Guido’s woos locals with lunch specials
No snow, lower prices – now that’s an equation that works to a diner’s benefit. Guido’s Favorite Foods, that temple to authentic trattoria cooking, is offering a lunch special every day for $9 through the end of April.
Tourists are fewer, so to bring more locals through its doors at 12th and Main, the restaurant is cutting the price of its daily special to under 10 bucks.
On Monday, they served turkey scalloppine, with mozzarella cheese, sauteed mushrooms and cream. Wednesday they’re offering a pannini of prosciutto coto, Calabrese salami, provolone, roasted red peppers and pepperoncini with a side of caprese, pasta or house salad.
Lunch for less than $10 in Durango? That’s something to smile about.
Which brand of coconut milk is best?
Has your doctor urged you to trade in butter for coconut oil, cream for coconut milk? Those plant-based fats are the new miracle substitutes for dairy, which many believe causes inflammation and congestion.
During a two-week, no-dairy diet, I tried every brand of full-fat, unsweetened, organic coconut milk I could find in local groceries. Counterintuitively, the coconut milks sold in half gallons in the refrigerator case are sweetened and often full of questionable ingredients.
The results of my taste test offered one surprise – purest isn’t always perfect. Natural Value, made of nothing but coconut and water, had the weakest coconut flavor of the four and spoiled after a single day. Taste of Thai was the creamiest and most flavorful of the bunch while containing the fewest calories and lowest fat count.
It, too, was made of coconut meat and water, but also included guar gum as a stabilizer, as did Thai Kitchen and Native Forest. The coconut milk gave a creamy taste to tea, a hint of sweetness to soups and the right amount of body to waffles and pancakes. And just think – it’s healthy.
Cajun comes to Pagosa
If you’re craving gumbo or fried catfish and don’t mind a drive, The Lost Cajun will open Friday in Pagosa Springs.
The latest outlet of a chain with three other Colorado locations, the new restaurant is at 438C Pagosa St. (once the Elk Horn Café), open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. every day and offering Louisiana favorites like chicken and sausage gumbo, red beans and rice and those fried cornmeal nuggets of deliciousness, hush puppies.
Ryan Strong and girlfriend Michelle Juneau are opening the venture to bring authentic Cajun cuisine to the Rocky Mountains, with Juneau in the kitchen and Strong running the 48-seat dining room. Strong says he expects the voodoo pasta, andouille sausage and sweet shrimp in a butter sauce, will be a best seller, as well as the savory lobster bisque.
But what about the gumbo, that hallmark of Cajun cooking?
“It’s as good as anything you’ll get in New Orleans,” he boasted. “I’m hoping people feel like they’ve found home again.”
Pamela Hasterok
