ooey-gooey cheesy goodness

Last night MVSGF and I went to dinner at Palomino in Westwood. We started with the Potatoes Gorgonzola as an appetizer, which is pretty much criss-cut spicy fries smothered in a bechamel (white cream) sauce, with crumbled gorgonzola and tons of cracked black pepper on the top. The bechamel itself is slightly sweet and not super flavorful, but it rounds out the fries and the bite of the gorgonzola. The only thing I would advise is that you eat this dish quickly (not a problem for us!) because otherwise the sauce makes the fries soggy if they sit in it too long.

I then decided to follow up the appetizer with more cream, cheese, and carbs by ordering the Baked Four Cheese Penne, which was a souped up mac and cheese with fontina, mozzarella, parmesan, and white cheddar, with panko bread crumbs on the top. It was tasty (really good flavors and cheese combination!) and definitely rich, but...I am very picky with my mac and cheese. Essentially, I like mac and cheese to resemble Kraft Deluxe, where the cheese sauce is thick and smooth and evenly distributed. The BFCP at Palomino is more like the penne sitting in a liquidy cream sauce (probably the same bechamel used for the potatoes) and then various cheeses mixed throughout and melted on top. Does that make any sense? Anyway, it was good, but I'd rate it 3/5 on my mac and cheese scale.

After dinner, MVSGF and I decided to walk to the Pinkberry a couple blocks down and were shocked to realize that it was now a Yogurtland. Our post(s) on frozen yogurts and the different chains of them will be for another day (believe me, I have A LOT to say about it - Jas and I love froyo), but I will just say that the blueberry tart yogurt at Yogurtland is really very gross and tastes like grape vitamins. I have warned you.

All in all, a good Saturday Date Night dinner!

PS: Thank you to Thao for the picture above. I found it during a google images search since I scarfed ours down last night before I could take a picture.