Cassoulet

The topic of today's blog comes via my mother. When I was home last week to get a new phone and re-join her family plan, she pulled out this article from the News Herald. It is about cassoulet, which I had never heard of, but this recipe describes it in mouthwatering detail. The article mentions two local restaurants that serve this dish, as well as an at home recipe that I will try sometime this winter. The first restaurant it mentions is L'Albatros in University Circle. I haven't been yet, but it just moved up on my list of Cleveland restaurants to try - Right behind Flying Fig, can you believe I haven't eaten there yet? Me. Neither. Anyways, the second restaurant it mentions is one of my old east side root favorites, Lure Bistro. When I was living at home in Chardon during my first year out of college, my girlfriends and I would go on a regular basis to get sushi and eat on their awesome patio. Well the sushi chef has since moved to his own place right up the street, Young's Sushi, which I haven't been to yet, but from what I hear it is the same great sushi at a much lower price. And that definitely puts it on my list of Cleveland restaurants to try. (Side note: that is the second reference to this "list" in one post. You would think an actual list existed somewhere. I think I need to write one down. Maybe an upcoming post?? If you have recommendations, please share.) Ok so back to Lure.

Tonight, Rachael (previously Rae Rae) and Theresa (previously Little Monster, I think? This is why I stopped using these crazy names, too hard to remember) and I had dinner at Lure and I of course, had to try the cassoulet. It is served with strings of sweet potato fries and has a ton of white beans. It was very tasty and filling and I would definitely get it again, it's a fantastic winter meal. Lure's atmosphere is wonderful, but our only complaint is that it gets really noisy. It must have been girls night out cuz there were several other tables of all girls and it got very loud. Rach had a lovely watercress salad with hazelnut vinaigrette and the Black Widow sushi roll and Theresa had the grouper which was awesome. I'm excited to try the cassoulet at L'Albatros to compare.