Tuesday, August 31, 2010Black Asahi coming to Guu
 之前介紹過的Guu Izakaya﹐最近來了期待已久的 Asahi Premium 黑生。侍應拿來的時候還有台長最愛的小杯子。一瓶才不過七塊錢﹐台長一口氣喝了兩瓶﹐滿足。順帶一提﹐此外﹐他們的清酒選擇也添了不少新貨﹐菜單也有每月不同的特選。 Ka Ya Korean BBQ
 除了 Asahi Premium 黑生﹐最近還有好喝的。那天晚上跟了韓籍同事去 Ka Ya 喝酒﹐他點了 Mak Koli 米酒 和 yook hwe 作小吃。韓籍老闆送來大碗子﹐說是傳統喝酒的器皿﹐豪氣十足。 Monday, August 9, 2010Dublin: Sushi Bistro Masa
 來了Dublin半年﹐一直很想找好吃的日本菜﹐找過好多間高價的﹐每次都期待會找到點好吃的﹐結果都是失望而回。經過半年的努力﹐今天我們終於來到 Sushi Bistro Masa. 走進日本餐店﹐沒有什麼比見到滿店的日本人更高興。除此之外﹐就是看到專為日本食家而設的日文餐牌。在Dublin這個地方﹐日本餐店多﹐但魚生常常欠奉。反觀Masa﹐它有單點的sushi/sashimi menu﹐拉麵有跟nigiri的﹐甚至有壽司魚生船﹐拼盤之類。 
 Masa有不錯的清酒selection, 有冷的﹐也有熱的。要小心不是全部都是日本製的﹐有些是美國本地製。點酒前別忘請侍應先把酒瓶拿來看過清楚。只是﹐這裡沒有台長愛喝 Kahachi 也有賣的 fish fin sake, 台長只好點了小瓶的熱長兵衛。 前菜  Masa有串燒﹐但不是爐端燒﹐沒有明火。台長點了 negima 和 mirugai ($2 each), 好吃。前菜另點 seafood cucumber sunomono salad ($7) 和 grilled beef marinated in miso ($6), sunomono 的青瓜很好﹐不會太酸還有新鮮的青瓜味道。Grilled beef 則有點過火﹐有燒焦味而且有點乾。
 朋友點了彩虹卷﹐台長則點了必吃的蛋﹑甜蝦﹑魚子﹑海膽﹑和尤魚壽司。以 Dublin 來說﹐除了Sushi Time 的藍蝦和 Kahachi over-priced 的拼盤﹐這裡的魚生應該是最好的了。點甜蝦壽司﹐你可以選擇蝦頭要跟miso soup煮還是要炸吃﹐台長要了 miso soup。最後貪吃還點了 chirashi﹐才不過 $15.95。 Thursday, July 1, 2010Grandview: Vino Vino Wine Bar
 同學剛好這星期放假﹐便相約好星期三再見面。我們來到Grandview的Vino Vino竟然相當客滿﹐幸好地道的她早已預訂了桌子。小小的店﹐氣氛很好。坐坐談談﹐樂此不疲。
 趁著盛夏﹐飯後最好就是在街上走走。逛著Grandview﹐朋友剛好要買她最愛的咖啡豆﹐我們就來到Stauf's喝個咖啡。咖啡是上好的﹐比起常去的Starbucks少了連鎖店的味道﹐反而親切溫暖。 Tuesday, June 22, 2010Columbus: Marcella’s Ristorante / Pizzeria / Wine Bar
 Marcella's is a little place that reminds you of Milan. Classic wooden fans on the ceiling, red retro looking sofas, a very modern bar, with an open-sided street facing half patio, just the right mix for a relaxing casual ristorante and wine bar. You can almost always find a spot in the restaurant that you'll like.
 The minute you saw the menu you can almost immediately tell that you are at the right place. Selections of cured meats, olives, cheeses, and small plates, it just can't be wrong.
 Not sure if the bread is made here but it definitely feels very fresh. The thin layer of fluffy flour on the surface of the bread also made it very authentic.
 One thing about our team is, we almost always start our night with drinks. Seeing the rarely available white sangria ($24), we ordered a litre of that to start with. Good thing about it is that it didn't come with any soda, but just wine, juice and fruits. It did taste a little sweeter than what everyone was expecting, so we decided to go with red sangria ($24) the second time around. The red one tasted just like cough syrup. We checked and all that's there was apples and oranges, not sure what's giving off that cough syrup taste. And I'm not saying it's bad. It was actually pretty good, except that, yes, it tasted just like cough syrup. Hehe.
 I almost never miss trying out a plate of carpaccio wherever I go. I probably have picked that habit up from K. Carpaccio here is served with a bed of shaved celery and two little warm ricotta pancakes ($7). They are all good, especially the pancakes. The beef is sliced right, not salty at all with a very rich meat taste. It probably didn't carry the best looks of carpaccio but fantastic otherwise. For cured meats ($4 each) we tried bresaola, air dried highly seasoned beef, and capicola, air dried seasoned pork shoulder ham. They are decent, comes with a little dish of sauteed onions.
 My Italian friends have told me that ordering a meatball dish is the best way to find out whether an Italian ristorante is any good and I have to agree with that. Spaghetti & meatball (with tomato marinara, and fresh grated parmesan $11.95) here comes with a single huge meatballs sitting right on top of a handful of spaghetti. The meatball isn't dry at all, instead, it's very soft and tender yet not fluffy. I would say it's better than those you can find in La Scala which is also in town. I ordered linguine & clams (linguine, littleneck clams, evoo, parmesan, and pancetta $14.95) for myself. I would say the clams are a little smaller than expected but the pasta was very good. Not too soft, not stuffy, cooked just right. Kerry tried the Pepperoni pizza (pepperoni, red Onion, provolone $13). He didn't say much but seems pretty happy with it, so my guess is, it's alright.
 Then there came the b-day surprise! See what 6 dollars can get you here? Profiteroles (pistachio, chocolate & honey vanilla gelato, warm chocolate ganache) came with a little candle on top : ) It was absolutely fabulous! Chocolate was warm and it mixes incredibly well with the ice-cold gelato. My co-workers also picked up the bill and asked me to claim the per diem for a b-day gift LoL Thanks Kerry, Sanujit, and Dorothy.
We ended our night hitting the Elevator before heading back to the hotel. The Elevator is a very retro looking pub with stained glass all around, looking just like a renaissance church. It was actually converted into a pub from an old theater. I'll save that for another blog entry. Meanwhile, feel free to check out their website at http://www.elevatorbrewing.com/. Monday, May 31, 2010Dublin: Jeni's Ice Cream
 Getting to know random people on the flights sometimes does bring good things. Jeni's ice cream, which was once featured on the New York Times, was brought to our attention by Lisa Marie Miller who works at the local Dispatch. Having heard how wonderful it is, me and my co-worker Dorothy decided to journey down this famous place after work last week.
 It's called flavors that bloom because Jeni's ice cream serves homemade handcrafted seasonal flavors. Jeni takes ingredients freshly found in the Ohio countryside according to the season and mixes them with responsibly-raised exotics from around the world. Jeni's ice cream are known to be less sweet and more flavorful, which both me and Dorothy has proven it true. We ordered two studies ($4.75 USD) which consist of three tasting scoops each. The flavors we tried out were: Thai chili, Mackenzie creamery goat cheese with roasted red cherries, riesling poached pear, wildberry lavender, rhubarb rosé, mango lassi. And frankly speaking, the flavors were all so good that we had a very hard time trying to rank them. The closest conclusion we could come to was probably a 6 for mango lassi, and then 1s for all the other flavors. My personal favorite was the riesling poached pear. It really pretty much taste just like a real pear, very refreshing and cool. The first bite of the Thai chili came down with a very peanut like flavor, then the spices came around slowly. The rhubarb rosé was very interesting too, you can actually taste the rosé first and then the wine flavor came a ted later. The flavor of goat cheese in the Mackenzie creamery goat cheese with roasted red cherries absolutely stood out. It felt very different from having a bite of cheese cake in the way that it didn't feel stuffy at all. Last but not least was the wildberry lavender which flavors were once again all separated in very distinguishable layers. It almost felt like science to me, that the layers would just kick into your taste buds by a carefully timed sequence.
 Other than that, Jeni's also serves sundaes and macaroons. They look big, don't they? To summarize, Jeni's Ice Cream is definitely a must-try if you happen to be traveling around Ohio. To make things even better, Jeni's do ship out to almost all US states. Check under 'Buy Now' on their website for shipping rates. Thursday, May 6, 2010Where's Waldo?
 Sorry for not being able to update the blog for the past month. So where's Waldo? Waldo is buried somewhere deep in Dublin. How deep? Check that reflection of the golf course on my glass of Guinness after work. Sunshine and patio. Yeah man, now we're talking. Brewed in Dublin, but not the same Dublin. Yet, no complains! Monday, March 29, 2010Embrujo Flamenco Tapas Restaurant
 We had one lady on the table tonight who absolutely falls for Sangria, so Sangria it is for the night. They served it in a nice little clay pot with lots of fresh apple and pear cubes with it.
 The interesting thing about Embrujo Flamenco is that, some of the dishes are absolutely amazing while others are an unacceptable piece of crap for the price they are offering. The first dish you see on the left is Pato con peras ($10.95), duck confit with pears and its value truly surpasses its cost. The quality of the meat, taste, sauce, and the pear that goes with it makes it an excellent dish overall. However, when we moved on to the Puntillas en salsa de mostaza ($9.95), grilled black angus sirloin on a bed of home cut fries topped with
 Given the disappointments, we still finished our meal with desserts. We ordered caramel custard and mango sorbet with fresh strawberries. Both of them were okay, tho' I cannot say they were overly enlightening. To summarize, Embrujo Flamenco did carried some amazing foods, but you'll need to know which are the right ones to order, because as a matter of fact, they also served some dishes that were just not up to the value.
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