I’m not much of a food writer. I wrote restaurant reviews a few times in college, but they always came out more as profiles than reviews. I’d write about the history of a restaurant or the unique niche it occupied in the (then) small town of Athens, Ga. I’ve never felt confident about critiquing food–at least in print.
Mostly, I’m too picky of an eater to be a good food writer. I did once eat an entire pickled baby octopus, but I was drunk. And I almost vomited.
When I go out to eat, I do try to eat foods that I don’t cook at home. I’m a decent cook. I make an amazing pasta carbonara, a baked potato soup to die for, a Parmesan risotto that’ll make you salivate, and a spicy veggie burrito to rival Salsa’s.
This is all leading up to the meal I had Saturday night at Sugo, courtesy of my in-laws. I’d never been there (it’s a bit steep for our entertainment budget), but now I can’t stop thinking about the meal I had there. Plus their logo, for some reason, is this cool yet cute black pig with wings. I like quirky mascot-type logos.
Anyway, I started with plate of goat cheese truffles–globs of melty goat cheese dipped in something salty/crunchy and fried. Genius. The gcts were laid on a bed of raw spinach and beets with some kind of spicy vinagrette dressing and roasted pumpkin seeds. The gcts, by themselves, could have been over the top, but with the salad, they were perfect: cheesy smooth salty vinegary with bite.
I also split the lamb sliders with the table. In the South, sliders are a shack restaurant appetizer: tiny burgers that you can pop in your mouth by the handful. Sugo’s slider’s are above and beyond the sliders I’ve consumed. A small lamb patty on toasted bread topped with a slice of fresh mozzarella , a pickle, garlic aioli, and more genius, a pickled red onion.
I hate mayonnaise, but I could eat garlic aioli on about anything. I always have a bottle of caesar garlic dressing in the fridge that I pretend is as rich and tasty as aioli. If I ate aioli as regularly and in as much quantity as I’d like, I’d have to give up beer. Yikes! Anyway, if you’re going to eat a burger, any kind, you should always top it with garlic aioli. Ketchup rocks, but it smothers food as opposed to complementing it in most cases. Damn, those lamb burgers are tasty!
My MIL had the mussels as an app. I tasted one, and it was pretty yum, although I’m not a big mussels fan. I spent a month once on the coast of Maine immersed in an Outward Bound program where our only sources of protein were peanut butter and mussels we dug ourselves. That was 20 years ago. I still don’t eat peanut butter unless it’s in a Reese’s cup. But the point of the mussels app is that my MIL thought the broth was so delicious that she asked to take it home. Sans mussels which had already been devoured. My MIL is pretty particular about restaurant food. The rest of us at the table were amazed by her enthusiasm about the mussels broth.
Then to the main course. Ahhhhhhhh…on Damien the chef’s suggestion, I ordered the goat cheese agnoloti (having no clue what agnoloti were). Turns out that agnoloti are those round pasta pouches. I thought all pasta pouches were ravoli, but I guess those are square (I’m a plebe, I know). Anyway, these agnoloti are filled with goat cheese, served with a sweet potato cream sauce, portabella shrooms, kale, and prosciutto, then topped with flash-fried fennel. This is an amazing dish–practically all my favorite foods in one small china bowl. Except fried fennel, which is now my new favorite food. Amazing!
We ended by sharing the chocolate platter–which was good, particularly the pancetto (chocolate pudding, basically) but not out of this world. I do like the hot new trend of salting dark chocolate–gives it such an interesting salty smooth rich flavor.
Overall, a delicious and memorable meal. I’d love to visit Sugo again. Anyone want to pay?
