Beets? For real??

So anyone who knows me well knows there are two things I don't care to eat - beets and raw oysters. If a Greek salad gets delivered and they accidentally put on beets, back to the kitchen it goes. And if they dare try to take off the beets and bring the salad back with red juice on the feta cheese, back to the kitchen it goes. Recently, I was teased by a waiter who brought me roasted beet and goat cheese salad without the beets, as ordered. "Here's your beet salad without the beets" he said with a smile. I can't help it. I just don't like beets. I haven't liked them since I was a little girl. Regardless of the myriad ways my sister Phyllis has made them over the intervening years, the mere thought of them makes me shiver. Until last week....

We had a snow day last week and the campus and restaurants were closing at 12 noon. Of course the morning students had already been cooking since early and the American Bounty restaurant, second only to Escoffier for fine dining on campus, had lots of cancellations of course. An email was sent to Department Heads inviting us to make a reservation and come down for a complimentary lunch, so the students would have an adequate educational experience. Now, do you think they had to ask me twice?! I tried to find a colleague to accompany me, but many hadn't even come in that day (they don't know how to drive in snow, but that's another story), or they wanted to get on the road early to get home before the big snow. (The big storm that wasn't....)

No big deal, I'm used to eating alone, so down I went. We were to order three courses, so I perused the menu looking for things without dairy and minimal gluten. I've discovered goat cheese is tolerable to my system so I'm always on the lookout for that because I so miss my cheese. First course, mussells. Absolutely fabulous - cooked perfectly, lovely broth. Second course, oh oh. There's that roasted beet and goat cheese salad again, with arugula and blood oranges. Well, I can flick the beets off right? I don't like to give the students special instructions as I know they're working to a very specific recipe so I figured I could alter the dish after I received it and no one would be the wiser.

Well, I was absolutely delighted with the presentation of the "salad" but it didn't look like anything I've had before. I couldn't figure out where the beets were, as all I could see were four little one inch square napoleans sitting atop little mounds of arugula with blood orange slices between the stacks and a crushed pistachio and chive oil drizzle around the edge of the plate, an oblong affair that was perfectly suited to the dish. So where were the beets? Turns out those little napoleans were perfectly sliced roasted beets - but not the red variety, they were golden, and the goat cheese was herbed and put between the layers. Couldn't very well flick the beets away.... So, I took a bite, and oh my goodness, it was wonderful. A little bite of the arugula dressed perfectly, a little bite of blood orange dipped in the pistachios and chive oil. Goodness gracious, I liked it! Good thing I have good manners or I would have been licking that plate. Third course, cioppino - fish stew. Fabulous. But I knew I'd be dreaming about that salad. How could that be??

Yesterday, I was walking around downtown Rhinebeck, my new home town (but that's another story?) and happened upon an interesting looking restaurant. Ready for a break and armed with plenty of reading material about the surrounding area and goings on, I sat down and started perusing the menu. So there again we have roasted beets and goat cheese, this time in a risotto. Dare I try it? Dare I push my luck with beets? What the heck! Why not!! I ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc and waited for the surprise. My heart sunk when I saw the pink in the risotto. I wondered if this was going to be that old familiar flavor that I'd come to hate. So I gingerly took a small bite, with no beet cube in it and the flavor was quite good. Ok, I thought, time to taste the beets. Not bad, got a bit of pancetta with it. It wasn't too strong. Took another bite of risotto with a few beet cubes. OK, let's not get carried away. Let's just eat mostly risotto and a few beet cubes but leave most of them behind. So I probably ate half of what was on the plate. Honestly, I enjoyed the dish. Am I going to start ordering beets every time I see them on the menu? No, but if they're fresh roasted I just might.

Now, can anyone tell me why the beets in the salad were golden and not red?? Well, I guess it's down to raw oysters now. As if it wasn't hard enough watching my weight, now I'm only down to one thing I don't like to eat. Darn. :-)

Ciao for now!