Dipsticks

It's probably common knowledge out there, but this experience was a first for me. My son and daughter-in-law gave us a gift card to The Melting Pot in downtown Boise. We decided to use it in the middle of a gigantic blizzard, but hey!, nobody else was downtown.

The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant. So basically, you kind of have to order the same thing. It's a four course meal, and goes: cheese, salad, entree, dessert. The only thing wide open was the salad option. I had Caesar, my wife had one of the house specials.

The waitress uses a little pot to melt some cheeses together and you use long, dainty, forks to dip stuff in the hot cheese. It looks like this:

She comes back around to clean this up, and brings you the salad so you won't get bored. During this phase, there was plenty of time to drift off to Facebook, etc.

The main course consists of a bunch of raw stuff we had to cook ourselves. We had to order the same thing, and share a pot of broth to cook it in, with our dainty forks. I've cooked with mojo spices, so we went that route. The girl left us a bunch of dipping spices for our chicken, shrimp, lobster, beef, and this ravioli thing. The mushroom ravioli thing was really good.

Dessert was handled the same way, but it involved melted chocolate with fruit and brownies to dip. We ordered the Turtles style, so there was caramel and pecans in it.

It was all really good, but it takes too damned long. It's also kind of fussy for me. You don't get a lot of food, but it's enough because of the time involved. It's not the same as wolfing down pizza like ravenous wolves.

At least they had Black Butte Porter. This is a workmanlike porter that's available pretty much everywhere. To be honest, I didn't know if I could just enjoy it, or was supposed to stick my pinkie out.

PS: Beards do not fare well with fondue, and the dessert is sticky. I know we'll be going back, because Old What's Her Face loved it. Hope you all had a great evening.