Social Sightings: Our Food Editor's Favorite Recent Bites

Monday mornings are tough, but this series isn't. Social Sightings is a quick taste of recent food tidbits that goes down as easy as your first cup of coffee, and should whet your appetite for the week ahead.

Between some travel and lots of events (including Westword's inaugural Out to Brunch fest, where I ate my way through a lot of delicious options), it's been a hectic month. But like a miller moth to flame, I still found myself drawn to some pretty stellar bites. At the Colorado Restaurant Foundation's annual Drink Red Wear Red fundraiser, VIP guests nearly spilled their wine trying to get a scoop of a giant pan of paella with supremely crispy rice that was made by the team from Ultreia, which offers the Spanish crowd-pleaser as a catering option. During the summer, it's also cooking up paella on its patio every Saturday during the Union Station Farmer’s Market. It's usually ready to serve by 10 a.m. and is available until it runs out.
During my weekend jaunt around Golden, the standout meal was definitely dinner at Abejas, which was a totally unplanned stop prompted by a random recommendation from a brand rep at Golden Liquors (thanks, Michael!). Even though I was hardly hungry when we walked in, we just kept ordering more. And I'm glad we did, because it was the final dish, duck breast with rhubarb coulis, that was the most remarkable; I'm craving a second round.
Chef Carrie Baird loves breakfast. When I interviewed her ahead of the opening of her new brunch spot Fox and the Hen, that was apparent as she listed nearly every item on the menu as a favorite. While I only got to try a few things, I walked away with one favorite of my own: the Croque Madame. I've had countless versions of this French dish, but only Baird's came with the amount of creamy béchamel I actually want: A small lake of it pooling around the edges of the thick toast was the first sign that this would be a hit, and it only got better as I dug in.
I got the chance to revisit a few old favorites over the past few weeks, too. For years, I lived a short walk away from La Fogata's DTC location, and as a result, I have consumed an Olympic-sized swimming pool's worth of its house margarita. I'm happy to report that it's exactly the same as it always was, pink tinge and all. Why is it that color? I could tell you (because I spent a lot of time in my twenties persuading the staff to give me the recipe), but you should just go taste it for yourself. Favorites from the food menu are the pollo asado, the Mexican hamburger, and any combo that includes a crispy chile relleno.
Westword contributor Ryan Pachmayer recently wrote about how Chicago's thin-crust, square-cut, tavern-style pies are trending in Denver. They've been trending in my house, too, where the go-to has become the Italian beef pie complete with giardiniera, well done, from Jimano's on South Broadway. Shout out to the staff there, who really know how to make a drunk pizza order go smoothly.
I joined some of the crew from City Cast Denver in late May for a meal at one of my favorite Szechuan spots, Noodle Express on Colorado Boulevard, where I discovered that host Bree Davies does not do spicy food well. In the episode we recorded after torturing her with mouth-numbing fried chicken, we discussed some other excellent Asian eateries around the metro area. If you go to Noodle Express, don't miss the (not spicy at all) dan dan noodles that, as the server will tell you, need to be throroughly mixed together before you dig in.