TAZZA KITCHEN replaces Cafe Caturra in Cameron Village

TAZZA in Cameron Village

After five days being stuck inside because of the snow and ice, I was able to take Dan out on Sunday afternoon for an early dinner.  Cafe Caturra in Cameron Village was one of our favorite places to eat in the Village, but it has been replaced by TAZZA.  We read some reviews of this new restaurant online and decided to give it a try.  We had no regrets.  The ambiance, the staff, and most of all the food were superb.

A list of some of their farms on the menu.

They specialize in fresh, know your farmers food and use only antibiotic-free, hormone-free, humanely-raised pork, poultry, lamb and beef, and sustainably-harvested, chemical-free seafood. There menu offers Mexican cuisine and Italian cuisine, an unusual combination of choices. And of course pizza.  Our waiter suggested that the name TAZZA is a combination of Tacos and Pizza, but I think he may have been joking.

Dan is perusing the menu.

We shared a starter of Cast Iron Goat Cheese.  The cheese was melted in a marinara sauce and parsley and served with brick oven bread. The texture and flavor were perfect.

Cast Iron Goat Cheese with Brick Oven Bread.

Dan's entree choice was the Brick Oven Crab Cakes served with pequin chili slaw, micro greens and lemon dressing.  The slaw was a bit on the hot spicy side, but the crab cakes were quite good with lots of crab meat. The spicy slaw was because of pequin peppers, so now we know what that is.

Crab Cakes. 

I chose the Scallops with sweet potato risotto, fried sage, and brown butter.  The scallops were large, fresh and perfectly cooked and I would love to have the recipe of the sweet potato risotto.  The risotto was rich and creamy.  Yum!!!!

Scallops with sweet potato risotto. 

I had been avoiding sugar all week, so I thought I deserved a bit of something sweet.    We shared the Gelato & Cake. Two scoops of salted caramel gelato with a slice of almond and orange flourless cake, garnished with a basil leaf provided a perfect ending for a delicious dinner.

Salted caramel gelato with almond-orange flourless cake.  

We've decided we like TAZZA even better than Cafe Caturra, and I am ready to go again as soon as the now snowy weather permits.

Check out their link here.
The gelato came from gelati celesti in Richmond.  It rivals the gelato we've had in Italy.

Zucchini Mock Crab Cakes

We didn't grow any zucchini squash here this year, but our neighbors have a bountiful supply, and Angela brought us several large ones last week.  I made four loaves of zucchini-nut bread, and yet had more zucchini left.  I found this recipe for mock crab cakes using zucchini.  If you are a vegetarian you will love this.  We're not vegetarians and we like it a lot too.  And it's so easy to prepare.

2 cups coarsely grate zucchini (pat dry with paper towel to remove liquid)
1 cup bread crumbs
2 T mayonnaise
2 eggs
2 t Old Bay seasoning (I couldn't find Old Bay here, but used a seafood seasoning that worked.)
1 T garlic (minced or dried)

Mix together ingredients.

Spray pan with olive oil and add a bit of butter.

Fry until brown on both sides.

Makes 8 servings.

Right Some Good Crab Cake Cook Off

Crab cakes cooking at the Cook Off.

The Civic Center in Port Hawkesbury was the site Sunday of the Crab Cake Cook Off among eight chefs (professional and student chefs) of the area.  This was part of the Right Some Good food events held throughout Cape Breton for the second year this summer.  Dan and I attended the dinner on Saturday night (more about that later) and I went back on Sunday afternoon to watch the Cook Off.  I must say it was more fun than the dinner---and it was free. 

Contestant preparing his crab cakes.

Ingredients that one chef chose to add to the pound of snow crab meat.

The competing chefs were given a pound of snow crab (provided by Louisbourg Seafoods) that they were required to use in their preparation of crab cakes.  They could use any other ingredients they chose, and they were given 45 minutes in which to make and plate the four servings that were then whisked away to the judges for tasting.

Plated and ready for the judges.

It was great fun watching these chefs prepare crab cakes in many different ways.  We could observe up close as they prepared their dishes, but only the judges were able to actually taste the crab cakes.

The international chefs participating in Right Some Good were the judges.

Waiting for the judges decision.

Beautiful presentation of the winning chef.

The winner was Richard Moore of the Lobster Pound in North Sydney.  He had a beautiful presentation with the crab cakes served on mirrored plates. I'm sure presentation was one of the factors in choosing the winner.  I had hoped that the winning recipe would be made available, but I can't seem to find it online.

Richard Moore, the winning chef, receiving congratulations from someone special.

The next time I'm in North Sydney I'm going to have lunch or dinner at The Lobster Pound and ask for Richard's  recipe for the crab cakes.

The Tomato Palace

The Tomato Palace

A favorite restaurant of ours in Columbia,Maryland,  is the Tomato Palace in the

Town Center by Lake Kittamaqundi.  We ate dinner there on Monday night with my cousins.

The view of the Lake Kittamaqundi from the restaurant.

I had a most delicious meal of broiled scallops with a green salad.  Cindy had a crab cake dinner, but Dan and the rest had Italian dishes.  Dan said his meal was the best Italian food he's had since returning from Italy. 

Broiled scallops still sizzling in the pan.

Joan and I shared a chocolate bread pudding with ice cream for dessert and even then the half serving was too much for one person.

Having dinner at the Tomato Palace has turned into a kind of ritual whenever we visit Columbia, and I can't wait to get back there on our trip home.

View of the lake as we were leaving--nearly dark.