New Year's Eve Eve at New World Home Cooking !

      I never go out on New Year's Eve.  I really don't know why,  it just doesn't seem to work for me.  Actually slept right through it this year, and rather enjoyed it !  Of course, having to be at work by 7 am New Year's Day kind of put a damper on any New Year's Eve revelry...
      So I started thinking, what would be the lamest night of the year to go out to dinner ?   Why, New Year's Eve Eve, of course !  All of the cool people are going out on the Eve, why not take advantage of  the uncoolness and venture out on the Eve's Eve?  Brilliant !

       So my husband and I decided to head out to one of our favorite local places, New World Home Cooking.  Apparently, we were not the only practiced uncool people around, the dining room was buzzing when we arrived around 8 pm.  Waved hello to chef Ric and wife Liz as we walked in, greeted by a pretty impressive model of the restaurant done up in gingerbread.

One of the things that we love about New World is that it is more like dining at a friend's house rather than a formal, stuffy restaurant.  This is a place to go where you can come as you are.   People are here to savor food, laugh, drink and talk with their friends.  This is slow cooking at its finest, your meal is made for you and it will take a little time.  If the drink orders are getting backed up, chef Ric might just step in and deliver them himself,  keeping it real...

The worst part is deciding what to eat,  there are so many varied and interesting dishes that it is hard to pare it down to what you can reasonably eat !  We started out with a couple of  appetizers, Cajun peppered shrimp and feta stuffed olives with red pepper tzatziki.  We have had the shrimp before and love them, spicy but not overly hot.   The olives were a new item for us and were delicious, lovely green olives stuffed with feta, then  battered and fried until lightly crispy, so good with the creamy tzatziki sauce.  I could have eaten them all myself, but that would have been just rude...

 Thai Italian Love was my husband's choice,  pasta in a Bolognese sauce with the fun addition of lime, curry and coconut !  He decided to ask the waitress to up the heat a bit, and the result was a seriously spicy dish, suiting his fiery palate.  This looked seriously good...

I opted for the Tandoori salmon with curried winter vegetables, tamarind coconut sauce and brown rice.  The salmon was perfectly cooked, with a crackle of spices on top.  Lanky sprigs of cilantro just added to the seduction.  The curried brussel sprouts and sweet potato were a nice compliment to the rice and tarmarind sauce.   Only some rice was left on the plate by the time I was done, a testament to the fine flavors.

Somehow, I still saved some room for Vegan Chocolate Raspberry "Access" Cake.  Now, I really don't know what the name of this cake means, but it was one very vertical, very fine cake !   It had rich chocolate flavor, not overly sweet, and the raspberry sauce was one of the most intense berry flavors that I have ever tasted.

I restrained myself and ate half, then gladly took the rest home.