Did you miss me? At all? EVEN A LITTLE BIT? *sob*

Heh...Oh well...

I've had a good few days away from work and, by default, away from blogging for the most part...I shall, however, break my "blog silence" by filling you in on some of the details pertaining to the awesome anniversary meal my wife and I enjoyed at the Mona Lisa on Thursday night. As per the norm when one indulges in such decadent (and dare I say "sumptuous") fare, we felt like giant bloated pigs afterwards...It was, though, all very well worth it...For those of you not familiar with the Mona Lisa Fondue experience, I should probably fill you in on such things right...about...

now...

The Mona Lisa, by design, is pretty much a romantic-y couple-y restaurant...Oh, sure, there's the more casual "wine cellar" portion of the restaurant (which, curiously enough, is located DOWNSTAIRS of all places) where ANYONE can wander in off of the street with no reservation and have cheese or chocolate fondue with whatever wine they happen to want to slug down. In the main restaurant, though, it's all about making "reservations for romance"...Well, "romance" and a "metric buttload of damn good food"...The Mona Lisa's menu is dominated by the "fondue for two" choice which starts with a salad. In this case, you have your choice of a "garden" salad or a "caesar" salad...I made the mistake of ordering their "garden" salad my first time there...I order the caesar now because, in my opinion, "weeds and shit" a "garden" do not make. Luckily, the caesar salad is pretty good there at the Mona Lisa. Not a bad way to start off a meal...

Did I mention that the whole meal takes like two hours?..'Cause it does...

So, after you put away your salad (in your belly), your server totes out the appetizer fondue...THIS is what many people think of when they think "fondue," melted cheese with a bunch of bread, fruit and vegetable items to dip into said "cheese." At the Mona Lisa, there are always at least 3 different cheese choices for the appetizer fondue, with seasonal, or special, offerings thrown in as well. My personal favorite is the more traditional emmenthal and gryuere fondue, but this time we went with one of the "special" cheeses, traditional swiss cheeses blended with brie and topped with almonds...It was awesome...So much so, in fact, that we had our server bring us extra things to dip into the cheese pot...Can't go wasting a big bowl of melty, cheesy goodness, now can we?...

They'll do that, by the way, that whole "bringing more" thing...Another big plus of eating at a fondue place...

So then, after you've gorged yourself on bread and vegetables and such drowned in CHEESE, out comes your server with a little electric grill. This grill is brought out for one reason and one reason only...THE REASON IS MEAT!..The MEAT is your "main entree" at the Mona Lisa...Because I have a particular fondness for Buffalo and Ostrich meat, and my wife didn't care to NOT have it, we had the "wild game" platter...It's VERY good...For the MEAT entree, all of your MEAT is brought to the table uncooked, along with a selection of dipping sauces like plum sauce, chutney and horseradish...You then grill the MEAT to your liking (it's all in smaller, manageable chunks with the exception of the quail, which is pretty much whole...I make him do a little dance prior to grilling), dip it into a dipping sauce, eat and enjoy...ahh, MEAT!..

If, for some odd reason you're not full at this point, you CAN ask for more MEAT. Like before, if you ask for more, they'll bring it to you, just like good little evil fondue minions...Of course, having had more appetizer items than normal, my wife and I were already good and stuffed from the contents of one MEAT platter...Yes, one platter of MEAT was good enough for us that night...

We had to stay strong, though...We had to ninja-shift the contents of our already bulging bellies for one more course...After all, the "coup de grace" of all of fondue-dom was in sight...yes, kids, after the MEAT, it's the DESSERT FONDUE...

Knowing (from experience) that it "kicked ass," we chose the "flaming turtle" chocolate fondue which consists of milk chocolate, swirled with caramel and walnuts and flamed (at the table, no less) with 151 proof rum...Of course, you get a platter of cheesecake pieces, caramels, cookies, cakes and other (gut-busting) delights to dip into said vat of flaming chocolate sin...It's almost too much, even for a seasoned eater like myself...My wife and I did our best, despite the odds, and made it through MOST of the desserty items which were brought to our table...Even with our best effort, we just couldn't outdo Andy K. who, while in town for his wedding a few years back, put away an ENTIRE DESSERT FONDUE all by his damn self...IT WAS TRULY A SIGHT TO BEHOLD! To his credit, he HAD trained for it and had also NOT taken part in any of the other fondue courses prior to dessert...

The man had a goal...But back to our meal...

As they are apt to do, our server took a picture of us so that we could have a nice momento of our anniversary...She happened to snap said photo while I was in the middle of enjoying a caramel, so I was unable to fire up a good smile, or even a half-assed cockeyed look...I may post this "picture" if I find myself with absolutely nothing to post, but that's unlikely...It's really nothing to write home about, so there's that...After it was all said and done, and after leaving a decent tip for our server, we departed the Mona Lisa with distended bellies and love in our hearts...I highly recommend the Mona Lisa to anyone who finds themselves in the Colorado Springs area with money to burn and something to celebrate...It really is "somethin' else."

And that, kids, is just the START of our anniversary weekend...Coming up, I shall impart to you (thrilling) tales of minor league hockey and a major league bed and breakfast up in the northern part of Colorado...Stay tuned, amigos!..

Labels: holidays, I eat food, lame stories