fine. 3 words:
ABC Package Store.
Funked, V-Day, in my experience, sucks as a night to dine out. Every place is full, and mostly sappy couples. The whole goal of the event, unless things have changed since I moved back to the midwest and became a pathetic bachelor, is to get laid.
If men ran the world, V-Day would be a slam-dunk night for nookie. As it is, it's a royal pain in the ass, and winning or losing often seems to have little to do with sentiment or preparation.
One thing is for certain, and that's that restaurants suck on valentine's day. every "nice" place is swamped; food quality decreases, crowd factor goes up, ugly scenes everywhere, and the huge pricetag makes everyone unhappy and ready for bed.
Creamo's cooks-and-fondue is a much better call.
Oh yeah, here's one for you:
run down to that publix on the East side. In their fancy cheese container they have a lot of crap you don't want to have anything to do with. They also have all kinds of mozzarella. Pick upt he stuff that says "Lupara" and has a wolf on it. It's the real deal, Mozzarella di Bufala, made from the water buffalo in the area around Naples, and is the only thing in the state of georgia thatis technically mozzarella.
While you're there, grab some fresh tomatoes on the vine, and some fresh basil leaves.. (yeah I know it's not the season for either. But you're int he south). Get some Extra Virgin Olive Oil if you don't have it already (always tasty anyway).
Cut the mozzarella and tomatoes into slices, arrange on plates, garnish with basil leaves, sea salt and frehs-ground pepper. Drizzle olive oil on top, and you've got a classic appettizer. (insalata caprese).
Plus you can do a little internet research on mozz di bufala and impress her with your culinary knowledge.
For the plate, grab some Maverick steaks at same publix -- go for the NY strip steak or something. Grab some potatoes. I like the small ones. Purchase some truffle oil while you're at it. If you get the concentrated stuff, mix a bit with olive oil; normally you'll get some stuff that's already cut (how do you tell? Well, if you say, "holy crap, this stuff is more than a buck a teaspoon", you've got the uncut stuff.
Cook the potatoes, and rice them (hell mash 'em. you won't have a ricer)
Put a mixture of half-butter, half-olive/truffle oil in a pan, melt it and get it hot at medium-high heat. Throw in the steaks, brown 30 seconds to a side, then cook for 4 minutes on a side (you may want to try this earlier to make sure you get the right doneness for your hardware. Deploying an untested recipe is dangerous). Take the steaks out and let them set for a minute while you prepare the plates.
Serve with a decent red. ABC had some CA merlot last month for $8/bottle that was pretty tasty.
