Delicious Denver

After a few hours wandering aimlessly in the Denver Art Museum on the MLK holiday, our daughter took us to a nearby bakery, Leven, where I had one of the best sandwiches of my life. Fresh mozzarella, roasted tomato pesto, arugula, on sea salt and rosemary focaccia. The mozzarella was melt-in-your-mouth soft and tasted simply of fresh milk with a light tang. The tomato pesto was bright and acidic with a touch of heat and the bread was voluminous, yeasty with a bit of crunchy salt on top.

My choice of side was spicy, marinated green olives that were picante and delicious, while my daughter had the bread and butter cauliflower pickles and Barbara chose the marinated artichokes. The sandwiches were huge and we all took half home for another meal. My son-in-law purchased a huge loaf of sourdough (1 kg?) to bring home.

I was motivated to try to make my own mozzarella when I get home. There are lots of videos on YouTube on how to do it. Alex is my go to.  I’ll report on the results.

Denver is a culinary powerhouse and especially welcome after you have spent three days driving through southern Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas. In spite of booking a hotel with a kitchenette, we have succumbed to the temptation to dine out multiple times. We had an incredible vegetarian Nepalese meal at Sherpa House in Golden, Colo. and a decent wood-fired pizza in the Belmar town center in Lakewood though not worth the $62 price tag for lunch for four.

Tuesday morning was spent transferring ownership my mom’s low-mileage Honda Civic to my son (Thanks, Mom!). This required an emissions inspection (recent Maryland inspection not accepted) and a VIN verification (30 min./$50), then a trip to the County Courthouse (known locally, I learned, as the Taj Mahal thanks to its central dome) for a Colorado title and plates (30 min/$68). As we were leaving the courthouse, plates in hand, my son wryly noted that if our goal that morning had been to purchase a hand gun, we would have completed our task much quicker, probably cheaper as well.

With little time left before my son needed to be at his graduate school class, we sped off to Carmax to unload his old Mazda 3. Just 20 min later, we walked out with cash.

After our deep engagement with American bureau-crazy, we stopped for a well-deserved classic burrito from Bonfire Burritos. It was chilly sitting at the tables in the plastic wrapped deck area but the cheesy beans, roasted peppers and hot sauce warmed things up nicely.

Is there anyone on this planet who doesn’t love a burrito?

A lighter dinner was appropriate so Barbara and I prepared a meal of salad, roasted brussels sprouts, and potato latkes for the family at my daughter’s pad. Yes, latkes in Tevet! We had no applesauce or sour cream but there was plenty of ketchup so….

We were going to begin the journey home today but with up to a foot of snow expected, we decided to delay our departure for a day or two. Damn!

Oh well, where are we going for lunch?