The Lunch Break Chronicles

A little birdie (AKA our friends over at CTbites) tells us Chocopologie opened a pop-up shop Thursday at 30 W. Putnam Ave. in Central Greenwich.

The temple of chocolately decadence, an offshoot of the original Chocopologie Cafe in South Norwalk, is set to grace the Post Road through Easter. So rest easy, they’ve got you covered for Valentine’s Day.

UPDATE:

The store is apparently hosting a grand opening event from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday with cava (not champagne?) and chocolates (duh).

Here’s the invite:

Bar Rosso opened on Spring Street earlier this year.

I’ve popped into Bar Rosso about a handful of times since it opened on Spring Street this June, just to grab a glass of wine or a cocktail with friends at the end of an evening. Their wine by the glass list is pretty extensive, which should come as no surprise to Stamford sippers since it is owned by Mary Schaffer, who also owns Napa & Co. on Broad Street.

Monday night, I finally ventured in for dinner. I was a little bummed that the weather wasn’t being cooperative enough for us to sit outside for our meal, but the inside is so beautiful (much improved since the location served as the home of Bennet’s steakhouse) that I couldn’t pout for too long.

I skipped right over the pizza section of the menu (mainly because it’s a brick-oven kind of place, but since it’s only a couple months old, I had a feeling the bricks would lack the flavor of the older pizza establishments in town) and opted for pasta instead.

I’ve gotta say the truffle & ricotta gnocchi, which they serve with braised pork and a farm fresh egg on top, was awesome. Definitely my favorite of the night, making me wish I had thought to order it so I wasn’t forced to snag bites from my friend’s plate when he wasn’t looking…

I had the bucatini & clams, which they served over pasta in a white wine and garlic sauce. It was simple, but good. And the waiter pointed out that you could tell all the pasta was homemade at the restaurant: like snowflakes, each strand was unique.

They have tons of Italian bar snacks at Bar Rosso, but to be honest, the pasta dishes were so huge, you can totally skip appetizers and still struggle to make a dent in the dinner-sized portions. Especially if you want dessert, which — trust me — you do. We were celebrating a birthday, so we had the pine nut tart with cappuccino creme and cinnamon gelato. At first it seemed silly to enjoy gelato at Bar Rosso when Stamford’s new gelato spot, Volta, is literally next door, but after one spoonful, I was too happy with the dish to think about being silly. In the New York Times’ review of Bar Rosso, the reviewer says the tart is too sweet for his taste. I admittedly have a ridiculously overactive sweet tooth, but I thought it was perfect.

Long story short, I’ll be back from more than just a glass of wine.

Sunny Daes, 633 Shippan Ave., Stamford

Holy heatwave, Stamford. I’m all for super steamy summer days, but every once in a while, a girl’s gotta take a minute and cool off.

There was one sure-fire cure for blistering heat when I was growing up; my mom would roll into the driveway on the sweatiest days of the summer, and upon stepping into our kitchen would hold her pointer finger to her lips and coax me back outside and into her passenger’s seat for our secret ice cream missions. Her MG only fit two, so we’d keep it a secret from my dad and older sister. When we reached my favorite ice cream stop, we’d scan  the sundae board for our favorite flavors before settling on our perennial picks. She’d have the mint-chocolate chip in a cone, and I’d go for the moosetracks in a sugar cone.

When the heat began to peak here last week, I became antsy as I tried to find the perfect place to sate my sweet tooth and cool down my body temperature at the same time. I tried the Dairy Queen on Summer Street. Don’t get me wrong, I was pleased with my vanilla soft-serve coated in rainbow sprinkles, but the line was freakishly long, and at the end of the day Dairy Queen seems like more of a mall treat than a sidewalk stop. So I was a little let down after my first cone of 2011.

Then last week, a friend of mine suggested Sunny Daes on Shippan Avenue. I’m so glad he did.

I pulled up to Sunny Daes at about 2 p.m. Monday, and spotted a mother-daughter pair on what looked like a secret mission, licking away at their cones beneath one of the eight umbrella-covered tables outside the ice cream stand, and several other customers milling around. But when I went inside, the only one there was the owner’s brother Jeff Keskin, who used the lull to guide me through their selection.

The ice cream stand, which opened in 1999, is the first of five Sunny Daes in Fairfield County — there are two in Fairfield, one in Trumbull and one in Westport — and boasts coolers of home-made gelato as well as home-made ice cream. Yeah. I said homemade.

Jeff Keskin serves up two scoops of moosetracks.

The Gelato: They have about a dozen flavors of gelato, including several fruit flavors, but I’m a die-hard sucker for the chocolate, which is both rich and creamy — way creamier than the hand-packed pints of gelato I buy at Whole Foods. But enough about the gelato, let’s get to the real stuff.

The cone: Before I had a chance to inspect the contents of the hard ice cream cooler, I noticed the lineup of cones at my eye level. They have the classic cake cones, as well as sugar cones and (my personal favorite) sugar cones dipped in chocolate and coated with rainbow sprinkles.

The ice cream: I obviously opted for moosetracks ice cream to see how Sunny Daes stacks up to my hometown favorites. They more than met my high expectations. Their hard ice cream isn’t really hard at all. It’s been whipped into a texture somewhere between the traditional scoopable ice cream and soft-serve. It’s still firm enough to stay on the cone, but way more lickable than traditional hard ice cream.

Sunny Dae’s, located at 633 Shippan Ave., is open all year round. Hours: Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Friday, Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Got a favorite summer snack stop you want to recommend for the LBC? Leave your suggestions below.

Alright, alright. This dessert “salsa” — served atop dulce de leche ice cream — proves our summer of salsa experiment, now in week 7, has veered steadily off the traditional salsa path. But what can we say, Rafael Palomino and Arlen Gargagliano, the authors of our trusty guide, Nueva Salsa, certainly know how to stretch the definition of salsa.

That aside, here’s what you need:

¾ cup of fresh blueberries
½ papaya, peeled seeded, and diced (about 2 cups)
½ cup almonds, toasted
2 ounces Frangelico
juice of one lime
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
Dulce de leche ice cream

From the book:

In a large bowl, combine the blueberries and papaya. Stir in the almonds, Frangelico, and lime juice. Let sit for about 10 minutes, then stir in the mint and serve. Or, cover and refrigerate for up to one day.

The first adventure to this dish was buying Frangelico, a hazelnut flavored liqueur. I had never tried it before, but it was easy enough to find at the local wine shop. A warning to the tight-walleted: my bottle, at about 750 ml, cost $25, and when I asked if the drink is sold in a smaller size, they said no. I later tried it on it’s own — stuff is pretty strong (!), but goes down smooth.

My friend and I had no hang ups preparing this easy dish, which we used as a denouement to a meal of eggplant parmigiana and broccoli soup (guess it was a vegetarian kind of day).

But I HAVE been having hang ups with the oven in my new apartment, so rather than sticking the almonds in there, we toasted them stove top. Again, worked out fine.

We had a bit of fun arguing over how a papaya should properly be peeled, let us know if you have any tips.

The dessert was yummy, and probably would go well with vanilla ice cream as well. I think this recipe would be a good starting point for experimentation with different combinations of fruits. We paired it with moscato D’Asti, a sweet, sparkling Italian dessert wine.