Melting Pot

I'm back! What a weekend! It flew by, but we were able to squeeze in a lot over 2.5 days. The theme of the weekend was friendly competition and games, including shuffle board, cards, dice, and a marathon of bowling (nearly 3 hours!) The weekend also included sightseeing, cherry blossoms, stimulating conversation, and a whole lot of wonderful food!

My favorite meal of the weekend was an evening at the Melting Pot, which was not just a meal out-- it was an experience! For dinner, Mal and I, and our 2 friends, Josh and Danielle, ordered two pots of cheese fondue, followed by 2 dinner salads and 2 entrees to share. This seems like a lot of food, but for 4 people, it worked out perfectly.

The Melting Pot allows you to enjoy the process of the meal. The cheese fondue was made fresh by the waitress right at our table, where it was melted and kept warm on a burner. Our booth was somewhat private, but spacious enough for the wide variety of vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, bread, batters, and dipping sauces, which ended up all over our table. Dinner was quite an adventure-- we tried lots of new flavors and cooking styles, enjoyed wine and wonderful conversation, and leisurely dined the night away. (We were at the Melting Pot for nearly three hours!)

My photos uploaded a little out of order. I apologize. Our order of courses at the Melting Pot: cheese fondue, salad, and then the entrees. Sadly, we had no room for chocolate fondue, but next time, I will plan accordingly! :)

As part of our entree course, we needed to choose a couple of cooking styles for our 2 selections, which were the "Seafood Trio" (white shrimp, scallops and fish fillet) and the "Land & Sea" (a collection of Balsamic-marinated sirloin, marinated breast of chicken and white shrimp). We chose the Court Bouillon, homemade, seasoned vegetable broth, and the Bourguignonne, European-style fondue in cholesterol-free canola oil to cook our entrees.

Here's the Court Bouillon...


There were lots of options for cooking in the Court Bouillon and the Bourguignonne-- tons of fresh veggies, chicken, beef, shrimp, tuna, and scallops, which could be cooked in various batters and dipped in a variety of sauces-- some of my favorites were the tempura batter, a sweet plum sauce, a curry sauce that I put on just about everything, and a flavorful blue cheese dipping sauce.


Here's a shot of us waiting for the food on our skewers to cook... the pace of the meal is quite slow at the Melting Pot because each person only cooks two small pieces of food at a time.



Mal and me at dinner...


The cheese fondue was the first course. Our table split 2 pots of cheese: the Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue (Gruyere and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses, white wine, garlic, nutmeg, lemon and Kirschwasser) and the Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue (Fontina, Butterkase and Buttermilk Bleu cheeses with white wine, scallions and a hint of sherry). It sounds kind of strange, but the nutmeg in the Traditional Swiss Fondue was a-mazing! I've never tasted anything like it. It was such a full-bodied, complex flavor-- sharp, pungent cheese mixed with sweet and spicy nutmeg. All I can say is wow!


The pots of cheese fondue were served with fresh breads, vegetables, and apples for dipping. Each pot was prepared and cooked right on our tabletop.


Mmmmm... cheese fondue! This pot was the Wisconsin Trio.


Wine to complement the fondue...

The four of us split a bottle of Oregon Pinot Gris (my favorite white wine!)


In between the cheese fondue and the entrees, we split 2 salads between the 4 of us. The guys shared a Ceasar salad; the ladies shared a California Salad, which was mixed baby salad greens, Roma tomatoes, walnuts and Gorgonzola cheese, with Raspberry Black Walnut Vinaigrette Dressing. Delish!


All in all, a WONDERFUL weekend! We had such a blast with our friends, and we cannot wait for them to move back to Boston this summer!

Back to the grind tomorrow... good night!