El Cafe de Tere Visited 1/17/2014 3 Forks

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 Visited 1/10/2013 3 Forks

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 Visited 1/5/2013 4 Forks

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 

The Heights Visited 12/29/2013 3 Forks

The Heights  3115 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20010

I usually don't spend a whole lot of time in Washington DC proper, but now that a lot of my high school friends who came back to live in the area actually live in the city vs. the suburbs, I've been checking out the city more and more.  And you know what? It's totally different from what I remember as a kid.  The area surrounding 14th street is bustling with tons of great shops and restaurants and has kind of changed my perspective on living in DC (although I don't see that happening anytime soon). 

The Heights is your standard cute, neighborhood American joint.  There were 8 of us, so it was great that they were able to accommodate all of us and the waiter was really nice and very gracious (especially since we had an active toddler at the table with us).  The menu has your basic brunch fare:  benedict, breakfast platter, bacon/sausage and eggs, omelets, etc.  They also have a lunch menu but Martha and Meredith had made a comment that their last non-brunch meal wasn't super stellar, so I decided forgo the fish tacos and stick with breakfast type food.  I opted for the huevos motulenos ($10.50) - which is pretty like a huevos rancheros.  If you like bloody marys, they have a great make- your-own bloody mary menu where you can get weird things like old bay seasoning, shrimp, blue cheese, and beef broth in it.  The huevos motulenos came with eggs (I chose scrambled), chicken, plantains, avocado, black beans and salsa.  I was a bit disappointed that it only came with 2 small and slightly dried out corn tortillas, but if there were more of them it probably would have filled me up a lot faster.  The flavors of the dish were fine but I would have liked more spicy salsa added to the top of it. The chicken was a bit too chunky for the dish and it probably would have worked better as a shredded chicken.  While I love plantains, it didn't really add to much to the dish.  The avocados were surprisingly nice and ripe (it is the dead of winter right now), however mashing them up into guacamole might have been a better route for the overall dish.  While it seems like I have a lot of "suggestions" for the dish, it got the job done for brunch.  I didn't try anyone else's food but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves as all our plates were fairly empty by the end of the meal. 

All in all, it was the right spot for such a big group and the waiter was really patient and nicely attentive (without being too annoying).  The food wasn't particularly outstanding but this was the kind of meal where it was more about the company of good friends and catching up versus having a fine dining experience.  Total bill:  $19/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Founding Farmers Visited 12/28/2013 2.5 Forks

Founding Farmers  12505 Park Potomac Avenue, Potomac, MD 20854

I usually don't do brunch when I'm home but when Jeana recommended Saturday brunch at this place that was 5 minutes from my mom's place, I couldn't say no.  Founding Farmer is a cute modern American bistro type place in this new town center community in the Potomac/Rockville area.  They claim to be part of the whole farm to table concept, but after eating there I'm not so sure if they are on par with some of the places in the city that are truly farm to table.  I wasn't sure if people really brunch in the suburbs, but they clearly do because the place was packed at noon.  Luckily we had a reservation and we sat down quickly. 

The menu has a brunch and lunch section.  The brunch section has your typical benedict, eggs, pancake and waffle section as well as a few hash scrambles.  I usually would head straight for the benedicts and the people next to us had gotten it and it looked pretty good, but I decided to go for something more healthy:  the sausage, mushroom and spinach scramble ($12) and it came with a side of grits and a biscuit.  Jeana got the pastrami hash ($12) and we each got coffee ($5) and orange juice ($2) to start. Jeana wanted me to point out that she was disappointed that they did not offer regular white sugar for the coffee but instead only had sugar substitutes.  The scramble came out and for some reason I had thought it was going to be one of those scrambles that came in a cute cast iron skillet but it just came out on my plate.  All the ingredients in the scramble (pork sausage, mushroom, cheddar cheese, spinach and onions) were fine but it just looked and tasted like a scramble that I could make at home myself not something that tasted like it came straight from the farm.  The presentation of it was also like something that I would serve myself at home too - pretty blah.  There wasn't anything super special about it in any way - I mean, it tasted totally fine but nothing really unique or interesting.  I will say that the grits were fairly decent - it wasn't super cheesey nor did it have any other special toppings to it but it was totally acceptable.  By the time I got to the biscuit, I was surprisingly full.  I generally like my biscuits to be warm and flakey but this one was cold and just fell apart at every bite so I stopped after the 2nd bite.  To be fair, I did wait to the end of my meal to eat it, so it might have been a different experience if I had eaten it first. 

To me the service was acceptable but Jeana was pretty annoyed by their lack of attentiveness.  When our meal was over, they gave us our bill in this kitchy mailbox, without asking us if we wanted anything else which did also annoy me.  As I looked around the restaurant, it looked like a lot of people were getting burgers, so maybe that's what they are better at.   They do have a pretty extensive lunch and dinner menu, so I would possibly come back for either of those menus but I would probably not order from their brunch menu again.  Total bill:  $26/pp with tip, tax and drinks.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Little Owl Visited 12/21/2013 3 Forks

Little Owl 90 Bedford St (b/t Grove St &Barrow St), New York, NY, 10014

Little Owl isn't a new restaurant but due to it's tiny size and perfect West Village location, it's incredibly difficult to get a table here.  Lav and I tried to go once and they quoted us 2 hours, so we left and this time, they quoted us 3 hours!  WTF?  But then the hostess gave us the wink wink nudge nudge that something may open up sooner and that we should stay close.  We opted to grab a drink around the corner and an hour later we had a table.  It's super cozy inside (maybe 8 tables max) and the decorations were quite festive due to the holiday time period, so it was just adorable meal.  It's a great date place if you're looking for someplace in the 'hood. 

The menu is new American and has a variety of appetizers, an entire vegetable side section and an entree section.  Although there was a nice section full of vegetables, none of the entree sized dishes were vegetarian, so Lav had to piecemeal her dinner together.  We started with the ricotta cavatelli but made without chicken broth, and Lav got a variety of vegetables (each $8):  squash, brussels sprouts with homefries, and the polenta and I got the pork chop ($26) as it was highly recommended by the waitress. The ricotta cavatelli came out first and I took a few nibbles.  I loved the melted ricotta on top and the cavatelli had a nice thick consistency but you could just tell that it was missing the chicken stock (they substituted it with water instead) - there was an element of salt/flavor that was missing from the dish.  Next came our entrees.  My pork chop was enormous and had a good sear on the outside.  I know that pork is not cooked like meat where you can order it medium rare, but it was just a bit too cooked on the inside for me.  But it was a very meaty dish and the flavor of it combined with the butter beans made for a very hearty entree.  Lav mentioned that her veggies were good but not particularly mind blowing. If dinner had just ended here, I would have been a bit disappointed.  But this is where dessert picked up the slack.  Since it was the holidays, we decided to treat ourselves to both the pear crisp and the chocolate souffle.   Oh my, this is really where The Little Owl excels.  The pear crisp was excellent.  It had a perfect crumble top and I could just tell that it was full of butter but who cares?  The vanilla ice cream was the perfect top for it.  As someone who isn't a huge fan of chocolate, I actually really enjoyed the chocolate souffle as well.  It was more dark chocolate than milk and when you cut through the cake, out came this fantastic ooze of sweetness.  If this is how all chocolate dish tastes, I might change my mind about hating chocolate. 

All in all, it was a perfectly nice meal but definitely not worth the 2 or 3 hour wait that we were originally quoted.  I would say it's worth waiting it out for maybe 30 minutes, but there are tons of other great restaurants in the West Village, that there's no need to spend your night waiting much longer.  I will say that their brunch/lunch menu looks pretty delicious, so I would be open to going again for a different meal.  Total bill:  $70 with tax, tip, and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sushi Nakazawa Visited 12/17/2013 5 Forks

Sushi Nakazawa 23 Commerce Street (between S 7th Ave and Bedford Ave), New York, NY 10014

Epic.  That's really all I can say.  Or maybe Holy Shit, did that meal just happen?  Ever since the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi came out, people have been literally flying to Tokyo to get their chopsticks on his delicious sushi.  Luckily for those of us in NYC, one of his apprentices in the documentary just opened his own sushi restaurant in the heart of the West Village not so long ago.  As if that having the backing of the movie wasn't enough, Pete Wells from the New York Times just gave it the coveted four star rating.  There are only 4 other restaurants in all of NYC that have the 4 star rating and now Sushi Nakazawa joins the ranks as the only sushi place on the list.  Also, if you Google Map this place, it will show up as "Omakase for high rollers".  Funny and yet kind of true at the same time.

Luckily, I was able to snag a random reservation about 2 weeks ago for a Tuesday night.  There are 2 types of seating:  at the bar for $150 and in the dining room for $120.  The meals are exactly the same: omakase style, meaning chef's choice, no menu at all.  I opted for the $120 version but I do kind of regret that I didn't just go the extra mile to sit at the bar to watch the master at work.  The service here is impeccable and very high end - usually not my thing but after tasting the food here, I get it.  The meal is 10 plates, 20 pieces of sushi and of the utmost purist form - there is no soy sauce, no extra wasabi, or ginger in sight.  What you get is what you eat.  Besides, every piece has a small but perfect dap of wasabi underneath each piece of fish.   We started with the salmon plate:

One type is fresh king salmon and the other version is a smoked style.  As Janet said upon our first bite, "Did that just melt in my mouth? I didn't even need to chew."  It was pure heaven and it wasn't just because of the fish.  I thought that the rice was amazing.  I've heard that the key to a good piece of sushi isn't necessarily the fish, although that's important, but it's the rice.  It was perfectly cooked with the right firmness to it.  Meanwhile the fish went down like butter.  The 2nd piece tasted a bit like lox which isn't a bad thing either.

Second plate:

The 2nd plate consisted for raw scallop and clam.  Raw scallop is one of my favorite types of sushi and this literally blew my mind.  First of all, it was the biggest piece of scallop I have ever seen in my life and it just tasted like the ocean in a fantastic way.  Amazing.  The clam dish was also sublime.  I'm usually not a huge fan of clam sushi but of course, like everything else here, it changed my mind about it.

3rd plate:

The 3rd plate included bass and barracuda.  I've never really had bass sushi but this made me want to order it every time I'm in a great sushi bar.  I can't quite explain it but it was just mouth watering.  The barracuda was also another type of fish that I've never had before and this had a very smokey taste to it but it wasn't an overpowering flavor. 

4th plate: 

This was the plate that I thought I would like the least because it consisted of Spanish Mackerel, Shad and Saba - all usually very fishy tasting and generally my least favorite fish at most sushi joints.  This was still probably the fishiest of all the plates of he night but like everything else here, still mind blowing.  Clean, surprisingly mild and fresh as can be. 

5th plate: 

This plate had blue shrimp and squid with a piece of mullet roe.  The shrimp was enormous and had terrific sweetness and a nice crisp give.   The squid piece was actually my least favorite of the night.  It just didn't really taste as buttery or amazing as all the other types of fish. 

6th plate:  

This plate had 3 pieces:  striped jack, yellowtail and bonito.  There was this bright red piece of sushi in the middle of the dish that we thought was sushi, but no, it was yellowtail!  I had never seen red yellow tail before but who cares, it was spectacular.  I'm running out of words for amazing and mind blowing, but you get the picture here.   

7th plate: 

Ahh, the tune plate - one piece of fatty tuna and one piece of medium fatty tuna.   Fatty tuna - enough said. 

8th plate: 

Now this is the part of the meal where I might have actually started weeping.  This beautiful piece of sushi here is Santa Barbara uni.  It was quite possibly the best pieces of sushi, not to mention uni, I've had in my life.  Words don't do it any justice except it was creamy and earthy and amazing.  Along with the uni, this plate had the salmon roe sushi - they had the fun pop and saltiness to it that you come to expect with a quality salmon roe piece. 

9th and final sushi plate: 

This dish consisted of eel and the famous egg that Mr. Nakazawa obsessively slaved over in the movie. If there was one small fault to the meal, it would be that I didn't think the eel dish was as strong of a bite.  In fact, I would say I've had better elsewhere, but that being said it was still good but definitely one of the weaker pieces.  

Lastly, the egg dish.  The famous egg custard doesn't seem like it would be a big deal, but it was the ideal way to end the meal.  It tasted just like a sweet egg custard dessert.  It's nothing like any of those tough eggy triangle pieces that you normally get in a sushi restaurant. 

The last meal of the night was a refreshing serving of cut up pineapple and yuzu sorbet with pomegranate, raspberries and blackberries.  They were light, tart and a good palate cleanser for the night.   

I've always known that there is a huge difference between bad sushi and mediocre sushi and even good sushi.  But now I know the difference between great and sublime sushi.  I'm almost regretting that I came here because it's not really a meal or experience that I can do or afford on a regular basis and now every sushi meal I have will be set at an unrealistic and unattainable comparison.  

As we were walking out, we saw all the sushi chefs focusing diligently on their craft and they were just the cutest things ever.  The service here was extremely attentive - to the point where every time we took a sip of water, there was someone right next to us 2 minutes later refiling out glass.  If you are a serious sushi lover, this place is a must.  But just know, you've been warned that the rest of your sushi meals after this will pale in comparison.  Total bill:  $330 for two includes 1 glass of wine, tax and tip. 

Photo Credit:  Janet Fu