Ramblas Tapas Brunch

Once again, we woke up super late. And I pretty much missed the festival goodbye brunch. But we still had to eat, so we headed out for brunch again. We thought about trying again for Boogaloos, but didn't want to trek all the way over there again, just to be disappointed. So we roamed a little bit closer and ended up at Ramblas, which is a tapas place. J had been here before for dinner and had liked it, so we thought why not? We were slightly concerned because we were the only people there. And it was about noon. We thought maybe this was a terrible idea. Luckily, after we showed up, more people started coming in. So perhaps this is a late brunch type of place.
J's Croque Senior - grilled jamon and manchego on country bread topped with two fried eggs with a spicy bechamel. It said it came with hash browns but when it showed up, it clearly came with fries. Quite misleading indeed.
So J actually mentioned this to the waiter, and he brought out some of this really cool potato hash for him. It came with an aioli that looks ok to the eye, but is secretly extremely spicy. It is apparently made with the potent ghost pepper, and damn, you can taste it! Despite the extreme spicyness, the aioli was beyond good.
I wasn't sure what I wanted so I asked the waiter for recommendations. One of his recommendations was what I picked, the Eggs Charles V - poached eggs on english muffin with some greens, jamón serrano, all piled on top of some potato hash, sitting in a pool of pimenton hollandaise. Whoa, was this recommendation on point. I love, love, loved this! Service was good. While we were apprehensive at first due to the dearth of customers in this place, we were both pleasantly surprised. Skip the lines at other over hyped spots and try the brunch here. It ain't pancakes or hash browns, but it's delicious and affordable!

Happy Birthday Bar Ferdinand

This weekend marked the 3rd birthday of our favorite tapas spot in northern liberties (are there any other ones?), Bar Ferdinand. To celebrate, they had discounted food, flamenco dancing, and free midnight paella. I was lucky enough to be invited to a special pre-party which sported some additional free food from neighboring restaurant El Camino Real, as well as free paella, way before midnight. We had some pork ribs from the real, which weren't bad, but weren't great either. I was absolutely starving, so I scarfed down a handful of these right quick, just to fill my belly. There were also some pulled pork things and guacamole. Holy guacamole! I know my first and last El Camino Real visit was highly disappointing, but for their guacamole, I would return. Swear to avocados. Excellent guacamole here folks. And the margaritas was delish too.

Absolutely the largest paella pan I've personally ever seen. And delicious too. What's better than free paella served up by surly tattooed hipsters?

The flamenco was spot on. This was the last show of the night, right before the freakin monsoon.

Once the monsoon started, we were literally trapped inside Bar Ferdinand. So what do you do? You grab some beers and just hang out. We hung out for a long time. The rain would not let up or stop. Eventually, when it was just lightly raining, we ran and escaped. Certainly, there would be worse places to be stuck during a thunderstorm.

Brunch At Bar Ferdinand

The last few times W has been in town, she's always wanted tapas, especially for brunch. We tried to go to Bar Ferdinand for brunch on a saturday once, and found out it was only open for brunch on sundays. So this sunday, we made sure to go. It wasn't busy, so we got a table outside. It was a perfect day for al fresco dining.

The cafe con leche. Like the ones J got in spain? Kinda sorta. They probably don't serve it with freakin splenda in spain.

The patatas brava... fried potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce and topped with aioli. The aioli was a bit too much, but the potatoes and the spicy sauce were great.

They have a brunch special where you get 4 tapas for $15. You get to choose from 3 different 4-tapas combos. In one of them is this egg based tapas - Huevo Escalfodo, which is poached eggs, chorizo, spinach, and toast, with a saffron hollandaise. Everybody dug this. It's slightly creepy looking though, don't you think?

The hot tapas that came in one of the combos was chorizo al vino. Behind the chorizo is the pan tosta which came with all the combos. This was just a very crunchy piece of toasted flat baguette. Nothing to write home about. A bit too crunchy if you ask me.

W and I both got the Huevo Verde Y Jamon, which was an egg crepe, filled with serrano ham, green beans, and mahon cheese, with a smoked paprika aioli. This was good, but both the ham and the cheese were salty. And with those together, it was too darn salty. I'm not a salt fan.

One of the croquettes... I totally forget which one.

I got the Granola Con Frutas Secas, of house made granola, dried fruit, nuts, low fat yogurt, drizzled with honey. Oh my word. This granola was unbelievable. Like seriously unbelievable. I've never had house made granola, but I can't ever go back to store bought! So. Damn. Good.
W got the churros. This chocolate sauce is thick and bitter. Super dark chocolate. Not for me. The service was ok. I swear we had a server and she must have just started. I asked if there were any brunch specials. And she said no. Then after a long pause she said except for the brunch special. Then she got us the brunch special menu. My brother asked what was on tap. And she said I do not know. Then she got him the draft menu. Really, it wouldn't hurt to actually know some of the stuff you're schlocking. It was still tasty and good though. I need to go back for dinner!

Apamate Brunch

On a glorious saturday morning, we needed some grub. It had already started being warm. O had just gotten home for a break from Iraq. We knew that places like Sabrina's and Morning Glory and Honey's and such would have hours-long waits. So we knew there'd be a place nearby that wouldn't be crowded at all - Cafe Apamate. Boy, were we right. We were the only people there for a bit until 2 more tables showed up.

I love the decor here, especially the brick red painted walls. There were carnations on each table. J and O did not believe they were real, but they were. There was a bit too much a/c action going on there though. They needed to turn it down a notch.

The tostas con pisto. It's a bunch of stewed veggies and a poached egg on top of bread. I had this the last time I was here. This is so damn good. I could eat a giant bowl of these veggies. It's hard to eat though. You can't actually lift it and eat it as an open faced sandwich. It's definitely a fork and knife dish.

O got the de carne hot sandwich. It had sliced rib eye with aoli. It's served on an awesome baguette... crusty, chewy, delicious. You get your choice of fries or salad. Damn, those fries look good.

I got a cold sandwich, the serrano ham and machego cheese. It's also served in the awesome baguette. It's a lot of bread, and not enough ham and cheese, but still delicious. I got salad, and it's a good salad, with strawberries, pine nuts, and a light zesty vinaigrette.

The service is good here, but the food takes hella long to come out. Which is annoying, especially because there's hardly ever any people there. I understand everything is made to order, but for real, it's a long long wait. Which sort of makes me realize why it's so empty here all the time. I can't really say all the time though as I've only been here twice for brunch. For all I know, it may be hopping for dinner. But from my experience, it's always been deserted here, and the food takes way too long to come out. I can see why some people wouldn't want to put up with the wait. It's a shame though, because the food is just so damn good. I just wish it would be prepared a bit faster. Oh, and brunch prices are incredibly affordable.

Oh, and I thought our server looked familiar. Then later on saturday night, I saw him at the mogwai show, standing about 3 feet away. Small world! I must have seen him at some other shows before...

How To Cook A Wolf

One of my favorite things about flying, and I know this sounds totally dorky, is reading the in-flight magazine. And since I fly US Airways 90% of the time, I've gotten to know it well. I look forward to the two different crosswords and the two sudokus. I also look forward to the one food column in there written by John Edge. So I'm reading it, and the January column coincidentally happens to be about How To Cook A Wolf, a restaurant in Seattle. He raved about it, so you know what? I went!

The place is fairly teeny tiny, it can't possibly sit more than 25-35 people. They don't take reservations either. Their menu is small. The place was packed when I went, but there was one little spot for me at the counter. Right by the door, of course. But since I didn't have any other options, I grabbed it! It's very moody, dark, yet warm. The counter is made of cork and the facade is natural stone. The ceiling is lined with pine. It's adorable.

I guess you would consider this place a tapas type restaurant. It's definitely a small plates and sharing place. And a wine bar. Tons of wine. Everybody seemed to be some type of sommelier who worked there. They were very into their wine. The crowd is also rather... older. And fancy. Everyone was dressed up and sophisticated looking. And then I walked in with my t-shirt and jeans, plus I wasn't 50-years old. Even though I know I wasn't actually the youngest person in there (since I'm deceptively young looking), I still looked like I was the youngest person there, by far. Like 30 years far. But they were still very nice to me. Onto the food! Since it was only me, I couldn't order tons of stuff and share it, so I went with one recommendation from the article, and one that I would have picked anyway. So the first dish was soft-boiled eggs with anchovy mayonnaise. Yes folks, hard boiled eggs. Sounds boring, right? You have no idea how amazing these eggs were! I mean the concept is so simple. Soft boiled eggs so the yolks are still a bit soft, cut them in half, squeeze a bit of anchovy flavored mayo on top of the eggs, and throw some little herbs on them while you're at it. Doesn't seem particularly exciting or enticing, but these were some of the best things I've ever tasted. Seriously.Ok, so then I ordered the scallops. They were seared and served with garbanzos, golden raisins, and hummus with a vinaigrette . Very simple yet perfectly prepared. It doesn't seem like I ate that much food, but I was definitely full. I wanted some dessert anyway, and the server recommended the homemade sorbet. No pic, as it was just three scoops of sorbet in a bowl. I was surprised it wasn't decorated at all with a mint leaf or something, but it was quite delicious. Just light enough that it didn't make me much more full than I was.

Just a few notes... I was sitting next to a raucous party and they were getting tons of food. Among them, the beet salad. They just kept going on and on about it, so as as note to yourself, try the beet salad. I kinda wished I'd had more capacity in my belly and had room for that. But I can only gorge so much. So if you're in the mood for an amazing and slightly sophisticated meal, stop here, get your name on the list, and eventually get to eat. You will wait! But it'll all be worth it.

Cafe Apamate

I remember hearing great things about Cafe Apamate. Passing by it the other week, I thought to myself, oh, that's where Cafe Apamate is! After a half-assed attempt at going to Sabrina's or Morning Glory, I knew that we could actually go to Apamate and get a table! It's a tapas place. The chef is venezuelan who grew up in Spain. And she's a woman. Whoo hoo! The place is freaking adorable. Red walls, dark woods, lovely photographs on the walls. I wish my house looked like that.
Cafe con leche. Don't ask me, I can't do caffeine. It's fun to look at.
The tortilla espanola, the traditional spanish omelet. It has potatoes, onions, and obviously eggs. It comes with a kick ass spicy aioli on the side. And a little side salad with strawberries and pine nuts. Everything - delicious.
The tostas con pisto, with stewed squash, eggplant, and tomatoes on toasted bread and topped with a poached egg. I don't eat nearly enough vegetables, but surprisingly, I do like eggplant and squash, and stuff like that. I really enjoyed everything about my meal, except the pine nuts. That's ok, I picked them out. And yes, of course I had to get the churros. Freshly fried! Whoo! With a chocolate sauce that was clearly not cheap milk chocolate. I made sure to clean this plate! Service was great, our waitress was super sweet and friendly. The food doesn't come out super fast, but that's ok, I was just enjoying the atmosphere there. It just feels comfortable. Plus, I was practicing balancing spoons on my nose. I'm good at it.

Small Plates at Distrito

Yeeha! W wanted tapas for dinner and I threw out Distrito as an idea. Then my brother balked saying he didn't want mexican food. I insisted anyway. And W agreed. I quickly made a reservation, just to be safe, and we headed out. It was super early (early bird special early) so a reservation probably wasn't necessary. The place is huge and gawdy, something fierce. Terribly bright and colorful, but I didn't mind. It was supposed to be overly stylized. I personally loved the wall of lucho libre masks.
So if you know Jose Garces restaurants at all, you know he's all about the small plates. This one is his mexican variety. We just got a crapload of stuff. Let's begin. Ceviches - camarones and hamachi. The shrimp one was good, so was the yellowtail one. However, the sangrita sorbet on the hamachi ceviche? Weird. It was spicy, it kinda creeped me out. I did not enjoy that sorbet.
Onto the ensalada: chilango chop. I think. Simple, yet good.
Los Tacos! My favorite part. From the top: camarones y chorizo, carne kobe, and pollo. Ok, I didn't taste the shrimp and chorizo ones, but W and Moms weren't too crazy about them. They liked em, but not as much as the others. The carne kobe, oh my word, freakin kobe steak, with truffles, mash, and little french fries, topped withi cilantro greens. Seriously folks, one of the best things I've eaten all year. I could eat these all day long. But you know what? I could totally eat the chicken ones every day too. The chicken tacos were also so amazing! Super flavorful chicken ropa vieja, with queso fresco, radish, and a big hunk of avocado.

Onto the Tradicionales: Esquites. So simple, yet so good. A glass with sweet corn, queso fresco, chipotle, and lime. Hard to imagine putting these things together, but once it's done, it was so surprisingly good.

Here's the craziest thing we ate from the Mar Y Tierra section: Tuetano! Yes folks, I tried bone marrow! It was served with bacon marmalade, chopped jalapenos, and chopped onions. It came with tiny corn tortillas, and you scoop out the bone marrow, put on some toppings, and make yourself a little bone marrow taco. So what's bone marrow like? Well, it's fatty. Soft, melts-in-your-mouth, fatty. And when used as the meat for a little taco, it's quite good. Now I'm not going to say I want to eat this all the time, but for something I'd never had before, it was great. I'm glad I tried it.A few accompanamientos: plantains, and black beans and rice. The plantain came on top of some pureed black beans and were topped with queso fresco. It was great. The beans were great too. It's a teeny little serving, don't think that's a giant cast iron cauldron of beans. It was petite, but tasty.
Desserts! Flan, churros, and the cha cha cha. The flan is served with chantilly cream and coconut tuille. I didn't taste this, but W loved it. The churros were lovely! The coffee ice cream that came with it was awesome. Some of the best coffee ice cream I've ever had. And the mexican hot chocolate to dip the churros in was strong, thick, and perfect. This cha cha cha was coffee, kahlua, and cinnamon.
The service here was great. Since you're sharing and trying tons of stuff, they come and give you clean plates and utencils several times during the meal. It's a pretty well oiled machine. Everyone was nice and helpful. The food comes out as it's prepared, not in courses. So you're just constantly eating all the time, which is nice. We all loved everything we ate. We were all quite happy, full, and satisfied. And in the end, it really didn't end up being that expensive. If you take out the fact that the bro drank two strong and expensive margaritas and that desserts isn't something I typically do, it was quite reasonable, and only about $25 per person. That's not expensive at all for the quality of food and service that you're getting. They do have this VW bug booth. I want to eat there some day. I'm a fan of Jose Garces. I can't wait to see what else he comes up with.

PS - They have tons of individual bathroom stalls, with a shared trough style sink. Not sure how I feel about it, but that's just as gawdy as their other stuff.

Bar Ferdinand

I made an executive decision on Friday to go to Bar Ferdinand, sit outside, and just enjoy the weather with some tasty little plates. Everyone else must have thought this idea too, as the wait for an outside table would have been 40 minutes. I hate waiting, so we were offered a booth right by the door instead, and we grabbed it right quick. It was almost like being outside, so I say, it was close enough.
This is a very attractive restaurant. Surprisingly bigger than I thought it would be. It's fairly dark, with lots of bull motifs everywhere. There are giant ceramic/glass mosaics of bulls that are fairly impressive. Dried hanging rose stems abound around the bar, which boasts an impressive number of wine bottles that end up as really nice decoration. Even though it was really attractive, it didnt' feel at all pretentious to me. Even schlubbed out as I was, per usual, I felt completely comfortable. They have a really long table, which either seems to be for large parties or is a communal table.
We got a pitcher of white sangria. I'd read that these tend to be watered down, but I found it strong enough. It was really a great way to start out the evening. Sure, it could have been better and there could have been a wider variety of fruits in there (it was mostly oranges, lemons, and maybe some melon?) but it was still light and refreshing. I'll admit it though, I drank most of it. I'm a sucker for sangria in the summer.

They have lots of wine and a decent selection of beers. A/H showed up a little later and ordered an Estrella Damm beer. What did he think? "Damm, this is ordinary."

So since this is a Spanish Tapas restaurant, we just decided to order a bunch of stuff and share. Behold one of my favorite dishes of the whole night. It was one of the specials, a cold soup. I totally forget what was actually in it, but there was definitely cucumbers, watermelon, and probably roasted red peppers. It was garnished with some creme fraiche and sliced strawberries. Both R and I absolutely loved this cold soup. It was souper. :-)

Some calamari. I thought this was pretty good too, with a red pepper puree and a shallot aioli. Both these dips were good, and so were the calamari. The batter for the calamari seemed to have some cornmeal in it, which made it different than regular calamari, in a good way.
Charred watermelon with serrano ham and tarragon. It was fine, but the watermelon wasn't charred in any way, shape, or form. But don't get me wrong, it was still good.
One of the other favorites of the evening - mussels with chorizo, tomato, beer, and pasta. Oh man, get a big hunk of chorizo with some tomato and pasta. So, so good. The flavors in this were intense and great.

Duck confit with a berry jam/compote of some kind. This was ok, but definitely one of our least favorites. Not bad in any way, but none of us were particularly in love with it.
Ooh baby. Seared lamb with moroccan relish and citrus yogurt. I'm not usually into lamb, but a dish like this makes me want to change my mind. This was beyond good.

One of the cool things that Bar Ferdinand does is cook giant things of paella outdoors. When we got there, he had just started cooking up a big batch. Look how beautiful that is!

So you know I had to order this. This was cooked really well, and included veggies and shrimp, clams, and mussels. There was also a big hunk of chicken in there, but it was a bit undercooked, so I tried to stay away from it. I love me some paella and I would definitely order this again.

So it is definitely small plates here and nothing is of big portions. This isn't a bad thing because there's definitely room for desserts at a place like this. Don't remember exactly what this was, but it was almond ice cream based.

Yet another dessert I don't remember, but it was all kinds of chocolate / coffee stuff in a cup with a froth on top. This was extremely rich and strong. Way too strong for my wussy ass.
This was by far the best dessert of the evening, and one of the best dishes of the entire evening. Fried cider soaked bread wtih cinnamon ice cream and candied orange zest. So damn good I can't even tell you.
Last but not least, a blueberry cheesecake. The menu had a regular cheesecake, but they only had this blueberry available. It was different, but good. Not something I would order again but certainly worth trying.

Service was ok. Our waiter wasn't particularly attentive, but there were enough staff running around the place that eventually, you can flag somebody down. The food didn't take super long to come out though, but the service could definitely be better here. My water glass was always filled though, so I can't complain about that. When we ordered wine and beer, that took an unnaturally long time to come out. There was a nice mix of people there that night - tattooed nolibs hipsters, popped collars on dates, bachelorette party girls, and senior citizens looking adorable. Really, it was a lovely dinner.

PS - The place is fairly big, but only has three bathrooms. In fact, there's only one unisex bathroom on the first floor. Down the stairs, there are two more. I don't know about you, but it just doesn't seem to be enough! Aren't there building codes? They do have these cute little bathroom signs. It's a two-headed man/woman bull thingy.

I totally dug these tile floors. I wish I had a spanish style villa so I could have floors like these.

The bathrooms themselves are ok. Clean enough, all marble and stuff... modern fixtures. I think the floors are the highlight.