One brobdingnagian dessert …

Eat less; move more; live longer is still the mantra of this blog. Nonetheless, there are times when size matters. In this case, one brobdingnagian dessert … On the off-chance you aren’t familiar with that word, it’s current use simply means colossal. It refers back to Gulliver’s Travels and a land of giants.

As regular readers know I got back from Las Vegas last Thursday. I recounted the trip and some of the wonderful meals my girlfriend and I enjoyed there in What happens in Vegas ….. The meal I am about to describe to you could easily have originated in Las Vegas.

My girlfriend and I subscribe to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. On Sunday we attended its performance of Hamlet. Before the theater we always dine at Riva, a superb restaurant on Chicago’s famed Navy Pier.

Herewith the details of that meal and subsequent dessert.

My girlfriend opted for the crab legs which proved to be as tasty as they look in the photo.

I always get the cioppino, sometimes called fish soup. I had it for the first time in Venice at the Danieli Hotel where I was playing in a backgammon tournament years ago when I lived in London. Riva’s version is as tasty as it looks.

You might wonder after seeing the size of those two courses how we could consider dessert, but we did. We don’t eat like this every night, so we went all in. The one we opted for was the six layer chocolate cake.

I’m not sure the photo above does the cake justice. We each take a few slices off it and then put the rest in a box for home. What we bring back to my apartment weighs more than a pound. I am writing this on Thursday morning and we have now enjoyed eight servings off it and several more remain.

I don’t know if anyone ever orders this for him/herself or if they finish it at the restaurant. I know that we end up with at least a week of chocolate indulgence.

Tony