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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Friday, December 2, 2005 GOOD EATS ON THE CHEAP Get to know your epicurean side Cucina's exquisite fare likely to induce uncontrollable moaning Nestled snugly in one of our fair city's coziest residential nooks, the Avenues, is one of its coziest restaurants. Isn't that just...appropriate? But, charming as it is, Cucina Deli also earns the title of one of Salt Lake City's tastiest sandwichy, lunch-y eateries. To give all the credit to its delightful ambiance would be...like...saying that, uh, all George W. Bush does is make up words. And everyone knows that's crap. As president, he does so very much more. For instance, he mispronounces words, mis-conjugates verbs, misuses prepositions and invents entirely new sentence structures. And who could forget those phenomenally realistic monkey faces? Seriously, people, all this takes a lot of work. Give the man some cred. Tangent though all that was (and arguably unnecessary), it nevertheless applies to my point. To say that Cucina is an amazing deli because of its warm, cheerful interior, with its golden yellow walls (decorated with hand-painted grapevines!), provincial windows and shelves of sophisticated kitchen goods is a vast understatement. I mean, sure, the place combines French and Italian elegance with expert precision and style. And sure, it somehow manages to be bustling with customers and energy and not feel crowded or tense in the slightest. But when it comes down to it, Cucina is amazing because of its super-magni-fantasta-splendelicious food! Cucina prepares a wide range of gourmet sandwiches and salads that, alone or in combination, yield a perfect lunch. Every sandwich from the specialty menu is stacked with the freshing and perpetually mouthwatering, go for the caprese salad. It's positively ambrosial...oh.,. I think I have a weakness for caprese. But that's a good thing, because Cucina is located so close to campus (about seven blocks awayl) that I'll be able to stop by as often as I need to get my caprese fix. And so will you, because chances are you'll find something at Cucina to get hooked on. Did I mention that it has desserts? Sweet, sweet desserts. j.koehler@chronicle.utah.edu grette and your standard mustard mesquite turkey and corned beef), and mayo. The last two may be so- cheeses (Swiss, provolone, mozzacially prescribed and a little, well, rella and Cheddar), breads (Kaiser boring, but the first three are posi- roll, wheat, olive, focaccia, panini, ciabatta and marble rye) and those tively tantalizing. A few excellent choices include aforementioned lubricants. You the caprese, the Tuscan grilled can't go wrong with this option. chicken, the Italian roast pork and For salad, try the grilled vegthe grilled vegetable mediey. etables and Portobello mushroom, The caprese's cold tomatoes and the Greek tomato and cucumber, basil combine with the lusciously the Oriental noodle with chicken moist, fresh mozzarella to create and the orecchiette—ear-shaped a virtual heaven for your tongue, pasta, roma tomatoes, bail, spinand the soft fluffiness of the focac- ach and olives in a garlic-olive cia provides the etherealness of a dressing. Yum-A. puffy cloud. But for a classic that is juicy, reMmmm... caprese. It'll give you wings. The Tuscan grilled chicken, with its hefty slab of whole grilled breast, savory roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella (oh, there it is again), tomatoes and that tempting garlic-artichoke aioli, is a rich, flavorful and satisfying meal, despite its spongy bread (the cloud—er, focaccia didn't work as well with these accompaniments). For the innovator, Cucina also allows you to construct your own deli sandwich. Simply choose among meats (oven-roasted turkey, roast beef, ham, pastrami, Jenni Koehler Chronicle Food Critic Cucina Deli 1026 E. Second Ave. 322-3055 U Discount: No Four-and-a-half out of five plates (food) • •••* Four-and-a-half out of five stars (ambiance) ideal balance of bread, vegetable, cheese, meat (on all but three) and, as I like to call it, lubricant. Cucina offers five such lubricators whose job it is to wet—and whet—the palate: garlic-artichoke aioli, cranberry mayonnaise, balsamic vinai- Sarah Crookston helps serve some of the myriad options available at Cucina's during the evening shift. Cucina's, located on 1026 E. and 2nd Ave., serves some of the Avenue's finest fare In a comfortably rustic atmosphere. Turkey with provolone on focaccia and a mozzarella and tomato salad are some of the delicious Items on Cucina's menu. 198Calendar Friday Dec. 2 ( 4 4 5 S. 4 0 0 West) at 8 p.m. for $5. When Calendar's not single-handedly compromising the integrity of The Daily Utah Chronicle, we volunteer at homeless shelters, donate our hair to charity, donate our charity to hair and generally live the philanthropic life we apparently misrepresented as the phallus-thropic life-we're not so good with words, you know. Either way, Adjacent to Nothing and Idiocracy, Calendar's not such a bad guy, playing tonight at Club Vegas We mean, we've won Nobel Peace prizeslike, 12 of them-and you've won No Bell Piece of Crap Prizes, like, 45 of them. We're just saying... But, Calendar must apologize-yes, sometimes we go a little too far, but its all in fairgame attempts to respect your (our readerly beloveds') intellectual ability to discern A FREAKIN' JOKE from, well, anything else in this newspaper. We just have a lot of Naked Aggression, playing at Lo-Fi Cafe (165 S. West Temple) at 7 p.m. for $10, that's all. Calendar still loves you. Saturday Dec. 3 Which is to say, today marks an important day in the long and illustrated (er, illustrious...sorry, still not so good with them words) life of the Man From Calendar Country. Indeed, we never thought it would happen, wnmmtitie. Web; utahchroni cle rm but Calendar's spine has been collapsed under the weight of a heavy hand and a broad-based move to curb our infantile enthusiasm. We're waving the white flag, just so as not to perturb the virgin-eared and harlot-eyed. apropos (damn you, words! Foiled again!). And-most assuredly-gone are the fabled . days of Calen-yore when the sky rained milk chocolate, the people cared for one another and in every single department store nationwide could be found The Pussycat That's right; we Cave In, playing at Lo-Fl Caf* (165 S. West Temple) at 6 p.m. for $ 8 . Dolls, playing at Harry O's ( 4 2 7 Main Street) in Park City at 8:30 p.m. for $25. Gone are the days of Nilla Wafers-and-Cream, two-day-long poop conversations with John Stossel and soap, flower-pickin' in the rain, necrophilic sensibilities (sorry grandma, we know you loved that), anything borderline in- Goodbye vanguard. Hello cardboard. see fiere "Aeon Flux" Saturday, Dec. 10 at Brighton Ski and Snowboard FREE! Directed by Karyn Kusama You win an Oscar, only to be cast in a big-budget, Hollywood debacle, to which the C'est la Calendar. Movies Opening on 12/2/05 critics respond, "Give back your Oscar!" It's a thankless cycle. Charlize Theron stars in this big-budget, Hollywood debacle—er, I mean—sci-fi flick. With a title that sounds • • MAGIC: T H E GATHERING • • GAMES WORKSHOP • • ROLE-PLAYING GAMES • • ONLINE COMPUTER GAMING HASTUR GAMES AND COMICS STORE HOURS: MON - THUHS: I 1 AM TO 1OPM • FRIDAY: 1 1 AM TO MIDNIGHT SATURDAY: IOAM TO MIDNIGHT • SUNDAY: NOON TO 5PM SANCTIONED MAGIC TOURNAMENTS 6831 S. STATE, SALT LAKE CltV PHONE: soi.352.2eos OR I - 8 7 7 - H A S T U R S WWW.HASTURHOBB1ES.COM A Ski-a-Thon to Benefit Special Olympics Utah Register at WWW.SOUT.ORG by December 9 NEW PRODUCTS: AXIS a ALLIES COLLECTIBLE MINIATURED GAME MAGIC THE GATHERING: RAVNICA SETTLERS OF CATAN TICKET TO RIDE GAME MAGIC a ILLUSIONS like a New-Age workout tape, Charlize is gonna have to hold on extra tight to that little golden man. (PG-13) "First Descent" Directed by Kemp Curly and Kevin Harrison It's a chilling, thrilling documentary about the rise of snowboarding, with plenty of bone-crunch ing biffs in the snow, no doubt. Arrive at the theater early—everyone and his "dawg" will be there. (PG13) "Ballets Russes" • Directed by Daniel Getter and Dayna Goldfine World War II-era Londoners delight at a troupe of Russian refugees-turned-ballerinas in this documentary, full of black-and-white archival footage. "Ballet?" "Documentary?" "Black-and-white archival footage?" Throw in subtitles, and you're sure to pack the house Friday night. (NR) "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" Raise $20 for an all-day ski pass; the more you raise the more you win! Directed by Henry Selick Presented by IOI5 the Cog l e Meadow Gold KSL Q Brighton Save up to 50% on holiday gift certificates. www.UtahsBest.com "Daily Utah Chronicle You're welcome. "Kidnap Sandy Claws?" Sure, why not? Kidnap your own, jolly fat man and bring him to the Tower this weekend to see Tim Burton's stop-motion classic—perfect for Halloween and Christmas viewing! Behold, my one stone and the two birds it has killed! (PG) Compiled by Aaron Allen |
