Stick To What You Know

My boyfriend and I recently celebrated our two year anniversary at Ecco - where we had our first date. During this dinner I had the realization that once you find something you like, you should just stick with it. Although this thought can be applied to relationships, I am talking about food. I enjoy trying new things - food, wine, experiences - but sometimes the same old, tried and true is the best option. On this particular evening we decided to be adventurous with our menu options.

We played it safe with the wine and ordered the old familiar Pares Balta "Mas Petit" 2009 Cabernet/Garnacha from Penedes, Spain. It was delicious as always - on the fuller side of medium, perfect temperature, easy to drink with a variety of food, and a pleasant aftertaste.

The salad course was also familiar. We had the mixed lettuce salad with radish, almonds, and mustard vinaigrette. It was simple, light, and fresh. Although I might add that $9 is a bit much for such a small salad mostly comprised of lettuce.













For appetizer round we decided to try the piri piri squid, a dish we normally order but was prepared differently on the new menu. That evening the squid dish included castelvetrano olive purée, a sunny side egg, and cilantro. We liked it. The cilantro balances the overall flavor. The egg addition was quite tasty but definitely made the dish very heavy, it could have almost been an entree.

The meal then came to a halt when our server arrived to replenish our silverware and announced that they were out of clams for the evening. Why did this halt the meal you ask? We had ordered the Tagliolini, served with Georgia clams and shrimp with tomato-fennel broth. We were most excited about the clams since they make the dish and yet the kitchen did not replace them with anything else.

In addition to the pasta we tried a new wood fire pizza- mushrooms with garlic, fontina, and arugula. Ultimately, the mushrooms, garlic, and fontina combination was a bit too overpowering. It felt like each of these strong independent flavors were battling in my mouth. In the end, this dish was not a success. 











We ordered two different ice cream flavors for desert, one scoop of olive oil, sea salt, and cracked pepper, and once scoop of blue berry sorbet. Of course we preferred our typical olive oil gelato - the sorbet was too sweet.

Overall, dinner was a most pleasant experience, but the lesson learned was to stick with the old favorites when it comes to a familiar venue.