Sometimes you just want a proper lunch. Nothing too fussy or elegant, but something for one of those days when making it until noon without going back to bed is reason enough to treat yourself to something special. Something, preferably, that doesn’t come on a bun. Or with a side of french fries.
That’s why it was so nice to see fewer sandwiches on Allium’s lunch menu last week and more inspiring ideas for the midday meal. To add even more variety to our day, my friend and I decided to share three plates.
I was told on my way out the door that the lunch menu will be changing up for the month of March sometime this week, so these particular dishes might not be available.
I don’t encounter snails very often, so when I spotted crispy fried snails, I couldn’t not order them. Our server told us they were chicken fried — not sure if that means fried in chicken fat or just treated like fried chicken. Either way, these melt-in-the-mouth baby beignets were divine (banish any thoughts of rubbery or briny specimens) — especially when used to mop up the sticky honey-garlic sauce at the bottom of the bowl reminiscent of the sweet dip for springrolls. Together with the swath of Sriracha mayo painted around the wide rim of the bowl and confetti of baby cilantro leaves, there was a cleverly unexpected Thai twist to the dish.