Snow Angels

Another snowy weekend.  Sigh.  Snowy weekends means no car rides to extreme outer borough destination hot spots.  Snowy weekends means sweatpants and--dare I say it?--Uggs.  Snowy weekends means making the best of your own neighborhood. 

For us, that meant a short walk to Ovelia, a shiny and sleek Greek-ish restaurant that opened in Astoria two years ago.  Pros: huge menu with tons of tasty things that definitely aren't on the 1,700-calorie-per-day diet by which I'm hoping to adhere.  Cons: terrible European techno soundtrack that would be much more appropriate if it were night, if it were Saturday, if this were a dance club, and if I were on drugs.  

We sat at the bar.  My girls, to my left and my right, drank red wine while I enjoyed Ovelia's version of the bellini, lychee puree and sparkling wine.  We ordered kobe beef sliders, three to an order (how perfect!), White Castle-sized sandwiches that came adorned with haloumi cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato.  The burgers also came with a side of herbed mayonnaise and thick, fresh potato chips.  

The so-called apple, bacon, and cream cheese toast was actually more like a panini, two thin pressed pieces of toast holding together a sandwich that included all the above elements as well as apple marmalade.  The sandwich's only real imperfection was that sweet overwhelmed salty; more cheese (or a saltier variety) would have offered a more staggering contrast.  But the bacon was fresh and chewy, the marmalade the consistency of quince paste.  The dish arrived with a heaping Greek salad, full of oversized squares of fresh feta, green and red peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and kalmata olives.  The salad satisfied my daily need for ruffage.  

At the request of my chocolate-fiend companion, we ordered the menu's least heart-healthy finale, a deep fried Snicker's bar, something I have only ever seen before at state fairs.  Not that I was ever allowed to order desserts like this growing up, but at least I'd seen them.  With this, the advertising didn't lie.  Two medium-sized candy bars had literally been battered and deep fried.  They melted when cut, although the caramel seemed to rebel against the hot oil and became tougher than normal.  It was gooey, salty, sweet, and the kind of dastardly dessert that I'd prefer not to know the nutritional information on.  

Well, that's okay.  As Jennifer Aniston once said, all dieters need a seventh day.  My seventh day is Sunday.  

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Ovelia

3401 Astoria Avenue

Astoria, NY 11103

718.721.7217