Charlottesville Restaurant Week: Brasserie Montiel

Last night I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of this year's Charlottesville Restaurant Week with a dinner at Brasserie Montiel, a relaxed, yet enticing, restaurant tucked into a small shopping center somewhat "off the grid" of the more well-known and more frequented (at least by me) dining establishments.

As the name would indicate, Brasserie Montiel is a European-inspired restaurant, but Chef Montiel infuses the menu with Latin flavors and traditions, making it very enticing to the Spanish soul I'm pretty sure I secretly posess.

It was also chosen for being the only restaurant blatantly promoting a "can be made vegetarian" dish on its menu that did not involve lots of (forbidden for me right now) cheese.

Although I was very a bit jealous of the lilies I saw on other tables, I appreciated the happy vibe of simple faux flower centerpiece.

In addition to loving any restaurant where the menu is presented on a chalkboard, I also find small pleasure in any restaurant that brings you something for free. Like bread.

 

Especially when it's sweet, Hawaiian-style bread that is softer than the softest Wonder Bread and inspires the 10-year-old inside of you* to revert to a childlike love of rolling it up into a bread ball.

*So I guess what I've realized is, at heart, I am a Latina elementary school student lacking in proper decorum and etiquette?

And really, why stop with one...when you can make two?*

*And then lament the fact that there are no ducks nearby to whom you can feed the crusts. So you eat them yourself and then get a rather large bread ball of a stomachache.....oops.

Being a diner who--as y'all know very well by now--cannot make a decision to sve her life when it comes to the menu, you'd think that I would be able to attack a pared down restaurant week menu with ease. Not so. Instead I asked for two appetizers and skipped dessert. (!)

Although seemingly blasphemous, I stand by my decision as an ingenius one, as I was able to sample this Butternut Squash & Ginger Soup with lump crabmeat garnish that tasted, in the most wonderful way, like the essence of pureed butternut and fresh ginger. Completely unadulterated in its flavors, the smell alone as it was placed before me was enough to inspire culinary contentment.

The fact that it tasted as pure and heavenly as it smelled was a bonus. [And yes, I did eat some with crab. I had to see what the pairing would be like...and let me tell you, seafood and savory squash was unexpected, but a revelation.]

My dining companion kept to his smoked salmon and Asiago dusted pasta course, while I zoned in on my second starter: the roasted root vegetables in chipotle vinaigrette, sprinkled with caramelized walnuts.

I was, yet again, surprised, not expecting for it to be served at room temperature, with the carrots still a bit crisp to the bite. The chipotle flavor wasn't as strong as I thought it might be, but overall everything was very fresh and light, with the bonus of beets!

For the main course, the meat eater across from me chose the Beef Stroganoff in wine sauce with potato gratin. It looked lovely--and I'm told it tasted great, too--but I had no interest in beef.^
^Me being practically vegan  now must be a great joy to the people who go out to eat with me, as my fork doesn't wander nearly so much as it used to.

What I had interest in was my "pozole sans pork," presented with a beautiful avocado salsa garnish and a side of housemade tortilla chips.

Absolutely phenomenal. There was a very subtle heat in this incredibly hearty, hominy-stuffed stew. I only wish there had been more of the thick broth for me to slurp, because I tried my darndest to scrape around the hominy to get more spoonfuls of it by itself! [Note to Chef Montiel: Sell the broth in a bowl. Or a bucket.]

There was dessert brought to the table, but the scary-dairy fairy^ told me I better not indulge. Somehow, a beautiful (and former favorite) pastry whose name means 'three milks' somehow doesn't inspire confidence in a potential lactose-intolerant lady like myself.*
^Yet another sign I'm actually 10 years old.
*And I was starting to suffer from the bread-ball induced food coma I alluded to earlier.

No dessert? No problem.

As you can see by the plates--

--and bowls--

---scraped to the last drop (with that soft, chewy, sweet bread)...

...I rather enjoyed my meal.

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Meetups Start Here

In Austin, I was incredibly lucky to get quickly tapped into a very vibrant food blogger community. With the only food blogger alliance of its kind in the country forming while I was there, as well as a food scene very accepting of food bloggers, and eager to utilize them as a means for publicity, it was easy for me to connect with other 'foodies,' and make lots of great connections to like-minded people.

Oh, and I got a lot of free meals out of it, too. 

[Let's not forget that.]

Having recently received a few invites to Austin Food Blogger Alliance events that I, despite still being "on the list," would obviously not be able to attend, I'd been feeling the need to find a healthy food community (not to be confused with a community focused on healthy food) in Charlottesville. Spontaneously, I joined the "Healthy Eaters" Meetup Group, which, I didn't realize at the time, is actually a Health Starts Here Meetup group, formed by Whole Foods to help educate and encourage people who've adopted the Health Starts Here diet, or are trying to incorporate parts of it in to their lives.

The first event on the calendar for the year was a celebratory one, to recognize membership of 100+ in the group. The evening promised a sampling of foods, and the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals, who also believe in the Four Pillars of Healthy Eating espoused by essentially-vegan Health Starts Here program: Whole Food,* Plant-Strong, Healthy Fats, and Nutrient Dense.
*Not to be confused with Whole Foods.

But despite all of that...I was really just excited about the hummus.*

*Seriously, y'all, this Cava Mezze oil-free hummus is amazing. I mean, maybe not as amazing as my own, also oil-free, Rosemary Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, but certainly requires less clean-up. :)

I actually almost didn't go to the meet-up. Even though you put me in the center of a social situation and I flip on like a lightbulb, eager to entertain and schmooze (but not in a sleazy way) with everyone I meet, most evenings after work/school I just want to go home, curl up in my bed, and hang out with a bowl of cereal, my computer, and my stuffed bear Fred.

But as I have to pass Whole Foods on my way to and from work every day (torture, honestly), I figured I should stop, work on some blogging from the cafe, and just see what it all was about.

And even though I said I wasn't going to eat since I have been suffering from some (most likely report card and grading stress-induced) stomach upset meaning I could only stand to eat oat bran and bananas for almost three days....how do you pass up FREE Whole Foods?

Right?

Did I mention there was vegan pizza involved?^

 ^Oh goodness me, this was incredibly yummy, even at room temperature. The base was a vegan pesto; that was topped off with roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts, and just the tiniest bit of vegan cheese. [For me, that was perfect, as I have never been a cheese head.]

My effusive ramblings to some of the other people there regarding my current "vegan with benefits" way of eating, and discussion of a smattering of my most favorite vegan creations caught the ear of the Healthy Eating Specialist and head of the Health Starts Here cooking classes, who asked if I might be interested in doing some classes at the store. I'm sure you can imagine the reaction that provoked. [Hint: Imagine if the insides of a person turned into a thousand exclamation points that danced the jitterbug.]

 

I guess the moral of this story is that you CAN find like-minded foodies wherever you are (even if they are older, younger, wealthier, healthier). It just might require a little more effort on your part. The potential for free food is really just a bonus. :)

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Speaking of meet-ups and like-minded invididuals, if you are in Virginia and can travel to Charlottesville on Saturday, February 11th, I'm organizing a "Virginia is for Bloggers" Meet-Up! If you'd like to attend, please e-mail me at sarah.pember@gmail.com.

Free food is not promised. But fun is.

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Eating Snakes

"Miss Smart, are you eating snakes?"

 "Oh no, small child. That's squash. It's called delicata."*

*And I made the rings by slicing, scooping, seasoning (with oil, cumin, thyme), and baking.^

^Are you at all surprised by how legitimately disappointed I am that I couldn't continue with the alliteration there?

 

"Looks like snakes."

What do you think? Squash skin shoes?

I don't know...then I'd actually like putting my foot in my mouth.

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