Odd Duck to Farm Trailer on South Lamar
East Side King (run by three chefs from Uchi) on East 6th behind Liberty Bar
Gourdoughs on South Lamar
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Food
Austin is the most incredibly fabulous place if you like to try new restaurants. Explore new foods. It's so fun!
ARW (Austin Restaurant Week) is starting up again the last week of February and the first place on my list to try Parkside - I've heard so much about the food and ambiance. Apparently it has one of the best head chefs in the nation.
Other restaurants on the list to try:
Uchi
Aquarelle
FINO
Sagra
Roaring Fork
Justine's
Eastside Pies
...and many, many more.
Since the last time I posted, okay I know - forever ago - I've been to a number of fabulous places, most notably
Olivia's (South Lamar)
Uncorked Wine Bar (East 7th)
The Wine Bar (South Lamar)
Clive's (off Red River and Cesar Chavez)
La Mexicana (South 1st)
I recently heard with Primizie, which was only open for a short time on east 11th, recently closed. When I went there for dinner it was decent but quite underwhelming. There are many better Italian restaurants in Austin - Asti Trattoria and Enoteca Vespaio are two examples.
One place which I have been to a number of times am constantly disappointed with is Taverna - on the corner of 2nd Street and Lavaca. The last time I went there for lunch with co-workers everyone had an issue with their food. One order came wrong. One girl's risotto was so salty it was literally inedible. And my pizza had enough cheese on one slice to cover the entire pizza - it was disgusting! Last two times I went there for brunch my eggs benedict were small and boring and flavorless. The coffee was bad and the service was slow.
Once place that I'm always happy with (although it's quite overpriced) is Halcyon.
Dinner tomorrow with girlfriends at The Melting Pot.
Last night I made NY Strip Steak grilled just with salt served with salad - butter lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, blue cheese, hard boiled eggs. Simple and delicious!
ARW (Austin Restaurant Week) is starting up again the last week of February and the first place on my list to try Parkside - I've heard so much about the food and ambiance. Apparently it has one of the best head chefs in the nation.
Other restaurants on the list to try:
Uchi
Aquarelle
FINO
Sagra
Roaring Fork
Justine's
Eastside Pies
...and many, many more.
Since the last time I posted, okay I know - forever ago - I've been to a number of fabulous places, most notably
Olivia's (South Lamar)
Uncorked Wine Bar (East 7th)
The Wine Bar (South Lamar)
Clive's (off Red River and Cesar Chavez)
La Mexicana (South 1st)
I recently heard with Primizie, which was only open for a short time on east 11th, recently closed. When I went there for dinner it was decent but quite underwhelming. There are many better Italian restaurants in Austin - Asti Trattoria and Enoteca Vespaio are two examples.
One place which I have been to a number of times am constantly disappointed with is Taverna - on the corner of 2nd Street and Lavaca. The last time I went there for lunch with co-workers everyone had an issue with their food. One order came wrong. One girl's risotto was so salty it was literally inedible. And my pizza had enough cheese on one slice to cover the entire pizza - it was disgusting! Last two times I went there for brunch my eggs benedict were small and boring and flavorless. The coffee was bad and the service was slow.
Once place that I'm always happy with (although it's quite overpriced) is Halcyon.
Dinner tomorrow with girlfriends at The Melting Pot.
Last night I made NY Strip Steak grilled just with salt served with salad - butter lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, blue cheese, hard boiled eggs. Simple and delicious!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
So it's been a while...
I've gone to restaurants galore in the past months and am embarrassed to say that I haven't been writing about them. And we all know how it goes, after a few missed posts it just gets too difficult to catch up on all of them. So let's just forget about those wonderful restaurants I visited (like Blue Star Cafe, Blue Dahlia, Taverna, Asti Trattoria, and many many more...).
As of late I've been cooking a lot at home, saving money as it were. Plus my new apartment has a wonderful kitchen and roommates to eat my food so, heck, we all cook. It's a house full of lots of eating and joy.
I made cheesecake the other day, a recipe off of allrecipes.com
It was an extremely simple and easy recipe to follow. I used full fat sour cream but 1/3 fat cream cheese. I had made cheesecake once before and have learned that probably the most important thing to do with cheesecake is to have all the ingredients at room temperature (eggs, milk included). This is difficult because when we say "hey, I want cheesecake" it's not the kind of thing that you can just whip up quickly, like, for example, brownies. No no, cheesecake takes patience. It takes waiting for the ingredients to come to room temperature, it takes baking, slowly, sitting in the oven with it switched off (another very important step!!!) and finally, although I did try the cheesecake out of the oven, it was just all wrong, you must wait for it to refrigerate! It makes all the difference with the flavor and the texture especially!
I'm not the biggest cheesecake fan but I have to say that this recipe turned out deliciously. It makes a big cheesecake, be forewarned. Yum! Must eat last (unfrozen) piece later. Yes, my friends, I freeze batches of everything I make. Someone like me who could eat an entire pan of brownies must take that precaution! Plus it leaves more for later when you want a quick dessert. I baked the cheesecake in muffin pans for two reasons, firstly, and mainly, I don't have a spring form pan (blasphemy!) and secondly because it's more figure-friendly - in the long run custom of "i'll just straighten out this slice... and here... and here". It made 24 mini cheesecakes and I still had plenty of filling left over which I just poured into a random pan and baked :P
Sigh... anyway. The point is to say that I will try to update this as I actually do go out to eat and cook dinners. If only I had pictures of our recent wine and cheese party... oh wait, I do!
Random dinner I made some weeks ago - rainbow trout, my favorite, with lemon and butter and dill. Broccoli in balsamic vinaigrette. Zucchini au gratin in the oven.
As of late I've been cooking a lot at home, saving money as it were. Plus my new apartment has a wonderful kitchen and roommates to eat my food so, heck, we all cook. It's a house full of lots of eating and joy.
I made cheesecake the other day, a recipe off of allrecipes.com
It was an extremely simple and easy recipe to follow. I used full fat sour cream but 1/3 fat cream cheese. I had made cheesecake once before and have learned that probably the most important thing to do with cheesecake is to have all the ingredients at room temperature (eggs, milk included). This is difficult because when we say "hey, I want cheesecake" it's not the kind of thing that you can just whip up quickly, like, for example, brownies. No no, cheesecake takes patience. It takes waiting for the ingredients to come to room temperature, it takes baking, slowly, sitting in the oven with it switched off (another very important step!!!) and finally, although I did try the cheesecake out of the oven, it was just all wrong, you must wait for it to refrigerate! It makes all the difference with the flavor and the texture especially!
I'm not the biggest cheesecake fan but I have to say that this recipe turned out deliciously. It makes a big cheesecake, be forewarned. Yum! Must eat last (unfrozen) piece later. Yes, my friends, I freeze batches of everything I make. Someone like me who could eat an entire pan of brownies must take that precaution! Plus it leaves more for later when you want a quick dessert. I baked the cheesecake in muffin pans for two reasons, firstly, and mainly, I don't have a spring form pan (blasphemy!) and secondly because it's more figure-friendly - in the long run custom of "i'll just straighten out this slice... and here... and here". It made 24 mini cheesecakes and I still had plenty of filling left over which I just poured into a random pan and baked :P
Sigh... anyway. The point is to say that I will try to update this as I actually do go out to eat and cook dinners. If only I had pictures of our recent wine and cheese party... oh wait, I do!
Random dinner I made some weeks ago - rainbow trout, my favorite, with lemon and butter and dill. Broccoli in balsamic vinaigrette. Zucchini au gratin in the oven.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Galaxy Cafe, NWNW, Sullivan's
Galaxy Cafe - Seared Tuna Salad
This is not really a dinner place, I don't think. At least not one for ambiance or atmosphere. Seems like the perfect lunch place, rather, with a menu full of salads and wraps and sandwiches. Amy had the fried fish wrap - it was rather spicy but not that flavorful. My tuna salad was very simple, the tuna was deliciously seasoned and seared perfectly but other than that the salad itself was nothing to write home about. After we shared an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie which was chewy and gooey and melt-in-your-mouth delish! I'd like to come back here for lunch one day to try one of their many scrumptious sounding sandwiches!
NXNW - Sirloin Salad
Bed of spinach with red onions, not sliced thinly enough, a few slices of tomato and cucumber and a very tangy balsamic vinaigrette. The sirloin was cooked perfectly, medium well, and was extremely tender although it was quite fatty and needed trimming, for my tastes. The atmosphere of the place is really inviting and fun, it'd be a great place to go just for the bar. Amanda's chicken penne pasta in a tomato cream sauce was delicious and Amy had the rotisserie chicken plate which had kind of a balsamic vinaigrette reduction on it - it was amazing. It came with green beans, perfectly crisp and deliciously seasoned. And some caramelized onion mashed potatoes - yum!
I definitely need to go back here once I turn 21 - this place has an incredible drinks menu, cocktails and wine!
The other day I went to Sullivan's for dinner with some people from work. I shared their signature martini with my coworker - they soak pineapple in orange vodka and then squeeze it through a cheese cloth for an incredibly delicious, sweet, smooth drink which can get you in trouble because it's so easy to drink. They call it the knock out! For dinner I had their cobb salad which was one of the best salads I've ever had. Chicken, avocado, eggs, bacon, cheese - it was perfection. I could eat that many times over. It's right up there with two other of my favorite salads in this here town - the Asian Chicken Salad from Hyde Park Bar & Grill and the Mango Steak Salad from Z Tejas!
This is not really a dinner place, I don't think. At least not one for ambiance or atmosphere. Seems like the perfect lunch place, rather, with a menu full of salads and wraps and sandwiches. Amy had the fried fish wrap - it was rather spicy but not that flavorful. My tuna salad was very simple, the tuna was deliciously seasoned and seared perfectly but other than that the salad itself was nothing to write home about. After we shared an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie which was chewy and gooey and melt-in-your-mouth delish! I'd like to come back here for lunch one day to try one of their many scrumptious sounding sandwiches!
NXNW - Sirloin Salad
Bed of spinach with red onions, not sliced thinly enough, a few slices of tomato and cucumber and a very tangy balsamic vinaigrette. The sirloin was cooked perfectly, medium well, and was extremely tender although it was quite fatty and needed trimming, for my tastes. The atmosphere of the place is really inviting and fun, it'd be a great place to go just for the bar. Amanda's chicken penne pasta in a tomato cream sauce was delicious and Amy had the rotisserie chicken plate which had kind of a balsamic vinaigrette reduction on it - it was amazing. It came with green beans, perfectly crisp and deliciously seasoned. And some caramelized onion mashed potatoes - yum!
I definitely need to go back here once I turn 21 - this place has an incredible drinks menu, cocktails and wine!
The other day I went to Sullivan's for dinner with some people from work. I shared their signature martini with my coworker - they soak pineapple in orange vodka and then squeeze it through a cheese cloth for an incredibly delicious, sweet, smooth drink which can get you in trouble because it's so easy to drink. They call it the knock out! For dinner I had their cobb salad which was one of the best salads I've ever had. Chicken, avocado, eggs, bacon, cheese - it was perfection. I could eat that many times over. It's right up there with two other of my favorite salads in this here town - the Asian Chicken Salad from Hyde Park Bar & Grill and the Mango Steak Salad from Z Tejas!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Baking for the office...
Strawberries and cream cake with almonds (adapted from Stonyfield muffin recipe)
1 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/4 C plain yogurt
1/4 C butter, melted
1 t vanilla
1/4 C half and half
2 C chopped strawberries (I used frozen)
1/2 C sliced almonds
Bake at 350F for 60 minutes or until done. I think because I used a little more yogurt than the original recipe called for (I wanted to finish my tub) and because I used frozen strawberries that released a lot of moisture, it took a long time to cook. Came out not at all sweet and extremely moist, a perfect breakfast bread, or so I was told. From what I tried of it I thought it was too moist, but that could easily be fixed by reducing the yogurt and using fresh strawberries. I changed the recipe quite a bit from the original which tells me it's the kind of recipe that is very flexible. Next time, if I wanted something sweeter, I might reduce the yogurt or eliminate the half and half and reduce the amount of strawberries slightly and swirl in some strawberry jam!
Vanilla cupcakes with dulce de leche frosting (adapted from Kittencal's recipe from recipezaar.com)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil or melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 large eggs
I used dulce de leche from the can as the frosting, I thought it'd be too sweet but it actually was a perfect complement. I think the cake would've been lighter and more flavorful had it been made with butter but I used oil which made it slightly denser than I liked. They were very strong on the vanilla which I liked because I was aiming for vanilla cupcakes!
Lemon cake, from Ina Garten's recipe
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 extra-large eggs (I used 4 large)
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons) - I think 2 lemons ends up yiedling more than 2 tsp of zest but I use it all anyway
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
For the syrup:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (I needed a lot more than 2 tblsp)
350F until done
This cake, which I actually made as muffins, is extremely lemony but I loved it! It's sweet and with the full fat yogurt you don't really need all of the sugar syrup - that actually makes the cake a little too moist. But the glaze is a delicious tangy topping. I'm not the biggest fan of lemon desserts but this one really hit the spot. Really for the lemon lovers out there it's perfect. I've made it before cutting the sugar in the cake in half and it still came out perfectly. I think this recipe is flawless as is if what you want is something sweet enough and super lemony.
Next up... cookies? brownies? apple cake maybe?
1 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/4 C plain yogurt
1/4 C butter, melted
1 t vanilla
1/4 C half and half
2 C chopped strawberries (I used frozen)
1/2 C sliced almonds
Bake at 350F for 60 minutes or until done. I think because I used a little more yogurt than the original recipe called for (I wanted to finish my tub) and because I used frozen strawberries that released a lot of moisture, it took a long time to cook. Came out not at all sweet and extremely moist, a perfect breakfast bread, or so I was told. From what I tried of it I thought it was too moist, but that could easily be fixed by reducing the yogurt and using fresh strawberries. I changed the recipe quite a bit from the original which tells me it's the kind of recipe that is very flexible. Next time, if I wanted something sweeter, I might reduce the yogurt or eliminate the half and half and reduce the amount of strawberries slightly and swirl in some strawberry jam!
Vanilla cupcakes with dulce de leche frosting (adapted from Kittencal's recipe from recipezaar.com)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil or melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 large eggs
I used dulce de leche from the can as the frosting, I thought it'd be too sweet but it actually was a perfect complement. I think the cake would've been lighter and more flavorful had it been made with butter but I used oil which made it slightly denser than I liked. They were very strong on the vanilla which I liked because I was aiming for vanilla cupcakes!
Lemon cake, from Ina Garten's recipe1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 extra-large eggs (I used 4 large)
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons) - I think 2 lemons ends up yiedling more than 2 tsp of zest but I use it all anyway
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
For the syrup:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (I needed a lot more than 2 tblsp)
350F until done
This cake, which I actually made as muffins, is extremely lemony but I loved it! It's sweet and with the full fat yogurt you don't really need all of the sugar syrup - that actually makes the cake a little too moist. But the glaze is a delicious tangy topping. I'm not the biggest fan of lemon desserts but this one really hit the spot. Really for the lemon lovers out there it's perfect. I've made it before cutting the sugar in the cake in half and it still came out perfectly. I think this recipe is flawless as is if what you want is something sweet enough and super lemony.
Next up... cookies? brownies? apple cake maybe?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Iron Works, Portabla, weekend
So lunch on Wednesday at Iron Works was amazing. I had said that I was going to get the salad bar but when we walked into the place the salad bar consisted of a bowl of lettuce and that's about it... so instead I went for the next best thing. I got the smoked turkey sandwich. Now, this place is definitely simple to the core. The sandwich is on a white sesame bun with sliced smoked turkey (not deli meat) with sliced pickles and raw white onions. That's it. Very plain. But amazing. I took off the pickles, some of the onions, removed the bottom half of the bun and ate it like an open faced sandwich. And then I doused, literally doused it in barbecue sauce. It was awesome! And really well priced. Way better than Lamberts, for sure
Lunch on Thursday ended up being at Portabla on west 6th. Sandella's had really bad reviews on Yelp so I got kind of scared and changed plans at the last moment. Portabla had been on our list of places to go for a while so it all kind of fell into place. It's a really cute salad/soup/sandwich kind of place with more upscale sandwiches that your regular sandwich shop. It reminded me a lot of Panera but on a smaller scaler, which is good because I asbolutely love Panera!
I got the 1/2 sandwich and 1/2 soup. The soup of the day was Tomato Fennel. It was flavorful but extremely salty - too salty! I got the Aubergine sandwich and it was absolutely amazing. A hot panino on ciabatta bread with eggplant, goat cheese, mayo and some other roasted vegetables. Apparently our waiter told us he didn't have enough soup left for two bowls so would it be okay if he just each gave us a cup and we could get another side? We ended up getting green beans but then he brough us each a bowl of soup anyway? I'm not sure what happened but... the green beans were deliciously green and crisp. I'd definitely go here again to try another sandwich! Their other soups sound good too - when we were leaving they were just finishing up a batch of baked potato soup! Even though ours was way too salty the place is worth revisiting.
This weekend I went to Houston, it was bliss.
Thursday night my mom made pan fried chicken with oven baked sweet potato, pinto beans and a spinach and tomoto salad.
Friday for lunch I made sandwiches which we cut into four and shared! One had cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers. One had sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and avocade. And another had provolone cheese, ham, avocado, tomatoes and mustard. For dinner we made coconut shrimp! And served it with a salad of spinach, arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, chopped pecans and vinaigrette.
On Saturday lunch was more sandwiches, like the ones I made on Friday. For dinner we went to a friends house, a Brazilian. And her husband made crepes the way we eat them in Brazil. I had mine stuffed with shrimp, tomatoes, garlic, spinach and mushrooms. I also made a cake to take with me from one of Ina Garten's cookbooks, I think Barfoot at Home but I'm not sure! It was the Lemon Yogurt Cake and it was divine! I don't really even like lemony things very much but this was delicious! A lemon-zest flavored yogurt cake with a lemon juice syrup soaked into it topped with a lemony-sugary icing. It was scrumptious! Earlier on Saturday I had made a Banana, Pecan, Coconut coffee cake from my Coffee Cakes cookbook. It was lightly spiced and so moist and flavorful! This cookbook is the same cookbook out of which came the Spice cake I made for Christmas... I'm really falling in love with it!
On Sunday I made french toast for breakfast. One of my mother's students brought us a fresh loaf of challah bread from the school my mom teaches at and the moment we got it I said -ding- french toast! Usually I just make french toast from my head throwing together some milk and eggs but on Sunday I followed the french toast recipe from my Williams Sonoma breakfast cookbook to a T. It called for orange zest and vanilla, some Cointreau, milk, eggs and sugar. I let the challah soak for about 10 minutes and then cooked it on a flat griddle. It. Was. To. Die. For. The flavor of the orange with the sweet challah. Topped with sliced strawberries and cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup... it was amazing. The day on Sunday was beautiful so for lunch we sat outside with a nice assorted spread of meats and cheeses and condiments and bread. That's my favorite way to eat lunch with my parents. Sure I end up eating way more than if I have just a sandwich on my plate but it's so fun to just sit around for two hours making your own little assorted sandwiches.
My parents returned from their trip to London and Paris and my mom brough me some awesome Darjeeling and Chai teas! She also visited various chocolatiers in Paris and brough back a box of truffles from Pierre Marcolini for us to try. Over the weekend we tasted various truffles and I have to say that they were okay, but my mother's chocolates are a million times better!
Lunch on Thursday ended up being at Portabla on west 6th. Sandella's had really bad reviews on Yelp so I got kind of scared and changed plans at the last moment. Portabla had been on our list of places to go for a while so it all kind of fell into place. It's a really cute salad/soup/sandwich kind of place with more upscale sandwiches that your regular sandwich shop. It reminded me a lot of Panera but on a smaller scaler, which is good because I asbolutely love Panera!
I got the 1/2 sandwich and 1/2 soup. The soup of the day was Tomato Fennel. It was flavorful but extremely salty - too salty! I got the Aubergine sandwich and it was absolutely amazing. A hot panino on ciabatta bread with eggplant, goat cheese, mayo and some other roasted vegetables. Apparently our waiter told us he didn't have enough soup left for two bowls so would it be okay if he just each gave us a cup and we could get another side? We ended up getting green beans but then he brough us each a bowl of soup anyway? I'm not sure what happened but... the green beans were deliciously green and crisp. I'd definitely go here again to try another sandwich! Their other soups sound good too - when we were leaving they were just finishing up a batch of baked potato soup! Even though ours was way too salty the place is worth revisiting.
This weekend I went to Houston, it was bliss.
Thursday night my mom made pan fried chicken with oven baked sweet potato, pinto beans and a spinach and tomoto salad.
Friday for lunch I made sandwiches which we cut into four and shared! One had cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers. One had sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and avocade. And another had provolone cheese, ham, avocado, tomatoes and mustard. For dinner we made coconut shrimp! And served it with a salad of spinach, arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, chopped pecans and vinaigrette.
On Saturday lunch was more sandwiches, like the ones I made on Friday. For dinner we went to a friends house, a Brazilian. And her husband made crepes the way we eat them in Brazil. I had mine stuffed with shrimp, tomatoes, garlic, spinach and mushrooms. I also made a cake to take with me from one of Ina Garten's cookbooks, I think Barfoot at Home but I'm not sure! It was the Lemon Yogurt Cake and it was divine! I don't really even like lemony things very much but this was delicious! A lemon-zest flavored yogurt cake with a lemon juice syrup soaked into it topped with a lemony-sugary icing. It was scrumptious! Earlier on Saturday I had made a Banana, Pecan, Coconut coffee cake from my Coffee Cakes cookbook. It was lightly spiced and so moist and flavorful! This cookbook is the same cookbook out of which came the Spice cake I made for Christmas... I'm really falling in love with it!
On Sunday I made french toast for breakfast. One of my mother's students brought us a fresh loaf of challah bread from the school my mom teaches at and the moment we got it I said -ding- french toast! Usually I just make french toast from my head throwing together some milk and eggs but on Sunday I followed the french toast recipe from my Williams Sonoma breakfast cookbook to a T. It called for orange zest and vanilla, some Cointreau, milk, eggs and sugar. I let the challah soak for about 10 minutes and then cooked it on a flat griddle. It. Was. To. Die. For. The flavor of the orange with the sweet challah. Topped with sliced strawberries and cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup... it was amazing. The day on Sunday was beautiful so for lunch we sat outside with a nice assorted spread of meats and cheeses and condiments and bread. That's my favorite way to eat lunch with my parents. Sure I end up eating way more than if I have just a sandwich on my plate but it's so fun to just sit around for two hours making your own little assorted sandwiches.
My parents returned from their trip to London and Paris and my mom brough me some awesome Darjeeling and Chai teas! She also visited various chocolatiers in Paris and brough back a box of truffles from Pierre Marcolini for us to try. Over the weekend we tasted various truffles and I have to say that they were okay, but my mother's chocolates are a million times better!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Enoteca Vespaio; Halcyon
So dinner last night with girlfriends went down at Enoteca Vespaio on South Congress. It's the more casual bistro version (and cheaper version) of its next door neighbor, Vespaio. One of my friends had another friend in town and so four of us headed down to SoCo around 6:45. Even though it was a Tuesday it was emptier than I though it'd be. We got seated immediately and the restaurant only started to fill up when we were headed out around 8. It was a hard menu choice for us since everything sounded so delicious but we finally narrowed it down. My plan had been to order the spinach salad but I was kind of craving some nice hot pasta so my plans changed at the last minute. To begin I ordered a Caprese salad which was... heavenly. Everyone else commented that it was very simple and tasted kind of bland. But that's the beauty of it. The creamy, milky fresh mozzarella and the vine ripe red tomato slices and the beautiful green basil chiffonade only dressed with salt, good ground cracked pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Bliss.
Following that the four of us each ordered our own entrees. Amy and I planned on sharing both of ours since we couldn't decide on what we wanted. She ordered pasta with fontina-stuffed veal meatballs in a tomato sauce and I ordered a pizza with pancetta and caramelized onions.
The pasta was... it was just perfect. Very thin spaghetti perfectly al dente with a very hot thick tomato sauce with big chunks of tomato. It was so comforting and satisfying. The veal meatballs were juicy and tender, very well seasoned and the fontina cheese inside was gooey and delicious (one of my favorite cheeses, which is why I pushed for this dish, how can I turn away veal and fontina?). The dish came with a piece of garlic bread which I absolutely loved. It was crispy and buttery and super garlicky. Yum-o! After my salad, the garlic bread and some pasta I only ate one slice of my pizza (which ended up not being such a bad thing...)
The pizza, unlike the pasta, was disappointing. The caramelized onions were sweet and delicious but the good kind of stopped there. The crust under the pizza was very thin which I usually love but here it was soggy instead of slightly crispy (can't be too crispy either, that's bad also!). The pancetta and cheese made the pizza extremely oily. The flavor was good but the greasiness and the sogginess were just too bad to overlook. I wouldn't give up on the pizza here though because the crust around the edges was delicious and so perhaps it was just this pizza with it's high level of grease made the pizza soggy?
The place itself is very cute inside, quite small and intimate but very cute and comforting at the same time. If you want a great comforting pasta dish with a nice atmosphere, I definitely recommend this place.
After a little digestion we headed over to Halcyon. I had been there once before I really wanted to take the other girls there because I love the atmosphere and vibe of the place. We got there around 9 and, again, it was a Tuesday night so it wasn't exactly as happening as say on a Thursday of Friday night a little later, but there were quite a few people, all on the laptops for some reason? The real reason I wanted to take them there was for their s'mores! They bring you a little candle-fire thing (like what you would put under fondue kind of) along with chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers and you make your own s'mores! For four of us they brough us 8 graham cracker sheets, 2 bars of Hershey's milk chocolate and maybe 10 marshmallows? Our flame went out right at the end and so she took our tray away to relight it and came back with another bar of chocolate, more graham crackers and more marshmallows! Apparently a co-worker didn't know she was just relighting our flame so she set up a new tray. S'more for for costs $9.
It's so fun to sit and do this with your friends (and of course it's delicious, you can't go wrong with s'mores). It makes for a really nice dessert and end to a great night. I also had some kahlua on the rocks... I had never tried Kahlua before, only Bailey's... I think I like Bailey's more, it's surprisingly less sweet, I thought Kahlua would be less sweet but alas it isn't. :)
Lunch today will be at Iron Works. And tomorrow before I head home Amy and I are going to eat lunch at Sandella's. I just got a coupon from them in the mail and it looks good so we're going to give it a try! That's a lot of eating out, huh? Oh well...
Following that the four of us each ordered our own entrees. Amy and I planned on sharing both of ours since we couldn't decide on what we wanted. She ordered pasta with fontina-stuffed veal meatballs in a tomato sauce and I ordered a pizza with pancetta and caramelized onions.
The pasta was... it was just perfect. Very thin spaghetti perfectly al dente with a very hot thick tomato sauce with big chunks of tomato. It was so comforting and satisfying. The veal meatballs were juicy and tender, very well seasoned and the fontina cheese inside was gooey and delicious (one of my favorite cheeses, which is why I pushed for this dish, how can I turn away veal and fontina?). The dish came with a piece of garlic bread which I absolutely loved. It was crispy and buttery and super garlicky. Yum-o! After my salad, the garlic bread and some pasta I only ate one slice of my pizza (which ended up not being such a bad thing...)
The pizza, unlike the pasta, was disappointing. The caramelized onions were sweet and delicious but the good kind of stopped there. The crust under the pizza was very thin which I usually love but here it was soggy instead of slightly crispy (can't be too crispy either, that's bad also!). The pancetta and cheese made the pizza extremely oily. The flavor was good but the greasiness and the sogginess were just too bad to overlook. I wouldn't give up on the pizza here though because the crust around the edges was delicious and so perhaps it was just this pizza with it's high level of grease made the pizza soggy?
The place itself is very cute inside, quite small and intimate but very cute and comforting at the same time. If you want a great comforting pasta dish with a nice atmosphere, I definitely recommend this place.
After a little digestion we headed over to Halcyon. I had been there once before I really wanted to take the other girls there because I love the atmosphere and vibe of the place. We got there around 9 and, again, it was a Tuesday night so it wasn't exactly as happening as say on a Thursday of Friday night a little later, but there were quite a few people, all on the laptops for some reason? The real reason I wanted to take them there was for their s'mores! They bring you a little candle-fire thing (like what you would put under fondue kind of) along with chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers and you make your own s'mores! For four of us they brough us 8 graham cracker sheets, 2 bars of Hershey's milk chocolate and maybe 10 marshmallows? Our flame went out right at the end and so she took our tray away to relight it and came back with another bar of chocolate, more graham crackers and more marshmallows! Apparently a co-worker didn't know she was just relighting our flame so she set up a new tray. S'more for for costs $9.
It's so fun to sit and do this with your friends (and of course it's delicious, you can't go wrong with s'mores). It makes for a really nice dessert and end to a great night. I also had some kahlua on the rocks... I had never tried Kahlua before, only Bailey's... I think I like Bailey's more, it's surprisingly less sweet, I thought Kahlua would be less sweet but alas it isn't. :)
Lunch today will be at Iron Works. And tomorrow before I head home Amy and I are going to eat lunch at Sandella's. I just got a coupon from them in the mail and it looks good so we're going to give it a try! That's a lot of eating out, huh? Oh well...
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