Every year we try to take a trip for our anniversary weekend. Its a really nice way to decompress and have some fun together. We were married in Columbia SC and returned to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. Each year since we've headed to Atlantic City for our anniversary. After staying at the Borgata for year two and the Water Club at Borgata for year three, this year we stayed at the Chelsea.
Although the Borgata and the Water Club are a bit more "up scale", they are so far removed from the boardwalk that it was a nice change of pace to be more in the center of the action (not to mention beach front). Each year we have dinner on the Friday night of our anniversary weekend in Atlantic City at Stephen Starr's Buddakan. After my favorite Buddakan cocktail - blueberry mojito - we sat down for a fantastic Asian-inspired meal.
For dinner we started with king crab tempura with sweet and sour ponzu sauce. It was zippy and delicious.
Next we had mushroom dumplings. They were "meaty" and had a delightful truffle drizzle on top.
The starters were followed by the Asian Caesar salad. It was nicely dressed and topped with spicy cashews.
For our final dish we shared the kung pao monkfish.
Everything was fantastic... in fact we were so stuffed that we paid for a push cart ride back down the boardwalk to our hotel (and according to B our push cart driver was a dead ringer for the Wire's "Snoop").
The next day we enjoyed the Chelsea's complimentary beach chairs before heading down to White House Sub Shop at the Taj Mahal. After a sub and a nap, we were ready to head over to Harrah's for dinner at Luke Palladino.
After reading Craig LaBan's rave reviews we had high hopes for Luke Palladino, and we were not disappointed.
After indulging in some fresh baked bread and an interesting little marmalade, we enjoyed a wonderful starter of fried NJ squash blossoms with a fantastic filling of sweet corn, ricotta, and parmigiano.
After our starter we split two pastas: the spaghetti ala chittara and the bucatini al amatriciana. The spaghetti ala chittara - fresh noodles with olive oil, pasta water, cheese, cheese, and topped with shaved bottarga (cured fish roe) - was delicious in its simplicity. As for the amatriciana, Luke Palladino's was comforting in its familiarity (we make a version from Giada's Everyday Italian cookbook and Luke Palladino's was just a slightly upscale take on our spicy favorite).
For our final course we split the veal chop. It was fall off the bone good.
Everything was absolutely fantastic. Our only regret was that we were too stuffed for dessert.
Here's the many more years of laughter, love, and great eats.
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