Archive for the ‘Eating’ Category
Valentine’s Day
Thursday, January 21st, 2010It’s that time again, the time when we here at Devotay begin our annual betting pool on how many guys (and yes it’s only guys) will call the afternoon of Valentine’s Day looking for a table for 2 at 7pm. And every year we a e forced to turn away the poor young suitors because we’d been booked solid a couple of weeks in advance.
Valentine’s at Devotay has seen 6 wedding proposals accepted since we started doing our special dinner here each Feb. 14, and it’s easy to see why: Cozy, romantic, specal atmosphere combined with great food served by the best crew in town (and yes we suppose perhaps who is doing the proposing might make a difference too).
As in the past, we’ll serve our full regular menu as usual, but in addition, we’ll be featuring this special menu, available a la carte or pris fixe with special wine parings (TBA). reserve now @ 319.354.1001 so you don’t end up a hash mark in our betting pool. To help with that, we’ll also serve our special Valentine’s menu on Saturday the 13th, so there are twice as many chances to get a table.
Devotay Valentine’s Day Dinner
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Amuse Bouche: Oyster Kilpatrick, fennel mousse – 5
Tapa: Bocadillos of shrimp with piparade – 8
Soup: Roasted beet borscht, tarragon crème fraîche – 6.5
Salad: Sourdough bread, jicama, sun-dried tomatoes, sherry-thyme vinaigrette – 6.5
Entrée: Martini trout, artichokes, spinach, Champagne cous cous – 25
OR
Stuffed Gianini Farms pheasant breast, brie, walnuts, prosciutto, mushroom wild rice, broccolini -29
Dessert: Mascarpone cheesecake, brandied cherries – 8
A la Carte as priced or pris fixe $58, $72 with paired wines to be announced. Tax and gratuity in addition
Devotay eNews – January 2010 – Vol. XV, Iss. 1
Friday, January 8th, 2010Click here to view this email in a browser -or- Forward this message to a friend
“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” -Michael Pollan from his new book, Food Rules |
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Phone: 319.354.1001
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Wednesday Forkcast: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Thursday, January 7th, 2010Everybody who grew up in and around my generation remembers the old TV commercials that told us “Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day!“ My mom used to take that to heart, and Wednesday night we always got spaghetti and meatballs. I don’t know whether she used Prince brand spaghetti, but such things are of no matter to 9-year-old boys.
Perhaps I’m getting nostalgic in my dotage, but we’ve decided to revive the tradition, and make it a heckuva bargain for you as well. We’ve harvested our spaghetti (in the Swiss tradition), so here’s the deal:
Every Wednesday night (we’re open 5-9p) we will feature Spaghetti Marinara, with or without meatballs (your choice of course), with Asiago cheese, fresh copped herbs, bread, salad with our signature balsamic vinaigrette and one glass of wine selected by our sommelier Morgan Weiss – all for $15. Even at Olive Garden that would cost you $0.45 more, and I personally guarantee ours is better. Our wine pours are bigger too.
Devoted to Devotay
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009This just in from the “Iowasthinking” blog. Thanks! And we’re devoted to you too.
Well kids, all the leaves are gone. And yet we’re still flush from the weekend’s Indian Summer (seventy degrees for our 20 person tailgate on Saturday) and the shock that, at this mid-November-in-Iowa juncture, it’s still warm enough to throw on tights and shorts. Our Halloween pumpkins may not have attracted any trick-or-treaters (!!!) but they did rot, rather than freeze, so let’s be thankful for small blessings.
Where have the last three weeks taken you? I’ve been a smidge busy with starting two jobs in as many weeks and I’ll tell you all about my board-folding, un-deux-trois adventures in due course but today we’re going to talk about food.
Date Night – White Table Cloths Are Out, Tapas and Tater Tots Are In – NYTimes.com
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009OK, Devotay doesn’t have tater tots (nor a fryolator to cook them in) but we do have patatas bravas and lotsa other good tapas, and no less an authority than the New York Times Food Section says:
“People fetishize food more than they did before. The pressure isn’t to find the most white tablecloth, white gloves kind of place, but you do need to find the best tapas, or they need to have the best Ibérico ham.”
via Date Night – White Table Cloths Are Out, Tapas and Tater Tots Are In – NYTimes.com.
Nourish Network » Stalking the Wild Chile: A Pepper Primer
Thursday, October 15th, 2009Under the ever-changing Sonora Desert sky, straddling the Arizona-Mexico border, an unassuming little fruit called the chiltepin pepper has kept cool in the shade of cliff sides for millennia. And while it thrives in these protected enclaves of the high desert, it packs heat matched only by the noonday sun.
Last week I set out with friends to find the people who harvest the wild chiltepin and to sample its uses among the descendants of those who first picked the tiny berries thousands of years ago. We traveled south from Sonoita, Arizona across the border at Nogales to the tiny town of Magdalena, where the church of Santa Maria de Magdalena was holding its annual festival to celebrate the harvest. Just as many of these festivals have become north of the border, this one too has devolved over the years into a bizarre combination of sacred and profane. Nevertheless, thousands descend upon the little village every year for the food and the spectacle surrounding the humble little chile.
via Nourish Network » Stalking the Wild Chile: A Pepper Primer.
Nationwide “eat-ins” show way to a revived National School Lunch Program | Grist
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
All across the country this past Labor Day, folks gathered for picnics. That’s no surprise, of course. After all, it was a holiday, and the weather was grand across nearly the whole continent. But there was something unique about one group of picnics; 307 of them to be exact, in all 50 states. They were dubbed “Eat-Ins” (modeled on the sit-ins of the ‘60s), and they were a call to action by Slow Food USA
At those picnics, including one right here in Iowa City, more than 20,000 people gathered around tables in parks and farms and school grounds to tell Congress to fix the School Lunch Program. Most of the discussions at these events and in the press afterwards centered on improving the food itself through increased Federal spending and local food initiatives. But there was another topic directly relevant to Labor Day: the call to create green jobs with a “School Lunch Corps.”
via Nationwide “eat-ins” show way to a revived National School Lunch Program | Grist.
The Devotay eNewsletter, September 2009
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
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| Volume XIV, Issue 10 – All the News That’s Fit to Eat – Since 1996 |
| Feels like football outside
The Devotay eNewsletter – September, 2009 Autumn seems like it might come early this year, and while it is my favorite time of the year, I hope we get a couple more weeks of heat, if only for the sake of my tomatoes. This month I do have a couple repeats from the August eNewsletter, however they’re important and bear repitition. But first… Vote Early, Vote Often In previous years many of you have been kind enough to show your support for well-prepared local food by voting for Devotay in the PC’s annual reader poll. Kim and I and the Best Dang Crew In Town truly appreciate it, and your continued support lo these past 13 years. Hope you’ll consider doing it again. In this year’s poll there are quite a few categories, but the online voting system only “requires” votes in 10 of them for your vote to count. For our out-of-town (or new-to-town!) readers, I’ve listed a few recommendations below in all those categories. The other 60(!) or so are up to you (well I guess they all are actually, aren’t they?) or you can simply skip past them if you’re in a hurry. But the little thing at the bottom that asks you to enter a code (gotta prove you’re human) – that thing is CaSe SeNsItIvE. One other little quirk: as of this writing they’ve got a small omission on the first page – the info they ask for, and yet don’t specify, is your email address. And personally I’ve never gotten any junk mail from them as a result. I think it’s just to help them avoid voter fraud, hanging chads, stuff like that. Here’s the thing though: The system will allow you to return and vote for your faves once a day. If you have a realtively up-to-date web browser, it’ll remember your votes for you so all you’ll need to do is click on each category twice to get the same entry to appear. If you have a Twitter account, you can get a reminder to vote each day by following us @Devotay. Here are those tips:
So vote early and vote often, and forward this message to a friend as well.  Any Size Donation Makes you a Member of Slow Food
Have you always wondered what this whole Slow Food thing is all about? Well there’s never been a better time to join. Not only is Slow Food USA a leader in the sustainable food movement, connecting food and pleasure with awareness and responsibility, but it is currently stepping up for our kids with the Time for Lunch Campaign (more on that below). And now, ANY DONATION, NO MATTER THE SIZE, GIVES YOU FULL MEMBERSHIP to the leading food advocacy group in the country. Attend events, receive the newsletter, make a difference in your food community. There are 7 chapters in Iowa. More than 200 nationwide. Join the organization Food Arts Magazine called “an adroit advocate for protection of the environment, as well as for the enjoyment and appreciation of fine food and drink”
It’s quick and easy: Join here today |
The First Lady of Food
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009“We were a busy working family. I’d find it difficult to feed my family in a healthy way – quickly. So i decided to change our diet. This happened throughout the course of the campaign, with simple things. I started adding more fruits and vegetables, trying to sit down and prepare a meal as a family a couple times a week, and eating out a little bit less. Trying to eliminate processed and sugary foods as much as possible. And I saw some really immediate results with just those minor changes. I thought well, If i could help other families learn these small changes in my role as first lady, that would be a good thing.”
The Devotay eMail Newsletter, August, 2009
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009Lots and lots to cover
The Devotay eNewsletter – August 2009
We’re hitting harvest time, a busy time for everybody. School is back in session, and right on schedule my Cubbies are fading. But we have lots of great events coming up. How ’bout a picnic, a dinner, a movie and 3 beer fests? Plus the wine tasting series returns. So pour a cold local brew, sit back & enjoy….
Time for Lunch!
The Time for Lunch Campaign is a project of Slow Food USA, an educational non-profit (501c3) with the goal of creating a world in which everyone can enjoy food that is good, clean and fair.
This fall, we’re asking parents, teachers and every responsible citizen to speak up and tell our nation’s leaders that change can’t wait: It’s time to provide our children with REAL FOOD at school.
To reach as many people as possible, Slow Food is organizing “Eat-Ins” across the country this Labor Day, September 7th. These will be traditonal potlucks with the added twist of getting people involved in improving school food. As of this writing there are 242 planned nationwide.
Iowa City’s Eat-In will be held at Shelter #12 of Lower City Park (Here’s a map, #12 is just south of the railroad). It will go from 11am-3pm. All are welcome, the more we have the louder our voice on this important issue. Please bring a (local and sustainable!) dish to share, a beverage if you like, and reusable plates, silver, etc. to cut down on waste.
RSVP on facebook here or by email here.
We’ve invited every local, state and federal politician to join us. Please encourage one or more of them with a quick email (all their addresses are here).
To get real food in schools, we need more than a picnic. We need your help:
Mark your calendars now and tell everyone you know. This is a downpayment on health care reform that every side of the debate can support. We need your help. (more…)