Sorella Visited 6/27/2012 4.5 Forks

Sorella 95 Allen St., New York, NY 10002

A disclaimer that I did show up to dinner 3 vodka tonics deep, but none the less, I think I remember enough to give it a fair review.  Sorella has been on my list for a while and it didn't disappoint.  The menu has a bunch of small plates and pastas and everything sounded amazing.  Aarti and I totally went to town and ordered way more food than was really necessary.  We started with the burrata dish which seemed more like a heavily dressed salad with a lump of burrata on top of it.  It was good but it could have used a bit more salt and it didn't really showcase the burrata in a way that I would have liked.  We also got the squash special which came with roasted squash, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and served with ricotta cheese.  This dish was delicious.  The squash was roasted really well and had a hint of buttery sweetness to it but it wasn't overpowering.  The ricotta was a nice pairing with the squash.  It was a totally unexpectedly good dish.   We then each ordered our own pasta dishes (yes, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs) and also shared a broccoli fritto.  I got the orecchiette with a pork ragu and peas and it was fabulous.  It was in a cream sauce that was heavenly and the whole dish was what you think of when you think heavy comfort food.   I've had a few orecchiette dishes in the city before and none were as good as this.  While I loved it, it was definitely way too much to finish and I probably left 1/4 of the pasta on the plate.  Another great surprise was the broccoli dish.  It was cooked al dente (almost raw but just enough that it was still very crunchy) and then it was fried in a light tempura and covered with a hot pepper aioli.  The hot pepper was in full force and the dish had a definite kick to it.  If it's actually possible to say that a broccoli dish can be a star dish, then this dish is it.  It was phenomenal and I'm still thinking of it.   It was this dish that put my rating up to 4.5 forks and not just 4 forks.


You'd think after eating all of this that we would just walk away, but no.  Of course we had to listen to the dessert menu.  And you know what they had?! Butterscotch cookie dough ice cream!! Those are two of my most favorite things in the world and now it's served in ice cream form, so how could I say no? So we ordered 1 scoop and it was everything it sounded it would be.  It was butterscotch-y and had big chunks of cookie dough in there as well.  I wish more places had this flavor of ice cream.  The service here was great and super friendly and very welcoming.  The one annoying thing was that since we didn't have a reservation we had to sit in the front of the restaurant, which was fine because we got a pretty big communal table to ourselves but it looked like there was a bigger nicer space in the back.  Total bill: $71/pp with tax, tip and drinks


Photo Credit: Yelp

Ted's 355 Diner Visited 6/24/2012 2.5 Forks

Ted's 355 Diner 895 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852

Let's get to the point with this one.  It's a diner.  Plain and simple.  There is absolutely nothing amazing or high quality about this place but it gets the job done.  David, Jeana and I were looking for a brunch place in Rockville and let's be honest, there are zero places in the suburbs for brunch.  So going to a diner is the next best thing.  This place has gone through several iterations of a 50's diner (you can't see the outside but it's silver and similar to an airstream trailer) and I didn't really have high expectations for it.  When you walk in, your first impression is how large it is inside.  The other diners I've been to at home (Silver Diner and Tasty Diner) were all pretty small and cozy but this place was like a football field inside. 


The menu is also exactly what you would expect of a diner.  It's about 5-6 pages long with everything and anything you can think of.  Since it was 11:30am, I had to get some kind of egg product.  I got a garden omelette with American cheese ($9.95) which came with homefries and toast.  In about 10 minutes our food came out, piping hot.  What struck me first was the sheer size of my food.  They must have used 7 eggs to make my omelette because it was HUGE, the size of my entire plate.  I'm not kidding.  Luckily, the omelette tasted exactly how I expected a diner omelette to taste...which is pretty damn good if you are hung over or not looking for fine dining.  While I do appreciate the fancy brunch omelettes every now and then, sometimes you really just want a greasy, googey omelette.  It was stuffed full of zucchini, mushrooms, onions and green peppers and it was super filling.  

Unfortunately the homefries that came with it weren't as good.  It tasted like it had a lot of butter in it and only the outside was toasted and crispy. The inside was still pretty raw and undercooked.  The waitstaff was super friendly and nice, especially when they messed up David's order (he ordered an omelette with asparagus and got an omelette with green peppers).  I got this feeling it was a family run place since everyone was seemingly overly concerned about how we were doing which was a nice feeling.  The 2.5 rating is simply based on the fact that it's not high quality food, but sometimes that's ok if that's what you're in the mood for.  Total bill: $40 


Photo Credit: Yelp

Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery Visited 6/23/2012 2 Forks

Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery 7900 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814

I really don't want to hate on dining in the suburbs, but every time I go home to MD, I just never seem to get any good food (except for the usual pho, dim sum and sushi faves).  Sadly the Rock Bottom Brewery is no exception.  Most of my friends and I were in town for reasons I won't go into detail about here but we all took the opportunity to grab our first non-Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner in years which was really nice.  

Rock Bottom started off good enough...we were able to snag a table for 10 people outside in the patio area, so it was really relaxing to be able to drink and eat outdoors.  As you can imagine the menu here is your basic bar/brewery food: burgers, sandwiches, pizzas, salads, mac and cheese, etc.  I forgot that at restaurants like this, they show you the calorie count and we spent about 15 minutes screaming at how horrifying and absurd some of the counts are.  How in the world is a salad 1600 calories?!  Frightening.  I ended up getting the spinach salad which came with feta cheese, bacon, egg, mushrooms, red onions and croutons tossed in a "Tangy Vinaigrette" dressing ($9.95).  When the salad came out, it was so underwhelming.  I know, how exciting can salad get but I've had some pretty damn good salads in the past.  This looked like something I make at home.  The bacon wasn't really very crispy and the onions looked like they were cut by a 2 year old (they were too thickly cut).  You'd think that a vinaigrette would be similar to an oil and vinegar dressing but this was some weird thick orange dressing with lumps in it.  After tasting it, it actually wasn't that bad, it tasted more like a ginger carrot dressing.  It was just a very uninspiring meal.  I didn't try anyone elses food but they all looked pretty sub-par, except for Jane's pizza.  It actually looked gooey and tasty.  Baby Jane got the kids mac and cheese and it was literally neon orange.  I'm almost 100% sure it came from the Kraft powdered mac and cheese box that I used to make as a kid. 

Another reason for the 2 fork rating was the service.  I'll give our waiter credit that manning a 10 top is most likely his worst nightmare and he looked about 15 years old.  And he was very sweet in accommodating lots of our off-menu requests.   But he was constantly forgetting things (Meredith's mayo and Martha's avocado are two examples) or mixing up our orders (giving me someone else's beer) and then disappearing for long stretches of time.  It was almost comical how this place just epitomized sub-par suburban chain restaurant dining.  But the location is great and the company of good friends in the sun was the best.  Bethesda has tons and tons of restaurants but this is probably a place I'd stick to just beer.

Photo Credit: Yelp   

Yuji Ramen Visited 6/21/2012 3.5 Forks

Yuji Ramen 90 Wythe Ave, Brookly, NY 11211

Secret Ramen!!  These pop-up shops are all the rage these days and Eater even did a whole article on these "secret" ramen joints around the city.  Jenn and I decided to check out Yuji Ramen, which is inside the Kinfolk Studios in Williamsburg from 7-12am Thursday-Sunday.   I was expecting to have to walk through some crazy maze to find the place, but the entire art space is literally transformed into an airy restaurant.   So it doesn't really look like a secret.  We walked in around 7:15 and there weren't a lot of people there (maybe because it was 900 degrees outside and this place doesn't have any A/C).  I would have never known that this place wasn't always a restaurant, it's a perfect restaurant set up with tables in the front, a decent bar to the right and several seats in the back. 

The menu is very limiting.  There are 2 appetizers (a fluke sashimi and I can't remember the other one), a few bun options (pork, chicken, veggie and shrimp) and 4 ramen options.  What's unique about the ramen here is that none of them come with broth.  They are all served "dry" - which on a day like this, I was totally fine with.  Jenn and I split the pork buns ($7), the summer crab ramen ($12) and the tomato and clam ramen ($11).  The service is really friendly and very quick.  The pork buns aren't like the other pork buns I've had at places like Ippudo or in other Asian joints.  They do still use the same soft, white, squishy bun but the filling was more like ground pork (not pork belly slices) and there wasn't the typical hoisin sauce and scallions but it was still very tasty.   The ramen came out and it looked like what I expected and not expected at the same time.  I tried the tomato and clams one first and after my first bite, I realized not only did it not have broth but the noodles were served pretty cold.  The noodles were thick and chewy and the tomatoes came in cubes and crushed versions (they looked like heirloom tomatoes which I love).  On this hot and unbearable day, the dish was very refreshing and chilling.  The one disappointment was that I couldn't really tell where the clams were.  I thought I had tried them but then Jenn tried something else in the dish that looked different and could have been clams too.  You'd think clams are pretty easy to identify but it wasn't.  The dish actually tasted more like a cold linguini dish with crushed tomatoes vs. a "ramen".  I then tried the summer crab dish and this one was my favorite of the two.  The noodles also did not have broth but it was served warm and there was visible chunks of crab on top of the noodles and it was mixed in with the noodles as well.  Again, these noodles are firm, a bit tough but delicious.  The down side is that the menu is pretty limiting and the bowls of noodles aren't very big.  Jenn and I ended up going somewhere else for ice cream and dessert because we were still hot and hungry.  Plus the lack of A/C on a day where the heat is just rising from the ground did make for a slightly uncomfortable experience.

I really appreciated the different type of ramen and on a hot day, the lack of broth was a welcomed change.  While broth is usually the star of most ramen, these dishes made you realize that it's really the noodles that are the main ingredients and what comes with it is just an enhancer.  Definitely check this place out before it pops away.  Total bill with drinks: $38/pp with tip and tax

Photo Credit: Gothamist  

Cafe Mogador Visited 6/17/2012 4 Forks

Cafe Mogador 101 St Marks Pl., (between Avenue A & 1st Ave), New York, NY 10009

My friend Lav has been raving about Cafe Mogador for a while so I was super excited to try it for a birthday brunch (plus they had just opened one in Williamsburg, so if this one was good, I would be excited to try the one closer to home).  I had been told that they served one of the best eggs benedicts in the city and lord knows that I have been on a major hunt for a good benedict for a long time since 2nd Street Cafe closed. 


My first impression was that this place was bumpin.  It was incredibly crowded and overflowing with customers which is always a good sign.  Luckily the wait wasn't that bad (about 15 minutes).  I took one look at the menu and was super excited by it.  I love Mediterranean/Moroccan food and they had great sounding local dishes like hummus, kebob, falafel,  cous cous and tagines.  But the draw for me was the variety of benedicts.  They had regular eggs benedict, moroccan benedict, eggs normandy, eggs florentine, eggs champignon, and blackstone eggs.  I decided to go with my staple of eggs normandy (with smoked eggs) and it came with homefries, salad, orange juice and coffee for $14.   The orange juice was extremely fresh and refreshing and the coffee (I got iced) was strong but not bitter tasting.  When the benedict came out I had really high expectations.  It looked great, not too much sauce, the eggs looked poached well, the homefries were nice chunks of roasted red potatoes with rosemary and other herbs and a mescluan salad that was dressed well.  While these eggs didn't blow my mind out of the water, it is one of the better eggs benedict I've had in the city in a long time.  Everything was just right and I would say that it's a leading contender for best benedict so far.  One of the muffins was a bit hard but not as hard as the inedible ones I had at Tartine.  I was very impressed by the homefries, they weren't done any differently than other places but they just executed it really well and I cleaned the whole plate of potatoes and then had some of Lav's too.  What was also great about this place was the buzz and exciting feel of the place.  It was super crowded but not overwhelming and it was just so much fun to be there.  I am totally excited to try the one in Williamsburg, so who's with me?  Total bill: $18/pp.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Goodwin Visited 6/16/2012 3 Forks

Goodwin 430 Hudson St., (between Leroy St & St Lukes Pl), New York, NY 10014

After a nice lazy Saturday Aarti and I really just wanted to get some snacks and some wine.  Granted it was 10pm on a Saturday but that's never stopped places in NYC from staying open and serving food.  The Goodwin had just opened around the block from her place so we decided to give it a try.  My first impression was that the back room was gorgeous.  It had this beautiful wood paneling and giant windows overlooking a lovely garden.  It was a very tranquil and peaceful setting.  

After perusing the menu, we did decide to share a bunch of small plates to nosh on.  We got the Green and Grain Salad ($10), the cheese board ($10), and the Caprese sandwich ($11) and I got a glass of rose.  The green and grain salad was a continuation on our kale salad kick.  This one came with kale, farro (hence the grain part), tomato, goat cheese, and cucumbers.  My main complaint was that this was way too heavy on the farro and dressing.  You could barely tell you were eating a salad because you could barely taste the kale.  But all I do love all those ingredients on their own, so I didn't mind too much but I just thought it wasn't necessarily a salad.  The kale salad we had at Tremont was much lighter and more refreshing.  The cheese board was fine I wasn't necessarily in love with the small sides of crusty bread, apples and spicy popcorn.  I guess I prefer softer breads with my cheeses and I did love the raw honey that came with the cheese plate at Parish Hall.  The caprese sandwich was pretty huge and it was served with a very healthy heaping of buratta cheese, tomatoes and a basil aioli.  The cheese was super rich and I'm really glad that we decided to split the sandwich because no one person should be eating that much cheese.  Overall, I did think the place was cute and a nice oasis away from a busy city life.  The menu was listed as a "preview" menu so I'm not sure if that means that some of the dishes will change or not, but it is a cute late night spot if you are in the 'hood.  I wouldn't necessarily say it's a destination restaurant but has the potential to be a nice local joint.  Total bill: $24/pp with tip and tax

Photo Credit: Yelp

Kati Roll Visited 6/16/2012 4 Forks

Kati Roll 99 MacDougal St., New York, NY 10012

I will make this review quick since Kati Roll is not really a restaurant, but since I try to blog about all things food, I had to include this place.  I had originally been to Kati Roll years and years ago (seriously, I think it's been over 5+ years at this point) when it was such a big deal.  At one point, they even had "bouncers" outside at night for the late night munchie crowd.

Despite being in the West Village and having great food, I just haven't had a chance to go back in many many years.  Aarti and I were walking around the neighborhood on a Saturday afteroon and was craving a legit snack, so I was thrilled when Aarti reminded me of this place.  It's a pretty tiny place with about 3 tables, so I wouldn't come here hoping to really sit down.  The concept of the food here is pretty simple:  spicy, flavorful mix of vegetables, or meat, or cheese wrapped in an India flat bread.  I chose the Unda Chicken roll ($6) on a roti (gotta love the cheap price).  The Unda Chicken roll was stuffed with chicken tikka, a layer of beaten eggs, lots of onion and spices on a whole-wheat roasted bread.  The guy behind the counter was a bit cranky and kept getting confused as to how many rolls I wanted, but he did eventually get it right. 

I forgot how freakin good these rolls are.  My roll was amazing and so filling for just $6.  The chicken was tender and juicy as it had been marinating in yogurt and spices.  Your whole mouth just tastes like a spice rack (and a whole onion) exploded in your mouth.  The layer of egg is a nice touch to keep things moist.  The reason I like the roti vs. the paratha (classic flat bread) is that the last time I had the classic flat bread it was oily and a bit too thick.  The roti is thinner and not as greasy.  This place is still a fabulous place for a quick afternoon snack or a midnight drunken outing.  Total bill: $11 for 2 rolls and a bottle of water.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Tremont Visited 6/16/2012 3.5 Forks

Tremont 51 Bank St., (between 4th St & Waverly Pl), Manhattan, NY 10014

I hit up Tremont with Aarti for our girls birthday brunch.  I got there around noon on a sunny Saturday afternoon and at first didn't think it was open.  But upon closer inspection, it was open, it was just that no one was inside.  I got a bit nervous and weary about going to a place that had literally not a single person inside during peak brunch hour.  Was something wrong with it? Why was it empty when other restaurants around it were pouring with customers? Honestly, I don't know why.  My meal was pretty tasty, the decor pleasant and the waitstaff very friendly. 


I will say that the brunch menu is a bit limiting with on the traditional egg-type dishes with just a polenta dish, omelette, steak and eggs and 2 eggs any style.  No benedicts but they did have a few other lunch type sandwiches and basic brunch sides.  I am obsessed with polenta so I had to get that dish plus it was made with poached egg, braised bacon, mushrooms ($14), what's not to love about all those ingredients?  Aarti and I also split the kale salad ($12) to start since we're both really into kale these days.  The kale came out first and it's served with sunflower seeds, parmigiano reggiano, dried cranberries, and a light lemon vinaigrette dressing.  It was a great summer salad...not too heavy on the dressing and it really showcased the kale.  Next came the polenta dish and it was a nice sized dish with plenty of hearty food in the bowl.  The braised bacon seemed more like pork belly but in any case, it was delicious and very juicy and tender.  It went really well with the polenta and eggs.  One egg was poached well with a runny yolk but the other egg was overpoached and slightly overcooked inside.  What is it with places that offer brunch but can't poach BOTH eggs correctly?!  Luckily Aarti's eggs were runnier and she likes the slightly harder cooked eggs, so we switched eggs.  I don't know what it is, but polenta and poached eggs is just a wonderful combination.  The polenta was nice and creamy and full of flavor (as polenta can lean towards bland if not done correctly).   The mushrooms gave it a hearty touch to it and at times I couldn't tell if I was eating pork or a mushroom!



All in all, it was a great birthday brunch with great company in a quaint West Village corner.  I'm not sure why it wasn't more crowded then it was but you should definitely check it out if you're in the neighborhood.  Total bill: $50 total 


Photo Credit: Immaculate Infatuation

Parish Hall Visited 6/15/2012 3.5 Forks

Parish Hall 109A N 3rd St., Brooklyn, NY 11249

I'm generally not one to go bananas on my birthday, so when a few close girlfriends wanted to have dinner before going out to Brooklyn Winery (which I HIGHLY recommend, it's almost like a wine hall instead of a beer hall), I wanted something nice, low key and somewhere in the neighborhood.  Parish Hall meets all those criteria.  It's from the owners of the extremely popular brunch spot, Egg and it's right off the main drag of Bedford, so away from the craziness but still close enough to walk there. 


My first impression of Parish Hall was that the decor was bright, white and minimalist.  Seriously, the whole place is such a contrast to the grubby construction that is in the surrounding neighborhood.  It kind of transports you to someplace else that wasn't in the middle of hipsterville.  The menu is like it's decor: simple, clean, American style food.  We ordered the dressed eggs ($6), the ham fritters ($6), cheese plate (3 for $19), and I got the seafood stew ($11) as a main dish.  The dressed eggs were just really a fancy term for deviled eggs and who doesn't love deviled eggs?!  There were 4 of them and they were made with a fancy mustard (where you could see and taste the mustard seeds) and topped with scallion.  Good tasting, but honestly it's not too hard to mess up deviled eggs.  Next came the ham fritters (there were 5 of them) and they looked like falafel balls at first glance due to its similar texture and color.  But when you cut them open, it almost resembled more of a risotto ball.  It was filled with rice, lovage and ham and served with a green garlic aioli on the side.  It was a nice appetizer to get the stomach going and not too oily despite being fried.  Next up was the cheese platter and forgive me but I've already forgotten which 3 cheeses we ordered but I know one of them was the Cremont which was a cow and goat combination and it was lovely.  The cheeses were served with a delicious dollop of raw honey which really paired well with all three cheeses.  By then, we were pretty full and I'm glad I didn't get a large main dish.  The seafood stew came out and it really didn't look like a stew at all.  It was more like a seafood broth instead.  When I hear stew, I think of something really hearty and very filling.  These was quite the opposite, it was light and um, not filling?  But it was still a good dish and to be fair it was listed under the "Smaller" entree section, so I can't really fault it.  It was a garlic-tasting broth served with pieces of scallop, tilefish, and oysters.  They were all cooked well but just would have appreciated more types of seafood and more seafood in the "stew".  I also usually associate stews with strong and bold flavors and this was pretty mild tasting.  I didn't try Aarti's veggie dumplings but they didn't look like dumplings at all (hmm, everything here seems to be mis-labeled).  We were told they were more like gnocchi, so then whey don't you just call it a gnocchi then? I did notice that she asked for more salt, which I usually don't think is a good sign for a dish.  Virgina got the lamb rillettes which is basically a lamb pate and it came with a side of beet mostarta.  It was a pretty good, although I'm not 100% sure that lamb is the best kind of meat for this style of cooking.  It was a little bit gamey and drier then I would have liked it but the beets did help with that.  Since it was my b-day, I was forced to get dessert. :)  They have a very limited dessert selection...ok, there's only 2 things, the strawberry fool or a cornmeal cake type thing.  I got the strawberry fool which was basically a strawberry mousse served with some salt and pepper and sliced nuts on top.  It was very light and almost tasted like a yogurt.  I know the salt and pepper sound weird, like it doesn't belong on the dish, but they actually provided a nice balance to it.  I've actually started liking having some salt with my sugar-y desserts these days. 

I will make a shout out to the service.  Our waitress was really nice and attentive and not in a pushy or aggressive way.  The whole dining experience was super pleasant and I would come back and try it out for brunch.  Total bill...well, since I didn't pay, I'm not 100% sure but I think it was around $100 for all of us. 

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Spoon Visited 6/10/2012 2 Forks

Spoon 17 W 20th St., (between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas), New York, NY 10011

I really really really wanted to like Spoon (or it's also called tbsp) .  It's super cute and cozy brunch place in an area that desperately needs a great brunch place, Flatiron.  It's one of those places that serves everything in maison jars, has cute white washed wood paneling and everything looks like it came straight from the farm.   Plus the menu looked and sounded amazing.  I was having a hard time decided because everything sounded great.  I was deciding between the baked eggs and the bacon, egg, cheese panini, so I asked the waitress which one she recommended.  Instead of describing the dishes and telling me which one she liked, she said "the baked eggs is one of the most popular dishes."  Umm, that wasn't what I asked.  Something can be popular but not good.  So this led me to think that she didn't really know much about the food.  I decided to go with the baked eggs ($12) because it came with herb shitake mushrooms hash browns, pork, eggs and spinach.  Sounds great, right? The waitress did warn me that the eggs would come out soft and if that bothered me and I said no, the runnier and softer the better for me.

Lav got the Farmer's Plate with scrambled eggs ($12) which turned out really great.  The eggs looked perfectly scrambled and she said she really loved her dish.  But unfortunately when my dish came out, I took one look at it and immediately wished I got the panini instead.  I knew the dish was baked in the oven, but it clearly looked like it had been overcooked and sat in the oven way too long.  I cut into the dish and hit the yolk of the egg and it was completely hard boiled.  It wasn't even close to being poached or soft.  I mean, you could have lifted out the yolk completely intact with your hands.  I normally never send my food back...I just suck it up and eat it because generally it's never that bad.  But after I few bites, I just couldn't eat it.  It was so overcooked and dry.  I felt bad but the waitress was nice about it.  I always have this fear that whenever food is sent back, they spit in the next version.  The next one came out and this time the eggs were definitely runny and soft.  Hooray.  But then the overall taste of the dish was still dry and wasn't great.  The entire bottom of the pan was lined with hash browns and the hash browns just really didn't do it for me - too dry, salty and too herb-y.  The parmesan crusted top just didn't work for me either.  When I think of cheese, I want it to be nice and gooey and this was hard and crispy.  I probably ate half of it and couldn't finish it.

I did give this place 2 stars because Lav really did like her dish a lot and the other items on the menu did sound really good that I would still consider trying this place again, especially since the cute brunch options in this area is a bit limiting.  Total bill: $36 total

Photo Credit: Yelp

Gran Electrica Visited 6/9/2012 3.5 Forks

Gran Electrica 5 Front St., (between Dock St & York St)

My one big regret about eating at Gran Electrica was that Lav and I opted to sit inside instead of outside.  Before they seated us, the hostess told us that there was only a limited menu outside, so we thought the smart move was to sit inside. WRONG.  Outside was totally the place to be! It was this super cute garden and full of people enjoying the weather.  Instead, we were seated inside with almost no one around us.  So who cares about the "limited" menu (when I asked the waitress, how limited it was, she actually said it was only a few items that they didn't have inside), so always choose to sit outside if you can.

Now on to the food.  You wouldn't think it, but the cuisine here is Mexican and it's not your Benny's Burrito's type of Mexican.  In fact, there weren't any enchiladas, burritos or nachos here. It's a much more refined and authentic menu.  There are lots and different kinds of small tacos and then a few main dishes.  Lav and I ordered the requeson con nopal ($5), the setas quesadillas ($8), the frijoles de la olia ($9), and the rajas con acelgas ($7).  As many people have mentioned on Yelp, yes the portions are on the small side.   And the food comes out scary fast.  I mean, it probably rivals some of the Thai places I've been to where you expect that kind of service.  Food that comes out this fast freaks me out a bit.  Anyways, the 2 tacos come out and could fit on a plate only slightly bigger than my hand.  But honestly, the quality of the ingredients and flavors make up for it.  These are not like your taco bell type tacos, in fact the rajas con acelgas was a mixture of polano chile, chard and crema, so no shredded cheese, lettuce or sour cream in sight.  The corn tortilla tasted super fresh and the mixture on top had a nice clean taste to it despite the chile in it.  The requescon con nopal was a tlacoyo (or an oval shaped fried cake) made with ricotta, cactus, and queso fresco.  Honestly, it was just ok and frankly a little bit dry.  Nothing to write home about.  I ordered the setas quesadilla because they came with oyster mushrooms, epazote, and Quesillo cheese.  Now based on the other looks of the food, I knew it wasn't going to be a quesadilla like how I would imagine it, but this one almost looked like a hot pocket.  The cheese almost seem to have melted then coagulated inside which was a bit of a turn off but I did love the mushrooms inside of the pocket.  I just seemed a bit dry and over done.  The main dish was the frijoles de la olia or black beans, oregano, queso fresco.  They came with a set of small corn tortillas so it was almost like making your own tacos.  But the beans themselves were super salty and there weren't enough tortillas to go around, so at one point we were just eating spoonfuls of beans.  And of course, we couldn't come to a Mexican restaurant without ordering the churros with chocolate ($6).  They were good (I mean how can fried dough covered in cinnamon and sugar ever be bad?) but again, I thought they were a bit overcooked and could have been fluffier.  I know I've made it sound like the food wasn't all the great, but for some reason, I did enjoy my experience there.   I appreciated the fact that it was Mexican flavors without all the nightmares of eating at a typical Mexican restaurant.  I had read on immaculate infatuation that a lot of the meat and fish dishes are amazing, so next time I go, I will lean more towards those dishes.

I also want to give a shout out to the margarita de pepino ($12) that I had, it was awesome.  I told the waitress that I wasn't a huge tequilla lover, so she told me this cocktail was lighter and more refreshing.  She was totally right.  It had a nice combination of cucumber juice, lime, cilantro syrup, and lime salt to off set the taste of the tequilla.  I loved it.  The service was also pretty good, although once our waitress had to cover the outside shift as well, we were kind of left alone for a while and several random people did come to check on us.  All in all, the menu here was pretty creative and the outdoor space is to die for (especially in a place like DUMBO), so I would give this place another go again soon and this time I will most definitely sit outside.  Total bill: $49/pp with tax and tip

Photo credit: Yelp

Pok Pok NY Visited 6/8/2012 4.5 Forks

Pok Pok NY 127 Columbia St., (between Kane St & Irving St), Brooklyn, NY 11231

Pok Pok has got to be one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings this summer and I was super excited to try this place out as my first post-vacation outing.  Cicily had mentioned that there is always a super long wait, so we agreed to meet at 5:45pm on a Friday, 15 minutes before it opens.  I expected there to be a line but was shocked to see how many people were already in line when we got there (we were probably # 10 or 12 in line).  One thing to note is that its location is no where close to public transportation but on a good day the 15 minute walk is quite pleasant (just be prepared for it).  So my advice is the same I gave for Parm, get there early, be the first group to be seated (even if it means eating earlier than you would like), otherwise, be prepared to wait 1 1/2 hours as all the tables will likely to turn over at the same time. 


The menu here is authentic Northern Thai food.  There is no trace of pad thai, pad see eww or anything of that sort here.  We were starving and totally went to town in ordering.  We got the Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings ($12.50), the Hoi Thawt ($14), the Kaeng Hung Leh ($14) and the Phak Kad Jaw ($12).   You'd think that the wings would come out first but instead the Kaeng Hung Leh came out first.  This dish is comprised of stewed mustard greens with pork ribs in a soup base.  We mixed it with sticky rice and it was fabulous.  The mustard greens were cooked well so that they were super soft and easy to eat (even the stalky party) and the ribs pretty much fell off the bone as soon as you bit into it.  The broth was flavored heavily with dried chilis and tamarind and I would have been happy with just a soup/rice mixture nevermind adding in the pork.   The wings came out next and they were also delicious.  They are marinated in fish sauce, palm sugar, and garlic and super super sticky.  I usually don't love wings because they're so messy and are a lot of work for not a lot of meaty return.  Yes, these were still messy to eat but the mixture of fish sauce, sugar and garlic was really fantastic and made up for the sauce all over my fingers.  Next came the Hoi Thawt, which was the one dish that I was really looking forward to.  This dish is actually one of my all time favorite Thai dishes and it's not really found in a lot of restaurants.  It's a crepe with steamed mussels, eggs, garlic, chives, bean sprouts and served with a side of sriacha sauce.  I loved this dish but actually thought it could have been a bit crispier as I did find the crepe a little bit soggy, but otherwise all the ingredients worked really well with each other.  They didn't skimp on the mussels at all and had at least 1-2 full pieces of mussels with each bite.  I wished more places offered this dish!  Lastly, the Kaeng Hung Leh came out and it was essentially a pork belly and pork shoulder curry.  The pork was incredibly tender and fell apart with each bite.  The curry wasn't spicy at all and it was more of a caramelized sauce vs. what you would typically think of in a curry. 

Pok Pok NY is one of the restaurants that really lives up to its hype.  The food is incredibly authentic and doesn't skimp on flavor or deliciousness.  I would absolutely go back in a heartbeat, despite it's slightly out of the way location.  The prices are incredibly affordable considering the quality of food.  Just be mindful of the wait and the size of the restaurant (no more than 10 tables inside...I didn't see what the outside is like).  The waitstaff was pretty helpful but I did feel a tad bit like they were rushing us through our meal given the enormous wait behind us, which I kind of understand but didn't love.  Oh well, it's a small price to pay for amazing Thai food like this.  Total bill $42/pp with tax and tip. 

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Seminyak, Bali - Part 3

Our hotel only came with breakfast for 3 of the 5 nights, so on one of our off-days we walked down the beach and came across La Lucciola (Jl. Kayu Aya).  It's a cute Italian restaurant tucked behind the streets overlooking the beach - a lovely, peaceful setting.  They had a pretty contemporary breakfast menu, I ordered the smoked salmon, dill, cream cheese and green pea omelet and split the hash browns with Deanna.  The omelet was a bit on the dry and overcooked side but the fillings were quite fresh and tasty.  The cream cheese didn't really taste like cream cheese, it just kept the inside more moist.  The hash browns were beautifully presented  as shredded potatoes in a circle puff.   I also loved the fresh homemade jams and jellies they brought for our toast.  That was almost the best part of the entire meal.  All in all, it was a nice relaxing place to have breakfast and the staff was super patient and kind as we kept asking for tons of stuff every 10 minutes and they did it all with a smile.  Total bill was 120,000 Rp per person. 

We had read about a place that had high tea in the afternoon and we thought that it would be fun to try.  I didn't have huge expectations for it as I've been to a few high teas before in my life and thought it was just a snotty British thing with a pot of ok tea and some finger sandwiches.  Little did I know that the place we went to, Biku (Jl. Raya Petitenget No. 888) was AMAZING!  It is this gorgeous tea house that serves an extremely decadent high tea outing and for an extra 80,000 Rp you can get a 15 minute Tarrot card reading (I had never had fortune telling done before and while I do take it with a huge grain of salt she did say some things that shook me).  They had a large variety of fabulous teas to choose from (I got the rose tea which tasted exactly like fresh roses) and we each got a enormous stack of pastries and of course finger sandwiches.  It was a feast that could have fed 15 people.  All the pastries were sweet and delicious but the one that stood out was the buttery biscuit that was served with freshly whipped heavy cream and strawberry jam.  It was INSANELY good.  I mean it was literally like eating sweet crack.  The whipped cream was so fluffy and combined with the sweet jam and butter base, none of us could stop eating them.  The finger sandwiches were good (I love the fact that they come with the crust cut off).  I liked the salmon and cream cheese ones and not a huge fan of the butter and cucumber ones.  There were also mini spinach quiches, scones, chocolate squares and so much more.  Even though it's so un-Asian, it is totally worth the 85,000 Rp.  You don't have to just go for high tea, they also have a very extensive menu of regular non-high tea food, so definitely check it out anytime you want.

I won't spend a lot of time on the Potato Head Beach Club (Jln. Petitenget) but all I will say that it's a beautiful beach club with several pools, lounge chairs and beds, but the food was awful.  I got a nicoise salad and I'm fairly certain it made me sick the next day.  Aarti and Deanna split a pesto pasta that was also terrible, oily, and the pasta was undercooked.  I would recommend this place for drinks but most definitely not for food, although there are 2 other separate restaurants inside the club that we didn't try.

We had our last hurrah dinner at Trattoria (Jln. Lakshmana) which was actually the place we wanted to try on Gili at some point but we didn't make it.  So it was nice that we were able to finally try it before we left.  Bali strangely has a lot of Italian restaurants (I guess who doesn't love Italian food) but luckily this place is owned and run by real Italians.  The place was super crowded when we got there and we were at a table that was literally on top of 2 other tables.  The menu had a lot of traditional Italian food and we ordered a spinach salad with pine nuts and parmesan cheese to start and I had the tagliolini with mixed seafood in tomato sauce.   The spinach salad was fine, I would have preferred a bit more balsamic vinegar on it as the spinach just tasted like it came out of the bag and put on the plate.  Unfortunately I had mixed the pasta up for taglitatelle pasta and was expecting a thick ribbon pasta but instead it was a thinner, spaghetti-like texture.  The sauce was a nice tomato base but there wasn't a whole lot of seafood in there, so that was a bit disappointing but the whole dish was quite satisfying overall.  One great thing about the dinner was that they ended it with 3 free glasses of limoncello - yum! Total bill 142,000 Rp per person.  Sadly I was so tired by this time that I didn't take any pictures, sorry to end on a non-picture note!

I had an amazing, relaxing and peaceful time in Bali and I highly recommend it to anyone.  If anyone who's reading this ever decides to go, feel free to reach out with any questions.

Seminyak, Bali - Part 2

So for all my gripes about Seminyak being super Westernized, I did really love several of the restaurants there.  Sure they weren't authentic/local or frankly Indonesian, but honestly there's only so much freaking fried rice or fried noodles a gal can take.

One of my favorite places we went to for lunch was the Grocer and Grind ((Jl. Kayu Jati 3x Petitenget).  It's a super cute bistro/deli that looks like it belongs in LA. It's contemporary with a great menu that ranges from brunch items like eggs benedict to delicious sounding fancy deli sandwiches.  I got a iced coffee and the chickpea burger (sounds like something you would get in a trendy LA restaurant, right?).  What was amazing was that my iced coffee came with a scoop of ice cream! It was amazing...I want all my coffee to come with ice cream now.  Aarti got the eggs florentine and Deanna got the 1/2 and 1/2 which was this bruschetta like dish that came with eggs, avocado and tomato.  They got their food first, so we dug in.  The eggs florentine came with a really well made hollandaise sauce and the spinach was incredibly fresh.  You could tell that it wasn't frozen spinach on there. I was surprised at how good the english muffin was.  You wouldn't think that Bali wouldn't have good english muffins but it was nice and soft.   The one down fall was that the egg was a bit overcooked and not as runny as it could be.  The bruschetta dish was also flavorful but to be honest, I'm not a huge bruschetta fan in general.  Like the benedict, the eggs were a bit overpoached on this dish.  Of course my dish comes out last but after looking at it, it looked like it was because they literally made the chickpea burger from scratch, so I forgive them.  The reason I got it was because it came with avocado, tomato, mixed herbs, organic greens, and tahini dressing (48,000 Rp).  I really liked the concept of the burger but there wasn't enough binding to the burger and it just fell apart when I bit into it.  I also didn't care for the use of white bread for the bun, but that's not really a huge deal.  Also while I love avocado in any form, my avocado slide was a bit under-ripe and crunchy tasting.   I know I didn't really make the food sound amazing but I was totally in love with this place and would have gone back and tried something else in a heartbeat.

For dinner, we made a reservation at Sarong (Jl. Petitenget No, 19 x, Kerobokan) which was a 3 minute walk from our hotel.  It was probably the fanciest and most luxurious restaurant we went to on our whole trip.  The inside decor was breathtaking and very trendy with the largest mirror with I've ever seen by the bar.  Despite being very high end, they tried to keep it authentic with tons of beautiful wood carvings everywhere.  The food actually leaned more toward Indian than Indonesian.  I got the snapper pahadi (165,000 Rp) which was a tandoori style fish that was marinated in a mint coriander yogurt garam green masala.  Deanna and Aarti got the paneer tikka stuffed with chutney (93,000 Rp) and the dahl with yellow lentils (75,000 Rp).  We also all split a side of fried rice with egg, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, baby corn, and peas (50,000 Rp).  But we first got cocktails and they were quite fancy with giant sprigs of herbs in each of them.  While the drinks were good, I was starting to get sick of constantly drinking cocktails with fruit in them.  I need to start transitioning to beer!  The food was pretty decadent and plated in a fancy manner.  The fish was super tender and cooked just right (snapper can be overcooked really easily but this wasn't) and the coriander yogurt was aromatic and the perfect match for the fish.  Despite being just a fried rice, I really did enjoy fried rice dish we got a lot.  Simple but nicely done. It wasn't greasy like you would get from a Chinese take out.  I tried the paneer and lentils as well and they were also delightful to the palate and not super rich tasting.  This place is exactly what you would picture when you say "jet-setter".  Everyone was dressed up, but in a trendy manner and given the prices (our total bill was $1.3MM Rp) clearly only tourists can afford to go here.  

The next day we didn't have a lunch as we filled up on breakfast at the W.  I will briefly mention that we did go to the Rock Bar at the Ayana Resort which was also amazing for sunset.  We got there around 4:30pm and there was already a line! Who knew I came all the way to Bali just to wait in line for something.  But I'm glad we did.  You actually have to take an outdoor tram down the rocks to the actual bar and when you get there, the bar is perched on top of the rocks for a gorgeous view of the ocean (seriously, check out their website, they have amazing photos that put my pictures of the place to shame).  Yet again, we got fancy cocktails and we were sort of regretting that we hadn't had a snack yet so we got an order of fries and edamame (total bill 215,000 Rp per person).  The bar food was fine but I mainly just wanted to plug this place for it's breathtaking views.

For dinner, we decided that we had to take a break for all these fancy pants places and asked our driver to take us to a local noodle place.  Deanna was obsessed with getting bakmi goreng, which we strangely enough hadn't had on our trip yet.  So our cute driver, Gusti, dropped us off at Mie 88, which is actually local noodle/Chinese food chain.  But it was perfect and totally what we were looking for - good, cheap local food.  I got their version of shrimp dim sum (10,000 Rp - it was steamed fresh and despite looking a bit suspect was actually very good) and the 88 special noodle (24,000 Rp) which was a basic noodle soup which came with some kind of green (almost like a bok choy) and pork slices - I'm not even sure what makes it "special"but it hit the spot and it made me wish that we had spent more time finding cheap, local places rather than spending so much money of fancy food.  But hey, I'm not going to complain at all, I'm in Bali after all!   Stay tuned for Part 3 of Seminyak....

Seminyak, Bali - Part 1

Our last stop on the dream trip was Seminyak in the south west side of the island.  To be honest, my first impression of Seminyak wasn't very favorable.  It reminded me a lot of South Beach or some snotty European beach town.  Compared to Ubud and Gili, it was super modern, Westernized and full of jet-setting Europeans and Australians.  But after spending 5 days there, it totally grew on me.  Hey, I mean I'm a jet setter right?!  We ended up eating at so many places that I will have to break up this post into several parts.

Our first outing was to Ku De Ta (Jalan kayu aya no 9 - right next to the Oberoi) which is one of the most well known beach lounges in the area.  When we walked in, I immediately noticed how everyone was so polished and dressed up.  In Gili, everyone wore flip flops and shorts.  At Ku De Ta, everyone was wearing expensive maxi dresses.  It's just a much more mature crowd.  One of the best things to do is to get to Ku De Ta before sunset so that you can catch the sun going down on the beach while having drinks.  When we opened the menu, it was quite a shock.  We definitely were in a more touristy area.  The fancy cocktails were 110,000 Rp ($12) each which isn't that far off from the prices in NYC.  We were starving so we got some appetizers too.  The menu was a variety of upscale Asian fusion items such as sushi rolls, spring rolls, skewers, gyoza and dips.   I got the fried calamari (95,000 Rp) and Aarti and Deanna got an eggplant sushi roll (95,000 Rp) and the agadashi (85,000 Rp).  Someone had told us that the food wasn't great there and overpriced so we were a bit hesitant to order, but we were so hungry it didn't matter.  Was it overpriced? Definitely.  But the food was actually pretty good and the presentation was really nice.   The eggplant sushi was also fresh and delicious and had the cutest soy sauce jar. 

 

I didn't try the silky tofu but Aarti said she really liked it.  It was a salt and pepper tofu dish with chili paste and grated daikon on top.

 

The calamari was nicely done and not greasy.  You could really taste the squid in it and you can't go wrong with a lemon aioli!

The cocktails were worth every penny.  I got a watermelon vodka drink sprinkled with cinnamon on top and it was refreshing and the perfect sunset watching cocktail. 

You'd think after these bites that we wouldn't be hungry but no, we were still on the hunt for dinner after this.  We decided to walk to Jalan Lakshmana which is the main drag in Seminyak and it's also known as Eat Street.  The street is full of international and more Westernized restaurants (I saw burger places, a few Italian places, Japanese and Greek food).  If you are looking for cute, local warungs or cheap, authentic eats, this is not the street for you.   We walked the entire length of the street and ended up choosing Chandi (Jalan Laksmana 72) because we had heard good things about it from others and in a couple of our guide books and it looked beautiful from the outside.  The menu is touted as fusion South East Asian food and the whole menu looked fabulous.   The food ranged from lots of shellfish, fish, and meat dishes to a full vegetarian section (you don't really see a lot of that).  I was so overwhelmed and wanted to order everything.  We started with Chandi's amazing crunchy tofu squares (32,000 Rp).  It was indeed amazing and crunchy.  It wasn't overly fried or greasy and the tofu was nice and silky on the inside and served with this mouthwatering peanut and cucumber topping.  I could have eaten another order of it.

I ordered a variety of grilled skewers:  scallops (50,000 Rp), tofu and corn (18,000 Rp) and tuna (18,000 Rp) and a small organic green salad (30,000 Rp).  I was hoping the scallops would be plump and thick but they were actually pretty small and a bit disappointing.  The tofu and corn was glazed with a miso like sauce and grilled perfectly and the tuna was actually not what I thought.  Instead of being a hunk of tuna on a stick, it was more like mashed up tuna that was molded around a sugar cane.  It was all served with a variety of sauces (see below) but honestly you didn't really need any of them to enjoy the food.  It was just so unique looking even though it was just grilled stuff on a stick. 

Deanna got the veggie version (110,000 Rp) and it was a feast!  So many different kinds of gorgeous veggies - tempe, trio of bell peppers, tofu, baby corn, asparagus, beet root, lotus root, infinity bean, star fruit, fennel, zucchini, shallots, scallion, whole garlic, and red onion (phew!).    It was all served with watercress and sprout salad, grilled pickled red chili pepper sambal, sweet soy chili sambal, and kemangi sambal.  It was amazing to look at.

Aarti got the black and red rice vegetarian nasi goreng (72,000 Rp) - this was cripsy tempe, tofu, turnip, edamame, zucchini, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, red chili pepper, tarragon and an egg a cheval.  I had one bite and the black and red rice tasted a lot like quinoa and the vegetables were amazingly flavorful.

All in all, the service was fantastic, the presentation of the food glamorous and the food was delicious without being pretentious.  One of the best meals we had on the whole trip in terms of fancy dining.  Everything was top notch. The total bill for all 3 of us was 601,000 Rp.

Gili Island

After 5 amazing nights in Ubud, we made our way to the Gili Islands, which are 3 small islands between Bali and Lombok.  The 3 islands are Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan.  We stayed on Gili Trawangan which is the most populated island.  The entire island is walkable in about 2 hours, doesn't have any cars on the whole island (there are horse drawn buggies that can help you get around if you need them), there is barely any fresh water (we basically showered in salt water the whole time) and another strange fact was that there are no dogs, just cats on the island.

The crowd on Gili T definitely skews young and leans towards the "full moon" party type.  Everyone there seemed to be about 20, gorgeous, had a hot body and most guys had tons of tattoos.  People here looked like they were backpacking for a while, didn't have a real job, and spent most of the day on the beach and most of the night partying.  Ahh, youth.  Ok, so in terms of food, there are actually quite a few options on the island.  Our first outing was to this hole in the wall called Kiki Nova (it's inside the art market in the center of town).  When you first walk in (and I use that phrase loosely as there isn't really a store front to walk into), you aren't sure if any of the food is sanitary.  All the food is homemade by this lovely woman in various pots and they are just sitting outside all day.  When you order, you basically point to all the different pots of food that you want a la Nasi Campur.  Every now and then she will tell you what they are but generally you kind of have to guess and take a leap of faith.

I had picked a little bit of everything (chicken, hard boiled egg, beef curry, eggplant, corn, greens, fried dough, rice, glass noodles, and this a roll type dish).  Even though I am a pretty adventurous eater, I was slightly hesitant at first.  But my first bite was amazing!  You could just tell that all the food was freshly homemade with no preservatives.  The spices and flavors were all natural and it was best to just eat everything together in one big messy pile.  I couldn't really tell what was in side the soft roll (in the front of the picture) but the inside was this sweet filing that I actually didn't love.  It turned out to be one of the best meals I had on the whole trip and all for 20,000 Rp (or $2).

For dinner on our first night we decided on The Beach House which is actually a hotel that has a large outdoor/beachside restaurant.  This one seemed to have the most people there, so we decided to give it a try.  It's on the southwest part of the island which has tons of restaurants, most of which have a similar outdoor beach feel.  Many of them also have these outdoor BBQs where they have tons of fresh seafood that was caught that day, sitting on ice, and then you basically go up and pick out your fish/shellfish and they grill it on site (the picture below isn't actually from The Beach House but it had a similar layout).  

Of course I had to try the seafood BBQ.  It's totally right up my alley and it made me wish that we had something like this at home.  I walked up to the catches of the day and selected a huge piece of tuna (65,000 Rp or $7.50) and also a grilled corn on the cob (15,000 Rp or $1.50).  I asked them to grill the tuna medium rare, so it shouldn't have taken so long.  I guess there must have been a back up because it took a while to come out, but when I cut into it, it was definitely medium rare.  I couldn't believe how big the piece of fish was.  Something like this at home would have cost at least double if not triple.  It was served simply with a lemon wedge.  My one complaint was that the sauce they served with it was way too buttery and kind of ruined the essence of eating a fresh piece of fish.  Deanna and Aarti both got a pasta that they said was way too oily and greasy.  Seems to be a running theme.

We also ate a small lunch at Locanda (North end of the island).  We had originally wanted to eat at Karma Kayak but inadvertently sat in a bungalow at Locanada which was literally right next to it.  Oh well.  The food there is very local, limited and simple.  I had the Soto Ayam with rice (plus a coke cost 65,000 Rp) which is basically a clear noodle broth with glass noodles, small slices of chicken and sliced egg and tomato.  It was a bit weird to be eating a hot  noodle soup when I was dying of heat but overall the food was fine.  As I said, it was basic and simple food.  It's what you'd expect from a hut in the middle of nowhere.  I have all of these ingredients at home and probably could have made it myself.  We were a bit bummed that we sat down at the wrong place because we did hear that Karma Kayak had really good tapas food (I know, totally random).

Our next place for dinner ended up being a disaster and was put on the list of "Things we can't talk about on the trip" (the two other things we weren't allowed to talk about were work and the duration of our flight).  One of the workers at our hotel told us that the Indian food at Pesona (right on the main drag of the street) was pretty good so we decided the give it a try and give ourselves a break from Indonesian food.  I ordered the fish tikka and buttered naan and Aarti and Deanna got daal and a cauliflower dish.  Everything was going fine (I didn't mind my fish tikka but I did think the buttered naan wasn't good - they used that weird sweet butter you put on bread on the naan and it just tasted weird together).  Aarti and Deanna didn't like their food much but one of the reasons we all had such a horrible taste in our mouth (no pun intended!) was that when we went to pay for the meal, we had put out the exact amount in the bill fold.  The waiter came and "counted" the money but then quickly pocketed 100,000 Rp without us really noticing at first (although later we did all say that something fishy was happening right before our eyes).  Next thing we know, he's telling us we owe them 100,000 Rp even though we knew that we had paid the correct amount.  We were so angry and didn't know what to do, but since we were in a random country that we didn't know, we didn't want to argue (and in the grand scheme of things it was only $10 but it was the principle of it) and just gave him another 100,000 Rp.  It was such a shitty situation. So lesson learned, always count the money in front of the waiter yourself instead of handing the money over to them. 

On our last full day, we took a side trip to Gili Meno (the center island) which was my favorite.  It was the total opposite of Gili T in that there was probably 50 people max on the whole island and there were about 4 "restaurants" total.  We had a quick lunch at Mallia's Child since it was by the ferry station and we had a 3pm boat to catch.  Again, the food here is very basic and simple.  I got the chicken satay (with a coke, 65,000 Rp) and it was surprisingly decent.  There were lots of satays on the plate and basically anytime you dip something in peanut sauce, it's hard to go wrong.  I didn't see them make it but you do see lots of people on the streets grilling chicken on a squat, picnic-like grill, so I assumed that's how my food was made.  Funnily enough, the best chicken was this fried chicken drumstick that ended up on Deanna's plate.  As a "favor" to her, I ate the drumstick and it was delicious! The skin wasn't too fried but it had a nice crisp to it and the meat was so freakin juicy.  I was so surprised by it and wished I ordered a dish that had more of it.  I also tried Aarti's pumpkin curry and the pumpkin was basically a sweet potato and the dish was also surprisingly good. 

On our last night we had wanted to go to Blu D'Mare, which we had heard from other travelers was the most amazing Italian food (even compared to pasta they had had in Italy).  So we were super excited to try it.  But it was on the far Northeast corner of the island and by the time we got there it was 8:30pm.  There was a group of 3 girls who literally walked right in front of us and got the last walk-in table.  Of all the restaurants on the island, this is the one that required reservations.  We were pretty bummed.  So we walked around for a bit and ended up at the Cafe Gili and I got the snapper fillet (64,000 Rp).  While I do like my fish medium rare, this one was almost uncooked in the middle.  Unless it's tuna or salmon, I generally don't like other fishes that rare but we were so tired and hungry that I just wrote it off and prayed that I didn't get sick the next day.  It did come with a really flavorful garlic, onion, and chili sautee on top of the fish and had the fish been cooked a bit more, it would have been a top dish of the trip.  And I ended up fine the next day.

Next stop Seminyak...

Ubud, Bali

It's been a while since I've blogged and it's because I was in Bali for the past 2 weeks.  My goal was to pretty much unplug, so I didn't blog while I was away but I do want to share my eating adventures with everyone.  Since I was gone for so long, I'm going to break it down by the 3 different cities I visited: Ubud, Gili Islands and Seminyak.  I'm not going to list every place I went to but I'll try to highlight as many places that I can.  It was an amazing time and hope to go back some day! 

Ubud
Ahhh, Ubud.  If there is any one city to go to while you're in Bali, it's Ubud.  It's a fantastic get away with lots of culture, art, and lush greenery.  While there are lots of tourists, it's still got a fairly local feel to it (although there is a Starbucks in the middle of town).  We spent 5 nights there and I could have still spent more time exploring the area.  I really loved it.  There are lots and lots of great food choices all within walking distance of each other or a short cab ride away.  We had our first meal in town was at Cafe Wayan (Monkey Forest Road).  Most restaurants in Ubud have huge outdoor gardens that seem to go on forever (benefit of it almost always being sunny) with lots of Asian style low tables that require you to sit Indian style and this place was no different.   We all decided to order typical Indonesian dishes for our first meal.  It doesn't get anymore Indonesian than mie goreng.  I got it with seafood and honestly it was good but not mindblowing.  The bits of seafood (shrimp and scallop were the only ones I could see) were pretty small and were overcooked.  But all in all, it was a nice first taste to Bali.  The total bill for all 3 of us was 218,000 Rp (which is about $24).  

 

For dinner we went to Murni's Warung (no specific address).  Our hotel had made a reservation for us and at first when we walked in, it didn't seem liked we really needed it since there was lots of open seating on the first level.  But what we didn't know was that the hotel booked us a seat over looking the river on the 4th level (downstairs).  Unfortunately it was night time, so we couldn't really see much but I'm sure during the day you would have seen an amazing view of the river and gorgeous trees surrounding it.  The restaurant includes an antique shop and villas on site, so it's pretty unique place.  I ordered the award winning fish dish and the waitress told me it was made with black bean paste but when it came out, it looked more like a soup/broth.  It was basically cubes of white fish in a tamarind flavored broth with large pieces of onion, green peppers and snow peas served with a side of white rice.  It was a nice light meal that didn't have a particular fishy flavor to it (perfect since I was having slight stomach ache that night).  The great things about Murni's was that they also offered a free shuttle ride back to your hotel!

One of our negative eating experiences in Ubud was at the summit of this super touristy place to see this fantastic view of the volcano.  I don't remember the name of the place but almost every tour group stops here and while the views were indeed amazing and might even make up for the shitty food, you can also just run in and take a picture without eating there.  But we were so hungry that we just went for it.  I don't have any pictures but it's a buffet of bad Indonesian food.  Just bad quality and you could just tell that the food has been sitting out for a while.  The one plus was that they did have condensed milk available with their coffee, which I love.  The total bill was 125,000 Rp per person (or $14) which doesn't seem like much but given that you can get such better food for less, it was definitely overpriced.

Our 2nd dinner was at Bebek Bengil (aka Dirty Duck) (Jl. Hanoman, Padang Tegal) which we had heard was one of the best local restaurants in town and they claim to be the home of the original crispy duck.  So of course I had to get the crispy duck (82,000 Rp).  The duck is 1/2 a bird and served with a bean sprout salad, a side of sauces and white rice.  The duck was a bit on the skinny side and I am usually used to a bigger/meatier duck (a la Peking duck).  In an effort to be healthier, I generally avoid the skin but I just had to try it here and it was indeed crispy and delicious (totally made up for the fact that there wasn't too much meat).  The bean sprout salad had a coconut taste to it which was unusual.  One of the sauces was too smoky for me, but there was a shallot/chili/scallion oil was amazing and super flavorful and spicy.  Loved it.  Aarti and Deanna got a carrot/coriander soup and a mushroom soup and they were both delicious (mostly because they both had tons of cream in it).  Despite being a tourist hot spot, the waitstaff did have some problems with English and the service was generally very slow to the point of irritation.  But a plus is that they also had a free shuttle back to our hotel.

Another great lunch spot we went to was Batan Waru (Dewi Sita Street).  We came here after a long day of art shopping and we were exhausted.  The menu is authentic local eats and I got the Ayam Rica-Rica (72,000 Rp or $8) which was grilled chicken simmered in a chili, shiitake mushroom and coconut milk sauce.  It was extremely delicious and I inhaled the whole thing even though it was a pretty huge portion.  The chicken was super tender and juicy and the sauce had great heat and sweetness to it.  One of my favorite dishes on the trip so far.

 Our last dinner was at Cafe Lotus (Jl. Raya).  The main reason to come here is for the access to Pura Saraswati which is a beautiful temple that has nightly dance performances.  For an extra 80,000 Rp, you can sit in one of the tables that has great views of the dance performance.  If it wasn't for the view, you might be better off trying another place.  I got the crab and shrimp rolls (35,000 Rp) and they tasted like spring rolls that you would get in a bar in the US and I didn't taste any crab or shrimp.  Deanna and Aarti had got the veggie samosa and fried mushrooms and they were also overly fried and tasted like bar quality food.  For my main dish, I got the Tasmanian salmon (88,000 Rp) which was an overcooked/slight dry salmon fillet served with a very heavy mushroom cream sauce and roasted herb potatoes.  It seemed like a very Western dish but hey, I was getting a piece of salmon fillet for $9, so even though it wasn't amazing, in terms of US dollars it was still a great deal.  (It tastes better than how it looks in the photo - I know the cream sauce looks awful in the picture).  Aarti and Deanna shared a vegetarian platter that was huge and apparently pretty good. 

  

Next stop, Gili Islands.....