Commodore Cruising

Last Tuesday, my KD little sister and I won tickets to see Wicked through a program at Vanderbilt called “Commodore Cruise.” Until this point, I had not met a single person who has ever won one of these elaborate prizes before, and considering I received the good news on April Fools Day, I had a hard time actually believing it until we physically got on the bus.

The evening started off at City Fire, a restaurant in the Gulch that has undergone three management changes in the three years I’ve lived in Nashville. This was my first time visiting under the newest ownership. Upon arriving, we were given a pre-set menu, so unfortunately I didn’t get to try the tuna tartare (a personal favorite), but nevertheless there was quite the spread to enjoy.

Let me preface this next part by saying that our table was having fun bringing out our inner food critics (think Chopped on the Food Network). So while City Fire was certainly not one that I’ll rush back to anytime soon, it was still an overall enjoyable meal (and it was free so even better, right?).

Each table got a different appetizer and luckily ours was guacamole – probably the highlight of the meal to be honest. But then again, for an avid avocado enthusiast like myself, you can’t really mess up guacamole.

Next course was the salad. At first it seemed promising: mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, oranges (oh wait, everyone else got those except for me) and then much to my dismay it was COVERED in bacon – to the point where it overpowered the otherwise light, refreshing dish.

Time for the main course. I ordered the salmon, again another favorites of mine and since the fish is so great on its own I figured it was a safe bet. It was cooked to perfection, but unfortunately it was extremely greasy and oily. The side of spinach was also drenched in oil and onions. Last, but not least, dessert. We chose the sweet potato pie and the marshmallow creme brûlée. From my earlier post, you know my love affair with sweet potatoes, but this one did not measure up. As my friend put it “they did a poor job transforming the sweet potato.” In other words, it tasted like a dried out baked sweet potato with a thin pastry covering. The raspberry and caramel sauces were its only saving graces. As for the creme brûlée, it is a rare treat for me but one of my absolute favorites. I’m still not sure what made this one “marshmallow” because it tasted like an average vanilla creme brûlée. Still tasty, but confusing.

After that interesting dinner, we headed to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center to see Wicked. Although I am slightly obsessed with the Wizard of Oz (#tbt to my bat mitzvah theme: Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Danielle’s Bat Mitzvah), I had never seen this show. I had high expectations, but it definitely did not disappoint. Wow. I can’t get over the fact how the entire storyline ties perfectly into the Wizard of Oz. As the plot progresses it gets more and more linked to the movie and watching it all unfold on stage was nothing short of magical. As soon as the curtains closed I immediately wanted to watch it again, but for now, I’ll settle for listening to the soundtrack 24/7.

hanging out with the flying monkey from the show – turns out he’s Australian!