gather
This has nothing to do with inspiration, but everything to do with one of the most phenomenal meals I’ve ever had.
I’ve been lucky enough to spend my working days having lunch with Sandeep, who’s been gracious enough to hook me up with some baller lunches (on the company, of course :P). On Tuesday, we went to Gather, which is, according to Sandeep, the best restaurant in the world. Setting the bar pretty high, I was really hoping his hype would be met with food of equal deliciousness.
And it was.
I saw the menu, and there wasn’t a single thing that didn’t look appetizing. After skimming through the various pizza and sandwich options, I decided on the mushroom pizza with a kale salad appetizer, washed down with house made pomegranate kombucha. I saw a few people eating the pizza while I walked in, and it looked like nothing I couldn’t handle.
To my surprise, I was satiated after half of pizza, made with the most unreal dough I’ve ever experienced. It had a way with melting in the mouth while managing to stay just perfectly chewy. It didn’t make sense to me, but I let it go as I noticed how well the cheese’s texture complemented that of the dough. Unbelievable. The different types of marinated mushrooms was just icing on the cake (or…mushrooms on the pizza).
I quit the pizza for a bit as the kale salad on the table was giving me those “eat me” eyes. I couldn’t resist. Tossed together with an appropriate amount of olive oil, sea salt, shredded cheese, some relative of squash and carrots cooked just right, olives (THAT I ACTUALLY LIKED; I normally cannot stand olives!), and tomatoes that you knew were vine-ripened, it was delightfully heavy. I stomached all of it just fine because, well, I’m something of a tank when it comes to taking in good food. Nothing really stops me on that end.
I went back to the pizza and ended up saving two slices for home (which is going to be dinner tonight J), and forcefully followed that up with the house ice cream of the day – something crème cheese something blueberry something awesomeness. I have no recollection of the name, but it sounded so good out of the waitress’s mouth that I had to get it (clearly my taste buds trump my stomach’s desires. It was ready to explode). It was like the best cheesecake I’d ever had, except blended up and served as ice cream with two biscuits that tasted as if they were handmade specifically for me. Unbelievable.
This has nothing to do with revelations, life lessons, or anything of that nature, but this meal was just…really something to remember. I wish I were better at documenting flavor because I don’t think I did this meal justice with this post, and I might just be wasting your time by writing about it all, but man, it was good.
The point? Go to Gather. It’s good.
