Mushroom Tartine
Stowaway Kitchen, 2528 Walnut St., Denver, stowawaydenver.com
Winter weekends, when the air is crisp and storm clouds cover the sun, are perfect for brunch. We recently found ourselves in the RiNo District of Denver, wandering around the old warehouses-turned-commercial spaces and stumbled upon the Stowaway Kitchen. Created and inspired by the adventures of two travelers, the menu is a mix of cuisine from around the world. The mushroom tartine combined sautéed mushrooms and spinach with beetroot hummus and goat cheese, covering fresh sourdough bread, with a perfectly perched poached egg on top. The whole dish is sprinkled with almond dukkah, a mixture of Arabic spices and crushed almonds, that gives each bite flare. $12.
Sweet Potato and Chorizo Pie
Tip Top Savory Pies, Available throughout Boulder County, tiptopsavorypies.com
The New Zealand-style pies from Tip Top Savory Pies are a revelation, and if you happen up a collection of them at a local coffee shop or food store, do yourself a favor and get one. They come in a variety of unique, mostly savory, flavors, and we opted recently for the sweet potato and chorizo pie. First, the pie takes up your whole hand and rises about four inches. The crust is crisp and flaky, and the pie itself is loaded with filling. In this pie, sweet potatoes are mashed smooth and mixed with robust chorizo, a bright cheese blend and fresh herbs. $9.
Pollo con Mole Poblano
Rincon del Sol, 2350 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, rinconboulder.com
It’s hard to beat mole. Any dish that combines several dozen ingredients and not only doesn’t overwhelm the palate but in fact comes off as comfort food is good enough for us. The pollo con mole poblano at Rincon del Sol is good. The traditional sauce is heaped upon several char-grilled chicken breasts, which are delightfully smoky. The mole sauce itself is rich, slightly sweet, slightly salty, a little spicy — in other words, everything you want from mole. $12.99.
Momo Sampler
Tibet Kitchen, 2359 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, tibetkitchen.com
We’d heard that the momos at Tibet Kitchen in Boulder were worth seeking out; when we tried them this week, we were not disappointed. We opted for the sampler to try Tibet Kitchen’s take on vegetable, chicken and beef dumplings. In each, the dumpling itself is chewy, just thick enough, and perfectly salted. In the meat dumplings — loaded with chicken or beef, then cilantro, onion, garlic, scallion and ginger — the steam helps keep the filling ultra-moist, and seems to pronounce the bright flavors of cilantro, scallion and ginger. $7.95.
