New York City~Social Eatz

Are any of you fans of Top Chef? "Social Eats" is a new restaurant that Angelo Sosa from Season 7 of Top Chef.  Mike and I did not religiously watch the show (remember we don't have cable tv), but from what we saw, we thought that Angelo should have won that season. Of course we had no way to judge his food; we just based it on the judges' review of his food. 

Bulgogi Burger

Mike thought that the meat would have been sliced versus ground.  His burger was not anything special.  I took one bite and then happily enjoyed my burger. 

I ordered the Bi Bim Bap burger, which won the "Greatest Burger in America." I'm not sure who gave out this award, but this burger was flavorful....almost too flavorful.  Imagine a patty of beef topped with kochujang pickled shredded vegetables, a sunny side up egg and shredded lettuce.  With all the fusion dishes out now (i.e. korean tacos, irish nachos), you would think someone would have come up with a burger like this sooner.

It was a messy burger with all the pickled vegetables and egg yolk oozing out of it, but I didn't care.  It was so good! The next time I make burgers at home, I'll probably try to replicate it.

We also shared a side of crispy fires. They were okay. They were served with some concoction of mayonnaise or cheese. We added some sriracha sauce to it and it was tasty. You could skip the fries and just order the burger.

Social Eatz
232 East 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022
(212) 207-3339

Where did we go?

Mike and I just (when I say "just" I mean 3 weeks ago, pre-puppy) took a spontaneous trip using American Airlines miles. We used over 100,000 miles for our round trip tickets and hotel stay for three nights. 
Here's some pictures from our trip.  Any guesses on where we were?

Texas Restaurants~Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Round 2

After last year's Restaurant Week, Mike and I concluded that one of our favorite restaurants in Texas was Tim Love's Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth Texas. A bunch of our friends decided to go there this year, so we quickly jumped on the bandwagon and joined in for dinner. I describe this restaurant with, "I rarely eat meat, but I love the steak at Lonesome Dove!"

Texas Yellow Squash Soup, Gruyère Cheese, Crème Fraîche

Grilled Corn, Cucumber, Heirloom Tomato Salad, Red Wine Vinaigrette

Watermelon Granita-Palate cleansers must be the trendy. I had a palate cleanser at both Lonesome Dove and Abacus. 

Roasted Garlic Stuffed Beef Tenderloin, Western Plaid Hash, Syrah Demi-Glace.

All five of us ordered the same entree, so there is only one picture of a steak. We were at a steakhouse so no one opted for the pork chop or fish. This was the main feature of the night.  I thought my medium tenderloin just melted. Mike said that my piece was better than his.  One of the other boys was satisfied with his meal, but would have liked it if the meat was 33% bigger. 

Ricotta Cheese Cake with Balsamic Glazed Strawberries and Tuile

This year's menu was almost identical to last year's Restaurant Week menu. The main difference that Mike and I noted was that the dessert switched from a butterscotch pudding to a ricotta cheesecake. The cheesecake was not a fan favorite. It had a gritty texture and the first and last time I made ricotta cheesecake, mine was much more smooth than this one.  I don't understand why Lonesome Dove switched from a pudding to a cheesecake. My initial analysis is that a cheesecake is more expensive and time consuming, and takes up more refrigeration space than last year's delicious butterscotch pudding. 

Balsamic Glazed Strawberries sans cheesecake for Kendell



All in all, we had a great time and really enjoyed the meal. While a few of us were waiting for the rest of the party to arrive, we sat at the bar, enjoyed some elk sliders (yum!) and drinks, and met and took pictures with Tim Love! How great is that? 

Boston Restaurants~Toro

For those of you who did not know, I spent about 1.5 months in a city south of Boston earlier this year. Sometimes some co-workers and I were scheduled for the 1st shift and drove up to Boston to enjoy the great food in the city. 

According to the Boston Magazine, Toro is rated in the Top 50 restaurants in Boston.  It was also voted as the reader's favorite for tapas in the Boston Phoenix. A couple co-workers and I tried to eat here earlier during our travels, but at 8pm we were told there was a 1.5 hour wait for three people (Toro does not take reservations).  Armed with this information, a couple of weeks later, a few of us arrived a couple of minutes after the restaurant opened.

Escalivada Catalana-Smoked eggplant, onion, peppers, and tomatoes with sherry vinegar and olive oil

Gambas al Akilo-Griddled garlic shrimp

Costila de Bourguigon-Braised beef short ribs with bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions

I was looking at the menu online and I do not remember what drink I ordered. All I know is that it contained gin and grapefruit juice. The drink that did me in. I had to give my drink to a friend to finish because less than a third of the way through, I felt kind of funny. 

Lamb Sausage-One of the specials for the day

Valenciana Paella-Shrimp, mussels, clams, chorizo, chicken, and Calasparra rice.

This was one of our least favorite dishes.  The texture of the rice was a little undercooked, but when I told Mike this he said that he read that traditional paella contains undercooked rice. 

Calamar-Marinated grilled squid with fresh chickpeas, preserved bergamot, wild greens, and mint

Another tapas containing lamb.  (how descriptive!)

Corn-By far, the favorite tapas of the evening. This was the only dish that we ordered seconds of! Look at all that mayonnaise and cheese!

Toro
1704 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 536-4300

Dallas Restaurants~Abacus

It's that time of the year again. th KRLD Restaurant Week! This past Tuesday my book club friends and I visited Kent Rathbun's Abacus restaurant. Kent Rathbun was one of the few chefs that actually won against the Iron Chef's on the TV Food Network. I would classify Abacus as a fine dining restaurant with an Asian flair. 

We started the dinner off with lobster shooters. EVERYONE talks about the lobster shooters. If you check out the yelp.com reviews, people rave about these deep-fried lobster won-tons in a coconut curry sauce. The presentation is cute and served using a sake set and the sauce is poured over the won-tons.

There were five of us there. Guess who had the extra shooter? Me! I guess I should not open my mouth and say that someone had to eat it before the wonton got really soggy.

Cumin crusted scallop sope, chipotle creama, and charred sweet corn relish

Soy marinated duck spring rolls, napa cabbage slaw, spicy peanut sauce, apricot syrup

Crispy Maryland softshell crab, meyer lemon aoili,living watercress, smoked tomato vinaigrette. This is what I ordered and it was delicious!

Intermezzo: Cucumber-Lime Spritzer

Pecan crusted pork chop, blue cheese polenta, fuji apple-golden raisin slaw, shiner bock bbq glaze. This picture does not do the pork chop justice. This piece of meat was dinosaur huge!

Blackened Trout, smoked tomato-jack cheese grits, crawfish-nantua butter. I debated between ordering the trout (who eats trout if you're from Hawaii?) and the salmon. The waiter recommended the trout and it was tasty.  I loved the crunchy grits and liked the cajun-asian flavors.   

Hickory grilled Kobe hanger steak, smoked marble potatoes, grilled leeks, applewood bacon-roasted garlic vinaigrette

 

Applewood Smoked Bacon "Shells and Cheese" Meh, this dish was mediocre. I had one bite and was overpowered by the strong massive amount of cheese.

Mixed berry buttermilk pie, Banana chocolate mousse cake with bananas foster sauce, Peach almond shortcake with orange liquor whip.  I was a bit underwhelmed by the desserts here. I felt that the appetizers and main dishes outshone the desserts.  

 Tonight we are off to Lonesome Dove with another bunch of friends.  Mike and I enjoyed Lonesome Dove last year so much that we chose to go back again this year!

Abacus

4511 McKinney Ave,

Dallas, TX 75205
214-559-3111

Boston Travels~Lobster

I just finished reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin and I realized that I do like blogging.  Sometimes, however, it feels like a chore to blog when I become backed up with old pictures and posts that the task seems quite daunting. I always seem to come with some excuse or another why theses posts are not as frequent as I would like (i.e. I've been traveling for 3 months straight, my puppy chewed my laptop power cable and I have to wait for my new cable to come in, I need to cook dinner or clean the house).  So....I have made it one of my small goals to post at least once a week. That way I can catch up on all the food pictures from Boston, Michigan, Las Vegas, and Texas. Wish me luck!

***This is a post I started a couple of months ago and forgot to post***
After reading all these posts about the food we were consuming in Boston, one would think that all we did was have lavish meals between our multiple naps each day. The work travel at times were brutal and all the team members worked their tails off.  I'm just highlighting the few times we splurged and had notable great dinners.
At the end of one of the big milestones for our project, we were invited over to a colleague's house near the water.  We arrived at his house to the sight of this bowl of lobsters!

The night started off with this HUGE bowl of lobsters.  I think 2-3 lobsters were budgeted for each person, so I bet there were at least fifty lobsters in this bowl!

Too bad Mike wasn't there to see it. He loves lobsters!

The bowl of lobsters at the end of the night.

Fresh Clams.

Hummus Dips

Appetizers

It was a great night full of food, fun, and good company. 

Introducing Ranger Morkie!

Hi Everyone! My name is Ranger Morkie and I am Mike and Lauren's new puppy! I'm a yorkshire terrier and I am almost 5 months old.  Here's some pictures of me so you can see how cute I am.  I'm only 6 lbs, but I only look big because I'm fluffy.  I love people and I love when my tummy is rubbed.

I also love to pee!  I'm pretty sneaky about it too. It only took me 2 minutes to have my first accident in the house (#1 and 2!!!).  I spend my time trying to keep my mommy and daddy on their toes because I love them so much!

So, as you can tell from the pictures.....we got a puppy! We've only had him for a couple of days, but he's quite a handful.  He's really smart, but also really rascal.  Every so often, we'll blog about our new puppy!