Eat, Drink & Be Merry....

For the last few years a trip to West Palm Beach was in my summer plans. Not only is it GORGEOUS down there (their beaches rival ours & win hands down, any day!) but they also have a little ampitheatre down there that one of my favorite bands happens to frequent. Every year like clockwork tickets would be bought in March, hotel booked in May, concert to follow in July. Unfortunately, Dave Matthews Band has decided to take a year off :( So I am forced to break tradition. Not that there aren't other things to do down there but so MUCH to do (and it is rather expensive) that I love only having that on the agenda with free time to roam and eat :) Or TRY to make it to their beach. Hasn't happened yet~usually due to weather oh and the near shark attack experience I had one year. I'll take the hotel pool ANY day thanks.....

Music aside, I LOVE LOVE LOVE shopping down there. Mainly at City Place. It's truly amazing (though ask the BF & he sees nothing but overpriced stores). I could literally spend all day there. And wish I could....by myself. Free to take my time roaming around Anthropologie (LOVE!), enjoying an afternoon Gelato, or seeing a movie at their massive theatre. But in reality i'm begging to leave the hotel to get in some shopping before my REAL reason to go there. One restaurant. It's all I need. Taverna Opa. From the moment I walked in, I knew this was my kind of place. Very serene (blues & teals), dark wood furniture, open kitchen and DE-lish food. If relationships with food were legal, i'd have a love affair with Mediterranean Cuisine. Not only is it considered the healthiest "diet", the food rocks. And is SO SIMPLE! It's really hard to decide what to eat when I go ("Last Supper" experience if you will) but if you go for happy hour you can order "Meze" which are little plates of food. Perfect for sharing & allowing me to order all my favorites.

Since I have to miss out on tradition (though i'm still pushing for a weekend trip :) I decided to recreate some of my favorites for dinner....

On the menu:
My take on Spanikopita & Hummus (they bring you a morter & pestle with whole chickpeas, so you make it fresh to order...mmmmmmm) along with some dippers.

Untillllllllllll my dough didn't come out right. Guess that's to be expected as i've never used anything but butter in my recipes..a learning process. So, I improvised. I turned to the quesadilla as my vessel for spanikopita filling. And it was SO good.



Doesn't mean I won't try dough again. But until I get the recipe right, at least I can still Eat, Drink and Be Merry.......