a little housekeeping
If things are looking a bit different, I’m in the process of some tidying up around here, which I hope is more or less transparent to everyone, but you never know… Besides, it’s the only tidying up I can do right now. As the Chinese New Year was nearing, Jeremy and I scrambled to clean the house because you aren’t supposed to clean once the new year arrives for fear of sweeping out the good luck. I’ve always read that you don’t clean for 2 weeks until the Lantern Festival (15 days later). Unlike my mom, cleaning isn’t one of my hobbies. Whenever she comes to visit us, within an hour of arriving, she will don a pair of rubber gloves and begin scrubbing my kitchen. I always tell her that I just cleaned the house and she always smiles and says, “Oh, I like to clean the house!” The first time this happened, Jeremy walked into our old apartment kitchen with eyes wide and blinking, “If your mom cleans our place before we vacate, we’d get every cent of our deposit back.” So when I mentioned to Mom over the phone that we just finished vacuuming and scrubbing since we aren’t supposed to clean for two weeks, she insisted, “No, just one day.” I told her everyone else says two weeks and she emphatically said, “It’s just the one day.” Okay, well I’m going to take that 2 weeks as a directive…
radda for lunch
The other day I met up with a friend of mine for a working lunch in Boulder. She’s one of my tele babes and an absolute riot of an individual. Whenever I meet with pals in town, they always seem to gravitate toward The Kitchen and with good reason – it’s awesome. But she suggested Radda and said she likes it as much as The Kitchen, which piqued my interest immediately (I trust her taste in food). I love The Kitchen, but I also love finding great, new eats.
spacious and comfy
choices, choices…
Radda Trattoria is located in North Boulder – a nice break from always going to Pearl Street. Not that I don’t enjoy Pearl Street, but there’s much more to life than Pearl Street… that and the parking is free for once.
what a cutie
Still nursing my cold, I opted to start with the soup du jour: hot tomato-basil soup. I love tomato soup in all its forms, but as someone whose GI system doesn’t play nicely with dairy, I was quite taken with the pure tomato-ey-ness with nary a drop of cream. Nichole ordered the Insalata Radda: Belgian endive, toasted hazelnuts, Grana Padano, and truffled citronette.
velvety tomato-basil soup
insalata radda
We split a plate of the piccolo fritto – fried rock shrimp, fennel, zucchini, and onion with aioli on the side. While I could have gone either way with or without the dish, the absolute best surprise was the little fried lemon slices tucked into the mix. Those were unbelievably good.
piccolo fritto
I knew a pizza would be too much for me, but figured I could save the rest for Jeremy. All of the choices were enticing, but Nichole said their housemade fennel sausage was awesome and we both ended up ordering the salsicce pizza with the fennel sausage, fresh oregano, and red chile. That was phenomenal (and Jeremy quite agreed later that evening).
salsicce pizza
After two hours of consulting and nibbling on all of this delicious food in such a spacious and relaxed setting, Nichole insisted on treating me. I gave her that look and she sweetly pleaded, “…for all of the great help you’re giving me!” I’m looking forward to trying Radda out for dinner, perhaps it’s worth a review.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:14 am
Your mom sounds SO cute! my mom’s a clean-freak. I made almond brittle, which all of my brothers’ friends (and my brothers) adored… and they’d bite into the thick brittle because they love the crunch. Well, my mom noticed that bits of candy/brittle would fall onto their shirts/ground whenever they did so, so she started to tell all of them to put it directly into their mouths. The entire piece. *sigh*. :)
February 1st, 2009 at 1:22 am
That looks like great food right there! And my mum is just another clean-freak! When we first moved into our apartment, boy, ain’t I glad my mum was here cleaning and unpacking with me. Her hands make magic! A cabinet looks exceptionally neat after her nifty hands went thru’ it once! I worship her for that!
We’re already half way thru’ CNY in the blink of an eye. How was your CNY there? ;)
February 1st, 2009 at 3:33 am
MMMMMM.Haven’t been to Boulder in years, things sure have come a long way since then. Dot’s Diner was the happening spot at the time, lol.
February 1st, 2009 at 6:47 am
I just recently started reading your blog and your pictures are so amazing. I can’t believe that tomato soup without cream. It looks amazing! Also love the slidder bun recipe. I’ve been planning to try my hand at those.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:30 am
Not cleaning for 2 weeks sounds great. I think I’ll start celebrating that as well!
February 1st, 2009 at 9:44 am
Sounds like a great meal and a great find! One comment/question–Although you stated that the salad was of Belgian endive, the pic of the salad looks like frisee. The two are related; I wonder if the restaurant was subbing one for the other?
February 1st, 2009 at 9:48 am
My mom was such a neat freak, I tend to be a bit on the not so neat side. that pizza does look divine.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am
I’m not Chinese but I’ll take any excuse not to clean…gorgeous photos of the food, I may have to make a trip out there to hit up that restaurant!
February 1st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
That looks like a wonderful lunch!
February 1st, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I hope your cold has completely gone away by now, Jen! Pizza with sausage is just perfect– and the red chili is the cherry on top! :)
(By the way, the tidying process is mostly transparent, so don’t worry about it at all :)
February 1st, 2009 at 6:55 pm
lol, I agree Jen, best to be on the safe side and take the two weeks ;)
the pizza looks amazing, and I just love battered corgette and fennel.. and lemon sounds like a hit!
February 1st, 2009 at 8:01 pm
The pizzas do look good. Fried lemon slices sound really interesting.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
ok i’m finally going to ask this…..
what is “tele”? i think it’s some kind of downhill skiing – right? but what
seperates it from just general downhill. i have been wondering about
it whenever you refer to it in a post and haven’t seen it described
anywhere. (and i probably missed it in a previous post – sorry).
hope you had some good skiing weather/conditions today – and that
you got a chance to get out and enjoy it. ski on.
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Pearl – ha ha, that sounds like my mom too. Maybe your brother and his friends should eat over a plate?
Mrs. E – that’s really sweet of your mom to come over and clean your place. Mom’s are like that – they want the best for their kids. Maybe you should treat her to some of your awesome cooking? :) CNY was good here. I wish I hadn’t caught Jeremy’s stupid cold, but… at least it was after the festivities were done!
Farmerpam – I think Dot’s Diner still exists? But I haven’t found it yet…
Lori – that soup was the bomb! I need to find a recipe to replicate it because I think I am in love with it.
Chiot’s Run – yes, we should all celebrate not cleaning for 2 weeks ;) Sometimes I go longer (shhhh, don’t tell my mom!)
Jenni – yar, you are correct. I didn’t even think twice about it because I didn’t eat it… They must have subbed because I heard that sometimes they will scatter sage fried in butter on the pizza instead of oregano and I was seriously wishing for that on my pizza (still, it was good).
Charlane – I am neat about some things, not others. Comes with being OCD :)
Laura – thanks :)
Asianmommy – it was very very delicious!
Mark – almost, sweetie. I’m crazy about pizza in general, but the extra spice was awesome. Thanks for the feedback.
Zoe – you better believe I’m gonna play it safe ;) the lemon slice idea – BRILLIANT!
Barbara – yes, I may have to try doing that myself at home. Love love love lemons.
Jacquie – oh, my dear. I’m sorry. Tele is short for telemark skiing which is a form of skiing that seems like a cross between nordic and alpine. Tele bindings have free heels whereas alpine has a locked heel. The way telemark turns is different from alpine too. If you look on Wikipedia, you can see a few pictures. Instead of alpine turns where the downhill foot is staggered back, tele turns have the downhill foot/ski leading. It’s beautiful and harder than alpine. It’s also a lot of fun! :)
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
That pizza is making my mouth water. wow!
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Those fried lemon slices sound so interesting–did it come with the bitter rind? Also, I am glad that Jeremy (and I hope Kaweah) got a taste of that fennel sausage. Fennel sausage is the best sausage ever. EVER!
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Dragon – mmm, it was awesome!
PE – yes, they had the rind and no, it wasn’t bitter at all! It was actually really amazing. I might have to try that… Kaweah can’t eat anything remotely spicy or else bad things might happen ;) I had never had fennel sausage until this pizza and it was fantastic!
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:49 am
Yummy… fried lemon slices sound like heaven…
My dog loves spicy… but like you said, can sometimes lead to bad things… lol
February 5th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Mollie – they ARE! I made some and they rock. I bet you’ll dig them :)
February 5th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Hi Jen
It’s really hot here in Queensland. Australia . The aircon is on and your
tomato soup looks looks great . Now if the grasshoppers have left any basil we’ll be having soup tonite
Thanks , Mia
February 9th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Mia – I bet it’s hot! I’ve been to Oz before in March and sweat my brains out ;) Hope you had some soup!