week coming to its conclusion, Meena and I made reservations at Smith Street's critically acclaimed Chestnut. There are a handful of popular joints on the Smith Street strip and several haven't really impressed me. The Grocery was a disappointment. Well. I guess that's the only one. I only heard from James and D that Po wasn't as good as the Village version. At any rate, I'm skeptical of them and Chestnut outpaced expectations.

The place is cute. Very cute. It's really hot (thus the title) and I was baking for the entirety of the meal, but the food made it worth the trouble.

We were treated to some house made pickles, focaccia and walnut bread. I think it was walnut. It was good whatever it was. The pickles were nice. Meena didn't LOVE them, but pickles to start? That's always a winner with us.

For small plates, Meena got going with:
- haystack shrimp with cilantro puree

I had:
- butter lettuce, breakfast radish & maytag blue cheese

And Meena's main course was:
- chicken breast, sausage filling, greens & potato gallette

I wanted the skate, but because it was unavailable, I had:
- bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, corn pudding & scallion gravy

So I think I ended up making the better orders. Meena wasn't a fan of the haystack shrimp. They were TOO fried ... meaning the flavor was basically frying oil. Her chicken was really good, but I'm not sure she'd order it again.

I won with both orders. The salad was decadent. Probably heart-stopping decadence, but who cares. It was awesome. And the pork was cooked perfectly and the bacon was superb. Pork, bacon and corn pudding? Come on ... that's a little slice of heaven for this Indiana boy.

We'll hit Chestnut again.