I was in a random town about an hour outside of Detroit, where the food choices are between Arby’s, McDonald’s, or Coney Island. I wasn’t feeling that, so I took a short drive to Ann Arbor to check out one of America’s finest college towns. It’s adorable and so studious. Roaming around, I ended up at Mercy’s. It’s brand new, and part of a hotel. It’s a french restaurant, with burmese and other asian influences. Sounds interesting, huh? Ok, so I have to start with this bread. It was like simply amazing. It was just thin slices of some sourdough bread. Super crusty on the outside, super dense and lovely on the inside. They get it from Chicago. Where is this bread from? Because I could eat this all day. Looks like every day ordinary bread, tastes like nirvana.

I started with the Mercy’s Steamed Dumplings. They’re made with ground dumplings, which makes them a bit more healthy. When they come out, they bring out the bamboo steamer and then put them on a plate for you. They’re served with ginger soy and spicy chili dipping sauces. This means they put some dumpling sauce in a bowl and squeeze some sriracha in another bowl. These were pretty good, but the innards also had pieces of water chestnuts in them, which made the insides sometimes crunchy. I actually do not like water chestnuts at all, especially their texture, so that part of the dumplings, I did not care for.

I also added the Asian Slaw as a side to my entree. It was a blend of Napa cabbage, red pepper, green onion, and corn in a sesame ginger vinaigrette. I absolutely loved this. I’m a huge sucker for super crunchy cabbage based salads. I can’t get enough! I could have eaten a giant bowl of this as my main course. They’re really fancy about presentation too. It was served in a little fried wonton skin basket.

My entree was the Coriander Dusted Sea Scallops. Large scallops are served with jasmine confetti rice cake, citrus ginger beurre blanc, orange curry coconut glacé, balsamic paint, and green beans. That’s a lot of fancy words. The scallops were great, but I wasn’t necessarily crazy about the citrus ginger buerre blanc they slathered on top of them. But they were cooked well, seared on the outside, pretty raw in the middle. The rice was not very good. It was heavy on coconut milk and fairly flavorless. The balsamic paint was a dramatic touch to the dish itself, and I loved the green beans.

The service was ok. The food took forever to come out. And there weren’t very many people there, so I don’t know what was up. Maybe they’re just still trying to figure it out, as they’ve only been open for a little while. Or maybe they’re just slow. This place is a fancier and more expensive alternative, in an otherwise college dining scene, where your only options are sandwiches, wings, or burgers.

When I decided to go to Portland, I sought some feedback on where I should eat. I usually do extensive research on my own, but I asked others for help this time. Drew Lazor from the city paper told me that Le Pigeon was a must eat. I actually remembered seeing it the last time I was in Portland, as I was staying at a crappy motel right across from it, so I heeded his advice and made a reservations. It’s a tiny spot with only 3 family style dining tables (be prepared to sit next to strangers!!!) and seats at the kitchen bar. So plan your visit in advance!

It is french! Could you guess that from le name? The menu is small, changes all the time, and is very french. You don’t see friendly things like chicken and steak and sea bass.  You see things like pigs feet, tongue, duck, and sweetbreads. So be forewarned! It had tons of decorations and art, including embroideries of employees on the walls. The dessert and cheese menus were written on these colorful old windowpanes.

The swordfish dish. A nice steak of swordfish with calamari stew, fingerling potatoes, and a saffron based sauce. Lovely and beautiful!

I went wild and got the sweetbreads with scallop, salsify, and citrus. Now I’ve only eaten sweetbreads once, and liked it, and I love me some scallops, so I decided to take the chance! I still really don’t know what particular type of sweetbread this was, but I’m assuming it was the pancreas kind, as it was pretty big. I liked this, but I could easily see how some would not. While it doesn’t have a terrible texture, it doesn’t have the greatest texture either. It’s kind of on its way to having a liver texture, but only about half way there. It was seared and I enjoyed the seared bits quite a lot. However, once I ate away at the seared bits, the inside was less cooked, and I got a bit afraid and stayed away from it. I think the last time I had sweetbreads it was cut up into much smaller pieces so there weren’t any less cooked bits. I think I would have preferred it that way. That was fine as I still had a lovely and big seared scallop to enjoy. You know me and scallops, so enjoy it I did! The salsify is a root vegetable. It’s not widely eaten, but it is in France, Italy, and Russia. I’ll leave it to the French, Italians, and the Russians. Salsify is definitely not the root vegetable for me. Now as strange as it may sound, my favorite part of this dish was what all the main ingredients came on top of – cauliflower puree. It tasted like pure cauliflower, but it was incredibly smooth and lump free, liquidy, but still with some oomph. I could eat this all day!

Now dessert is where we got completely crazy. While there were many options, some of them even crazier, nothing enticed us as much as the honey bacon apricot cornbread with maple ice cream, drizzled with bacon cooked in maple syrup. Yes folks, this cornbread has bits of bacon in it. And it’s topped with more bacon. And as crazy as it sounds, it was delicious! But the maple ice cream is actually what made it. Without it, the cornbread tastes a little too funny and smoky. But with the ice cream, it’s the perfect complement. It’s all the bizarre combinations of savory and sweet that make it so fun to eat. We laughed the whole time we ate this, because really, we couldn’t really believe we were!

Service was good and they were very friendly and helpful with explaining the menu. It’s a packed restaurant, with just a few people cooking, and everything is cooked to order, so be prepared to wait for your food. Just enjoy the complimentary bread they give you. They sprinkle a little sea salt on the butter and it makes it even that much better. We sat next to a really nice couple who recommended several places to try out, in Portland and elsewhere. And we provided them with some recommendations for spots to check out in random parts of the country. And hence, the beauty of family style sitting amongst strangers. Le Pigeon is a special experience. I hope you all get to experience it. And say yes to the crazy bacon dessert!

Welcome to the inaugural post in my brand new series called boozings. What is boozings? It’s simple. The folks at Philadelphia Weekly recently posted their list of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks. So I’ve decided to try them all. No, not all on one night! I have no interest in alcohol poisoning. But I will try them all, and write about it right here, once a week, as part of this new 15-post series – boozings. And as their list is in no particular order of preference, my posts won’t be either. Well, my posts will simply be in the order in which I try them.

First up was Parc, the swanky little french style bistro in Rittenhouse Square. And serendipitously enough, the chosen drink at Parc was the sidecar, one of my favorite cocktails, ever. Their version of the sidecar is the Calvados Sidecar. It is made with Calvados brandy (apple brandy, and hence the name), Cointreau (orange liqueur), lemon juice, and an apple slice, served in a half sugar rimmed martini glass.

Oh boy oh boy. This drink is boozy. As in all I taste is booze. Whoo! I taste no juice at all, just lots and lots of alcohol. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I can see how if I had two of these, it would knock me on my boozed out ass. It’s a bit too strong for me, as far as flavor goes. Without a hint of anything other than straight up liquor, I found it a bit hard to truly enjoy. I mean I liked it, and I felt great while I drank it, but it was a bit rough for me. And the apple, if you choose to eat it, is just as boozy. While it was an enjoyable drink, I think I still prefer my sidecars from the Sidecar. Parc is a bit of an older crowd, perhaps a bit on the more sophisticated side. A button-down shirt and slacks kind of place, which isn’t particularly my scene, not that I have one, but I’m more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl.

Ok, 1 down, only 14 more to go!