An "Mmm!" Meal on Maple

Maple Street is a very popular place, for locals and tourists alike. Swap Boutique, P. J.'s Coffee, and Maple Street Bookshop are all there, as well as a couple of especially delicious eateries, spread all about the long street. I, myself, have been to a few of them, The Chill Out Cafe, Le Cote Sud, Satsuma (next post), and Fresco. One of the restaurants I had never ventured into is the Maple Street Cafe. This restaurant had seemed more of an "old people" place to me, and I was never really interested. But one day, I took a walk down Maple Street around lunchtime, and suddenly a wave of hunger washed over me like a tsunami. I'm the kind of person who likes to try new things, in life as well as culinarily speaking. So as I had eaten at mostly all of the Maple Street restaurants, and there were only a couple I had not stopped into, I decided to try out the Maple Street Cafe. So after a quick glance at the menu taped outside, I opened the door and stepped inside.

After I was seated, and was provided with a drink and menu, I took a good look around. It did not look at all bad. On the contrary, it looked quite cheerful, and since it was Lundi Gras, it was decorated with purple, green, and gold lights and baubles. The feel of the place was very nice, and the cheerful chatter of everyone added a nice note. A waitress came over and took my orders. I say "orders" because I ordered a couple of things. You mustn't think I was going to eat everything. A tip I got from a source told me to taste a lot of things, not just eat one or two substantial courses. So I ordered a few things that looked especially appealing. 

After I ordered, my waitress brought me a basket of warm, crusty bread, and a small bowl of flavored butter. The butter was delicious; it had herbs and some kind of spicy thing in it. Spread liberally on a piece of the yummy bread, it was the perfect way to begin a meal. Just as I finished my bread, my appetizers came. I decided to taste the "Mezes," a very delicious dish, I found. It was a platter of hummus, baba ghanoush, and tabouleh, with wedges of warm pita to eat the dips with. There was also a curious vegetable on the plate. It was a yellow pepper sort of thing, with crinkled edges and no center. When I tasted one, I found it quite delicious, with some tart and spice and sweet all at the same time. Then I got down to business. The hummus tasted very good when piled on a pita slice, and it had a nice flavor of chickpeas and tahini. The baba ghanoush was what I really liked. It had a wonderful roast-y flavor, and I enjoyed it immensely. The tabouleh had a proper parsley content, and was nice and flavorful.

The second appetizer I tested was a browned eggplant cake, dowsed in a crabmeat cream sauce. This dish was my favorite out of the whole meal. It had a delicious, almost indescribable flavor, and the pasty texture was somehow wonderful. The sauce was creamy and yummy, and it paired perfectly with the cake.

The entree I chose was called Penne Sui Sui (Pen-a SHWEY-SHWEY). It sounded very simple on the menu; just penne pasta with roasted garlic, butter, Parmesan, tomatoes, and basil. It sounded great, though, and I favored it over the other fancy pastas on the menu. It came with all the roasted garlic, butter, etc. incorporated in a tomato sauce. The pasta was perfectly al dente, and the sauce was simple yet bright and fresh. After the waitress gave me extra Parmesan, and it melted creamily into the sauce, I was in Mediterranean heaven.

In my opinion, a good meal cannot be complete without something deliciously sweet. Like my rhyme? Anyway, after the waitress rattled off the selection of desserts at my request, I considered for a minute, then settled upon the key lime pie, one of my all-time favorite desserts. The slice was a long, thin one, and it was dusted with powdered sugar and had a sprig of mint stuck into the top. It looked good, it smelled good....now it was time to see if it tasted good. Indeed it did. The lime custard was sweet, creamy, and lovely, and the crust was also very sweet and delectable. The filling was a little bit grainy, but the lime flavor tasted authentic and marvelous. 

The check at MSC was modest for all my food, and the service was great, too. All in all, my meal was worth coming miles for.