BF really wanted empanadas, so we got empanadas.  We both liked these a lot – spiced, very aromatic beef inside deep fried, crispy shells, along with slightly tropical sauces… yum! 

My initial choice, the jerk chicken wings, were unfortunately unavailable, so I opted stupidly (it was a quick moment’s decision!) for the broccoli and carrot fritters.  They were sufficient but not delicious… I don’t know.  Slightly mushy on the inside and without any real flavor to them – subtly broccoli/carrot, but no pop! – I was only alright on these.  We didn’t finish this plate.

We also opted to split an entree, because neither of us were extremely hungry, just in the mood to eat post-two-and-a-half-hour-movie.  (Non-spoiler alert: we saw Funny People on opening day – yes, this meal is from July 31 – because I absolutely love Adam Sandler, and you know we watch a lot of movies because we both really like movies.  Anyway, we both liked it, but it was incredibly long.  Two and a half hours for a comedy is really pushing it.)  Anyway, we split the churrasco, or a skirt steak.  I believe this is half a skirt steak (I base this assumption from my experience with how big a full one is), but butterflied.  It was enough for both of us not being very hungry, and we ordered it medium rare, so it was cooked properly with a lot of pink inside.  Not the most flavorful on its own, but it did come with a cup of chimichurri (parsley, olive oil, garlic), which I loaded my steak with and ate happily.  (Thankfully, BF eats garlic as well, so I rarely ever feel bad about eating as much garlic as I’d like!)

The skirt steak came with rice and beans.  BF commented how much he liked the rice because it was ‘denser than normal but not heavy’ – he tried to describe what he meant but I failed to grasp.  I just thought it was fluffy rice.  I actually liked the rice and beans this way – separate, so I could mix each bite myself. 

Although we were sufficiently full at this point, we opted to look at a dessert menu because, well, why not?  We live large!    Also, while we were eating, I saw a giant interesting looking dessert go by… it was a big mug of something or other!  Well, it was ice cream, we found out, but too late, this dessert already screamed our name: banana fritters with banana ice cream, bananas, whipped cream.  Doesn’t that look good?  (Note: it was only $5.95 which really surprised BF, who thought it was extraordinarily cheap considering the description; when it came, he seemed to understand better, but was still happy with our choice.) 

The banana fritters weren’t quite fried well enough – slightly mushy, and flavorless as BF pointed out “needs more banana flavor, but adding everything else to it makes it taste better” – the banana ice cream with the fudgy sauce squiggle in the middle was my preferred tasting, or taking little bits of the fritters that remained crispy, heh.  It was tasty enough, and BF and I were very happy with the choice and sweet ending to our satisfactory meal. 

Yvo says:  Lively atmosphere and very “cozy” (read: tightly spaced tables), it was a fun and tasty end to our night.  Oh, I almost forgot, while we were eating, people suddenly started clapping, so I thought, “Someone’s birthday” but a guy a few tables down had just proposed (and she said yes)!!!  How cute.  It was definitely a fun night and I recommend it for nibblies.  Oh, and all of the above along with a glass of wine and a glass of sangria came to $60 pre-tip.  Not bad, right?  I’ll definitely go back.
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Since it was just two of us, and we weren’t that hungry, we hit up Cabana and split two appetizers (and a pitcher of white sangria, which was yummy). 

First up was the octopus salad… this was right on, dressed lightly and tons of flavor going on.  It was perfectly sized for sharing.

Our other choice was the appetizer sampler platter, a little bit of everything.  Deep fried empanadas, shrimp fritters, broccoli fritters, and jerked chicken wings (which I’ve adored at this place in the past).  Again, perfect with our glasses of sangria, and our giggly girl talk.

I’d say we chose perfectly for what the night entailed, and nothing disappointed.  I’ll definitely be back for bar snacks and drinks.

Yvo says: I’ve been here in the past (pre-bloggy years), and have some really funny stories about the place.  It’s still there because the prices aren’t outrageous, the food is solid and consistent, and it doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not.  I liked our meal, and will definitely be back for more.
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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After months of back and forth over where to go for our “first date”, DT and I finally settled on Asia de Cuba for the inaugural dinner.  Picture quality is really terrible because the lighting in that place was awful. 

Originally, we’d intended to order all appetizers, but the $69 tasting menu sounded like a really good deal – three of their most popular appetizers, two of their most popular entrees, and then a dessert to share, along with an amuse bouche to start, and an intermezzo.

Our pretty amuse bouche.  DT thought she was oh-so-funny, asking me if I planned on eating the orchid.  No, I did not.

Beef carpaccio over a tempura broccoli floret.  The broccoli was super hot, melting the meat nicely, though we both thought the flavor was a bit too faint, the broccoli overwhelming the meat a bit. 

Overview photo of our three appetizers

Tunapica: tuna tartare picadillo style with Spanish olives, black currants, almonds and coconut with soy-lime vinaigrette and wonton crisps.  I’m going to be picky here and say, just because you put tartare on a deep fried wonton wrapper… does not make it fusion.  Doesn’t that description make it sound wonderful?  I’m sure it would have been, had I tasted any olives or black currants or soy-lime vinaigrette.  To be honest, it tasted like chopped tuna with some other same-textured-stuff on top of a wonton crisp.  I didn’t find this impressive at all, and actually it was only alright.

Braised oxtail spring roll with Cuban black been papaya salsa and port wine reduction.  Again, what’s with the muted flavors?  I expected pop, zing, sizzle, something interesting.  The black beans – there’s papaya?  Where? – were woefully boring, just beans with nothing melding them with any other flavor.  The spring roll itself was deeply beefy, but had no interesting counterpoint to elevate it to another level.  Texturally, the inside was beefy softness, and the outside didn’t do much to counter this and make it intriguing.  Boring.

Calamari salad ‘Asia de Cuba’ – crispy calamari with chayote, hearts of Palm, banana, cashews, chicory and radicchio with sesame orange dressing.  The calamari, I assure you, was not of the crispy sort.  It was distinctly not fried or crispy whatsoever.  I was most looking forward to this dish because I have heard and read time and again how delicious it was.  While it was easily the best dish of the night, I can’t say that it worked out too well for me.  The banana was a pleasant surprise, but inconsistently sprinkled throughout; the calamari, not plentiful enough to really speak or be called a calamari salad.  Overall, though, the bite or two I had that actually did encompass all or most of the ingredients listed was quite delicious, but the salad itself was inconsistent.

Intermezzo

Salmon tartare with pica de gallo – this was incredibly bright and lush, juicy from the tomatoes and supremely fresh.  I changed my mind.  This was the best thing all night, not the calamari salad.

Char sui beef short ribs, congre tostones and chili orange mojo.  I was impressed with how soft the meat was – it pulled apart easily into smaller pieces – and enjoyed the taste with a segment of orange.  However, the meat was also strangely crunchy/dry – within the same piece, around the edges, which detracted from the enjoyable flavors.  The beans and rice were negligible at best, and at worst, downright pedestrian. 

Well, if you cover anything in sweetened soy sauce, it’ll taste good, I suppose.

Miso cured cod, Cuban black bean and edamame salad, tempura Shisito peppers.  DT really hated this dish.  She took some of the fish, ate it, then looked at me and said “I’m not going to say anything until you try it.  Try it.  Try it.  Go on, try it.”  I took a piece, and admitted that the texture tasted a bit off; too squishy and soft.  Not off as in spoiled, just… something was missing.  But the flavor; I can’t deny that I love miso and the salty-sweet combination coating the fish pleased me.  The texture may have been all one-dimensional and flat, but the taste was perfect for my tongue.  (DT disliked it so much that after eating a small piece, she gave over the rest to me, which I happily consumed just for the miso flavor.)  The rest of it was boring again; beans and edamame “salad”, nothing to bind the flavors together.  Mehhh.

Our dessert, a spiced chocolate blahblahblah, was impressive to look at but we were both like, uhhh, how are we supposed to eat this?  And so we knocked it over.  The cake was tasty enough though, yet again, nothing special.  The coffee ice cream had like graham cookies underneath it or something, and there lay our texture fix, smooth, creamy, delicious ice cream against a crunchy counterpart.  That was totally yummy.  I had nothing against the cake, per se, but I didn’t taste any cinnamon or warming spices.  We both abandoned it after about 5 minutes of picking at it.

Yvo says: Overwhelmingly mediocre.  I mean, wow.  I couldn’t have been more surprised that such a widely liked restaurant (and I mean by my friends, not by critics, people I don’t know) was so horrifyingly blah for DT and I.  And though the service wasn’t bad, per se, it was overly attentive at strange moments (mostly when we got to good parts of our conversation), and then completely inattentive at other points.  Our waiter really offended DT though we couldn’t pinpoint why – he was just very in her personal space, while ignoring me.  For $95 a person (including tax, tip, and a glass of wine), I really expected and wanted much more from the food.
sad to say, not recommended at all

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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