Happy Birthday Kat!
In honor of kittykatkatja's birthday, a small group of us got together at The Melting Pot. Chris, Aimee, Rob, Elisa, Noel and I joined Kat in celebrating. I've never been there, so it was an unusual experience for me. I LOVED the cheese fondue appetizers (the Fiesta was tasty, the Quatro Formaggio was a bit odd, but the Traditional Swiss was amazing!), with which they provided apples, bread, celery, carrots, and cauliflower to dip.
After we completely demolished the 3 pots of cheese and had some salad, we moved on to the Main Courses - we decided to order 5 people's worth of food - double orders of Fondue Fusion (lobster, filet mignon, sirloin, chicken, ravioli, herb chicken and shrimp) and Pacific Rim (sirloin, pork, shrimp, duck, chicken and potstickers) and a single order of French Quarter (cajun shrimp, tenderloin, andoulie sausage and chicken). These all came out raw and sliced along with mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes and zucchini, and we were given a pot of oil and a pot of broth to cook them in, plus some batters and dipping sauces.
The hostess rattled off average cooking times, and left us to, yes, COOK OUR FOOD. Most thought this was pretty nifty. Me, I've been camping, and I know that cooking your own food is usually considered a way to SAVE money, so I was less enthralled by this plan than the rest of the table. :P Thankfully, my companions took pity on me and helped me cook some of my food, rolling their eyes the entire time I think. :) On the bright side, Kat called the amount of food to near perfection, and I ended up polishing off the last bits of chicken as everyone claimed to have just enough room left for desert.
Desert was a Dark Chocolate Amaretto flambe dipping sauce, and.. uh.. some other chocolaty imitation (turtle?) that wasn't nearly as good as the OMGAWESOME amaretto chocolate. :) They gave us way too much cheesecake and not nearly enough brownies, as well as strawberries, bananas, pineapple and marshmallows to dip or drizzle. To my shame, we ran out of brownies before running out of chocolate, and had to leave some behind. :(
It was overall an interesting experience with some great friends. I'm glad I went, but it won't be supplanting Sal & Carvao's in line for pricey food on which I spend my hard-earned pennies. :)
After we completely demolished the 3 pots of cheese and had some salad, we moved on to the Main Courses - we decided to order 5 people's worth of food - double orders of Fondue Fusion (lobster, filet mignon, sirloin, chicken, ravioli, herb chicken and shrimp) and Pacific Rim (sirloin, pork, shrimp, duck, chicken and potstickers) and a single order of French Quarter (cajun shrimp, tenderloin, andoulie sausage and chicken). These all came out raw and sliced along with mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes and zucchini, and we were given a pot of oil and a pot of broth to cook them in, plus some batters and dipping sauces.
The hostess rattled off average cooking times, and left us to, yes, COOK OUR FOOD. Most thought this was pretty nifty. Me, I've been camping, and I know that cooking your own food is usually considered a way to SAVE money, so I was less enthralled by this plan than the rest of the table. :P Thankfully, my companions took pity on me and helped me cook some of my food, rolling their eyes the entire time I think. :) On the bright side, Kat called the amount of food to near perfection, and I ended up polishing off the last bits of chicken as everyone claimed to have just enough room left for desert.
Desert was a Dark Chocolate Amaretto flambe dipping sauce, and.. uh.. some other chocolaty imitation (turtle?) that wasn't nearly as good as the OMGAWESOME amaretto chocolate. :) They gave us way too much cheesecake and not nearly enough brownies, as well as strawberries, bananas, pineapple and marshmallows to dip or drizzle. To my shame, we ran out of brownies before running out of chocolate, and had to leave some behind. :(
It was overall an interesting experience with some great friends. I'm glad I went, but it won't be supplanting Sal & Carvao's in line for pricey food on which I spend my hard-earned pennies. :)