Sunday was the last day to participate in the Puerto de la Cruz Ruta de Tapas and we’d only managed to try three restaurants and six tapas so far. This was our last chance to notch up a few more.

Seafood kebab with gazpacho

We began at La Clave on Calle Puerto Viejo. A stylish Galician restaurant with tables and chairs outside and a New York-style counter inside, we’d wanted to eat here ever since it opened and the tapas route was the perfect opportunity.
We ordered our ‘one of each’ tapas and sat back with the accompanying glass of beer to study the route and see where we wanted to go next.

The food arrived; black rice with cuttlefish and ali-oli; and seafood kebab with gazpacho, all beautifully presented on plain white crockery. The seafood kebab was cooked to perfection, the gazpacho was just okay (but that’s more to do with the fact that I’m not overly keen on gazpacho) and the black rice was delicious. In the time we were there, four more tables became occupied by tapas routers clutching their blue ‘passports’ in their hands.

We’d realised that several of the participating restaurants were only serving up until 3pm and so time became a factor both in our choice of venue and in the time we could afford to linger over each stop. So, leaving a five Euro note on the counter, we downed our beers and headed to the next stop.

Cuttlefish and seafood tempura, or Tiger, Tiger!

At the top of the harbour with tables and chairs laid out on the opposite pavement is Bar-Restaurant Oregón.
Within minutes, the elegant glasses of beer had arrived and the tapas was on its way. Lying on top of a crusty piece of brocheta and striped with orange and black sauce so that it looked like tiger kebab, was a crispy cuttlefish, seafood and vegetable tempura. The sauces were mojo rojo and soy sauce and the barbecued smokey flavour of the tempura combined with the sauces was fantastic.

By now I’d noticed a couple of things; firstly I recognised several of the people who’d been at La Clave so there was a small band of us doing this food crawl, and secondly, I was beginning to feel tipsy.
The clock was ticking and we still hadn’t decided which restaurant to make our third and final so once again, a fiver was placed on the table, our passports were stamped, we downed our beers and off we went.

Mushroom hat

It was between Restaurant La Guapa which was offering stuffed calamari and stuffed peppers or Restaurant Maga which had a seafood filled shell and a mushroom hat on offer. We opted for Maga on the grounds that we’d never eaten there. When we arrived, the tables were empty, but within minutes other tapas crawlers had arrived and the terrace was buzzing.

It turned out to have been the right choice because the mushroom hat was excellent but the seafood filled shell, although small, was a real taste sensation.

Passports stamped and appetites sated we relaxed with our beers while we deliberated over which restaurant to vote for. Over the past two weekends we’ve tried eleven tapas in six restaurants and we haven’t been disappointed with any.
Eleven beers later I can honestly say  – what a brilliant way to try restaurants and food – Puerto should do this every month – hic.

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center

Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center was the biggest centre and contains the great attractions of the aquarium and marine science centre. This is a very beautiful and nice aquarium. There are also 800,000 gallons of one of the best aquariums and live animal habitats in the country at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center which is check out our hundreds of hands-on exhibits, outdoor aviary, nature trail, and marshlands. Virginia Beach is very good travel city in the state of Virginia which is the most popular destination, nightlife, sightseeing, restaurant, cheap hotels in virginia beach and one of the most attraction cities for tourists which are beach, the state parks and Back Bay national wildlife refuge beckon, hiking, kayaking, and biking adventures. Virginia Beach is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina, and provides miles of beachfront for activities in the Virginia sun.

Lokatie: Calle Pintada 9, Nerja – (achteraan in de gallerij)

Openingsuren: Lunch van 13.00u tot 15.00u; A la carte van 19.00u tot 23.00u

Reservaties: (0034) 952 52 55 69

- Modern ingericht restaurant met internationale keuken.

- Zeer mooie presentatie van de borden

- vlotte en vriendelijke bediening

- De Sint Jacobsschelpen zijn zeker een aanrader

Prijsklasse:

Lunch, inclusief glas wijn +/- 20€/persoon

A la carte, inclusief wijn +/- 40€/persoon

Het enige nadeel is dat je in de zomer niet buiten op een terras kan zitten, enkel een ingesloten patio.

With birthday money in hand, David and I had an amazing date night in honor of his ordination.  We started the evening having dinner with our friends Chad and Lauren at the Dahlia Lounge in downtown.  It is a Tom Douglas restaurant serving amazing food with a very appealing 3 courses for $3o menu.

We then went to the Paramount Theater for a fantastic show of one of our favorite bands, The Swell Season. It was beautiful from beginning to end and I fell even more in love with the band and their music. I wish I could recap some of the highlights but I am convinced I could not do it justice.  You will just have to trust me that it was a wonderful experience.

We started and finished the night on the 27th floor of the Westin Hotel taking in the beautiful view of the city.  We ended up sharing the hotel with the entire RSL Major League Soccer team who were celebrating their championship win in the lobby when we returned from the show.  Thank you hotwire.com for the excellent hotel choice!

This morning we slept in and then headed off to the Dhalia Bakery for breakfast/lunch and had a mouth-watering Turkey and Cranberry Panini on Sage and Cheddar Focaccia.  Thanksgiving has never tasted so good.  All in all it was a date to remember and we look forward to making it a tradition.

I’m starting to develop an aversion towards Pasig. Traffic, especially in the Ortigas area is horrible and parking in commercial places is always a nightmare. City Golf on Julia Vargas used to be the default setting for impromptu dates, but the influx of bars and restaurants in that tiny area have made it almost impossible to visit on weekends.  So out of desperation and desire to escape the chaotic watering holes, I suggested to Mister M that we head for Kapitolyo and try our luck at the newly opened delicatessen slash wine bar.  Much to my delight, it was open. It was almost 12mn when we got there and it seemed like they were about to close. Luckily enough, the accommodating owners were there and allowed us to enjoy a bottle of wine.

Poco Deli offers the usual delicatessen fare of cold cuts,sausages and cheese (some coming from Mickey’s Deli) along with pizzas and pasta dishes.  They had a pretty decent wine selection that can satisfy the occasional craving for a sophisticated buzz. The place was quiet with a very relaxing ambience.  That night, it also offered the respite that I needed.

Sausage Platter (P280)

My visit to Poco Deli was short but sweet and certainly made my drive to Pasig worth it. It’s good to know that I now have a new place to go to for my vino fix, and far away from the maddening crowd.

*all photos taken with a Nokia 6700 Classic

]]> http://fortheloveofskinny.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/drunk-with-food/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:59:10 +0000 missmorganmelim http://fortheloveofskinny.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/drunk-with-food/

uhg! Last night we celebrated Mr. Gaunt’s birthday a week early by going to Texas De Brazil for dinner. It’s an amazing restaurant that has the most to die for salad bar (think fancy cheese, Lobster bisque soup, gourmet olives, the works!) but I ate waaay too much. More than I have eaten in forever (hey you pay $50 you wanna get your moneys worth!) anyways it was a baaaaaaaaad idea. I went home feeling so ungodly uncomfortable that I felt nausea and dizzy with mild heart burn! I was laying in bed moaning thinking I was gonna die (like you do the first time you drink way too much) gross. This morning wasnt much better, I felt totally hung over. Lesson learned. I no longer can fill my tummy to its breaking point. This is a good thing. I missed weigh in this week, like I was gonna weigh in after that meal! Ha! So hopefully things will go well this week, we’ll see.

Oh and go over and wish my lovely Pro CONGRATS on fitting into her skinny jeans! YOU ARE AMAZING! LOVE YOU!

BATAVIA, N.Y. – “You can bring a dessert,” The Man said this evening. We’re going to a small dinner party tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to it. Sometimes, though, a dessert is not just a dessert. Particularly when you’ve never cooked for a given group of people and they all know you’ve just quit your job to go to culinary school.

There’s a presumption that a person who does that is a great cook and will whip up something impressive, even intimidating. Well, that’s my internal presumption. Lately the reaction to this inadequacy influenza has been to go to an impressive, intimidating bakery and let them sweat it out.

The leap of faith has been taken – that was pretty much done when I gave notice to my employer that I would be leaving to pursue a crazy dream. But I’ve found a nice, comfortable ledge on the way down where I can perch, fret, sweat, have small panic attacks and doubt myself to tears. So we’ll need to jump again. And again, and again, I think.

The last paycheck from the job arrived on Saturday. The number on the far right was far smaller than I had fantasized it would be. I started to regret the purchase of this new laptop. Then I started to regret quitting the comfortable, predictable job. Then I popped a frozen pizza in the oven.

Lifting a pretty blouse off the rack now can be a spiraling act. What if I need those 25 dollars for something in March? What if I can’t find work anywhere? What if I can’t keep my car? What if the furnace breaks down?

What if I’m a bad cook and everyone is lying? What if every career success to this point has been a fluke?

This ledge is both comfortable and terrifying. I can see to the bottom, which in this case is a good thing. If I can step off again, I’m performing an act of confidence and will. Staying here isn’t a good option, but it’s an easy, unthinking one.

•••

Tasting today:

• We visited the original Charlie the Butcher in Williamsville, N.Y., where Charlie himself was behind the counter doing just about every job in the shop. He chopped sweet potatoes, baked off some mac and cheese, and cleared a stack of trays from atop a garbage bin in the dining area. This place specializes in beef on weck, a Buffalo specialty. It’s well seasoned, tender roast beef layered on a kummelweck roll, crowned with a heady crust of salt and caraway seed. We spread horseradish on ours and had that mac and cheese and some fries on the side. I loved that my hands smelled like bread yeast for a couple hours after the meal. The restaurant was a real slice of Buffalo, a city I’m just starting to get to know, and a slice of Americana. // Charlie the Butcher, 1065 Wehrle Drive, Williamsville, NY. Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Phone: 716-633-8330 //

• We stopped in Cleveland earlier this week. I’d been dreaming for months of returning to Bier Markt, which is just downstairs from a friend’s condo. The pomme frite table share ($11) is a mess of perfectly fried potatoes served in a paper cone along with some rosemary sprigs and in-the-paper garlic cloves. A trio of mayonnaise and a bit of ketchup are served alongside. We loved the mayos – one plain, one distinctly curry-flavored and one with a tangy vinegary taste. Choose from a good selection of mostly Belgian beers (I always fall for the framboise lambic ale).

We also ordered from the menu at Barcento, which shares a seating area with Bier Markt. The Big Board ($15) sampling of meats, cheese, pickled vegetables and a couple surprises helped sop up the cocktails. We loved the salty meats and the cheeses, but were perplexed by the choice to serve some soft fresh cheese in a tiny ramekin (particularly when the crostini vanished beneath all the other stuff on the board). The Man ate it shooter-style and declared it delish.

Drinks downstairs at Speakeasy drew mixed reviews. I had a Manhattan Pig, essentially a Manhattan made with bacon-infused bourbon. Maybe it’s silly, but I missed the cherry. The Man had a tart Spanish Lover, made with cachaca, lime, ginger, cane syrup and seltzer. We’ll be headed back to the Velvet Tango Room next time, I think. The cocktails there, at $15 a pop, are pages from history. Lost recipes are lovingly re-created using technology of the time (hands, for example). // Velvet Tango Room, 2095 Columbus Road, Cleveland, Ohio. Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Friday, 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday. Phone: 216-241-8869. Bier Markt, Speakeasy and Barcento, 1948 W 25th St., Cleveland, Ohio. Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sunday through Friday, 12 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Phone: 216-344-9944. //

Are you an “all or nothing” type of person? My body seems to be.  My internal clock is so out of whack right now!  For the past week, I’ve alternated between going to bed early and getting more than a full night’s sleep (10+ hours) and getting less than 6 and feeling completely wiped.  This morning was the latter.  Last night, even though I was exhausted,  I could not get myself to drift off.  I knew I had to get up early to get ready for an interview, and the pressure of knowing I needed to sleep only made it worse.  I dragged myself out of bed, bleary and blurry eyed (I’m blind as a bat), not even stopping to put on my glasses.  I had one mission, and one mission only.

Our house guest left this as a parting gift when he left.  I’m sure it’s delicious, but I really didn’t pause to smell or taste it before throwing it back.  I’ll let you know about that tomorrow

I replenished my supply of POMx to dissolve my Ester-C into.  I’m still so proud of myself for discovering this works!  (For new readers: I drink a little bit every day with breakfast to dissolve Ester-C, which aids the absorption of an iron supplement I take for low energy, but don’t photograph it every morning.)

I was excited to try out a new product with breakfast: Stonewall Kitchen’s Lemon Curd.  I’ve been curious about this for years, and my mom was nice enough to buy it for me this weekend.

Breakfast was a double portion of Sarah’s pumpkin “cakes”, topped with a heaping cloud of 0% Fage, cinnamon, walnuts, and a scoop of lemon curd.  Lemon Meringue Pumpkin Pie before 7 AM? Yes, please!

I had two back-to-back interviews starting at 9 (which I think went well); afterward I needed to unwind a little with some teasing retail therapy (AKA touch everything, buy nothing) at J.Crew and Anthropologie.  How is it that a store (or two) can be filled with only perfect things?  But my bank balance remained stable, and I left satisfied with the clothes on my back.

The tree is going up in Rockefeller Center…

I sat in the plaza and ate my Criterion apple.  Sometimes it’s okay to be a tourist in your own city.

After making sure there were no more stores I needed to browse through, I came home to get some done and eat lunch.  I heated up a bowl of Spinach & Rice soup and added lots of fresh parsley, and served it alongside a small sweet potato with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Perfect mid-Monday comfort food, if you ask me.

I thought I deserved a treat, so I had some 55% Dark Chocolate Peppermint Chococolove.

The rest of the afternoon was spent writing. Welcome to my “office”!  You may recognize it as the kitchen table, but during the day I spread out and use it for reading, writing, researching, and tea-drinking.  I tried the Sugar Plum Spice holiday tea… so good.  I think this might have been the first flavor they came up with, because I remember having it a long, long time ago before they changed their packaging.

After successfully moving to decaffeinated tea, I didn’t want to go back to drinking coffee so late in the day.  Instead, I moved on to a cup of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride.  I don’t know how they do it, but this smells so much like a cookie! It’s very vanilla-y, but it has a very soft taste without a hint of bitterness.

I finished up my work, then went into the city to meet my friend Ilena at 5:30 for an early dinner at FreeFoods NYC.

Tonight was another example of how many secrets this city has to offer, both food-wise and other.  I never would have suspected that a restaurant like this could exist (and thrive!) in Midtown Manhattan, in the heart of corporate offices and tourist attractions.  Was I wrong!  It goes to show that people do want to eat locally and sustainably, the options just have to be made available.

FreeFoods serves fresh soups, sandwiches and salads; they have raw, vegan and gluten-free options.

I built my own salad with arugula, avocado, spiced mango, shittake mushrooms, spicy shrimp and Manchego cheese with Thai basil dressing.

One of the staff members had made an extra Vitality Berry smoothie (sweet cherry, açai, blueberry- pomegranate juice, ginger-agave), so Ilena and I split it with our dinners.  It was really good, and helped ease the heat in my mouth leftover from my spicy salad dressing!

Ilena and I sat for a while catching up…

…and were treated to another smoothie sample! This time we tried the “orange creamsicle” (it’s new, and the ingredients aren’t listed).  As Ilena said, it really did taste like a creamsicle, “but not in the bad way”!

Since we dined early, I was back home by 7:30 to get some things done before Gossip Girl.  Sadly, it seems like most TV shows have already had their holiday finales, so I did some more work instead.  I did, however, make a fabulous dessert to fill my Chuck Bass-sized void…

My dad found a great deal on takeout containers of Tasti D-Lite, so he picked me up some peanut butter frozen yogurt.  I added frozen berries and Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter.

Another sweet end to a good day.

What was the best part of your Monday? What are you looking forward to about Tuesday?

P.S.  Please vote for Lyle!  She is a talented, beautiful actress who deserves to realize her dreams.  Register, vote, and help here get there!

I just wrote a post about yesterday’s NYT article in which Tony Perrottet explores the food of Paris in the shadow of the 19th century food critic Grimod. What about our own recent explorations of Paris’s food? I have explained in several recent posts that our trip to Europe both began and ended in Paris. In this post, I’ll talk about our first time through.

We arrived four weeks ago, just about now, except now is Monday night here in Seattle and it was Tuesday morning there in Paris. We landed at Orly and were at the Hotel Lancaster before 7:00 AM. We would leave the next day on the 1:38 PM train to Grenoble, so our stay was brief, and our eating was done mostly with my sister and her husband.

Once we got into our hotel room, I didn’t want to sleep, but Gail did, so I left her around 9:00 AM to walk over to my sister’s place, a walk of some 25 minutes. Just as I arrived, Gail called, refreshed and ready to make the walk herself, which she did. The plan was to have lunch together at my sister’s, but as we sat around talking, I fell asleep in the chair. In any case, around noon, my sister was sending her husband out the door to pick up some food, and I suggested that we join him. I thought the neighborhood stroll would do me good, but more than that, it had been many years since I wandered through the food shops on Rue Saint-Dominique and I was eager to do so again. (My sister lives in the 7th Arrondissement, a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower. Rue S-D runs more or less east-west, heading east from the Champs de Mars — the big park that stretches out below the Eiffel Tower away from the Seine — passing under Les Invalides and continuing on a little farther.)

When I had last shopped for food there, with my sister almost twenty years ago, the variety of shops and the quality of their wares was simply amazing. In the meantime, we learned, a number of food stores have converted to non-food stores or to restaurants, which is good and bad, but some of the richness of the street has been lost. Still, walking along there with Gail and Jacques was plenty exciting. And we went farther than we used to, in order to turn south on Rue Cler, a street
famous in its own right for food. Our goal was an Italian meat store that my sister told us had the best ham. (See photo at top.) We bought ham there, as planned, and made additional stops on Rue Clear and Rue S-D for a baguette and dessert treats. In particular, we stopped for fresh Lemoine canelés. I wrote about canelés a year ago, after my sister brought me a box when we met in New York. I wasn’t too sure about them. But they weren’t fresh. This time we would get to try fresh ones.

Oh, before I continue, let me insert photos from some of our stops.

We got home, by which time Gail had made a salad and put out some figs. We then proceeded to have as good a meal as we had during our entire trip: ham, bread, figs, salad, and wine. Then the most incredibly flavorful muscat grapes and fresh canalés. What a meal! Simple, yet spectacular.

After lunch, we walked back to our hotel, rested, napped a little, awoke, and headed back out to catch the 42 bus to my sister’s. From there, we walked around the corner to a nearby restaurant that they frequent, Le Clos des Gourmets. All I remember is that we had another great meal. But fortunately, I made a note of my dishes, so I can tell you what I ate. Oh yes, I started with a whipped egg and ham dish. That hardly does it justice. It was frothy and flavorful, a very special treat. My main dish was chicken and potatoes, again with everything full of flavor. And dessert was a chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream. That speaks for itself. I tell you, one can eat well in Paris. But that’s not exactly news.

Afterwards, we walked to Jacques’ car and were given a lift home. As you can see, we didn’t really do anything all day except sleep, walk, shop for food, and eat. A perfect way to start our trip.

The next morning we had buffet breakfast in the Hotel Lancaster’s restaurant. Excellent breads, pastries, and fruit laid out, with the opportunity to order eggs any style. I ordered scrambled eggs with bacon. After breakfast we packed, my sister came over to visit, and then it was off to Gare de Lyon to validate our Eurail passes and be ready for our train to Grenoble. Validating took a while because of a long line at the ticket counters, but we had also allowed ourselves a lot of time, so we had the opportunity to check out all the food counters before selecting our lunch sandwiches to eat on the train. Not that there’s really all that big a choice. But I couldn’t decide. Gail got a ham and cheese sandwich, I continued to investigate then I tasted hers and decided it would do, so I went back and bought one too. (For the record, the one I bought became hers and I took possession of the one from which I had taken a test bite.) There’s really not a lot to say about a simple ham and cheese sandwich — small baguette, some ham, a little cheese. That’s it. But I will say that they were good. Freshly made and put in little paper bags, as one finds throughout France. Not refrigerated overnight, wrapped in plastic, with the bread getting soggy and with a ton of mayonnaise dripping out, as one might get here. There was no mayo at all, or mustard, or any condiment, but it sure hit the spot.

So that’s that. Our first 30 hours in Paris.

Where have the last few months gone? My hubby and I have been busy settling into our new home. I think we have our commuting routes into the city down pat. And I feel, when I pull onto our street after being out for the day, that I’m coming home.

Here are a few local things we’ve done:

• Found an awesome secretary desk at the Cloverdale Antique Mall.
• Enjoyed many chai tea lattes at the Boothroyd House Wired Monk.
• Tried a new fish and chips at the Sea Shanty.
• Took in a double feature or two at the Clova.
• Caught up on local news with the Cloverdale Reporter.

I stopped by The Plant Café after work, around 5:00 p.m. on a Wednesday night.  The Plant Café sources locally, serves vegan, gluten free and organic food.

Happy Hour:  Happy Hour is from 3-7 p.m.  I ordered the $6 “Shallow Water,” which contained vodka and lime, in addition to a tasty salty seaweed garnish. The waitress told me that the majority of the drinks on the menu were actually created by the bartender, however, the drink and liquor menu is so exotic, I had to ask her to describe the drinks. The non happy hour drinks average $10 and several are very sweet or contain brut floats. In addition to the drink, we ordered bowl of hot and fresh out of the oven spiced nuts for only $3 – and, it wasn’t just peanuts (mostly cashews)!

Ambiance: The restaurant is small, but its located at the renovated ferry building on Pier 3 next to the ferry building. The inside was quiet other than the classic music playing and it was very modern despite being in an old building. The real action is on the patio, where we proceeded for dinner after our drinks at the bar. Most tables were filled with 4 people and since it was a cold night, they had the heat lamps going. It was hard to enjoy the view through the plastic windows, though. Across the way is a takeout version of the restaurant.

Appetizers: We ordered the GF and vegan $8 Shitake Spring Rolls in rice paper. The rolls and the peanut sauce had too many veggies and were bland.  We also ordered the soups of the day, the GF/vegan butternut squash and white bean soup ($4.75 for a cup). The butternut squash soup was delicious and creamy – it was hard to believe there was no cream in it. The white bean soup had a homey taste and was cooked in a tomato based soup.

Dinner: Let’s start with the good. The duck confit was so perfectly cooked with a crispy skin on the outside and meat so tender it fell off the bone.           The green curry with vegetables was bland and boring. There was nothing authentic about it and it tasted like a bunch of vegetables with a pesto sauce that had too little olive oil and too little basil and garlic. I didn’t make it to dessert as I was so stuffed. I have read that the GF and vegan raw raspberry cashew “cheesecake” is delicious.

Overall the food and drinks were good, with some bland exceptions. I would go again, but be wiser in ordering – drinks that aren’t too sweet and meals that aren’t too veg.

-Heather

Modern architectural design combined with contemporary and modern twist interiors makes The Waves Resort an enticing place to stay. The resort offers self-contained apartments, with gourmet kitchens and top of the class bathrooms.

Why I fell in love with Wave Resort is its accessibility to Broadbeach dining and shopping centres. It is situated right above central Broadbeach. The best part of it all was seeing the beautiful views of the Gold Coast coastline, Surfers Paradise skyline and Gold Coast Hinterland views.

The moment I step right in to the reception area, I was mesmerized by the interior design of the resort’s waiting area. It’s marvelous.

I am quite meticulous about cleanliness and sanitation. I give this resort a 10 out 10 rating for its clean apartment and modern kitchen to die for. The resort has top of the line facilities that cater to the needs of every guest.

I really do like swimming and Wave Resort never failed to satisfy me with my desire to take a dip and just enjoy. The resort’s plunge pool is a winner! I even had the chance to try out their roof top jacuzzi, and I am glad that I did as the views from the roof top are spectacular.

The different array of Broadbeach cafes and restaurants found within walking distance from the resort are a sure hit to every one who wants to dine in and have a taste for fancy meals or maybe just a cup of coffee.

Truly, Wave Resort is indeed the perfect accommodation located in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast.

Last week, everything was unplanned when my family and I had a glutton’s gastronomic adventure from breakfast at Starbucks Coffee and lunch at Filipino restaurant, KKK,  to ultimate dessert at  HAAGEN-DAZS and ending the day at YAKIMIX!  

My wife, Tina, our son, Gabby and I, all came with hungry tummies with my youngest brother, JC  for dinner to this buffet-and-grill-all-you-want-restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try for several weeks now.  Initially, we planned to try it months ago as we spotted Yakimix in their branch along Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City near those seaside-’dampa’ restos. But unexpectedly, after long hours of strolling in SM-Mall of Asia last week, finding difficulties in deciding where to chow down from so many choices, we’re just lucky to find Yakimix’s  posters at the entrances of the mall as one of its newest food places. 

We had to wait for few minutes when we came to Yakimix-SM-MOA before 5:30PM as it re-opens in the evening.  When we’re ushered in to our table, we saw this impressively spacious buffet place…

This was just one view taken from where we’re seated. Another section is available to accomodate, more or less 60 to 70 pax inside and few more tables are outside catering to those who prefer al fresco dining.  Believe it or not, before we get to taste our first choices from the spread, the place was packed in a heartbeat…

I know you’ll agree with me that whenever an oriental food place is full of chinky-eyed diners, then it verifies the taste of Japanese and Chinese foods it offers.   That was so apparent when we dined at Yakimix; the more we got excited to try all dishes at the buffet table.

I got this plate filled with raw seafoods and marinated meat for us to cook in our smokeless grill at our table…

Soon after the wait staff smeared oil on the grill and turned it on, our little ‘chef’, Gabby became too busy

Obviously, our son enjoyed cooking for us   Look at his ‘masterpiece’…

We’ve tried Shabu-shabu few times before and still enjoyed Yakimix for it’s purely grilling pleasure.  Everything was browned by Gabby to almost perfection

There were more seasoned cut meats and seafoods on the buffet spread; skewers which we failed to sampled; there’s always a next time.

It may not be the best Sukiyaki in town but it satisfied my craving for that sweet and salty Japanese soup. For me, UMU in DUSIT THANI, Makati City serves the best Sukiyaki.  My brother, JC had the other bowl of Hot and Sour soup which was also just OK.

I got few sushi and two slices of sashimi

On Tina’s ONLY plate :  ebi tempura, fried unbattered prawns, california maki, bacon-wrapped shrimps,  crab sticks, mushroom and veggies,  and according to her, the best among she tasted from Yakimix were those “seafood balls” .  I cannot agree because I failed to bite at them

On my plate : almost the same thing but I got to try the noodles.  There were more on the spread that we passed on simply because we’re so satiated already. And unlike what you might be thinking, we don’t have bottomless gastric pits, LOL.     There were just so many dishes, but so little time!

There were salad bar, fresh tropical fruits and yes, cakes and pastries too, mostly from Red Ribbon and Goldilocks.

On our table :

Yakimix offers Selecta Ice Cream included in the buffet! Gabby went several times to the dessert table for these ice cream sprinkles…

Although I found Yakimix’s dishes plain and ordinary,  it gets our nod because of its wide-array of choices, better traffic of diners and spacious ambiance.  Our drinks were refilled at an instant even without asking, but nothing special for the commonly tasting instant juices and iced tea.  Far from the other blog reviews of Yakimix-Macapagal branch,  service at SM-MOA was quick and friendly exceeding my expectations.  :)   Yakimix’s buffet costs half as hotel buffet prices and can surely give Dad’s Saisaki Kamayan Ultimate Buffet a stiff competition.

Another reason to give Yakimix a try :  where else can you find an eat-all-you-want-Selecta Ice Drops ? LOL

We’ll visit their branch in Tomas Morato, Quezon City whenever possible because it’s closer to our place.

Have you been to Yakimix?  How’s your experience ? 

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YAKIMIX /Unit 122-126 Ground Floor SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City /

Yakimix Weekend Buffet rate : PhP 580 per pax; bottomless drinks at PhP 55.

PS : Gabby ate for free (children below 4 feet get to dine free of charge)

Looking for a great spot for dinner on a Friday or Saturday night with fine food and great service? Look no further than Joey Thai in Montclair, New Jersey located at 338 Bloomfield Avenue (www.joeythai.index/html). Joey Thai has fantastic service and a fine assortment of dishes in the $10.00 price range (the panang chicken or the chicken with green curry are nice suggestions if you enjoy spicy foods). Further the portions are a nice size and the dessert menu is reasonable priced well. In all, Joey Thai provides tasty food at an excellent price, a great atmosphere and fantastic service. What more can you ask for?

We spent a very long morning exploring the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill (gosh, they’re big sites) but skipping the interior of the Colosseum; we’d see that on another trip, we reckoned. But it was near on 2pm and though we weren’t extremely hungry, our feet were starting to get sore and a sit down was much needed. The plan was originally to head to Trastevere and look for a restaurant there (I had a few on my list) but we ended up running into Giggetto after first going through the Portico D’Ottavia. The place was full and not only of tourists but locals too. And there was no waiter outside calling us inside – always a bad sign. This settled it – this was where we were going to have lunch and rest our feet. Only when I returned to London did I realise that An American in London had also made a visit here back in 2006 – her post was one I read a while back when I was planning for this trip. Oh, and hey! I just discovered that Londonelicious also went there earlier this year.

We started with a plate of their fried specialties, which they advertise with huge photos outside their restaurant. Don’t be put off by these – they fry things excellently and every table had a platter of some assortment or other. We shared another carciofo alla giudia, a filetto di baccalà (salted cod filet) and a fiori di zucchina ripieno (stuffed with mozzarella and an anchovy). That artichoke was even better than the one we had at La Matriciana, if that’s possible, and the courgette flower was absolutely gorgeous with its melty, chewy, cheesy filling with that anchovy saltiness. But the star of the plate was their filetto, the flaky, toothsome, salted cod sitting in perfectly crisp batter.

This time, we skipped the pasta course – I was a little pasta’ed out and one day without it would be ok, right? I opted for the Saltimbocca alla Romana, which arrived as three small veal escalopes with prosciutto and sage (the sage was sandwiched between the meats), all sitting in a thick white wine sauce. The veal was tender and as tasty as you can imagine though the ingredients are simple. The wine sauce was incredible and we sopped up every last bit with our bread.

Blai ordered the Trippa alla Romana – tender yet slightly chewy pieces of tripe in a tomato sauce with mint. I’d always found tripe to be a bit tasteless but this one had a slight …. tripey flavour? Not sure but the tomato sauce had certainly infused into the offal. And the mint intrigued us as we’d never heard of adding it to a tomato sauce before but hey, the Romans know what they’re doing.

We ended the meal with a tartufo nero for Blai and an espresso for me – I wasn’t taken by any of the desserts on offer. The tartufo was quite nice though – very rich and chocolatey gelato with a vanilla centre. The meal was a total of £50, making it not a budget meal but definitely one we thought was lovely. Some reviews online speak of terrible service but we didn’t encounter any problems.

Giggetto Al Portico D’Ottavia
Via del Portico d’Ottavia, 21
00186 Rome, Italy

If there are any terms in here that may be a little puzzling, you can go here and they might be listed Glossary of Restaurant Lingo and Terms

One of the funniest things that ever happened to me was when I worked in a very large kitchen (many moons ago) that had an average of 7 cooks on the line on an average night, and when it was busy, we had about a dozen.

The Chef at the time, was an old Frenchman who taught me an awful lot, but also had an atrocious temper when he got riled up. He didn’t cook much anymore at that time, only wrote up menus and oversaw the line when he felt like giving some people some what for.

I worked the sauté station most of the time I was there, and at the beginning of every shift I started out with a fairly full bottle of Pernod, ½ the bottle went toward sautéed spinach with butter and Pernod for one of the dishes I was in charge of, and the other half went to Chef as he made his rounds about 6 times a night through the line. He did love his Pernod.

Every Thanksgiving, Chef got on the line to carve turkey, it was his “thing”. On this particular Thanksgiving we had about 6 bus tours booked and expected to do over 700 covers that night. The waitstaff that night didn’t have a chance to eat family meal, (a meal that the kitchen cooks for the staff), which was usually put out about an hour before service.

That night, of all nights, we had a brand new front of the house manager. Everything was going smoothly until about half way through the night when the new guy runs up to the other side of the line and says to Chef (who was standing directly to my right) “Chef, Chef, you have to feed the waitstaff, they feel like they are going to faint”

An appalled moment of silence fell throughout the kitchen. You could have heard a fork drop.

Chef’s face turned beat red and then he started to scream (please for a moment imagine a very thick French accent, think Inspector Clouseau crossed with Bocuse) “Faint? Faint? NOBODY FAINT IN MY KITCHOOOON!”

Chef then proceeded to slice up turkey maniacally (screaming all the while) and started throwing sliced turkey on plates and then chucking them onto and over the metal shelf that served as the pickup line, where they then went crashing down onto the other side.

At that point, most of the cooks on the line where laughing hysterically and rolling on the floor, there were about 20 waitstaff on the front side of the line frozen in petrified horror.

The front of the house manager belatedly realized he had screwed up and said in a pitiful voice, “I’m sorry Chef but none of them got to eat Family meal and they are really, really hungry” If he had had a little more experience there at the restaurant, he would have known that you went down to the end of the line and snagged the Garde Manger person instead of bothering Chef,  and they would put together some tidbits for the staff, but this poor chap was too new to know that.

This just made matters worse and Chef who at that point had swung around to the stoves to light a burner up, to heat up more food, so he could throw it over the line a the DR manager, swung back around with a lighted faggot in his hand (to the general public, a faggot or fagot is a twist of longer paper that is frequently used in kitchens to light up burners transfering the flame from other burners that are pesky lighting up from scratch when you turn the gas dial on)

At this facility we had two large circular racks which were used to hold the order tickets, it could fit approximately 40 tickets each and depending on the night about 200-300 covers (or people ordering).

Chef swung around with his twist of paper and screaming obscenities at the front of the house manager caught all of our current tickets on fire. All of them proceeded to go up in a rush of flame.

At that very moment who should walk into the kitchen but the current manager and part owner of the place, seeing dozens of petrified waitstaff, a cowering front of the house manager, a floor littered with broken china and turkey pieces, a line full of cooks holding their stomachs dying with laughter and a screaming ballistic chef with several thousand dollars worth of order tickets going up in flames.

The end result of the night was we ended up comping about 150 diners for really late food. All the orders put into the kitchen had to be sorted out and the front of the house manager was told not so politely at the end of the night to take a hike.

But I will never forget as long as I live the sight of Chef screaming redfaced. “Faint? Faint? NOBODY FAINT IN MY KITCHOOOON!” Never had a Thanksgiving like it quite like that since.

We heart burritos.  There’s never a bad time for a warm tortilla stuffed with steamy deliciousness.  Breakfast, lunch or dinner – you can’t go wrong.

Needless to say, we’re pretty excited for today’s fundraising event at Chipotle benefiting our friends at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services.  Enjoy a tasty treat at any Sacramento-area Chipotle from 3 p.m. – 8 p.m., show this flier and 50% of the proceeds will go directly to SFBFS.  The flier is doubled, so share the giving and make a new friend by using half and give the other to someone in line!

My husband and I were finishing our lunch at Ruby Tuesday today (And is it my imagination or does Ruby Tuesday change its menu, like, every three months?) when I noticed that, as usual, I’d left a good part of my salad-bar meal on the table. “I am such a messy eater,” I said, aggrieved, in that way we wives have of begging our husbands to please please please disagree with us, and my husband began to point out, as he usually does, that at least I didn’t leave a good part of my meal in my lap instead, when suddenly he leaned over the table toward me and my leftover mess and said, “Take a picture of that and then I’ll tell you why.” So because I never always do what my husband requests, I snapped a photo of the somehow artfully arranged lettuce and carrot pieces and turned the camera over to him. He zipped through the review menu, found the photo I’d just taken — this one — and gave the camera back to me, saying, “You need to post this on your blog and say, ‘In a California restaurant, this would be a $40 meal’.” So, I did. And the funny thing is that he’s probably right.

And in more food news, I thought I was being smart by doing my Thanksgiving grocery shopping today — surely the crowds wouldn’t start this early, right? Wrong, of course. Most crowded were the paper-goods aisles as people stood and debated the merits of foam over plastic plates and the dairy section, where people mostly just stood. In my way. So if you haven’t done your shopping yet, you may want to consider one of those 2 a.m. expeditions. I’m just saying.

My radar zeroed in on Craigie on Main soon after I moved to Cambridge.   Scouring websites and magazines like a devout and dutiful f-blogger, the restaurant name reappeared wherever I looked.  Among its heap of honors sits a string of “Best of Boston” awards; but perhaps most impressive of the accolades amassed is Chef Tony Maws’ nomination for a 2009 James Beard award (Best Chef Northeast).  The restaurant relentlessly focuses on local, fresh, and seasonal, and this bistro’s cuisine takes those ingredients and delivers the goods.  My Sunday brunch here was hands-down the best dining experience I’ve enjoyed, probably since returning from my travels in July.  Despite the miscommunication between J and the maitre d’, resulting in a 20 minute wait, her friendliness, the lovely service and lively atmosphere, the promptness of the kitchen, and of course the execution of the food blew this initial hiccup into oblivion.

The exposed kitchen that greets you as you enter.

We did not order the pancakes but they looked good. I think those are huckleberries sprinkled on top.

However, the donuts were too sexy to pass up.

OUR house-made donut with confiture du lait. Consider it dessert before brunch, to accompany the house’s outstanding coffee. So soft and pillowy, oh, the thought of resting my head on this edible cloud every night, nibbling as I fall sleep…

My order: a grass-fed beef burger with Shelburne Farm cheddar on a house-made bun, served with mace ketchup and shoestring fries.

Medium-rare to a tee, easily the best burger I can remember eating (I hate that I’ve used “best” twice already in this post but both are warranted).  The beef was tender and juicy, coarsely ground so the meat retained that chunky beefiness that’s lacking in ordinary burgers. And here I must agree with food pundits, because I tasted for myself how much more natural flavor this grass-fed beef had than the beef I ate growing up. The meat wasn’t heavily seasoned – if anything, the kitchen tends toward underseasoning — but beef of such potent flavor doesn’t need much to make it memorable. The house-made ketchup was mild but distinctive, the aromatic cheddar adding tangy creaminess to each bite. Craigie’s is a judiciously sized burger as well; I’d judge it to be a 10 to 12 biter, which was just right for hitting the spot without leaving me immobilized (though I did need a few moments after the meal to gather myself ). The fries and little sides were forgettable but that was easily forgivable.

J’s dish, Craigie “Dimanche” sausage with a buttermilk biscuit, gravy, and a fresh egg any style. The sausage was generously portioned, three plump logs of porky porky; I found it a bit bland, though J definitely enjoyed it. The biscuit was insane, a must-order side in the future.

Craigie’s beautiful twist on good ol’ corned beef hash, house-brined grass-fed beef with smoked beef tongue. L heartily approved as did I; topped with a poached egg and a hollandaise-y sauce, whose combined creaminess trickled and tucked itself into the well-seasoned, smoky hash. Spooned onto rye toast, I now see the humble hash in a new light.

Our post-brunch plans for Toscanini’s hit the wayside after this delightful meal. There will always be an occasion for ice cream but this day wasn’t it, certainly not after such revelation. I wanted to savor and preserve the sanctity of that experience, keep it as its own, to remind me of how downright delicious, just plain nasty, food can be.

Craigie on Main
853 Main St
Cambridge, MA 02139-3512
(617) 497-5511

Just saw SuperVegan’s INCREDIBLE listing of all the delicious vegan Thanksgiving options available around NYC.  Everything sounds so great, I wouldn’t know where to begin!

Baked Acorn Squash With Walnut Oil and Maple Syrup

Also, the New York Times’s “Well” blog has been running vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes, most of which I’m sure can be veganized. I appreciate the shout-out to a healthier, veg lifestyle at all during this season of gross overindulgence and overconsumption.

Polenta Cakes with Cranberries

And for all you creative chefs out there, you should peek at Mark Bittman’s “101 Head Starts on the Day,” a compendium of easy, make-ahead Thanksgiving dishes, including many that are already vegetarian or vegan and others that could easily be made so.

Me? I’m hoping Mamoun’s is open on Thanksgiving so I can buy a tasty $2.50 falafel sandwich—about all my pocketbook can take right now. Cheers!

Photo of Baked Acorn Squash With Walnut Oil and Maple Syrup by Andrew Scrivani and photo of Polenta Cakes with Cranberres (no. 27) by Francesco Tonelli, both for the New York Times.

Stohrer, Paris

[Ed Alcock for The New York Times]

I realize my blog’s services are hardly needed to bring your attention to an article in yesterday’s NYT that filled the front page of its Travel section. But its about food, restaurants, and Paris, so how can I resist? The article is Tony Perrottet’s account of his effort to follow the path laid by the great food critic Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière two hundred years ago. “Grimod de la Reynière is not exactly a household name in the United States today. … But specialists in the field still revere Grimod. Rémi Flachard, the owner of Librairie Rémi Flachard, Paris’s finest bookstore for gastronomic history, declared that Grimod ‘almost single-handedly invented the genre of food criticism.’”

You’ll want to read about Perrottet’s meanderings yourself (and watch the accompanying slide show). I’ll just quote one passage.

As the days passed, I felt I was getting a feel for Grimod’s taste in restaurants. But where, I wondered, would he have dined in Paris today? I knew he placed a premium on the freshest ingredients, simply prepared, and he liked inventive twists on classic recipes. He detested intrusiveness in waiters, preferring them to appear only when summoned. And as a down-at-the-heels aristocrat, he also appreciated value for money. “Grimod was always short of cash!” Mr. Flachard, the bookseller, had told me. With my battered U.S. dollar credit card, I could certainly empathize.

Fortunately, on my last day in Paris, the past and present seamlessly met, and for a change the restaurant seemed to come to me. I was strolling the Rue St.-Honoré near the site of another long-gone boulangerie when I noticed a tiny row of medieval structures attached to the Church of St.-Roch. One hole-in-the-wall turned out to be a minuscule restaurant complete with original pot-cluttered kitchen. It was called La Cordonnerie (the Shoemaker’s) and, according to the blackboard, it served cuisine de marché, fresh market food. I had accidentally hit pay dirt: the fantasy of a charming French boîte.

There were fewer than 20 seats in this intimate space, which dated from 1690, with blackened beams against the low white ceiling. The chef was a maestro in his cramped workplace, preparing alone the day’s menu of foie gras in homemade chocolate sauce and roast pork with field mushrooms. He was also the owner, I later learned, having inherited the restaurant from his parents.

I eagerly took a seat in the farthest corner, ordered without restraint, as Grimod might have done, and chatted, between sips of muscadet, with an elderly couple at a nearby table. They said they lived around the corner on the Rue St.-Honoré and came here at least once a week to enjoy the fresh market fare. “Always the full three courses at lunch,” giggled Madame. “Then a nap — and no dinner!”

I felt sure that Grimod must have eaten here at some time or another. He certainly would have approved of the setting. Of one of his favorite restaurants, Le Gacque’s, he wrote: “His salons are nothing sumptuous, but the cuisine is good, the wines excellent, and the prices moderate.” Plus, there was a friendly, unobtrusive staff.

I had been planning our epic Thursday since last week and even invited you all to join us in an earlier post. Things were right on schedule until Miss Josie stayed late at work and decided to call it an early night. The first thing on the schedule, which Josie was going to be unable to attend anyway because of work, was a Tweet-up with TheMinty and AKesq at Cole’s French Dip downtown. A.K. is a public defender with a feisty personality and a wicked sense of humor. Our intern, Young Jin, most notorious for his article on eating dog joined us and I am pretty sure that A.K. and her colleague were the best part of his night. They were telling him jokes all night and when he got in my car all he could say was that they were the two coolest lawyers he ever met and that he had no idea that lawyers were so funny. Since I am a foodie first, I was most impressed by not just my french dip but by the mac and cheese there. It was so good and it rivals my other favorites in the city: Cube LA, Magnolia on Lake, and one new place that I will be talking about in an upcoming post. I love the crunch factor on my mac n cheese and Cole’s delivered. They also have a slew of great bartenders and some specialty cocktails.

Young Jin and I had a tight schedule to adhere to and rushed to the Good Luck Bar’s 15th year anniversary party for what I called 10 minutes and 1 drink. We split a $2 beer and ran in to another blogger. I thought I spotted EstarLA from a far but I wasn’t sure and as soon as I told Young Jin that I might know that girl he took off and poked her on the shoulder. He asked if she was a food blogger, what a good intern he is. As soon as she turned I knew it was her and find it hilarious that we now have “people”. He even wrote down his email address intern@uncouthgourmands.com to share with all of his new friends.

The last time I was at roller disco there was quite a line so I was sure that we were there on time. The line this time wasn’t too bad. Enough for Young Jin to have a cigarette and we gave Josie 15 minutes to get in line with us. However, we heard nothing from the lady. It was fine. I had Young Jin and we were both a few drinks in. He told me he hadn’t skated since he was 12 but he bought wristbands and headbands to atleast look the part. I had my own skates and consider myself a roller disco queen. Young Jin rented skates and was amazed that he wasn’t falling, although he was skating like a robot. I kept instructing him to get low, stick his butt out, and move his arms, but he wasn’t having it. He thought that the best plan was to drink more and that would help him skate better. That seemed to be everyone’s plan. Let me just say that a lot of falls were had by not only Young Jin but by other intoxicated skaters. The end of the night became like dodging bullets on the floor. People and drinks were falling but I was laughing and having a great time. This has really become my favorite event in LA and I plan on attending every month.

I heard from my other half, Josie, when I was dropping Young Jin off at home and he had just pronounced quesadilla “kasa-dill-a” I was hysterical. Josie got to laugh with us on speaker phone but it wasn’t the same. Oh well, Young Jin was a great date for the night and filled in perfectly. On my drive home, Josie and I were still chatting and she asked if I was hungry. I told her I last ate at 6 and then she said, “Oh, well, then you must be starving”. That was all of the convincing I needed and I met her at the Ihop in Pasadena for a post midnight snack. She got a philly cheese steak sandwich and onion rings. I had the international passport with my favorite, swedish pancakes. We are constantly on a budget and once again we missed an affordable opportunity, their late night special that is $3.99. When will the UGs learn how to catch a deal?