El Cafe de Tere Av. Hno. Miguel Solar, Guayaquil, Ecuador
This is my first international post of 2014 and it's coming to you from Ecuador! I spent a quick 24 hours in the old port city of Guayaquil before I boarded my boat to the Galapagos Islands. I was staying at the Hilton in town and while the hotel itself is very nice, it's not located in the most convenient of locations - there is really nothing nearby and if you even try to ask about walking somewhere, they all look at you like you are crazy. So you have to take cabs everywhere. Since breakfast wasn't included in our early morning check-in, Allison and I decided to be adventurous and have breakfast outside of the hotel. Apparently there is only one local option nearby which is El Cafe de Tere. I was game to try whatever, so we piled into a cab which took us literally 5 blocks away to this super cute, giant outdoor cafe. Now, mind you it was 11AM on a Friday morning and it was completely packed with people - we were surprised at how many people were leisurely eating breakfast at a restaurant during a work day, but I guess this is South America.
Since this isn't a real tourist based city, not that many people speak English and I have a very very rudimentary knowledge of Spanish - so ordering posed to somewhat of a challenge. There was lots of pointing and Spanglish going on. Usually I am a pretty adventurous eater, but I had just come off a red-eye and gotten no sleep, so I was just really hungry and sadly ordered a ham and cheese omelet ($3.07) and a side of empandas ($1.60). Allison got an omelet too and we also split fried plantains. And yes, those are the correct prices in USD. Apparently what I should have gotten if I wanted to eat like a local was the bolon de verde, which is a ball of mashed and fried plantain mixed with cheese and/or pork, or the tigrillo con chicharron, which is plantain puree with cheese and/or pork. I totally regret not getting something more local/authentic because I can always get a ham and cheese omelet anywhere but not sure how many places in the world would have these giant balls of plantains. Oh well. The omelet itself was totally fine albeit a bit on the thin and dry side. It's not like an omelet in the American sense where it's enormous and stuffed to the gills with ingredients, it was literally some ham and cheese in a thin layer of egg. The empanadas were nice and gooey with cheese - I was a huge fan of it. The fried plantains were also delicious (although we most definitely had our fill of plantains after this trip) but what made it even more delicious was this amazing and spicy orange sauce that they served with it. It was tangy, oniony and spicy as heck.
Overall, the place was really cute, authentic, and full of locals - which is always a great sign. While I wouldn't say the food is mind-blowing, it does seem to be where the locals eat and given the crowds, very popular with them. Total bill with a papaya juice: $6.93
Photo Credit: Tripadivsor
Onomea 84 Havemeyer St (
b/t Hope St & Metropolitan Ave), Brooklyn,
NY 11211
After my awesome trip to Hawaii last year, I was surprised to find that there really weren't that many Hawaiian restaurants in NYC (even though there are about 100 different kinds of cuisines in the city). So when I read that Onomea had opened up by a local Hawaiian and that it was 15 minutes from my apt, I had to try it. Even though Hawaii is part of the US, it really has a food culture all on its own and while I loved some of it (I'm obsessed with poke), I could have done without some it (I'm looking at you loco moco).
Onomea is located right around the corner from all-time favorite place, Fette Sau, and the inside of the place is pretty cute and inviting. It's got a beautiful carve out of the islands in the back of the restaurant and lots of pictures of the islands to make you wish you were actually in Hawaii instead of eating Hawaiian food in Williamsburg. The menu has a lot of your staple Hawaiian items: poke, spam musubi, loco moco, and Kalua pig and cabbage. The waiter said that the owner was from Hawaii and that all the recipes were old family recipes - sweet! We split the poke ($13) for the table, while Van got her own order as her main meal as well as the shoyu shrimp skewers ($9). I got the Kalua pig and cabbage with spam fried rice ($15), Anuja got the tempura ahi roll ($10), and Chelsea got the shoyu chicken ($13). The poke appetizer came out first and my first impression it looked pretty legit. The flavors were pretty spot on with green onions, sesame oil and soy sauce and the tuna was nice and fresh. It might have been a bit too heavy on the sesame oil but overall, considering there are no other places to get poke in the city, I was pretty happy with this version. Next came our entrees. The pig and cabbage plate consisted of pulled pork and cabbage served with macaroni salad, regular green salad, and spam fried rice. There was a pretty hefty amount of food on my plate that I wasn't sure if I was going to finish everything. I tried the macaroni salad first and it was fine, nothing really to write home about. I wasn't a huge fan of the smaller size macaroni shells used and while I'm probably in the minority, I actually like mayo and wished there was a bit more mayo to the salad. The actual pork and cabbage part of the dish was very meaty and had much more pork than cabbage. I wish there was more cabbage to offset the heaviness of the pork. Despite my numerous trips to Hawaii, I have surprisingly never had spam fried rice. In all honesty, it didn't really taste that different from regular fried rice except that it just had a few pieces of salty spam. I'm not sure if it was the spam or the salt in the pork, but I did feel like they were a bit heavy handed in the salt on the dish. In fact, I probably drank an entire carafe of water on my own. I didn't try anyone else's food except for Anuja's tempura roll. You'd think by the description that it would be these small to medium size rolls - like what you find in a typical Asian restaurant. But no, these things were the size of a small house. We were all a bit shocked by the whole thing and sadly, they didn't really taste very good. There must have been about a pound of rice that had too much rice wine vinegar in it with bits of cooked tuna and carrots and then wrapped in seaweed, covered in tempura batter and deep fried. I felt really bad this was Anuja's main entree because it was just kind of a hot mess. If our meal had ended here, I probably would have rated this place a 2.5, but their dessert kind of brought them back up to the 3 range. We got the coconut custard and it was a lovely refreshing dessert. I love coconut so I didn't mind the intense flavor of it, but if you don't like coconut I'm sure you'll find it too overbearing. It's got an almost soft tofu consistency sprinkled with shaved toasted coconut on top. Chelsea and Van both got gelato (in coconut and vanilla flavor) which were pretty good. We were a bit surprised that they didn't offer shaved ice, which is the quintessential Hawaiian dessert.
All in all, it was fun experience but definitely not on par with a true Hawaiian experience. The poke was definitely the best part of the meal but at $13 for a small plate, it's quite the difference from the giant vats of poke you get in Hawaii for less. If you've got a Hawaiian food craving, Onomea gets the job done but I'd still rather be on the beaches of Hawaii instead. Total bill: $30/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
Clover Club 210 Smith St (Butler St & Baltic St), Brooklyn, NY 11201
First entry for 2014 and it's a pretty good one. I have actually been to the Clover Club a few times before for drinks but I've never eaten there before, but I'm glad I finally did. Vinita mentioned that they had a great brunch and even though I had literally just been there on a date 2 days before, I was up for trying the food there.
It's a really beautiful space and is more of a cocktail bar than a restaurant but they have a surprisingly robust food menu that goes beyond just bar or finger food. The brunch menus is slightly more upscale than your typical brunch menu but still has a solid egg section as well as some lunch-y food like a lamb burger and oysters. Vinita had mentioned that she got the bacon tasting (yes, that's right a tasting of different kinds of bacon) and I would have totally been down for that but since we were both going to the gym afterwards it just seemed a bit gluttonous to order that before sweating it out. So I opted for the wild mushroom soft scramble ($10) and a side of cheddar grits ($4) and Vinita got The Englander ($14). Again, if I wasn't going to the gym afterwards, I would have gotten one of their lovely bespoke cocktails but I didn't but they are definitely worth a try. I envisioned the scramble to be served on a plate with toast but it was actually presented quite elegantly in a lovely deep white bowl which made it seem much more upscale than a blob of eggs on a plate. The eggs were served with roasted wild mushrooms and topped with Vermont cheddar and creme fraiche. It also had a very heavy taste of truffle oil but they didn't list that on the menu as an ingredient (probably just remnants from the mushroom). But it was a lovely dish, if not, a touch on the heavy side. It's rich and creamy and it's a lot of food despite its presentation. Mixed in with the grits, I couldn't finish my dish. But the mushrooms were roasted nicely and the eggs were definitely a very soft scramble which I love. It went really well with the toasted and olive oiled soaked sour dough bread that it was served it. At first I was annoyed that it didn't come with a side of something like potatoes but for $10 and the fact that it was very filling, it didn't really matter. The grits were a nice consistency and had the right amount of cheesy taste to it but it was starting to get a small film on top after we let it cool down a bit. I tried a bite of Vinita's dish which was essentially an eggs benedict but instead of ham it's made with sliced hanger steak (medium rare) and it was delicious. It was a very decadent meal and the hanger steak just made it seem more higher end than slapping a piece of ham in there.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised that a lovely cocktail place like this also serves such quality brunch food. It's a great place to enjoy a fancy but not stuffy brunch on Smith Street - plus if you aren't going to the gym afterwards, you can indulge in some fantastic cocktails and really make it afternoon out. Total bill: $25/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
