Sushi and Ice Cream

Last night I got a surprise from Danny telling me that he was off and wanted sushi. You don't have to mention sushi twice to get me craving some! He also said he didn't want to go far so I suggested Akira which is like 15 minutes away.

I love their 80's logo on their mugs!

This is us trying to cut back! My roll was the bottom left. It was called Cloud 9 and had mango, sour cream and shrimp! Yum!

The server at Akira gave us a "secret gift" card where we would have to bring back unopened and could be worth $10, $15, $20, $50 or $75. Danny and I thought that was a nice touch even though the suspense is killing Danny as to what amount it is. We said even if it is the lowest amount, $10, that's still not a bad deal. That covers two small rolls!

I also have been reading quite a bit about a new ice cream at Mitchell's Ice Cream. It's an ice cream made with the popular Great Lakes Brewery Christmas Ale, called Christmas Ale Ginger Snap. I guess the ice cream is made from residual from the end of bottling runs of Christmas Ale. Since that was across the street we headed there as well. The first two bites tasted like beer and then the rest tasted like gingerbread. Which isn't a bad thing!

Danny got Key Lime pie flavored ice cream which he had before and remembered it being good.

Then we had to crank the heat up because we were cold from the ice cream but it was worth it! I love impromptu nights like that! How did Christmas come up so fast this weekend? So crazy!

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving was great this year! Danny and I hosted for the first time and he did all the cooking. We did two turkeys - one roasted in the oven (with lots of butter)

And one in a smoker

The reason the only two pictures I have of the turkeys is when they are raw is because hosting is exhausting and I was running around non-stop the rest of the day.

Then I decided that I wanted to try Black Friday shopping for three items - two ipods and a Mr. Coffee Keurig maker. If we bought all those items, we would get $85 back in Target gift cards and I go to Target all the time, especially for groceries, so it was worth it to me. After passing out at 8 pm after our hosting duties, Danny and I headed to Target at 12:15 am and saw the craziness that is Black Friday for the first time. We waited outside the doors for only 15 minutes, but once inside the line for the electronics section was about an hour. I got to see the people pushing carts with the huge flat screen TVs and discovered that the hot ticket item that many people were there for was the Dr. Dre's Beats headphones! Who knew? Those sold out while we were waiting in line. We managed to get the two ipods at the counter and pay for the coffeemaker and get outta there so it was a successful trip. I rewarded Danny and our other friend who met up with us with slushies on our way out. I don't think the slushie machine was meant to be on at 1 am at Target because Danny managed to overflow his like a geyser, probably because it was too soft!

Saturday night my friends invited me over for game night. I jokingly asked if we were going to play her original 1990s game of Mall Madness because I know my friend M has it and when I got there, look what was set up waiting for me

I didn't think they would take me seriously! Yeah I realized I'm not so good at Mall Madness. I kept running out of money!

Then to add more to the weekend, I promised my friend who is a comedian we would see him perform at Hilarities in downtown Cleveland. I was wanting Chipolte earlier but Danny and I wanted to go somewhere downtown so we settled on Zocolo, a Mexican grill with the menu designed by food network chef Aaron Sanchez.

I've been wanting to try it and I liked the little fundido appetizer we shared and the mango avocado margarita I got.

I would love to go back get the goat cheese quesadilla, that sounded amazing! The comedy show was just what Danny and I needed. It felt good to laugh. We also drove past some Christmas lights in downtown Cleveland.

I love action packed weekends like that! Makes the days off stretch so much longer!

Step away from the fast-food!

Danny and I did something that neither of us have done before.  We went to two fast food restaurants in one day!  For lunch Danny met me at a free-standing Chick-Fil-A which opened a couple of months ago.  That was a nice break to my work day since I'm always alone on my lunch break.  It was a little stressful in there though with small kids running around, two disneyesque characters dressed as cows, balloons everywhere and a play land.  And the kids were deathly scared of the cows!  I asked Danny to get me some honey mustard sauce and I guess they wouldn't give it to him unless he hugged the cow character.  Where's my camera at times like these!  

Then in the evening, we decided to go Sonic which was in it's opening week.  I thought it was so unfair to be tempted by those Sonic commercials on cable and not have one around, so when Danny and I found out one was being built in Cleveland we were so excited to go.  He only gets one day off a week so two fast food restaurants in one day it is!  I personally wanted to go not for the food but for those cool slushies.  This place had much of the same as Chick-Fil-A with craziness, kids and this time a Sonic character dancing around.  Danny does this thing he calls "shotgunning it".  Basically he has no idea what he wants to order and when prompted at the speaker orders a crazy combination of food, this time a corn dog, chili dog, double cheeseburger, tater tots and jalapeno poppers (for me).  And we got my beloved slushie, a lemon lime concoction, plus a fried ice cream Sonic Blast that was staring at us the whole time on our personal menu board and loudspeaker.  Yeah, my body felt like I betrayed it for a day.  But it was so much fun!

Hudson & Downtown 140

Hudson, OH is one of my favorite places to visit. It has a cute Mainstreet USA type of vibe. There is a plethora of dogs being walked by their owners all along the streets and the city in general is dog friendly. You will see water bowls for dogs outside the shops and signs stating that a portion of the proceeds of the items for sale in the store will benefit the humane society.

Last Saturday, Danny and I went to Hudson to visit Downtown 140 for lunch.

I had a spring vegetable tart because I LOOOOVE veggies. And this had plenty - fresh peas, fava beans, asparagus, and morel mushrooms.

The best part of the day was going back for a second time to Main Street Cupcakes! I blogged about the first time here.

Clockwise starting from top right: Lemon Drop, MSC Mojito, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Pineapple Coconut Dream.

And the winner of the best cupcake out of those four......

Lemon Drop!!!!  Tasted like a lemonhead candy rather than natural lemon.  So good!

Sensory Overload

Some of you may wonder how I met Danny, a chef who works 80 hour work weeks. Right out of college, I kind of got thrown into the restaurant business as a server.  I was looking for a way to make money while I searched for jobs in my profession and a new restaurant, Mitchell's Fish Market, was being built close to my house.  I applied to be a hostess, not wanting too much responsibility, and the manager convinced me to be a server.  I went through an extensive 3 day training (not unlike brain-washing!) where I learned about every type of fish, tasted bites from the entire menu, and learned how to be a server and use the computer.  I feel sorry for the people I waited on the first month because I was so terrible, but towards the end I was really knowledgeable about all the food on the menu and they were sorry to see me go.  Within the first month of working there, I met Danny, asked him out, and we've been hanging out ever since! 

(The above picture of the lobster sends chills up my spine.  We used to have "Lobster Mondays" where a lobster dinner was deeply discounted. Needless to say, there were people who were not regulars who just came in for the discount and created tons of problems!)

Last night we were in the area and I decided it would be fun to revisit Mitchell's Fish Market. We hadn't stepped foot in there in 2 years, not even to eat.  It was fun to see everything again, and two original servers that we worked with were still there and remembered us.  We just sat at the bar and ordered two of our favorite appetizers, BBQ shrimp wrapped in bacon and seared Hawaiian Ahi Tuna with an apricot ale sauce.  They were both amazing and brought back tons of memories.  The bread service was the same too, a warm sourdough bread brushed with butter.  

Then, Danny ran into a chef that he had worked with who was done with work and heading next door to Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar. 

Anywhere with rum in the title and I'm there!

I had a Horchata-Tini, which was made with house prepared Horchata, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Dark Rum Float. Horchata is a Latin rice milk with cinnamon that I used to love to get at a local Mexican restaurant that recently closed. It was a little different drinking an alcoholic Horchata spiked with rum though!  I enjoyed it immensely.  I'll definitely be back at Paladar to try their Latin infusion food and a different specialty drink!

Vegas Part 4: Nobu

Well, how did the Nobu dinner go that I was so excited to make the reservation for a month in advance?  Things got off to a kind of rocky start between Danny and I, which was probably both of our faults.  I had researched Nobu extensively and I knew I wanted these two dishes: Rock Shrimp Tempura and Cod with Miso Sauce.  Our waiter gave off this very friendly vibe and I instantly liked him.  He also recommended the Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno and I trusted him and ordered that as well.  I told him we would probably order sushi after we ate these three things.  When he left, Danny looked at me like an evil crime just took place.  He said he didn't even get to order, and he hates jalapeno and cod.  I tried to assure him that these would be small plates and he could order all the sushi but Danny was still upset.  I guess it was a control/chef thing because I never ordered for him before.  The end result of the three dishes was fabulous (thank god!).

I didn't get a pic of the yellowtail because I was a little upset, but here is the Rock Shrimp Tempura.

The sushi -Tuna roll, California Roll, and Spider Roll.  The Spider Roll was wrapped in a Daikon radish, something Danny and I had never seen done before.

Mochi ice cream for dessert, AMAZING!  I can't remember all the flavors, but the greenish one was green tea and that was my favorite!  

Warning:  Once you eat here, you'll never want to eat sushi at a mediocre place again!  That's how fresh the fish was.  After the initial drama, we really had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed everything.

Vegas Part 3: In-N-Out Burger

This is why Danny and I go perfectly together. We were both dying to go to In-N-Out Burger, but for very different reasons. He wanted to go because his chef friend from California highly recommended it as one of the best burgers you'll ever eat. I wanted to go because Britney Spears loves it, and I actually watched a video online consisting of Britney ordering a number 2 from her car at the speaker at an In-N-Out Burger. Lame, I know.

They also have a secret menu, and we both wanted to try the burger, "Animal Style" where the burger is grilled with mustard and grilled onions. THEN, I find out on wikipedia (which has an extensive entry on In-N-Out burger) that there are hidden bible verses on the packaging! We took a cab there our second day.

Round One: Two double doubles, one animal style and fries.

Close up of "Animal Style".

Round Two: Two more burgers and the fries "Animal Style".

.

And a Neopolitan shake (Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry mixed together) from the Secret Menu.

I found the Bible verses!!!! Since they are a family owned company and have not franchised, they can put anything they want on their wrappers.

Delmonico's

One of Danny's friends said all he wanted for his birthday was for Danny and I to eat at Delmonico's Steakhouse with he and his girlfriend. How could we not oblige his birthday wishes? I started with a $12 glass of wine, a Sauvignon Blanc from Cakebread Cellars.  Not a huge steak fan, I had Seared Sea Scallops over butternut squash, brussels sprouts, purple potatoes, pancetta and hazelnuts. Pretty much everything I love in life (yes, I love brussels sprouts!).  

Danny had a steak which was basically a huge piece of meat on a plate so no pretty pic.  I have never heard him say such wonderful things about a steak, and that's amazing coming from a guy who makes steaks all day.  He had truffled cream corn on the side and said it lacked the "truffled" part.  

We were able to use a $25 gift card from Christmas, which makes me happy because gift cards burn a hole in my pocket.  All in all a great time!

Nobu Reso, Check!

Today I made a reservation for one of the most expensive restaurants Danny and I have been to to date, Nobu Las Vegas in the Hard Rock Hotel.  Nobu is owned by celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa and also Robert De Niro, which is interesting.  I was so excited, I even had to time it just right when I made my phone call because of the time difference.  The girl was very nice who did my reso.  She informed me that the dress code was business casual.  I never had a restaurant tell me a dress code before!  Now I'm all nervous on what to wear.  I'm thinking you can go a little funkier than business casual because this is located in the Hard Rock Hotel after all.   

Melt Bar and Grilled

Cleveland has cool little neighborhoods surrounding it and one of these is Lakewood. Melt Bar and Grilled opened in 2006 in Lakewood, and after reading rave reviews in the free magazines and Cleveland.com, Danny and I decided to check it out. Who wouldn't want to go to a place that served all different kinds of grilled cheese? Upon walking in the bar/restaurant, I immediately felt like a hipster. The place was packed with ecclectic people and the servers had piercings and wore their own clothes. Having moonlighted as a server myself, I would be overwhelmed by all those people in there but our server was very nonchalant and calm. On the walls they were hawking pretty handmade purses from crafter syrupskin, who has an etsy site. As casual and cool as the place was, the food was on point! I had the special for January, a homemade meatloaf melt sandwich with spicy chipolte ketchup and muenster cheese. Each slice of bread was about an inch thick and I asked to get their vegetable of the day, sugar snap peas with a spicy coconut sauce, instead of fries. Everything was amazing! Leave it to Danny to get the Parmageddon, a potato and cheese perogi sandwich! On the same thick bread was a huge, stuffed perogi with cheddar cheese. Talk about carb overload! They also offer appetizers and desserts including fried twinkies, but there's no way you have room for anything else since the sandwich portions are so big. Today I'm eating the rest of my sandwich and am back to being a dork. At least I was cool for a couple hours last night eating at Melt!

Balthazar

A first time trip to New York City last February was one of the most memorable trips of my life. I am a obsessive planner when it comes to trips because I want to make the most of a short visit and see and eat as much as possible. Trying to plan New York was on overwhelming task. How can you possibly choose where to eat when there are so many choices and you are unfamiliar with the area? At home, I scoured guidebooks and asked for recommendations from people who visited NYC. I created a list where I wrote restaurant names, their address (and cross streets when I could find them), and phone number.

Someone recommended a French restaurant, Balthazar, to us and that was on my trusty list. Danny and I had gone to Greenwich village and went to some amazing hole-in-the-wall record and clothing shops. We found ourselves on Spring Street and had no idea where to go. A light clicked in my head and I remembered Balthazar was on Spring Street, but we couldn't find any addresses on the buildings to find out where we were. We ended up taking a cab up Spring Street and it dropped us in this area in Soho where we would have never found on our own. And there in all it's glory stood the huge restaurant Balthazar.

Yes it was extremely expensive for an impromptu lunch, the waiters were snobby and I think the iced tea was about 5 bucks, but I ordered one of the best salads I've ever had, the grilled brook trout over a warm spinach, walnut and lentil salad. Danny had a beef stroganoff. After our lunch I felt like I had truly visited a New York restaurant!

I just got my hands on the Balthazar cookbook, and after reading it cover to cover I feel like I had just eaten there again. The intro is a very well written description of the bustling restaurant from open to close and well as bios of the executive chef and managers. The food pictures are beautiful even though you know you're not going to make any of the highly difficult recipes in the book. Blurbs about technique and explanations of French cooking terms are interesting and at least the sauces and desserts look doable.

Columbus!

On Saturday I was asked to go to Columbus with my friend J and her friend to go shopping and see BODIES...The Exhibition. I lived in Columbus for 4 years in college and was so excited to go back for a visit! Unfortunately we only had time to go to the suburb where the mall and exhibit was and not get into downtown where I lived and went to school. I'll save that for next time I guess!

Onto the pics!

The Apple Store. The computer nerd in me had to take a picture of giant nutcrackers with ipods!


Lunch was at Cosi, a bistro famous for homemade flatbreads and salads. I had the Signature Salad which was mixed greens tossed with red grapes, pears, pistachios, dried cranberries, gorgonzola and tossed with shallot sherry vinaigrette. I was so happy eating that salad, I could have turned around and driven two hours home and would have been satisfied.


Ruehl No. 925. This store is owned by Abercrombie and Fitch geared toward the 25-35 year old crowd. The storefront is decorated like a brownstone in Greenwich Village, NY and the rooms with the clothing are set up like a cool, modern loft. Having just visited NY for the first time this year, I was really excited to check this place out. I found two shirts to buy and I actually got lost in the store trying to find the register! When I found it, there was no line and they had bar stools set up so you can take a rest while paying. The best part is when you get home, the shirts smell like cologne! Abercrombie really gets it right with store ambiance and I'm glad this store exists because I can't fit into Abercrombie clothes anymore.

I also did really good at The Limited buying two shirts for $22 thanks to a 25% off sale they were having throughout the whole store and a extra 30% off coupon I found online. I was very suprised since I usually find nothing I like there.

The extreme shopping turned educational with BODIES...The Exhibition across the street. I don't think it was worth $20, but it did give me a new perspective on how I should be exercising and taking care of myself in regards to the food I put in my body. We ended the night with dinner at McCormick and Schmick's where I had pecan crusted catfish with a marmalade sauce. No pictures because we had to bust into the bar with no reservation and were starved! I definately want to go back soon!

Things I like right now

• Tortilla Soup from Cozumel. It's a broth based soup with big chunks of chicken, rice, veggies and strips of tortilla on top. Sooooo good!

• 90's music. I don't know if the 90's were the best part of my life and I want to revert back to it or what. It's pretty annoying actually.

• Pecan Passion Body Lotion from Bath and Body Works. I received this as a gift last year and I love it! You can smell it on your skin hours later.

• Dane Cook. Lately all these moments in my life revert to a Dane Cook skit. I was cleaning the men's bathroom of the pizza place where I work on Saturdays and it was trashed. I couldn't help but think of Dane Cook falling all over the stage imitating a wet men's public bathroom with the doors all busted in. He's coming to Cleveland November 10 and I want to see him but I don't think I can afford it. :(