The Nose Dive...Again!

Recently I had some out-of-towners passing through (Hi Chelsea! Hi Alyssa!) and I took them for a tour of beautiful downtown Greenville.  The hosting duty afforded me a great opportunity to revisit my favorite restaurant Nose Dive.  Here is a review of the interesting tasty bites we tried.

*Please note - While you all know I worship unique food, these girls are young college students who would be more apt to dine at Applebees so they were very brave to join me on this culinary experience and I thank them for it*

The Beer

I tried a Bear Republic Ryevalry - American-Belgo-Style Double IPA

It was super good.  Light in color.  Cloudy in consistency.  Tons of citrus followed by a very herb-y taste, I'd say like basil.  It wasn't too heavy but one was enough for me.  Bear Republic Brewery hails from CA - you can "like" them on FB here: http://www.facebook.com/bearrepublic

Side note alert!

For those of you in Greenville, there is a small craft beer store The Community Tap where they specialize in having rare and craft beer on their growler pouring station.  What's a growler you ask? It is a 64 oz. refillable glass jug used for draft beer takeout.  They change the selections daily.  They had the above mentioned Ryevalry just yesterday!...and I missed it.  Like them on FB here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Community-Tap/104211012961122 or visit their website here: http://www.thecommunitytap.com/

Back to the food! I am determined to try everything on this menu, so here are four new dishes I can scratch off my list.

The Appetizer

Prince Edward Island Mussels in a Lemongrass and Chili broth served with crusty bread.

Broth was amazing. Fragrant, spicy, I almost asked for a spoon.  The mussels were...hmmm...ok.  I hate not giving a stellar review to my beloved Nose Dive but I admit I lost a little faith in the food this trip.  They were a little overdone and rather stringy.  Don't get me wrong, I sopped up all the goodness at the bottom of that bowl with the bread.

The Main Course(s)

First up, I had another appetizer, a Scotch Egg.  A scotch egg is a classic pub dish containing a hard boiled egg wrapped in a ground meat mixture (in this case pork) and deep fried.  They are commonly eaten cold, although mine was more room temperature and they elevated the dish by pairing it with a celery remoulade, roasted red pepper puree and a little slaw.  Sigh...it was just eh.  Rather dry, pretty bland.  But it too, is scratched off of my list...forever.

Next comes Alyssa's Chicken Sandwich.  This leans toward the more normal side of their offerings but it was magic just the same.  Tender chicken served on a french baguette with caprese salad fixings in the middle (basil puree, fresh mozzarella, roasted cherry tomatoes and arugula).  She of course got it with the duck fat fried sweet potato fries which may be the only item I revisit over and over again.

On to Chelsea's meal, the Croque Madame.  The Madame is the female counterpart to the Monsieur, a fancy grilled ham and cheese.  What makes it a Madame is when you add an egg on top - delish!!! It was pretty ridiculous.  Ham, Gruyere, Lusty Monk mustard, Mornay sauce and a fried egg.  Rich, creamy, bread-y...an Atkins nightmare.  Paired with the ever popular sweet potato fries it was a feast worthy of 3 extra days on the treadmill.

The Dessert

Ok, I have to apologize to the girls on this one because before the waiter could even ask us if we wanted dessert I was foaming at the mouth as he crossed the room towards us and I verbally tackled him with my order.  Dark Chocolate Candied Bacon Brownie with Oatmeal Porter ice cream.  It was....well...different.  Some bites had very little bacon which gave you intense chocolate flavor but other bites were chock full of very smokey crunchy bacon bits, which, when mixed with the soft brownie tasted like a little acrid campfire in your mouth...but in a good way.  Then when you paired it with the sweet, bitter ice cream it was a confusing tangle of tastes.  It was like The Matrix.  I didn't really understand it, yet I know I liked it, but yet I wasn't sure why.  Will I have it again? Probably not any time soon...unless I get more visitors :)