Nala Pak

Friday night I said to PiC that I wanted to go out to eat, but I wanted to definitely go out to eat somewhere that is not in my immediate neighborhood. To be honest, I'm a little tired of my neighborhood at the moment, and was wanting something... Well if not quite different, then just not here. I also wanted booze, and I wanted to do anything but think about work.

His suggestion was that we drive up to Columbia Heights and try out Nala Pak, one of the vegetarian Indian restaurants in town. Perfect, says I, and we toodle on up Central to the restaurant. And what do you know, there's a Large Liquor Store right next to it. :)

Sit down, look around, and at the menu, and there were three huge wins: 1) There were South Indian dishes on the menu, 2) there were large Indian families in the restaurant, and 3) they had sparkling wine by the glass.

I order my standby, a palak paneer, and a glass of said sparkling wine. PiC goes for the dosai that's stuffed with cauliflower. And I soooooo pegged what he was going to get because he'd never had dosai and it wasn't stuffed with potatoes. :)

OMG the palak paneer was incredible. Creamy, yet not over processed, and it was Palak AND Paneer. As in they took up about equal halves of the dish. So often palak paneer ends up being a green puree with a few lonely cheese cubes tossed in. Not only that, but the paneer was so clearly Fresh. Oh, I wish this place were not so far from my apartment. I'd be eating here weekly in no time.

Also, I had Joy when seeing the bottle of sparkling wine Pop in back. I knew my wine was coming. It was kinda pedestrian, but I'm not going to complain too much about that when it was only $5/glass or so. It was lovely enough and it was fizzy and I was satisfied.

The dosai was like this ginormous crepe made with lentils instead of wheat flour. Very thin, but I swear it was 18 inches across or something like that, and filed with curry. He was as happy with his dosai as I was with my palak paneer.

And an interesting conversation ensued. We talked about how I seem to get a limited number of dishes, but I go to a wide variety of restaurants. I just have the things that I like in those cuisines. Where as he is a more adventurous type, trying that which he hasn't seen on a menu anywhere else.

What we came to realize though through our conversation is that we have very different ways of "testing" a restaurant. He will judge a place by what he's never had before. Is it unique and interesting and well balanced. I, on the other hand, prefer to judge a place on my favorite dishes. For instance, I can compare this palak paneer to that one and judge them on their subtle differences in character. Thing is, so far we have hardly *ever* gone to the same restaurant twice. And so I haven't had the "okay, I've tested this, and I know they won't make me sick, now let's try something completely different" sort of experience that much with him.

Yet. :)

Barbette

Started off the new year going to a new restaurant for dinner. Tonight PiC and I headed to Barbette, and all I can say is what the hell took me so long to go there?

Delightful french bistro feel to is, complete with the french sounding music etc. $4 bubbly wine for their happy hour, and tried a bit of his white winter wheat beer (a hefeweizen). Another beer that I like; I believe that he's corrupting me.

Dinner was two appetizers, a seared scallops in a molasses vinaigrette, and a small salad with it that was refreshing and lovely. With dried cherries in it. :) Second appetizer was fondue. YAY I got my fondue fix. :) They served it with baguette, green apples, and mushrooms. I went after the apple, he the mushroom and split the bread. All quite delightful.

Dinner was ended with a panna cotta that had a blueberry/balsamic coulis. Smooth, sensual, exploding with tangy blueberry flavor it was a fantastic end.

Kikugawa - Christmas Edition

Okay, I've been doing the Christmas sushi for a number of years now. But this year completely topped any sushi of years past. Seriously, I have *never* had sushi as good as the sushi I had at Kikugawa tonight.

Salmon just like butter. Tuna as perfect as perfect can be. And then tuna that was more perfect, as the "super white tuna" had this undertone of *vanilla* to it that was just divine.

And then, unagi that *melted* in my mouth.

I'm serious. Best. Sushi. Ever. And warm sweet sake. And just yum...

Now I go to roll over and watch the new Dr Who.

Hell's Kitchen

To my friends who are Hell's Kitchen fans (the Mpls restaurant, not the myriad of other places):

If you have not been to the new location and have not had their dinner menu, Go. Immediately. Seriously, I love it all even more than I could have possibly loved the last place.

We went at 6 last night with no reservation, were seated immediately, had a fantastic and unusual cocktail (I had the Love Letter) and dinner was as delightfully divine and decadent as their breakfast and lunch have been in the past. And they're also available.

Everything I have ever had here has been made of awesome. The only thing I wish is that their eggs were a smidge more cooked.

Not to mention, there's parking right there that you take to the basement where it is and it's all curvy and labyrinth like in there and the decor makes me squee.

When I talk about Rudy's or Christopher's from Camberville as restaurants that I truly miss? If ever I move from Minneapolis, Hell's Kitchen will be that place I talk about from here.

On the road: Snippets from St Augustine

Anyway, then to lunch. I ate at what is perhaps the most schwanky place in town according to my mom, 95 Cordova at the Casa Monica. Really damned good crab cakes they were. And delightful decor.

***

Headed towards the inter coastal area then, and had a pomegranate martini at the Tini Martini Bar and spent time relaxing and reading a book. That sadly wasn't so phenomenal as to be worth what I paid for it, but I relaxed for a while outside with a drink and that was okay.

***

Parents also took me to a delightful little restaurant called Raintree. I had a northern atlantic salmon that was cooked to absolute perfection, and split a bottle of white wine with them. Definitely, if you ever make it to this cute little town this is a bistro not to miss.

In Short

Friday night was a date night with PiC. I introduced him to the thai place around the corner from me, Vinh Loi. Noticed for the first time on their menu that they have listed for the cream cheese wontons that they are "6 wontons of awesome" or something like that. I giggled so much I insisted that we have them for an appetizer. Nummy mock duck pad thai for me, and green curry for him. And some really good hot jasmine tea because I was cold cold with a side of cold.

ETA: Sadly, they haven't seemed to have been open yet since the new year. I hope they haven't completely closed. That would be sad. I liked them.

Rapid fire reviews

Masa - Upscale Mexican on Nicollet Ave downtown, in one of the Target buildings. I had lunch here with GM a while back. If you can imagine mexican food being done in a light fashion, this would be the place for it. I found it delightfully refreshing for lunch, and I highly recommend it. I'll probably try their dinner sometime in the not too terribly distant future as well as I'm on a mexican food kick lately. But as it's upscale, it's a bit on the pricey side. If you're looking for large portions (and not as light), you're better off going further down Nicollet to Pancho Villa.

Musashi - Had lunch here with EK a while back as well. Ignore the fact that Musashi was a swordsman and not a sumo wrestler. Just don't pay attention to their logo. :) The lunch here was a fabulous chicken teriyaki bento box. It's not crowded for lunch, and it's right by my work. Also came with pickled things, hot little crab cake like things, a maki roll... Probably something else I'm forgetting. Also pricey for lunch, but MMMMMM bento. :)

barrio - I'd been excited about a potential tequila bar, even if it was downtown. Unfortunately I was focused more on the concept of the tequila and not so much on the bar. This place is definitely a bar in attitude, even if they're trying to up the quality of the bar food. And they do have a lovely selection of tequila. It was just over noisy and crowded with work folks (mostly Target since it's right across the street it seems) at happy hour to be enjoyable. I was very sad about that. The hunt for a Rudy's like place continues.

Jade - Went here for PiC's birthday, located in Midtown Global Market. I think in part my opinion of this place was clouded by the fact that I was feeling like utter crap. I wasn't particularly impressed though. And my kung pao chicken tasted a distinct taste of off. He got to have lobster and sushi though, so that was a win for him. Maybe trying again in the future, but it's not going to be at the top of my list.

Alas, not all restaurants will be hits. I think next time eating out though is going to be Hell's Kitchen in the new location for dinner. :) They've moved to the old space where Rossi's used to be, and I'm hoping that means there's a ton more room, so easier to get in and YUMMY yummy food to boot with fun boozes.