Hello???

We seriously need to start this up again!!! Yes?? :)

slacking

okay, so i have been badly, badly slacking. for some reason i don't understand, i have been way to lazy to take the huge amounts of time it requires to add a couple pictures and write a few sentences about one of my favorite things in the world. i will renew the ambition to write weekly about our culinary excursions. with vigor and fortitude. only i will start next week. i mean it.

mini's cupcakes

In one word... sweet. In two words... sickeningly sweet. I love cupcakes. I love berries. I love fruit and crazy cheeses. But I don't love them together in a meal that consists of nothing but sweetness and no savory, salty or spicy to be seen anywhere. This is my summing up of Mini's Cupcakes.

What can I say? I was excited about about Mini's because I love cupcakes with a passion I cannot accurately describe in words. Ahh, the little moist cakes, the endless array of flavors and frostings, the returning to the innocent days of childhood were nothing mattered but you and your dessert. The anticipation of eating at one of Salt Lake's very own cupcake shops (we have an astonishing lack of cupcake shops here - only four - you can never have too many cupcake options) was killing me. Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but still, I was dying to try this place.

Once again, it was very 'sweet.' From the very cute pink counter and displays (the rest of it is a big open space with one table, a couch, a leg lamp like the one from A Christmas Story, and a big empty area great for doing cartwheels), to the lunch specials, and of course, the cupcakes. The sandwich and salad were great, just really sweet and dying for something a little more savory. Berry bread, brie cheese, berry spread, pears, honey ham - and that's just one sandwich. The salad included strawberries, goat cheese and berry vinaigrette dressing. Berries, berries everywhere. The cupcakes were just about right - with names like Breakfast at Tiffany's, Snowball, Pretty in Pink and Smore Please, how can you go wrong? A little dry, but overall very tasty. And sweet. Am I getting it across that everything was so so sweet? So basically, I think the majority of the lunch club participating that Saturday would say they feel really good about it. I'm afraid I would have to just say I feel good about it. I can't feel really good about a place that makes me want to eat a bunch of lemons and throw a handful of salt in my mouth just to feel normal again.

cafe med

Finally, our first official Saturday Lunch Club meeting. This one was supposed to take place at a little bistro close by that we have been dying to eat at for a few weeks. Unfortunately, the people who own it go on a whim to close it every time we try to eat there. They are playing hard to get and I think that makes me want to eat there more. Anyway, the point is we ended up eating somewhere else, Cafe Med, which seemed to be mostly Greek and Mediterranean food. I got some kind of skewer, Lisa got the Mediterranean Platter and Amber (a visiting lunch club member) go a gyro. (Don't you love my great dish descriptions? It just feels like you were there.) Some things were too dry, some too greasy, and to be perfectly honest, in the tradition of Goldilocks, nothing was just right. Except for Lisa's salad, that was pretty good. Too bad none of us are amazing professional food critics who can say stuff like 'the slight saffron infusion was delightful against the soulful braised duck' and know what we're talking about. So instead, from a few regular girls who like to eat good food, we are just going to say it was alright, nothing to write home about though. Our overall rating is we feel okay about it. But not great. Or really good. Or good. Just okay.

the soup kitchen

Ahh, The Soup Kitchen. Our first quasi-official Saturday Lunch Club meeting. This was the historic lunch in which we decided to document our culinary adventures around Salt Lake via blog. Unfortunately, this bright idea didn't come to us until we were already in the middle of lunch, so all our pictures are not beautiful mouth-watering photos of delicious fare, but of half-eaten food taken with a camera phone. That's okay, we'll be prepared next time.

Anyway, there were three of us this time. And of course we all got the same thing, tomato soup and grilled cheese. The tomato soup at The Soup Kitchen is amazing. The grilled cheese was grilled to perfection but it looked like they used Kraft singles instead of really good cheese, which was not our favorite. But overall, the soup alone was worth it - I feel REALLY good about it - and they have plenty of other great soup and sandwich options.

the old dutch store

The Old Dutch Store was our second 'non-official' Saturday Lunch Club meeting - once again, no pictures since we hadn't actually thought this through yet. And it was a few weeks ago, so we don't actually remember what we had exactly. I think I had a sandwich called the Amsterdam with thuringer meat (similar to pepperoni and salami) and Gouda cheese. Lisa had something that looked good, but the only thing I remember was that it was messy. Sorry Lisa. It's a cute little store, but more of place to go pick something up to take home than actually sit down. And last, but definitely not least, we tried some black licorice pieces by the front counter on our way out. Normally I like black licorice, but I think these substituted all their sugar for salt and I'm sorry, they were just wrong. Great for people that love extra-beyond belief salty candy that make your eyes water and fill you with the need to stuff something else in your mouth to cover up the taste, but I think they turned me off of licorice for at least a year. Sandwiches were good though - overall consensus is we feel pretty good about them.

cafe de normandie

So our first 'non-official' Saturday Lunch Club meeting was at the Cafe de Normandie in Holladay, UT. Since we didn't come up with the brilliant idea of creating an actual club until a few weeks later, we have no photos of this particular lunch. Which is too bad for you because it was a good one in a very cute bakery. Truth be told, I don't actually remember what what sandwich I got, but the soup was amazing. Chicken curry soup. Mmm. Lisa got the french onion which was pretty good as well. I even broke down and got a dessert - shortbread with way more frosting than is good for you - but it was worth it. Overall, I feel good about Cafe de Normandie. (4679 Holladay Blvd) And blogging about food. How can I make this a full time job?