Tag Archives: tapas

Ithaca, NY: Just a Taste

9 Dec

This summer, I went with my two college roommates, Vicki and Kim, on a roadtrip to Ithaca, NY. We went back to Ithaca, where we went to school, to celebrate Vicki’s Bachelorette Party.  We had juggled a few ideas for where to go, but Ithaca won out because of the nostalgic factor and the fact that we all spent 4 years there but basically did so broke. So we were excited to go back to eat at some of the good restaurants and visit the wineries.

On our first night, we dropped in to Just a Taste and put our name on the list.  They said it would be about 45 minutes, so we took them literally and went to kill time by grabbing a cocktail at a nearby restaurant.  Twenty minutes later, our cocktails were just being delivered when they called us to say they were ready.  So we chugged the cocktails as quickly as we could and returned to find that they held the table for us.  Phew!

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Just a Taste had been on my radar for some time, and then I randomly read an article on the way up mentioning how they were a fantastic restaurant, so we were excited to try it.  We were presented with an extensive tapas menu and we went to town.

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And we did some wine flights to get our party started.

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We started with the warm brie with melon and crostini. Loved the blend of warm brie with the perfectly ripe melon, and the crostini was a nice added crisp.

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Squash blossom hush puppies with maple butter and zucchini-herb salad. Great dish and unlike anything I have had before.

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We asked our waiter what dish we should definitely get, and much to our surprise, he recommended the garlic braised greens with walnuts, stilton blue cheese, and sherry vinegar.  Sure enough, it was incredibly delicious and we never would have ordered it from the menu description.  It didn’t sound all that exciting, but all the flavors were just perfect together.

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We also tried the deep fried salt cod fritters with garlic aioli and mixed greens.

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These were perfectly crispy on the outside and the salt cod was really perfectly flavored on the inside. Not at all greasy and very enjoyable.

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Basque style lamb (local) braised with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and paprika on toasted orzo.  I couldn’t try this due to my allergy, and my sweet friends very kindly told me it was awful (HINT: they LIED!) to make me feel like I wasn’t missing out.

 

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We also go the summer squash sautéed in brown butter with garlic, pecans, and romano cheese.  I really enjoyed this dish. The squash was cooked perfectly and the flavors were great together.

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And we also got a plate of the charcuterie.

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This came with duck liver mousse, smoked duck breast, shaved ham and pate maison (pistachios) with crostini, wholegrain mustard and pickled garlic scapes.  We loved everything on this plate and all had trouble deciding our favorite bite amongst the selection.

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Our meal was absolutely fantastic from start to finish.  We loved all the dishes and there wasn’t a dud to be had.  This rivaled some of the best tapas I’ve had in New York City and there it was, in upstate, New York. But even the cheap food was good in Ithaca when we were there, so really it was no surprise.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping in to Just a Taste.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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Philly Noms- Amada (AKA the most disappointing Celebrity Chef restaurant EVER)

15 Apr

Philly was so packed with restaurants we wanted to try that we actually found no time to get some famous Philly Cheesesteaks.  We aren’t cheesesteak fans, however, there is always next time.  Though after our meal at Amada, I think a gross greasy cheesesteak would have been a MUCH better idea (and for an arm and a leg cheaper).

We had VERY high hopes for Amada.  It is a Jose Garces restaurant and were told it was his best.  And Jose Garces was picked as the Next Iron Chef, so how could this not be awesome?

Well… we’ll start with some things that WERE awesome… like the meat hanging from the side of the bar.

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And what was listed on the HUGE menu…

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And especially the SANGRIA!  (The best I have ever had)

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The awesome pretty much ended there. 

On the menu, we were having trouble deciding so we decided to splurge for the tasting to make sure we got a good sampling of all that Amada had to offer.  We inquired as to the three different prices listed on the Chef’s Selection Menu (see below) and were informed that the price would determine the quality of the ingredients.  So there would be more higher end things at the $65 level with more meats.  Each would have 9-11 dishes over 3 courses.  We decided to take the middle-road and went with the $55 tasting… and since it was our final meal of this little trip, we went for the wine pairing ($20 was a 3 ounce pour and $35 was the 5 ounce, but each had only 3 glasses total, 1 per course).

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We mentioned at the get-go that we LOVE artichokes (hoping for at least a few of the awesome sounding artichoke dishes from the menu) and, of course, that I was allergic to peppers.  We even had a long discussion over what type of peppers, which we informed her includes paprika.  I THOUGHT we were in good hands.

The bread that came out was crispy and garlicky, with a tuna, olives, and capers dip (compliments of the chef).  This was okay.

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Next up came aged manchego cheese with truffle lavender honey.  The cheese was very good, though the honey was more lavender than truffle.  Still enjoyable though.

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And the presentation was awesome (this was true throughout the meal actually).

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Next, we were served a few things all at the same time (even before we finished the cheese).  First was the sorano ham and fig salad, which came wrapped in the thinly sliced ham and it all went very well with the fig and blue cheese inside.  This was one of our favorite dishes of the night, though we both noted that the best things were the items that were basically assembled and not really cooked.

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Cured meats came out next.  I asked the busser who put this on the table if the meats were spicy at all and his answer of “OH YEAH!” was scary.  I finally got a hold of the waitress who informed me that I couldn’t eat a row of meat (Damn! Glad we asked).  She hardly apologized.

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While most of the above dishes were still on the table, the next course came out.  Now I understand that they wanted to serve things in courses, however, the table was nowhere near big enough for the food and we found most of it got cold before we got to it because it was just so much.  It also made us feel VERY rushed (we did, in fact, finish this entire tasting in just over an hour).

First, we had the flat bread with short ribs.  It was VERY short on flavor and we both laughed over the fact that the short ribs were nowhere near as good as the ones from Chef Bill at Albert Hall Tavern.

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We were also given caramelized melon with ham.  This was good but, again, more assembled than cooked. 

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We were then served garlic shrimp which was… garlicky.  So garlicky that you hardly tasted the shrimp.  And super oily.  This reminded me of a bad diner meal.

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Next we were served… more grilled shrimp… with more garlic olive oil.  (MEH?) This was good but way too salty, and Mike and I are some of the biggest over-salters we know.  Bleh.  (At this point I started getting ornery).

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The next course was garbanzo beans with spinach… and peppers.  Lots of peppers.  WTF.   Mike tried it and mentioned that it tasted awful and the beans weren’t cooked.  We sent this back.  (For me to send something back at a restaurant is HUGE.  I think I have done it twice in my entire life).

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FINALLY an artichoke came out.  It was the parmesan artichokes… but it was 1 small artichoke… split in half.  It was literally 2 bites a piece.  Why so skimpy?  I understand if you skimp on things like lobster… but artichokes and cheese? GIVE ME A BREAK.

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Next up we had NY Strip Steak which came with currants and spinach.  The combination of spinach, the cheese, the sweet sauce, and the currants on the steak was really great and at least a bit special.  But I don’t know if this one well cooked plate could come anywhere close to making up for the atrocity of a meal we had.

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Then we got our last dish which was… fava bean and lima bean salad?  What a weird ending!  And totally bland.  I think this may have been what was replacing the chick pea pepper catastrophe, however, to end on this was just icing on the awful cake.

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The tasting didn’t come with any dessert, and after the terrible meal we decided to wade our way through the rain storm to go somewhere, ANYWHERE, else. But it ended with this interesting almond thing.  It was a lot like a fortune cookie.  Pretty good actually.

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Oh! And we got a wine pairing didn’t we?  Ugh.  All 3 wines tasted like they came out of the bottom of a house wine bucket.  Nothing even remotely good or noteworthy.

It felt like there were a lot of great ingredients that were mostly executed terribly. Whomever selected this tasting really didn’t put much thought into it.  To follow up garlic and oil shrimp with garlic and oil shrimp made that obvious.  And very few dishes were executed well.   I was beyond disappointed by this meal. I was actually quite horrified.

And to make matters worse… both Mike and I got food poisoning on the way home… on a train.

Curse you Jose Garces. CUUUURRRSSSSSSEEEEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUU.

Total Nom Points: 3 out of 10

 

Small Plates from Txikito

3 May

On the theme of restaurants opening in my neighborhood, just two doors down from Co (see last entry), is a new restaurant called Txikito (pronounced Chic-Kee-Toe) serving small, tapas style plates, from the Basque region of Spain.

We started with a glass of wine from the region (for me) and a glass of hard cider (for Mike).  Both were effervescent, different, and delicious.

The restaurant itself had an interesting look, with boarded walls and ceiling.  The aesthetic with very nice with the exception of what we thought to be a very out-of-place, bright blue wall in the back.  For such a rustic looking setting, it just begged the question of “why?”

We labored over ordering (and avoiding the peppers allergy) and eventually decided on the following (apologies for the picture quality as my camera battery charger is still MIA so I used my iPhone):

–          TUTERA: gratin of artichoke, Roncal, jamón

–          LEKAK: tender green beans, golden garlic, olive oil

–          BAKAILOA: house cured salt cod w/ crispy headcheese

–          TXIPIRON “ENCEBOLLADO”: squid ribbons a la plantxa
w/ sweet onion and pine nuts

–          CONCHINILLO: Suckling pig with a chimichurri sauce (that they put on the side so I could avoid the peppers)

Everything was fantastic.  The squid ribbons were the stand-out (with a pasta-like consistency), until the suckling pig came out.  I could not identify exactly what piece of the pig we were eating, but the crispy skin was unbelievable and the pork was as tender and flavorful as any I’d ever had.  It was a sizable portion too, compared to the other dishes (which were about 2-3 bites a piece).

Overall, the price wasn’t too bad for tapas (about $125 for all the dishes and 2 glasses of wine/cider each).  I am a person who really enjoys sampling many things when I go out, but I always feel a little unsatisfied by tapas as I really like to have a big, hearty meal.  If I am prepared to walk away a little hungry, but happy with my culinary adventure, I enjoy tapas a lot more.  I tried to prepare Mike for this, however, I got the distinct feeling that even though he enjoyed it, he wanted more.  So we got some Port from the Chelsea Market wine store and then stopped at Billy’s Bakery for some cupcakes and other sugary delights.  The feast in my apartment that evening was pretty epic, but all-in-all, I’m VERY happy we tried Txikito.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10