Drinks 'n tapas @ Romesco's revisited

My friends and I went here after Senior Awards night a few days ago...

We needed to unwind with the impending end of the school year...

Late night tapas at Romesco's

The work year is winding down...Senior Awards night was the night before.

Instead of going home, several of us went over to Romesco's for late (for us) night appetizers and drinks...

Pata Negra and lunch with TORC

A few days ago TC and I made a trip up to PB...

I really only needed one ingredient...

Apertivo

[Update - Closed as mid 2012]

A few weeks ago, I met up again (thrice) with KD, D and TORC. After my birthday party at my house, plus dinner at Alchemy, we all met up with TORC's sister to plan an upcoming special event...

I scoped out some places we hadn't been to before - choosing the new location of Apertivo (the old one was on 30th and University), which used to house Dao Son. This is right next to Pomegranate/Petrushka (Russian and Georgian cuisine) and Flavors of East Africa. Plus, I noticed online that they had a "happy hour" menu, so score!

It's pretty wide and spacious in here...I liked the color scheme and checkered floors.

It was only 4:45'ish so hardly anyone was there yet...

Check out their menu online here:

We chatted a bit with the owner. Nice guy. Very accomodating.

We were given complimentary breadsticks as we looked over the menu...

This was TORC's spinach salad...

This was mine - the regular garden salad. I asked for no horrid salad dressing but noticed he put it on the side, not knowing I wasn't going to touch it.

This was KD's salad - Aurugula with Gorgonzola cheese, sweet onions, and candied pecans.

We all shared the fried calamari...no one seemed to want the tentacles, so I ate it! Fried seafood = good!

KD got Broccoli with Mizithra cheese. When we saw Mizithra cheese on the menu, we got excited in a Spaghetti Factory kind of way.

TORC's sis got the Angelhair pasta with Mizithra cheese...

while TORC got the Pesto pasta which tasted nice and fresh. I don't remember if she ordered it with meat or not. Maybe it was covered.

D got the Spaghetti Bolognese which was nice and meaty!

In addition to my salad, I got one turkey meatball...

Yes, just one - it was a big meatball. Here's a cross section. Loved it! I should have ordered another!

I also got a side of roasted vegetables which I couldn't finish. The guy was supposed to box it up but I don't think he ever gave me (or TORC) back our boxed food. I don't remember taking it home.

View from our window. You can see the McD's on the corner of El Cajon Blvd and Texas St. That's the same McD's where I got my first McRib last year.

All in all, we liked the happy hour price points. Very affordable. Their regular prices pasta dishes were reasonable as well (even though I did not get one). I will have to try that Mizithra cheese pasta next time. The food quality was also good. Hey, it doesn't take much to make me happy. Everything was fresh and flavorful. My only gripe was the heavyhandedness with the whipped cream for the desserts...

For dessert, we ordered two. The first was the Bread Pudding (of course, D wanted to try this) with port sauce. When the guy brought it to our table, the first thing I saw was the damn whipped cream. I was instantly reminded of the shittiness of the desserts at Cheesecake Factory. You know, they pile whipped cream on everything there. You can't even tell what's underneath this thing. I don't like bread pudding and the port sauce was kind of strong.

The second dessert was also hidden under a load of whipped cream. This was the House Special, which was a brownie topped with ice cream and whipped cream and chocolate sauce. We liked this better than the bread pudding. It was a fun get together for us gals. The last time I saw TORC's sister was November 2009 when we all watched "The Twilight Saga - New Moon" and had lunch at Bali Thai. She's funny as fk! Like me and TORC, she has cusses like a sailor! She cracks me up too! Plus she has similar taste in music.

We were talking about the upcoming Lita Ford concert in May at 4th and B (or is it House of Blues?). She said that "Kiss Me Deadly" video had the lamest lyrics ever so we "sang" the first few lines:

"I went to the party last Saturday night
I couldn't get laid,
I got in a fight
Uh huh
It ain't no big thing!"

Lyrical genius, that Lita Ford.

Uninentionally funny lyrics or not, that chick can play the guitar! She was one of the original Runaways. And as you can see in the video below, she can also "hump" her guitar! Ha ha! Cheesy 80's videos rule!!! I didn't really like this song because it had "keyboards" in it. It didn't rock hard enough for me, but I respected her musical skillz. Loved the shape of her red guitar too - it was the BC Rich Warlock model (a classic guitar favored back in the 80's, also seen as Nikki Sixx's bass).

As we were driving home, we noticed this Spanish Revival building as we approached the corner of El Cajon and the 805 south exit. Turns out that this is a historic building, the SDG and E Substation...

Looks like it should be in Balboa Park doesn't it?

Up next, another Epic Food Crawl! This time with Bert!

Costa Brava & Sage French Bakery

Okay, dipping my feet back into the world of foodblogging.

These photos were actually taken in late March, soon after my diagnosis. My three supernice and supercool educator girlfriends took me out to an early birthday lunch at Costa Brava in PB. We'd been there before and were hungering again for their tapas. Pictured below is their sangria:
Warm bread with garlic alioli...which is SO GOOD
with Manchego Cheese!
Below is the Tortilla Espanola, an egg omelet with onions, potatoes and peppers. A bit on the mild side but a great tapa nonetheless.
These were bacalao fritters, which are salt cod fish balls. Niiice sounding, but they taste really delicious! I wished the tapa came with more than 4. I could have eaten all of these.
Here are the Patatas Bravas, which are fried potato chunks with a spicy alioli sauce. One of my Spaniard co-workers told me the secret (well, at least HIS secret to his recipe) was Tabasco sauce. Sounds really Spanish to me. In any case. the coating wasn't really spicy even though we were warned by our waiter.
Since there were 4 of us, we had 2 orders of the paella (which I assumed they put all in this paellera). The paella had an abundance of shellfish (mussels and clams), and squid, as well as chicken. It also wasn't as salty as the last time we were here, so that was a good thing!
The things about shrimp in the shell is that you have to touch it and peel it. I hate getting my fingers dirty, so someone else ate the shrimp that day.
After our rather heavy lunch, we wanted dessert because the flan at Costa Brava didn't cut it for us. No, we needed chocolate or something else! That something else was found at Sage French Bakery on Convoy which is in that crazy-small parking lot in which you can find Nijiya Japanese Market and Sunrise Buffet. We were lucky to find a spot actually. The place was packed when we got in but we were able to find an empty table (the last one). I forgot the name of this cake, but I believe it was some sort of chocolate mousse with hazelnut. That is a slab of marbled white chocolate on top.
Also, when I took these photos, I didn't think about removing the plastic encircling these morsels of delight. So, they look kind of sterile all wrapped up. The one in the back is called 'Mistral Cake' (don't ask me why, that's all I remember). The one in front, sorry, don't recall.Here's a better shot of the "Mistral Cake", decorated with a flower petal and gold leaf. There were layers of white chocolate, raspberry and I want to say passion fruit, but again, this was so long ago, I don't remember. The cake in the middle had chocolate mousse and green tea as the flavorings. The one in the back, again, was chocolate mousse and hazelnut cake.

New Year's Eve & Almeijoas

For the first time, we didn't spend New Year's Eve with our regular group of friends. No one had party plans this year. Our great neighbors across the street invited us over for the Portuguese version of tapas and light snacks before ushering in the New Year. Our neighbors bought their home in our neighborhood a few months before we moved in. We are both original homeowners and this year marks the 10th year of this neighborhood. They are a very fascinating couple with two beautiful girls. The wife is Mexican American, raised in Chula Vista and her husband is Portuguese, but born and raised in Angola (in Africa). They met in Armenia (through their respective jobs) and courted each other in Angola and other parts of Africa. They all speak three languages. They are not only good neighbors, but people we are glad to be friends with. We can trust them with our daughter and vice versa and we watch out for each other, like all good neighbors should do. Unfortunately, not everyone on our street is as nice as them, but that's another post or rant for the future. My friend bought some of her tapas appetizers at Fresh & Easy such as the sliced Spanish chorizo, the pimiento stuffed manzanilla olives (oops, not pictured) and sliced of Serrano Jamon.
There were also American buffalo wings, sliced provolone cheese and also an Armenian braided cheese (Fresh & Easy) which was cut up in smaller pieces here, smoked salmon with capers, and a small plate of crackers. This is the Rosca de Reyes cake which is eaten traditionally during the holidays by Latinos. In Spanish, it is called Rosca de Reyes, but according to my neighbor's husband, they call it Bola de Rey in Portuguese. Normally the baby Jesus is baked inside the cake, but this one was outside. If you get the piece with JC, then you are supposed to host the next party. The colored strips you see on top of the pastry are dried fruit strips (guava and I forget the other flavors). The bread is kind of like Brioche. We've never had it before and we actually didn't eat it that night. Bert enjoyed it a few days later with his coffee.

Now this was a dish I really enjoyed. She made a Portuguese shellfish dish called "Almeijoas". These are supposed to be made with a certain kind of clam, but since they're not found here in the U.S., she used Manila clams instead. First you heat extra virgin olive oil in a pan with garlic slices.

Once the oil and garlic are a bit browned, add the clams and cover until they open.

Before serving, squeeze lemon juice on top and sprinkle chopped Italian flat leaf parsley. Serve with bread to mop up the sauce!

I've also seen version of this recipe where you can add white wine to the dish while the clams steam. In this version, it's just clams simmered in oil. I'm sure it's good both ways! We had white wine with this (as a beverage) and later on, a small shot of Porto.

While the adults were yakking away (yes, that's us), enjoying the food and all, the girls were at times, playing the Wii or ensconced in one of the bedrooms making a "tent" with chairs and blankets and playing Explorer. We watched on TV as the crystal ball dropped in Times Square, wearing silly hats and waving noisemakers. The girls had a blast. TC is normally never up this late and we all crashed when we got home. Luckily it was a short walk and we weren't drunk or anything. Here's to 2008 and hope that this year was better than the last! I resolve to try a new recipe at least once a week! Either that or a new ingredient. Let's see if I can do it.

Double Booked - Lunch & Dinner

Actually, I wasn't really double booked (but it felt like it but on a really tight schedule. I was hosting a lunch with 2/3 of my lunch/diner friends at 12 noon. I had to tell them to come 30 minutes later. Later that day, I was also to host dinner with our friends from NY, along with with Thane (yay!), Tatonka and another friend. The lunch theme was Spanish Tapas. My ,friends were unknowingly guineau pigs to my foray into Spanish appetizers. Here's that Membrillo that I bought at Fresh and Easy last week. I served it with grapes, crackers and brie cheese. Yeah, I know that Brie isn't Spanish, but I thought I'd include it anyways.

The bottom tier had thinly sliced chorizo from Spain. Also procured at Fresh and Easy. Who would have thunk! Those slices were really tasty - very salty and with a bit of a kick.One of my experiments, taken from a Tapas cookbook I bought one month ago. This was Chickpeas with chorizo. Instead of an actual sausage that I should have sliced more thickly, I used the pre-sliced sausage that you see in the photo above. I'll be posting the tapas recipes I used in my other blog, J'ai Faim.

Imported Jamon Serrano , bought from Fresh and Easy. There were only 6 slices in the package. This stuff was a bit pricey at roughly $6 a package - about $1.00 a slice. As a back up, I also bought Italian prosciutto (but that was for dinner).

Manchego cheese slices. I tried to imitate the way Costa Brava layered their Manchego cheese. This was relatively painless. Just slice the cheese and arrange. No cooking required. Same with the sliced meats.

Another first attempt - Spanish tortilla. I used my largest frying pan and Bert had to help me invert it onto a cookie sheet because it was too large to go on a plate or even a platter. I sliced it a big raggedly. Looks a bit browned on the top, but it tasted okay. Man, Spanish food is pretty damn oily. I used so much oil that day and some of it splattered on one of my favorite green shirts. The oil spots didn't come out in the wash either.

Early stage of Sauteed Mushrooms with Garlic. I used white button and brown crimini. The end product will be seen by the end of this blog. Most of the stuff seen for lunch would be repeated for dinner with the other set of friends.

Another first attempt which came out all right. This is Sauteed Chicken Thighs (with skin on) in White wine with sliced garlic.

Patatas con alioli. Okay, I cheated. I didn't fry these potatoes. These are white potatoes with the skin on that I roasted. The alioli was actually reduced fat mayo with garlic that I smashed with my mortar and pestle along with sea salt. My new favorite standby, Gambas al Ajillo.

So that was the gamut of my attempts at Spanish cuisine. Not pictured were the baguette slices that we used to eat the Manchego slices along with Serrano ham and the garlic mayo. Along with the usual dessert suspects: the Filipino stuff I had on an earlier post and my lemon cheesecake bars, I bought these dark chocolate molten lava cakes (from F & E) which were a big hit with my lunch guests.

Time lapse....Five hours later, I entertained another set of friends, N & L from NYC, Tatonka, Thane and another friend I'll call P. It was a race for time to clean up and get ready for dinner. I had chicken adobo that I made the other night which I put in my crock pot to warm. Here's a platter of Serrano Ham and another type of cured ham, artfully arranged by my husband.

See this? I also had this out for lunch, but this was a fresh set of tidbits - stuffed olives, marinated piquillo peppers and the sauteed mushrooms. This time, the mushrooms are prettified with my new friend, Italian flat leaf parsley.

A newcomer entree (not seen during today's lunch) was a baked salmon recipe that I learned from my sister in law (Bert's oldest bro's wife). This dish is so damn easy. Just get a fillet of salmon, put it on top of a thin layer of olive oil. Spread mayo (yeah, sounds gross, but it tastes good!) on top of onion soup mix. I happened to use Knorr because I couldn't find my Lipton packets. Nice fatty and salty and oily goodness. Trust me, it does taste good!

Here's my steamy chicken adobo with sliced potatoes. Adobo tastes so much better the next day. You can use any parts of the chicken that you wish so I chose my favorite, the wings and drummettes. To make it interesting, I added slices of ginger when I browned the chicken. I also added several frozen cubes of kalamansi and used less white vinegar.

I'll post the pics later, but N brought over a gift bag of assorted chocolates and goodies from Jacques Torres . It was great seeing our friends again. We hadn't seen them since our summer visit and also since our 20year high school reunion. They were kind enough to play Connect Four, Sorry and Monopoly with TC. Our friends also ended up playing Mah Jong (using Mr. Saliva's un-numbered set) into the late night hours. It was fun catching up with P and chatting with Tatonka about his upcoming trip to the Philippines. Since we didn't have a huge holiday dinner party like we normally do, this was the closest we came to it this year.