At the Coppa-cabana . . .

So Thursday was free lunch day.  Department lunch celebrating co-worker's promotion at Coppa in Houston on Washington.  It's Italian.  It was ok.  I didn't think I ate that much but sitting here at my desk  it is apparent I thought wrong.

Really liked the environs and food for the most part was prepared pretty light which was a nice change.  However they used some spices I am not a real big fan of.  Primarily fennel.. Gag me.

For starters there were meatballs, fried zucchini, and frito misto (fried seafood).  The friend stuff all had alight lemony essence which was ok.  Seafood and zucchini fried almost tempura style.  Very light though and nice.  The meatballs were ok.  The sauce was kind of spicy and I don't really dig spicy Italian.  Not sure why, I just don't.  Next had a Caesar salad with lettuce that looked wilted and old, but turns out was actually grilled. I started out eating it thinking it was fine but then Chungry was convinced it was freezer burn.  I got so freaked out about it (I HATE old lettuce, totally grosses me out) that I couldn't eat about half my salad.  Ultimately that is fine b/c I didn't need it anyway.  I started a  boot camp on Tuesday. More on that in a bit.  Nice spicy dressing with anchovies and homemade croutons.  Nice presentation.

frito misto

 

fried zucchini and meatballs

For my entree I had the baked pork chop.  It was listed as coming with seasonal vegetables so I assumed that meant a serving of veggies on the side.  It turned out to be more like a garnish.  It was onions and spinach and some other stuff I couldn't recognize all chopped up around the pork chop.  Presentation on the plate was nice though.  I was disappointed that I really didn't have any vegetables to eat.  I also didn't like the seasoning on the vegetables.  they were cooked with orange peel which left a bitter citrus taste--combined again with the fennel so no thank you  to that.  Pork chop was lighter on the fennel so not bad.  Meat was kind of dried out with not much flavor.  I ate about a third and left the rest.

 

pork chop al forno w seasonal vegetables

Dessert was better.  The whole table had these Italian donut holes that were ok.  Then there were some extra orders of a chocolate malt cake with pistachio ice cream.  Really nice choc malt sauce on the plate and garnished with crushed Whoppers.  Cannot go wrong with that.  Best of all, excellent strong coffee to top it off.  I never get though why Italian places don't give you warm milk for your coffee.  I don't like putting cold cream in my hot coffee and then drinking luke warm coffee.  Anyway, it was good so hats off Coppa on the coffee.

 

coffee and Caesar salad.  Chocolate malt cake below

I should not have had dessert since I am trying to get off the sweets.  I have managed to go 2 and a half days without sweets.  Don't laugh.  If you have a raging sweet tooth, two days is an eternity.  Now I have to start over.  I need to get one of those safety signs that say how many days its been since the place had an incident but mine would be for eating candy and cake and whatever.  And why am I not eating sweets?  Because I started a boot camp on Tuesday.  It's an aquatic boot camp that is supposed to be based on the Army Deep Dive training.  They also have a nutrition component so I'm trying to follow that eating plan loosely for how many helpings of proteins, starch and fruits and vegetables for each meal, staying within 

1200-1400 calories.  I may have just blown that wide open at lunch just now.  Boot camp was cool though.  Pretty sore today on upper body.  At some point swim fins will be involved which makes me a little nervous.  And if I may take liberties to talk about the pool location for the boot camp.  Holy crap is it nice.  It's like an Olympic training facility.  Boot camp is held at the school district's natatorium--and yes they really call it that.  Olympic size pool with 8 lanes, 3 diving platforms, hot tub, locker rooms and I don't even know what else.  There were so many people there Tuesday night for various swim practice and lessons and water polo it was nuts.  Oh and it's a salt water pool to boot.  Water temp was a little cold for my taste but I got over it after the initial shock of jumping in.  I'll have to take a picture tonight when I go.

Ok- have to get back to looking up Santa Barbara real estate.  I'm planning my retirement today.