DUCK BACON
DUCK BACON
DUCK BACON
Should I have to say more?
Really? You need more? Okay, I've been to La Cannelle twice now, & it's been very good both times! They are located in the same little shopping complex as the PO & Pantry 1 Food Mart, which used to be a Wawa. There's not a lot of commercial anything in Wallingford, so if you know Wallingford, you know exactly where they are. They have indoor & outdoor seating, though due to needing a high chair, I was inside both visits.
Interior is clean & new, neutrals, with warehousey-steampunky light fixtures. The dark trims & charcoal granites in contrast with the warmish neutrals made it feel cafe-like to me. The staff is very friendly, & knowledgeable about the menu.
The menu is full of tempting options! Lemon Lavender Pancakes, Grilled Halloumi & Fig Salad, (homemade) Chicken Apple Sausage, French Onion Grilled Cheese, Spicy Marinated Carrots, all kinds of aptly layered tastes!
Table dressings were really cute! Cellars of pink Himalayan salt, fresh flowers, & mason jar mugs with red-&-white striped straws.
Over two visits, I tried the Banana Bread French Toast, the Burrata & Heirloom Tomato Salad, & the Open Faced Braised Lamb Sandwich. On the first visit, the Burrata had THE BEST MOZZ I HAVE EVER HAD, including trips to Italy. It was a crazy food trip eating it, SFG! I have a new standard of what mozz can/should be. OMG, trippy! IME fresh mozz is a white ball of soft-but-firmly-uniform cheese. The mozz at La Cannelle was a white ball with a bit of a skin, & inside, the cheese was runny & creamy in a way that was magic & my synapses were firing to take it in & remember it, like some secret I wish I'd known all my life: "Find the runny mushy mozz & it's heaven!" Wow, that stuff is worth the cost of the plate, right there, but the heirloom toms were bursting with earthy fruity flavor, & the balsamic was there, accenting, but not overpowering, just how I like it. The second time I had it, everything was still very good, but my mozz was a little smaller, & slightly less fresh. Still all very very tasty, but I wanted to note that I detected a slight difference.
The Banana Bread French Toast, was good, but not as expected when I think "French Toast." I honestly had not had FT since I was probably 6 years old, when my dad made us fun breakfasts every Saturday while my mom slept in. I remember the special combo of sogginess & crunch that I know FT to have. Maybe my dad wasn't a pro at making it (although it was pretty darn good), but that was the texture I anticipated, & the accompanying flavor of egg/sugar/bread, in that order. La Cannelle's Banana Bread FT is very heavy, like banana bread normally is. When I began eating it, I felt I probably should have expected the heaviness of b-bread, but perhaps calling it "French Toast" is a misnomer. It didn't seem to have been dunked in egg-milk, but it had been fried a bit. I think calling it Seared Banana Bread Hot Cake or something is a better title for what I ate. That said, the salted caramel sauce, whipped cream cheese & toasted pecan crumble garnishes were very good, & while heavy, the dish was perfect for breakfast cravings, or banana cravings, or what have you. My picky one-year-old enjoyed his portion of it too!
The Braised Lamb Sandwich has pulled lamb that is full of BBQ style taste (in the sense of deep meaty flavor), & it took lamb to a more savory place than I've ever had it. Really amazingly done. I normally roll my eyes at Gruyere, but it was the right choice here, & the fresh figs on top just put it all over the edge. YUM-friggin-yum! I dreamed about this one, it is a fond food memory now, along with the mozz! But, again, with this one, I tasted it on both visits, & it was slightly less astounding the second time, however, take this with a grain of salt, because I note a pattern here, so it might be me building things up to taste like opium or something. The food is still crazy good, don't worry!
Et la pièce de résistance?
You guessed it! DUCK BACON!
I'd never heard of duck bacon before, let alone tried it. It is offered as a side, a little steep at $7 but SOOO worth it, & you get a decent portion for how decadent & rich it is! I did not miss the opportunity to add it on, both times. Delicious. Savory, heavy flavor, indulgent, sweetly glazed, tasted like a crispy slice of duck brisket. Meat candy, Baby! Mmmm! You never knew little quackers could taste so good! (Sorry, quackers!) Since I tried it, I've heard of duck pastrami, OMG, that is my next quest!
One thing to note, on my first visit, I used a Restaurant.com certificate, which took a week to resolve. MAKE SURE TO CONTACT LA CANNELLE DIRECTLY BEFORE you try to use one, because you will have issues. The owner, Loubna, was very communicative over Yelp messages with me about it, & we did get it resolved. She was very kind, & greeted me personally, which was so sweet.
I wish they were open for dinner! read more