I Love Little Piggies, Don't You?

Two nights ago I watched a compelling documentary called "Forks Over Knives," which strongly suggests that the overwhelming consumption of sugar and animal products is why so many Americans suffer from heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer. It convinced me in just a few minutes that vegetarianism is the only sane way to live. Unfortunately, I could not start being sane right away since my husband and I had a long-standing dinner reservation at a Portland restaurant we were eager to try last night. Besides, they had already called me to confirm and I had said we'd be there, and in a place with room for only 18 diners, I was reluctant to stand them up at the last minute. We decided to go for it, and vowed to stop being crazy right after dinner.

Who could eat bacon after seeing this picture?

The menu at Bresca is impressive. Everything sounds so good, it's hard to choose. But then the food comes and it turns out that while it is fantastically delicious, it's all made with the same two basic ingredients: butter and sugar. Mitch had a pork chop; it had some kind of buttery, sugary sauce. I had a filet of fish with green lentils. Quite good but quite buttery, and a tad sweet. My "little green salad with glazed carrots" was heavy on the glaze and light on the green. Mitch's "kale salad" arrived literally floating in a buttery bath, accompanied by an egg, some bacon and a piece of sweetened bread. A stupendous side dish called shaved Brussels sprouts with Gorgonzola cheese was incredibly rich and had little to do with eating a vegetable and everything to do with packing on the pounds. Naturally, by the time we got to the end of the meal we were virtually tripping on a sugar high and ordered dessert, which was of course very buttery and sugary as was its right. We looked around at the other dinners on nearby tables, something that's easy to do in such a tiny place, and they all glistened with that same buttery sheen. No wonder people love Bresca--its chef obviously has not yet seen "Forks Over Knives," and thus is still serving up that yummy, crazy food.