Somehow we got another warm weekend out of this year before it really turns into fall. I decided to take this opportunity to reflect on one of the best lunches I shared with Christine and our mom earlier this summer.
Yet again, we found ourselves at Teresa’s Cafe in Princeton. This really is my favorite Princeton restaurant. I was there the other night with some friends visiting from Brussels, and we were all extremely pleased with our meal. I had a pasta dish with pork fennel sausage, and I must say, fennel is one of my new favorite flavors.
Anyway, back to the summer lunch. This happened over the week-ish that Christine was actually home during the summer. We probably had errands to run, but a nice Mother-Daughter lunch seemed like the perfect start to our day (remember, this was late summer).
We started with prosciutto and melon.
Usually when I’ve ordered this dish in the past, the prosciutto is sliced extremely thinly and the cantaloupe melon is cut into thick slices. I was pleasantly surprised at this new take on the classic Italian dish. The melon was sliced into extremely thin rounds. The prosciutto was still thin, and the saltiness was the perfect compliment to the sweet melon. There was also what I believe was a balsamic drizzle with spiced pistachios and micro greens sprinkled on top.
Next, we ordered the special salad of the day. I was not that excited by the waitress’s description, but I must have missed several of the ingredients she mentioned because this ended up being one of the best salad’s I’ve ever had. I was so glad Christine and my mom picked it!
So this was a spinach salad topped with quinoa, fresh corn, grilled peaches and grilled shrimp. The dressing was a peach champagne vinaigrette, and it was wonderful in that it was light but still with a great flavor that tied the whole dish together. The peaches were soft with their sweetness bursting in every bite. The shrimp was perfectly grilled as well. With a crackling of freshly ground pepper, this dish was superb.
Our final selection was the fico pizza.
As tasty as it is beautiful. This is a white pizza with fontina and mozzarella cheese that is topped with arugula, black mission figs, sweet coppa and aged balsamic. While I am a big fan of thick saucy pizza, the pizzas you get from Teresa’s exhibit a different sense of elegance and simplicity that really highlight the flavors of the interesting ingredients that top the dough. This one in particular had a great blend of sweet, salty, and spicy, all while allowing each ingredient to shine through without overpowering the others.
This was truly a wonderfully balanced and delicious lunch. A real treat for us three girls to enjoy some excellent food with each other before the summer drew to its close.