Best Vegas Trip Ever… NICK CARTER – I LOVE YOU ELLIOT [Day 3]

So we realized the day before that NICK CARTER + LAUREN KITT were having their bachelor and bachelorette party at the Palms!!! WHAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!!… Insane. They went to MOON the night we were at Light, but we HAD to get into the “official” party at Ghostbar.. and while we were told to go to XS or something, WE HAD TO GO. It’s fucking NICK FUCKING CARTER!!!!!…. So thank you to my sexiest Brit friend Elliot we got in :] I love you, you beautiful creature you <3 I’m so glad you’re coming back to the States soon… ok.. I’m off track…

After last night.. this was us basically all day.

But somehow we functioned… had leftover pizza from… yeah the night before.. we woke up all bruised and cut up, WTF?! I think we fought drunk bitches or SOMETHING… I needed to pick out something awesome for Nick Carter’s party and ended up with this….

And Kelly is a creeper – I LOVE IT

Hair done. Dress did.  How I look?

And then the red lipstick came on… and it was BRING IT.

TWINSIESSSSSSSSSS

We were vampires for the night. Sequin black dresses and red lips :] AHHH!!!!!

She always has the same face… mine is rarely ever normal.

First off, dinner at Nove Italiano… which is an awesome story in itself.

We went to Nove Italiano

Amuse Bouche… I don’t even remember what it was.. I think some raw fish bite…

YAY “Hosemade” Sausage – we actually got this tho hahaha…

The “Bread” it looks so sad and bare on there…

Shrimp Franchaise…
It just says on the menu “the best you’ve ever had” BUT MOTHERFUCKER.. it tasted like old shrimp and it gave me FOOD FUCKING POISONING.. I was puking at the club after…. UGH.. there was no texture.. so we ate it with the breadsticks… this definitely needs some crunch factor.. and fresher shrimp. UGH.

It’s okay tho the other food made up for it.

The Classic Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad: Pesto, Pine Nuts, Mozzarella Di Bufala

I like how they split everything for us in half without us needing to share it off of a plate.

Branzino with Salsa Verde

It was good but not amazing… they did filet it and split it for us.. I duno it just seemed….. subpar?! It wasn’t bad and it was definitely fresh and tasty.. but not for 46$

The highlight of the night was the Spaghetti & Meatballs with Sausage: Veal & Pork Meatballs, Housemade Sausage, Basil, Tomato

I could NOT stop eating it… Kelly was DONE like barely a quarter way thru and she went to the bathroom and I devoured most of it. THE PASTA IS SOOOOO GOOOOOOD…..

AND THEN they gave us a special treat of biscottis for Kelly’s Bday. Thanks Caesar. You were an awesome waiter minus the shrimp recommendation.

We are ready for Ghostbar.

The view from Ghostbar

So right before Nick came out I was feeling SOOOO shitty.. I had a redbull vodka.. and I just wanted to leave. I ended up puking up all that BAD SHRIMP, cough cough hint hint and felt soooo much better… but that’s not the end of my throwing up story…. but first. Glow sticks and Nick<3

So while they were outside on the balcony I was freezing so I went inside. I kept trying to sit down somewhere but they were all VIP tables and some bitch/girl would always tell me NO. Luckily [maybe] RIGHT by the door while Kelly was outside taking pics of Nick and Lo a group of guys let me sit down at their table for a drink.

In my head was just “OMG SEAT!!!” I don’t even know WTF they made me but it tasted HIDEOUS and within a few seconds of a micro half sip I was ready to puke.  I ran into the bathroom and security came to check on me.  I got all the usual questions, where are we, what club, what year, the president, I was sober as FUCK and they realized that those guys tried to ROOFIE me.

YES. You heard it here, I got ROOFIED in Vegas and they FAILED at it.  Luckily, Kelly found me and we went back to the hotel.  UNHARMED.  The female security and main security guy said that I was lucky that I caught on and threw it all up. PHEW.

But at least I didn’t miss seeing Nick & Lo being an adorable beautiful couple together. <3 Thanks Kelly for putting up with my food poisoning and being roofied.. first time for everything right?!

Current Cheese Obsession: Jasper Hill Willoughby

J and I fell in love with this cheese RANDOMLY….. we just picked up a random cheese at Whole Foods, a creamy one, and ended up eating ALL of it and eating it with baguette and my turkey meatballs. AMAZING.

I’ve been cooking a lot more lately….

My trips to NYC has been inspiring me to cook more lately.  I’ve been able to experiment more and more with different foods.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned some of these from previous trips:

The dangerous habanero chicken pizza… which was delicious but deadly.

My famous meatballs…

My Short Ribs over Mushrooms and Chard

But here are some more recent things I’ve made in NYC

OK this isn’t really “made” but J and I decided to have a simple wine, cheese and meats night…. with steamed artichokes and baked Yam fries..

Iberico, Chorizo, Duck Salumi and Coppa

So many cheeses…

Half of these are chili/cinnamon rubbed, the other half are truffle butter rubbed..

And then the next night I made a warm grilled brussel sprouts salad with different peppers and veggies… topped with habanero vindaloo chicken…

And some Kale Chips and Fresh Avocado

STOP BEING USELESS
AND START BEING A CHEESEBURGER

So these were the peppers…

That cause me to split my finger open…

and go to the ER :[ WAAA

And then the day before Miami.. uh… night before, we had a a dinner party

I forgot to take pics of the panko pan fried quail I made [marinated in Honey , Orange, Habanero] which each person got a whole quail, cut in half on top of mixed greens as an App]

and I made Duck Breast “Confit style”

Jonathan brought Capri Sun BEER!!!!!!! <3

Oh back to the duck… slow cooked for like 2-3 hours… and then popped into oven with some balsamic vinegar, red wine, pear, raspberries, shallots and fig jam,

See… demolished the salad already… I served with truffled broccolini and mushrooms and baked chili/cinnamon yam fries.

And then the night after we got back from Miami I made bunny curry. YES. Rabbit Curry. And it was actually NOT overpowering on the bunny as some people said it would be.  You could taste the bunny cuz I left them in big chunks…the legs were kept whole, etc…..  just celery, carrots, potatoes, yams, onions, a whole rabbit [I butchered a rabbit for the first time] 

Some steamed okra on the side…

And then I put it all on a bed of mixed greens, freshly made sushi rice, topped off with rabbit meat and curry sauce. DELISH!

OK, now that we’re caught up on that I feel a bit better and will continue onto more NYC eats and Miami posts.

Village Yokocho… and more beer…

Friday Night means one thing: NO ALARM CLOCK – hottest words EVA. But that talks for later….. Friday night and J comes home and we decide that Japanese is what’s up.

Time for some yakitori. MMMM St. Marks time.  Which means Village Yokocho.

First thing we did was order a giant pitcher of beer. SO MUCH FOAM.

UMM… I couldn’t resist.

Takoyaki.

Asparagus. Scallions.  Green Pepper.  Mushroom.

Different parts of chicken and beef … and balls :] Oh chicken balls…. ground chicken balls not their “BALLS” durrrr…. that’s at a different place<3

Somehow all the sticks were on my plate. HAHA. Way for J to make me the fattie.

Not enough, we want MORE!!!!!!!!

We need more and more chicken skin…..

MORE chicken skin, alls, shishito peppers and then some…. OH cartiledge

After a delicious dinner.. we headed to the secret yet so known, Angel’s Share but the wait was too long and didn’t seem worth it.  The bathroom was gross and it was freezing in there… So we left….

… and headed to the sure thing: Proletariat

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Last Trip to DC in a Nutshell.. including the Jameson Ball at Brixton

JAMESON BALL at the Brixton

Hello Kitty Pho

Empanada

My favorite place

Mandu

More Happy Pho with veggies

I had a meatball night with the boys

And had a meatball salad for lunch the next morning

Bye Bye DC, see you.. hopefully soon….

Meatball Madness

Another day of working… woke up early and headed to the grocery store down the block for Meatball groceries…. all groceries check… time for a quick lunch.

I ordered some beef tacos for W and a beef tongue taco and a pulled chicken Taco salad from Super Tacos.  YUMMMAYYYY – It was HUGE and filling!!!!

An ice cream cone for dessert :D

I love my French Fries shirt ;D Bonjour….

I made my meatballs.. there was no veal at the store so it’s half beef and half pork.  W has no measuring spoons or cups so I eyeballed everything.. woot!  There was also no smoked mozz so I just used a regular fresh mozzarella.. and thanks to a suggestion from W I sauteed  the onions before popping it into the mixture… it also flavored the pot – NOM

I mixed together  tomato/basil sauce with an arrabbiata sauce and then popped everything into the oven for a few hours.

After unhoarding W’s room and socks [haha] we finally settled down to a quick dinner of spaghetti and meatballs a la MEEEE :D

I also popped open a bottle of wine.  French red table wine. YUM.

Happy Cleaning!!!

I Love Eating Faces

I love eating things with faces.

Pho is no exceptions.

Boom!

To Hawaii and back… only on AA

With a flight at 730 in the morning I was up at 430 finishing up packing, showering and getting ready to get down and dirty… we left the apartment around 530 to head off to Newark.

BORING.. Continental Brekky… just some Corn Flakes, Milk, Yogurt and Fruit…

OH and of course a warm piping hot buttery biscuit… me and Z both had two :D YUM!

Ok Confession!!!!!!… After getting into O’Hare – Chicago we ended up at Macaroni Grill….

I got a veggie frittata

And Z waited 15 minutes til 11 o get the spaghetti and meatballs…. remember our most recent meatball/pasta fail?  Sad. I need meatball night again :]

I bought us some books to read on the plane… I got Beautiful Boy which is super similar to Come Back – so much so that the only difference is that Beautiful Boy is a a dad talking about his son, whereas the other book, the one I originally had read, was about a mother telling the story of her daughter.  But the stories are SO similar…

He quit sex to Farmville #facebook

Tropical Mixed Nuts

Salad of Greens, Daikon Radish with Greek vinaigrette

Z chose the Asian Ginger dressing which I didn’t like – the Greek vinaigrette was soooo good and had feta cheese in it – at least the essence of ;]

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

It tasted like a sweet potato roll :] YUM!

Teriyaki Beef Fillet with Grilled Pineapple on Basmati Rice and Ginger Cilantro Pesto

The broccolini was WAY overmushed, not even overcooked, just overmushed… and my steak tasted a bit off/gamey to me. It was SUPER overcooked as well :[ #sadface.  I didn’t end up eating mine and I tried to see if I could get a mushroom sauce cheese ravioli instead but the stewardess said NO :[

And then came the Ice Cream Sundaes
Mine: Coffee Cream, Hot Fudge and Nuts

His: The works, berry sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream and nuts

Fruit and Cheese plate.. the cheese was good :]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the most AMAZING week in Hawaii.. okay fine, 5 days? We were heading back.. after a morning of tanning and brunch at Cheeseburger – we were back at the airport by Sunday night, except first we were in our hotel room – late check out – taking shots of patron [we had to finish the bottle] BUT YES after the patron we were ready to head back to the Mainland.. via Chicago. With leftover musubis in my bag hehe…

more Tropical Mixed Nuts.. mmm pineapple

We both got the Macadamia Crusted Chicken…

The other dish was just some boring ravioli :P Lame.  Although it did look like a HUUUUGE bowl of it… and smelled good.. but I thoroughly enjoyed the chicken. SUPER tender and full of flavor. OMG… AA you are NOT disappointing at ALL! … somehow the asparagus salad that came before got lost in pictures OOPS.. but it was good and I got it with a different asian dressing… although I ended up liking Z’s caesar better :D More cheesy taste hehehe….

Once again, great meals… [minus the beef] and I LOVE THE SUNDAES :D Mwahahahaha… #fattie

GROTTO: Good Shoes, Bad Pasta…

All dressed up and somewhere to go…. this is me showing off my new shoes.. I bought awhile ago, that I totally forgot about. Tonight was the perfect night — I hadn’t seen Z in like 2 days and I needed to look fabulouso.  I was at a Bridal Shower, Dressing Fitting and running errands all day so Z made all the details and reservations for the night. Tonight? Grotto.

GUCCI Leopard Gradient :D

Grotto is on the bottom of a HUUUUUUUUGE HUGE hill… we parked at the top, but Z was such a gentleman and carried me down.  Some weirdo yelled “I see her thong”.. except I wasn’t wearing a thong… yay granny panties [haha kidding] STILL.. awkward.. hahaha.. maybe Z should’ve carried me a different way.. hahaha..

Dense bread and EVOO and Olives…

Grilled calamari, White beans, Peppers, Greens, Lemon

Underneath all the delicious fresh arugula was 3, ONLY 3 pieces, but some of the most tender, perfectly grilled calamaris EVER. SO GOOD!!! The sauce, the freshness of the peppery green – AMAZING!!!

Arugula, Proscuitto, Reggiano, Lemon vinaigrette

Delicious Balsamic Vinegar… also came with EVOO and Lemon Vinaigrette 

BUT THEY FORGOT THE CHEESE!!!! FOUR ingredients and they forgot one HUGE major one… like, WTF.  But when we asked for some they gave us a mini bowl of parm :] YUM YUM YUM. I love cheese!

Salad overload much? It’s okay we still had fondue and mussels on the way… but that’s when the meal started going downhill.. at least my shoes are hot [haha]

Fontina cheese fondue, Beef tenderloin, Aged balsamic, Truffle oil, Portobello mushrooms

It smelled truffly but the cheese was soooo thin and runny.. very watery.  I wish it came with crudites.. bread cubes, something.. other than a few sinewy pieces of beef and some flabby cuts of mushroom. SO disappointing. I freaking ADORE fondue… and I miss good quality fondue.  Need to stuff ourselves silly at Artisanal ASAP [where’s your fav place for fondue in the City?]

And then the night just got worse from there [at least food wise, we were having great convos].  They forgot to put the order of mussels in, but then they came out with the pastas beforehand — so we just cancelled the mussels. WRONG MOVE… still hungry :[

Potato gnocchi, Short ribs, Mushrooms, Gorgonzola

Just LOOK at them. HOW THE CRAP IS THAT GNOCCHI?!?!.. they’re ginormous and so rough looking.. it tasted like raw dough balls… not pillowy, not fluffy not okay. NO BUENO.  I had half a gnocchi and a bite of the short ribs.. the SHORT RIBS were SOOOOO tender, melt away.. but the sauce was so bland… and .. waaaa BAD GNOCCHI…

Spaghetti, Meatballs & Grotto’s insanely fabulous tomato sauce
As soon as we walked into Grotto we saw the spaghetti and meatballs, EVERYWHERE. And we were craving. CRAVING.  Earlier that day my BFF [bride-to-be] ordered off the bridal shower menu and got a spaghetti and meatball, so I was def craving.

THIS was the WORST spaghetti and meatballs I’ve EVER had. The tomato sauce was so off… smokey and too many jumbled herbs.  The pasta was OKAY.  But the worst was the MEATBALLS – which is so sad because ya’ll should know by now I’m ALL about the meatballs.  They were SOOOO salty, mushy and just… rosemary or thyme or something just OVER herbed.. *sigh* SO frustrating…

Crab ravioli, Asparagus, Almonds, Saffron

This was the only edible one IMO.  The vegetables were SO fresh tasting… it was delicious.. the only gripe is the pasta.. and the fillings could use more crab in it. But all in all, minus the tough, pasta [not even like under cooked more like pre-cooked and sat out]  So SO happy with the asparagus and the tomatoes.  I sprinkled extra cheese and hot pepper flakes on it for added oomph.. I ended up just not eating most of the pasta part… Z was a sweetheart and let me eat the whole plate [minus one hehe]

So all the pastas were pretty… not good.  Which partially might also because we always have a good time when we go out for italian [ok that last link was MY pasta I made hahahha].  We’re obsessed with good pasta and these just felt like they were sitting out way too long.

Lemon panna cotta, Raspberry sauce, Crispy pizzelle cookie

The flavors were great, but the texture was off. OK so it tasted, texturally, like cheesecake.. a thick creamy cheesecake… NOT panna cotta like  Jay Rayner said “A good panna cotta, if it’s set right, is meant to wobble like a woman’s breasts.” Mwahahahahaha… and it was only half a pizzelle :[ I adore pizzelles.. hahaha wish they had a dessert option of a plate of fresh pizzelles.

Banana bread pudding, Caramel sauce, Caramel ice cream, Spice nuts
Also dense, not bread pudding like… just like a banana spiced bread… banana nut bread minus the nuts… but the burnt caramel ice cream was FREAKING AMAZING!!!!… i gobbled it up with the nuts :]

Ok. No bueno. But the wine was pretty good.. and it was a fun atmosphere.  Definitely not a go to spot for Italian…

On top of my Tapas…..

All bare with no cheeeeeseee….
I lost my poor meatballs…
They went in my belly

Sadly those were the only decent things to eat at La Nacional Tapas Bar…. Before I begin I’d like to say that our food got brought out SO fast and our table was SO small I felt like we were being forced to down everything in a half hour :[ More about that and the meatballs later….

I adore tapas… I crave it all the time, and while I know that Z has been a bit sick of them since he’s been visiting Spain so much, I LOVE THEM, and I couldn’t push down this craving….. we were choosing between a few tapas bars but after reading some decent reviews on this place after googling it and yelping it…. Z insisted we try this place.

First thing’s first, sangria. It was pretty tasty, not gonna lie – AND there’s fruit. I vaguely remember a line from a frat party back in college… something about eating the “fruit to boot”? Dangerous :D So yummy!!

The bread, carefully hidden, but not carefully enough, ghetto butter packets in the back :D The bread wasn’t bad, just sourdough, cold. Sigh, I love warm bread, more places should do it. Peer pressure.

And then they just started PILING on the dishes onto our teeny tiny table… seriously, it was kind of sad…

esparragos

white asparagus with crispy serrano & black olive tapenade

I liked the salty crispy serrano, but come on, only two pieces? The white asparagus were soggy and overcooked but the olive tapenade was pretty good.. nice olivey and salty. A little much though.

sardinas a la plancha

fresh grilled head-on sardines

These things were HUGE… Z said this is how they do in Spain but come on, THREE ginormoua sardines?!…. that’s a lot. I had a whole one, Z ate half.. I feel bad but they were just OKAY… the bones were annoying me… hahhaha I love japanese grilled fishies the most :D

boquerones

white anchovy fillets

Fresh and fishy :D Justs the way I like my anchovies.. there was a nice lemon citrus atop the anchovies which I liked – made it more refreshing.

gambas

grilled garlic shrimp

I’m so not used to seeing tapas on plain white plates.. I like the little clay pots that stay warm and the shrimp comes out sizzling hot.  I usually see chunks of garlic in the hot hot oil, but they were unidentifiable here.  Sad.  But they were pretty good… I mean how do you mess up garlicky shrimp? MMM, garlicky…

patatas bravas

tradicional fried potatos with alioli & spicy red sauce

Ok, guilty, I didn’t have any of these. I’m sorry, I’m not a potato girl remember? The alioli on it was kind of a turn off too… mayo *shivers* [altho I do enjoy a good mayo based sauce with pommes frites]  Z ate the whole plate hahaha – this is his dish he has to get at every tapas place.. just like how the next dish, I always get at every tapas place:

pimientos

fried  shisito peppers

They were tasty!!! Wish they were more hot tho… great salty crunchy peppers, nom nom nom!!!

albondigas morunas

pork & veal meatballs in pork jus

They tasted like Chef Boyardeeeeeee – seriously. Like marshmallow fluffy meatballs…. a bit on the salty side, but totally soft and not much texture to it. I like a meatball that tastes meaty with chew but the flavors were there – just a bit too mushy…

pulpo a la gallega

octopus with olive oil & sweet spanish pimenton

OMG. WHY was there a BOOGER texture on the bottoms of them? I had one piece and was soo turned off – which was sad because the taste was good but texture wise is so wrong. The top parts tasted like regular chewy octopus but the bottom.. gag

tosta choricera

toasted bread, egg & chorizo

This may have been the best dish of the night.  A bit greasy from all the chorizo.. but the yolky egg was amazing. The toast was crisp but which there was more to it than just two pieces of toasted white wonder bread. This made my tummy hurt later from all the grease, but SO worth it!!!

arroz negro

black rice with white fish, shrimp clams and mussels in sofrito, green peas, piquillo peppers & alioli

Didn’t see fish in it but it did have some cute scallops that were pretty tender.  Sadly only the alioli made it.. and I hate mayo… the mussel I had tasted really bad and not fresh at all… and the rice was way undercooked :[ Sadness since we just had squid ink pasta the day before and thoroughly enjoyed squid ink.

I left feeling empty and unsatisfied.

Why are they getting such good reviews? Now I’m sad.. time to put up my squid ink pasta recipe :D