Elephant & Castle Spinach Dip

Obviously I wanted get this blog party started with something that was more than a "dip" on the radar screen. But like most things in life, it didn't go as planned. And to be brutally honest, I didn't have a plan really. I simply needed to jump in before this project got crusty. So here you go!

My wife (pictured) and I went down to visit her brother in Virginia. On the way home up 95 to Philly, we decided to dip into DC and check out the pre-inauguration activities. It actually turned out to be a good time. We worked up quite an appetite strolling up the national mall and a closed off PA ave. eyeing panhandler's Obama pins and trinkets, so we decided to play it safe and grab lunch at the Elephant & Castle. We also played it really safe with our dip selection, we ordered the $10 E&C Spinach (Artichoke) Dip. It was a quality start to the meal and there was plenty for the four of us to dabble. It had about a 3:1 cream cheese to spinach ration, which I thought was pretty good. The slight crunchiness of the oven cooked cheese with the tortilla chip was a nice pairing. E&C makes a solid spinach dip but one that I'm sure you have all had before. In a way, I'm glad we started off with this dip. It may be the most average dip we come across and will make a decent benchmark.

I'll add a more detailed post about my rating scale later, but here's the executive summary. In my expert opinion a good dip has three qualities: it tastes great, has something unique about it, and can be shared appropriately. All dips slide up and down this scale. Will we ever find a perfect 10?

Here's the score (1-10):
Tastiness: 6
Uniqueness: 2
Shareiness: 7
Overall: 5