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!

Elegant Buffet

Elegant buffet? Huh? That can't exist. Right? Well, turns out it's possible, in Las Vegas of all places.

Buffets have been a part of Vegas history from its initial days. People who went to Vegas didn't care what they ate as long as it was enough to get them through a night of gambling. Thankfully, all of this has changed. Together with the sophistication of the city, the buffet has been revamped. A perfect example of this is the opulence of the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's Palace.

How many times have you had to wait for 2 hours to get into a buffet? Well, you better be prepared to do that at peak times at Bacchanal. But once you get in, you forget about the wait. The chic modern decor, the subdues lighting, the delicious food scents wafting through the air - they all make you want to dig into some food. But hey, slow down! [Record scratch noise.] You need to wait in another line for seafood! Yes, that's right. That's why my boyfriend (Rusty) and I started with the Asian section that was less busy and got some sushi and dumplings. There was nothing too special about the sushi, but it did fill our starving stomachs a little bit. Then we were ready for the seafood!

Rusty and I were at Bacchanal at a particularly busy time, so the seafood line was winding all the way to the back of the buffet, past most of the other sections. While waiting, we were often tempted with Mexican (Rusty said the tacos were delicious), carved meats, breads, deep-fried baskets, etc. Well, we made it to the seafood without too much damage to our hunger, so we loaded up on seafood. There were all types of clams, mussels, shrimp, fish, steamed and cold oysters and crabs, ceviches, shooters, etc! And yes, we got a little of everything :) The appearance was often deceiving, and the things I thought I would love were a little bland. Overall, the food was liking spice, but I do tend to like more spice than the general population. Still, there was a lot of amazing food to make up for the blander one.

The next stop was the "potatoes and meat" section. I call it that because it had many types of meat and all the typical sides they would go with. Rusty and I tried the lamb chop, ribs and chicken wings. The sides we had were mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and cornbread. I absolutely loved the chicken wings! They were spicy and herby (because of added cilantro). The cornbread was also really good. The rib and lamb chop were cooked perfectly, but were a little on the bland side again. The mashed potatoes were really really creamy :) However, the mac and cheese had a weird, grainy texture despite having a ton of cheese in it. I don't like buttery corn on a cob, but I think other people would have enjoyed it. Oh, we also got wagyu beef sliders. They were sooo moist and well-flavored! I wish I wasn't that stuffed because I wanted to eat several of them.

Finally, even though we could barely walk, we had to try the dessert. There must have been about 100 options just on the dessert display. There were soo many things that we wanted to try! We had to settle for a key lime tart, pecan tart, tiramisu, red velvet cheesecake, chocolate peanut butter cupcake, chocolate creme brulee, and vanilla and espresso ice cream. I LOVED the key lime tart. It was tart and just enough sweet :) Also loved both types of ice cream, especially the vanilla one. The vanilla flavor was so rich, but not overwhelming. All the other desserts were also good, but not as amazing. And it says a lot if I enjoyed them after all the savory food before that ;)

There were definitely hits and misses at the buffet, but the overall experience was very good. Most of the time I forgot it was a buffet. Vegas is going in the right direction with its food scene. Another development are the many elegant restaurants, many of them run by celebrity or award-winning chefs. But those will have to wait until my next visit to Vegas :)

The Neighborhood Eatery

The Brookhaven Village area of Atlanta (on Dresden Dr. close to the Brookhaven MARTA station) is slowly developing its character and is becoming another destination to go out and meet up with friends in town. While it has a long way to go until it becomes as established as favorite neighborhoods like Virginia Highlands, Inman Park, East Atlanta, etc., the presence of cute boutique shops, and the addition of more restaurants is a good beginning. The newest place to open was Kaleidoscope, which is an interesting mixture between a restaurant serving American food and a bar. The food is definitely better than the usual bar fare, but not fancy enough for a typical restaurant.

I went to Kaleidoscope with Pumpkin and my parents on a nice summer night, so we were able to sit on the big patio on the side. Pumpkin and I wanted to get drinks, but it was hard to choose anything from their limited drinks menu. Their beer selection was particularly small and surprisingly expensive. I ended up choosing a $10 Belgian beer that didn't seem any more special than a Stella Artois. The appetizer menu offered better selection, though. We finally chose the hot wings with blue cheese. The wings were tasty, well cooked and moist, and with the right amount of heat. The cheese was starting to melt on top of the wings, and gave them a layer of additional flavor.

We also liked the options for entrees that Kaleidoscope offered. I had heard that the burger was really good, but none of us got it. Instead, both of my parents got salmon with tomato and cucumber salad. The salmon portion was huge! It was twice the size of the usual salmon filets that restaurants serve. It also paired great with the fresh salad that it came with, which reminded me of Greek salad, but executed well.

Pumpkin's choice was flank steak with fries and chimichurri. The only reason she got the dish was because she didn't realize how much garlic the chimichurri had, and that the fries would have garlic too. She doesn't like garlic, so she didn't like the dish. I, on the other hand, thought it was great. The steak was a little overcooked, but it had kept some of its moisture. I wish it came with a little runnier sauce to make eating it a little better. The fries were nice and crispy, though.

Finally, I got the seared tuna with Asian slaw. The tuna was good, but what I really liked was the slaw. I was impressed with the peanut sauce because it tasted just like peanut sauce in Asian restaurants. The sauce drizzled around the plate was a great addition to the plain steamed rice. Out of all the dishes we had that night, my dish was the only one that had a good mixture of starch, greens and protein that all worked together great :)

Comfort food

There are days when all you crave is some delicious fried food... I had one of those about a week ago. It was a Tuesday, but Cashew and I decided to go get dinner at a place called The Nook. It's right next to Piedmont Park, and I guess they're famous for ginormous drinks... (Huh, my spell check is not flagging "ginormous," must be a real word now.) Well, we didn't feel like trying them. All we wanted were the Coca Cola hot wings :) I don't think the wings actually tasted like Coke, but they were insanely good! They had a very deep flavor that was very different from all other hot wings I've tried.

Because it's me and Cashew after all, the wings weren't going to be enough to fill us. So, we also ordered a side-sized version of the brisket tater tots and a full version of the Asian salad with fried chicken. The tots were so cheesy and oh-so-good :) The salad was also great. We ate it last, and that felt right for some reason. I did enjoy the freshness of the spinach after a greasy fiesta. The dressing was also quite refreshing after the heavy tater tots. Plus, we got our daily serving of veggies with that salad; let's just ignore the unhealthiness of the rest of the dinner :P