La Cevicheria Visited 5/29/2014 3 Forks

La Cevicheria Calle Stuart 7, Cartagena, Colombia

La Cevicheria was made famous after Anthony Bourdain visited while shooting his show there in 2008.  They are clearly very proud of this fact because his picture is plastered all over the walls and on their menu.  While I do respect and love Mr. Bourdain, I'm afraid that his presence most likely led to this place being overrun by tourists, the restaurant jacking up their prices and possibly causing a decline in quality.  None the less, it was still a fine dinner, it just didn't blow my mind as I was expecting it to.  

We decided to check this place out not just because it was recommend by a friend but also because it was literally next door to our hotel (the amazing Sofitel Legends - talk about 5 star experience).  So after a long day hiking and then driving 4 hours back from Tayrona, it was an easy decision to have dinner so close to home.  I will say that it's a cute establishment and actually looks more like a Greek/Mediterranean place rather than a Colombian one.  I had high hopes for the food in Cartagena based on all the amazing food I had in Bogota.  But since Cartagena has a higher tourist population, my general opinion is that the food was definitely less exciting here than in Bogota.   

True to its name, La Cevicheria is all about the ceviche and seafood.  We had heard that the portions were rather big here, so we decided to split just two dishes.  We went for our usual ceviche and grilled seafood combination.  Despite all the different and funky kinds of ceviche they had, we opted for the classic Peruvian style (~$21) and the sizzling grilled seafood platter (~$33).  As you can see the prices are much higher than what we had experienced in Bogota and frankly were boarding on NYC prices. 

The ceviche was a bit different in that it wasn't sitting in a pool of lime/acidic juices.  It looked like it had already been soaking and then they took it out and piled all of the fish on top of each other.  It was served with these giant chips that had a guacamole like spread on it.  While it was definitely a good dish, it was definitely not in my top 5 ceviche experiences - especially at that price point.  Next came the sizzling seafood platter. 

I will say that it was very impressive at first glance and upon digging through the dish there was a TON of food on it.  We weren't able to finish it and I was bummed that we left a bunch of food on the plate. There was a good variety of fish, shrimp, octopus, squid, a whole lobster and 1 crab - so a pretty impressive spread.  The best part of the dish was the highly addictive butter/honey mustard/garlic sauce - you could dunk anything it in and make everything taste delicious. 

So while I was glad I tried this place out and I'm sure it was probably a different place 6 years ago when Anthony Bourdain first went there, I wasn't uber impressed with the overall experience.  If you are staying at the Sofitel, it's probably still worth checking out since it's so close but in terms of my overall Colombia experience, it wasn't in my top 3 meals.  Total bill:  $32/pp with tax and tip

Abasto Visited 5/26/2014 5 Forks

Abasto Carrera 6 # 119B-52, Bogotá, Colombia

Waa, did I just give a place in Bogota 5 forks?!  Yes, I did.  I'm utterly in love with this place and not just because Frank Bruni raved about this place too.  It's just seems so genuine and down to earth and a place that I just want to make my own.  It's located in the Usaquen area that I had talked about in my previous blog post.  It's got this fabulous rustic, farm to table feel to it and what's even better is that the whole place is own and run by all female chefs. There is a cute market in the back room and a lovely upper level that looks like it would be great for parties. 

The menu is all in Spanish and from what I could tell from the ingredients listed, most of the food was very local and fresh.   Again there was a lot of pointing and guessing when we ordered but we ended up with a fabulous meal.  I went with the "sopa de mar" - which I knew roughly translated to seafood soup (~$11 USD) and the "mixto antipastos" - which I assumed meant mixed antipasta plate (~$8 USD) and Allison got the quinoa salad (~$10 USD). 

The seafood soup came out first and it smelled like heaven - or rather like red coconut curry soup.  I had seen the chefs in the open kitchen grinding fresh coconut - so I assume that is what was put in it but the smell and taste of it was utterly amazing.  The seafood consisted of shrimp, fish, octopus, and squid and they were all incredibly fresh and cooked to just the right texture.  Normally I don't consider soup in itself a full meal but this was most definitely worth of standing on its own as a full meal with all the hearty seafood in it.   Next up was the most perfect meat, cheese and grilled vegetable platter I've ever had.

How beautiful is this plate of food?  It was all sliced and prepared in their back deli and everything was amazing.  It had a huge variety of cheeses (there was definitely goat cheese, fresh mozzarella and a manchego like cheese), meats (thinly sliced salami and proscuitto) and a wonderful selection of grilled vegetables  all drizzled with olive oil (zucchini, roasted red peppers, eggplant, full tomatoes, onions and mushrooms).  This was simply perfect.   And the final piece de resistance to the meal was dessert. 

They are famous for the red fruit crumble (~$5.50 USD) and it's no wonder everyone raves about it.  It was completely addictive and delicious.  It's a warm crumble with a bunch of red fruit berries inside and then topped with a dollop of homemade vanilla ice cream.  Clearly the reason for its wonderfulness was all the butter in it, but the crumble part itself was crisp and baked to perfection.   Allison and I easily polished off the whole thing despite the fact that I had just had a heavy cream based chowder and eaten my way through almost the entire charcuterie plate.  Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to try Allison's quinoa salad but it also looked beautiful and very fresh and healthy - it seemed like such a California type dish, not something I would associate with Colombian food but still a nice surprise. 

We left more than happy and full after this meal.  While my restaurant experience in Bogota was relatively limited, I have to say that I was definitely blown away by this place and can see why Frank Bruni listed it as a place that really puts Bogota on the culinary map.  Please check this place out if you are ever in Bogota - you won't regret it.  Total bill:  $45 USD for 2 people with tax, tip and drinks. 

La Plaza De Andres Visited 5/26/2014 4 Forks

La Plaza De Andres Carrera 7 No. 115-60, Bogota, Colombia

The one place that every single person told me to check out while in Bogota was this crazy experiential dinner place called Andres Carnes Des Res - which is in Chia, a 45 minute drive outside of Bogota. Unfortunately, Allison and I didn't really have time to check it out, but luckily we randomly stumbled upon this super fun and adorable "food court" (for lack of a better word) in the Hacienda Santa Barbara mall which was across the street from our hotel and which I later found out by the same people as Andres Carnes.  We were originally only using the mall as a short cut to get to our hotel and found this gem.  It's amazing and is the kind of place that I absolutely eat up.  I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure how authentic it is since it is a food court in a mall, but everything there was South American cuisine (so no Panda Express, Pizza or food like that), all the menus were in Spanish and there were tons of locals eating there.  There are a bunch of different food "stalls" with food ranging from ceviches, arepas, empanadas and juice bars.   I was totally overwhelmed by the options and by the fact that I couldn't really understand any of the menus except for a few select words. 

Allison wanted to get a plantain dish and despite every effort to try to translate it and even going as far as showing them an actual plantain, she did finally get to order a dish that had plantain in it.  

What we didn't expect was that it would look like this - a giant fried plantain with cheese and a sweet sauce poured on top of it.   I had a bite of it and it was good and quite unique - it's was a bit heavy and starchy (obviously since it's a giant plantain!) but if you like plantains, you'll be in heaven. 

Meanwhile, I saw the word arepa  it was followed by "de choclo" which I had no idea what that meant) on one of the food stall menus and in my limited experience with South American food, I knew that I loved apreas here in NYC, so why not try it in Colombia?  So apparently the kind that I like are the Venezuelan kind because those are the white and fluffy "buns" and then stuffed with savory fillings like chicken, pork and guacamole.   The Colombian kind is more like a sweeter, thicker crepe version and apparently "de choclo" just means it's stuffed with lots and lots of gooey cheese.  It was tasty but it was on the heavy and dense side and I could only finish about half of the dish ($4.50 USD).  

Luckily, I also got a classic ceviche dish ($6.50) from another food stall to offset all that heaviness.   Despite being much cheaper and from a food court, it was actually quite delicious and just as good as the one served at La Mar last night.  It had lots of giant cuts of tilapia and plenty of red onion and lime juice.  

There was tons of other food options that looked amazing and interesting but I just didn't have the stomach capacity to try it all.  But it was a fun place and knowing that it's by the same guy as Andres De Res, I'm definitely bummed that I missed out on that other experience but thankful that I got to experience something of his.  

La Mar Cebicheria Visited 5/25/2014 4 Forks

La Mar Cebicheria Calle 119b no.6-01. Usaquén. Bogotá, Colombia

Ah Colombia - so many people recently asked me why I would want to go on vacation to Colombia and honestly my answer would be why not?  It's no longer the drug filled scary place that most of us think of and honestly it's slowly becoming a culinary hot spot  After a long and stressful journey to Bogota and then an adventure packed 1st day, I was so happy to finally sit down at a real restaurant to get my eat on.  La Mar is located in the heart of the Usaquen area which is a lovely old plaza/square area close to our hotel that is filled with cute cafes, restaurants and bars.  Allison and I are both obsessed with ceviche, so we decided that this would be the perfect place for our 1st official meal in Colombia.  

It's a huge restaurant inside and their menu is just as large as the space.  It is quite possibly one of the largest menus I've ever seen - I even tried to take a picture of it but it couldn't all fit into one frame. Obviously the main dishes here are ceviche-related and good god, I have never seen so many different variations on the dish in my life.   In addition to ceviche, they had tons of different kinds of dishes all laced with seafood in them.  I was in heaven.   We opted to go for the classic and mixto ceviche and then the grilled sizzling seafood platter.  Even though there is English on the menu, the waiters don't really speak any English, so there was a lot of pointing and nodding that went on. 

The classic ceviche was fantastic and in true classic form is only had fish (white fish) in it.  It was incredibly tangy, acidic, sour and had nice chunks of fresh white fish in it and in true South American style it was served with these large toasted corn kernels.  Delicious.  The mixto was similar but instead of just fish, it had fresh shrimp and octopus in it.  As for the sizzling platter - it was basically all the seafood of the mixto ceviche except it was on a sizzling platter and drenched in lemon butter.   I loved that it was all seafood - nothing else, no rice, no vegetables, just pure goodness of the sea. 

I later found out that this is actually a chain with locations in SF, Lima, Miami, and Sau Paulo.  Not that all chains are necessarily a bad thing but I was secretly hoping that this was some local gem.  But that's ok, I still enjoyed myself and it was a great reprieve from the horrible start to my vacation.  Total bill:  $70 USD for 2 people.   

Cafe El Presidente Visited 5/23/2014 3 Forks

Cafe El Presidente 30 W 24th St., New York, NY 10010

Lav and I ended up here right before a torrential downpour, so for better or for worse we were going to be stuck at Cafe El Presidente for a while.  It's from the same people as the Tacombi which is a cute fun Mexican place in Soho.  The decor and set up here is fairly similar to Tacombi with a few adorable looking "stalls" -  even though it is sit down service and you order with a waitress.  The menu here mainly consists of a variety of tacos - they have fish, carne asada, carnitas, pollo, and a pork and pineapple taco platters.  Plus they have a few "specialty" tacos and then a bunch of typical side dishes like guacamole and rice and beans.  

We started with the guacamole ($11.49), I got the carnitas platter ($12.95) and Lav got a single swiss chard and poblano pepper taco ($2.95) and the esquites ($3.95).  Price-wise, except for the guacamole, everything was priced fairly cheaply.  The guacamole is served with homemade chips which were a bit thick and heavy for me.  I tend to like lighter, thinner chips so that it doesn't weigh me down.  The actual guacamole itself was pretty good - very smooth and creamy and it had a bit of heat and kick to it.  It was a good starter dish and solid appetizer.  The taco platter comes with 4 tacos to the plate and the tacos were piled high with slow roasted pork, onion and cilantro on it.  It was a relatively authentic and clean taco with no sour cream or cheese in sight.  The small corn tortillas held up the pork well and were nice and warm.  4 was the perfect number of tacos for me - I actually could have been perfectly happy with 3, so the 4th one kind of put me over the edge.  Unfortunately the reason for the more lukewarm review was based on the fact that Lav did not like her swiss chard and poblano pepper taco at all.  She said there was no flavor or taste to it and that it felt like the mixture was plopped on to the tortillas with no thought or love put into it.  The saving grace was that she did enjoy the esquites (that's essentially grilled corn in a cup with cheese and chipotle mayo).

It's definitely not your typical cheesy sombrero wearing margarita drinking Mexican place with burritos and fajitas on the menu,  but it was a cute enough place that it doesn't really matter.  While my mind wasn't blown nor do I think it's necessarily a place I am clamoring to return to, I would stop in for a aqua fresca or grilled corn if I was in the hood.  Total bill:  $23/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Mindy's Hot Chocolate Visited 5/18/2014 4.5 Forks

Mindy's Hot Chocolate 1747 N Damen Ave., Chicago, IL 60647

I FINALLY made it to Hot Chocolate.  This is a big deal for me because for years I had been trying to go here for brunch since it's walking distance from Deanna's but there is always a huge line and a wait of over 2 hours.  But this time I was in Chicago, I made it my mission to eat here for brunch.  I had a 1pm flight to catch, so we decided to go as soon as they opened at 10am.  We walked up to the entrance at 9:45AM and there were already over 25 people in line!! WTF?!  I was shocked that people actually wake up early to wait in line for brunch.  I was a bit nervous that we wouldn't actually get seated before I needed to leave but luckily we were able to get seated in the 1st wave.  It's quite overwhelming in the beginning because the entire restaurant literally gets seated at the same time and are all clamoring for their waiter's attention. 

I had told our waiter as we were being seated that I had to leave by 11:15 to catch my flight, so I would be forever grateful if he could help expedite our order - at first I thought he was going to spit in my food but he turned out to be really nice about the whole thing.  Even though the name of the restaurant is hot chocolate (to which they are famous for their hot chocolate drinks), they have a full blown savory brunch menu (and a sweet menu too).  Everything sounded delicious but I opted for the wild mushroom scramble ($13) and a side of sausage ($5) while Deanna got the soup and sandwich ($13) - since my scramble was veggie friendly we ended up splitting both dishes.   People around us were getting the giant baked pancakes and french toast dishes and they all looked amazing but it would have been just too much food to eat in such a short amount of time. 

The scramble came out and it looked picture perfect.  I took one bite and immediately I tasted a bunch of delicious buttery eggs that it almost made me want to weep.  It was seriously addictive and triggered a crack-like reaction of wanting more immediately.  I could not get enough of this dish.  The eggs were more on the moist, creamy side and tasted like it also had a hint of cream scrambled in it.  It was serve with roasted whole baby potatoes and challah bread - both also fantastic but I could barely finish them since I was also trying to finish the plate of homemade sausage as well.   Next I moved on to the grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.  The sandwich was made with aged cheddar and taleggio on rye bread - again delicious even though I'm not really huge rye bread fan.  There's just nothing like the combination of grilled cheese and tomato soup to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Luckily we finished our meal with more than enough time for me to get to the airport.  I wish I wasn't in such a hurry as I might have gotten one of their famous hot chocolate drinks for dessert.  But I'm so happy that I was able to squeeze this yummy meal in before I left Chicago, especially after the lackluster meal at Red Door the previous night.   While I am still not a fan of potentially having to wait 2 hours again,  it's definitely more than worth the wait.  Total bill:  $24/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit;  Yelp

Red Door Visited 5/17/2014 1.5 Forks

Red Door 2118 N Damen Ave., Chicago, IL 60647

So the Red Door touts itself as a gastropub, but in reality it's just a nice bar that happens to serve "fancy" food - which sadly is pretty bad food.  I guess in hindsight I should have known that a bar that serves poke, gnocchi, and spare ribs should be a bit suspect. 

But I guess the one good thing about this place is that they have a very nice outdoor space that is great for summer time day drinking.  Unfortunately, Deanna and I went on a cold-ish day for dinner.  As I mentioned the menu is a bit wonky and doesn't really seem to have any cohesion to it but we went in with an open mind.  Despite not having a ton of vegetarian entrees, they did say that they were able to turn any of the veggie appetizers into entree size portions which I thought was nice of them.  I am a sucker for poke, so I felt like I had to try the one they had here ($15) and the waitress mentioned that it would probably not be enough for a full meal, so I also got the ricotta gnocchi as well ($12) while Deanna got the grilled cauliflower ($8) and the mushroom quinoa ($11).  When the poke came out, I immediately noticed that the tuna wasn't bright red like fresh tuna should be - in fact it was a bit dull pink/grey and it didn't have any of that fresh clean flavor that poke should have nor did it have the soy/scallion/sesame oil seasoning to it which is key to the entire dish.  All of this was laying on a huge bed of sticky rice which made the whole dish too heavy and just unpleasant.   In my mind I was thinking that I was lucky that I also ordered the gnocchi because I was still pretty hungry after the poke.  Well that was a bad assumption because the gnocchi was just as flavorless and bad as the poke.  The gnocchi was too dense and it was totally lacking in salt or really much taste.  It was served with asparagus pesto and to be honest, that didn't really help the dish much, if at all.   I kind of felt like I was just eating chunks of dough with some green sauce on it.  I didn't try Deanna's dishes but she also mentioned that she was less than impressed with them, especially the mushroom quinoa which looked like something I could make at home myself with instant quinoa and bits of mushroom. 

I should have known to stick with the basics like a burger at a bar/restaurant - especially in Chicago. The only reason I would go back would be for the nice outdoor space and the nice staff - but I will definitely eat dinner else where before heading over.  Total bill:  $38/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp