This past long weekend (Friday – Sunday) my Heart and I were in New Haven Connecticut for HeathCampCT @ Yale School of Nursing (Go to HealthCa.mp to find out more – my “night job” with my Heart). Of course… I took pictures of the food but I was remiss and only took pictures of Some of the food… I think I missed the last dinner & lunch because, frankly, I was Exhausted. But here is some of the wonderful food we found:
We arrived in New Haven about 11:15am so lunch was a necessity because we knew we had a busy afternoon ahead of us. So… as we are driving in I did a Google search “Where are the best lunches in New Haven CT?” and several possibilities popped up – Prime 16 definitely won out. Lots of info on the website – delicious looking menu – good reviews from YELP – AND voted Best Beer Selection for 2010.. sounded like a Winner! We ended up meeting one of our friends and HealthCamp organizers there… which was fortunate because it took me Forever to figure out what I was ordering!
I ended up with the Cherry Bomb Burger (sans bun): Sweet Italian sausage patty with mozzarella, hot cherry peppers, sauteed broccoli rabe (which is what pushed it to the Top) and a sundried tomato aioli (which was florescent orange but totally delish) with a side of 1/2 & 1/2 fries (white potato & sweet potato)… I sorta wished it was Hot Italian sausage but otherwise.. Wonderful. My Heart had the Cubanito Sliders: 3 mini brioche sliders topped with pulled pork, canadian bacon, melted swiss cheese, jalapeno relish, mustard and roasted garlic aioli… he enjoyed his meal as well – definitely a place we would visit again. Oh… and the beers on tap were lovely as well.
Next – Dinner Friday night was at the Wood ‘n’ Tap. It was fairly late (8:30 or so) – we had been at a Kinko’s for more than an hour working on the sponsor boards and, having been up since 5 am, were definitely starting to drag. The bar was noisy but comfortable. I stuck with appetizers for my meal… starting with the clam chowder. Perfect after a long day and more than enough to share!
So… figuring on a slightly lighter meal I did a HALF order of Nachos – they were HUGE. I totally couldn’t finish them. My Heart, who is always so much more disciplined than I am about what he orders, had a lovely spinach salad with chopped egg, sliced mushrooms, smoked bacon, diced tomatoes & candied walnuts with a tomato vinaigrette. He did snag a few cheesy chips from my nachos but his salad was very satisfying.
Lunch at HealthCamp on Saturday was delicious, catered by Jenelle’s. Everything, I understand, was wonderful including a lemon chicken and penne with a tomato pesto sauce (this one was killing me… it looked absolutely delicious and was very popular)
There was a salad with cranberries & sliced almonds and an interesting looking barley salad that everyone raved over.
I had some of the 2nd green salad that had walnuts and feta but I think everyone’s favorites were the tiny cupcakes. Yes… we were at a HealthCamp and healthy eating was a topic but healthy eating shouldn’t be about NOT eating stuff you want but rather, micro-choices – these were really really Tiny cupcakes so having One for dessert seems like a good micro-choice (I think a lot of people could have eaten two or three easily OR would have eaten a whole standard sized cupcake… so see – Micro-choice – *smile*)
The after party was at Kelly’s Restaurant & Bar – we didn’t get food but everything we saw look great. We were both happy with a beer and hard cider, for me since I do avoid gluten and I really love cider – Magner’s is one of my favorites… it is very dry.
Now… I have to admit to being bad – we wandered around New Haven after the After Party and stumbled across this little Japanese restaurant, Samurai, that said All You Can Eat Sushi… it seems they did not offer that all the time and/or were not very forthcoming about how to do it and we were tired so we ordered a huge sampler plate for two – it was lovely and delicious and I totally forgot to take a picture because… we were hungry and tired! Sorry! &8 D
After driving around New Haven and environs we headed back in to town for lunch before our trip to Hartford and the airport. It took a bit of time to find parking so we just wandered up to another local pub – the Black Bear Saloon – Again… I totally forgot to take pictures of our lunch… we were sort of focused on making sure our Southwest flight wasn’t cancelled. I ordered teriyaki wings & their garlic parmesan fries and my Heart ordered the pulled pork quesadilla (which seems to be very popular here – it was on every pub menu we saw). The wings weren’t all that exciting and I was really disappointed in the fries which weren’t very hot and were a tiny bit soggy. My Heart liked his quesadilla but I think the one’s at Kelly’s looked better.
We flew back home and were treated to an amazing Korean feast for Sunday Roast – my son’s girlfriend’s mom & dad were in town and she put together a wonderful dinner (pictures to follow).