Just had some Fondue... Impressions...

Well, had some fondue today, and I must say I am unimpressed. As a person who used to live in Germany and Switzerland, I loved the foods from there. But the fondue I had today dissapoints me. Might be because I cant enjoy the taste of the wine, but I hated it. Too bitter. Why have the wine in the cheese? It just obliterates the cheese taste. Next thing that will be melted in the fondue set thingy wont be any fondue for sure... And people, please share some good recipes!

Try chocolate for a sweeter fondue experience. It's great with things like strawberries, banana slices, graham crackers, and marshmallows. I'm pretty sure you need more than just melted chocolate, but I forget the specific recipe.

I've been really curious about fondue, lately. One of the daytime radio talk show hosts (hostess) always plugs this restaurant called "The Melting Pot," which is a fondue restaurant and she's always saying how it's her most favorite and so fantastic, etc., etc... They probably pay the station to plug the restaurant like that, but that possibility doesn't make me any less curious.

For those that are local and interested, it's in old town Pasadena on Colorado, near Fair Oaks.

Mags, I'm not big on wine in my cheese either, or at least not to the point of over doing it. There's some cheese spreads that have wine in it that are good in small amounts, though. There's not a lot of wines that I enjoy, period. If it's going to be wine, or wine-ish, I'd probably go with a good Sangria any day.

Trashman,

Tere is a place called "The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant" here in Greensboro. I've never been there but it's been here for years even though it never seems to be that busy. Is this a chain outfit or just a couple of places with sinilar names?

We do the fondu thing fairly often here, the kids love to dip fresh fruit into chocolate.. The better the chocolate the better the results.

There's also a Melting Pot in Raleigh, but I've never been there. I'll bet it's been here for thirty years.

Geoff

I've tried fondue only once, and that was in Switzerland, in a Swiss restaraunt. I really enjoyed it.

-tom

I just wrote this up for another forum I frequent. gasbuddy.com. Amazing timing to ask this. I will drop my other post in here.

On another note, we are going back to the Melting Pot sometime this weekend. We at there a month or two ago and thought it was fantastic! Pretty darn pricey, but great food and lots of fun. We told my Mom about it, and she wants to go there for her birthday.

For those that don't know about it, it's the fondue restaurant up in the Celebration Cinema North plaza. We got the four course meal. The four course meal is priced for two people. Two of us were kids, so they suggested getting 1 1/2 orders. That way we could try two different things for each course.

Your choice of cheese fondue with breads and fruit to dip. Then, after that is done, they bring your choice of salads. Then the main course. Since we had four people, we had a table with two heating elements so we could run two different pots at a time. We choose the Coq au Vin which is broth with red wind and spices, and traditional oil in the other. Big variety of meats to cook including chicken, pork, tenderloin, shrimp, lobster, etc. Most are spiced and you have many sauces to dip them in after cooking. If you get oil, you also get batter to dip them in. Unlimited vegetables to dip come with it. Then comes dessert. We chose a white chocolate and another, possibly a turtle style. They have micro brownies, poundcake, strawberries, marshmallow, and quite a few other selections to dip.

All I can say is WOW! It takes lots of time. Probably over 2 hours for us. But it was fun and the food tasted fantastic! Every course was great and we kept saying it can't get any better. But it did.

For the four of us to eat there probably cost about $200 with tip. We couldn't eat everything they gave us, so we got to go boxes and cooked everything up they gave us. We will go again this weekend and see if it was so good because we had never done it before, or if is just as good the second time.

Apparently, The Melting Pot is a chain and it sounds great by Bright Scouter's post! Now, I even more curious! I guess I'll have to figure on $100 for two, so it'll have to be on a day when we're extrememly hungry. We go out to eat often, but usually we're not super hungry and we only order 1 entree and a salad (or just a salad), and that gets us pretty stuffed.

Thanks for the post, Bright Scout, The Melting Pot sounds great!

We used to have a Melting Pot close to where I live. It's gone now, I believe. Ate there once when I was younger; I enjoyed it.

Trashman- Do like Bright Scouter said and go with several people, if possible. If only two people, you'll probably get a smaller table with only one burner, so you won't be able to try different dipping pots; they have several to choose from, and you'll probably want to try them all!

It really does make a difference to do that. Because with each of the courses, we liked one of the two pots much better than the other. Other than the main course. Both the oil and the Coq au Vin were good. And remember, they let us get one "Big Night Out" and another half of one because we had 2 kids with us. (13 and 16 year old boys) If they don't mention it, ask if you can get 1 1/2 if you want to save a little on the cash.

You don't have to have wine in cheese fondue - you can have cidar or even beer if you use the right cheeses!

I presonally prefer a meat fondue to cheese...

Al

ive been wanting to bring my girl to the melting pot for awhile, but i never seem to have a spare $100 laying around.. lol

The Melting Pot is de-licious!! Also, quite romantic. High back booths, good wine, and dark enough you almost need your flashlight!!!

There are plenty of good recipes available on the net. Just google for 'cheese fondue recipe' the best ones are the ones made with 'kirsh'

InFlux said:

The Melting Pot is de-licious!! Also, quite romantic. High back booths, good wine, and dark enough you almost need your flashlight!!!

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An important part of Fondue is agreeing the forfeits for dropping your bread/food item in the pot. This can greatly assist the romantic fun in my personal experience. Additionally, chocolate fondue can get very messy...

You're all going to laugh at me, but the local grocery sells a packet of a big slab of cheeze you can melt in your own pot, and it's actually quite good. It's from Swiss Rose It's not as good as fresh mixed up yourself, but we eat it every few months here with some really good crusty french bread and apples.

We used to live in a city with a Melting Pot, and I think we were there twice in 3 years since they were so expensive. It was GREAT fun though and if you are lucky enough to live somewhere that has a good fondue place like that you need to take your special someone and go!

The booths are dark and the DIY cooking is fun, but if you're going to get up to what Size15 describes with the chocolate I recommend you mix up some at home It's not THAT dark and private...

in Chicago I once was taken to Geja's Cafe and it was FANTASTIC, but also VERY expensive. I think I still have a matchbook from there I just ran across while cleaning the office, which is funny since it was like 15+ years ago and 3 or 4 cross country moves ago... I remember thinking at the time though, that the waitresses passing pots of boiling oil over my head to get to other tables was a disaster waiting to happen. But they seem to be still open and thriving so it must not be so bad

There is no melting pot here, and so far I dont have the energy to mix up my own concoction, but I believe that there is another pack of swissrose at the bottom of the fridge... Perhaps I'll go out tomorrow and get some crust bread and apples. Like I said, it's not fantastic, but for a packaged product it's pretty good!

Size15's said:

An important part of Fondue is agreeing the forfeits for dropping your bread/food item in the pot. This can greatly assist the romantic fun in my personal experience. Additionally, chocolate fondue can get very messy...

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That's true!
I believe the proper etiquette is if a male drops into the pot he is to buy a bottle of wine or round of drinks. However, if a female drops into the pot she is to kiss the host.

InFlux said:

That's true!
I believe the proper etiquette is if a male drops into the pot he is to buy a bottle of wine or round of drinks. However, if a female drops into the pot she is to kiss the host.

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...and thats why you want to fondue in the privacy of your own home, at least I wouldn't want to see my girl kiss some restaurant owner...

By the way, the original penalties for dropping something in the pot was a good whipping or caning....