Welcome to Cleveland

Well, I've been in Cleveland for about three months now. I already settled into my new place in downtown, started the new job, have seen lots of snow and experienced COLD weather, but at the same time I've done a great deal of exploring of the city. Of course, that includes a great deal of eating out. A few places that stood out are mentioned below.




One of the first places I went to after moving in was Greenhouse Tavern, which is only a few blocks away from my apartment. I went there with my parents because I thought they would be excited about a place with a creative meat menu. One of the items is a whole pig's head!! I was sure my dad would want to order that. Instead, he scorned at it and got the hot wings.... Well, at least he said he liked them. My mom got the lamb burger. The burger was juicy and delicious, with strong, but not overwhelming lamb flavor. The fries that it came with were also crispy and great. I opted for the pasta because I didn't feel like having a large meat course. The pasta came with grilled tomatoes, pancetta and green beans in a black garlic sauce. It was relatively light and flavorful, but a tad dry. Still, I definitely want to go back to Greenhouse Tavern and get that pig's head!!

Another very memorable place was Lolita, which is owned by iron chef Michael Symon. I went there for my birthday with a group of friends, so we ordered several things. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of any of them :( My appetizer was dates with almonds and bacon. It was sweet and rather heavy, but definitely very delicious! The eggplant dip was on the lighter side, but also very good. It came with a wonderful flatbread that I couldn't get enough of. For entrees, a couple of us ordered the octopus and bone marrow risotto. I thought the dates were rich, but the risotto was rich on another level! After all, what can you expect from a creamy risotto, which already has an indulgent texture, after adding pure fat in the form of bone marrow to it? At the same time, it was still edible and very pleasant to eat. It did melt in my mouth. And because it was so rich, I could barely eat half of it and had dinner for the next day :) Finally, what very pleasantly surprised me at the restaurant was that they brought a dessert for me - meaning, it was free :) It was some kind of cake that had custard in the middle and caramelized pears on top. But it resembled a molten chocolate cake than a layer cake. The cake itself was spiced (probably with cinnamon, etc.) and very very moist because of the custard. It was simply outstanding - one of those desserts that make you eat them even though you're stuffed...

Based on these two places and lots of others, I'm very excited about living here and trying out more things. Stay tuned!

Gourmet Burgers

Little Richie and I met up for dinner on the 4th of July, my last night in Atlanta before leaving for San Francisco. He was smart enough to suggest celebrating the most American of holidays with the most American of foods - hamburgers. But we couldn't have any hamburgers on this nation's birthday, so we went to Flip Burger. I was really happy with the suggestion because I had wanted to try this place for a long time. It's owned by a former Top Chef contestant. I don't watch this show, but I know it's a big deal to even be selected to be on it.

While perusing the menu, I couldn't decide between two of the options: the local burger (traditional burger), and the raw tuna tartare burger. The solution was Little Richie getting the traditional burger and me getting the tuna burger. Not trying a real burger at Flip would have been like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope, as the saying goes. As expected, the burger was juicy and delicious. Plus, you knew it was a well crafted burger because all ingredients were well sized to fit on the bun. You could eat the burger without the patty or tomato or something else sliding out and the whole thing disintegrating. Little things like that make some burger places stand out. Well, creativity also helps. For example, the sweet potato tots that Little Richie got on the side seem like such an obvious thing to have at many places, but I don't think I've seen them anywhere else.

Being satisfied with the quality of traditional burgers at Flip, I can now talk about my tuna tartare creation. It contained four things I really love: tuna tartare, mango (in the form of mango spheres), avocado (as puree), and sesame (as sesame crispies). The whole thing was amazing. It was so fresh-tasting, I wouldn't have guessed I was eating at burger if I wasn't holding it. The tuna was really good, and Flip wasn't skimping on the amount they put on each burger. One minor complaint I have is that the tuna taste was overpowering the other ingredients, so I didn't even detect a hint of the mango or sesame crispies.

We ended dinner with another typically American food item - a milkshake. We shared the Nutella and burned marshmallows milkshake. It was sooo decadent and delicious. At one point I though there were real hazelnuts in the shake because the Nutella taste was so pronounced.

Well, that was a great way to say goodbye to Atlanta. Now I'm already in San Francisco, and will try to explore the food scene here. My little adventure today included more burgers. I walked 3.5 miles just to have In-N-Out burger. It was my first time there, so I couldn't wait to see what the hype was all about. I ordered a cheeseburger with onions and fries on the side (not pictured). I did love the burger, but my favorite things about it were the tomatoes and onions. The patty was delicious, but rather small, especially when compared to the amount of meat we got at Flip. Despite this, each bite that contained bun, veggies, and patty was amazing. It was really obvious that the veggies were fresh and that the burgers were assembled after ordering, which makes a huge difference. The fries were good as well, but nowhere as crispy as McDonald's fries. On the good side, they weren't as salty as McDonald's fries :)

Farm-fresh

Well, this post is way overdue... Good thing the food was memorable, so I can afford to write about it late.

More than a week ago Cashew and I decided to try an organic burger place in Decatur called Farm Burger. That's a cool concept. I usually think of burgers as a guilty pleasure, but they don't seem as bad when they're organic :) And yes, they're a little healthier...

Farm Burger is a small place and they don't have too many menu options, but I assume that means that everything they offer is great. Both Cashew and I got the Original burger (#1 on the menu). We also shared the FB fries (with garlic, herbs, and parmesan). The burger was the right size (not huge), had the right amount of moisture and was overall really tasty. Nothing fancy, but tasty. No crazy toppings or sauces. Only meat, caramelized onions and melted cheese. My only complaint is that the meat could have been a little "smokier," for example by adding some cumin to it... By the way, the fries were amazing as well!

Overall, I loved the place. Can't wait to try more things!

Tis the season to eat, part 2

Last night I met up with Ems, an old friend of mine. Just like me, she likes trying new things, so we go to a different place every time we meet. This time we went to Cheeseburgers in Paradise at Perimeter Center. I guess we were craving some tropical vibe in addition to burgers :P

My Guacamole burger

As I said, I hadn't seen Ems in a while, so we had a lot to catch up on. Somehow we did manage to order food and eat it, but neither of us was paying attention to what we ate. I had the Guacamole burger just because I love everything with avocado in it. Ems got the Mushroom and Swiss burger. They both came on onion ciabatta rolls, which seemed like they had been lying around the kitchen for several days before they were used for our burgers... Ems and I ended up moving the rolls to the side and eating just the meat. The meat at least seemed fresh and juicy, but there was nothing about it that made it stand out. The seasoning was a little on the bland side, ans that means a lot coming from me. (I eat very little salt.)

Ems's Mushroom and Swiss burger

The best part of the meal was probably the french fries, but there's noting wrong with that, right? They were soft, not crispy, but still had good texture and were seasoned really well. Oh, they the menu said that they're "endless." Thankfully, our waitress didn't ask us if we wanted more :P

This wasn't my favorite burger ever, but the company made this a great dinner :)