Rocky Mountain Fondue

I have been a bad blogger. It has been so hard trying to find a balance between exercise, sleep, and blogging (work is non-negotiable. As is eating). Blog usually gets put to the back burner because it affects my health much less than adequate sleep and regular exercise do, so it can’t come first, but it also causes me sadness when I see all these other busy people who are able to blog daily! Please teach me your ways. Anyways, that’s for a different post.

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Last week, I went to a little place called Colorado on business. You probably don’t know this, but Colorado is my second favorite state. I spend a summer during college living and working in Estes Park, Colorado, right on the border of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was amazing and beautiful and I had a wonderful time.

I made it a goal at that point to someday live in this state, hopefully in Boulder. It’s such a great town and I really fit in perfectly there. Climb, hike, and swim all summer, ski all winter… just my style.

Anyway, I hadn’t been back to rocky mountain paradise for a few years… until this week. I went to Colorado Springs on business and was able to enjoy the fresh-smelling air and the beautiful landscape. Despite being less than 5 miles from Pikes Peak, our schedule didn’t exactly allow for me to hike it, but that’s okay—next time!

One of the highlights of my very short trip was my first trip to The Melting Pot. I had heard of it—a place where you go and dip stuff into cheese and chocolate fondue (not at the same time)—and it sounded right up my alley, but I had never gone.

Until now. (duh-duh duh….)

Every table had a hot plate (or two) on which fondue or cooking liquid (more on that later) would be placed. It reminded me of Benihana or one of those cook-your-own-meat Japanese places. But more awesome because chocolate would be involved.

Course one was cheese fondue made with lager beer, cheddar cheese, worschetershire sause, and garlic. We got veggies, apples, chips, and bread to dip in. Green apples for the win. Yum.

Next up was a California salad and a whole bucket of dressing on the side. Nom.

The “entrée” part was quite interesting. It is somewhat in the cook-it-yourself way of thinking, where you actually pick a cooking style and they bring out a pot for you and you cook your meat/veggies yourself. Some of the choices were traditional vegetable broth, a certain canola oil which was basically like frying, a Caribbean “mojo” sauce, and a coq au vin cooking sauce with red wine. We went with the Caribbean.

I went with the vegetarian entrée which was essentially a big plate of veggies—portobellos, artichoke hearts, asparagus, tofu…

And it also came with a bowl of veggies on the side. And we got approximately one dozen dipping sauces from which to choose. #toomanychoices

About halfway through my veggies I began to feel like I may be sick if I had just one more bite. But that was before the best course of all: the chocolate!

We decided to get the one with the best name, which was obviously the “cookies and cream marshmallow dream.” Which came with dark chocolate, marshmallow, and oreo pieces all mixed together.

Dippers were bananas, strawberries, rice krispies, pound cake, brownie, cheesecake, and graham-cracker- and oreo-coated marshmallows.

This was really too much. It was so delicious but at this point I started feeling like I had been very, very cruel to my body.

I hit a food coma right there at the table and almost fell asleep. So much for my lose-five-pounds goal; gaining five sounds MUCH more fun!

Anyways, it was really fun and definitely an entertaining dining experience. What I didn’t realize before is that it is EXPENSIVE! OMG! I could not believe the prices. This is the place I might come afterwards for dessert with a friend or two and just buy the chocolate ($15.50 for two people). Eating dinner there should only be for a VERY special occasion. Especially if you are going to pay $20 for a plate of vegetables that wouldn’t even make a salad by themselves. Regardless, I’m glad I went. It was fun and man did I sleep well that night.

Happy Thursday, everybody!

Have you ever been to The Melting Pot? What do you think of fondue?

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