ashleyd /

Look Who’s Back…

It’s 1:30 on Sunday afternoon and the four of us are definitely laughing harder than ever watching The Hangover while reminiscing about last night. One of my best friends and maid of honor, Amy, and her husband Ryan are in town for the long weekend! After an EXHAUSTING week in Las Vegas, I was so ready to return to my comfortable home and Bo! Let me begin by apologizing for my inadvertent blogging absence. I had lots of computer issues out in Las Vegas which meant that I didn’t have my computer over half the time! In addition, I was one of the core meeting planners and organizers which meant I was going straight from 6am until midnight daily. But, instead of focusing on the past I’ll give you a few great pictures that summarize the week.

Blog Pictures 2010 119 Blog Pictures 2010 116 Blog Pictures 2010 117 Blog Pictures 2010 118

Bo and I have been looking forward to this weekend since the wedding back in November when we decided a great NYC weekend was necessary.

Ryan and Amy arrived around 6pm on Friday only two hours after I landed from Las Vegas. In addition, Bo’s parents are in town for the weekend which meant Friday night was a wonderful group dinner. We treated them to our neighborhood favorite, Casa Mono. This is Batalli’s Spanish tapas restaurant which I also reviewed here when Bo and I went two weeks ago.

We had a perfect table in the middle of the restaurant which allowed us to watch the kitchen action while catching up. We each chose two items from the menu along with a bottle of white and red for the table. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures as my camera battery was dead. However, luckily Google images was able to help me out! Our favorite items include:

Razor Clams

Scallops

Calamares Fritos

Skirt Steak with Onion Mermelada

We’re off to brunch at Maialino in Gramercy Park Hotel and then Jersey Boys! Later today I’ll be back with the rest of the weekend highlights!

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Underpass Adventures and Benihana Bust

I’m exhausted but want to leave each of you with either some good night humor or something to make you smile and laugh first thing in the morning.
I finally checked into my hotel at 6:30pm Dallas time this evening. I was exhausted, tired, and hungry. Heather and I had decided that we’d get dinner together after running a few errands. She needed to fill a prescription at CVS and I had to get a manicure since having black nails isn’t attractive for meetings. (In case you missed it earlier, my black pen exploded mid sentence while I was working on the flight.) What I didn’t realize, was that the CVS and manicure trip required crossing eight lanes of intersection traffic, walking under an underpass, and hiking through the grass. As background, the DFW airport is flat out of cars today. Therefore, no one was able to rent a car since one of our coworkers forgot to book a rental car until today. The hike definitely resulted in some honks, laughs, and comic relief we desperately needed after a long day. Oh, and the manicure was $7. I kid. you. not. I tipped the poor girl $7 for her 30 minute effort! So, I leave you with this picture. 🙂
 

After our great adventure, food was no longer an option. Furthermore, we only had ONE choice unless we wanted Jack in the Box. The only restuarant within walking distnace of our hotel is the Benihana. Therefore, we hapilly decided to head that way and grab a quick bite at the sushi bar. Well, this ended up being an epic fail. Evidently, we were speaking a foreign language tonight because this was my face an HOUR after ordering our sashimi appetizer. Please, keep in mind that sashimi equals raw which equals no cooking time.

Yes, our waitress somehow lost our order (even though the restaurant was half empty) and then proceeded to present us with a sashimi salad instead of the sampler. The sashimi salad was NOT sashimi over a bed of greens. It was more like Texas’ attempt to merge as much mayonaise as possible with iceberg lettuce an some raw fish. *blek* After that was quickly refused we REORDERED our sashimi sampler and ordered 2 brown rice rolls, rainbow and eel. Now, insert thirty more minutes of laughter between Heather and I over the fact that EVERYONE else was being served except us and the poor sushi chefs kept offering us random food like edamame. Finally, after an hour and a half we received 2 bowls of brown rice and our sashimi sampler. Two bowls of brown rice? Maybe my New Yawk accent doesn’t translate down here and rainbow and eel roll rolls off my tongue sounding like brown rice roll? Oh wait, I DON’T HAVE A NEW YORK ACCENT BECAUSE I”M FROM THE SOUTH!

This time around I couldn’t even stop laughing for the picture to turn out. I really can’t say much more about this evening other than the fact that Heather and I haven’t laughed so hard together in the eight months i’ve known her. Maybe this was really a team bonding exercise in disguise and we were on candid camera somewhere. 🙂

I’m exhausted and am hitting the sheets with a smile on my face. Because after being awake for 20 hours I think i’m a bit delirious.

 
 


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ashleyd /

BLT Fish: Fresh, Delicious, Simple Flavors Impeccably Executed

I hope you all have had a great weekend. In case you missed it, we’ve been busy this weekend. Our fun has included
and
Other highlights include drinks at the Standard Beer Garden with great friends, dinner at Garage, my first acupuncture experience, finding a great summer dress from Ann Taylor Loft for FREE thanks to a gift card, and a wonderful catch up chat on the rooftop with Melissa. Now we’re curled up enjoying How to Make It in America (great recommendation Lauren). Parts of it are similar to Entourage but based in New York City and more about real, scrappy people versus lucky people. The theme song is fabulous as is the cast. You can check the video out here– How To Make It In America intro theme song – I Need A Dollar By Aloe Blacc http://youtu.be/cvfIGPiZL-g
 
Gorgeous night in NYC
But, now I want to back track to Friday night. I mentioned that Bo wanted to keep it just the two of us and enjoy a date night. He surprised me with reservations at BLT Fish. Located between on 17th street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue this little unassuming nook was the perfect date spot. Downstairs is a separate restaurant, BLT Fish Shack which is a casual raw bar that specializes in fresh shellfish and staples like shrimp in a bag and chowder.
 
Bears like fish.
We loved the feel of the downstairs portion and hope to come back soon once we’re in the area. But, Friday night they quickly escorted us up to the third floor for our meal. The second floor of BLT Fish is dedicated to private dining special events. Upon exiting the elevator we felt like we’d been transported to another restaurant. There is a retractable glass roof that makes the restaurant feel open and adds to the dimension. It has a classic open kitchen design with both table and booth seating. The focus point of the restuarant was a huge, gorgoeous floral centerpiece that broke up the room. After being escorted to a perfect corner nook table we were served fresh biscuits. They come out warm with maple syrup butter, and a cute little card with the recipe on it.  Since they shared the recipe with us I thought i’d pass it on to my readers:
Makes 8 biscuits.

1 1/2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/4 t cayenne pepper
3 T shortening

3 T butter
1 T chopped chives
1 C sharp cheddar
1 1/4 C cream
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne.
Cut the shortening and butter into the flour mixture. Do not overmix
Do leave the butter and shortening in small piece
Toss in the chives and the cheese.
Toss in cream, just until the mixture comes together. Do not mix too much.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15-17 minutes.

After the biscuits we chose a delicious wine to complement the meal. The next taste was a tuna herb amuse buche and was better than any simple tuna salad i’ve ever tried! Based on these two tastes alone we were definitely excited. Having never been to BLT Fish before we didn’t know what to expect but based on the service, wine and first two tastes alone Bo had decided that this may be one of the most underrated restaurants he’s seen on Zagat.
 
We both had two different appetizers in mind and decided ahead of time that we would NOT be going 50-50. 🙂 I have a crazy love of octopus and rarely have the opportunity to enjoy it. Therefore, I chose the grilled Portuguese Octopus with chickpeas and roasted red peppers. It had nice chunks of tender grilled octopus  surrounded by a vinagrette and mache. The vinagrette complemented the smoky charred flavor versus covering it.
Since Bo has a soft spot in his heart for gnocchi, Bo chose the ricotta gnudi with seared rock shrimp morels and spring peas. The translucent rock shrimp were melt in your mouth tender while the gnudi was sauteed perfectly- browned on the outside but soft inside.
Everything on the menu sounded delicious but I knew I didn’t want a whole roasted or salt encrusted fish for my main course. Lately everytime we’ve enjoyed fish it’s been crispy (red snapper on the honeymoon, the huge fish at Butter, our last dinner Esca). We took our waitress’ advice and went split two of their most popular dishes for our main courses: Acacia Marinated Alaskan Black Cod and the Belgian Dover Sole.
I was a bit apprehensive of the cod as it seemed very typical due to it’s Japanese flavors. However, what I tasted surprised and delighted me. The cod was as tender and moist as any I’ve had, with the sweetness of the honey as a nice gentle additional flavor. As described by our server, it melted in our mouthes. The second I put my fork into the tender filet it flaked into perfect pieces.  The dover sole was the best browned butter caper sauce we’ve ever had.
We would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for a special dinner destination which will delight their date with wonderful service, simple flavors which are impeccably executed, and a treat of sweet apple cotton candy as an after dinner treat!

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