Quickie Lunch

Another busy day.  Luckily a coworker ordered lunch for me.  Of course Q2 Thai because we go there all the time.  The appetizer this time was the fried veggie dumplings.

Gross Gross and GROSS! If I could have spit it out, I would.  Took a little nibble and that was enough for me.

Nothing to report on the salad or entree, ordered same thing as last time.  It was just as delicious take out as it was when I ate it in the restaurant.

Foiled!

While I was really looking forward to dinner with Ms. S, I didn't hear from her so I accepted another invitation.  Alas, I fell ill and was unable to make it out for dinner.  After a few hours of nursing my illness, I made it to Mr. G's place.  He had ordered from La Caridad a local spot that we sometimes go to.  This is what fish with mixed vegetables looks like.

I added some yellow rice and called it a night.  It's pretty tasty and the spicier it is the better.  I'm usually reluctant to eat it because the fish is breaded, but I must admit it's fairly light breading considering what they could do it.  I hope I'm up for some good eats tomorrow.

Neighborly Noshing

I suppose the title is a little misleading.  While she lives in the neighborhood, Ms. J is not technically my neighbor and brunch is not really noshing but it's my blog and I'll write what I want to!  Athough I had lots of work to do today, I decided to take a quick break and brunch with Ms. J.  We wanted to stay in the neighborhood so I could hurry back to work.  Ms. J had previously dined here, but it was my first time.  It appears they just reopened after some extensive renovations.  While I have walked by Settepani before, it was my first time actually eating inside.  The decor was modern in a muted non exciting kind of way.  I liked the curved countertop and the light colored wall but according to Ms. J it lacked the flavor that it used to have.  She recalled the gelato, dessert spread and teas.  None of that was visible.

As a first time visitor, I didn't feel I was missing much.  The menu was okay.  I found at least 3 things on there that I would eat so that's a good look.  I ordered the french toast and Ms. J ordered the salmon scrambled eggs which as accompanied with a side salad.

French toast was great although I had to scoop off the whipped cream.  It was nice and fluffy not to sweet and a hint of cinnamon.  The syrup was served in a small bowl.  Hopefully they don't reuse the syrup!

Ms. J was satisfied with the taste of the salmon but disappointed with the portion. Although I did photograph them after she'd taken a small bite.  She ordered a side of potatoes which she commented were quite good and well seasoned.  I'm not sure why they put the potatoes on such a big plate.

A decent meal and just what I needed to get me ready for a full day of work.  I'm supposed to go to dinner with Ms. S later but have yet to hear from her.  Perhaps we'll reschedule.

Maiden Lane, part deux

We made the hike downtown to hang out with Ms. O and her Mr. M.  While I always expect to be wowed when I visit Ms. O, this last visit left me thinking she'd outdone herself.  We arrived just as Ms. O was plating some of our appetizers.  Yup I said some, because we had FOUR appetizers.  We ate our appetizers on the roof deck.  Unfortunately, it was getting late and I didn't take the pictures indoors so although we had blue chips and salsa, bruschetta, and thai sweet chili wings and buffalo wings, I only have pictures of the wings.

They were delish! We finished every last wing.  The wings were marinated, baked then broiled and finally sauced before they were plated.  All that work definitely paid off because it was very tender and well seasoned.

Yum indeed! This first course was accompanied by sangrita and of course we indulged in the fruit at the bottom of the pitcher.  Once we finished our appetizers, we went inside to chat it up, watch the Cavs and Celtics and get ready for our entree.  Although we were stuffed from the appetizers, we had room for some starburst while we waited for dinner.

Right as I started to get hungry, Ms. O announced that dinner was ready.  Farfalle with vodka sauce, shrimp and arugula salad.

The shrimp was just the right amount of spicy to complement the vodka sauce. Of course the sauce was made from scratch.  The dressing on the arugula salad was so good, I ate my salad in record time.

Look at that shrimp?! We retired to the couch to allow our food to digest.  Although I was filled to the brim, I could not resist eating dessert.  

Yup that's right. Heart shaped pumpkin loaf...because she loves me :-D  We also had some fruit to balance the sweets.

All in all an amazing culinary experience.  My only regret is I was so full that I started falling asleep towards the end of the night!  Oh and I must invest in a camera with some flash.  My fastphone is just so convenient that I use it to take pictures.  Anyone know of any good apps for the flash problem?

Worst Sushi EVER!

Mr. G and I have a great night ahead since we're planning to dine at Ms. O's.  We're not heading there for a few hours so we thought a quick light snack would be perfect.  We went to a sushi restaurant on the UWS. If you can even call it that.

We should have known when we walked in that it wouldn't be a promising experience.  It was practically empty in there but we figured since it was an odd hour that might account for why there were only 2 tables occupied.  We asked about the special and got a less than stellar response when she told us it was written on the board outside.  We ordered the spicy red tuna special, spicy lobster roll and spicy king crab roll (notice a pattern?).

Looks suspicious right?  Yea I've never seen sushi that color either.  But at least it's color coded.  Green is the lobster. Pink is the tuna.  Crab is the one that looks like a sushi roll should.  I thought starting with the lobster would be a good look because that's my favorite at another sushi place that we enjoy.  It was disgusting.  There was waaay too much rice and barely any lobster.  The lobster also didn't taste like anything!

Next up, tuna. I thought oh there's no way to mess tuna up I'm sure this is fine.  Again GROSS.  Also had too much rice and no distinct taste.

The only part that wasn't terrible.  The crab was good.  It also had too much rice and was cut too thin but at least it had flavor.  Overall a terrible experience.  It was so bad that we couldn't even finish it.

We did stop and get some ice cream to get the awful taste out of our mouth.