acevedo81

So I have reservations for the tasting room this evening and I had some logistical questions that maybe you can help me with. My reservation is for 8pm and I was wondering what forms of transportation people (that don't have a car) use to get there and how easy is it to catch a cab or get back into the city. I was also wondering about PX and whether it will be open after dinner, I'm going to be dissapointed if I dont get to have at least one drink there. Thanks in advance for your help.

YES! go maybe on thursdays, but usually fridays, they are portuguese/spanish and very good

Santi Zabaleta owns the space, you are right, he used to head the kitchen at la taberna.

Completely agree. I am a regular there and love the fact that you can find very random interesting items from Spain that you cannot get anywhere else, such as: horchata in the summer (and still), dried beans from Tolosa, squid ink, etc. The fish is fresh and cheaper than WF, but if you get there too late, you may be out of luck on certain items. Get there early on thursdays for the merluza (I think this is hake).

Enjoyed some snacks here on tuesday and for my first time at Mendocino, I loved it. We ordered a few appetizers, some cheese and desert and a bottle of Constantino "Ol red" (pinot noir, sangiovese) to wash down. We ordered: pork belly pastrami Fried oysters Fettucine with mussels, squid, shrimp and tomato concasse 4 cheeses Valhrona chocolate mousse The pork belly pastrami was a really cool plate that had the ingredients of a sandwich but was not a sandwich. The "rye bread" were actually gnocchi and served with a creamy mustard sauce, sweated onions and brocoli rabe with a slice of perfectly crisp pork belly. I think this was our favorite dish The fried oysters were really tasty, you get 3 oysters (I thought this was a little stingy) and 2 of the 3 were perfectly fried, the third one was a tad overcooked, they were served over a bean puree (chick pea?) and fried lemon slices with a side of cauliflower "cous cous" (which was awesome). Actually the menu says tabouleh, so the cauliflower was supposed to sub in for bulger wheat, it tasted fresh and worked for me. The fettucine was really tasty and conforting, one of those dishes you could have anyday. The pasta was perfect and had a hint of saffron flavor which I like and the seafood (mussels, shrimp and squid) wasn't overcooked. We asked the bartender to pick the cheeses with a focus on the stinkier ones and he nailed it. We got: - Forme d'ambert (blue) - Comte fort de rousse - Epoisses - Camembert - my least favorite For desert we got the chocolate mousse, even though i really wanted to apple beignets and it was thick rich and heavy, I didn't love it. I thought it would be lighter, I think the word mousse threw me off, it was more like a cake with creme anglaise. We left nothing on the plate. I will be back for sure

If I´m not mistaken, I believe Sushi Ko has a smoked mussel miso soup. I really like it

That´s gotta be right up there with Mikey in Season 2 of top chef´s challenge with the cheetos

I would love to volunteer whenever. How does one go about that?

Not an herb at all, but I´ve had some success with strawberry and pepper combinations with a bit of simple syrup

I was there last friday and really enjoyed the bean salad with almonds and truffles, actually it was awesome. Followed it up with the snapper and shrimp in a light broth. As usual Palena exceeds expectations and right now seems to be a good time of the year to go since it seems like the slower part of the year

Latin Markets cut the ribs to the size you want, not sure if that helps broaden the search.

I´m probably in the minority here but I wish one of the choices would be w/o mayo

I have to agree. Unfortunately I haven´t had much luck at PS7 or Poste for that matter, but I will keep trying, just not as frequently

First time to vidalia and I had a great lunch a few friday´s ago (memorial day weekend). The details are a little fuzzy but my +1 and I ordered the following dishes: - Yellowtail hamachi cru - Soft shell crab - corned beef tongue - goat meat balls in yogurt with a side of pappardelle and morel mushrooms. We also ordered a bottle of Txakoli wine and finished the meal with the "whoppers" dessert and 2 espressos. This place is f$&%ing awesome and I can't believe I've never been before, i definately had the best soft shell crab this year which was the highlight of the meal. I've been reading on Tom's chat about people saying Vidalia has gone downhill and if this is downhill, but i've learned to ignore much of what is said there and glad i the chance to try an excellent restaurant I will gladly visit over and over. By the way we had excellent service, I forgot his name but he's the tall black guy at the bar, he was really good and did an awesome job of coursing and reading us and added for some great conversation, service was a 10.

also, who´s behind the bar in the basement?

I must say that the wings there aren't bad. Everything else, bad.

That´s what is so interesting about it. They get all the seafood flown in first thing in the morning from the night´s fishing

Protos 2004 joven Ribera del Duero.

Along the lines of Botin for suckling pig you can go to asador aranda for baby lamb. People in Madrid brag about having the freshest seafood in Spain and arguably they do. For seafood you can go high end to La Trainera or more bar atmosphere to el cantabrico (one of my favorites). But there´s this one bar close to la latina (where all of madrid congregate on sunday for beers) called bar cruz, where I had some of the best navajas (razor clams) and berberechos (cockles), also excellent boquerones. Bar la Trucha around plaza santa ana is decent and where I end up when i want a solid meal on a workday, but otherwise avoid eating in that area. Cava Baja, close to la latina has a few places that are good. Casa Lucio is a classic and across the street you have los huevos de lucio, which is owned by lucio´s son and specializes in fried eggs with french fries and your choice of morcilla, chistorra, jamon. I love it with morcilla (blood sausage). Bar Tempranillo is good for cured meats, cheese and awesome wines. La celestina in Salamanca is a favorite of my parents, specializing in castillian food, so you will have really good fabada, garbanzos, simple salads and baby lamb. For steak, I like asador fronton, which is a classic madrid steakhouse and the place where I´ve had the best steak in my life. They don´t even ask you how you want it cooked, default is rare to med rare and its awesome. Also have excellend foie gras, don´t get more than 1/2 order, its a lot. If Fronton isn´t convenient you can also go to Txistu, Asador Donostiarra... For Arroz con Bogavante (one of my favorite dishes), which is soupy paella with lobster you can go to De Maria or this other place on Hermosilla (damnit, I´m drawing a blank here) for high end there are many choices: Viridiana, Arce, Sacha, Zalacain (a bit overpriced if you ask me). Avoid La Broche (1 or 2 michelin stars), since I hear Sergi Arola left a few months ago. There are many other places, but this is all I can think of right now. One thing about Spain is that you absolutely do not want to avoid the crowds, an empty place is an almost guaranteed crappy meal and get used to the eating schedule or you will eat shit all day. I apologize in advance for how scatter brained this post is

I´m still hanging on to my super chicken

I agree about the Brioche there. I always substitute for ciabatta when possible.

I have never had a good paella at a restaurant that made them in 30 minutes. In Spain, at the good places (and there are very few), you usually call ahead and they will get it started. Otherwise, a real paella takes a good amount of time. My neighbor in Spain from Alicante takes his sweet time (about 2 hours) making one. I would give up on trying to find paella at a restaurant and just go for the other things la taberna has going for them. For example, as far as tapas they usually make really good croquetas, patatas bravas, calamares a la romana, etc. For menu items I had an excellent stewed rabbit dish as well as solid salted codfish stew

It´s a really small restaurant.

Do tell

believe it or not, Austin Grill has awesome grilled chicken wings