Hasaki Visited 6/20/2015 4 Forks

Hasaki  210 E 9th St. Basement, New York, NY 10003

There are tons of sushi places on E. 9th street that if you don't look carefully, you'll walk right past. Hasaki is one of those places since it's on the basement level of a building and the only way you can tell that it's there is by the small menu that hung outside. I love the feeling of "hidden" restaurants, it makes you feel like you're in the know about something that no one else is.  But this place was super crowded on a Saturday night, so I'm guessing the cat is out of the bag. 

Despite walking in on a Saturday around 8pm, my mom and I only had to wait 15 minutes for a table. The place is relatively small and narrow but it did have a really nice sushi counter for those who want to sit there.  The menu is on the authentic Japanese side - they don't have large crazy rolls with mango, cream cheese or any of the sort.  It's all very classic basic sushi rolls.  My mom and I had wanted to start with the fish head appetizer but sadly they had already run out for the night, so we went with a standard veggie and shrimp tempura appetizer ($10).  For our entree, we went with the sushi and sashimi for 2 ($56) because I loved everything that the waitress had described was in the combination.  The tempura was great - light, crispy and not too oily.  My only compliant is that there was no sweet potato in the veggie selection.  What I thought was a sweet potato was actually a carrot. Boo!  On to the actual sushi.  The combination had a great selection of the "greatest hits" of sashimi - salmon, tuna, white tuna, and yellowtail.  For sushi they had ebi, toro, salmon roe and eel and then they also give each person a full california roll and spicy tuna roll.  I was actually pretty impressed with the amount of food per person and I really liked that they equally split everything so that you're not fighting with the other person for the last piece of your favorite fish.  I found all the fish to be very fresh and of great quality - I mean, it's not at the level of Tanoshi but it's also a step up from a place like Loop.  It just felt very authentic and simple - just the way good sushi should be.  I liked how the sushi and the rolls were not super heavy on the rice - it was just the right amount to fill you up but you also didn't feel like you were carbo-loading at the same time. 

What I also like about this place is that it's very affordable but you still felt like you were having a very quality meal.  Since I just had a blow-out omakase the night before, I wasn't going to do it again, but they start at a very reasonable $48 for sushi or $55 for sashimi here and it's something I would totally do here and sit at the counter for.  I'm a big fan of this place and would put it on my rotation of East Village sushi visits - especially if you are looking for something that's a bit fancier than the usual East Village noisy sushi place but that's not uber fancy or expensive like Sushi of Gari.  Total bill:  $80 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Juliana's Pizza Visited 6/17/2015 4.5 Forks

Juliana's Pizza  19 Old Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201

Despite living in NYC and having lived in Chicago before, pizza has never been a food that I've craved.  Don't get me wrong, I love a great slice, especially if I've had a couple of beers in me but I've always been more drawn to more ethnically inspired food.  However, every once in a while I have a really great pizza experience and it reminds me of how great pizza can be (I'm looking at you Roberta's).   I've got to say that I'm putting Juliana's right up there. 

I had heard about Juliana's from multiple people at how great it is and how much better it is compared to it's more famous next door neighbor Grimaldi's.  So when Vinita and I found ourselves in DUMBO for opera in the park without any food or snacks, we knew our first stop afterwards was to get pizza stat.  Although Juliana's is also pretty well known, it just never seems to draw the lines of Grimaldi's. While it was crowded, we were lucky enough to be able to get a seat right away.  In true New York style, the pizza here is all thin crust fire brick oven style.  Vinita, Meeta and I were literally about to gnaw our arms off so we ended up getting 1 large No.1 pizza ($30) and 1 small classic Margherita with pepperoni ($19) and a spinach salad with avocado and chickpeas ($14).   

The salad was a solid mixed green salad with a good tasty olive oil, reg wine vinegar and Dijon dressing.  It was just the healthy start that we needed before we completely gorged ourselves on pizza.  The special No. 1 pizza came with mozzarella, smoked cheese, pancetta, scallions, and white truffles in truffle oil.  Dear god - it was a stunning pizza.  While I usually prefer a red tomato sauce base, this was a truly fantastic white pizza.  The combination of all the ingredients was heavenly and it's rare to see scallions on pizza but I really loved the addition of it.  The pancetta was amazing salty goodness with the right balance of fat and meat on it.  I probably had about 3 slices in about a time span of 30 minutes.  I usually don't like nor eat the crust of pizza but this one was really quite tasty. It was thin but with a perfect crunch on the outside and soft on the inside.   It was quite possibly a perfect crust.  The classic margherita was also lip smacking delicious and the pepperoni was another kind of salty meaty goodness.  There's just something about a classic pepperoni pizza after a few glasses of wine that just feels so right.   In true Brooklyn fashion, we ended the night with homemade cannolis that was the perfect ending to the night.    

I rarely rave about pizza but there was just something about this night and the food here that just made me swoon.  I took the leftover pizza home and they were even great the next day.  I've always loved DUMBO, but knowing that I could hit up Juliana's as well the next time I'm here makes me even happier.  Total bill:  $49/pp with tax and tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Momofuku Ssam Visited 6/17/2015 4 Forks

Momofuku Ssam 207 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003

I'll be the first to say that I'm generally not a huge fan of David Chang.  I thought Momofuku Noodle bar (and it's fried chicken special) was overrated and I just find him generally to be over-hyped.  But my friend Neel has been raving about the lunch at Momokufu Ssam and I totally trust his judgement on food, so I was willing to let go of my bias and give it a shot. 

I have always been a big proponent of going to a hotspot during lunch time because it's usually less crowded and you can get the same food for a better deal.  This rule clearly applies here as I have walked past this place a million times for dinner and it's always been super crowded and unmanageable.  Neel and I went for lunch at exactly 11:30 and we were the 1st people there - it did start to get a bit crowded by noon but it was never jammed packed. 

Apparently one of Neel's favorite dishes ever is their spicy pork sausage and rice cakes, so we decided to split that as well as the broccoli salad and of course any meal at Momofuku isn't complete without getting the steamed buns.  As much as I hate to admit it, nobody except maybe Ippudo, does as good of a pork belly steamed bun as Momofuku.  It really is a work of art - the bun is soft and fluffy, the pork belly deliciously fatty and meaty and then it's topped with hoisin sauce, cucumbers and scallions.  It really is fantastic.  Next we tried the broccoli salad which was a chilled salad with smoked bluefish vinaigrette and crispy duck skin.  You could definitely taste the tang of the vinaigrette which was a very unique flavor.  It was a good dish to cut the heat of the next dish which was the spicy pork sausage with rice cakes.  It's a pretty generous portion so it's definitely shareable among 2 people.  I could tell without even tasting it that it was going to be incredibly spicy - you can see the it dripping with red hot sichuan peppercorns.  Somehow I managed to tolerate the heat and still enjoy the dish.  It was a little bit oily but overall it had really strong bold hit-you-in-the-face flavors.  I'm always a fan of a good rice cake and while Neel mentioned that they are usually more crispy on the outside, I still enjoyed their texture and chewiness.  I could see how any extra toasted-ness on the outside would have increased the dish by a few notches but overall I was impressed with how it turned out.

While I'm still not 100% convinced that I love all things Momofuku-related now, I do have to admit that I enjoyed my meal here greatly.  It might have been because it wasn't noisy and crowded and it was just an overall more pleasant experience than waiting in line for 2 hours, but the food was also pretty enjoyable too.  Although Neel did mention that he felt like the place may have been getting a bit too comfortable with themselves as they used to great offer off-menu specials but they didn't have any this time around and they kind of pared the menu down to their greatest hits.  In any case, their greatest hits were pretty damn great and I would say if you insist of hitting up a Momofuku establishment, lunch is definitely the way to go.  Total bill:  $39/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Meadowsweet Visited 6/15/2015 4.5 Forks

Meadowsweet  149 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Although I live in Williamsburg, there are definitely certain parts of the neighborhood that I don't spend as much time in as I would like to.  One section is South Williamsburg which is kind of home to the original Williamsburg food scene, such as Peter Luger's, Diner and Dressler.  Sadly, Dressler closed a while ago when the owner killed himself and the space has been re-born as Meadowsweet. Luckily, Meadowsweet continues the tradition of really classic but solid food.

I was lucky enough to go for my birthday -  although the place was generally pretty quiet even for a Monday night.   I met up with Virginia and we were both starving and decided to split a bunch of dishes even though this place isn't really a tapas small plate kind of place but so many things sounded so good to both of us that we just wanted to try it all.  We split the burrata wrapped in prosciutto, crispy baby artichokes, squid ink pasta, and the st. louis ribs.  It's a pretty random diverse menu but I would say the style is modern American.  The burrata wrapped in prosciutto sounds as amazing and delicious as it sounds.   The burrata was super fresh and creamy and was perfectly combined with the thinly sliced prosciutto as it added the hint of saltiness that any fresh cheese really needs.  It was seriously one of the best burrata dishes I've had in a while.  Next I tried the crispy baby artichokes which was supposed to be our "healthy" vegetable of the night.  It was served with shaved parmesan, and a creamy garlic dressing, so I wouldn't say it was really healthy as itt was tasty.  Next I moved on to the small portion of squid ink pasta - you could tell that it was very heavy on the butter in the sauce but that's what made it fantastic.  It came with bit of fresh crab meat in it which made it even more wonderful.  Lastly, I had the ribs.  You would think that a nice classy place like this wouldn't have great fall off the bone ribs but it did.  They had bourbon BBQ sauce on them but it was just the right about to make it moist but not too messy.  The meat literally fell clean off the bone - amazing.  It really rivaled most ribs I've had in a lot of more traditional BBQ places.  After these 4 dishes, we were still a little bit hungry so we topped our meal off with the smoked trout crepe.  I know, it's not a desert but it sounded different and interesting that we wanted to try it.  It was essentially smoked trout with apple, beet, frisee and horseradish wrapped in a very thin soft crepe.  I actually really enjoyed this dish and it had kind of this French feel to it with the smoked fish and crepe aspect to it.  I can see how it's not a dish that everyone would love but I felt like it was very well executed. 

Overall, my meal at Meadowsweet didn't disappoint - in fact I have to say that it really surprised me in how much I really enjoyed all the food there.  It was understated but really solid food - well seasoned, balanced and executed beautifully.  This was the same thing for their cocktails too - I had a negroni that was incredibly tasty and well done.  While this place has gotten tons of accolades, I feel like it's still a little bit of a hidden gem given all the hot spots that Williamsburg produces.  I would definitely add it to the list of places to check out if you are looking for something that is delicious but not hipster.  Total bill:  it was a birthday gift to me, so I didn't get to see the total bill

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tanoreen Visited 6/13/2015 4 Forks

Tanoreen 7523 3rd Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11209

Tanoreen has been on my list of places to try for seriously over 5 years.  I've heard nothing but great things about it (it's frequently touted as one of the best Middle Eastern places in the city) but what kept me from going there was the fact that it was in Bay Ridge and a good 45 mins -1 hour away.  So finally when I had a free Saturday, Aarti and I made the long trek on the R train to Bay Ridge to try it out.  It is a legit hour from the city, so definitely be prepared for that.  But once you're off the train, it's a quick 5 mins walk to the restaurant.

It was definitely much bigger than I expected and even though I know it's a well known restaurant, I was still surprised at how crowded it was.  Practically every table was taken by 7pm on a Saturday. Everything on the menu sounded great - it had all the classic staple Middle Eastern dishes and then some.  This would be a great place to go with a large group because there are so many great dishes to try that it's really hard to do with only 1 or 2 other people.  Aarti and I settled on hummus ($7), feta cheese salad ($9), and the cauliflower side ($8) while I opted for the grilled combo ($21) and Aarti got the vegetarian combo ($21).  While hummus may seem kind of boring to get in a restaurant, there really is nothing more delicious than a solid hummus with soft warm pita to start a meal.  This one was great - very creamy with the right mix of tahini, chick pea and olive oil.  Next I tried the feta salad which was a refreshing combination of feta, tomato, red onion, cucumber, lemon and olive oil. All the ingredients were super fresh and healthy tasting, although it almost seemed like a garnish dish rather than a salad.  But the star of the appetizers was the grilled cauliflower with tahini on it.  There's just something about grilled cauliflower that I really love, especially when it's slightly burned/charcoaled on the outside.  It was tender but still had a slight crunch to it.  Sadly, we were pretty full by this point even though we still hadn't touched or seen our entrees.

When our entrees did come out, we were both totally overwhelmed by it.  They were both literally the size of 2 giant plates.  One combo dish would have been enough to feed 2 people but the fact that we got 2 combo plates was just ridiculous.  We each took about 3-4 bites and really just couldn't eat any more.  For the record, my grilled combo came with kabob (ground lamb), chicken kabob, and shish kabob (marinated lamb) and a side of rice and salad.   Of the few bites that I took of the meat, it was fantastic and very well cooked.  I asked for most of it to be medium rare which is was and of the 3 meats, I was the biggest fan of the shish kabob.  As I mentioned I ended up taking 3/4 of it home and even the next day, it was a pretty hefty leftover meal and while the meat wasn't as tender as when it was served warm, it was still tasty.  At the end of the meal, even though it was my birthday, neither of us really had any room for dessert.

Overall, I'm super happy that I finally made it here.  While they do have sign outside their restaurant that says that it's the #1 Middle Eastern Restaurant in all of NYC, I'm not sure if it's truly #1 but it does came pretty darn close.  I just wish it was a bit closer to the city but I guess that part of their charm and how they keep their prices relatively affordable.  Total bill:  ~$120 with tax, tip and 2 drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Santina Visited 6/8/2015 4 Forks

Santina 820 Washington St., New York, NY 10014

Santina has been getting a lot of buzz lately - it's no wonder because it's from the guys at Torrisi and Carbone.  I had been wanting to check it out since it opened but it's been impossible to get a reservation that wasn't crazy early or late.  But when Louise mentioned that she was coming to town and that we should get dinner on a Monday, I figured it was easy enough to go for the early bird dinner (5:45pm) on a school night and not look too lame.

As Louise told me, this place is definitely full of "well groomed" people - I mean, it is in the Meatpacking District and in a prime location next to the new Whitney Museum.  It's got a very summer time/Miami feel to it, which is perfect for now but I wonder how it will fare once it starts to get colder.  Regardless, it's a bright, sunny and cheerful spot.  The menu is new school Italian and instead of them having descriptions of what the dishes are on the menu, the poor waiter proceeded to spend 15-20 minutes with us describing every single dish.  I'm not kidding, every single dish.  And he did this with every table.  I'm not sure why they just don't add a few words to dish on the menu.

We started off with the tuna cecina and the squash carpaccio and then we split the rigatoni verde and the spaghetti blue crab.  The cecina is like a very thin pancake/buckwheat crepe and then they give you this delicious mild/hot green sauce and a side bowl of raw poke-like tuna to fill the pancake with. I loved the flavor of the tuna with the green sauce and the thinness of the pancake was just right where you didn't feel like you were eating something greasy or bad for you.  Next was the squash carpaccio and it was freaking amazing.  It was paper thin slices of delicious yellow/orange squash, drizzled with a sweet honey-like sauce and topped with ricotta cheese and herbs.  It was a perfect summer time dish.  On to the pastas. I was excited for them because they have this outrageous spicy vodka rigatoni at Carbone that is amazing.  The waiter did warn us before hand that the blue crab pasta could be very polarizing because its fishy but since Lou and I are from MD, we figured it wouldn't be an issue for us.  And it wasn't - in fact I loved this dish.  I can see how someone who isn't a fan of crab would find this dish fishy - they cook the sauce with the crab meat in it, so it's really infused in the whole dish.  But I was a huge fan of this dish and the pasta itself was nicely done done and definitely tasted fresh and homemade.  The rigatoni verde was also good but not as tasty as the crab one.  It came with a green basil-like sauce to it and was a nice summer pasta that wasn't too heavy.

Of course, we had to end the night with dessert and got the most popular one on the menu the lemon meringa which was very similar to a lemon meringue pie only they serve you a large meringue top and then press down a lemon cream filling on top of it with a spoon.  It was a great, tangy dessert and seemed fitting for the theme of the summer time theme here.

Overall, I really enjoyed the food here - even if it was a bit pricey and I'm generally not a huge fan of the MeatPacking scene in general.  But it's a nice addition to the Major Food Group family of restaurants and their outdoor patio is definitely a great place to spend some down time in the summer time.  Total bill:  $108/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mission Rock Resort Visited 5/31/2015 3 Forks

Mission Rock Resort 817 Terry Francois Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94158

When we first pulled up to Mission Rock, I was like where the hell are we?  It's located in a rather isolated part of SF but once you walk in and go upstairs, you get some killer views and you come to appreciate it's slightly remote location.  Jenn, April, Krush and I got there on the early side, just in time for happy hour.  We sat outside on the upper deck and even though it was a bit chilly, it was still just really nice to sit outside by the water and enjoy the views. 

Happy hour (3-7pm) consisted of $1 oysters and drink specials.  But the rest of the menu sounded great as well - it was all seafood, which is obviously my favorite.  Unfortunately, I was still pretty full from gorging on breakfast at The Pork Store, so I wasn't all that hungry.  We started with a dozen oysters ($12) and the mussels and fries ($17).  Unlike my all time favorite oyster place, Maison Premiere, this place doesn't have a selection of oysters to choose from for happy hour - there was just 1 kind and unfortunately I didn't catch what kind they were.  I usually prefer West Coast oysters since they are more plumb and meaty but sadly these were the opposite - smaller and very thin.  They also didn't do a fab job of shucking them as I found a bunch of shell bits in a few of my oysters.  They weren't the worst  oysters I've had before but given how spoiled and slightly snobby I've become, I didn't feel compelled to order more of them even though they were only $1.  Moving on to the mussels, they also seemed a bit thin and skinny as well which was disappointing.  But the great thing about this dish was that it was cooked in a very buttery bacon, onion, Dijon cream sauce.  It was delicious with the fries.  After a few more rounds of drinks, we started to get a bit hungrier, so we ordered the Ahi Tuna Tartare ($18).  It was served with avocado, soy sauce, scallions, sriracha and wonton chips.  This dish redeemed this place a bit as it was a really solid fresh tuna dish.  This was a dish that I would have ordered more of. 

Overall, the Mission Rock was a really great place to relax, have a few happy hour drinks and some snacks.  While the food wasn't the best I've had in terms of either in SF or in the seafood realm, the general atmosphere and vibe was lovely and worth the trip, which is rather high praise for a 3 fork place.  Total bill:  $40/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Pork Store Cafe Visited 5/31/2015 4.5 Forks

Pork Store Cafe 1451 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94117

With a name like the Pork Store Cafe, how could this place not be the bomb?!  It's your classic greasy spoon diner with every imaginable kind of breakfast egg dish you can think of.  Jenn, April and I went on our last day in SF and for a random Monday morning, it was surprisingly crowded.  It's in the Haight Ashbury area so the crowd was a bit on the hippie dippie side.  

As you can imagine, the menu was super overwhelming.  So many choices between benedicts, omelets, pancakes, burgers, sandwiches, scrambles - the possibilities are endless if you are a breakfast fan.  And this being California, I loved that many options had avocado in it.  After much hemming and hawing I opted for Soutwest scramble with avocado and biscuits ($9.50).  The dish is a beast and when it came out, I said that there was no way I could finish it - famous last words although I restrain myself and didn't finish everything.  I'm going to be honest and say that I can't really remember everything that was in my eggs except that it was super delicious, perfectly scrambled eggs and they put practically an entire avocado on top of it.  Oh and there was a side of sour cream somewhere on the plate, so how could it have not been amazing?  The hash browns were also salty, fatty, crispy goodness.  I couldn't help but want to combine the hash, eggs and avocado all into one bite all the time.   Sadly, I had to draw the fat line somewhere and didn't get to try the biscuit although I'm sure that it was also delicious.  

Luckily for us, we ended up walking almost 3 miles that afternoon because otherwise, I probably would have had a coronary on the spot.  This food is most definitely not your health conscious California food.  It's also not anything fancy - just your good old greasy diner breakfast food, but sometimes that's really all you need to make you happy in life.  Plus the prices were very affordable here, but it should be given the type of food it is.  Total bill:  $37 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Front Porch Visited 5/30/2015 3.5 Forks

The Front Porch  65 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110

When you think of San Francisco, one usually thinks of organic salads and other healthy foods.  But alas, places like The Front Porch also exist too.  It's a funky Southern divey restaurant in Bernal Heights with a menu you'd more likely find in New Orleans or somewhere less health conscious.  I met a bunch of my old high school and one college friend there while I was passing by SF.  

The menu has bunch of yummy sounding starters like deviled eggs with bacon bourbon jam, chicken gumbo,  crawfish hush puppies and frito pie.  We split an order of the mac and cheese ($7.50) for the table.  I had just come back from a gluttonous weekend of excessive eating and drinking so I didn't feel like I could dive into the bucket of fried chicken (no matter how much I wanted to).  So I opted for the shrimp and grits ($24) instead - even though grits aren't really super healthy, I figured it was better than eating fried food.  The mac and cheese came out first and it was a bit small (I guess it was a side order and not an entree) but it was gooey and cheesey like a mac and cheese should be.  It had a hint of jalapeño and heat to it as well.  As for our entrees, the shrimp and grits was served with andouille sausage and gravy.  There were several pieces of medium sized wild Louisiana gulf shrimp and they were cooked just right.  As for the grits, they were super buttery and garlic-y.  I think there may have used 50 cloves of garlic in it.  But it was creamy and paired really well with the shrimp and sausage.  I definitely enjoyed it and kind of wish there was more of it because I finished it quickly and still felt a bit hungry afterwards.  Jill did end up getting the fried chicken and it looked delicious and I would totally be game for it if I ever end up back here.   

For dessert, we all hovered around May's order of the beignets and I must say they were quite good. Warm, soft and sprinkled with lots of powdered sugar.  I'm glad someone had the common sense to order it.  

Overall, this place was a nice and pleasant and not what I expected from California.  It's kind of nice to know that you can still get a heart stopping Southern meal in a hippie town like SF if you want it. Total bill:  $54/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

El Dorado Kitchen Visited 5/24/2015 3.5 Forks

El Dorado Kitchen 405 1st St W, Sonoma, CA 95476

Sonoma and Napa are known for lots of great restaurants all over the region and many people come to Sonoma Square to get their eats on.  It's convenient and has a bunch of great options in 1 block. Luckily our house was only 5 minutes away from the square and we were able to get a dinner reservation for 9 people at 7:30 on a Friday night.  That would never happen in NYC!  El Dorado is the epitome of California dining.  It's bright, sunny, and has a great outdoor space.  We even got our own cabana outside which was so nice.  As you can imagine the clientele in Sonoma overall is a bit high brow and older and it was no different here.  It was a very refined yet relaxed atmosphere.

The menu has a variety of classic American dishes - some salads, pastas and steaks.  Since our table was so big, we kind of split the table up into 2 sections.  I was sitting with Jen, Jenn and Krush and we opted to start with the beet salad ($13) and tuna tartare ($15) and then we all had a massive carb craving so we created our own pasta tasting menu - seafood paella ($32), spring vegetable risotto ($24), fettuccine ($22), and ravioli ($22).   The beet salad was fantastic and fresh and served with horseradish puree, grapefruit, fennel, arugula, orange, yogurt and pistachios.  There were a ton of beets in there and could have almost been a meal in itself.  The tuna was also very fresh and delicious, it was served with avocado mousse, super intense wasabi salmon roe, and wonton chips.

Next came the line up of pasta.  I started with the spring vegetable risotto which had peas, asparagus, king mushrooms, lemon, spinach pesto, parmesan and a touch of truffle oil.  Sounds great, right? It could have been a really fabulous dish but it was incredibly salty.  I was sad that the salt was so overpowering because I couldn't really taste all the delicious sounding vegetables in there.  The texture of the risotto was pretty good - not too watery and not too undercooked.  Meanwhile, the fettuccine didn't have enough salt in it.  It was served with a lamb bolognese, mushrooms, peas, parmesan and breadcrumbs.  This also had a lot of potential except I could have used more seasoning on it.  Perhaps I should have just mixed the two dishes together? Next I tried the ravioli which was filled with lemon and ricotta and served with marinara sauce.  I'll be honest and say that while I love lemon, I don't love it in my pasta.  I just prefer a more hearty/meatier flavor with my pasta.  But given that, it was a nice homemade pasta and unlike many places where if you order ravioli they only give you like 3 pieces, this was a very large and filling dish.  Lastly I tried the paella which had shrimp, mussels, clams, scallop, fish, chicken, chorizo, and crispy saffron rice.  It's basically everything I love to eat in 1 sizzling plate.  While some people like their paella rice super crunchy, I don't, I like it a bit softer and it was a bit too hard for me here.  But I did love all the seafood and meat flavor together in this dish and it was also an enormous portion, enough for 2 people.

Of course we had to end the night with lots of dessert, especially since it was a belated birthday for our friend Amy.  We got the drunken sundae ($10), upside down banana cake ($10) and the chocolate caramel tart ($10).  Of the 3, the upside down banana cake was my favorite - it was a moist cake/bread like dessert covered with salted caramel and lemon ice cream.  It was rich from the cake but refreshing from the ice cream.  I then ended the night with a mind blowing scotch trio of Glenfiddich, Oban and Lagavulin ($30) - I might have died a bit because they were all really great high quality scotches, 2 of which I had never had before but had always wanted to try. At $30, this is actually an incredible deal to try all three of them.

Overall, it was a nice dinner with fabulous friends.  I was kind of expecting a bit more with the food and thought each of the pastas had definite room for improvement, but if you put the wine, scotches, decor and service together with the food, you have a pretty solid outing.  Considering all the food and drink we had, the price of the experience was well worth it.  Total bill:  $84/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Park 121 Visited 5/29/2015 4.5 Forks

Park 121 23584 Arnold Dr., Sonoma, CA 95476

Ahh, California.   How can you not love it?  It's sunny, everyone is nice and the food is amazing.  I was on a girl's trip to Sonoma with some good friends and after a lovely hike in Marin Headleads, we stopped for lunch at the first place we saw in Sonoma which happened to be Park 121.  This place was perfect because it was casual, had outdoor seating and most importantly had lots of wine. 

True to any place in Sonoma, they had a great wine menu but they also had very lunch friendly food options like fresh sounding salads, sandwiches, cheese plates and pastas.  We were all starving so we started with a meat and cheese plate ($16) and I got the grilled chicken croissant sandwich ($12) and of course, we ordered a chilled bottle of pinot noir rose to kick everything off.  What I love about food in California is how fresh and simple everything is not to mention that they put avocado on everything! Heaven.  The meat and cheese plate was simple but delicious.  We got manchego, camembert, and prosciutto and it came with a bunch of warm bread, breadsticks and a yummy quince paste and spiced almonds.  It was a wonderful start to our meal.   On to my sandwich - I'm trying not to eat so many carbs these days but there's something about a warm buttery croissant that gets me every time.  Not to mention this one had super juicy sliced chicken breast, melted pepper jack cheese, avocado, fresh ripe tomato, daikon sprouts, and an outrageously addictive chipotle aioli.  Everything about this sandwich screamed California as its best.  I inhaled the entire thing in a matter of minutes. The chicken was incredibly moist that I felt like I was eating chicken that just came out of a rotisserie.  I also have to give a shout out to the salad too.  The dressing was out of this world good - it was great tangy citrus vinaigrette.  Everyone at the table commented how delicious it was and the couple at the table next to us asked if they bottle it because they wanted to take it home.  

The rose was also great and the service was friendly.  My review might be a bit gushing and overboard but it was such an idyllic way to kick off a wonderful weekend in Wine Country.  It's hard to compete because there are so many fabulous places to eat in Sonoma but if you are looking for a very casual and relaxing start to your trip, I definitely recommend making a pit stop at Park 121.  Total bill: $27/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp  

Taipei Cafe Visited 5/23/2015 3.5 Forks

Taipei Cafe 802 Hungerford Dr., Rockville, MD 20850

Usually when I go home to MD, I only have enough time to hit up the usual line up of restaurants (pho, dim sum, and sushi) but since I was home for a bit longer, I ended up trying a new Chinese/Taiwanese place down the street from my mom's house. 

This place is in this non-descript strip mall next to a furniture store, so you can easily drive past it without ever knowing it was there.  The inside is your typical Chinese restaurant - kind of low budget furnishings and loud and chaotic service and diners.  The place was packed to the gills on a Sunday night and it was a mix of Asians and non-Asians.  At places like this, I always just let my mom order because I can't really read the menu here and you don't come to a play like this to order beef and broccoli.  You order the off menu stuff, the specials written on the walls or ask them what's good that night.  We ordered clams in black bean sauce, sauteed eggplant and string beans and this huge bowl of food (not pictured) that is apparently unique to this restaurant where they basically throw in the kitchen sink and make it super spicy - it's got veggies, seafood, tofu and noodles all in a bowl that could probably feed 4-5 people. As typical of Chinese places, the food comes out fast and furious here.  Everything came out in about 10-15 minutes.   The clams in black bean were good - I've had them before in other places and the key is to use plump clams and these were pretty juicy and the black bean sauce was nice and salty.  The eggplant and beans were your typical Chinese dish of veggies soaking in a brown sauce - it's totally not a healthy dish despite being vegetarian but sometimes you just need a good brown sauce on your veggies.   Lastly, I tried this random giant bowl of food - dear god.  I have gotten much better about eating spicy food but this was something that almost took my breath away.  It's INCREDIBLY spicy, with full on giant read Chinese chili peppers and then sprinkled with even more mouth numbing chili powder.   I had to take bites of white rice in between eating this dish because my mouth was totally on fire and at some point I couldn't tell the difference between what ingredient was what because my mouth was on fire - but I did really love the noodles they used.  It's a thick broad clear noodle and it really soaks up all the flavor of everything that is in the bowl.  There was something about this dish that was incredibly addictive despite its spiciness.  I kept going back for more even though I was in pain.  Even though 3 of us where slaving away at this dish for a while, we still had enough for for at least 2 more meals at the end of the night. We ended the night with a traditional Taiwanese dessert of shaved ice with red bean, peanuts and condensed milk poured on top of it.  It was a nice way to cool down and this dessert definitely brought back memories of my childhood of eating this stuff instead of typical ice cream.

Overall, I was really glad to try a new place and the food seemed pretty authentic here.  It's by no means fancy or high end, but sometimes, you're just not in the mood for that kind of food.  It's a good place to go if you don't feel like cooking but want to eat a ton of really flavorful food for a fairly affordable price.  It would most likely help if you speak or understand Chinese here as the service is nice but in that loud pushy Chinese way.  Total bill:  $60 for 3 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp