USA 10 - Culinary Colorado

HOS's ROADTRIP really began in earnest this last week - the man is a roadtrip nut.

We drove from Cortez (just across the Colorado border) to Aspen, then to Denver and on to Memphis through Oklahoma City - that's a mere 2700km, and 6 states, in four days! Lucky we've got a big gold Chrysler with a Satnav (btw, best marriage-saving device ever invented), we were CRUISING BABYYYYYYY.

But don't fret, food fans, along the way there were a couple of extreme culinary highlights - and all of them, bar a spectacular Chili (yes, HOS is still on the hunt) in a tiny place called Conway, just out from Little Rock, Arkansas - were in Colorado.

Let's begin with Ribs. Mmmmmmmmmm. Picture this...cold cold night (pic above to set scene, well, to be honest, it's really an envy shot) just driven all day through a snowstorm and incredibly spectacular scenery to hunt down our accommodation, a cute place called Annabelle Inn right in the heart of posho wosho Aspen. It was late. I was tushy (happens when I'm tired and hungry), and not a lot open in the Aspen off-season.

Fortunately the lights were on at the Hickory House Ribs on Main Street, and we totally pigged out...on pig!! Yes, pork lovers, we each devoured a rack of Danish baby back ribs complete with slaw, beans, potato salad (or fries for HOS), and fried bread! And these ribs weren't any ribs, no no no, these ribs were from special Tulip Pigs, imported from Denmark because they're "sweeter and leaner" (thanks Waitress Sammy, who I'm sure HOS thought looked "sweeter and leaner"!!!). OMG, you can see the lushness of the slaw, the coolness of the potato salad...but those ribs...mmmmmmm...melted in the mouth, the BBQ sauce so temptingly good, I had to eat them all (and in all honesty they really were sweeter, and I have to say I originally thought they were beef ribs because there was hardly any fat on them - Sammy was absolutely spot on!).

We slept that night like pigs in Aspen BBQ sauce.

And lucky we did.

The next night was Denver - and dinner with an old friend, Colorado Boy (CB), and his lady, Colorado Girl (CG) at a cool, hip Denver spot called Vesta Dipping Grill. The place was bloody rocking - totally packed, super cool vibe and amazing smells filled the air. This place is famous for it's dipping sauces, every main (or Entree, as these Yanks confusingly call their main meals) comes with 3 different sauces, and there are like 479 sauces to choose from (slight exaggeration there, just in case you didn't get it). The mains were great - I had Madras Grilled Venison (Bambi was from NZ of all places!) with a cherry butter, which was superbly cooked, probably the best venison I've ever had - but I'd have to say the highlights were the wacky entrees (or Appetizers for you Yanks) and dessert.

Colorado Boy (CB) had the best entree (Appetizer - crikey, this is tiresome) - it was Pecan Pie Salad. Yep, Pecan Pie Salad - "Arugula (rocket for us Aussies), praline pecans (yep, caramelised pecans foodfans - IN A SALAD), Great Hill blue cheese, maple bourbon vinaigrette. Well. After much mirth and bagging out of the Pecan Pie Salad (by me) - it arrived, and CB was gracious enough to let me have a forkful. AND IT BLOODY WORKED!! You can see it above - no pie crust in sight, the vinaigrette cut the sweetness of the sugar nuts, but the caramelisation gave it a fab crunch. Bloody good salad - again, one of the best I've tasted in this land.

And this leads me to the other super highlight. Dessert. You can see it above there, and yes, it looks exactly like those wacky caramel apples you saw in the LA Farmers Market post. We actually ate one. It's called Matty's Wacky Apple - and it was WACKY!! Wonderful crisp, slightly sour green apple, dipped in caramel and rolled in some crunchy stuff (we couldn't work out exactly what it was), with ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate. Mmmmmmm....very very wacky, and very very yummy.

So, food fans, there you have it. The Roadtrip highlights. Crikey. What a huge 4 days.

We have now been safely, and very happily (food wise) ensconced in Memphis for two days - home of Graceland and BBQ - and boy has it been OUT OF CONTROL. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. I THINK I MAY NEVER EAT AGAIN (until it's time for BBQ tomorrow!).