Food Pics of the Week (FPOTW): Home Cooking

Home Cooking (Casa de Kwablo)

Silver Spring, Maryland

I realized that I have not made a FPOTW of the entry in quite some time. This FPOTW entry will feature some of my homemade cooking with a side of drama/f*ckery.

I'm in a learning Spanish Meetup.com group, and one of our recent events was a potluck fiesta. I decided to take a Spanish tortilla for this event. I'll say that I (probably like most folks) get really nervous when trying out a new recipe especially for folks that I do not know too well. Also, the nerves were even more intense because I pretty much had one shot to make the Spanish tortilla. The funny thing: the husband who is a chef from Spain offered to make the Spanish tortilla for me, but I told him that I could make it myself. As some may already know, a Spanish tortilla essentially is a large egg omelette with potatoes and onions. Ok, that doesn't seem too difficult to prepare. Unfortunately, flipping the large omelette, which in my cases contained about 2.5 pounds of sliced potatoes, can be quite dramatic. For example, check out this Spanish tortilla fail.

My result:

Fortunately, I did not have a flip fail, but I didn't I put enough oil in the pan because I had a patch in the top layer.

 
 

My tortilla was a little darker compared to the ones that the Spanish husband makes, but it had the same color (more or less) of the one from the website where I found the recipes. So I'll take it as a win.

 
 

Not to toot my own horn, but I (and the husband) thought my tortilla was very delicious. Before actually reading through the recipe, I just assumed that you mixed some eggs, potatoes & onions and threw them into a pan, flip it, and cook the other side. However, there are a few tricks to the trade:

  • Letting the potato slices sit in water for at least 10 minutes.

  • Using a mandoline to slice the potatoes . . . fortunately, I did not lose any fingers using the mandoline.

  • (Tip from the husband): If you use an online recipe for a Spanish tortilla, you should add 1-3 additional eggs. I definitely will have to use this tip next time, because I like my tortilla to be a tad running.

  • Once you mix the eggs, onions and potatoes, the mixture sit for at least 15 minutes.

  • Trust yourself and try to flip without any hesitation.

Meetup Drama:

The organizer of the potluck fiesta indicated that he would let use know the location of the event via Meetup.com's messenger. I figured that made sense because I do not think that I would want have my address listed in a public group. The morning of the event, I was a bit concerned because a couple of the guest and I had not received the address. So, I sent the organizer a message through the app inquiring about the location of the event. I carried on making the tortilla throughout the morning. Long story short, I never received a response, and by 2pm, I was over it. I guess it kind of worked out for the best because earlier that morning a friend from NYC texted me to tell me that she was going to be in DC for the day and asked if I could meet up (no pun). Rather that attending the dumb potluck, I hung out with my friend that I had not seen since running NYC 2022's marathon.

Food Pics of the Week (FPOTW): El Mercat Bar De Tapas

El Mercat Bar De Tapas (***)

101 Gibbs Unit C Rockville, MD 20850

 
 

I think hubby and I have found our go-to Spanish restaurant in our part of Maryland. Olé! This place has it going on - amazing food, great service, nice decor, delicious cocktails, and decent prices.

Calamari, pan de tomate, and Spanish Spritz (basically a gin tonic). Although the Spanish Spritz was really satisfying, I wished the restaurant had more gin-based speciality cocktails especially since gin-tonic (or gin-tonica, or ginebra con tonic, etc.) is a popular beverage in Spain. Oh well, I guess you can't win them all.

 
 

Croquetas and papas bravas. All good in the hood with these two tapas.

 
 

Gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic). While this tapa was delicious, I was a bit disappointed that the shrimp were headless. I don't think that I've ever had headless gambas in a Spanish restaurant. Eh, I guess there is a first time for everything.

 
 

Seafood Paella with black rice. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture when it first arrived to the bar. Although this was very delicious, the Spanish hubby did not care for the green peas in the paella. He even sent a picture to his mom, and she was like WTF.

 
 

Martini de Granada. Ok, so I went a bit out of my comfort zone . . . I probably was feeling adventurous from all the gin tonics. While the cocktail looked pretty, the combined ingredients (orange vodka, pomegranate licor, egg whites, orange, and vanilla bitters) were an acquired taste for me . . . even though I do love egg whites in a cocktail. Like TLC said: don't go chasing waterfalls (in this case, new cocktails); please stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to (in this case, gin tonics).

 
 

All in all, I have a feeling that we will visit this place a few more times over the next few months.

Food Pics of the Week (FPOTW): Ottoman Taverna

Ottoman Taverna (***)

425 I St NW Washington, DC 20001

 
Banner for Ottoman Taverna in Washington DC
 

Last week, hubby and I took a “trip” to Tükiye for some yummy bites. Random thought: I don’t know what in my mind possessed me to think that it would be a good idea to drive into Washington DC for dinner. It’s kind of funny how driving 10 miles can take damn near an hour in these parts. I figured that it would be faster to drive to the restaurant rather than driving to the metro station, waiting for and then taking the subway, and finally walking to the restaurant.

Overall, we had a splendid time at Ottoman Taverna because the food and the service were amazing. Ottoman Taverna makes life a bit simple with its Trip to Tükiye deal for 40 bucks that includes a four-course meal.

 
Tavuk Sis at Ottoman Taverna
 

Oppsss, I did it again and didn’t take pictures of everything. Actually, it was a bit difficult to get a good photo (then again, none of my food photos are that great) because the bar had a backlight. Overall, everything we had was absolutely AMAZING, and I definitely would return for some more bites. For my dining pleasure:

  • 1st course: Ezme (sun-dried tomato paste with onion, green pepper, garlic, parsley & Turkish spices)

  • 2nd course: Patates Köfte (potato cakes with crumbled feta & yogurt sauce)

  • 3rd course (pictured above): Tavuk Sis (char-grilled chicken cubes seasoned with Turkish spices & served with bulgur pilav, ezme and carrot-red cabbage slaw)

  • 4th course: Katmer (phyllo dough stuffed with cream & pistachio)

OMG! As I’m writing this, my mouth is salivating over my 3rd course because the chicken was beautifully seasoned and soooooo juicy. I don’t know why, but there is something about the “simplicity” of Turkish food that makes it so delicious – you just need a grill, some meat, and seasoning. There’s no need for fancy sauces with 85 million ingredients.