Tapas at Solea

Tapas? Tapas yes! How can you ever say no to Tapas?!.. Nothing like some Spanish Tapas.. and while I usually go to Toro for it… Solea is closer.  Since I’m so behind in posts I’m gonna be doing a lot of just plain picture posts with minimal writing….

I got some Red Sangria with some bubbbbbbbly in it… !!!
Sangria Royal, Red Sangria with Cava and Gran Marnier
a

Bread and Hummus

Always a good pair.

Pulpo a Feria, Galician Style Octopus with Paprika and Olive Oil
This is a cold dish.. the octopus is tender but I thought that there was just way too much.

Gambas al Ajillo, Sizzling Garlic Shrimp

Pimiento de Piquillo, Shrimp and Crab Stuffed Piquillo Peppers
This was alright.  I’ve had better in other places…

Chorizo a la Plancha, Seared Spanish Sausage

Pato Braseado, Roasted Duck with Berry Sauce

This shall always be my favorite dish to get when I get tapas. DUCK IS THE THING TO GET!

Almejas a la Marinera, Steamed Littleneck Clams with White Wine and Herb Sauce

Vieiras al Azafrán, Scallops in Saffron Cream

I’m not too big on cream sauces so I only had one.  There’s something about my palate I can taste everything but saffron. Weird.

Solomillo con Chimichurri, Beef Tenderloin with Spicy Herb Sauce

The beef was tender but by the time we got this we were so full of everything else….

Setas al Ajillo, Sautéed Wild Mushrooms

Codorniz, Braised Quail with Lentils

Almendras Marconas, Roasted Marcona Almonds

Churros con Chocolate, Cinnamon-laced Fritters with Dark Chocolate Sauce

Flan, Coconut Flan

Everything was delicious but it was super filling for just three people.

Re-living a delicious memory…at TORO

W got into town to cook for the Clio 15th Anniversary Dinner June 5.  All the great names were there… and obviously my amazingly talented boyfriend <3  So Sunday night after he got in we went to re-live our faithful frigid and yummy night in January at Toro.  OK it was still a bit chilly this night.. good thing I FINALLY listened to W and switched my shorts for pants.  And, of course, I paired my outfit with super high platform heels – I can’t help it.  I love to tower.

We got there just a few minutes after A & J around 5:30 who were just starting to enjoy a cocktail and beer, and we were immediately seated.   Good thing too cuz Toro, per usual, filled up FAST — I started with one of my fav cocktails from Toro… the Cabana Boy. Canton Ginger, spiced rum, pineapple.

We even sat the way we did that night, except J replaced S :]   And no paron.  And once again, we had a ton of food. A TON, possibly more than before?! Not sure… the bread was a-flowing and some of the highlights were these: Egg Omelette, Buffalo Heart, Pimientos, Sweetbreads [amaze balls], Tuna, Oysters, Goat Cheese [which was actually really creaaaammmy and light], Salt Cod Fritters [which tasted like delicious McDonald's Filet O' Fish in a ball of fried goodness, NO LIE], Pork Belly, Pulled Pork, just to name a few off the top of my head. We had a beautiful Spanish wine picked out by A.

But the dinner started out with a special charcuterie plate from Chef Jamie Biss. UM. SWOON.

Everything was delicious.  I wanted to order another platter – JUST FOR ME – I haven’t had a “just cheese, charcuterie and wine” dinner in awhile – THIS would SO be one of the ultimates.  That Pork Pate at the right end.  Atop chopped up kimchi – fucking fantasmic. YES.  Swearing needs to happen.  Bad language is accepted with the food is this fucking awesome.

Special of the Day: Tripe Chili with avocado and Crema.  Oh you heard right, it’s like a Fat Asian Girl’s wet dream AKA MINE!  Tender pulled pork, beans, etc… all the chili components and then TRIPE. FUCKING TRIPE.  I LOOOOOOOOOVE TRIPE.  This is like tripe porno tuesday for Miss Tiffie… except.. on a Sunday… and… only two dishes of tripe.

Bone Marrow for a Double Date.  One of us an one for them.  Perfect as always.

And hands down, BEST dish of the night was the Green Curry Tripe… tripe?  Tripe that felt like TENDON.  A and I told Jamie straight up we wanted to BATHHHHHHHHE in this and lick it off each other.  Ok, I may have added that licking part in but at least I WOULD ;]  Melted on your tongue into a bliss of green curry…. and ever-so-sultry like sliiiiiiiiiiiides down your throat. I want to SOAK in this.  Hell, I’d lick it off myself. JOY.

An amazing [early] night with great friends.  I always have an amazing time eating with A & J :]  See previous.  Oh, we ended the night in churros. You know that’s always a plus.

The rest of the night? Sex, Love and Rock n’ Roll baby <3

A Beautiful Sunday…. Brunch at @ToroRestaurant

Yesterday was a beautiful and sunny day – I knew I had a great day of good eats and great company ahead of me. I woke up early and drove into town. It’s time for Brunch AND AT Toro!!!! Now you guys know that I eat there all the time but I’ve never been there for brunch… why?!…I have no idea.

LOOK AT ALL THAT BEAUTIFUL LIGHTING!!!!! ahhh food pornologist like me’s dream come true!!!

Why am I drinking my mimosa like a squirrel? Hahaha… I may have had more than one :] Empty stomach loop de loop. I was SOOO hungry…

SO much to choose from, I kept having to ask our waitress to come back – UGH I’m SO indecisive sometime.  And I want it all… Yay!!! W visiting :] And even tho the last time we all came here the last time he was in Boston, yes, the food is THAT good!

Grilled Avocado

SOOOO GOOD! A light salsa verde in the hole, a little queso MMMMM….. pickled red onions *breaths onion breath on you* DELICIOUS! Never had grilled avocado before, I need to try preparing it like this at home.. too bad I’m too lazy.

See in the background? W added Hummus on at the end of what we wanted, last minute and it was SOOOO GOOD :] Argon oil, za’atar and fresh Chickpeas.. sooo creamy and great spices MMM.. loved it!! Fluffy soft bread!

Our eggy breakfasts.. and then some.. NOM NOM NOM.. W was a good boy and just had tea :] Yeah and me squirreling my mimosas.. hahaha…

I got the Huevos con Chorizo

Scrambled Eggs with Housemade Chorizo, Patatas and Sourdough Toast

Soft fluffy eggs.. which I sprinkled with black pepper and sriracha.. and DELICIOUS chorizo that almost sort of reminded me of my favorite chinese sausages.. they popped when you bit into them and were just fluffs of meaty happiness inside. See that butter on the toast. MMM.. butter…

W’s Pork Hash

Eggs over Easy, Patatas and Sourdough Toast

The pork hash was super creamy, not the hash I’m usually used to where you can feel the shredded potato. Maybe it was my bite, but it was CREAMY! Hahaha… great flavors.  And yes more buttery toast!  Maybe that’s why we both got full so fast, so much bread…

Asada de Huesos

Roasted Bone Marrow with Radish Citrus Salad and Oxtail Marmalade

Yep, even after eating pounds of bone marrow the night before…. We got more bone marrow :] Since W is a chef he eats it all the time mwahahaha so I got to eat it allllll :] And as always, LOVE the delicious oxtail on the crostini… MMMM – all together now MUNCH!

And then another last minute order before the kitchen closed…

Maiz Asado con Alioli y Queso Cotija

La Especialidad de la Casa.  Grilled Corn with Alioil, Lime, Espelette Pepper and Aged Cheese

YES! A MUST-HAVE every single time at Toro…amongst other things.  But yes, even for brunch :] JUST LOOK AT IT!!! I can smell it already… taste it.. the creamy outside, the pops of the kernals, crunch crunch, SOOO FREAKING DELICIOUS.

We ended brunch with something sweet :] OF COURSE.. we were gonna get a cheese plate as well but we were stuffed beyond belief. ALWAYS ROOM FOR SWEETS THOUGH!!!!

Churros con ChocolateAiry Crisp Fried Pastry with Orange Infused Chocolate

MMMMMM….. I love churros. They’ll always remind me of Disneyland as a little kid.  The chocolate just ups it up a notch and makes it seem a bit more sophisticated… amazing and fresh! So delicious :] I am a happy little Tiffie…. *bounce

MFA: New American Café

MFA has a ton of new wings and eateries… including the New American Café smack dab in the center…. The natural lighting is beautiful and I love the open atmosphere… Here’s a pic I found of it on flickr :]

[Pic Source]

So much light from all the glass surrounding… and different wings all connecting to this area… it’s a great place to get some coffee and desserts, tea time or a nice quick lunch :] – or I guess a nice long leisurely one.  The only downfall was that you had to take an elevator downstairs to use the bathroom.. so far lol…

Ready to eat…

Glass of Pinot

Delicious chewy multi-grain seeds/nuts bread

Al Pastor Marinated Organic Chicken
Cuban Black Beans, Sweet Plantains, Salsa Verde

Super tender chicken – perfectly cooked atop a ton of yummy black beans.. crispity yummy plantains and a grilled lime… We got the three course prix fixe but they were out of the tuna ceviche so they gave us some sides to make up for it…..

Sauteed Asparagus & Marinated Tomato Salad

Delicious tender sauteed [lightly] asparagus – omg I had the worst asparagus pee for the rest of the day – and delicious tomato/shallot salad… jus lightly tossed in EVOO S&P and sprinkled with fresh herbs

Asian Salad with Mango Slices with Salmon

And since I’m a cow and need my extra veggies we also got a salad to split between us as well.. it was super refreshing and the salmon was perfectly cooked thru – I’m not a fan of undercooked salmon – unless I do it myself – cuz sometimes it comes out super fishy and the texture freaks me out since the insides get kind of mushy when down badly.

Churros con Chocolate
Chestnut Honey, Oange-Cinnamon SugarThese were freshly out of the fryer.. not greasy at all but superrrrrr yummy and melted in our mouths.. the dark chocolate dip was good but I LOOOVED the honey!!!!!  I ended up licking all the honey off the plate :] Honey monster.

After I finished my wine and my museum date finished off her coffee we walked off our lunch looking at the new wings/exhibits. YAY. Another fun relaxing day!!!

I can’t wait to come back again and grab a snack during my next trip to the MFA – which happens usually once every month or two. :]

Late Night at Noche

I haven’t participated in Restaurant week in years… and I also have no idea why Noche started sending me emails,  but I caught a glimpse of their restaurant menu and was intrigued…. I think it was the churros and the duck leg tostada… not to mention they have a pretty cool drink menu.

We had late reservations for 10 [they take orders until 11pm] and the bar is open til… 1:30am I believe…

We got seated in a corner next to a table of drunk white people [somehow their wine top ended up flying over to our side and under my feet hahaha...] the girls were clearly drunk… there was talk of more drinking and her being able to handle 5 Guinesses… #classy – all in good fun :]

I spy with my naked eye.. a smilie face

Horrible cardboard bread. This is me squeezing it really hard between my fingers. Seriously…

Cardamom Pear Martini

double cross vodka, belle de brillet, cardamom, lemon juice, lemon bitters

I was not a fan… it was too sweet and tasted like an apple martini. NO cardamom taste at all :[ Boo....

Black Truffle Martini

double cross vodka, splash of dry vermouth, black truffle&feta cheese stuffed olive

The olive was delicious. SO truffly. But the drink was meh. We ended up sending my pear martini back and we got a bottle of bubbly :D

Ancho Chili Rubbed Duck Leg Tostada

Shaved lettuce and green mango, guava bbq

The duck was super cooked down and kind of a mushy texture. The tortilla got soggy from the duck.. didn't really taste guava in the bbq tho.. the lettuce, mango tomato on top made it more refreshing. It was teeny tiny though.

Chorizo and Manchego Stuffed Native Razor Clams

Grilled sour orange, shaved beet and toasted almond salad

I was between this and the scallop ceviche. We decided to not play it safe and get something a bit more "daring"... it was really heavy for razor clams. The clam itself was cooked well and delicious.. I wasn't that into the cheese and chorizo mess on top. I like my seafood simple.

Half Lobster and Littleneck Clam Roast

New potatoes and salsa verde, spicy tomato relish

Can you believe this is an entree? SO tiny... The sauce wasn't spicy at all :[ Sad...  and there was only two clams and lobster was half of a tiny tail and a little claw and a quartered red potato. Lame. So hungry. Totally lacked seasoning...

Ropa Vieja

Slow braised Cuban beef brisket, mashed mofungo

This wasn't bad... super tender [also to the point of mushy] and definitely heavily seasoned… not much meat but there was a lot of mofungo [fried mashed plantain] The heavy flavored beef and the mofungo balanced each other out when eaten together.. the mofungo was kind of bland and potato-y.

We were gonna order one of each dessert, but the “torte” was just some chocolate cake and looked kind of lame so we changed it to two orders of churros. Best part of the night!!!

Cinnamon and Sugar Dusted Churros

Dulce de Leche Caramel

They were undercooked and kind of gooey in the middle. Cinnamon-y caramel bliss. These were piping hot and very yummy.

We were heading over to a party at Liberty Hotel but ended up just grabbing a drink, er, bottle of wine next door at 28 Degrees because of carfail. We ended up drinking the whole thing in like 20 minutes because AAA arrived to jumpstart the car… We were both starving and wanted pizza…. but for some reason why didn’t eat aything

Noche is a fun place for bar snacks and drinks, food – not so much, if you’re looking or a full meal you’ll leave unsatisfied and hungry.

Pre-Theatre at Aureole

The original plan was set for my mommy. She was coming here to the City to celebrate her 28th birthday *wink* and I had set up a beautiful dinner at Aureole and had amazing tickets to Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately we had some family things come up and my parents are now in Taiwan… but I wasn’t about to pass up a good meal and a good show….

I’m usually so hesitant about any restaurant near Times Square, but this place is SO SO worth it.

The beautiful Charlie Palmer’s Aureole

We started off with two glasses of Pommery, Brut Apanage [Champagne, France] Champagne :] Delicious

Lemon/Rosemary Bread + Tomato/Basil Bread
They were SOOOOO freaking tasty.  I fell in love with the lemon rosemary bread… like a soft fluffy sourdough YUM. And the tomato basil tasted like an Italian dinner rolled into fluffy bread. YAY.

We started off with an amuse bouche… it was a delicious Lamb Carpaccio… it was SO amazing, not gamey at ALL.

Craving some Bobby Flay in me…

After watching some Throwdowns on my DVR… I got a huge craving for Fried Chicken and Waffles… but that’s not happening til this Sunday…. [going to the C&Q winner, Melba's in Harlem] But I knew what I wanted… some fried chicken…. Bobby said that Bar Americain had it on its menu so I checked it out. UGH. Only on Mondays.. or was it Thursdays? And the Mohegan Sun one had it everyday but it was too long of a trek for some fried chicken…. now I HAD to eat at a Bobby Flay restaurant. I’d been to Mesa Grill in Summer of 2004… twice… their brunch is great… but now it was time to go back again… well, I’ve also been craving tamales….Mesa Grill it was…

My strongest memory of Mesa Grill is their bread basket… given their brunch one is even yummier.. there is one thing I could never get over…

Their corn bread is amazing. BEST CORN BREAD EVER!!!!…. A bit of heat and crunch.. with whole kernals of corn… YUM!

rough cut tuna nachos

mango-habanero hot sauce + avocado crema
I love blue chips. I’m chipist… I like colored chips :] I couldn’t taste the habanero hot sauce but the tuna was super fresh and in nice big chunks so it was delish. Totally not what I expected… but in fact better.. I was scared it would be taking “nachos” a little TOO literally…

Goal: Corn + Sangria = Best Drunkenness…

Toro is one of those happening places that are still crazy busy late at night… and in Boston, that means it’s good stuff. We got there right before 9 and had to wait about an hour before we could eat. That means sitting at the bar and downing some bubbly before getting seated. We chitted and chatted and got hungrier and hungrier seeing and smelling all the great foods being passed around us.

It’s one thing for me to think a restaurant is delicious, but it’s another to have me want to go there over and over again. Toro is one of those places. I think I could come here once every week or two for the rest of my life and be sooo sooo happy. I know I wrote about this place pretty recent… but I had a craving for them the other night so made R go with me as soon as he set foot outside my house Friday night :]

Since I was soooo hungry and it was sooo late by then I just had one goal in mind… Corn + Sangria and  a drunkingly good time….

We started off with one of our favorites at Toro.

Uni Bocadillo

Pressed uni sandwich with miso butter and pickled mustard seeds
How could anything with uni be bad? Unless the uni is bad…. The creamy uni and miso butter… and then the crunchy pickled mustard seeds that add even more texture to it. NOT TO MENTION… perfect bread. PERFECTLY TOASTED BREAD!!! With sandwiches bread is SO key… you need perfect ratio of breads to innards and this is so perfect.

Toro.. the bull not the fish ;]

You know that feeling you get after eating really good food….. the afterwards… that depression? Well why let it get you down when you can continue it by eating more amazing food? The day after our O YA meal we decided that the only way we could finish off the weekend was by going to TORO.

We had brunch at Bullfinch’s and then headed off to the Museum of Science for an afternoon of Harry Potter madness.

LOVE. Harry. Potter.

More on my fb album :]

Hufflepuff is like the worst ever [hahahaha jk but seriously.. reminds us of jiggly puff]

Miss Tiffie’s Quarter Life Crisis

On August 3 I turned 25 :] And as tradition goes, I go to NYC and I party my butt off… I like starting my new years off with a bang… and I tend to celebrate all thru August. So here, finally, I’ve gotten off my lazy butt and blogged about it.. it’s picture heavy but hope you enjoy the ride :]

The Agenda
August 15, NYC
Dinner @ Boqueria (SOHO Location) @ 930
& The Party @ KUSH LOUNGE @ 1130 – close (4)