Those fondue skewers are great...

now if only there were about 10 more of them.

That was how the meal began. It ended with grunts and groans and a request to be pushed out in a wheelbarrow. Ah, dinner at The Melting Pot. In yet another attempt to satisfy my increasing desire to head back across the pond and to celebrate Danny's new job, we enjoyed an evening of fondue. Tonight we opted to order off the Alpine menu, basking in the gluttony of a four-course meal.

This was a post that apparently I'd written back on February 21, but never bothered to publish. In any case, now I want fondue. Hopefully, by the end you will too and we can make a date to go out for dinner!

I know you're all excited to hear about the food and see pictures, but first, let me share with you the entertainment part of the evening. For those who haven't been to The Melting Pot, it's a pretty interesting experience. Each table is a secluded little booth, isolated from those adjacent to it. You can hear your neighbors, but not see them. We spent the better part of the night listening to the man next to us monopolize the conversation in what we are sure was a blind date. What did I learn from this experience? Never go to a fondue restaurant, where dinner takes a minimum of 2-3 hours on a blind date. That poor woman! She was seated as far from him as she could be in that intimate little booth. She barely spoke a word for the two hours we were there. He, on the other hand, had lots to say. First, he asked what her financial goals were. Was he an insurance salesman? We couldn't be sure. Later, the conversation progressed into a discussion of pop culture: music, tv shows, and sports. While these are topics of typical first date discussions, what we overheard could have been an audio of what NOT to say on a first date. He name dropped every musician's name he could think of in an attempt to sound like an expert: "Jay Z and Fifty Cent, oh yes, they did a whole concert together, 6 songs; I have the DVD." Um...okay? As if this wasn't bad enough, he proceeded to play (loudly) several songs from his phone.

Enough of the entertainment, I know what you really want is to hear about the food!

First there was the cheese - gruyere, raclette, and fontina melted with white wine, garlic, and nutmeg infused mustard. We dipped cauliflower, kielbasa, apples, white and brown bread, and pickles into the cheesy goodness. Next came the salads. Plates of lettuce covered in more cheese, honey roasted almonds, sun-dried tomatoes, and a shallot vinagrette. Sorry folks, no photos of these. We gobbled them up too fast, the result of a 9pm reservation.

For our main course, we went with the Coq a Van style of cooking. The broth was a burgandy wine base, infused with garlic and mushrooms. Our plate came with the stock potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms as well as filet mignon, strip steak, chicken, shrimp, lobster tail, bratwurst, and sun-dried tomato ravioli.

So fat we couldn't eat another bite, of course we ordered dessert. We opted for the Yin-Yang, a combination of white and dark chocolates. The pound cake, brownies, and rice krispy treats were nice, but the bananas and strawberries were the stars of this dish.

Here's hoping our next fondue experience is actually in Switzerland!