Thursday, May 24, 2012

Calle Ocho (Press Preview)

Within a week period, I found myself on the Upper West Side – where I never go, as you can see by that link – a record three times.  One of those times was for the preview of the ‘new’ menu at Calle Ocho, which had moved across the street to its new location inside the Excelsior Hotel.  So I dragged Beer Boor under protest to this event, as my appetite was still wonky and I was scared I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the food.  The entire back room, which is quite large, was reserved with three large tables [...]

Cascabel Taqueria

Yep, the Upper East Side has Mexican cuisine. I’d previously enjoyed Maya greatly, so it was time to explore Cascabel Taqueria, a restaurant that takes Mexican “street food” and tweaks it just a little bit to bring it to a different, more sophisticated level. Named for the peppers that rattle when shaken, Cascabel offers a wide variety of choices using a full spectrum of meats, seafood, and vegetables, including eight different varieties of their signature tacos. The luchador theme is strong here, and a lot of fun. Who doesn’t prefer their wrestlers to be masked, anyway? We started with drinks, [...]

Mickey’s Place

A while back, HB told me about a really good Japanese place near my school, and I’d tried to go to the restaurant… except it wound up not opening till 4pm every day!  Happily, this led to the discovery of Press 195, and as I <3 that place now, I can’t say I was that mad that Mickey’s was closed that fateful day in January.  However, I made it a point to try to get to Mickey’s sooner than later, so one day, when one of my evening classes was cancelled, I headed over to check out the wares…My eyes [...]

Recipe Fridays: Fish Tacos

Terrible photos, but fish tacos!  E-dee-licious, my yoga buddy, mentioned one night that she was going to make fish tacos.  Sounded so yummy and when she told me the method, they were SO easy, I had to make them right away!  I used flour tortillas because I don’t like corn tortillas, but you can use whichever you prefer.  E-dee-licious said she uses tilapia, but I used dover sole cuz it’s cheap and easy to find everywhere.  (I guess tilapia fits those qualifications as well, but when I went to the store, I found dover sole for like $3.99/lb.)  It’s a [...]